George Vanderveer

George Francis Vanderveer (August 2, 1875 – October 22, 1942)[1][2] was an American lawyer who defended Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) members during the union's years of "deepest trouble.

Beyond cases (below), he even wrote Governor Ernest Lister of Washington state to stop the arrest of "Wobblies" because their imprisonment was a "grievous social and industrial wrong.

[6] Minutes books, correspondence, mailing lists, and publications were seized, with the U.S. Department of Justice removing five tons of material from the IWW's General Office in Chicago alone.

Based largely on documents seized on September 5, a Federal Grand Jury in Chicago indicted 166 IWW leaders for conspiring to hinder the draft, encourage desertion, and intimidate others in connection with labor disputes, under the new Espionage Act.

[3] In late 1919, Vanderveer returned from Chicago to Seattle, where he defended eleven men arrested and charged with the murder of Warren O. Grimm during the Centralia massacre, which landed local lawyer Elmer Smith in jail among others.

Bill Haywood with fellow Paterson silk strike leaders Patrick L. Quinlan , Carlo Tresca , Elizabeth Gurley Flynn , and Adolph Lessig (1913)
Seattle General Strike as headline of Union Record (February 3, 1919)
Wesley Everest burial in Centralia, Washington during the Centralia massacre (Washington) (1919)