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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday December 22, 1910
Fresno, California – Mob Destroys I. W. W. Camp as Police Stand By
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of December 15, 1910:
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Again we have been taught another lesson in LAW AND ORDER. On Dec. 7, F. H. Little, secretary of the I. W. W. local in Fresno was tried in that city on a charge of DISTURBING THE PEACE. Disturbing the peace meant to use his constitutional rights to address an audience of workers or whoever wished to stop and listen to him expound the teachings of the I. W. W. At the trial of Little it was discovered (after men had been tortured in the cells of the Fresno jail for breaking LAWS) that there was no LAW in Fresno denying a man FREEDOM OF SPEECH. Fellow Worker Little was acquitted and it was then up to the authorities to release all the prisoners from the dungeons, where they had been tortured with the fire hose and other barbarous methods. The following dispatch to the Spokesman-Review from Fresno proves our statement:
The Industrial Workers of the World have won their fight for “free speech” in Fresno and are speaking throughout the city advocating the principles of their organization, while the police, helpless to interfere, are merely watching to see that none of the agitators incite rioting.
The victory was due to the discovery today that the ordinances of the city do not prohibit speaking on the streets without a permit. Police officials say that probably the 49 I. W. W. speakers now in the county jail will be liberated tomorrow.
Several of the prominent merchants here have advocated the organization of a citizens’ committee to force the industrialists out of the city, but no one has been willing to take the initiative.
The headquarters of the organization, just outside of the city limits, was the scene of jollification this evening , over the acquittal of F. H. Little, secretary of the organization, on a charge of disturbing the peace.
When the authorities could find no legal way to stop FREEDOM OF SPEECH they began to throw out hints to the Citizen’s Alliance and other thugs to go at it themselves and clean out the I. W. W. men with violence. The following dispatch to the Spokesman-Review on the 9th again bears out our statement that the respectable mob was invited to do bodily harm to our members, and probably murder in cold blood:
Following an order given by the chief of police to all patrolmen to allow members of the I. W. W. to speak unmolested on the streets of Fresno, and a statement that the citizens might do as they wished, a large mob gathered in this city tonight about 7 o’clock, attacked and severely beat a number of industrial workers, who sought to speak, and then marched to the I. W. W. camp, outside the city limits, and burned a big tent in which the members lived, together with all the supplies kept there.
The members of the I. W. W. sought to make a resistance, threatening to shoot if the mob crossed a certain “dead line” near the camp, but broke and ran when the crowd of men and boys surged across. Some were forced to flee in their underclothing, carrying their outer garments in their hands.
After devastating the I. W. W. camp the mob marched back to the city, and started for the county jail, where about fifty members of that order are now imprisoned. Hearing of their approach, the sheriff put a heavy guard around the jail to resist invasion should an attempt be made. For the second time in the history of the jail big double steel doors, which were installed for the purpose of self-protection, were put in use.
When the crowd reached the jail a demand was made for the prisoners, but no violence attempted. Men were finally persuaded to disperse after one or two short speeches had been made to them.
The capitalist papers gleefully gloat over this RESPECTABLE MOB wreaking vengeance on the working class, whose crime consisted of wishing to tell the working class what causes so much misery in the country; the cause of bREAD LINES, hoboes, tramps, prostitutes, holdups, murder, etc., and how to organize scientifically to put a stop to all of this terrific battle between PARASITES and PRODUCERS. Not a word of condemnation appears in a Spokane daily capitalist paper…..
[Details from cartoon above:]
[Emphasis added.]
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote Frank Little, Fresno Jails Dungeons, FMR p6, Sept 2, 1910
https://www.newspapers.com/image/606951967/
Industrial Worker
(Spokane, Washington)
-Dec 15, 1910
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/industrialworker/iw/v2n39-w91-dec-15-1910-IW.pdf
See also:
Dec 10, 1910-Fresno Morning Republican, Mob Attacks IWW Speakers; Burns Camp; Surrounds Jail
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/65809648/dec-10-1910-fresno-morning-republican/
Dec 10, 1910-Fresno Morning Republican: Industrialists (IWW) Beaten; Ordered Out of Town
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/65809995/dec-10-1910-fresno-morning-republican/
More from Industrial Worker of Dec 15, 1910:
-page 1 article is much longer and includes response from Vincent St John. Good reading.
-page 3: “Will Get Fired…Fresno Preachers Urge Prosecution of Lawless.”
IWW Archive Project
-see Historical Landmark & articles from
Fresno Morning Republican re Fresno Free Speech Fight:
-see esp:
Dec 20: Fresno passes Street speaking law.
Dec 21: Frank Little says 500 Wobs are coming to Fresno.
http://mikerhodes.us/iww-archive-project/
Tag: Fresno Free Speech Fight of 1910-1911
https://weneverforget.org/tag/fresno-free-speech-fight-of-1910-1911/
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The Popular Wobbly – The Grand Industrial Band
Lyrics by T-Bone Slim