Category: Free Speech Fights

Hellraisers Journal: “We can keep up the fight all winter.” -Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Reports from Spokane Free Speech Fight

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Quote EGF, Compliment IWW, IW p1, Nov 17, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday December 3, 1909
Spokane, Washington – Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Reports from Scene of Battle

From the International Socialist Review of December 1909:

ISR IWW FSF, p483, Dec 1909

[Part I-Report from Spokane by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn]

Letter T, ISR p483, Dec 1909HE working class of Spokane are engaged in a terrific conflict, one of the most vital of the local class struggles. It is a fight for more than free speech. It is to prevent the free press and labor’s right to organize from being throttled. The writers of the associated press newspapers have lied about us systematically and unscrupulously. It is only through the medium of the Socialist and labor press that we can hope to reach the ear of the public.

The struggle was precipitated by the I. W. W. and it is still doing the active fighting, namely, going to jail. But the principles for which we are fighting have been endorsed by the Socialist Party and the Central Labor Council of the A. F. of L.

IWW Spk FSF JP Thompson, ISR p483, Dec 1909

The I. W. W. in Spokane is composed of “floaters,” men who drift from harvest fields to lumber camps from east to west. They are men without families and are fearless in defense of their rights but as they are not the “home guard” with permanent jobs, they are the type upon whom the employment agents prey. With alluring signs detailing what short hours and high wages men can get in various sections, usually far away, these leeches induce the floater to buy a job, paying exorbitant rates, after which they are shipped out a thousand miles from nowhere. The working man finds no such job as he expected but one of a few days’ duration until he is fired to make way for the next “easy mark.”

The I. W. W. since its inception in the northwest has carried on a determined, relentless fight on the employment sharks and as a result the business of the latter has been seriously impaired. Judge Mann in the court a few days ago remarked: “I believe all this trouble is due to the employment agencies,” and he certainly struck the nail on the head. “The I. W. W. must go,” the sharks decreed last winter and a willing city council passed an ordinance forbidding all street meetings within the fire limits. This was practically a suppression of free speech because it stopped the I. W. W. from holding street meetings in the only districts where working men congregate. In August the Council modified their decision to allow religious bodies to speak on the streets, thus frankly admitting their discrimination against the I. W. W.

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Hellraisers Journal: Spokane Free Speech Fighters Celebrate Thanksgiving with Bread and Water, In and Out of Jail

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote Spokane IWW re Bread n Water, Spk Prs p1, Nov 25, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday November 28, 1909
Spokane, Washington – Bread and Water Thanksgiving for I. W. W.

From The Spokane Press of November 25, 1909:

IWW SpkFSF Bread n Water Thanksgiving, Spk Prs p1, Nov 25, 1909

———-

PROCLAMATION BY THE I. W. W.

The following Thanksgiving proclamation was issued this morning by a committee of the I. W. W.:

We feel that we have reason to be thankful that we have an organization in which are enlisted men with moral courage to go to prison and fast and suffer hunger for the principle of free speech, on this day when the American people are feasting and offering thanks for the blessings they enjoy.

We feel that we have reasons to be thankful that there are men outside of jail willing to forego the pleasures of feasting today in sympathy with their fellows who have offered themselves as a sacrifice in a just cause.

We further see reasons for offering thanks because the movement of protest has grown and that progress has been made in the past year in the work of enlightening the wage earners as to the conditions confronting them in this republic, in which the people have long since ceased to rule.

All of these things make us thankful and give occasion to rejoice that through the gloom and shadows that now surround us a ray of light and hope begins to appear.

W. H. Douglas, C. M. Conner, J. Burns, Committee.

———-

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: William Z. Foster Reports from Spokane Free Speech Fight for Seattle Workingman’s Paper

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Quote EGF, Compliment IWW, IW p1, Nov 17, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday November 24, 1909
Spokane, Washington – Fellow Workers Jailed Under Horrible Conditions

From Seattle Workingman’s Paper of November 20, 1909:

IWW Spk FSF, HdLn, ed, Stt Socialist Workingmans Paper p1, Nov 20, 1909

SPECIAL SPOKANE DESPATCHES
———-

Discipline Excellent
—–
[-by William Z. Foster]

Spokane, Sunday, Nov. 14.-The one distinctive feature of this fight, which impresses me at first glance is the calm, business like determination of the men and the excellent discipline pervading throughout their ranks.

