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Hellraisers Journal – Monday February 14, 1910
Spokane, Washington – Foster Describes 47 Days in City Jail
From the Seattle Socialist Workingman’s Paper of February 12, 1910:
[Part I of II.]
On the afternoon of December 11th, when a contingent of men left the I. W. W. headquarters for the purpose of speaking on the street, I accompanied them, as usual, so as to witness their arrest and be enabled to report any unusual features attending it. On this particular afternoon Korthagen and Holland, two I. W. W. members from Seattle among others, were billed to speak, and having been closely associated with them in Seattle, I was anxious to be in at the death.
I walked with them to the appointed street corner, and while they spoke I stood some twenty feet away in the thick of the crowd. They were duly arrested and a few moments later the redoubtable Captain Burns came on the scene in answer to a call sent in to the station, and although he knew nothing whatsoever as to what had taken place, and had no warrant for my arrest, he immediately placed me under arrest when he happened to see me standing in the crowd.
At the police station I had the honor of a half-hour talk with Pugh, Sullivan and Burns, during the course of which conversation these worthies attempted to pump me. They adopted a dozen different ruses by which they hoped to secure a promise from me to desist from taking part in the street fight in return for my liberty. One of these was ridiculous in the extreme. Chief Sullivan (brainy man) said that he had just received a letter from the I. W. W., stating that I was a Pinkerton, his plan being to rouse my ire against the organization and to get me to desert it, or at least promise to take no active part in the fight. Failing in this he adjudged me guilty in his office of some unknown offense, because I wouldn’t answer for my conduct for the future, and I was taken to the notorious sweat-box, where I joined the balance of the street-speaking “criminals.”
Although we had not gone through the formality of a trial in Judge Sham’s (I mean Mann’s) court, we were placed on bread and water. The portion of bread was that customary in I. W. W. cases, one-fifth of a five-cent loaf, twice daily. As a punishment, criminals who refuse to work are sometimes confined in the sweat-box on a ration of a loaf of bread daily, but we untried I. W. W. prisoners were so much worse than rebellious convicted criminals that we got less than half the customary amount of bread.
The next afternoon we were taken to Judge Mann’s court and were railroaded in the usual manner. In common with the rest, I was charged with “Disorderly Conduct.” Officer MacDonald was the witness against me. He testified that I stood in the crowd of prospective speakers ands stimulated their ebbing courage by urging them to go out and speak. MacDonald has a good imagination, and in the pretty little picture he drew of the affair I even went so far as to shove some of the weak-kneed (?) speakers into the street.
Needless to say, this was a barefaced lie. These men needed no urging, but if they had I fear someone else would have had to do it, as I stood in the crowd at least twenty feet from them. It was impossible for MacDonald to have even seen me in the crowd, as during the whole affair he had his back turned toward me. However, a little item like this is of no importance to the Spokane police. MacDonald was made to “see” me in the chief’s office , and that was sufficient.
I put five witnesses on the stand who flatly contradicted MacDonald, but it was no use and I got the same sentence as the balance-thirty days, $100 costs.
Judge Mann has recently expressed his determination to stop perjury in his court, and if he is sincere it would perhaps be good tactics if he would operate on a few of these imaginative policemen. My bond was set at $500, although the customary bond in all the I. W. W. disorderly conduct case has usually been $200.
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Although the I. W. W. had recently decided that the speakers arrested should go to work on the rock pile so as to avoid punishing themselves on the terrible bread-and-water diet, I refused to go to work, as I wished to be sent to the modern Libby prison, the notorious Franklin school, where the authorities still held I. W. W. prisoners, who vainly demanded the privilege of going to work. (This was done because these men stubbornly refused to accept liberty on the condition that they leave town.)
My desire to get a little “local color” at Franklin school was frustrated, however, as next morning I was loaded with ball and chain (15-pound ball attached to ankle), and shackled by the leg to another man, and then marched to the rock pile, where I was told to work or freeze.
I felt quite flattered at so much attention, particularly so because the ball I wore had been previously carried y a notorious pimp who henceforth enjoyed the comparative freedom of simply being shackled by the leg to his partner.
* * *
The weather was intensely cold and I have no doubt the Rev. Jack Warner, the chain-gang boss, Bill Shannon et al., thought I would be stubborn enough to stand there and freeze rather than go to work.
The I. W. W. motto in Spokane is “Find out what the boss wants you to do, and then-do the opposite,” so I went to work, and here began the most educational experience I ever had.
When talking to Pugh in Sullivan’s office he jokingly remarked, “Why, Foster, you haven’t got any kick coming; this is money in your pocket.” This is literally true, and though at times the confinement was irksome in the extreme, I consider my experience in the Spokane city jail as almost invaluable. Through it I have learned a few of the possibilities of organization and direct action, and more especially of the marvelous effectiveness of the passive resistance strike, in addition to learning many new wrinkles about the law, police, etc.
At the time I arrived at the city jail the total number of street speakers held by the police was forty (exclusive of “conspirators” in the county jail), and this bunch immediately after getting settled at the jail proceeded to organize themselves. So perfect did this organization become, both in the jail and on the rock pile, that all the individualists were suppressed and the collective wish was undisputed.
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In the jail we had rousing meetings and in order to do it systematically we elected a secretary and chairman and set aside Sunday night for propaganda meetings and Wednesday night for business meetings. It was surprising the amount of business we had to transact, and we established rules and regulations of all kinds, from tactics to be pursued if our shackles were put on too tight, to forbidding I. W. W. members from shouting to the women prisoners who might be insulted by some of the doubtful remarks continually bandied between the men and women prisoners. Needless to say, these rules and regulations were scrupulously obeyed by the I. W. W. members, and also by many of the ordinary prisoners, who fell under the magic spirit of the well known I. W. W. discipline.
The Salvation Army annoyed us by raising a hideous clamor, alleged to be religious adoration, but we settled them by completely ignoring them and their meetings were shortened 80 percent.
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[Emphasis added.]
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote EGF, Compliment IWW, IW p1, Nov 17, 1909
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/industrialworker/iw/v1n35-nov-17-1909-IW.pdf
The Workingman’s Paper
(Seattle, Washington)
-Feb 12, 1910
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/thesocialist-seattle/100212-seattlesocialist-v10w-foster.pdf
See also:
For more from Workingman’s Paper of Feb 12, 1910, see:
Page 1: “Foster Released”
Page 1: “Gurley Flynn’s Trial”
Page 1: “boys Selling Papers”
Page 4: “Stories of the Fight” by Eleanor Maurer Herman
Page 4: “Free Press to Get Free Speech” by Bessy Fiset
Page 4: “Spokane Notes” & “Fuller Details”
Page 4: “The Woman” by Bessy Fiset
Page 4: “Glad Tidings of the Revolution”
For more on the Franklin School, see:
Hellraisers Journal – Friday December 17, 1909
Spokane, Washington – “Officials Use Russian Tortures”
From Montana News: “Unexampled Barbarities” Used Against Prisoners of Spokane Free Speech Fight
Tag: Spokane Free Speech Fight of 1909-1910
https://weneverforget.org/tag/spokane-free-speech-fight-of-1909-1910/
Tag: William Z Foster
https://weneverforget.org/tag/william-z-foster/
Fellow Workers and Friends
I.W.W. Free Speech Fights as Told by Participants
by Philip S Foner
Greenwood Press, Jan 1, 1981
(search: “47 days”)
https://books.google.com/books?id=y4yxAAAAIAAJ
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Solidarity Forever – Modern-Day Wobs with Tom Morello