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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday February 15, 1910
Spokane, Washington – Foster Describes I. W. W. Organizing within City Jail
From the Seattle Socialist Workingman’s Paper of February 12, 1910:
[Part II of II.]
[Fellow Workers Organize Behind the Bars of City Jail]
Our propaganda meetings were a howling success, and we made at least forty I. W. W. converts in the city jail. These were all workingmen who were arrested for the crime of being broke, and when they listened to our talks and saw how we handled ourselves they promised to read up on industrial unionism and to join the I. W. W. as soon as possible.
In the jail the cells are in a double row, opening from a corridor about six feet wide and it was in this corridor that we held our meetings.
Another good feature of our meetings was the spirit of democracy prevailing. We practically forced men to get up and speak who had never but once before attempted to speak before a crowd (said “Fellow-Workers” on Spokane streets), and a couple of these give promise of becoming excellent “soap-boxers.”
We were getting along swimmingly when someone decided that our meetings were too successful and that we must have some “leaders” amongst us. As a result of this, on Jan. 3rd, Fellow-Worker Jones of Los Angeles (commonly called “Voiende Sulpher Smoke”) who was speaker of the evening, and myself, who had acted as chairman of the meeting the night previous, were “grabbed” and put into the “strong box” (a steel cage reserved for the more serious criminals). Our seizure simply stimulated the remainder to greater efforts, and from that time on the jail organization became a pronounced success. Once more the grabbing of men suspected of being “leaders” acted as a boomerang.
* * *
The effects of the organization upon the work done on the rock pile was remarkable, and the possibilities of the passive resistance strike, even as evidenced by us chained prisoners, of working. We accomplished almost nothing. For instance, two men chained together pounded for four days upon one rock, when it was accidentally broken. To break that small rock (about as large as a wash bucket) cost the city of Spokane $4.00 for food alone, at the rate of 50 cents per day per man, besides the other expenses for guards, etc. This is only a sample of how we worked, and by no means an exceptional one.
The notorious Bill Shannon helped guard us and he became insanely angry scores of times at our studied awkwardness and deliberation, and on one occasion kicked a man so severely that he may be ruined for life (a suit for $20,000 damages against Shannon, and Warner, the other guard, for this assault is now pending), but he usually confined himself to calling us all the hard names in the calendar and putting us upon bread and water occasionally. He would shift us from shoveling to wheeling, carrying or breaking rock, but it was the same old story wherever we were put. Nothing doing. Passive resistance is an art, and many of the men have really become experts at it in this fight.
* * *
The organization spirit and tact of the men in our contest with our guards and the jail officials was good beyond praise. It has convinced me that it is possible to really organize the working class. Once in a while we had “labor difficulties,” which were always precipitated by some wanton cruelty of the officers, such as tightening a man’s shackles so as to stop the circulation of the blood in his leg, or chaining some victim to a telegraph pole, or as in one case, forcing a man who was boiling his shirt and underclothes, to go to work with nothing on above his waist but his coat. This man (Henry Rutter, an expert at passive resistance) was game, and tucking his coat back he took the lead in the chain gang, and marched through the crowded streets of Spokane, exposing his manly chest (and stomach) with a vengeance.
We had several hunger strikes in retaliation for these barbarities, and the police always caved before we got really hungry.
* * *
On the whole, the worst hardship we suffered was from the arctic weather as we were poorly fed and naturally unable to resist the biting weather as well as we otherwise would. The I. W. W. came nobly to our aid and kept us fully supplied with socks, gloves, and tobacco, although on various occasions the police confiscated large consignments of tobacco “planted” for us by the organization.
* * *
Although Jones and I were allowed to go to work on the rock pile we were forced to make our jail headquarters in the “strong box.” Here I had many experiences which I value highly. We were confined there for a month, and during that time there were several alleged murderers, a dozen forgers and numerous “hold-up” men, burglars, embezzlers, sneak thieves, pickpockets, pimps and various other kinds of criminals, “dope” fiends and insanity cases.
We had the pleasure of spending a night in the same cell as Joe Vigue, the alleged wife-murderer, who was convicted recently in Sandpoint, Idaho, of having beaten his wife’s brains out with the stock of his rifle. He was a mild-mannered, rather likable sort of fellow, and claimed that he was falsely accused, as his wife is not dead. He urged to support of this that the authorities refused to let him see her body and that he remembers nothing of having committed the crime. He was on his way to Boise, Idaho to do a term of fifty years.
His traveling companions in hardship were two burglars with 15-year sentences hanging over their heads. Another man was kept in jail a week while his victim hovered between life and death (he finally died). This man almost went insane from suspense. He is now to be tried for manslaughter.
Many of these “criminals” are very intelligent and some of them remarkably so. They are able to converse fluently on almost any subject of ordinary conversation. One man, Lindsay, since taken to Seattle for forgery, had the most remarkable memory of any man I ever met. It was simply uncanny in its thoroughness.
One ex-convict whom I became very well acquainted with gave me a clear glimpse into the doings of the underworld and initiated me into the mysteries of the “strong-arm”-a wrestling hold used by highwaymen upon their victims. He also gave me full instructions as to the proper method of cracking a safe. He also gave me valuable information as to how to protect myself from highwaymen.
Thus are criminals made in our jails. Put a man in jail with a lot of experienced criminals for a few months and they will soon teach him the intricacies of their various “trades.”
* * *
Dope fiends, full of cocaine, and raving maniacs, their eyes glittering with insanity, and their mouths spouting their delusions, were allowed to roam freely amongst us, and sometimes we were hardly in an enviable position.
Night after night the jail was made hideous by men in the clutches of the terrible delirium tremens. One of these unfortunates actually died in his steel cell raving for whiskey, which would have saved his life. He received no medical attention whatsoever, and died a terrible death. Nothing has been done about this poor unfortunate’s death, as he was only a poor, old, broken-down workingman. His case is matter of record and can easily be dug up if anyone is interested in it. Since his death the other unfortunates suffering from delirium tremens are given a pretense of proper treatment.
The worst feature of my stay in the strong box was the unsanitary condition of the cell. The prisoners sleep in hammocks without blankets. To keep them from freezing the windows are closed, and as a result at times the air became almost stifling from lack of ventilation.
I suffered from an ulcerated tooth while in jail, and the pain was so intense that I was unable to sleep, and I walked the floor for ten nights before I was allowed to have my teeth filled. The doctor (?) refused to do anything for me, stating that “we are not fixed to do any such work as that,” and finally, when I was almost frantic from pain and loss of sleep Chief Sullivan accepted an exorbitant bond for me while I went to the dentist.
At the end of forty-seven days, on Feb. 2nd, I was released through the kind efforts of “The Workingman’s Paper,” its Spokane representative, Mrs. Fiset, and Mr. O. Lund [Olaf Lund], a prominent Spokane Socialist.
In many respects the imprisonment was irksome, but after all it was a most valuable experience, and aside from the pleasure of being one of the free-speech jail-birds, the advantages I gained from it are too numerous to mention.
WM. Z. FOSTER.
[Emphasis added.]
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote EGF re 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:
Note: Olaf Lund also furnished bond for Edith Frenette, see:
Spokane Chronicle of Nov 26, 1909
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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There is Power in The Union – Utah Phillips
Lyrics by Joe Hill