Things are quiet today. No street speaking is the order for Sunday. Tomorrow street speaking will be resumed. The plan is to send out a sacrifice squad daily. Many men are arriving. Two hundred and eighty are in jail, living on bread and water. Eighty of these are in Fort Wright, seventy-five in the abandoned Franklin school house and one hundred and twenty-five in the city jail. Two meetings will be held tonight , one in the city court room and one at I. W. W. headquarters. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and John M. Work are speakers for both meetings, relieving each other.

WM. Z. FOSTER

———-

Horrible Conditions
—–

SPOKANE, Monday, Nov. 15.-Ten speakers arrested today. Police handled them roughly and were jeered by the bystanders.

Conditions in jails are horrible. In the [Franklin] school house bucket is used for toilet. The place is alive with vermin. The prisoners are refused water to boil their clothes. Windows are broken. No visitors are allowed. No place to sleep except floor. No blankets. Half loaf bread daily. All are suffering with cramps in stomach. Doctor gives them castor oil. Many are very sick, but they are ordered to work on rock pile. Only two so far have accepted this means of release.

Today a six day striker was released, afflicted with bleeding piles. Blood was running down his legs. At first they ordered him to rock pile, then told him to go. He could hardly walk and was refused admission to hospital. He was penniless, but authorities refused to return thirty cents taken from his person when he was arrested, on the plea that he owed for costs.

Socialists have declared boycott on Apple show.

Public sentiment is strong for strikers.

W. Z. FOSTER.

———-

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Hellraisers Journal: Agnes Thecla Fair, Dangerous Character, Jailed and Assaulted in Spokane Free Speech Fight

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote Agnes Thecla Fair, Revolutionary Women, Stt Sc Wkgmn p4, Nov 20, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday November 23, 1909
Spokane, Washington – Letter from Agnes Thecla Fair Describes Jail Horrors

From Seattle Workingman’s Paper of November 20, 1909:

IWW Spk FSF, HdLn, ed, Stt Socialist Workingmans Paper p1, Nov 20, 1909

THE SHAME OF SPOKANE
—–

We publish the following letter without the consent of its author. We believe the interests of truth demand its publication. When we first read it we could not believe it. Even now it seems impossible that such cowardly and brutal treatment could be accorded a helpless woman, even among savages. Yet we know the capitalist system has developed far lower moral types than savagery or barbarism ever knew. We know, too that daily revelations are made of jail horrors almost as bad as this. Read what Mrs. [Bessy] Fiset tells in her department, “The Woman,” in this paper [page 4].

Those who know Agnes Thecla Fair will not hesitate to credit what she testifies to. She is a quiet, frail, unassuming little woman, some 25 years old, who is publishing a book called “The Sourdoughs’ Bible.” She was drawn into the Spokane Free Speech Fight because she happened to be in that city soliciting for her book, and wherever she is she cannot refrain from taking the side of the under dog….

———-

MISS FAIR’S LETTER
—–

Spokane, Wash., Nov. 11, ’09

Dr. Hermon Titus and Mrs. Titus.
Dear Comrades and Friends:

Well, to put it mildly, Mrs. Titus came very near getting that copyright. I am now labeled by police as a DANGEROUS CHARACTER. My offense was mixing in free speech fight and behaving so different from other women arrested.

I made four jumps, as the box filled with dry goods, standing at Howard and Riverside in front of the White House was a high one. I talked for ten minutes and had a large crowd, when a detective came up and took me down from my high pedestal. He wanted me to walk to the station, but as I had never rode in a hurry-up wagon I asked to ride.

While waiting for a private automobile the crowd grew to thousands. Taking out a red handkerchief as I entered the wagon, I stood up and waved it at the crowd. Cheers went up for Free Speech.

