Biography
William Weyh, an IWW leader, was convicted of seditious conspiracy at the mass IWW trial in Chicago, sentenced to five years and fined $20,000. He began his term in Leavenworth Penitentiary on September 7, 1918. Weyh contracted tuberculosis at Leavenworth. Despite his tuberculin condition, he was forced to perform hard labor (breaking rocks) until he suffered twelve hemorrhages in a single day. On December 27, 1921, the prison physician notified Warden W. I. Biddle that Weyh's condition was terminal: "He has had several veiy severe pulmonary hemorrhages in the past few days and the case is very liable to terminate fatally at any time." Even this did not persuade the Department of Justice, which refused to pardon Weyh. According to IWW prisoners: [After his December hemorrhages] he was so emaciated as to be scarcely recognizable. It was at this point that a prison official said to him: "I don't believe you have another ten hours to live if you stay in this place. Drop your I.W.W. affiliations, and you can be out of here." Weyh's answer was: "No, I'll die first." Weyh continued to suffer in jail for another year until he agreed to the Department of Justice's demand that he be deported if his tuberculosis was cured. Weyh was released on January 25, 1922, but never recuperated and died from tuberculosis two years later, on March 22, 1924.
