Tag: Bessy Fiset

Hellraisers Journal: Testimony of Fellow Workers Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and C. L. Filigno at Spokane Free Speech Trial

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Quote EGF, Compliment IWW, IW p1, Nov 17, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday February 28, 1910
Spokane, Washington – Trial of Gurley Flynn and Filigno, Part II

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

IWW Spk FSF, EGF Filigno Trial, HdLn Workingmns p4, Feb 26, 1910

[Part II of II.]

IWW Spk FSF, EGF Filigno Trial Verdict, Workingmns p4, Feb 26, 1910

The Jury

The first two days of the trial were taken up with impaneling the jury. It fell to Mr. Don Kiser’s lot to have charge of the prosecution’s side of this part of the performance.

About forty men were called before it was possible to get twelve men who were satisfactory. The vast majority were prejudiced against the I. W. W.; in fact, it was a surprise when a man would make the statement that he had formed no opinion concerning the case, or even when one would say he considered labor had a right to organize in order to better its conditions, etc.

Finally, however, by Friday afternoon the jury began to look like a jury and things were ready for taking up the testimony.

[The Prosecution’s Case.]

[Main witness for the prosecution were:

-Detective Martin J. Burns who testified that 20% of those arrested said no more than “Fellow Worker.”

-Chief Sullivan, witness for the prosecution, was unable to explain why foreigners who said no more than “Fellow-Workers” could draw such big crowds.

-“Floor-Spitter” Detective McDonald testified that the men he arrested were all foreigners whose names he could not remember nor pronounce.]

Defense Opens

At 3:30 [Tuesday February 15th] Mr. Symmes addressed the jury, and on request of defense court adjourned at about 4, to take up defense testimony in the morning.

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

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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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
—–

(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.

IWW Spk FSF, EGF Filigno Trial, Workingmns p4, Feb 26, 1910

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.

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Hellraisers Journal: “47 Days in Spokane City Jail” by William Z. Foster, Part II -from the Seattle Workingman’s Paper

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote EGF, Compliment IWW, IW p1, Nov 17, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday February 15, 1910
Spokane, Washington – Foster Describes I. W. W. Organizing within City Jail

From the Seattle Socialist Workingman’s Paper of February 12, 1910:

Spk FSF, 47 Days WZF, Workingmans p1, Feb 12, 1910Spk FSF, 47 Days by WZF, Workingmans p1, Feb 12, 1910

[Part II of II.]

[Fellow Workers Organize Behind the Bars of City Jail]

Our propaganda meetings were a howling success, and we made at least forty I. W. W. converts in the city jail. These were all workingmen who were arrested for the crime of being broke, and when they listened to our talks and saw how we handled ourselves they promised to read up on industrial unionism and to join the I. W. W. as soon as possible.

In the jail the cells are in a double row, opening from a corridor about six feet wide and it was in this corridor that we held our meetings.

Another good feature of our meetings was the spirit of democracy prevailing. We practically forced men to get up and speak who had never but once before attempted to speak before a crowd (said “Fellow-Workers” on Spokane streets), and a couple of these give promise of becoming excellent “soap-boxers.”

We were getting along swimmingly when someone decided that our meetings were too successful and that we must have some “leaders” amongst us. As a result of this, on Jan. 3rd, Fellow-Worker Jones of Los Angeles (commonly called “Voiende Sulpher Smoke”) who was speaker of the evening, and myself, who had acted as chairman of the meeting the night previous, were “grabbed” and put into the “strong box” (a steel cage reserved for the more serious criminals). Our seizure simply stimulated the remainder to greater efforts, and from that time on the jail organization became a pronounced success. Once more the grabbing of men suspected of being “leaders” acted as a boomerang.

* * *

The effects of the organization upon the work done on the rock pile was remarkable, and the possibilities of the passive resistance strike, even as evidenced by us chained prisoners, of working. We accomplished almost nothing. For instance, two men chained together pounded for four days upon one rock, when it was accidentally broken. To break that small rock (about as large as a wash bucket) cost the city of Spokane $4.00 for food alone, at the rate of 50 cents per day per man, besides the other expenses for guards, etc. This is only a sample of how we worked, and by no means an exceptional one.

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Hellraisers Journal: “47 Days in Spokane City Jail” by William Z. Foster, Part I -from the Seattle Workingman’s Paper

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Quote EGF, Compliment IWW, IW p1, Nov 17, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday February 14, 1910
Spokane, Washington – Foster Describes 47 Days in City Jail

From the Seattle Socialist Workingman’s Paper of February 12, 1910:

Spk FSF, 47 Days WZF, Workingmans p1, Feb 12, 1910Spk FSF, 47 Days by WZF, Workingmans p1, Feb 12, 1910

[Part I of II.]

