It is glorious to be arrested
in a good cause.
-Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, age 16
Hellraisers Journal, Friday January 4, 1907
From Her Flat in the Bronx: An Interview with Miss Flynn
From New York Evening World of August 24, 1906:
LIFE’S BIG THINGS ALONE INTEREST
GIRL SOCIALIST
—–Miss Elizabeth Flynn at Sixteen
Plans Rejuvenation of World.
—–
STILL IN HIGH SCHOOL.
—–
Is Leading Spirit of Unity Club
and Laughs at Her Arrest.
—–
NO WOMAN SUFFRAGIST.
—–
Says She Fully Realizes the Size of
the Task, but Will Devote
Life to It
—–The youngest girl socialist in America is undoubtedly Miss Elizabeth Flynn, who was arrested for preaching socialism in the streets and discharged yesterday, and who to-night will address an open-air meeting on Main street, Orange. Although she is only sixteen years of age, Miss Flynn has become the leader of a club of Socialists, the title of which is Unity and the purpose of which is to bring about a lull in the fighting that has so far marked the progress of the socialist party.
Miss Flynn, who lives at No. 795 East One Hundred and Thirty-fourth street, talked freely to-day with an Evening World reporter,. She announced her plan to devote her life to the socialistic cause, saying that she believes it is much better for a woman to give her time to the conversion of mankind to a great economic improvement than to be a mother of children.
Miss Flynn is a mere slip of a girl, whose large blue eyes spell anything but interest in economics. Her flexile mouth might indicate the orator were it not so pretty. And yet, with all her girlish naivete, there is a something of intellectuality about her.
Holds Her Own Salon.
In her dusty Bronx flat Miss Flynn holds a salon all her own. The Unity Club was organized on the 7th of this month, the anniversary of her sixteenth birthday, and she is its leading spirit. There they gather, young and old, to discuss with her what she believes to be a plan for the rejuvenation of the world. The room in which she receives them is of the conventional bareness that marks the uptown flat. Save for the photographs of poets, philosophers and savants, there is nothing to indicate the mental trend of this remarkable young woman.
[Said Miss Flynn:]
I do not pretend to be a Socialist in the sense of the word as used by the English. Whereas I believe in the equality of man and woman, politically speaking, I think it is a waste of time for woman at present to expend her energies on the equal suffrage movement.
I agree with Schopenhauer that women are the great conservatives. Should they have the franchise at present they would undoubtedly align themselves with the powers that be. Therefore, just now, I pay no attention to the woman suffrage movement. I believe in big things, and so I am working for the Socialist party.
As she talked this beautiful young girl played with an Angora cat. To one looking at her it seemed that economics and the outgrowth therefrom might well be unknown to her. The reporter asked her how she came to be interested in such matters. She said that her father, Thomas Flynn, who is a civil engineer, had first caused her to think of social conditions and to seek to improve them.
[She said:]
It was a year ago, and I was just fifteen, when father began to talk to me of the great social crime as it exists. Prior to that time I had been a member of the debating society of the Morris High School. I had felt that there was something wrong with the world. I had seen persons unjustly suffering; I had read of even worse sufferings, and I believed that in my small way I would be able to help things.
And so, when father commenced to talk to me of socialism and the remedy that it would be for all the evils from which we suffer, I gladly accepted it. Since than I have earnestly read all the books I could obtain relating to the subject. I flatter myself that there is no other girl my age to-day who knows as much of the subject as I do.
I intend before I die to be conversant with all the authorities on socialism. I realize the great task before me, but I feel sure that the end I will achieve will be sufficient reward. I expect that my work will be but a speck upon the sands of time. nevertheless, I shall work energetically with the idea that I am doing my part in the world’s struggle.
Vassar Too Aristocratic.
Miss Flynn went on to say that this fall she would enter her third year in the Morris High School. She is taking a classical course, but has not yet decided what college she shall enter.
[She said:]
Vassar, I think, is too aristocratic. So also is Wellesley and Bryn Mawr. I am undecided as yet whether I shall finish my education at Smith or Barnard. Whichever it is, I am certain that the conservative prejudices of professors will have no effect upon me.
Willing as she was to talk of her plans for the future. Miss Flynn tried to pass over her recent arrest.
[She exclaimed, with a laugh:]
But that is nothing. It is glorious to be arrested in a good cause. Christ and Savanarola, Socrates and Bunyan all suffered arrest. We humble workers should be proud to undergo the same. But, you may be certain I do not classify my arrest in such a category. Mine was simply a joke. I wouldn’t mind if I were arrested every night. If I were, it would help the cause just so much. Perhaps they would come to know me as the girl socialist.
As she said this, Miss Flynn laughed. At the same time, two young men entered the flat.
“Greeting, comrades,” she exclaimed, holding both hands out.
Turning to the reporter, she said:
These are both members of my Unity Club, and we are about to lay our plans for our next meeting. So you will excuse me. I hope, and I also hope that you won’t say in your paper that I am an out-and-out woman suffrage socialist.
SOURCE & IMAGE
The Evening World
(New York, New York)
-Aug 24, 1906
EGF Girl Socialist w Hat
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030193/1906-08-24/ed-1/seq-3/
See also:
The Rebel Girl: an autobiography,
my first life (1906-1926).
-by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
International Publishers, 1973
Pages 47-68 cover the years 1905 & 1906.
https://books.google.com/books?id=TK2y0I-E9EkC
Words on Fire: the Life and Writing
of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
-intro by & ed by Rosalyn Fraad Baxandall
Rutgers University Press, 1987
“Early Essays on Woman” (1905), page 75
“Education and the School System” (1906), page 79
https://books.google.com/books?id=mqbaAAAAMAAJ
The Rebel Girl – Janne Lærkedahl
Words and Music by Joe Hill
https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47da-4f69-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99/book#page/1/mode/2up