The Ralph Chaplin Papers consist chiefly of correspondence, some addressed to his wife, Edith, and his son, Ivan; poems, notes, and other writings. It also includes his autograph album from Cook County (Ill.) Jail (1917), drafts of poems written while imprisoned at Leavenworth Penitentiary (1918-23), and a negative photostat of "Digest of California criminal syndicalism cases", written by the California branch of the IWW's General Defense Committee, 1926. Poems, flyers, newspaper clippings, and prison documents comprise the printed material found in the collection.
The papers largely concern the period of Chaplin's IWW activism (1917-26), particularly his prison experiences. Also of note are a report by A. W. Curtis on the Centralia (Wash.) trial of IWW lumbermen; papers concerning the publication of Chaplin's pamphlets and books; and the organization, activities, and publications of Technocracy, Inc., a group promoting the technocracy movement (1933-34).
Ralph Chaplin was a radical poet, artist, activist and journalist. He is best known as the author of the labor hymn "Solidarity Forever" and as one of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) members imprisoned under the Federal government's Espionage Act of 1917.
Chaplin was born in Chicago in 1877, the son of a rail worker. He witnessed labor strife at a young age when his father took part in the Pullman Strike of 1894. As a young man, Chaplin worked as a commercial artist, and was active in Socialist circles. In 1907, Chaplin met Bill Haywood, the leader of the IWW, and was thereafter increasingly drawn to the organization's syndicalist philosophy. He joined the IWW in 1913, and in 1916 became the editor of its official organ, Solidarity.
In 1917, the IWW became a major target in the "Red Scare" that followed the United State's entrance into World War I. Chaplin and many other IWW leaders were arrested under the Espionage Act, and tried before Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis. Chaplin was sentenced to twenty years imprisonment. He served five years of the sentence at Leavenworth Prison, and was then granted amnesty by President Warren Harding.
After his release, he again edited an IWW paper, The Industrial Worker. In 1937, Chaplin left the IWW paper to edit the paper of a longshoreman's union, the Maritime Federation of the Pacific Coast. By this time, Chaplin had become strongly anti-Communist, viewing Communism as a bureaucratic betrayal of the grassroots syndicalist vision. Under his editorship, the Voice of the Federation opposed the Communist longshoremen led by Harry Bridges. Chaplin lost his job when the anti-Communists lost the factional struggle. In 1941, Chaplin became the editor of the Tacoma Labor Advocate, the newspaper of the AFL-CIO council of Tacoma, Washington. In the 1950's, Chaplin worked as the curator of manuscripts at the Washington State Historical Society. He died in 1961.
Researchers interested in Chaplin's life should consult his autobiography, Wobbly, published in 1948, by the University of Chicago Press.
