It is difficult to read about the Socialist movement in Washington State during the first quarter of the 20th century without running across the name of Emil Herman. Yet today he is known only to a few people who enjoy digging into the obscure corners of the local political past. So far as I can find, no one has ever provided a decent summary of his all-too-brief life. For you academics out there interested in Washington State labor history or in American political prisoners, this guy is waiting for your attention. You scholars can fill in the gaps I am woefully missing in my modest effort to cover his political life. Like some other previous Socialist Party ungovernors, Herman died young as a result of breaking his health in the course of carrying his political message with a religious zeal.

After Emil met his untimely end his widow, Ruby, wrote an essay on his career for the Oct. 19, 1928 Labor Journal (Everett, Wash.), which is the source for her quotes I'll be using.

Emil was born in Germany in 1879. His family came to the U.S. in 1882. Apparently his father, Frederick, had socialist leanings.

Ruby Herman: "He was born in Germany and brought to this country by his parents at the age of three. His childhood was the customary one of struggle with poverty and injustice-- a struggle which was maintained with very little occasional diminishment until the end. His father had some small experience as a socialist in Germany and things he would say started the mind of the boy to consideration of our social-economic problems, with the result that as soon as he had attained an age which would permit such a thing he applied for membership in the Socialist Labor Party and was admitted. When the split took place which caused the formation of the Social-Democratic parties in several states, the organization which has since become national in scope and known as the Socialist Party, he left the Socialist Labor Party and identified himself with the new organization-- in whose ranks he remained afterward."

He basically comes in under the historical radar until 1901, when an Emil Herman emerges as a clerk in the Seattle-based Washington Harness and Saddlery Company. Same guy? Perhaps. I have no record of where he was raised to adulthood. He just suddenly appears.

Herman did not come into Washington's Socialist Party, as some previous Socialist Ungovernors, via the utopian community of Equality. Apparently he was connected with famous Seattle socialist Hermon Titus (1852-1932), a purist "Left-wing" socialist and editor of The Socialist, the party's main newspaper in the first decade of the 20th century. Historian Gary Siebel wrote of Titus, "Dr. Hermon F. Titus arrived in Seattle in the early 1890's, just as the city was about to be transformed by the Klondike Gold Rush. From 1900 to late 1904, Titus promulgated and basically sustained the Socialist Party of Washington through the production and editing of The Socialist, a weekly newspaper he launched in Seattle on August 13, 1900. For several years, party headquarters was the newspaper office. The fine print reveals Titus was paid as a party organizer but not as editor ... "

While still connected with Hermon, Emil apparently had some involvement with the IWW. Ruby Herman: "He was one of those early enthusiasts who helped organize the Industrial Workers of the World in 1905, and remained for years a member, although not so active there as in the Socialist Party. In the latter organization he has served in almost every official position ..."

Emil ran for U.S. Congressman at-large as a Socialist in 1906 in a field of 12 candidates. He placed an impressive 7th, the first among the third party names on the ballot. One of his opponents was fellow future Ungovernor Arthur S. Caton, Prohibitionist.

In 1908 he made a second run for U.S. Congress, this time for the 2nd District, and placed third out of three, 892 votes (2.09%). It was a dismal performance. But it was a bad year for all Washington State Socialists at the ballot box.

Historian Carlos A. Schwantes describes what happened after it (the 1908 election) hit the fan: "Since the badly factionalized Socialist party in Washington had one of the highest memberships in the country in proportion to population, the disappointly small socialist vote in Washington in the 1908 election led to a new round of recriminations ... The Socialist party's National Executive Committee (NEC) refused to send an organizer to Washington because of the continuation of bizarre factionalism in the state. Titus charged the NEC with supporting his opponents. Secure in the knowledge that revolutionary socialists since the turn of the century had never lost a fight to reformers at the annual state convention, he prepared for a final showdown to eliminate his opposition in 1909. When the smoke of combat cleared, however, Titus learned just how badly he had ignored signs of change within the Socialist Party of Washington."

