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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday October 21, 1909
Missoula, Montana – FWs Flynn and Jones on Victory for Free Speech
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of October 20, 1909:
[From page 1:]
FREE SPEECH IS WON IN MISSOULA, MONT.
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[-by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn.]
The I. W. W. in Missoula, Mont., has practically won its fight for free speech, as we are now speaking on the streets without being molested. We didn’t appeal to justice, but the taxpayers felt the pressure on their pocket-books and capitulated.
About 40 members have seen the inside of the Missoula jails during the last two weeks, giving this town a forcible example of the motto, “An injury to one is an injury to all.” Eight men served time; two women, Mrs. Frenette and myself, have each inhabited a cell in the county jail over night; the rest of the boys are all “enthusiastic defenders” of the city jail. At first the police were very full of fight, “blue moldin’ for a baitin’,” and every man was arrested and tried who attempted to speak. But when the night and day force had to get cut night after night and the number of arrests increased by leaps and bounds, they began to lose interest in the fun.
The last night there were 30 men in jail and the next night we had a list of 50 volunteers, when the police lay down and let our speakers continue. The 30 arrested demanded a jury trial each, and the judge said to me, “A little town like Missoula can not stand the expense.” The mayor got out of town to let the acting mayor settle the thing for the taxpayers, who have a steel bridge and a new court house a-building, and they began to howl about the expense. One breakfast for the I. W. W. boys alone cost the city $6.
The populace were very much in sympathy with the I. W. W. Our membership is growing steadily in spite of the A. F. of L. carpenters ordering their membership not to attend the I. W. W. meetings. One little newsboy stopped me on the street and gave me half a dozen papers “for the boys.” When we found that eating in restaurants was too expensive for the boys we put up Knust’s tent, appointed a cook and steward, and started co-operative “Mulligan stews. Bread was given freely by some socialist bakers, and even though the city government refused to feed its visitors we could have held out for a year, feeding them ourselves.
The chief of police himself arrested me on the charge of causing trouble, inciting a riot, etc. I was taken to the county jail and given an individual cell, designed for witnesses, I understand. It had a pile of old papers in one corner, an old slop-pail in another, some dirty food left from several days before, and during the time I was there, from 8 o’clock Sunday until 5 o’clock Monday, the jailer kept promising to clean it out, but the cleaning never materialized. The bonds for all the others were placed at $10 each, but bonds for me were placed at $50, so I must be quiet a dangerous criminal.
When Mrs. Frenette was arrested there was an enormous crowd followed her to the jail, and while not riotous, were certainly indignant. She was arrested for speaking. I was arrested for standing on the street corner asking a man to come to the hall meeting of the I. W. W. The arrest of us two women aroused the town all right.
ELIZABETH G. FLYNN.
(As Fellow Worker Flynn seems too worn out I’ll cut in here, as I as well as the other convicted criminals are free.)
[FREE SPEECH IS WON IN MISSOULA, MONT.
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-continued by J. A. Jones.]Fellow Worker [Frank] Little and I were arrested Tuesday, received a lecture from the sheriff Wednesday morning in regard to Fellow Worker Flynn bawling out Parsons, the Labor Day speaker (A. F. of Hell), whose political wings she clipped by her roast of the dope he had handed out, also a criticism of our line of stuff, and advised us to talk temperance. Wednesday evening I spoke for a few minutes and was pulled. Little got out the title of his lecture, “A Talk on Temperance,” when pinched. Appleby got out “Fellow workers’; Tucker, a forestry service C. E., told how people had fought and won this fight in Seattle and he intended to fight for it here. That settled him.
Next day we were tried (?). We conducted our own cases. In the talk before sentence we told the court its relation to the working class without any polish, the result was 15 days, four arrested were turned loose and came back [and?] we held an educational meeting in jail, the result was me being thrown into the cage, the sheriff following me in and beating me up. The four arrested were turned loose and came back that evening.
I was taken to the city jail, where I could get a chance to sing. In there it was a continual round of drunks for a couple of days until the boys crowded them for room. The hose was brought out, but the crowd looked ugly and they were afraid to make their bluff good. Thursday the boys refused to leave the jail and demanded trial. I was transferred back to the county jail, the doors of the city jail being left open. The boys sent out four speakers, who were not arrested; at night they were rearrested. Friday they insisted on being fed and tried. The cases came up yesterday and were dismissed.
A committee from the policing organization of the capitalist class waited on the ex-committee with two or three propositions at different times, which we turned down, and they were notified that our terms were “unconditional surrender and the release of all prisoners.”
We were all turned loose at 4 o’clock today. Some of us had two days to serve, and four had seven days.
I am a dog that gnaws a bone,
I crouch and gnaw it all alone.
The time will come-it comes not yet-
When I’ll bite those by whom I’m bit.J. A. JONES
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[From page 2:]
THE MISSOULA FREE SPEECH FIGHT
An I. W. W. man can now go to Missoula, Mont., and talk on any street in town. This is not because the bosses and police of Missoula are liking the I. w. W. any better than ever, but they are learning to respect us. The Missoula papers have been telling that it would be a “heavy disappointment” to the I. W. W. “hoboes” that they would no longer have a nice, comfortable jail for the winter, etc. The jail is under a stable and is the filthiest place even in Missoula. However, none of the I. W. W. members have yet died of grief that they were turned out of this hole.
