Hellraisers Journal – Friday February 24, 1911 Fresno, California – Latest News from the Free Speech Fight
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of February 23, 1911:
THE LATEST FROM FRESNO. ———- City Would Like to Holler “Enough” -More Men Are Needed to Board With the County. ———-
Fresno Morning Republican February 2, 1911
The fight for Free Speech is still going on in Fresno. The men are all “stickers” and are determined to stick until they win. We have held two street meetings, Sunday, February 5 and 12. We had large crowds at both meetings, and the public sentiment is changing in our favor.
The city officials would like to quit, but they hate to lay down under fire. The city has enough, but hates to holler “quit.” Now that the fight has lasted as long as it has, they will never want to tackle the I. W. W. again. It is now up to the members to get to Fresno in strong enough numbers to FORCE the officials to “lay down.”
This has been a clean fight on our side and has been carried on by “Direct Action.” We want no compromise. Nothing but the unconditional surrender on the part of the city, and the release of all prisoners will go with us. I think after this fight is over we will have no more Free Speech fights for awhile. The officials of other cities will think twice before they tackle us.
I have been out of jail since February 1, when I was acquitted by a jury of farmers in four minutes on a charge of vagrancy. I have done some outside work since my release. Some of the boys will have jury trials on Friday. I will plead their cases, then speak on the streets and go to jail. Am getting homesick for my beans and raisins. Can’t stay out much longer. Wake up, boys. Come to Fresno and help whip the BOSS as he should be whipped. Meet us in the Fresno jail.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday February 10, 1911 New York City – Longshoreman’s Local Protests Torture of Fresno I. W. W.
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of February 9, 1911:
FIRE ENGINES NOT FOR TORTURE
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NEW YORK LONGSHOREMEN PROTEST AGAINST BRUTALITY OF POLICE AND OTHER LEGALIZED THUGS IN FRESNO-FIRE DEPARTMENTS ARE NOT KEPT FOR EXECUTIONERS.
To the “Industrial Worker.”
We, the members of Local No. 791, International Longshoremen’s Association of New York, hereby enter our protest against the inhuman, un-American and non-constitutional treatment meted out to the members of the I. W. W. by the city government of Fresno, California.
We protest against the curtailment of free speech to one body of men, when the constitutional right is accorded to others freely, especially when the members of the I. W. W. desire simply to discuss industrial matters or make known their views on industrial conditions.
We protest against the methods used to suppress such meetings and discussions and insist that the right of free assemblage be granted to all lawful meetings, whether of an industrial social or religious character.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 21, 1911 Fresno, California – 90 Fellow Workers Now Lodged in Unsanitary Jail
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of January 19, 1911:
FRESNO WEAKENING, WE MUST WIN ———-
HELP IS NEEDED IN FRESNO-FIGHT TO WIN
-ON TO FRESNO-SEND MEN AND MONEY. ———-
With 90 I. W. W. men in jail worrying the pin-headed city officials, the county officials are now refusing to pay any part of the expense of the fight.
“Der Chief” is bravely pushing his vagrancy charges and the noble “business juries” find all “GUILTY,” regardless of fact or condition. Any I. W. W. man is a ‘vag,” but that will last but a short time, as the tax payers are getting tired.
The last circular was widely read and is having quite an effect, for every word is known to be a fact.
A new sheriff and a new jail crew took charge on the second inst., and from all news to be had the boys are getting as good treatment as it is possible for men to get in jail.
The “FLOWER” of the I. W. W. is in jail here and you must not let them lose the fight; so do your best.
But few men are coming at present , and many of them are being deterred from going to jail by a few slimy “knockers,” who will not do anything themselves and seem to wish to keep others from doing anything.