Little did I dream of what was coming after in this enlightened age. You will pardon language used to get at facts, as I never heard anything so vile. They put me in a cell with a fallen woman and left. They were gone but a few minutes when two officers returned and (although the other woman was not to go until Monday, she told me), they told her to get ready in two minutes and get out.

When she was gone they put me in a dark cell, and about ten big burly brutes came in and began to question me about our union. I was so scared I could not talk. One said, “We’ll make her talk” Another said, “She’ll talk before we get through with her.”

Another said,”F–k her and she’ll talk.” Just then one started to unbutton my waist, and I went into spasms which I never recovered from until evening.

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Hellraisers Journal: W. F. Little Learns His Brother Is Doing 30 Days in Spokane for Reading Declaration of Independence

Janet RayeFrank Little
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Quote re Frank Little Ready for IWW Spk FSF, Wenatchee Dly Wld p2, Nov 2, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 22, 1909
Fresno, California – Telegram from Spokane Tells of Free Speech Fight

From The Fresno Morning Republican of November 16, 1909:

TELLS OF SPOKANE INDUSTRIAL FIGHT
—–
W. F. Little Learns That His Brother Is
Doing 30 Days for Reading
Declaration of Independence.

Spk FSF, IWW Notices, Spk Prs p2, Nov 3, 1909

W. F. [“Fred”] Little, of the local union of Industrial Workers of the World, received an official communication from the Spokane local yesterday reciting the treatment of members of the order in Spokane in their fight with the city authorities. The letter gives this bit of personal news.

I understand that you are a brother of F. H. [“Frank”] Little, the hobo agitator, in jail in Spokane with 200 more as a result of the free speech fight. He was reading the Declaration of Independence on the street corner. He was sentenced to thirty days for this terrible crime.

The letter describes some of the Third Degree methods pursued by the police and jailors. It is related that the men are crowded into stuffy cells, without creature conveniences and the steam temperature was kept on one occasion at 100 degrees for a period of thirty-six hours in an effort to “break” the men.

Mr. Little yesterday took up a private collection among the local “Industrial Workers” to aid their brothers in their Spokane fight.

———-

[Insert added from Spokane Press of November 3, 1909.]

Fellow Worker Frank Little was also jailed during the Missoula Free Speech Fight, and described that experience for Industrial Worker of October 27th:

THE BEATING OF JONES BY
THE MISSOULA SHERIFF.

[-by F. H. Little]

On September 30th Fellow Workers Jones, Appleby [George Applebee], Tuchs [Herman Tucker] and myself were sentenced to 15 days each in the county jail. That night five more of the boys were arrested. The morning of October 1st, after breakfast, the prisoners called for a speech. We moved the table to the southwest corner of the jail. Jones got up and made a talk on Industrial Union. The sheriff sent in word not to talk so loud. So Jones lowered his voice. He talked for about five minutes, then we started to sing the “Red Flag.”

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Hellraisers Journal: News from the Spokane Free Speech Fight by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn for the Industrial Worker

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Quote EGF, Compliment IWW, IW p1, Nov 17, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday November 19, 1909
Spokane, Washington – Employment Sharks Compliment I. W. W.

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of November 17, 1909:

News From Spokane

Spk FSF, Leaders n Editors, IW p1, Nov 17, 1909

NEWS FROM THE FRONT;
-FREE SPEECH VS. LAW
—–

[-by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn]

[…..]

Outside fellow workers may realize the seriousness of the situation in Spokane when a railroad official of Portland is quoted as saying that the authorities there are watching with great interest the Spokane fight on the I. W. W. and calling attention to the fact that if we are defeated in Spokane, then a similar campaign will be started against us in Portland. The capitalist class of the northwest are out to annihilate us. We have only the powers of our numbers, organized and disciplined for action.

Two employment agents in town, Walker and Macho, are quoted as saying that they will employ no I. W. W. men. Like the fable of the sour grapes there is a very good reason-they never get any to employ. They say that the I. W. W. man is trouble breeder, that he advises others not to work so hard, to howl for better grub and better bunkhouses and more wages. That is about one of the finest compliments that the I. W. W. has ever received.

