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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday August 18, 1909
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Describes Her Western Tour
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of August 12, 1909:
SUCCESSFUL TRIP WORK OF E. G. FLYNN
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My western trip has convinced me of at least two things, that the sun doesn’t rise in the Long Island sound and set in the Hudson river, and that I couldn’t possibly blarney myself into the idea that I am a hard-worked sort of martyr for the cause of labor, and give due consideration to the splendid treatment I have received from the organization and audiences in the west. The trip has been an unqualified success from all points of view, yet I have enjoyed every step of the way. Nowhere have I felt like a stranger, everywhere I could say regretfully of the cast, “Home was nothing like this!” I would recommend a like trip to any New Yorker who believes that their town is the world, and then some. Even if they travel the box car route they can feel at home after their 6×12 hall bedrooms on the air shaft, and they will feel, as I have, that New York is a very small part of the revolutionary movement, at least.
No. 64 at Minneapolis.
My trip started in Minneapolis, where Local No. 64 is forging ahead. We held a series of open air meetings in the employment agency district and every night before we opened up crowds 500 or 600 strong gathered. They listened attentively, sang revolutionary songs and judging by the enthusiasm the time is more than ripe to open up a hall and reading room in that city. We have certainly “started something” in the Flour City.
One little fellow I offered the Industrial Worker to answered with a shame-faced air, “I’m awful sorry, Miss Flynn, but I have to save the nickle for coffee and-[coffee and a doughnut]”
Minnesota is the banner wheat state. Prosperous country, isn’t it?
Butt, Montana.
And then came Butte, and that’s almost “nuff said.” I spoke there on Miners’ Union day, which is quite unique. Every year previously a corporation lawyer or the governor of the state was the selected orator, and this was the first time in the 31 years of Butte Miners’ union that a revolutionist made the speech. Every night of a week was given over to the unions of the W. F. of M., with the exception of one night to the workingmen’s union, and one night I attended the Silver Bow Trades and Labor Council (A. F. of L.). The three hours of the latter meeting were consumed by two jurisdiction fights, one of which struck me as very amusing.
The stove repairers and the plumbers were trying to settle the momentous question “If a stove repairer, in mending a grate or a waterback broke a nipple (a small piece of pipe near the union with the boiler) should he be allowed to put in a new nipple, or should he be forced to call a plumber?” The result of the agitation in Butte was the formation of an Industrial Union Educational club of 50 charter members. Butte is owned by the Amalgamated Copper company, as were many of the unions, but there is a spirit for working class unionism growing, helped on by the fact that the sliding scale of Butte Miners’ union slides down, while prices stay up.
Great Falls was not visited for a speech. Mr. Scrivens, the “secretary of the I. W. W.,” explaining to me that they were satisfied; the boss recognized their union, and they didn’t want any outside agitators coming in to make trouble! The reasons for such and extraordinary statement as this has since been exposed in the Industrial Worker.
Kalispell, Mont., and Wallace and Burke, Idaho, brought forth four extra good meetings, the one in Wallace a street meeting. A clean, cool evening, a large crowd and a quiet town with beautiful green mountains-one could not ask for a better background for a revolutionary talk.
At Seattle, Wash.
My visit to Seattle was rather marred by a sore throat. The famous Alaska-Yukon-Pacific exposition is very disappointing, as all such affairs are. It is not built with an honest desire to show the great resources of the northwest, but as an advertising for lumber companies. The government building is a disgrace to a civilized country, which doesn’t mean us. It fittingly proves Uncle Sam to be the “slugging committee of the capitalist class.” The principal displays are weapons of war, bullets, submarine mines, machine guns, use of telegraphy on a battle field, etc.
The Red Cross exhibit is another farce. Consumptives are counseled to go to the high altitudes, eat good food, not to work hard, sleep in patent tents, etc. Mothers whose babes die by he thousands in New York’s East Side take heed of this kind of advice, especially when your husband is out of work. Girls in the sweat shops, who wither away and finally die of tuberculosis, thank the dear ladies for their advice. It’s all you’ll ever get from them.
On my return trip from Seattle to Spokane, a Pullman porter told me some of his experiences with travellers. One was of a prosperous looking Jew who was sitting in a Pullman sleeper when the upper berth suddenly came down with a terrific bang. The porter, very much alarmed, ran to him and asked, “Are you hurt?” “Oh, mein Gott, I vish I vas so I could sue the company.” Said the porter, “”He was willing to have his brains knocked out to get a few dollars.” Rather strong incentive, dollars are. A Rev. Rasmus here in Spokane objected to the stringent marriage laws in the state because it was taking business to Idaho and Canada, etc.
British Columbia.
A week’s meetings in Seattle and another week’s in Spokane in their airy, well lighted, large halls, and then I went to British Columbia for Miners’ Union day in Rossland and an I. W. W. meeting. Phoenix, B. C. is rather dead as the larger smelters and mines are closed, but the meetings were all lively. There are many of our friends up there, however, that depend upon the ballot box to save the workers, and the I. W. W. is therefore weak as yet. Rossland Miners’ Union day was marked by sports, etc., enjoyed by the people, although personally I cannot see the benefit of drilling and mucking contests, which give the boss a good line on how hard you can work.
My trip back marked the first railroad wreck I have ever been in. Of course, it was on Jim Hill’s Great Northern. I would have been surprised if it were elsewhere, but on the G. N. was not a bit. Jim is too poor to put in good roadbeds, but rich enough that a $5000 purse of his is presented to the A.-Y.-P. exposition. The engine jumped the track three times where there was a landslide on the bank of the Columbia river. All the American rubes, who were coming to the reservations to get farms, grinned as if they liked it and they would have grinned if they were all dumped into the Columbia as well. They’ll breathe soft coal smoke till they nearly choke, be held up for three hours, and never a word of discontent. For myself, I cannot express in civilized English what I think of that old cow path of Jim Hill’s that’s called a railroad. If the others like it I hope they get their fill before this system is over.
I am now back in Spokane, holding it down till another speaker comes in after Fellow Worker Heslewood leaves, after which I leave for Missoula. I can say frankly to the readers of the Worker that I like the west and westerners, that the Workers show more of an aggressive spirit here than I have ever seen before, and certainly treat those who work for them in a way that cannot be surpassed. I am only too glad to remain in the west and continue working for the I. W. W., that we may speed the day when we will close down capitalism forever and open up the Commonwealth of the Toilers. My financial statement will appear in the “Industrial Worker” at the expiration of my trip.
ELIZABETH GURLEY FLYNN.
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[Photograph, emphasis and paragraph breaks added.]
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SOURCE
Quote EGF, Western IWW Aggressive Spirit, IW p3, Aug 12, 1909
Industrial Worker
(Spokane, Washington)
-Aug 12, 1909
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/industrialworker/iw/v1n22-aug-12-1909-IW.pdf
IMAGE
EGF, Restored, Spk Rv p7, July 9, 1909
https://www.newspapers.com/image/566226975/
https://dp.la/item/e176ea25dd3065e8b51c6f0957dfecf0?q=%22elizabeth%20gurley%20flynn%22&partner=%22Digital%20Commonwealth%22
See also:
Tag: EGF 1909
https://weneverforget.org/tag/egf-1909/
For more on the Great Falls controversy, see:
IW of Aug 19, 1909: “Great Falls Union and Sacred Contract”
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/industrialworker/iw/v1n23-aug-19-1909-IW.pdf
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The Rebel Girl – Lucas Stark
Lyrics by Joe Hill