Some of the locals are doing well with financial assistance, but so far the greater part goes for postage and for tobacco for the boys in jail. Fellow workers, boost hard and help all you can.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 7, 1911 Fresno, California – Brutal Police, Fellow Workers Not Weakening
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of January 5, 1911:
FRESNO POLICE SHOW BRUTALITY ———-
THE TRUTH JUST IN-MORE POLICE BRUTALITY-HELL IN FRESNO. MEN ARE NOT WEAKENING. ———-
[-by Jack Whyte]
The last week has been a very busy one amongst the members on the firing line. The workers have been treated to all kinds of Christmas presents by their kind Christian masters, even your fellow members laying in jail. They had a hunger strike. Were treated to the Water Cure, first by the jailor and then by the fire department. They were compelled to walk around all night up to their knees in water, and then we had the slimy, reptile press of this city tell us the reason we were handed all those presents was that we used vulgar and obscene language towards the sheriff and his lackeys. (Great joke, isn’t it?) The following is the facts about the so-called riot and what led up to it.
On December 22 the police arrested a Frenchman (not a Mexican , as the papers stated), and charged him with drunkenness. When they brought him into the jail he was handcuffed. Four officers jumped on him, beating him up unmercifully. Our boys protested and they also protested against the actions of the sheriff, who stood idly by and made no attempt to stop this one-sided battle. This poor drunk was so badly beaten up that they did not dare take him up to court the next morning. For telling the sheriff and his lackeys what they thought of him, the boys were put on a bread and water diet, which they refused, preferring to go on a hunger strike.
At 3 p. m. on the 23d I was arrested and charged with vagrancy ad was an eyewitness and partaker of all that happened to the boys on December 23.
At 4 p. m.they came around with the bread. The boys refused it. Some one proposed that we SING THE RED FLAG FOR SUPPER. We did. We kept on singing until a crowd of citizens gathered around the jail.We took this opportunity of addressing them through the bars. It was the largest street meeting we every had in Fresno. This was too much for the sensitive nerves of Day Jailor Jones. He proceeded to quiet the boys in the usual brutal way. He came down to the bull pen and turned the fire hose on the boys. We protected ourselves as best we could, using the mattress and blankets for a barricade. After playing this hose on the boys for two hours they only laughed at him for his trouble. He then called out the fire department. Then the trouble started.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 1, 1911 Fresno, California – “They Are Mobbing Workers” by Mrs. Emma Little
From the Appeal to Reason of December 31, 1910:
They Are Mobbing Workers
Fresno, Cal., December 13-Friday night [December 9th] Fresno mob attacked I. W. W. members who were speaking on the street and severely beat them. The mob then proceeded to the I. W. W. camp. The boys on the street rushed out to our house [home of Fred and Emma Little], then on out to camp, to give the boys in camp what warning they could.
I could hear the autos going past our house right behind the boys. Shortly after the autos passed I could bear the yell, the mob yell.
They burned down the tent and then they took a vote on whether or not they should burn our house. They decided not. Then they proceeded back to town, stood around town awhile, then went to the jail and demanded the prisoners. This request was refused, and shortly after the mob dispersed.
Friday afternoon Murdock, one of the I. W. W. speakers, was tried for vagrancy before Judge Briggs by a jury of business men. Murdock was a well-dressed, well educated man, who, it was proved, was employed by and receiving a salary from the I. W. W. as organizer. The jury convicted him of vagrancy. Judge Briggs put off sentencing him until the next day.
When Murdock came to receive his sentence the next day, Briggs stated that he liked Murdock, but as he was one of the instigators of last night’s trouble he would have to sentence him 180 days (six months).
For weeks the papers have been urging the citizens to form a mob and drive the I. W. W. from the country. The I. W. W. had violated no law. They had lived quietly and peaceably in their own little canvas homes. The officers bad no excuse for molesting them.
Mayor Rowell, the saloon champion, owns the Republican, or most of it. A short time before the day of the mob the Republican said that in Portersville, a small town about thirty miles from here, the citizens had formed a committee and requested the I. W. W. to leave; and that the I. W. W. had immediately left. The paper suggested that would be good tactics to pursue here. The whole article was a tissue of lies. The I. W. W. was not driven out of Portersville. The article and many more along that line were written for the sole purpose of making a mob spirit.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 27, 1910 Fresno, California – Jailed Fellow Workers Given “Water Cure”
From The Fresno Morning Republican of December 24, 1910:
As the result of a second hostile demonstration in two days on the part of eighty Industrial Workers of the World, a fire hose attached to engine No. 5 was brought into play at 6 o’clock last night at the jail. For twenty minutes the howling prisoners put up a frenzied but futile resistance, and were finally subdued. This method of enforcing discipline within the confines of the jail proved effective and half an hour later the men informed Sheriff Chittenden that they would respect prison rules in the future.
