Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Interview with Spokane Review: “Girl, 19, Fights in Cause of Labor”

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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday July 25, 1909
Spokane, Washington – Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Devoted to Downtrodden

From the Spokane Spokesman-Review of July 8, 1909:

GIRL, 19, FIGHTS IN CAUSE OF LABOR
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Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Industrial Agitator,
Devotes Life to Downtrodden.
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STARTED WHEN ONLY 15
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Young Woman Believes in Evolution and
Socialism and Rejects Christianity.
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I will devote my life to the cause of the downtrodden wage-earner.

My father was a victim of the master class and my brothers and sisters and myself have felt the pinch of poverty as the result of industrial tyranny and I am in the fight to a finish.

My sole aim in life is to do what lies in my power to right the wrongs and lighten the burdens of the laboring class.

In these words Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, not yet 19 years old, explained how she came to take to the lecture platform in the interests of the Industrial Workers of the World, an organization which conceives all capitalists to be its deadly enemies.

Only Slip of a Girl.

She is only a slip of a girl, tall, pale and slender, but she has strong convictions and a will to stick to a purpose.

Taking the lecture platform before she was 16 years old, at the completion of her high school course in New York city, she has followed her work persistently for more than three years and is regarded as one of the most effective apostles of the organization.

She has appeared in nearly every city in the country.

She sat for nearly an hour last night telling of her work and its purpose.

There was no bitterness in her words as she spoke of industrial conditions as she sees them, in fact, she smiled several times and her eyes sparkled with a kindly light.

There was no denunciation, no venom, only regret that things are not better than they are.

Does Not Believe in Churches.

No, I do not believe in any church, because the churches are all dominated by the capitalistic cause. The churches are subsidized, every one of them. But then when socialism gains I foothold there will be hope for all-even for the churches. Yes, I believe in socialism, and let me tell you socialism is no dream. It will come some day, perhaps even in my time. Oh, how I wish it would!

How many young women would then be saved from the terrible lives into which they are now forced to gain livelihood!

How many young children would then be saved from early blight and premature graves, from diseases contracted in sweatshops and unsanitary mills, mines and factories!

How few men would be maimed by defective machinery!

How little crime and sin there would be!

How much brighter and better the world would be!

Tear Falls as She Talks.

And this frail girl fired and sustained through weeks and months of weary and exhaustive mental work by an undying purpose, heaved a gentle sigh and as she brushed back a wisp of stray chestnut hair her eyes were dimmed and a vagrant tear stole down her cheek.

Have I read much in preparation for that work? Yes, a little, but one does not have to read to learn the truth. All one has to do is to look around, not be deliberately blind to see how much cruel wrong there is in the world.

Enjoys Public Speaking.

I never had much training for the work outside of what I got in school. I belonged to a debating society and took much interest in preparing for and participating in debates. The experience afterward stood me in good stead. At first I felt a little embarrassed when I addressed large audiences, but that gradually wore off and now I do enjoy it so much. Yes, the work wears and is physically exhausting, especially when I have to speak several nights in succession.

Says Jesus Would Be Socialist.

I never received any religious instruction because my parents had no religious belief. No, I am not a Christian. I believe one can be moral without being religious. I have no faith in miracles. I believe that Jesus was a good man who would probably be a socialist if he were living now. He upheld the rights of the common people but in his day there were no socialists because conditions had not yet so shaped themselves so as to make the birth of socialism a necessity.

I like the west very much and hope to come out here again next year.

[Photograph added is from page 7 of July 9th Spokane Review.]