Hellraisers Journal – Friday December 17, 1909
Spokane, Washington – “Officials Use Russian Tortures”
From the Socialist Montana News of December 16, 1909:
[Part I of II.]
The stand of the I. W. W. for Free Speech in Spokane is making the history that will disclose the hollowness of the claims of personal liberty the American constitutional government has made.
The brutal treatment of the prisoners has not been excelled in Russia. The Franklin schoolhouse where over 200 of them have been incarcerated is kept in a state of unparalleled filth. The floor has never been scrubbed; there are no receptacles for expectoration, a filthy pall is provided for the calls of nature, often overflowing. No beds or bunks are provided, and the men have to lie in this filth. There was no fire or stove, but the men began tearing down the building and making a fire on the floor, and so a stove was furnished.
Spokane Daily Chronicle of November 10, 1909
Scurvy Broken Out.
Scurvy has broken out among the men from the continuous diet of only bread. A third of a loaf twice a day was given as food. A committee of investigation came, one man being a senator. The jailers said the men were given halt a loaf twice a day. The prisoners contradicted them there and then, when they were chased out of the room ,and since then only a sixth of a loaf has been given them twice a day.
This to men who are not criminals, who are political prisoners for insisting on their constitutional rights of Free Speech.
The teeth of the men are loosened and failing out. When they are let out they stagger like drunken men, and cannot walk, but have to be helped by friends. Their stomachs are in terrible condition so that they cannot retain food, and many have to be taken to the hospital.
When 200 of this gaunt, emaciated crowd were marched across the city under shotgun guard, to the jail to take a bath, they were received with ovations by the crowds on the street, and food and fruit thrown at them. One fruit dealer told the crowd to throw his whole stand of fruit at them. The guards beat them over the head for eating the food.
The Torture Process.
The police are inventing the most terrible tortures with which to break the spirits of the men. The prisoners are put in a concrete cell every night naked to get a bath. Steam is turned on in the cell until they are thoroughly soaked with the vapor. Then cold water run through a hose is played on the ceiling of the cell and drips down on the prisoners. Some of the men have contracted pneumonia from this treatment, and the I. W. W. have established a hospital to take care of their men.
In some cases the prisoners have tubes thrust down their throats by the police, and are fed that way.
At times the rations are reduced to two thin slices of bread twice a day. Some of them have the legs terribly swollen with dropsy contracted by the treatment.
Jail Slugging Committee.
The police are developing the very fiendishness of brutality. The chief has appointed a slugging committee, and if the prisoners make any noise these go into the jail and slug every prisoner until they are all knocked down and out. The prisoners are too weak to resist the slugging committee.
The Franklin schoolhouse, where part of the prisoners are housed has been condemned for years. The men can shake the side and front walls, and could easily push down the brick wall and endeavor to escape; but such a thing would mean the death of all, as the entire building would collapse upon them.
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