On Sunday night two splendid meetings were held in the cause of free speech, one at the I. W. W. hall and the other by the Socialist party in the municipal courtroom. From the same forum that Judge Mann delivers his decree of thirty days on bread and water the I. W. W. defiance of the “law and order” element rang forth. The walls echoed and re-echoed with the strains of the “Red Flag,” and resolutions were passed boycotting the apple show. Altogether, over a hundred dollars was received for the free speech defense fund and a dozen or more new members were added to the ranks of the I. W. W. But we must not let our enthusiasm abate one iota. We want volunteers to go to jail. We want to advertise Spokane during the National Apple Show. Boost for her as a city where the constitution is dead and the police make the laws. Get into Spokane and do your part in this great battle for the rights of labor.

ELIZABETH GURLEY FLYNN.

———-

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Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn for the Spokane Industrial Worker: “Call to Action…Free Speech Fight Is On”

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Quote Who Edits God Knows, Spk FSF, IW p2, Nov 10, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday November 11, 1909
Spokane, Washington – “Call to Action…Free Speech Fight Is On”

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of November 10, 1909:

CALL TO ACTION BY GURLEY FLYNN
—–

EGF, ISR p466, Nov 1909

The free speech fight is on in Spokane. Over 100 men are in jail. More are going every hour. Some are sentenced to 30 days, others to 30 days and $100 fine and costs.

Five I. W. W. men are charged with criminal conspiracy. They are Wilson, Thompson, Foote, Filigno and Cousins. Five women are awaiting trial. Foote was taken out of the lawyer’s office, the others from the I. W. W. hall. Our office has been raided and ransacked by Chief Sullivan and his gang, and this paper is now being made up in secret.

This fight is serious. It must be won. Remember, “an injury to one is an injury to all.” We must never give up. We have just begun to fight. The men in jail have refused to work on the rock pile. They are starving rather than eat the dry bread flung to them. These men are brave, loyal supporters of a great cause. They are heroes in the battle of labor.

Can you afford to be a coward?

Don’t be a quitter. Don’t “sympathize” with free speech.

Go to jail for it!

Sympathy won’t stop the police from striking our women.

Sympathy won’t stop the police putting old men and young boys in the sweat-box.

Sympathy won’t choke the lies down the throats of the miserable capitalist press, now doing its worst to alienate public feeling.

Sympathy won’t pile up expenses on the city government till the taxpayers cry “quits.”

Sympathy won’t prevent our five fellow workers from being railroaded to the penitentiary for five years.

Sympathy won’t win this fight.

Only going to jail by the hundreds will do that.

If you have a family, if you are too far away to come at once-dig up money.

You locals that owe the “Industrial Worker” for bundles, it is your imperative duty to pay up now. Then if there is still coin in the treasury send that for a contribution.

Remember that printers’ bills go on just the same. Order more bundles of this edition and help advertise Spokane, where the constitution is dead.

The “Boosters’ Club” will be “de-light-ed.”

Send donations to help defend the so-called “conspirators.” Now is the opportune time.

It’s now or never, boys!

Get busy! Hurry up!

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Spokane Industrial Worker: “Free Speech Fight is On” -IWW Hall Raided, FWs Arrested

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote re IWW Spk FSF n Solidarity, IW p1, Nov 3, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday November 5, 1909
Spokane, Washington – “Free Speech Fight Is On”

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of November 3, 1909:

IWW Spk FSF, Come to Spk, IW p1, Nov 3, 1909—–

[From page 1:]

IWW Spk FSF, Defend Rights o Wkrs, IW p1, Nov 3, 1909—–

FREE SPEECH FIGHT IS ON IN SPOKANE
—–

With the end of the trial of James P. Thompson held in the Municipal court of Spokane Tuesday morning, November 2, the fight for free speech or the right to speak on the streets has started in earnest by the members of the union here in the city and many others that have arrived from all over the northwest.

