View source for Ralph Chaplin

{{Short description|American writer, artist and labor activist}}
{{Primary sources|date=June 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| name           = Ralph Hosea Chaplin
| image          = Ralph Chaplin.png
| image_size     = 
| caption        = 
| birth_date     = {{birth date text|1887}} 
| birth_place    = [[Ames, Kansas]]
| death_date     = {{death date text|1961}} 
| death_place    = 
| occupation     = [[Labour movement|Labor]] [[activism|activist]], [[songwriter]], [[illustrator]]
| spouse         = 
| parents        =
| children       =
}}
'''Ralph Hosea Chaplin''' (1887&ndash;1961) was an American writer, artist and [[labour movement|labor]] [[activism|activist]].

==Background==
Chaplin was born in 1887.{{citation needed|date=February 2023}}  At the age of seven, he saw a worker shot dead during the [[Pullman Strike]] in [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]]. He had moved with his family from [[Ames, Kansas]] to Chicago in 1893.

==Career==
[[Image:Charles H. Kerr Irving Meirovits Stock Certificate 200dpi.jpg|thumb|right|Charles H. Kerr 1911 series stock certificate illustrated by Chaplin]]
During a time in [[Mexico]] he was influenced by hearing of the execution squads established by [[Porfirio Díaz]],{{citation needed|date=February 2022}} and became a supporter of [[Emiliano Zapata]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Ralph Chaplin |url=https://spartacus-educational.com/USAchaplin.htm |access-date=2023-09-14 |website=Spartacus Educational |language=en}}</ref>

On his return, he began work in various [[trade union|union]] positions, most of which were poorly paid. Some of Chaplin's early artwork was done for the ''[[International Socialist Review (1900)|International Socialist Review]]'' and other [[Charles H. Kerr]] publications.

For two years Chaplin worked in the strike committee with [[Mary Harris Jones|Mother Jones]] for the bloody [[Kanawha County, West Virginia]] strike of [[coal]] miners in 1912–13. These influences led him to write a number of labor oriented poems,{{citation needed|date=February 2022}} one of which became the words for the oft-sung union anthem, "[[Solidarity Forever]]".

[[File:One Half Million Stickerettes.jpg|thumb|right|Advertisement for IWW stickerettes in "Solidarity" publication]]
Chaplin then became active in the [[Industrial Workers of the World]] (the IWW, or "Wobblies") and became editor of its eastern U.S. publication ''[[Solidarity (U.S. newspaper)|Solidarity]]''. In 1917 Chaplin and some 100 other Wobblies were rounded up, convicted, and jailed under the [[Espionage Act of 1917]] for conspiring to hinder the [[conscription|draft]] and encourage [[desertion]]. He wrote ''Bars And Shadows: The Prison Poems'' while serving four years of a 20-year sentence.

Although he continued to work for labor rights after his release from prison, Chaplin was very disillusioned by the aftermath of the [[Russian Revolution]] and the evolution of the Soviet state and international communism, particularly its involvement in American politics and unions in 1920–1948, as he details in his autobiography, ''Wobbly''.{{page needed|date=July 2009}}

Chaplin maintained his involvement with the IWW, serving in Chicago as editor of its newspaper, the ''[[Industrial Worker]]'', from 1932 to 1936. Chaplin left the IWW in 1936.<ref name=":0" />

Eventually Chaplin settled in [[Tacoma, Washington]], where he edited the [[American Federation of Labor|American Federation of Labor's]] local labor publication. He converted to [[Catholic Church|Roman Catholicism]] and published his autobiography ''Wobbly.''<ref name=":0" /> From 1949 until his death, he was curator of manuscripts for the [[Washington State Historical Society]].

==Death and legacy==
Chaplin died in 1961.<ref name=":0" />
[[Image:Anarchist black cat.svg|thumb|right|Chaplin likely designed the IWW black cat (also adopted as a symbol by anarcho-syndicalists)]]
According to the IWW, Chaplin likely designed the now widely used [[Anarcho-syndicalist symbolism#Black cat|anarcho-syndicalist image]], the black cat.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://archive.iww.org/history/icons/black_cat/ | title=The Black Cat (Sabo-Tabby) &#124; Industrial Workers of the World }}</ref> In 2022, law professor [[Ahmed White]] mentioned him in his book on the IWW called ''Under the Iron Heel''.<ref>{{cite book | author=Ahmed White | author-link=Ahmed White | title=Under the Iron Heel: The Wobblies and the Capitalist War on Radical Workers  | date=2022 | url=https://lccn.loc.gov/2021062860 | publisher=University of California Press |access-date=25 February 2023 |pages=19, 20, 22, 24, 28, 42, 48, 56, 59–60, 84, 85–87, 104, 118, 122, 133, 190–191, 204, 223, 233| isbn=9780520382411 | lccn=2021062860 }}</ref>

==Works==
[[Image:Ralph Chaplin IWW booklet.jpg|thumb|right|Chaplin's IWW membership booklet]]
There are ten entries for Chaplin's works in the Library of Congress online catalog.

