Pete Merta
Biography
Named as Pete Merta in the IWW’s partial Red Special deportation-detention roster. The report says the group left Seattle February 6, 1919 and arrived at Ellis Island February 11. It does not individually establish a final release or deportation. This establishes actual U.S. immigration custody connected with IWW repression, not a criminal conviction or proof that deportation was ultimately carried out. Original arrest date and full detention duration unknown. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/one-big-union-monthly/v02n06-jun-1920_One%20Big%20Union.pdf#page=39
Federal file 54379/134 identifies Peter Williamson Merta or Melta, also Peter Williamson and Peter M. Williamson, as the Raymond Lumber Workers Local 500 secretary and treasurer. The case narrative confirms that he was transferred from Seattle to Ellis Island and later released on bond, then became an editor of a Finnish-language IWW paper in Duluth. It also reports a later Duluth municipal arrest without its outcome. The source conflicts over his initial arrest: the individual form gives April 30, 1918 at North Yakima, while the later digest gives March 1 at Seattle; the form says a second December 13 warrant was not executed while the digest calls it a rearrest. These conflicting dates are not entered as settled physical events. August 30, 1919 was bond approval, not an established exact release day. His complete custody duration remains unknown. Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Hearings_before_the_Committee_on_Immigration_and_Naturalization_-_H._of_R.%2C_66th_Congress_%28IA_cu31924051624827%29.pdf#page=601
Federal file 54379/134 identifies Peter Williamson Merta or Melta, also Peter Williamson and Peter M. Williamson, as the Raymond Lumber Workers Local 500 secretary and treasurer. The case narrative confirms that he was transferred from Seattle to Ellis Island and later released on bond, then became an editor of a Finnish-language IWW paper in Duluth. It also reports a later Duluth municipal arrest without its outcome. The source conflicts over his initial arrest: the individual form gives April 30, 1918 at North Yakima, while the later digest gives March 1 at Seattle; the form says a second December 13 warrant was not executed while the digest calls it a rearrest. These conflicting dates are not entered as settled physical events. August 30, 1919 was bond approval, not an established exact release day. His complete custody duration remains unknown.
