Hellraisers Journal: Slayer of Salt Lake IWW Leader Hailed as Hero by Local Area Elks Lodge

There are no limits to which powers of privilege will not go to keep the workers in slavery. -Mother Jones ``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` Tuesday November 2, 1915 Salt Lake City, Utah - Major Myton, Slayer of Fellow Worker Horton, Hailed as Hero The photographs above are from the November edition of Sunset Magazine. Note how the Industrial Workers of the World is portrayed as a dangerous organization against which the Governor of Utah bravely stands. Yet we find that it is the President of I. W. W. Local 69 who has been gunned down in the streets of Salt Lake City while not one official of the state nor of the city has been in any way harmed.

Meanwhile, Major H. P. Myton, who shot down Fellow Worker Roy J. Horton in cold blood, is being treated as hero by prominent citizens of Utah. The local area Elks Club is planning to mount a defense campaign for him. This is the same Elks Club where Judge Morris L. Ritchie, who presided over the trial of Joe Hill, and District Attorney Elmer O. Leatherwood, the prosecutor in the case, are enrolled as members.

The effort to justify the murder of President Horton has now been extended to the front of The New York Times. It seems, according to the Times, that  the I. W. W. leader got what he deserved when he was summarily executed by "Major" Myton:

SALT LAKE, Oct 31-Resenting attacks on law and order and insults heaped on peace officers by a gang of Industrial Workers of the World, Major H. P. Myton, a prominent Utah politician and former United States Army officer, shot and killed Roy J. Horton, an I. W. W. leader, at an early hour this morning...

The killing last night is the first tragedy to result from the demonstrations which have formed part of the propaganda instituted by the I. W. W. in behalf of Joseph Hillstrom, the "hobo poet," who is sentenced to be executed on Nov. 19 for murder.