;Illustrations
* ''Out of the Dump'' (1909)<ref>
{{cite book
| author = Mary March
| author-link = 
| contribution = illustrations by R. H. Chaplin
| title = Out of the Dump
| url = https://lccn.loc.gov/08037707
| publisher = Charles H. Kerr
| date = 1909
| lccn = 08037707
| access-date = 25 February 2023}}</ref>

;Poetry
* ''When the Leaves Come Out and Other Rebel Verses'' (1917)<ref>
{{cite book
| author = Ralph Chaplin
| author-link = Ralph Chaplin
| title = When the Leaves Come Out and Other Rebel Verses
| url = https://lccn.loc.gov/17005831
| publisher = Charles H. Kerr
| date = 1917
| lccn = 17005831
| access-date = 25 February 2023}}</ref>
* ''Bars and Shadows:  The Prison Poems'' (1922)<ref>
{{cite book
| author = Ralph Chaplin
| author-link = Ralph Chaplin
| contribution = introduction by [[Scott Nearing]]
| title = Bars and Shadows: The Prison Poems
| url = https://lccn.loc.gov/17005831
| publisher = Leonard Press
| date = 1922
| lccn = 17005831
| access-date = 25 February 2023}}</ref>
** ''Bars and Shadows:  The Prison Poems'' (1923)<ref>
{{cite book
| author = Ralph Chaplin
| author-link = Ralph Chaplin
| contribution = introduction by [[Scott Nearing]]
| title = Bars and Shadows: The Prison Poems
| url = https://lccn.loc.gov/82464851
| publisher = Nellie Seeds Nearing
| date = 1923
| lccn = 82464851
| access-date = 25 February 2023}}</ref>

;Nonfiction
* ''The Centralia Conspiracy'' (1920)<ref>
{{cite book
| author = Ralph Chaplin
| author-link = Ralph Chaplin
| title = The Centralia Conspiracy
| url = https://lccn.loc.gov/23007468
| publisher = Geo. Williams
| date = 1920
| lccn = 23007468
| access-date = 25 February 2023}}</ref>
** ''The Centralia Conspiracy:  The Truth About the Armistice Tragedy'' (1924)<ref>
{{cite book
| author = Ralph Chaplin
| author-link = Ralph Chaplin
| title = The Centralia Conspiracy: The Truth About the Armistice Tragedy
| url = https://lccn.loc.gov/24012135
| publisher = General Defense Committee
| date = 1924
| lccn = 24012135
| access-date = 25 February 2023}}</ref>
**''Centralia Case:  Three Views'' (1971)<ref>
{{cite book
| author1 = Ralph Chaplin
| author-link1 = Ralph Chaplin
| author2 = Ben Hur Lampman
| title = Centralia Case: Three Views of the Armistice Day Tragedy at Centralia, Washington, November 11, 1919
| series = Civil liberties in American history
| publisher = Da Capo Press
| url = https://lccn.loc.gov/77160845
| date = 1971
| isbn = 978-0-306-70211-2
| lccn = 77160845
| access-date = 25 February 2023}}</ref>
* ''American Labor's Case Against Communism:  How the Operations of Stalin's Red Quislings Look from Inside the Labor Movement'' (1947)<ref>
{{cite book
| author = Ralph Chaplin
| author-link = Ralph Chaplin
| title = American Labor's Case Against Communism: How the Operations of Stalin's Red Quislings Look from Inside the Labor Movement
| url = https://lccn.loc.gov/47025519
| publisher = Educator Publishing Co.
| date = 1947
| lccn = 47025519
| access-date = 25 February 2023}}</ref>
* ''Wobbly: The Rough-and-Tumble Story of an American Radical'' (1948)<ref>
{{cite book
| author = Ralph Chaplin
| author-link = Ralph Chaplin
| title = Wobbly: The Rough-and-Tumble Story of an American Radical
| url = https://lccn.loc.gov/48008467
| publisher = University of Chicago Press
| date = 1948
| lccn = 48008467
| access-date = 25 February 2023}}</ref>
** ''Wobbly: The Rough-and-Tumble Story of an American Radical'' (1972)<ref>
{{cite book
| author = Ralph Chaplin
| author-link = Ralph Chaplin
| title = Wobbly: The Rough-and-Tumble Story of an American Radical
| series = Civil liberties in American history
| url = https://lccn.loc.gov/70166089
| publisher = Da Capo Press
| date = 1972
| isbn = 9780306702129
| lccn = 70166089
| access-date = 25 February 2023}}</ref>

;Articles
* "Confessions of a Radical," two-part article in ''Empire Magazine'' of the ''Denver Post'' (February 17, 1957,  pp.&nbsp;12–13, and February 24, 1957, pp.&nbsp;10–11)
*"[https://www.iww.org/history/icons/solidarity_forever/1 Why I Wrote Solidarity Forever]," ''American West'', vol. 5, no. 1 (January 1968), 18–27, 73

==See also==
* [[Solidarity Forever]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{Commons-inline}}
* {{Wikiquote-inline|Ralph Chaplin}}
* {{Wikisource author-inline}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=1967| name=Ralph Chaplin}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Ralph Hosea Chaplin}}
* {{Librivox author |id=8264}}
* [http://wsldocs.sos.wa.gov/library/docs/WHS/SL_WHS2004_000012.pdf CHAPLIN, Ralph Hosea (1887-1961), papers], Special Collections, Washington State Historical Society
* [https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=213275833842408412906.0004ac3ec88bec45655a7&msa=0&ll=47.193416,-122.5056&spn=0.001655,0.003342 Grave of Ralph Chaplin Calvary Cemetery, Tacoma, Washington]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chaplin, Ralph}}
[[Category:1887 births]]
[[Category:1961 deaths]]
[[Category:American trade union leaders]]
[[Category:American newspaper editors]]
[[Category:American male poets]]
[[Category:Industrial Workers of the World leaders]]
[[Category:Industrial Workers of the World members]]
[[Category:People convicted under the Espionage Act of 1917]]
[[Category:Songwriters from Kansas]]
[[Category:American male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American songwriters]]