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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 19, 1909
Missoula, Montana – City Wages Brutal War on Free Speech, Part I
From the Montana News of October 14, 1909:
[Part I of II.]
The city government of Missoula, the police the authorities, are making first-class fools of themselves in their efforts to violate the United States constitution, turn the American government upside down, become censors of public speech and keep the I. W. W. doctrine’s from being proclaimed.
In other words, the capitalist government of Missoula has plunged into the trap of forcibly controlling the protest and activity of the workers, and of upsetting all the guarantees of democracy to do so.
Campaign for Industrialism.
The Industrial Workers of the World brought their speakers into Missoula and began a campaign for the industrial form of unionism, such a as they hate been pushing with much vigor in various parts of the country. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn of New York, a most devoted promoter of this cause, has been touring the northwest all summer, pushing the I. W. W. doctrines with great vigor. Miss Flynn is an able speaker, has good organising ability and an immense amount of determination. Her husband, J. A. Jones, and other organizers and workers are with her.
The Industrial Workers do not mince words. They say what they have to say, and they say it on the street, and they keep on saying it. They talk the language of revolt against capitalism, they urge consolidation of the workers in order to get hold of all the means of industry, push the drones out of the way and have the product of their toll for themselves.
Free Speech Constitutional.
They know that the American constitution gives them the right to talk on the street. Free speech is one of the rocks on which the American government is founded. People have a right to express what opinions they please. If anyone feels injured by the opinions that another expresses he has the right to appeal to a court of adjudication, but he has no right to take the law into his own hands.
The police of Missoula are not lawmakers, neither are the gentry of the police court, or the petty politicians that hold office. These would-be arbiters of the United States government didn’t like the brand of talk the I. W. W. people were putting up, and they began to arrest the speakers. They said they were violating city ordinances. They don’t know enough to know that no city can make an ordinance against free speech; no local government can make any law restriction or ordinance in contradiction with the organic law of the land, the United States constitution.
Ignorant City Officials.
These petty officials were ignorant enough to try and make the I. W. W. people promise to stop speaking. They don’t know what they are up against They are up against an incipient revolution. The I. W. W. people are there for the sake of pushing their cause to the uttermost limit. They don’t believe in this system. They despise and detest it, and the are taking every lawful means to overthrow it. And they are doing this under the protection and guarantee of democratic institutions.
Police Violate Law.
Instead of stopping the Industrialists issued a call through their paper issued at Spokane for all the I. W. W. members that could possibly do so to quit their jobs and come to Missoula and push the fight.
The police kept making arrests. The speakers stood on their rights and demanded jury trials. When the authorities came up against this they were nonplussed and turned them out. But they kept on speaking. The officials thought they could dispose of the matter quietly at first. They knew they were violating their authority, the law, the constitution and everything that makes democratic government. But they thought they were dealing with a few poor ignorant workers that they could awe and club into submission the way they do most of the victims of their greed and brutality.
Officials Up Against Organization.
But they were barking up the wrong tree when they came up against the Industrial Workers. They were up against an organized movement with a purpose. The speakers had worked for three weeks before the police got busy. As long as a thing was small and not attracting much attention they felt no call to interfere. But when it began to have big results, and they saw their graft was being jeopardized and the Workers would not quit, they began to match Missoula political graft against the United States constitution.
The I. W. W. committed the heinous crime of putting up “common working men” to speak at their meetings. The suckers of the public teat thought they were at home there. They had drawn their salaries for hounding working men and here they saw a chance to get on to their familiar job once more.
Petty Powers Irritated.
The powers were irritated and began to exercise the functions of censorship. The giant intellect of a policeman objected to some of the more “radical” expressions applied to the army and international union, the “church,” and various capitalistic institutions. Orders were issued to stop speaking on the corner occupied by the I. W. W.
Ten Dollars or Fifteen Days.
Some of those arrested were given “$10 or 15 days.” Others were turned loose, to be arrested again for the, same offense, and given 15 days as were the others. The persistence and determination of the speakers at last aroused the capitalist press, and now the daily papers are giving large space to the affair, with the accustomed misrepresentations and slanders on the Workers.
The organizers are working under the jurisdiction of Darby Lumbermen’s union No. 20. I. W. W. The reply to a Labor Day speech of a local lawyer made by Gurley Flynn attracted a large audience and was much applauded. The recital of the Colorado labor war by Organizer Little organizer for the Western Federation of Miners in Colorado, was pronounced too radical by the mayor, and the organizers told that they should not speak again. On the following evening Little was about to begin speaking when the police arrested Jones and Little, and took the stand also to jail.
The next night four members of the I. W. W. attempted to speak and were taken to jail. They were tried on the charge of disturbing the peace. All were then told that if they would stop speaking they would be given their freedom. Those who know what revolutionists are know with what scorn they looked upon these overtures. They will give no promises and they went to jail.
[Emphasis added.]
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SOURCE & IMAGE
Quote EGF, Western IWW Aggressive Spirit, IW p3, Aug 12, 1909
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/industrialworker/iw/v1n22-aug-12-1909-IW.pdf
Montana News
“Owned and Published for the Socialist Party of Montana”
(Helena, Montana)
-Oct 14, 1909
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024811/1909-10-14/ed-1/seq-1/
Note: date on Vol VIII No. 10 (“Oct 7”) is mistake,
see Vol VIII No. 9, the actual Oct 7 issue:
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024811/1909-10-07/ed-1/seq-1/
See also:
The Rebel Girl
An Autobiography, My First Life (1906-1926).
-by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
International Publishers, 1973
https://books.google.com/books?id=TK2y0I-E9EkC
(For Missoula Free Speech Fight, see pages 103-106.)
Note: “Jack Jones came to organize in Missoula, Montana, in Fall of 1908” should read “Fall of 1909.” During fall of 1908, EGF and Jones were living in Chicago. EGF was very pregnant with her first baby, who was born premature and died soon after birth.
https://libcom.org/files/rebel-girl-autobiography.pdf
Note: Not sure what is meant by Little’s recital of “Colorado Labor War.” Perhaps Ben Hanford’s 1904 “Labor War in Colorado.” Altho, that seems a bit long for a recital.
https://archive.org/details/laborwarincolora00hanfrich/page/n3
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Rebel Girl – Alyeah Hansen
Lyrics by Joe Hill