From early morning until 6:30 last night the I. W. W.’s stormed within the jail. The riot was continuous and the authorities were powerless in their efforts to quell the raving Industrialists.
One minute they were singing their “Red Flag” song and the next they were climbing up the bars of the “bull pen” cursing and fuming. Not content with abusing officers and yelling with all the strength their lungs afforded, the men rushed to the windows and hurled insulting remarks to men, women, and children who were passing through the court house park.
Riot Lasts All Day.
The second riot started at 8 o’clock yesterday morning when the trusties appeared at the bull pen with a quantity of bread and water. The obscene demonstration of Thursday night, when the eighty I. W. W.’s wilfully broke the jail rules, resulted in an order from Sheriff Chittenden to place the men on a bread and water diet.
When breakfast arrived the Industrialists rebelled and the sight of the loaves of bread and buckets of water fanned the flames of fury within them. As the bread passed in the men in a long line accepted the loaves. After all had been served the riot began. As if from a gattling gun the loaves were hurled at the trusties and Major Ed Jones, day jailer. In the afternoon at 4 o’clock the men were again offered bread and water but they refused to eat a bite and declared with a shower of oaths that they would starve to death before they would partake of a bite of bread.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday December 22, 1910 Fresno, California – Mob Destroys I. W. W. Camp as Police Stand By
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of December 15, 1910:
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Again we have been taught another lesson in LAW AND ORDER. On Dec. 7, F. H. Little, secretary of the I. W. W. local in Fresno was tried in that city on a charge of DISTURBING THE PEACE. Disturbing the peace meant to use his constitutional rights to address an audience of workers or whoever wished to stop and listen to him expound the teachings of the I. W. W. At the trial of Little it was discovered (after men had been tortured in the cells of the Fresno jail for breaking LAWS) that there was no LAW in Fresno denying a man FREEDOM OF SPEECH. Fellow Worker Little was acquittedand it was then up to the authorities to release all the prisoners from the dungeons, where they had been tortured with the fire hose and other barbarous methods. The following dispatch to the Spokesman-Review from Fresno proves our statement:
The Industrial Workers of the World have won their fight for “free speech” in Fresno and are speaking throughout the city advocating the principles of their organization, while the police, helpless to interfere, are merely watching to see that none of the agitators incite rioting.
The victory was due to the discovery today that the ordinances of the city do not prohibit speaking on the streets without a permit. Police officials say that probably the 49 I. W. W. speakers now in the county jail will be liberated tomorrow.
Several of the prominent merchants here have advocated the organization of a citizens’ committee to force the industrialists out of the city, but no one has been willing to take the initiative.
The headquarters of the organization, just outside of the city limits, was the scene of jollification this evening , over the acquittal of F. H. Little, secretary of the organization, on a charge of disturbing the peace.
