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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday December 31, 1908
Spokane, Washington – I. W. W. Plans Free Speech Campaign
From The Spokane Press of December 28, 1908:
ALL GET READY FOR JAIL
—–INDUSTRIAL WORKERS WILL HAVE 500 SPEAKERS
ON TAP TO BE ARRESTED FOR
MAKING TALKS ON CITY STREET
—–
Another problem similar to that of jailing all the saloonkeepers in town will be presented the police department when an attempt is made to enforce the ordinance recently passed to prevent public speaking on the street. The Industrial Workers of the World have organized systematic opposition and yesterday they asked the socialists to join them.
The Industrial Workers already have a list of 50 speakers, and expect to secure a total of 500 out of their membership of 1,500 in this city. These speakers will be numbered, a street meeting started and as soon as one speaker is confiscated by the police another will take his place. The industrialists hold the ordinance an invasion of the rights of free speech, and say they would rather go to jail than abide by its provisions.
While planning this campaign a man who said he did not belong to the organization but sympathized with the movement offered his services as a speaker and martyr. The Industrialists stated later that this volunteer was a detective hired by the employment agents to create a disturbance and thus bring on a riot call. The industrialists say they intend nothing more than to go peaceably to jail for their rights and have the law tested in the regular manner. Many of their street orations are directed against the employment agents and these latter are suspected of being especially interested in the passage and enforcement of the ordinance. The industrialists have been a thorn in the side of the employment agents, although the latter, except in a few cases, have been able to escape the consequences of sending men on wild hunts for work, collecting a fee from each man.
The socialists appointed a committee to take up the street speaking issue and make recommendations. The industrialists are anxious to secure socialist help in their campaign if possible. The reading of the ordinance directs it largely against the industrialists, as religious meetings are excepted.
The industrialist campaign will open next week.
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[Photograph added.]
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SOURCES
Quote Thomas Paine re Liberty n Home, Age of Reason Into, 1908
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=5PFXaRNwCPUC&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA72
The Spokane Press
(Spokane, Washington)
-Dec 28, 1908
https://www.newspapers.com/image/194813091/
IMAGE
IWW Emblem Label, IWWC 1906
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=vQlQAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA3
See also:
Rebel Voices
-ed by Joyce L. Kornbluh
PM Press, Sep 1, 2011
(search: “Soapbox Militants”)
https://books.google.com/books?id=n2ATBwAAQBAJ
Note: if I could own only one book on the IWW, this would be my choice.
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