Hellraisers Journal: News from the Spokane Free Speech Fight by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn for the Industrial Worker

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

Hellraisers Journal – Friday November 19, 1909
Spokane, Washington – Employment Sharks Compliment I. W. W.

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of November 17, 1909:

News From Spokane

NEWS FROM THE FRONT;
-FREE SPEECH VS. LAW
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[-by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn]

[…..]

Outside fellow workers may realize the seriousness of the situation in Spokane when a railroad official of Portland is quoted as saying that the authorities there are watching with great interest the Spokane fight on the I. W. W. and calling attention to the fact that if we are defeated in Spokane, then a similar campaign will be started against us in Portland. The capitalist class of the northwest are out to annihilate us. We have only the powers of our numbers, organized and disciplined for action.

Two employment agents in town, Walker and Macho, are quoted as saying that they will employ no I. W. W. men. Like the fable of the sour grapes there is a very good reason-they never get any to employ. They say that the I. W. W. man is trouble breeder, that he advises others not to work so hard, to howl for better grub and better bunkhouses and more wages. That is about one of the finest compliments that the I. W. W. has ever received.

On Sunday night two splendid meetings were held in the cause of free speech, one at the I. W. W. hall and the other by the Socialist party in the municipal courtroom. From the same forum that Judge Mann delivers his decree of thirty days on bread and water the I. W. W. defiance of the “law and order” element rang forth. The walls echoed and re-echoed with the strains of the “Red Flag,” and resolutions were passed boycotting the apple show. Altogether, over a hundred dollars was received for the free speech defense fund and a dozen or more new members were added to the ranks of the I. W. W. But we must not let our enthusiasm abate one iota. We want volunteers to go to jail. We want to advertise Spokane during the National Apple Show. Boost for her as a city where the constitution is dead and the police make the laws. Get into Spokane and do your part in this great battle for the rights of labor.

ELIZABETH GURLEY FLYNN.

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[Emphasis added.]