To advocate peace with things as they are
is treason to humanity.
This is a class struggle and on class lines
it must be fought out to a finish.
-Ida Crouch-Hazlett
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Sunday September 15, 1907
Spokane, Washington – Ida Crouch-Hazlett Arrested
From the Montana News of September 12, 1907:
Assail Free Speech in Spokane
—–Mrs. Hazlett Arrested
—–
Two Thousand People Storm Jail and
Form a Triumphal Procession After
She Is Released on Bond
The fool policemen of Spokane and the idiotic city “reform ” administration has broken out in a new place and attempted to put an end to socialist street speaking.
Saturday evening, September 7, Mrs. Hazlett [editor of the Montana News] was addressing a crowd of 5,000 people on the street. She had spoken for an hour and a half without any molestation. There was not the slightest disturbance, the crowd standing remarkably still in a compact mass during that time. Just as she had announced her collection and was beginning to sell her books and subscription cards, a policeman in plain clothes came up and said, she was obstructing the sidewalk. She said she was not obstructing the sidewalk as she was in the middle of the street, but asked the crowd to open up a passage, which it immediately did. She then told the policeman that it was his business to keep people off the sidewalk and not hers. Whereupon he jerked her down from the box and placed her under arrest. The vast crowd began a most vigorous protest, shouting and shaming the policeman and even threatening to use force.
