The Union Martyr

September 3, 2011

The labor-union troubadour Joe Hill is best remembered for a song he didn't write. His admirer Arthur Hayes wrote the words, which Earl Robinson set to music. Paul Robeson sang the song during the Depression, Joan Baez sang it at Woodstock, and it remains a popular folk-music standard: "I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night, alive as you or me. / Says I, 'But Joe, you're ten years dead.' / 'I never died,' says he."

Utah authorities would beg to differ. They convicted Hill of murder in 1914 and executed him the...

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