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Hellraisers Journal – Friday April 8, 1910
Spokane, Washington – S. O. Chinn Gets Grand I. W. W. Send-Off
From the Industrial Worker of April 2, 1910:
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CHINN’S FUNERAL LARGELY ATTENDED
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Many Watch Procession on Riverside Avenue
-Strains of the Marseillaise Heard-I. W. W.
Members Who Attend Funeral Wear Red Neckties.
—–Funeral services for S. O. Chinn, age 27, which were held from the I. W. W. hall proved a magnate as the procession of men, women and children following the hearse and the brass band moved down Riverside Avenue. The last tribute was paid by James Thompson, national organizer of the Industrial Workers at the I. W. W. Hall at 616 Front Avenue, in which he declared that the man had given his life in the interest of the working class.
Three hundred Fellow Workers packed the hall to capacity and after the services followed the hearse and band to Riverside Avenue and Monroe Street, from which point the hearse and pall bearers proceeded to Greenwood cemetery, where Chinn was buried. The casket was draped with the flag of the organization of which Chinn was a member and an officer. Chinn came to Spokane last fall to participate in the free speech fight. His home was originally at Hutchinson, Kansas.
The funeral proceedings attracted a great deal of attention. Before the hearse walked four officers of the I. W. W. with red neckties and red badges of the organization in their buttonholes, while the band before pealed out the martial strains of the “Marseillaise.” Stretching behind for four or five blocks marched the members of the organization, who came out to pay their last respects to the man that had sacrificed his life for the cause of Free Speech.
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SPOKENE SANE AGAIN.
The city of Spokane has found it impossible and unwise to defy the constitution of the United States. After having taken it away for a half year, Spokane has now given back the right of free speech to all its citizens. There has been a change in the public sentiment and the city is ashamed of itself!
The story of Spokane’s connection with fake employment agencies and of the great shakedown alleged to have been made at the expense of workingmen has been told in these columns. When protests were made on the streets the speakers were thrown in jail. Men and women were packed into cells until they could hold no more, and then boarding houses were fitted out as prisons. There were stories of almost unbelievable cruelties practiced upon the prisoners, and these stories had much to do with the city’s awakening.
When the facts were all out, the sentiment changed and the city again became American. The right of speech has been restored, as has been the right to hire halls for public meetings. That they could have been taken away in the first place is hard to believe.-Republic, Rockford, Ill.
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From The Spokane Press of March 19, 1910:
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From the International Socialist Review of April 1910:
Spokane Passes Street Speaking Ordinance.-As the date for reopening the fight to regain the use of the streets of Spokane for propaganda purposes drew near the city authorities were loud in their interviews as to how they would take care of the “Bums.”
In the afternoon of the 1st [of March], detectives and deputy sheriffs raided the office at Hillyard and arrested Chas. Brown on the usual charge of conspiracy.
The day passed. No demonstration being made, the authorities and their organs the Daily Press unbosomed themselves of their relief by announcing the I. W. W. was whipped again.
The arrest of one of the chief sluggers, Captain Burns, of the detective force for perjury in the Heslewood Habeas Corpus proceedings at Couer d’Alene, Idaho, and the probable arrest of some 10 of his co-sluggers and some prominent “business” men who were imported to Couer d’Alene to help Burns out by committing more perjury, and the fact that the city had enough of the fight and was looking for a chance to back down as gracefully as it could caused a hurry up call from the Mayor and chief for a conference.
The conference resulted in the following settlement:
1. The city to enact the Seattle street speaking ordinance.
2. All prisoners to be released as soon as possible.
3. The I. W. W. Hall to be reopened without interference.
4. Publication of the Industrial Worker not to be interfered with.
5. All cases [I. W. W. law suits] against the city officials to be dropped.
6. Perjury charges against Burns to be dropped.
7. The I. W. W. will not speak on the street pending the passage of the ordinance.
The following clipping from the Spokane Press of March 9 announces the introduction of a street speaking ordinance in the council:
To Repeal Speaking Ordinance—Tired of the everlasting trouble and undesirable advertising for the city that has come from Spokane’s notorious street speaking ordinance, members of the city council are today considering how best to get rid of it and not make too big a change all at once.
Note: Emphasis added throughout.
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote EGF, re Spk FSF, ISR p618, Jan 1910
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=MVhIAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA618
Industrial Worker
(Seattle, Washington)
-Apr 2, 1910
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/industrialworker/iw/v2n02-w54-apr-02-1910-IW.pdf
The Spokane Press
(Spokane, Washington)
-Mar 19, 1910
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88085947/1910-03-19/ed-1/seq-1/
The International Socialist Review, Volume 10
(Chicago, Illinois)
-July 1909-June 1910
C. H. Kerr & Company, 1910
https://books.google.com/books?id=MVhIAAAAYAAJ
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009034160
ISR-Apr 1910
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=MVhIAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA865
“Spokane Passes Street Speaking Ordinance.”
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=MVhIAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA947
See also:
Tag: Spokane Free Speech Fight of 1909-1910
https://weneverforget.org/tag/spokane-free-speech-fight-of-1909-1910/
Tag: S. O. Chinn
https://weneverforget.org/tag/s-o-chinn/
For more on Heslewood and Settlement of Spokane Free Speech Fight:
See:
Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer on
Charges Made Against Dept. of Justice
by Louis F. Post and Others
United States. Congress. House. Committee on Rules, 1920
(search: Heslewood)
Choose page 245: Article from Solidarity of Mar 19, 1920, “Free Speech Fight Ended,” entered as Exhibit No. 9.
https://books.google.com/books?id=IysVAAAAIAAJ
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There is Power in The Union – Utah Phillips
Lyrics by Joe Hill