"During the first half of 1909 Titus had become obsessed with his campaign for greater 'proletarianization' of the party. Affairs of the party, argued the middle-class physician and erstwhile Baptist theologian, should be placed in the hands of the proletarians or those in sympathy with the proletarian policy. If the party were to reach out to laborers, the state executive committee must itself be composed of wage workers ..." But Titus, and "his associate Emil Herman" were outflanked at the 1909 Washington State Socialist gathering. Titus fled Seattle, accused of being too rigid and purist, but Emil stayed. And ran again.

In 1909, as part of a special election, Herman ran for the District 2 U.S. Congress seat. Out of six candidates he placed 3rd with 1,396 votes (5.69%), a percentage not to sneeze at. He placed right behind future Governor Ernest Lister.

1910 found Emil on the staff of the Wage Worker, another Seattle socialist paper. Another Ungovernor associated with this title was George Boomer.

He continued to work for the Socialist cause as a writer and Party official throughout the nineteen-teens. The historian Frederick Bird highlighted this article by Herman in his essay about the Everett newspaper Northwest Worker. This is from the Aug. 12, 1915 issue, illustrating the hostility encountered by Socialists in four Washington cities:

RIGHT OF FREE SPEECH DENIED THE WORKERS

By Emil Herman

[In my position as a Socialist propagandist] and organizer, since the middle of March of this year, I have encountered four cities in Western Washington where freedom of speech and peaceable assemblage is restricted or denied entirely.

They are Port Townsend, Port Angeles, Tacoma and Raymond.

I will take them up in the order mentioned and give a brief outline of the situation in each place.

In Port Townsend the use of the streets for public meetings is not restricted by ordinance, but by mob violence. For several years past, each time an open-air meetings has been arranged (or, Sam McGee, dealer in wood and coal) (who, by the way, has economic power to the extent that he can go into the superior court of Jefferson county and abuse the judge with unprintable language, without fear of being cited for contempt) has selected a dozen or so of hoodlums from among the soldiers at Fort Worden and as many anarchist-minded civilians as he could influence, proceeded to get them drunk on cheap “booze” and then used this valiant army of drunken hoodlums to beat up the speaker, and all this without interference from (or perhaps with the connivance of) the police, who are supposed to protect people in the orderly pursuit of their “legal” vocations.

In Port Angeles, since the strike of three years ago, the lumber barons dominate the burg completely and rule with an “iron hand.” Here the use of the streets for public speaking is prohibited by ordinance, and up to the present time the organizations of labor, including the Socialist Party, have not developed sufficient strength, or courage,--possibly both—to challenge the right of the city officials to abridge the constitutional right of free speech and assemblage.

In Tacoma

In Tacoma, while the use of the streets for speech-making has not been entirely denied, the use thereof, so far as the labor unions and the Socialist Party are concerned, has been restricted to the poorest corner in the city—14th and Pacific avenue. And all done without protest or resistance from the said labor unions and the Socialist Party.

In Raymond

In Raymond the forces of labor were completely crushed,--during the strike of several years ago—by the use of club and gun; and the wholesale deportation of strikers; and so completely have they been cowed ever since that the English-speaking Socialists are afraid to even organize into a local of the Socialist Party, let alone put up a fight for the right to speak and publicly assemble on the streets of that corporation-ridden burg.

Shall We Fight?

In view of the above, is it not pertinent to ask: Are even the Socialists still so obsessed with the slave psychology that they will cringe under the authority of the capitalist class, and respect and obey their every wish when garbed in legal form? And, if so, how long will it be before freedom of speech and peaceable assemblage will be guaranteed on the streets of the above-mentioned cities?

Workers, especially Socialists, arouse from your lethargy; get busy; time is pressing; the message of the Socialist Party is being listened to as never before. The capitalist system is disintegrating. Labor is about to come into its own.

But we must prepare and organize ourselves NOW. So again I say—get busy; be a real Socialist; join the Socialist Party, and then go to work as you never did before.