Meetings were started in different parts of the city at about 1 o’clock in the afternoon and kept up till 5 o’clock in the evening; as one speaker was pulled off the box by the police another would take the stand for the purpose of being arrested. All told there were about 100 men arrested on Monday, including James Wilson, James P. Thompson, C. L. Filigno, A. C. Cousins, who were arrested on a warrant charged with criminal conspiracy. Also Mrs. Fernette was taken for street speaking, and Mrs. Arquette and Miss Huxtable were arrested in the raid made on the hall at 3 o’clock Monday afternoon.

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Hellraisers Journal: News from Spokane Free Speech Fight: Jail Crowded with IWWs, Socialists and Miners of WFM

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote, FSF Com Only Begun the Fight, Spk Prs p2, Nov 3, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday November 4, 1909
Spokane, Washington – I. W. W. Determined to Carry on Free Speech Fight

From The Spokane Press of November 3, 1909:

Spk FSF, Jail Crowded w IWWs, ed, Spk Prs p1, Nov 3, 1909

[…..]

Spk FSF, IWW Notices, Spk Prs p1, Nov 3, 1909That 75 socialists are mingled with the scores of revolutionists arrested here yesterday and this morning for speaking on the streets in violation of the city’s ordinance, is an assertion made to The Press this morning by leading members of the Industrial Workers of the World.

[…..]

In Court

Profound interest settles about the trials of the revolutionists in the police court this afternoon. Judge Mann’s decision of these cases means mush. Should he decide the men guilty and uphold the city ordinance, which is almost identical to the one that he declared invalid yesterday morning, the fight will continue with renewed vigor and determination; while, should his decision be a dismissal of the cases, the street meetings will be continued under the regulation of the police.

In a statement made yesterday in the police court, Attorney Fred H. Moore, for the Industrial Workers of the World, said that that order was willing that the street meetings should be regulated by the police after a reasonable manner, but that the city could not prohibit them.

War against Spokane’s street speaking prohibition has begun today with renewed vigor and with more determination than ever by the Industrial Workers of the World. The revolutionists’ fight was cheeked for a few hours last night because of the arrest of their executive committee, which, from the seclusion of headquarters, was directing the fight outside.

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Hellraisers Journal: “Missoula Police Relinquish Attempt Against Free Speech; IWW Defeats City Council”

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Quote EGF, My Aim in Life, Spk Rv p7, July 8, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday October 22, 1909
Missoula, Montana – City Council Defeated by I. W. W Free Speech Fighters

From the Socialist Montana News of October 21, 1909:

Missoula FSF, Victory, EGF Held, MT Ns p1, Oct 21, 1909

EGF, IW p1, Oct 7, 1909

The city council of Missoula has proved another exemplification of the proverb that “discretion is the better part of valor”, and completely retreated from the fight against the I. W. W. speakers, and the constitutional right of Free Speech. In the midst of the clubbing arresting beating and ether police outrages against the union workers the council held a meeting. They found themselves confronted by jury trials by the score, immense sums of court expense, an enraged populace, and fresh speakers coming in on every train as candidates for free berths at the city expense. In fact they saw no end to the “radau” [racket] that the Industrial Workers were precipitating upon their heads, and wisely concluded that they would stop bucking the United States constitution.

The council had previously made a conciliating concession that the workers might speak on a by-street. But the Workers were standing upon their legal rights to speak where they please so long as they were injuring no one, and continued their work with fresh recruits after thirty-five had been arrested in one evening.

When the telegram went into New York telling of the attempt to suppress Free Speech in Missoula a meeting of the Free Speech League was called, sad Leonard D. Abbott and others went to preparing plans to preserve the American right of Free Speech. Abbott said, “Free Speech must be maintained no matter what the cost may be. We are prepared to carry the fight to a finish.”

Principal Derby of the Morris High school, where Miss Flynn attended was also much interested in the progress on the fight.

The latest word is that Miss Flynn is held for trial, the council expecting to make a test case out of her arrest.

[Emphasis added. Photograph added from Spokane Industrial Worker of October 7th.]

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