Drawings of Joe Hill, 1911 & 1914, from Postcards
Sent to Charles Rudberg
From Labor History Journal of Fall 1984:
JOE HILL-CARTOONIST
by PHILIP MASON
In 1980, the Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs at Wayne State University acquired four postcards written by Joe Hill, the “Wobbly songwriter and poet,” to a friend, Charles Rudberg, between the years 1911 and 1914. The four postcards contained more than the usual short message-each included a cartoon of drawing by Joe Hill…..
Mason goes on to describe the postcards (see below).
Mason fails to mention exactly how the postcards were acquired, but perhaps they came from Rudberg’s daughter, Frances Horn, of Ventura, California, with whom Mason had communicated. Horn stated that her father and Joe Hill were childhood friends in Galve, Sweden, and reunited later in San Francisco shortly before the San Francisco Fire. Both Rudberg and his daughters cherished the postcards from Joe Hill and kept them as “priceless heirlooms.”
Mason was, in 1984, Director of the Archives of Labor History and Urban Affairs , Wayne State Univ., Professor History Dept.
Franklin Rosemont states that in a letter to Mason on January 29, 1980, Frances Horn wrote that her father told her older sister that Joe could also “sing like an angel, play the violin like a master and write like a fury.”
POSTCARD DRAWINGS by JOE HILL
January 24, 1911 -from Joe Hill at Coalinga CA to Charles Rudberg at Sailors Rest Mission, San Pedro CA:
“Doings of Väran Kalle”
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April 29, 1911 -from Joe Hill at Sailors Rest Mission, San Pedro CA to Charles Rudberg at Sailor’s Union Hall, East Street, San Francisco CA:
“I’ve Got a Mission to Fill Don’t Ye Knauw, JO-EL”
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September 2, 1911 -from Joe Hill at San Pedro CA to Charles Rudberg at Sailors Union Hall, East Street, San Francisco CA:
“Oh you Hoboeing”
With Poem by Joe Hill:
The song of Mauser bullets may be exciting and the rattle of machine-guns may also have its thrills- but Oh you hoboeing!
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December 18, 1914 -from Joe Hill at Salt Lake County Jail, Salt Lake City UT to Charles Rudberg at San Francisco (?) CA Note: Joe was not moved to Utah State Pen until July 1915, after appeal for new trial was denied by Utah Supreme Court.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday October 21, 1910 Fresno, California – Many Fellow Workers Jailed, More Men Arrive Daily
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of October 19, 1910:
FRESNO FIGHT IS ON: MANY MEN IN JAIL —————
The fight for free speech in the State of California has opened in Fresno. The boys have been gathering for the last month and more are on the way to the front. Telegrams received by the WORKER informs us that 19 men were arrested on the streets up to the time of sending the message. Large crowds are on the streets and the populace is much excited. Men are arriving on every trainand more are coming by boat from Portland and Seattle, according to the statements of letters just received from these cities.
The boys have been forced from their hall and cannot rent another, but are doing well in their camp in the jungles. There the incoming men are fed and prepared to go to the “can.” While there has been no news from the men already in jail, it is a safe bet that they are roaring the “Red Flag” and other working men’s songs.
The boys evidently took the police by surprise, as an editorial in the Fresno Herald of a few days ago asserts that November has been selected as the time for opening the fight. This same slimp street, a scurrilous sewer of degenerated conceptions that rivals the infamy of the “Morning Liar” (sometimes called the Spokane Spokesman-Review), states in its columns that the members of the I. W. W. are thugs, holdups, etc., and that one was killed in an attempted robbery on the way to Fresno. This monumental liar does not mention names, dates nor locations, but leaves it to the scurvy imagination of his own class of degenerates to fill in the missing items of mis-information.
He further advocates the use of the whipping post for men the insist on their privilege of free speech, and even suggests that to wash their wounds with salt water would increase the agony. Such a vicious apostle of a return to the methods of the Inquisition is a fitting herald for the ideas and intentions of the master class, and he only advocates the desires of them all. It is just such articles and just such tactics on the part of the ruling class and their tools that puts murder in the hearts of the helpless victim and breeds a psychology of violence it is to be hoped that no member of the I. W. W. will so far lose control of himself as to attempt to retaliate in kind, but should such articles inflame the minds of the weaker minded workers to the extent that violence is returned for violence, the boss and his prostitute lackeys have only themselves to blame. One thing is certain. Whatever the outcome of the fight, the workers will have been educated to a better understanding of their relationship to the boss and they will have learned to hate the condition of slavery to that extent.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday October 16, 1910 Fresno, California – Town soon to feel hand of Industrial Workers of the World.