Herman became editor of Everett-based The Party Builder, following Ungovernor Katterfeld, with the Feb. 20, 1917 edition. Then world events caught up to him. Shortly after his editorship, the United States entered World War I and Congress passed something called the Espionage Act of 1917. This could be classified in a category with the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, the McCarthy Era, Nixon's enemies list, and the "Patriot" Act-- basically making criticism of the government the basis for criminal investigation. In the case of the Espionage Act of 1917, it was urged on by a supposedly progressive Democrat, Woodrow Wilson, and many of the people wrongly imprisoned were later pardoned by one of the most conservative and status-quo of presidents, Warren Harding. The Espionage Act made political prisoners out of hundreds of Americans, including perennial Socialist Presidential candidate Eugene Debs. And, Emil Herman.

Ruby Herman: "When the United States declared war against the Central Powers he was State Secretary of the Socialist Party of Washington with headquarters at Everett. He was delegate to the National Emergency convention at St. Louis where the famous Anti-War Proclamation was adopted, and later that same year was active in the attempt to form a 'People's Council for Peace' which was nationally recognized but gave up its existence in the face of the Espionage Act. Under this 'Act' he was arrested in April of 1918 and convicted on perjured testimony, sentenced to ten years at McNeil's Island Federal Penitentiary ..." Apparently this arrest was made on the basis some "disloyal" books and stickers were found in his office.

April, 1918, was also the first time members of a Centralia parade (Red Cross Parade) broke off and raided and wrecked an IWW hall (corner of 1st and B). This set the stage for a more deadly encounter on Nov. 11, 1919, known as the Centralia Massacre. I had family on both sides of that one. As long as we are on Centralia in 1918: the Democratic Party candidate for U.S. Congress 3rd District (from Centralia) that year had a German surname. He campaigned in favor of the League of Nations, equal wages for equal work for men and women, and Prohibition. Agents of his incumbent opponent, Albert Johnson, questioned his patriotism strictly on the basis of his surname. As 1918 was a Republican year, Johnson's people could've done nothing and still won. Ironically Johnson, a Republican who served for many years and was a racist anti-immigration and Eugenics proponent, had one of Hitler's favorite Americans as a mentor. More on Centralia later.

Hamilton Cravens, Farmer-Labor Party historian, mentions a case that caught Herman's eye: "By the beginning of 1918 the campaign in the state of suppression against opponents of American participation in the war went into high gear. One night early in January, 1918, two civilians and about twenty sailors attacked the Piggot Printing plant in Seattle. This company printed the Socialist Daily Call and a major I.W.W. publication, the Industrial Worker. The mob destroyed the printing presses and threatened the employees and owner of the plant with death if they continued printing these papers. Damage was estimated at fifteen thousand dollars."

Thanks once again to Frederick Bird, the following article has been made easier to access. It is from The Co-Operative News (Everett, Wash.) May 2, 1918:

THE DESTRUCTIVE PARALLEL

By Emil Herman

From the Seattle “P. I.” of April 24, 1918, I have the following:

“Not guilty” was the verdict returned by the jury in Superior Judge A. W. Frater’s department last night in the case against G. Merle Gorden and J. Fred Drake, charged with rioting in connection to with the wrecking on January 5 of the plant of the Pigott Printing concern, which produced the Seattle Daily Call for its Socialist editors. The defense pleaded mental irresponsibility at the time of the smashing, caused by alleged seditious articles in the Call and the Industrial Worker, the I. W. W. organ. The jury was out one hour and five minutes, returning a verdict at 9:10 p.m.

Because of the plea of insanity and mental irresponsibility the jury filled out the following special form of verdict as follow:

“Did the defendant commit the crime charged?”

“No.”

“Does the jury acquit the defendants because of insanity or mental irresponsibility at the time of the trial?”

“No.”

“Does the insanity or mental irresponsibility exist at the time of the trial?”

“No.”

If such a condition of insanity or mental irresponsibility of the defendants does not exist at the time of the trial, is there likelihood of relapse or recurrence of the insane or mentally irresponsible condition?”

