Bars and Shadows

by Ralph Chaplin

Ralph Hosea Chaplin (1887-1961) became a labor activist, when at the age of seven, he saw a worker shot dead during the Pullman strike in Chicago, Illinois. He had moved with his family from Ames County, Kansas to Chicago in 1893. During a time in Mexico he was influenced by hearing of the execution squads established by Porfirio Diaz, and became a supporter of Emiliano Zapata. For two years he worked in the strike committee with Mother Jones for the bloody Kanawha County, West Virginia strike of coal miners in 1912-13. Chaplin then became active in the Industrial Workers of the World and became editor of its eastern U. S. publication Solidarity. In 1917 he and some 100 other Wobblies were rounded up, convicted, and jailed under the Espionage Act for conspiring to hinder the draft and encourage desertion. He served four years of a 20-year sentence for this. He became active in the cause of preventing Communist infiltration in American unions. Eventually Chaplin settled in Tacoma, Washington, where he edited the local labor publication.

Genres: Poetry

52 pages, Paperback

First published June 17, 2004

About the author

Ralph Hosea Chaplin was an American writer, artist and labor activist.
1887-1961

Reviews

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lost poet that has much to tell us - a mirror held up to a society that turned away from this reflection of injustice. It has become increasingly clear to me that incarceration has become the preferred choice when a society has no new solutions; yet it is very clear that the more money you have the more legal expertise you can buy. This book addresses these problems through thoughtful and insightful poems.

[Kristina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written during a 4 yr term served as part of a 20 yr prison sentence, the poems in this book have strong imagery and emotions in them. The emphasised that the worst part of being in prison was the loss of liberty but that you could still be free in your creativity and imagination.