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Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 3, 1910
Spokane, Washington – Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Hears from Rose Pastor Stokes
From The Spokane Press of January 2, 1910:
From page 5-
ROSE PASTOR STOKES TELLS OF STRIKE
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Millionaire Socialist’s Wife Writes to Gurley Flynn
of Shirt-Waist Makers’ Strike.
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Rose Pastor Stokes, the well known woman socialist and labor leader, wife of New York’s millionaire-philanthropist, is a friend of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, the I. W. W. leader, who has been prominent in the street speaking fight here. Mrs. Stokes has written the local leader regarding her work in the strike of the shirt waist strikers of the metropolis.
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn has given a copy of the letter to The Press for publication. She is herself a New York girl, and knows the working conditions among the girl and women workers of New York. The letter follows:
[Rose Pastor Stokes on New York Shirtwaist Strike.]
You have doubtless heard of the shirt waist makers’ strike out here. For weeks I have been so deeply engaged in the struggle with these striking men and women that I have found it difficult to think of anything else. I am still in the fight, as the strike is not yet over. There were between 30,000 and 40,000 out about there weeks ago. Now there are about 8,000 strikers left, the rest having gone back, on the union terms, with recognition of the union.
We go about to the striking shops talking to the girls (they are overwhelmingly discouraged sometimes), and give them talks, confer with them, etc. Then we picket, go to see employers, who ask for committees from the union; in short, we do a score of different things a day, and it takes all of the efficient time of each day. Last night I went to the night court, where our pickets are brought, arrested purely at the behest of the masters, who hire thugs to annoy them and policemen to haul them into court when they resent the rough treatment of the thugs.
Everywhere the struggle is the pickets are brought, arrested purely at nothing to do but fight on and win other workers to the cause; and educate! educate! educate!
What a farce our courts are! What administration of “justice”! I staid till 3 this morning because there were a few of us in the courtroom who had “social standing.” The judge, who was like a wild man on Sunday night, was like a lamb last night. When a few pickets of the “leisure class” were arrested, “public opinion” was aroused; but not so with the working girls. There is not the same measure of interest in them. Altogether too much is made of the fact that a few prominent women are interested in the fight. The working girls must not be made to feel that they must depend upon outsiders for their victory. They must learn the extent of their own strength. They have been so wonderful in this struggle. This is the tail end of this fight, and their present discouragements are only natural; but they are sure to pull through all right.
Need I tell you how much my heart is with you in this struggle of yours. I think of you often and with love and tenderness, dear comrades “firing line.” When the Cooper Union meeting was on last week (the Spokane protest meeting), I rushed up there after the other important meetings that I could not leave out, only to find the doors closed and the meeting adjourned. I wanted to at least be there for a moment at the end, since I could not be there all evening. I hope to see Leonard Abbott soon, and perhaps we can think of something new to do about the Spokane fight. I am so rushed now, but I promise myself to get hold of him very soon.
Lovingly and fraternally yours.
Rose Pastor Stokes.
From page 4-
HOW FREE SPEECH FIGHT APPEARS
TO THE NEW YORKERS
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(Editorial Printed in New York Press.)SUPPRESSION OF FREE SPEECH
—–Many more men have been arrested in Spokane, Wash., for speaking in the streets and thrown into jail since our last comment on the suppression of free speech in that city. And now one woman, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, has been convicted on the charge of “conspiracy against the laws of Spokane” and sentenced to three months’ imprisonment in the county jail.
This young woman—she is not yet 21 years old—was acting editor of the Industrial Worker, a Spokane newspaper. She wrote editorials condemning the arrest of the men who were, in speeches in the streets, trying to express the alleged grievances against the employment agencies. On the day she was arrested while walking in the street there appeared an editorial in the paper bitterly condemning the suppression of free speech and full of an intensely “radical” spirit. There is no doubt of the general extremeness of the editorial expression. She tried to arouse workers from their “apathy” in regard to free speech, and that the editorial had a revolutionary quality there can be no doubt. So much must be granted.
In her trial there was testimony, to the effect that she had been overheard to say:
If Jesus Christ were still alive He would be arrested for making a speech in Spokane.
Her conviction and sentence were based upon evidence that she had written and expressed in speech opinions of a certain kind. It was by expressing opinions that she had committed a crime, and for her opinions she has been shut up in jail for three months. Since then, on December 11, the city authorities seized every copy of the Industrial Worker, charging that it was a libelous publication. In that number of the paper there appeared an article by Miss Flynn relating her experience in the county jail.
Free speech has no meaning if only “desirable” opinions are to be tolerated by the government. If opinions which condemn actions by the police, or even which condemn certain laws or regulating ordinances, are to be suppressed, it is difficult to see wherein lies the vitality of the principle of free speech. The Spokane incident is a striking instance of the tendency, for the sake of immediate governmental effectiveness, to drift away from the fundamental principles which are the bases not only of American conceptions of liberty, but, of liberty as understood by all enlightened people the world over.
Abraham Lincoln said to some friends who desired him to suppress the Chicago Times in the civil war time:
I fear you do not fully comprehend the danger of abridging the liberties of the people. A government had better go to the very extreme of toleration than to do aught that could be construed into an interference with or to jeopardize in any degree the common rights of the citizen.
Such tendencies to suppress free speech as are witnessed now in Spokane ought powerfully to be combated, not only in order to retain the principles which Abraham Lincoln and all true Americans loved, but also in order to preserve industrial peace, which in the long run will not be helped by such measures.
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Note: Emphasis added throughout.
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SOURCE & IMAGE
The Spokane Press
(Spokane, Washington)
-Jan 2, 1910
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88085947/1910-01-02/ed-1/seq-5/
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88085947/1910-01-02/ed-1/seq-4/
See also:
Tag: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
https://weneverforget.org/tag/elizabeth-gurley-flynn/
Tag: Spokane Free Speech Fight of 1909-1910
https://weneverforget.org/tag/spokane-free-speech-fight-of-1909-1910/
Rose Pastor Stokes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Pastor_Stokes
Tag: NYC Waistmakers Uprising of 1909-1910
https://weneverforget.org/tag/nyc-waistmakers-uprising-of-1909-1910/
Re “a few prominent women ..interested in the fight”, see:
The Diary of a Shirtwaist Striker
-by Theresa Serber Malkiel
Cornell University Press, 1990
-with essay by Francoise Basch
(search: “mink brigade”)
https://books.google.com/books?id=uda30NF0MD8C
Leonard Abbott
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Abbott
New York Press, 1896-1916
https://www.loc.gov/item/sn83030429/
Re EGF in Spokane County Jail
See Industrial Worker of Dec 15, 1909:-“Story of My Arrest and Imprisonment” by EGF:
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/industrialworker/iw/v1n39-dec-15-1909-IW.pdf
-Sadly difficult to read, but see:
Workingman’s Paper-The Socialist
(Seattle, Washington)
-Dec 18, 1909
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/thesocialist-seattle/091218-seattlesocialist-v10w452.pdf
“INDUSTRIAL WORKER” SEIZED
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Police Confiscate Entire Edition of I. W. W. Paper at Spokane, Alleging It Is a
“Libelous Publication” -Full Text of Mrs. Flynn’s “Libelous’ Letter.[…..]
Mrs. FLYNN’S LETTER
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Story of My Arrest and Imprisonment[EGF reports on sexual exploitation of women by jailers at Spokane County Jail.]
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Bread and Roses – Bronwen Lewis