“No.”

ATTORNEYS ASK ACQUITTAL

“Attorney Sullivan charged that the alleged seditious matter published in the Call and Industrial Worker had so aroused the defendants that as patriotic American citizens they could do nothing else than what they did—clean out the plant. He asked for a verdict of acquittal founded on patriotism.”

Yesterday we read in the same paper that a Mr. Babcock, member of a ship building concern, who recently received an $8,000,000 contract from the U. S. Government, and several others who were charged with sedition were acquitted.

All of these not only admitted but testified that they were opposed to all war, including the present one, and that they had purchased neither War Saving Stamps nor Liberty Bonds for that reason.

And—

I was, today, bound over to the Grand Jury and remanded to this jail under $25,000 bond, although ABSOLUTELY no evidence was introduced at the preliminary hearing to sustain the charge under which I am being held.

Moral:

The above is irrefutable evidence that if one is a prominent capitalist, i.e. an extensive and intensive exploiter of labor, he may openly, defiantly and arrogantly make statements, and take action tending to obstruct the Government in its war activities.

While those who, like myself (a wage worker) wish to make the world a better place—and a safer one—for working people to live in, and who openly, intelligently, actively and legally engaged in work that will put an end to “Kaiserism,” and Autocracy and “Prussian Militarism” and the ECONOMIC CAUSES WHICH PRODUCE THEM, are clapped into jail and held under outrageously excessive bond; or may have our property—such little as we may possess—destroyed, our publications suppressed and our speakers manhandled—and even lynched.

FOR ALL OF WHICH

Increasing thousands—aye, millions—of people are beginning to demand an explanation. And if the “Destructive Parallel” continues, that demand will become a ROAR—and the ROAR a CYCLONE which will sweep all Kaiserism, Autocracy and Prussian Militarism, and the ECONOMIC CAUSES WHICH PRODUCE THEM, out of existence—NO MATTER WHERE THEY MAY BE FOUND.

Written in the Snohomish County Jail, April 24, 1918.

Emil Herman had good company at McNeil, which was home to many like-minded political prisoners. Although known as a State prison today, back then it was a Federal crowbar hotel on the edge of the world. He stayed informed of Party details and wrote articles, later published, from his cell. Prison did not appear to break his spirit or dedication to the socialist cause. According to the 1920 U.S. Census, he was performing the duty of 'baker" while a guest of the Feds.

Meanwhile back at the Party Builder, Ruby Herman was coming into her own. Historian Scott Livingston is credited with the following:

"In April of 1918, Emil Herman, editor of the Party Builder and the Socialist Party’s State Secretary was arrested on charges that he violated the Espionage Act. The April 20th edition of the paper carried a small account of his arrest on the front page ("Office Raided,"). Emil was eventually sentenced to serve ten years in federal prison ... His wife, Ruby Herman, seems to have stepped immediately into the editor’s role. It is likely that Ruby had already been involved with her husband in the production of the paper prior to Emil’s arrest, but her first official credit comes in this edition under an article entitled 'That Party-Owned Press Proposition ...'"

"While Emil Herman’s case and imprisonment are followed sporadically – if prominently - throughout the remaining issues of the paper, his release is never indicated. Ruby seems to have taken well to the job of editing the paper. By the August issue, Ruby is listed as the 'Acting State Secretary' and, by inference, the acting editor of the paper since it appears that the State Secretary was, by default, also the editor and manager of the Party Builder. Her husband never loses his official title of State Secretary, but, over a year later, Ruby Herman is officially listed as the Editor and Manager of the Party Builder and retains the unofficial title of Acting State Secretary."