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of October 15, 1910:
FRESNO FIGHT FOR FREEDOM OF SPEECH ——-
Industrial Worker of April 2, 1910
The day draweth nigh. Soon is the town of Fresno, Cal., to feel the weight of the hand of the I. W. W. This upstart city has taken upon itself the task of wresting from the workers the right of free speech and as a result hundreds of workers are in the vicinity of Fresno prepared at the signal to speak in spite of the “law and order” element of thugs and gum shoes.
Soon will the workers demonstrate to the boss that there are a few privileges, at least, that will not be surrendered.
The owners of halls in Fresno have refused to rent their buildings to the I. W. W. boys, but in spite of this obstacle all will be in readiness for the sounding of the call.
Let every worker in the north and west who can possibly do so go to Fresno and speak on the streets in accordance with the age-long inheritance of the Anglo-Saxon. Let us demonstrate to the boss that we will FIGHT before we will submit to the loss of the privilege of free speech.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday October 10, 1910 Fresno, California – Frank Little Preferred Dark Cell to Forced Labor
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of October 8, 1910:
FIRST ROUND GOES TO I. W. W.
Fresno, Cal., Sept. 27, 1910.
Editor Industrial Worker,
Was released from jail Sunday. Served 25 days, 15 days in solitary confinement on bread and water, 10 days in the black hole. September 17 the officials surrendered and turned me out in the corridor with the other prisoners and fed me the same. It was a complete victory. Am going to Coalinga oil fields tomorrow. Think we can get a local there. The tank builders are out on strike (A. F. of L.), but the sentiment is strong for industrial unionism.
Yours for action, F. H. Little.
Have received notice to vacate hall. Are trying to run us out of town. Will have a hard time to get another.
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LITTLE SAYS HE PREFERRED DARK CELL.
Frank Little, organizer of the Industrial Workers of the World, has been released from the city jail after serving a sentence of 25 days for disturbing the peace. While in jail he was kept in solitary confinement because he refused to work in the court house yard with other prisoners.
Little lost none of his faithfulness to the I. W. W. cause while in prison and will renew at once his agitations. He will go to Coalinga tomorrow to hold meetings.
Little said today that he had two reasons for refusing to work while in jail. First, he said the man who will work while a prisoner is just the same as one who will “scab” during a strike. He believe the park work should be done by paid workmen.
Secondly, he said he believed that the park authorities would compel him to work harder than the others and might antagonize him to the extent that he would lose his temper and do something to bring a heavier sentence upon himself.
Little declare that the prison fare was unfit for man to eat. He said he intended to send a booklet to every voter in the county informing him of this, and that ultimately he would compel the sheriff to feed the prisoners better. Little registered several other complaints, which, however, he admitted that he had no means of proving were true.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday October 6, 1910 Fresno, California – Spokane Fellow Workers on Way to Free Speech Fight
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of October 1, 1910:
SPOKANE MEMBERS BOUND FOR FRESNO.
A letter from one of the Spokane bunches of free speech agitators states that they expect to be in Portland part of the current week. All who are bound for Fresno should call at the I. W. W. headquarters along the road and inquire as to where the different forces are. It is suggested that there be no Fourth of July fireworks, but that everything be done quietly and as unostentatiously as possible. This, of course, until all is ready for action. There is nothing to be gained by the spread-eagle style. Saw wood until all is ready for action.
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From The Fresno Morning Republican of October 4, 1910:
I. W. W. AGITOR IN WRONG AT COALINGA ——- Little Makes Speech at Socialist Meeting… ——-
COALINGA, Oct. 3.— F. H. Little, the I. W. W. member, who recently served a jail sentence in Fresno for disturbing the peace, made a speech in Coalinga, Friday evening, on Front street, and made an address at a Socialist meeting at the city hall here Sunday afternoon. The authorities have intervened against his speeches on the streets, and Little says he has wired Seattle for other members of the organization to come to Coalinga. Little has made the statement that he will speak on the street here again and in that case, it is expected that he will at once be placed under arrest, for ignoring the altitude of the authorities…
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