Hellraisers Journal: Charles Grant on Free Speech & Law and Order from the First Edition of Spokane’s Industrial Worker

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Quote Charles Grant, Spk IWWs Sing in Jail, IW p3, Mar 18, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday March 19, 1909
Spokane, Washington – Free Speech and Law Order

From the Industrial Worker of March 18, 1909:

Industrial Worker Spokane, Vol I No I, Mar 18, 1909
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LAW AND ORDER IN SPOKANE

By Charles Grant

[Since the I. W. W. began holding outdoor meetings in Spokane…..]

…The capitalistic papers, Spokesman-Review-morning dollar sign-and its concubine, the Chronicle, were quick to take up the cry against the I. W. W. The Spokane Press brought up the rear. Rev. Dr. Bull wrote several [withering?] articles against the union, saying he considered these the most dangerous men in Spokane.

The City Council.

The city council was influenced by Dr. Bull to draw upon an ordinance [which] prohibited free speech and peaceful assemblage upon the streets of Spokane, but this applied only to the revolutionists and Industrial Workers of the World.

The Fourth of March.

The I. W. W. still persisted in the fight and forced the council to a general application of the law in all organizations, Salvation Army, Volunteers of America, etc., and on the 4th of March an ordinance was put into effect, and on that date J. H. Walsh violated the ordinance and was arrested, put in jail and fined $10 and costs. The Salvation Army and Volunteers also violated the ordinance and were arrested, but not put in jail. Their fines were also $10 and costs. All the cases were appealed to the superior court, but the members of the I. W. W., as individuals, continued to speak upon the streets, were arrested and placed in jail. The conditions there equalled the black hole of Calcutta. Mexican dungeons were not to be compared as regards brutality and utter hate for humanity.

The Honorable Court.

We were not all arrested in one day, neither were we all tried in one day. The first batch was arrested Friday, March 5; six men were arrested, one after the other. This batch was tried on Saturday, March 6, before Hizzoner, the learned Judge Mann. So patriotic, so learned in the law, and yet almost human. This learned jurist overstepped his bounds and fined each and every one of us $100 and costs and 30 days on the rock pile, when, even according to his own law, he could not give over $100 and costs or 30 days. Eight more men were arrested on March 6 and tried March 8; same impartial sentence administered. On Sunday, March 7, 20 more men were arrested. As these men were arrested they were herded with total disregard for cell capacity. After trial, the officials were satisfied with 12 in a cell. Those arrested on Sunday were tried on Monday (same law or lawlessness). Monday 10 more arrested; tried on Tuesday-same thing. On Monday, after the tenth man was arrested, they began to club the men.

Police Try to Start Riot.

Between four and five o’clock about 20 policemen surrounded the I. W. W. hall. They began calling vile names to our men, daring them in come out. During this time our members were peacefully reading in the library; some in the assembly room. Our members acted as if there was nothing to cause surprise. One officer in particular, a deputy sheriff, made himself very conspicuous. A worker and former officer was leaving the hall, when this officer who is also assistant superintendent of the Washington Water Power company, grabbed him, then arrested him and lead him into jail, charged with disorderly conduct. Another of our members was arrested on that trumped up charge of spitting on the street. Every scheme was resorted to, only to find the I. W. W. wise to the game.

Conditions in City Jail.

I was one of the victims, and can swear and get 13 more to back up my assertions. The portion of the jail in which I was incarcerated contains 10 cells. Each cell is designed to hold four prisoners; the cells are 6×7 feet, into which were herded 10 and 12 men; the cell in which I was locked containing 10 prisoners, cell 13. The cell next to me contained 12 prisoners, and the next 12, and across from me was a cell containing 10, and the other next to it contained 12. We could not lie down at night, even four men would have a miserable time trying to lie in the narrow space of six feet, and mostly all the men in my cell except myself were large.

Taking into consideration that on one side was the toilet bowl and on the other the water faucet and basin, you can imagine, if not feel, the uncomfortable and horrible position four men would be in. But do not forget that we were 10 and 12 in a cell. We could neither lie nor sit down. Had we lain down we would have to have been three deep, so we had to stand, crouch or lean the best way we could. The misery in these cells was something never to be forgotten-sore, sleepy and stomach sick and the air foul. Some of the men managed to bring their tobacco with them and the smoke still more increased the foulness of the cells.