"The paper under Ruby’s control changes dramatically. The Party Builder under Emil, at least in the issues available, had been fairly staid. It gave the statistics of the state party with a few notices of upcoming events and one or two articles on bureaucratic matters, but that was all. Ruby seems to have attempted to create a true party newspaper. More news articles and commentary appear by both local and national personalities, including an article entitled 'We Must Now Organize,' by Eugene V. Debs (12/20/19, p. 4). Several articles of local concern are printed with a credit to a John McSlarrow [stevenl note: McSlarrow was apparently Ruby's maiden surname]. The bureaucratic business of the Party is still present, but as of the December 20, 1918 edition it begins to appear as an independent section of the paper entitled 'Official Business.' A couple of editions later an ongoing section appears entitled 'For the Local’s Study Class,' the purpose of which, according to the paper was a 'systemic study of the Communist Manifesto, believing that a thorough understanding of this work is imperative if one would be qualified as a Socialist in the full meaning of the word' (2/20/19, p. 4). Inspirational material also begins to make a regular appearance in the paper. Poems, some of them authored by Ruby herself, and excerpts from Socialist literature and other Socialist publications."

"Along with a change of content, the style and layout of the paper undergoes a highly visible change. Keeping with Emil’s straightforward approach, there had been few type changes or any real attempt to layout the paper in any aesthetic way. Ruby’s Party Builder is in constant change. The paper briefly flirts with a revised name, The Party Builder; and masthead, two logos and a different typeset; and becomes much more organized and sectional during her tenure. The actual size and length of the paper never changes, however, all Ruby’s experimentation still occurs on the large, single-fold, four page sheet."

But by the end of 1919 the Party Builder was one of the many socialist newspaper titles that came to an end. Trying to find a socialist newspaper in Washington State in the 1920s would almost be akin to a snipe hunt.

President Harding is easy to ridicule for his many human failings and is frequently at the very bottom of Presidential rankings. But he wasn't all bad. He was the first President to criticize segregration while speaking in the Deep South. And, he pardoned many political prisoners who were wrongly imprisoned as a result of the Espionage Act. Including Emil Herman, who was released on Christmas Eve, 1921. According to Stephen Martin Kohn, Herman made the following remarks in a speech which was covertly transcribed by the FB of I: "I am opposed to war. I object to bloodshed. I would not take the life of a human being to save my own. I regard human life as infinitely sacred. I am opposed, therefore, to the system that ruthlessly sacrifices human life in the most barbarous manner possible. Sixty thousand of our boys lie beneath the Flanders poppies. For what? Did not Lloyd George just the other day make the assertion that Europe was worse off than ever? That there were more men in arms than before the war? The Disarmament Conference was a farce. To be true, they limit battleships, but laboratories in every country are occupied by those who work feverishly to perfect deadly and secret gas. The next war will be of airplanes and secret gas, and no one will be a non-combatant, not even the smallest infant."

Obviously, prison did not have the intended effect.

But times had changed in the postwar era. As Harvey O'Connor explains, "Meanwhile in this period the Socialist Party practically disappeared in Washington. In 1919 the national organization split in three, the Socialist Party retaining the allegiance of the right wing, while the left wing organized the Communist Party, based mostly on the Russian-language federation of the old Socialist Party, and the Communist Labor Party, based more on the native-born sections. In Seattle the Socialist Party vanished as a political factor. Emil Herman, released from McNeil Island, maintained a state office in Everett for a few scattered members."

Thanks to historian Tim Davenport, we have Emil's very interesting essay, "Where I Stand-- And Why," explaining his reasons for sticking with the Socialist Party upon his release from McNeil. The following is from the Dayton, Ohio Miami Valley Socialist, Apr. 7, 1922:

While a prisoner at McNeil’s Island penitentiary, the censorship of the Department of Justice in vogue at that institution prevented me from keeping myself fully informed regarding the progress and activities of the various parties and groups into which the Socialist movement had divided; so the natural and logical thing for me to do was to remain neutral until I should have an opportunity to investigate, analyze, and decide where to affiliate.

This is how it happens that I was unaffiliated with any organizations claiming to represent the interests and the revolutionary aspirations and ideals of the working class of the United States when I was released from prison on December 24, last, after having served 3 years, 4 and 1/2 months of the 10 year sentence imposed upon me under the Espionage Act.

