Editing Ralph Chaplin (section)

==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]].