Career
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. During a time in Mexico he was influenced by hearing of the execution squads established by Porfirio Díaz, and became a supporter of Emiliano Zapata.
On his return, he began work in various union positions, most of which were poorly paid.
Some of Chaplin"s early artwork was done for the International Socialist Review and other Charles H. Kerr publications. Chaplin maintained his involvement with the International Who's Who, serving in Chicago as editor of its newspaper, the Industrial Worker, from 1932 to 1936.
He became active in the cause of preventing Communist infiltration in American unions. Eventually Chaplin settled in Tacoma, Washington, where he edited the local labor publication.
From 1949 until his death he was curator of manuscripts for the Washington State Historical Society.
He is credited with designing the now widely used anarcho-syndicalist image, the black cat. As its stance indicates, the cat is meant to suggest wildcat strikes and radical unionism.