Suffering With Bleeding Piles.

While incarcerated we were never permitted to leave our cells except for trial. Our cells were never washed nor cleaned. The fare consisted of bread and water twice a day. One of our number had the bleeding piles, but not withstanding, he was brutally compelled to stand up like the rest of us who were tough as whalebone. The result was his clothes were covered with blood. On Tuesday night the officials got wind of an indignation meeting to be held by the revolutionists, so at 12 o’clock, midnight, he was given a bath.

A member in another cell had a poisoned leg. He could not stand. He and he alone had a hammock and this made it harder for the rest of the prisoners in that cell. Still another member had a sore throat. And as things were we were resigned to fate and would stick out the three and one half months for spite. We believed in our rights to free speech, and cave in we never would. The dry bread we were fed, was not even given us on a tin plate, but was thrown to us through a hole in the back of our cell. There were only two tin cups for 10 men to drink from while eating the dry bread. This bread is furnished by the Ideal (?) restaurant and the taxpayers pay 60 cents a day for each prisoner. A man was fed in proportion to about one baker’s loaf in two days, and 28 of these loaves can be bought for $1. One thing that they did not begrudge us was water. It seems the Washington Water Power company had sufficient besides what passed over the falls.

Before herding us in all hammocks, except the one mentioned above, were removed from the cells. Insect life swarmed in the cells and seemed to pervade the air-this is no joke. Bugs seemed as numerous as the sands of the sea shore, but in spite of all this we sang our revolutionary songs, the “Red Flag” and the “Marseillaise,” being the favorites. Every morning we were asked to go on the chain gang, but no I. W. W. man would so disgrace himself. No day passed without holding our business meetings. We made speeches, etc. We even had prayer meetings. They were more physical than spiritual. In spite of our misery we had a good time. We put the chain gang out of commission.

Chain Gang.

The members who compose this chain gang are recruited from the barrel houses and lodging houses. One dive in particular, the “Ondawa” Inn. This den furnishes more recruits than any other place in Spokane. The men who go there are, of course, victims of the capitalistic system; men who cannot, will not organize; who are always out after the capitalist handouts; who spend their time in the barrel houses; are always looking for booze, but never try to alter their own condition. These ignorant brutes look upon a socialist as a man ready to blow everything and everybody into kingdom come, and it is this ignorant material of which the chain gang is composed. Often these men are arrested solely for the profit to be derived from their labor.

Some of this breed were turned out of jail to make room for us “orators,” and by this the supply of recruits for the chain gang was cut off, for, since we could not sleep, we swore that no members of the chain gang should do so. The night jailer threatened us with the hose, but that failed to dampen our spirits. We continued to expound our doctrine, and for once Spokane jail was organized. Visitors were not permitted to see us. Friends who brought food to the jail were asked who they wished to see and the desk man learning it was us, said, “No food is allowed in the jail.”

Discharged.

Our deliverance from this obscene hell hole was at hand, though we were not complaining, for the treatment received was, a fair sample of the tender mercies and enlightened methods of the Spokane police.

The whole affair was making such a stir; the police were being so hard worked, and the pressure was becoming unpleasant for the wise and good of the city hall.

The Monroe street bridge seemed to be again vanishing into the distance future with the large bill for the “board” of the many prisoners.

So the inestimable judge, and the fearless mayor offered to let all the union men out of jail if they would wait till the superior court declared the ordinance about the streets unconstitutional.

And the understanding was agreed to that the union should “be considered” in the repeal of the offensive ordinance.

[Emphasis added.]

The Spokane Industrial Worker of March 18, 1909:

-Volume I, Number I
-“Published Weekly by the Spokane Local Unions
of the Industrial Workers of the World”
-Editor James Wilson

Industrial Worker Spokane, Curtain Raiser, Mar 18, 1909

From The Spokane Press of March 5, 1909:

ALL WILL GO TO JAIL
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The Salvation Army. Volunteers of America, Industrial Workers of the World, socialists and Russian and Jewish revolutionists will be out holding street meetings in defiance of the police and the city ordinance opposing them tonight. Major C. F. Milford of the Volunteers, Captain Sturms and Adjutant Kuhn of the Salvation Army and James Walsh, state organizer of the L W. W.s, were all arrested for holding street meetings last night, but that don’t matter-they are all anxious to test the ordinance.

