Biography
Stephen Shuren was arrested in Kansas and scheduled to be tried in the mass IWW trial in Wichita. While awaiting trial Shuren attempted suicide at the Shawnee County Jail in Kansas. The attempted suicide occurred after Shuren had spent approximately a year in jail. After having been forced to share a cell with a seriously syphilitic inmate, Shuren "snapped, " using his shaving razor "to cut a deep wound in his neck from ear to ear, and fell to the floor." Nearly dead he was rushed to the hospital. Wliile recuperating he wrote: "Life has denied me everything. WHiiat have I to live for? W^hy should I live?" Within two weeks of the attempt, he was transferred back to the Shawnee County Jail. His fellow IWW inmates watched over Shuren continuously after his return. A reporter commissioned by the National Civil Liberties Union and Survey magazine visited Shuren and wrote that "the expression in his eyes was not normal and he looked at me from his clouded face. The men said that little of his mind seemed to remain." Shuren was transferred to the state insane asylum at Osawattomie. Soon thereafter the government dropped its indictment of these Wichita IWW defendants.