Charges Spies Were at Work.

Since my return from prison I have made a careful survey of the labor movement and of the different political and economic groups into which it is divided and have arrived at the following conclusions:

1. It is apparent to me that the programs of the Communist Labor and the Communist Parties which resulted from the ill-advised Left Wing split from the Socialist Party were in great part written by agents of the Department of Justice and that this was true to a still greater extent of the program of the United Communist Party, which was a fusion of the two first-mentioned organizations. They swallowed hook, bait, and line of the programs imposed upon them, and having adopted the illegal programs, were, of course, driven underground. Since then the rank and file of the United Communist Party (who, without doubt, have at all times been honest in their intentions) have joined with a few other groups to organize the Workers Party and have adopted a program which is open, above board, and legal, and in no important respect different from that of the Socialist Party, of which they were formerly members, except that it recognizes the Third International, while the Socialist Party has (to my mind) taken the correct and consistent position of remaining unaffiliated until such time as the program of one of the several Internationals is so modified as to make it practical for a revolutionary political organization in the United States to become a unit thereof.

2. Thus, the Left Wing offshoot from the Socialist Party, having made the illegal and ill-fated underground attempt to organize the workers for revolutionary activity through the United Communist Party now recognize their mistake, return above ground in the Workers Party, and find themselves advocating practically the same program which they formerly advocated through the Socialist Party and which the Socialist Party still advocates.

Can’t Be a Quitter Now.

3. The platform of the Farmer-Labor Party, wherein it is vital and of importance to farmers and working people, is merely a repetition of Socialist Party principles. The Farmer-Labor Party, composed largely of former members of the Socialist Party, would probably never have been organized had not many Socialists who left the Socialist Party in disgust because of the incompetent handling of party affairs which developed into the Left Wing fiasco, wanted a political party through which to express themselves during the campaign of 1920. The party, like the Workers Party and several other labor groups, has signified its willingness to unite with the Socialist Party in the formation of a federated labor party for the purpose of united political action by the working class and those in sympathy with their plans.

4. The Socialist Labor Party, while its aim is the same as that of the Socialist Party, i.e., the emancipation of labor and the establishment of the cooperative commonwealth, will probably continue (though I hope not) in its well-known attitude of refusing to join in any effort to form a federated labor party and as a result will continue its separate existence as a small, critical, and comparatively ineffective group.

Having taken an active (and I hope important) part in the Socialist movement for over 25 years, it is impossible for me to be a quitter in this time of crimes and imminent change. I feel that I must affiliate with that political party which most nearly conforms to my conception of what a political party of labor ought to be and which is making a serious effort to unite all revolutionary and progressive forces into one organization for the purpose of making common cause against the forces of reaction and oppression who are mercilessly exploiting the working people of our country.

After careful consideration I have concluded that the party is the Socialist Party and have decided to join Local Seattle at their next meeting. I will again give the best service of which I am capable, and be permitted to give, to build up a powerful political party with which we will march forward to victory and the cooperative commonwealth.

Herman had harsh words for the SLP and the FLP, but it was the latter that was more of a threat. With the death of Bob Bridges in 1921, the Farmer-Labor party had split into various factions. One major percentage of FLP power belonged to the Communists, a fact not lost on the anti-Communist Herman, who prophetically wrote in 1923 of the FLP: "Truly an incongruous mass with aims leading in so many directions that will end in division or dissolution -- another object lesson in waste of time, energy, and money for the benefit of a few politicians, as for example, through the Populist Party and the Progressive Party." Although the Socialist Party had endorsed FLP Ungovernor Bridges in 1920, the Communist influence which "had destroyed every liberal organization they had gained control of" caused Herman to lead the tattered remains of his party back home. It was time to rebuild.