The taxpayers of Missoula did not want to pay for the expense of this senseless fight of the police, which was fostered by the lumber companies to prevent organization by the I. W. W.
For the time being, at least, there is no more interference by the police or sheriff of Missoula. The more decent residents of Missoula are disgusted with this attempt to apply the American gag-law. But no one can tell what will be the next move of the enemy. There is a military detachment at Missoula, and it is not that the enemy has not sufficient force, and guns to boot. It is evidently thought to be poor policy to begin shooting at this time.
But the liberty of the workers is only temporary, while there is still one member of the employing class under the sun, and it is up to the membership of the I. W. W., and all the revolutionists of all kinds, to watch the next move of the enemy and prepare for a long continued, bitter struggle, not only in Missoula, but elsewhere. Fellow Worker Jones was terribly beaten by the Missoula sheriff, but no one of our members was shot. The last casualties of this kind were at McKees Rocks, but how long will it be till we have another dose of the same thing?
There is one good thing about this gag-law business; it is causing all thinking working people to see that the “liberties” of the United States constitution do not exist, and that a working man or woman has no rights that his employer need respect, unless the workers have the power to enforce respect. It may seem a small thing to the tame slave that a few “agitators” are not allowed to open their mouths, and it worries a broken-down plug but little that he is driven all day in a harness. But the appeal of the I. W. W. is to those men and women who are still able to stand up straight and who are not afraid to fight. The employment agents are the ones who have passed the Spokane gag-law, and it is, of course, the employing class generally who are responsible for this tyranny. The American workingman has practically no liberty left to lose. Let’s fight!
[Paragraph breaks and emphasis added. Placement of drawings and photographs rearrange.]
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Industrial Worker
(Spokane, Washington)
-Oct 20, 1909
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/industrialworker/iw/v1n31-oct-20-1909-IW.pdf
IMAGE
Better view of “Don’t Buy Jobs” used.
http://www.folkarchive.de/coffee.html
See also:
Tag: Missoula Free Speech Fight of 1909
https://weneverforget.org/tag/missoula-free-speech-fight-of-1909/
Fellow Workers and Friends
I.W.W. Free Speech Fights as Told by Participants
by Philip S Foner
Greenwood Press, Jan 1, 1981
(search: missoula)
https://books.google.com/books?id=y4yxAAAAIAAJ
Soapbox Rebellion
The Hobo Orator Union and the Free Speech Fights
of the Industrial Workers of the World, 1909-1916
by Matthew S. May
University of Alabama Press, Oct 30, 2013
(search: missoula)
https://books.google.com/books?id=3NJoAwAAQBAJ
The William Morris Internet Archive
https://www.marxists.org/archive/morris/index.htm
Works
https://www.marxists.org/archive/morris/works/index.htm
Chants for Socialists
https://www.marxists.org/archive/morris/works/index.htm
4. “All for the Cause”
https://www.marxists.org/archive/morris/works/1885/chants/poems/poem4.htm
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Re “Coffee An'” from Big Red Songbook:
https://books.google.com/books?id=QaXECwAAQBAJ
Coffee an’ Doughnuts substituted for a regular meal when a worker was broke. Accordingly, Joe Hill’s piece focused on one cause of unemployment and low wages-sharks. A line in the song will trouble some contemporary enthusiasts, “Sneak into a Jap’s and get your coffee an’.” Often, itinerants first met Asian workers in skid-road cafes. Johnson Oatman (words) and E.O. Excell (music) authored this gospel hymn, “Count Your Blessings” used by Hill. Editors changed the title of “Coffee An” to “Count Your Workers, Count Them” in the seventeenth edition.
Coffee An’ by Joe Hill, 1912
Tune: “Count Your Blessings”
http://www.folkarchive.de/coffee.html
An employment shark the other day I went to see,
And he said come in and buy a job from me,
Just a couple of dollars, for the office fee,
The job is steady and the fare is free.
CHORUS:
Count your pennies, count them, count them one by one,
Then you plainly see how you are done,
Count your pennies, take them in your hand,
Sneak into a Jap’s and get your coffee an’.
I shipped out and worked and slept in lousy bunks,
And the grub it stunk as bad as forty-‘leven skunks,
When I slaved a week the boss he said one day,
You’re too tired, you are fired, go and get your pay.
When the clerk commenced to count, Oh holy gee!
Road, school and poll tax and hospital fee.
Then I fainted, and I nearly lost my sense
When the clerk he said: “You owe me fifty cents.”
When I got back to town with blisters on my feet,
There I heard a fellow speaking on the street.
And he said: “It is the workers’ own mistake.
If they stick together they get all they make.”
And he said: “Come in and join our union grand.
Who will be a member of this fighting band?”
“Write me out a card,” says I, “By Gee!
The Industrial worker is the dope for me.”
FINAL CHORUS:
Count your workers, count them, count them one by one,
Join our union and we’ll show you how it’s done.
Stand together, workers, hand in hand,
Then you will never have to live on coffee an’.