Biography
Mortimer Downing was the secretary of the IWW chapters in Oakland and Stockton, California, at the time of his arrest. Mortimer Downing was convicted at the mass IWW trial in Sacramento and sentenced to ten years in prison. He served in Leavenworth Penitentiary from November 1917 to December 22, 1923. According to the Department of Justice, Downing was considered "a leader of the IWW on the Pacific coast." He had also been secretary of IWW chapters in Sacramento and Los Angeles. The Department of Justice described him as a "rabid anti-war agitator" with "misapplied intelligence." He was branded a "dangerous character" who had "a great influence over other men." After release from prison he was elected editor of the IWW paper The Industrial Worker?*
Shields personally describes seeing Downing in Leavenworth, approximately sixty and formerly a Washington correspondent and special writer. He says Downing voluntarily taught advanced English in addition to his regular penitentiary work. The article concerns the Sacramento Silent Defenders and their continued imprisonment in 1922; it supplies no new exact custody endpoint or birthdate.
The issue publishes his signed Prison Horizons poem, a contemporary example of his prison-related political writing. Poetic references to cells do not supply new admission, release or exact service dates.
The One Big Union Monthly, June 1920, vol. 2 no. 6, PDF page 25.
The March1922 official report lists Mortimer Downing in List1 of convicted prisoners or parolees. The government entry reports Conspiracy and violating the espionage act, etc. a sentence of January 17, 1919, 10 years, Leavenworth.. Imposed terms, projected term-expiration dates, parole eligibility and intervals on bond are different measures; none is entered as a complete actual custody total. This attributed government entry is retained alongside the independently established individual chronology. [PDF7]
Government Prosecutions under the Espionage Act, Senate Document159 (March1922), PDF page 7.
