Hellraisers Journal: The Spokane Trial of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and C. L. Filigno by Bessy Fiset for Workingman’s Paper

Quote EGF, re Spk FSF, ISR p618, Jan 1910 ———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday February 27, 1910
Spokane, Washington – Trial of Gurley Flynn and Filigno, Part I

From The Workingman’s Paper of February 26, 1910:

The Flynn-Filigno Trial
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(Reported for “The Workingman’s Paper” by its
Editorial Correspondent, Bessy Fiset.)

[Part I of II.

Wednesday, the 9th of February, 1910, saw the opening of the case of the State against C. L. Filigno and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn-Jones for criminal conspiracy.

The fact is that this trial is bringing to light the greatest conspiracy on the part of the MASTER CLASS AGAINST FREEDOM OF SPEECH, PRESS AND ASSEMBLAGE that has yet been revealed in this country, making it rank with the foremost cases that have had direct bearing, or been the direct outcome of the Revolutionary movement in America.

* * *

To any one looking on at this trial the spectacle was certainly a representative in miniature of conditions as they exist in society today. On entering the large courtroom-seating approximately three hundred-one faced the court with the jury box on the left, counsel’s table immediately in front of judge, clerk’s desk just to right, and at extreme right along the wall a row of seats reserved for women spectators.

Between the right wall and the court was a door opening into an anteroom, which in turn let into a corridor leading to the county jail. Between the court and the jury box on the left was the door leading into court chambers.

At the extreme left corner of counsel’s table sat Spokane’s ablest guardian of the system’s interests-Attorney Pugh. In appearance Mr. Pugh is certainly not prepossessing; very small and dark, with an unhealthy yellow skin, a mouth marked for its sarcasm, and discontent; and eyes which at a distance appear to be without lashes, giving his face the expression of a turtle or a snake, which expression is enhanced by the crinkly texture of his skin; he doesn’t arouse any feelings of hero worship in the human breast. As one becomes familiar with his idiosyncrasies one finds oneself watching for the covert and almost imperceptible adjustment of a small cud of tobacco before uttering his bored, “Oh, if your honor please, I object!” In spite of his small stature his hands are the only thing that suggest femininity.

* * *

Next in line at the right of Attorney Pugh came Assistant Attorney Blair, a young man, whose habitual facial expression would indicate that he smelled something bad.

Rather behind him, in the vicinity of Chief Sullivan, sat Mr. Burns-Martin J. Burns-chief of detectives, a very smug and self-satisfied individual.

The faithfulness with which Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Burns attended the prosecuting attorney, the number of consultations held between them and the countless suggestions which seemingly came from these exponents of law and order, would almost lead one to think the police of Spokane are the real power behind the prosecutions.

During a part of the trial Attorney Don Kiser was in court and sat on Mr. Blair’s right. This man is a tall, lank person, whose face might be termed good-looking were his nose operated upon. As it is, he has his mouth open most of the time, which makes him look stupid and uninteresting.

So much for the prosecution!

* * *

At the extreme right of the lawyers’ table sat the defendants and their counsel.

Before taking up the personnel of the defense I might mention Judge Kennan himself. Aside from hearing this dignified personage say, “Overrule the objection” (when objection was made by defense), and “Sustain the objection” (when made by prosecutionJ)-which seemed to have become a habit-one couldn’t gather much as to his intellectual brilliancy. However, I heard a prominent Spokane man say of him: “He doesn’t know the law, and he is so deaf he can’t hear the testimony, and he’s corrupt; but aside from that he’s all right.”

* * *

But to return to the defense: Nearest to the prosecution sat Mr. Symmes, the attorney from Chicago for the defense. Mr. Symmes is a large, thickset man, whose chief characteristic during testimony, aside from being good on cross-examination, was his ability to get into a quarrel with either opposing counsel or the court.

Next on his right came Fred H. Moore, the other attorney for the defense. Mr. Moore was the exact opposite of Mr. Symmes when it came to quarreling, for no matter what was said, Mr. Moore preserved a smiling imperturbability-not an easy thing when one is being continually “sat upon.”

* * *

Back of Mr. Moore, a little to his right, sat C. L. Filigno, one of the defendants. Filigno is a young Italian who has been in this country some six or seven years. He is quite young and has a smile warranted not to come off.

Immediately at his right sat the defendant around whom most of the interest in the case centered-Elizabeth Gurley Flynn has been called the “Girl Martyr,” “The Joan of Arc” of the Working Class movement, etc.

Naturally there are those who are inclined-from one reason and another-to sneer at these terms, “If there are any martyrs in this fight for free speech, they are among the men who were kicked and beaten, starved, frozen and sweated. These are the martyrs-not a girl who has been in jail but twenty-four hours-who has received all kinds of adulation and prominence because of her connection with the fight,” etc. It is true that the sufferings undergone by the men of the Franklin school, Fort Wright, and the city and county jails put them on the list of martyrs for the cause of Proletarian Freedom.

But it is equally true that the strain under which Gurley Flynn has been since last November has been such as would have broken many far stronger women. To be less than twenty; to be in a delicate condition [about six months pregnant] (a time when everything is exaggerated, when a woman needs all her physical reserve, when a woman under normal conditions has all she can do to keep going) to go through a trial for conspiracy and be convicted; to keep a stenographer busy sending out communications and articles for publication all over the country; to average two and three public speeches a week; to go on trips through these Northwestern States and British Columbia, collecting hundreds of dollars for the carrying on of this fight; to faint from exhaustion in the midst of speeches, and then to go through the ordeal of a second trial for conspiracy-and all this when in a physical condition of itself most trying-certainly no one can say that Gurley Flynn has been any less a martyr than the men.

Whether she appeals to one as an individual or not; whether one approves of her methods or her work-surely one must admit that because of her clearness of perception of the Working Class Movement, her unusually logical mind, her fearlessness and her steadfastness of purpose, she not only deserves to be, but is in the front rank of the great women of the Revolutionary movement.

* * *

During the trial every available seat in the courtroom was occupied during every session-and S. R. O. was to be had five minutes after the doors were open. Indeed the crowd outside in the corridors was so dense before the time for opening the doors that the court bailiff would be compelled to open a way through the crowd in order to let the women in first.

* * *

This crowd, silent, eager, keen to see the humor of the situation, was typical of the great mass of workers. They represented the class which has produced all the good things of life, all the necessities of life, all the luxuries of life, and has always done without. On he other hand, the little handful of footy politicians, representing the prosecution, was certainly characteristic of the treachery, scheming and browbeating used by the capitalist class in order to keep up its system of extortion and robbery.

The I. W. W. stand today the most Revolutionary organization of workers in this country, and for that reason the moneyed interests are using every weapon by which they think the organization can be crushed. They have yet to lean that starvation, physical suffering, imprisonment, and death itself mean nothing to this army of men and women, if by enduring these things the emancipation of the workers is brought one step nearer.

[Emphasis and paragraph breaks added.]