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Hellraisers Journal – Friday April 2, 1909
Spokane, Washington – I. W. W. Members Fined and Beaten
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of April 1, 1909:
[Cartoon: The Street Speaker, The Judge, and The Shark]
[Details:]
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UNION MEETING AT THE COURT HOUSE
—–After the arrest of National Organizer J. H. Walsh for speaking on the street for the I. W. W., some weeks ago, he was convicted of the crime of street speaking by police judge Mann, and fined $10.00 and costs. The case was appealed to the Superior Court as an object lesson. When the case was called before Judge Ilinkle, the demurrer of the union’s attorney V. T. Tustin was of course over-ruled. The trial will take place in the Spokane County Court House on April 6th. All union men should be present at this entertainment-the admission is free. Those interested in the repeal of the United States constitution by the Spokane employment agents will have a chance to laugh-not out loud-. The decision of this court will be a jewel in the brilliant career of Ilinkle or some of the other sprags. It will make the ever-growing power of the employing class apparent. Judging from the justice handed out to the I. W. W. men heretofore in Spokane, we can expect that not much difficulty will be made on account of the constitution. Even the Indians were allowed to agitate in their tribes. But we are living on “the civilized plane”-and two meals a day.
Funeral notice later. Please omit flowers.
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THE SAME OLD STORY IS TOLD ONCE MORE
—–Some time ago, I saw an ad. on the boards of the “Red Cross” employment office: “Men wanted 400 miles south; Free Fare.” I paid two dollars for the job and the following evening landed at Decks and Decks’ camp, Weatherby, Ore. I was told that a man who stayed a week was an old man on the job. On the third day the foreman called up the gang and picked out a few who had not worked there long enough to pay the hospital fee. These he sent back to work and fired the rest of the gang-about thirty men. We went on our way with stakes ranging from 50 cents to $5.00 and most of us were broke and hungry before getting another job. We were fired because the contractors had just got a wire that 100 more men would arrive from Spokane and Portland on the noon train. There were easily 5,000 men sent there to this camp in two months and there were never more than 100 working at any one time.
The employment sharks, such as the “Red Cross,” hire the men. They charged $2.00 fee. The shark gets part and the boss gets the rest for firing the men. The men average three or four days on the works. This rake-off and the hospital fee-there is no hospital, of course-pay about half of the work on the job. The Red Cross sold us some jobs at Cheney for Porter Bros. This was for bridge work. The foreman denied ever having ordered any men from the Red Cross.
G. B. TALLMAN.
This letter is the eighty-fifth received this week with complaints such as the above.-Editor.
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IT’S A LONG LANE THAT HAS NO TURN
—–On Saturday afternoon: March 27, one of the members of the I. W. W. in Spokane, Albert V. Roe, was beaten up by an employment shark. Many other workingmen had been beaten by the same shark-that is, beaten out of their money. This employment shark, like Bill Nye’s bulldog, “oozed” out of Lyon’s employment den on Front Ave. Roe was selling the Industrial Worker on the street and had not got a permit from the Employment Sharks Association which regulates the lower part of the City. Roe was struck from behind and having only one arm, was unable to defend himself. None of the I. W. W. men were near enough to stop the assault [and had they been, the kept press would have all hollered “I. W. W. RIOT” in one over-powering unified voice] and afterwards the Prosecuting Attorney was seen about the matter and he of course refused to issue a warrant. At the police station the union men were met with the usual sympathetic attention of the officers who love the I. W. W. most devotedly.
Same Old Story.
About a year ago, Paul Seidler, a boy of eighteen or twenty, was clubbed by one of the deputy sheriffs in the New York Restaurant for posting up notices of the trouble in Goldfield, Nevada. These notices were sent out by the I. W. W. and the Western Federation of Miners. The boy had the permission of the restaurant proprietor to post the bills. Not content with clubbing Seidler, this deputy called on a number of the bystanders and Seidler was sent to the hospital to have his head sewed up. This was an unprovoked and wanton crime and the authorities refused to investigate the matter. These outrages on the part of the spokane police and deputies are numerous. Not long ago, police officers entered the sleeping room of the secretary of the I. W. W. in Spokane at 2 A. M. in the morning and searched the room. Finding no dynamite bombs nor cannon they finally retired. It seems that the artillery had been overlooked-at least the sleuths were unable to place it. What with the employment agents and the police, the interest in the I. W. W. has not been allowed to flag in the least. Last summer, Jones of the Empire Employment office got a megaphone and interrupted the street meeting of the union on Stevens St. The speaker adjourned the meeting and the police took Jones to the station-for what? To arrest him? No, for “protection!”
Secure From Punishment.
A little while after this, at an afternoon meeting on Stevens St., Travers of the Red Cross Employment Agency, threatened the speaker in front of a large crowd and then struck at one of the men who was selling papers for the union. Travers was never tried though a warrant was supposed to be issued for his arrest. Then again, a few weeks ago, Harry Richards of the Washington Water Power Co. formerly, and whose father in one of the main men in the W. W. P. Co., assaulted the editor of this paper and arrested him without warrant and for no offence, other than for being an “agitator.” Disorderly conduct was supposed to be the charge. This happened on the steps of the union hall. Richards was trespassing on private property. If this had happened at night and in a hotel, it might be supposed that the officer was assisting Shannon in making a round of inspection for marriage licenses.
Have We Any Redress?
These things may be looked on as small in themselves but are very instructive. This last assault on Roe-a one armed man-should however be called cowardly and intolerable even by the Spokane police and officials. Not long ago Macho-another employment shark-was able to secure the conviction of one of the I. W. W. men on the evidence which was so flimsy that even the police judge commented on it. The man struck at Macho and hit Macho’s back, while Macho was facing the man!
There are people in Spokane who, while not friendly to the I. W. W., would not justify all the villainies that are perpetrated on working men, and that without any redress. Such people should be fair enough to ask themselves the question whether a cripple is to be assaulted in public by a brute and the brute allowed to escape?
No Violence!
The Industrial Workers of the World is a labor union. We do not appeal to violence. It is the last thing we desire. Nevertheless it is not the duty of self-respecting people to allow such outrages as this committed on Roe and this kind of thing should be stopped. It will be stopped-and stopped effectually by those interested. In the meantime these incidents are commended to the notice of the heroes and saints who compose the Spokane police force and the employment agent association.
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[Emphasis added.]
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote JH Walsh, re Employment Sharks, IUB p1, Feb 27, 1909
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/industrialworker/iub/v2n30-feb-27-1909-iub.pdf
Industrial Worker
(Spokane, Washington)
-Apr 1, 1909
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/industrialworker/iw/v1n03-apr-01-1909-IW.pdf
See also:
Tag: Spokane Free Speech Fight of 1909-1910
https://weneverforget.org/tag/spokane-free-speech-fight-of-1909-1910/
Tag: J. H. Walsh
https://weneverforget.org/tag/j-h-walsh/
For more on the Goldfield Struggle:
The IWW
A Study of American Syndicalism
-by Paul Frederick Brissenden, Ph.D.
2nd Edition, NY, 1920
(search: goldfield)
https://books.google.com/books?id=5CRAAAAAYAAJ
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The Popular Wobbly – Utah Phillips
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