On the afternoon of December 11th, when a contingent of men left the I. W. W. headquarters for the purpose of speaking on the street, I accompanied them, as usual, so as to witness their arrest and be enabled to report any unusual features attending it. On this particular afternoon Korthagen and Holland, two I. W. W. members from Seattle among others, were billed to speak, and having been closely associated with them in Seattle, I was anxious to be in at the death.

I walked with them to the appointed street corner, and while they spoke I stood some twenty feet away in the thick of the crowd. They were duly arrested and a few moments later the redoubtable Captain Burns came on the scene in answer to a call sent in to the station, and although he knew nothing whatsoever as to what had taken place, and had no warrant for my arrest, he immediately placed me under arrest when he happened to see me standing in the crowd.

At the police station I had the honor of a half-hour talk with Pugh, Sullivan and Burns, during the course of which conversation these worthies attempted to pump me. They adopted a dozen different ruses by which they hoped to secure a promise from me to desist from taking part in the street fight in return for my liberty. One of these was ridiculous in the extreme. Chief Sullivan (brainy man) said that he had just received a letter from the I. W. W., stating that I was a Pinkerton, his plan being to rouse my ire against the organization and to get me to desert it, or at least promise to take no active part in the fight. Failing in this he adjudged me guilty in his office of some unknown offense, because I wouldn’t answer for my conduct for the future, and I was taken to the notorious sweat-box, where I joined the balance of the street-speaking “criminals.”

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Hellraisers Journal: William Z. Foster, Reporter for Workingman’s Paper, Locked Behind the Bars of Spokane City Jail

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote EGF, Compliment IWW, IW p1, Nov 17, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 24, 1910
Spokane, Washington -Foster Locked Up for Covering Free Speech Fight

From the Seattle Workingman’s Paper of January 22, 1910:

Wkgmns Paper HdLn re WZF in Jail, p1, Jan 22, 1910———-
IWW Spk FSF, From WZF in Jail, Wkgmns Paper p1, Jan 22, 1910—–

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Hellraisers Journal: Agnes Thecla Fair, Dangerous Character, Jailed and Assaulted in Spokane Free Speech Fight

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote Agnes Thecla Fair, Revolutionary Women, Stt Sc Wkgmn p4, Nov 20, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday November 23, 1909
Spokane, Washington – Letter from Agnes Thecla Fair Describes Jail Horrors

From Seattle Workingman’s Paper of November 20, 1909:

IWW Spk FSF, HdLn, ed, Stt Socialist Workingmans Paper p1, Nov 20, 1909

THE SHAME OF SPOKANE
—–

We publish the following letter without the consent of its author. We believe the interests of truth demand its publication. When we first read it we could not believe it. Even now it seems impossible that such cowardly and brutal treatment could be accorded a helpless woman, even among savages. Yet we know the capitalist system has developed far lower moral types than savagery or barbarism ever knew. We know, too that daily revelations are made of jail horrors almost as bad as this. Read what Mrs. [Bessy] Fiset tells in her department, “The Woman,” in this paper [page 4].

Those who know Agnes Thecla Fair will not hesitate to credit what she testifies to. She is a quiet, frail, unassuming little woman, some 25 years old, who is publishing a book called “The Sourdoughs’ Bible.” She was drawn into the Spokane Free Speech Fight because she happened to be in that city soliciting for her book, and wherever she is she cannot refrain from taking the side of the under dog….

———-

MISS FAIR’S LETTER
—–

Spokane, Wash., Nov. 11, ’09

Dr. Hermon Titus and Mrs. Titus.
Dear Comrades and Friends:

Well, to put it mildly, Mrs. Titus came very near getting that copyright. I am now labeled by police as a DANGEROUS CHARACTER. My offense was mixing in free speech fight and behaving so different from other women arrested.

I made four jumps, as the box filled with dry goods, standing at Howard and Riverside in front of the White House was a high one. I talked for ten minutes and had a large crowd, when a detective came up and took me down from my high pedestal. He wanted me to walk to the station, but as I had never rode in a hurry-up wagon I asked to ride.

While waiting for a private automobile the crowd grew to thousands. Taking out a red handkerchief as I entered the wagon, I stood up and waved it at the crowd. Cheers went up for Free Speech.

Little did I dream of what was coming after in this enlightened age. You will pardon language used to get at facts, as I never heard anything so vile. They put me in a cell with a fallen woman and left. They were gone but a few minutes when two officers returned and (although the other woman was not to go until Monday, she told me), they told her to get ready in two minutes and get out.

When she was gone they put me in a dark cell, and about ten big burly brutes came in and began to question me about our union. I was so scared I could not talk. One said, “We’ll make her talk” Another said, “She’ll talk before we get through with her.”

Another said,”F–k her and she’ll talk.” Just then one started to unbutton my waist, and I went into spasms which I never recovered from until evening.

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