Organizer Walsh of the I. W. W. refused to put up bond last night, and has been in the city jail ever since. He declared he would refuse to put up bond or to pay a fine and that the street meetings will continue every night, giving the city a new prisoner from its ranks each time, and that “test” cases would be made out of each one of them.

The socialists will take a hand tonight in defiance of the police, and it seems that by the time the ordinance prohibiting street speaking inside the fire limits has been thoroughly “tested” both the city and the county jails and perhaps an improvised bull pen will be filled with martyrs. The Salvation Army and the Volunteers of America are fighting the ordinance along decidedly different lines than the I. W. W. and other revolutionary organizations. Leaders of both these religious bodies stated today that they intended to test the ordinance only so far as religious rights were concerned. They have won out everywhere else.

Walsh declares that before the fight between the city and the I. W. W. is over, recruits may be sent here from Tacoma, Seattle and Missoula and perhaps further away. Speakers-men, women and children will be put up on the box in street meetings to defy the police, and if in case of conviction they attempted to keep them on bread and water because they refused to work, they will bring damage suits against the city.

Walsh objected to the jail grub this morning and sent out for a good meal, which he shared with one or two of his cell mates. The leaders of the Salvation Army and the Volunteers of America put up bonds of $25 for their release till their cases were called today. When taken to the station, members of their band followed close behind shouting “Hallelujah! Hallelujah!”

———-

[Emphasis added.]

From The Spokane Press of March 6, 1909:

MARTYRS BEGIN TO FILL JAIL
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INDUSTRIAL WORKERS TRY TO DEFY POLICE
IN STREET SPEAKING, BUT RELIGIOUS
BODIES WILL AWAIT COURTS
—–

W. Smith, E. R. Chapin, Charles Grant, W. C. Clare. Mick Foskimp and A. Kruger are all martyrs to the cause of the Industrial Workers of the World this morning. They were arrested in quick succession last night for attempting to hold street meetings.

Smith was the first man on the box in the center of a crowd at the coiner of Main avenue and Stevens street. He had scarcely been pulled down from his improvised rostrum when the others mounted in turn and after a few words each were hauled down and started for the jail.

More of the I, W. W. speakers will be sacrificed for the cause tonight and tomorrow night and so on, according to Organizer Walsh and when all the men speakers are in the jug women and children will be put up in their stead.

The Salvation Army and the Volunteers of America both paraded through the streets last night, but the nearest attempt made at a street meeting was a brief offering of prayer on the sidewalk In front of the Salvation Army barracks, Wall street and Main avenue. The ordinance permits them to parade with the consent of the police. Neither of these bodies will make any other attempts to hold street meetings till the cases of Adjutant Kuhn and Captain Sturms of the Salvation Army and Major Milford of the Volunteers have been tested in the higher courts.

Fines of $10 and costs were imposed by Judge Mann upon the leaders of the two religious organizations and Organizer Walsh of the I, W. W. yesterday afternoon, and the bonds for appeal to the superior court were fixed at $50, each of which were furnished.

The small fines were imposed because the magistrate understood that these were to be made test cases, and that no more attempts to violate the ordinance would be made till the higher courts passed on the cases then before him. Consequently, it is believed that the fines will be made quite heavy in the cases of the six I. W. W.s arrested last night.

———-

[Emphasis added.]

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SOURCE & IMAGES

Industrial Worker
(Spokane, Washington)
-Mar 18, 1909
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/industrialworker/iw/v1n01-mar-18-1909-IW.pdf

The Spokane Press
(Spokane, Washington)
-Mar 5, 1909
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88085947/1909-03-05/ed-1/seq-1/
-Mar 6, 1909
Note: “W. Smith” could be Walker C. Smith, more research needed.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88085947/1909-03-06/ed-1/seq-6/

See also:

The Industrial Worker
Published weekly in Spokane and Seattle: 1909-1930.
-by Chris Perry and Victoria Thorpe
http://depts.washington.edu/iww/Industrial_Worker.shtml

1908-10: Spokane Free Speech Fight
-researcher: Kate Aronoff, 2011
https://libcom.org/history/1908-10-spokane-free-speech-fight

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