Hamilton Cravens: "Washington Socialists soon completely withdrew from the state Farmer-Labor party because they did not want to have to work with the Communists. By February [1924], Socialist party locals had been organized in Seattle, Tacoma, Everett and Ballard. Emil Herman, state secretary and Northwest states district organizer of the party, announced that the Socialists would have a full ticket in the field for the coming campaign and that the 'paramount issue' would be political prisoners." And Emil was the Socialist Party candidate for Governor.

Republican Roland Hartley, another Everett resident and eventual winner of the 1924 election, was sort of a right-wing reactionary (to put it mildly). He had a lot in common with future Governor Dixy Lee Ray. When questioned by The Nation about the Centralia Massacre of 1919, Hartley responded, "I believe in raids on Wobbly halls, if we can't get rid of the Wobblies in any other way. They are a menace to civilization ... Every decent man shuns them as he would a mad dog. They are a bunch of cutthroats and murderers ..." According to Wobbly War author John McClelland, "Emil Herman, candidate on the Socialist ticket, was so much for the [IWW] prisoners that he challenged Hartley, the GOP nominee, to a debate at the corner of Hewett and Rockefeller Avenue in Everett on the subject. The challenge began, 'Resolved, that the Republican party is responsible for the Centralia Armistace Day tragedy ...'"

The election tally was miserable for the Socialist Party. Herman placed 5th out of 6 with 898 votes (0.23%). Snohomish was the only county where he showed any sort of spike in numbers, such as it was.

After the 1924 election Herman became sort of a roving national speaker for the Socialist Party. In 1928 he ran again for Governor, and Ruby ran for U.S. Congress in the 1st District. The 1928 Washington State Socialist platform included: Release of the Centralia Massacre Wobblies, abolition of military training in public educational institutions, shorter work days, ability of municipalities to market utilities beyond city borders, enforcement of free speech, free press, free assemblage.

And then suddenly-- Emil Herman died in his home in Seattle.

There are two versions of his death I have encountered. The respected historian Carlos A. Schwantes, in a footnote, says "Herman, old and unable to work, killed himself in 1929."

According to his death certificate, Herman died age 49, Oct. 9, 1928-- not in 1929.

Ruby Herman's version: "Since that time [1921] he has been almost continually in the field as organizer for the Socialist Party, working in the states of Minnesota, California and New York for straight periods of six months each, and in many other states other than his District of Washington and Oregon where he has spent a goodly portion of his time."

"The heart affliction which eventually resulted in his death had its beginning in an attack of Spanish Influenza directly after his release from prison, and his persistent intense labors for the organization of the Socialist Party which he had chosen as the most consistently valuable medium for work in the SOCIALIST MOVEMENT, finally brought on a complete collapse."

"He went regularly under the doctor's care in October 1927, when he was compelled to take a 'rest' for at least one month. Diminishing funds and the ever present anxiety about leaving undone work which should be done but which no one else seemed either capable or willing to do, caused a resumption of labors at the earliest possible moment. His habit of thinking first of the Movement, next of his family and almost never of himself led to the inevitable breakdown in June of 1928 when he was working in Minnesota and had just completed the task of preparing for the party filing its state ticket and presidential electors."

"Six weeks in a Minneapolis hospital-- and he was chaffing under the necessary inactivity and confinement and his anxiety for the campaign in his own District, and fancied himself far more to endure the trip to Seattle than he really was. Reaching Seattle in the midst of campaign preparations he insisted that he was able to help-- with this, that and the other task. Each task light of itself, but none of them of really sufficient vital importance to warrant the terrible risk he ran with his customary self-abnegation. It is literally and terribly true that he 'Gave His Life to the Cause of Working Class Emanicipation.'"

He left his wife and two sons, age 13 and 6. The Party scrambled and found Walter Price of Outlook, Washington to fill his place on the ballot.

Ruby Evangeline Herman placed a very distant 3rd on the ballot in her Congressional race in 1928. Ruby, who was born in Batesville, Arkansas Jan. 1, 1885, moved from Seattle to Everett around 1932. According to her obituary "She was president of the Animal Crusaders, Inc. of Everett and chairman of the News Analysis Group." Ruby died in Oct. 1962.