State v. Aspelin

• Decision Date: 19 January 1922
• Docket Number: 16715.
• Court: Washington Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE v. ASPELIN.

203 P. 964

118 Wash. 331

STATE v. ASPELIN.

No. 16715.

Supreme Court of Washington

January 19, 1922

Department 2.

Appeal from Superior Court, Jefferson County; John M. Ralston Judge.

Ed Aspelin was convicted of criminal syndicalism, and he appeals. Reversed, and new trial ordered.

Geo. F. Vanderveer and Ralph S. Pierce, both of Seattle, and Leslie B. Sulgrove, of Butte, Mont., for appellant.

Tom W Holman, of Port Townsend, for the State.

HOVEY J.

Appellant was convicted and sentenced for the crime of criminal syndicalism under an information the charging part of which is as follows:

'That he, the said Ed Aspelin, in the county of Jefferson, state of Washington, on or about October 23, A. D 1919, then and there being, and then and there being a member of the Industrial Workers of the World, commonly known as the 'I. W. W.,' did then and there willfully, unlawfully and feloniously give aid to the said Industrial Workers of the World, which was then a group of persons formed to advocate, advise, and teach crime, sedition, intimidation, violence, and injury as a means and way of effecting an industrial, economic, social, and political change, by then and there soliciting one Frank Taylor and one Matt McDonald then to secure cards of membership in, to join, to become members of and to espouse the aim, purpose, and object of said Industrial Workers of the World, then so a group of persons formed to advocate, advise, and teach crime, sedition, intimidation, violence, and injury as a means and way of effecting an industrial, economic, social, and political change.'

The briefs were prepared before the various decisions of this court upon cases involving this statute, and most of the questions raised have been disposed of by the case of State v. Hennessy, 114 Wash. 351, 195 P. 211.

There was evidence introduced from which the jury was justified in finding that the organization known as the I. W. W. comes within the prohibition of Laws of 1919, p. 518. The defendant was a member of the organization and one of its active exponents, being termed an 'organizer,' and at the time alleged he approached a group of laboring men including the men mentioned in the information, who were engaged in playing cards, and asked if any one cared to take out a red card. He did not get any encouragement when he first addressed them, but returned a little later and again said, 'Is there anybody that wants to line up tonight?' whereupon one of the men at the table said that he would 'take out a card tomorrow.' The evidence further showed that both statements of the defendant were intended to mean and were understood to mean by the men addressed that they were invited to join and become members of the I. W. W.

One new question now presented is whether the acts alleged and proved constitute a violation of the statute. It is argued in the brief of the appellant that these acts merely showed an intent to commit a crime, inasmuch as they were not successful in the result intended, and upon first impression the argument has some plausibility. We are satisfied however, that they are something more than intent. This crime is largely made up of the circulation of ideas which have for their natural result the leading of men into committing acts of violence against persons and property. The basic principle is the entire overthrow of the existing order of things, and the literature shows quite clearly that in the obtaining of this result all restraints are to be abandoned. The use of the political methods afforded by law are expressly discountenanced as being...