When the authorities could find no legal way to stop FREEDOM OF SPEECH they began to throw out hints to the Citizen’s Alliance and other thugs to go at it themselves and clean out the I. W. W. men with violence. The following dispatch to the Spokesman-Review on the 9th again bears out our statement that the respectable mob was invited to do bodily harm to our members, and probably murder in cold blood:
Following an order given by the chief of police to all patrolmen to allow members of the I. W. W. to speak unmolested on the streets of Fresno, and a statement that the citizens might do as they wished, a large mob gathered in this city tonight about 7 o’clock, attacked and severely beat a number of industrial workers, who sought to speak, and then marched to the I. W. W. camp, outside the city limits, and burned a big tent in which the members lived, together with all the supplies kept there.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday December 12, 1910 Fresno, California – “Water Cure for Workers; Turkey for Pimps”
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of December 8, 1910:
Fighting for the right to tell the truth to workers so that they will organize and put an end to this CLASS STRUGGLE is no play for children. The rich are rich by virtue of the fact that the great mass of the people are IGNORANT. It pays to keep the workers in IGNORANCE, as no one recognizes the old axiom that KNOWLEDGE IS POWER any better than the parasites that revel in luxury from the toil and misery of others. Under the guise of PATRIOTISM the children are taught to murder each other in the name of their country when in reality they have no country and are fighting for the boss. Under the guise of the GOLDEN RULE they are taught to suffer on earth, and that the more they surfer and starve on earth the better off they will be after they die. Ay one who preachers this SPOOK DOCTRINE will never be cast into jail even if all the street cars in America are stopped because of the crowd.
That I. W. W. men want to block the streets and obstruct traffic is an absolute lie. This bunk was peddled daily by the Spokane lying capitalist press, while at the same time religious organizations were having free use of the streets. This same bunch of LIES is being peddle now in Fresno, where the fight for Free Speech is on. I. W. W. men in jail have had the hose turned on them by the POLICE for singing the Marsellaise. The capitalist press of Fresno is a unit in endorsing the actions of the police in this matter. One daily paper of Fresno gleefully tells how the prisoners were floating around in the water, but yet they sang the Marsellaise.
In another department of the jail were PIMPS that were arrested for dealing WHITE SLAVES. They were fed on good food and were given daily papers and tobacco, and were furnished with good beds. The WHITE SLAVE TRAFFIC is a product of capitalism. The I. W. W. is the result of the best thoughts and intelligence of the workers who rebel against the rule of the master.
The CAPITALIST CLASS knows that if the workers are organized on the lines laid down by the I. W. W. that the smoke it off with them. Among the men in jail in Fresno for Free Speech is an old man 81 years of age. He was put through the horrors of the water cure with the younger men. This old white-headed man stands for Freedom on earth. The crawling coward that will stand for all the insults and misery that is handed out to him on earth, believing that he will be better off after death, is too despicable a thing to notice. When are we to profit by the torture that is being dealt out to us in the lousy cells of the master class? Fall in around the banner, boys, and organize to put the PARASITES to work doing something useful. The day of reckoning is yet to come. Down with IGNORANCE.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 6, 1910 Fresno, California – Free Speech Fight Renewed; Fellow Workers Arrested
From The Fresno Morning Republican of November 30, 1910:
The Long threatened clash between the Industrial Worker of the World and the local police materialized last night. Twenty-four of the followers of the red flag were lodged in jail by Chief Shaw and a squad of ten policemen.
The expected invasion began at 6 o’clock and continued till 9 when the 34th agitator was taken into custody. During these three hours the police department was never busier in the history of Fresno. As fast as central could ring the bell at police headquarters, Night Desk Sergeant Frank Truax was kept busy jotting down the various corners in the downtown section where the I. W. W.’s were trying to make speeches. Several of the “red shirts” were making wild-eyed speeches to a handful of men. At H and Kern streets two were talking at the same time from soap boxes to a half dozen listener.
Among the twenty-four arrested were three of the leaders, James Murdock, C. L. Fligino [Filigno]and F. H. Little. Yesterday morning Chief Shaw appeared in the police court and swore to complaints charging Murdock and Fligino with vagrancy. It is said that they receive no compensation from the Industrial Workers. In fact, Murdock and Fligino admit that they are speaking for the “good of the cause.”
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The last week has been a very busy one amongst the members on the firing line. The workers have been treated to all kinds of Christmas presents by their kind Christian masters, even your fellow members laying in jail. They had a hunger strike. Were treated to the Water Cure, first by the jailor and then by the fire department. They were compelled to walk around all night up to their knees in water, and then we had the slimy, reptile press of this city tell us the reason we were handed all those presents was that we used vulgar and obscene language towards the sheriff and his lackeys. (Great joke, isn’t it?) The following is the facts about the so-called riot and what led up to it.
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