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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 1, 1911
Fresno, California – “They Are Mobbing Workers” by Mrs. Emma Little
From the Appeal to Reason of December 31, 1910:
They Are Mobbing Workers
Fresno, Cal., December 13-Friday night [December 9th] Fresno mob attacked I. W. W. members who were speaking on the street and severely beat them. The mob then proceeded to the I. W. W. camp. The boys on the street rushed out to our house [home of Fred and Emma Little], then on out to camp, to give the boys in camp what warning they could.
I could hear the autos going past our house right behind the boys. Shortly after the autos passed I could bear the yell, the mob yell.
They burned down the tent and then they took a vote on whether or not they should burn our house. They decided not. Then they proceeded back to town, stood around town awhile, then went to the jail and demanded the prisoners. This request was refused, and shortly after the mob dispersed.
Friday afternoon Murdock, one of the I. W. W. speakers, was tried for vagrancy before Judge Briggs by a jury of business men. Murdock was a well-dressed, well educated man, who, it was proved, was employed by and receiving a salary from the I. W. W. as organizer. The jury convicted him of vagrancy. Judge Briggs put off sentencing him until the next day.
When Murdock came to receive his sentence the next day, Briggs stated that he liked Murdock, but as he was one of the instigators of last night’s trouble he would have to sentence him 180 days (six months).
For weeks the papers have been urging the citizens to form a mob and drive the I. W. W. from the country. The I. W. W. had violated no law. They had lived quietly and peaceably in their own little canvas homes. The officers bad no excuse for molesting them.
Mayor Rowell, the saloon champion, owns the Republican, or most of it. A short time before the day of the mob the Republican said that in Portersville, a small town about thirty miles from here, the citizens had formed a committee and requested the I. W. W. to leave; and that the I. W. W. had immediately left. The paper suggested that would be good tactics to pursue here. The whole article was a tissue of lies. The I. W. W. was not driven out of Portersville. The article and many more along that line were written for the sole purpose of making a mob spirit.
The Herald said that a whipping post and a cat-o -nine-tails with salt would be a good treatment for the I. W. W. The Tribune said that if the police couldn’t handle the I. W. W. then Chief Shaw could rely on the city for all the aid be needed.
Such was the tone of the articles published by the papers of Fresno, printing news that was absolutely false and inciting people to violence and destruction of property, and all that time the I. W. W. had never broken one law, as those in control of the paper well knew.
The mob was composed of from three to five hundred ex-prize fighters, saloon bums, stool pigeons, prominent business men, firemen, policemen off duty, detectives, etc., all turned loose by the prominent business men. They operated without the least fear of being molested, and, although they came masked and were well known, so well known that some of their names were printed in the paper, not one has been arrested.
Vincent St. John telegraphed to the governor of the state asking for protection. The governor telegraphed back referring him to local authorities.
The I. W. W. will again pitch its camp in Fresno; but next time we will not rely on the local authorities or the governor of the state to protect our homes.
Mrs. W. F. Little,
Ex-Secretary Local Fresno, S. P.———-
[Banner Headline from Fresno Morning Republican (Dec. 10th) added.]
[Emphasis added]
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SOURCES
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
– Dec 31, 1910, page 3
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/appeal-to-reason/101231-appealtoreason-w787.pdf
IMAGE
IWW Fresno FSF, Mob Attacks, FMR p1, Dec 10, 1910
https://www.newspapers.com/image/607039549/
See also:
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday December 22, 1910
Fresno, California – Mob Destroys I. W. W. Camp as Police Stand By
Tag: Fresno Free Speech Fight of 1910-1911
https://weneverforget.org/tag/fresno-free-speech-fight-of-1910-1911/
Tag: Emma Little
https://weneverforget.org/tag/emma-little/
Frank Little and the IWW
The Blood That Stained an American Family
-by Jane Little Botkin
University of Oklahoma Press, May 25, 2017
(search: “Emma could dimly see the large red banner”)
(search: 13 “fresno free speech fight” “fresno county jail”)
https://books.google.com/books?id=ghskDwAAQBAJ
Emma could dimly see the large red banner flying atop the [IWW] tent from her back door-the Little home was less than a quarter mile away. Her gut must have drawn into a queasy ball behind the baby she was carrying [born in February] when she first witnessed smoke. The crawling silvery swirl swiftly thickened to a spiraling black billow, with orange flames illuminating the dark clouds now fused into the night sky…..
[Emphasis added.]
Note: Excellent source for Fresno Free Speech fight, and the part played by Emma Little in that struggle.
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The Popular Wobbly – The Grand Industrial Band
Lyrics by T-Bone Slim