Hellraisers Journal: Latest News from Spokane Free Speech Fight by Fellow Worker Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Part I

Quote EGF, Compliment IWW, IW p1, Nov 17, 1909 ———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday March 3, 1910
Spokane, Washington – Gurley Flynn Reports from Free Speech Fight, Part I

From the International Socialist Review of March 1910:

Latest News from Spokane
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ELIZABETH GURLEY FLYNN.
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[Part I of II.]

HE agitation of the I. W. W. and free speech fight in Spokane, Washington, if it brought no other effects has been valuable in that it has forced the officials to take action against the employment agencies. In the beginning of the difficulty they were admitted by Judge Mann to be the cause of all the trouble. Since that time Mayor Pratt has frankly admitted refunding thousands of dollars to working-men who had been sold fictitious jobs by the employment agencies. There were about thirty-one in the city of Spokane but the licenses of all but twelve of these were revoked.

The following statement from Mayor Pratt explains this action: “On the whole we have found that the larger agencies have not been causing so much trouble. Some of the larger men have made a study of the business, understanding human nature, and have been successful. In some cases we find that men who do not understand the business have engaged in it nevertheless and have made a little money and have held on to every dollar that has come into their possession whether they were entitled to it or not.”

The institution of job-selling has by no means been abolished. Simply the smaller ones have been weeded out and the larger ones, which are practically the labor-furnishing departments of the lumber trusts and railroad corporations, have been permitted to remain. Legislation was suggested in the city council to the effect that employment should be furnished free to workingmen and all fees should be borne by the employer. The Northern Pacific and Great Northern Railways thereupon publicly announced that upon the passage of such legislation they would boycott Spokane and secure their labor in the east and in the coast cities. The threat had the desired effect upon the city council and the proposed legislation was summarily dropped. (Such a threat upon the part of the I. W. W. would be characterized as criminal conspiracy).

A further effect of publicity in connection with the free-speech fight is the enforced resignation of at least three members of the police force. Scores of affidavits have been furnished by I. W. W. men alleging extreme brutality on the part of the police. Officers Shannon and Miller were mentioned by name in these affidavits and their acts specified. Shannon is 63 years of age, already three years past pension time. The Board of Police Commissioners accepted his resignation by a unanimous vote although he stoutly protested against rendering it. His reward for years of service as a police officer consists of $47.50 per month and a position as night watchman and house detective for the Spokane Hotel. Miller was also requested to resign from the force against his individual protest, to be at once re-employed by the Washington Water Power Company. Both the Spokane Hotel and the Washington Water Power Company believe in the policy of “rewarding our friends.” It is needless to say, perhaps, both of these men have a record in connection with the recent imprisonment of the I. W. W. men that will hardly bear the light of public investigation and their sudden removal from the police force, but further justifies us in this conclusion.

Another of the incidental but beneficial effects of the ever-increasing publicity is the agitation of the appointment of a matron in the city jail. The Woman’s Club and various organizations of a non-partisan character have taken up the fight. The city council voted at one meeting to appoint a matron and with the trickery common to all politicians killed the motion in the finance committee on the grounds of expense. The city of Spokane is in a peculiar financial condition. She can afford to suppress the Constitution of the United States, yet cannot afford a matron in her city jail.

Since last writing for the Review all of the I. W. W. conspirators have been disposed of as follows: Roe, 90 days in the county jail; Amundsen, 15 days in the county jail; Fisher, 30 days in the county jail; Brazier, 5 months in the county jail; Gatewood, 4 months in the county jail; Douglass, 30 days in the county jail; Reese, 15 days in the county jail; Whitehead, Speed, Justh, Foss, Grant and Shippy, 6 months in the county jail. The trial of the latter has been well characterized in a western Socialist paper as “Six business men sentenced six workingmen to six months in six minutes.” The time element was really but a few seconds over this.

Attorney Symmes of Chicago was associated with Attorney Fred H. Moore in the defense of these cases, but the “expense to the county” was held up in such appalling terms by the prosecuting attorney’s office that the able defense of our lawyers was powerless to counteract the economic fear of these little tax-payers.

One of the most humorous documents yet foisted upon the innocent public is a letter of Mayor Pratt to Prosecuting Attorney Pugh, published on January 8th, wherein he compliments the prosecuting attorney on his “able, energetic and willingly given assistance during the recent I. W. W. demonstration against the laws of this city which contributed in a great degree to the victory over the conspiracy to defeat the enforcement of law in this community.”

Leonard D. Abbott, a well-known Socialist in New York, addressed the Mayor in regard to the treatment accorded myself and others in the county jail. His vigorous protest was characterized by Mayor Pratt in an open letter on January 7th as “impudent criticism.” The [Mayor’s] letter read as follows: “It may surprise you to be informed that Miss Flynn was never confined in the Spokane city jail; that inasmuch as the charge preferred against her was conspiracy under the state law she was confined in the Spokane County jail over which this city and its authorities have no jurisdiction. However, those having charge of that jail, while admitting that Miss Flynn was confined therein, deny decisively the wild and hysterical inferences and conclusions drawn by Miss Flynn.” …

“A man’s reputation is dear to him, and if based upon true character he deserves that his good name should not be unjustly attacked as a mere incident to a hysterical and lawbreaking conspirator. We who know him know that his character is so high and his daily conduct so well ordered that Miss Flynn’s charge against this man refutes itself and discloses the prejudice and hysterical character of her letter.”

Chief of Police Sullivan is quoted as follows: “I have been on the force 20 years and I have never heard a complaint from any female prisoner against her treatment here until the charges of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. I think them of the same brand of lies as those against the po lice department. If there is a spark of decency left in them the women do not go to jail but are provided for otherwise.”

Sheriff Pugh is quoted as follows: “The only complaint ever registered was by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, the I. W. W. leader who made charges against the jailers that were false and made out of whole cloth.”

Readers of the Socialist Review will remember that the “Industrial Worker” was suppressed by the forcible confiscation of 7,000 copies in the office of the Inland Printing Company. Chief of Police Sullivan justified this drastic action by saying that he would proceed at once under the criminal libel law. This story was published in the confiscated issue of the “Industrial Worker,” yet almost two months have elapsed and no legal action has been taken to substantiate the chief’s claim.

Upon the publication of the Mayor’s letter he was openly challenged to take action under the criminal libel law or to apologize for his statements in regard to the condition of my mind. He did not have the courage to take a decided stand on either ground. Thereupon the attorneys for the I. W. W. started suit against the three officials quoted above for the sum of $10,000 each. Needless to say with the sort of jury we are able to draw in Spokane we hardly expect to collect $30,000 for “spending money,” but we certainly intend to force these officials, who so commonly brand one as hysterical and libelous, to prove their assertions.

[Emphasis and paragraph breaks added.]