Tag: Employment Sharks

Hellraisers Journal: From the Spokane Industrial Worker: the Employer, the Unemployed and the Man on the Job

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Joe Hill, Mr Block Got Lucky, LRSB 36th ed, 1995———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday August 8, 1910
The Employer-The Unemployed-The Man on the Job

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of August 6, 1910:

IWW Cartoon re UE, IW p1, Aug 6, 1910

[Text:]

The boss works not at all. The unemployed works not at all. The worker works 10 hours per day. The worker produces a luxurious living for the boss, an existence for the unemployed, and a bare living for himself. What’s the matter with letting the unemployed go to work, making the boss go to work, and having the worker working one-third as long? If we organize and cut the working hours the boss will have to hire the unemployed. That will reduce competition among the workers for a job and give them power to later force the boss to cease being a boss and become a worker.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Industrial Worker: Funeral of S. O. Chinn, Spokane Free Speech Martyr, Largely Attended

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote EGF, re Spk FSF, ISR p618, Jan 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday April 8, 1910
Spokane, Washington – S. O. Chinn Gets Grand I. W. W. Send-Off

From the Industrial Worker of April 2, 1910:

IWW Spk FSF v Employment Sharks, IW p1, Apr 2, 1910—–

CHINN’S FUNERAL LARGELY ATTENDED
—–
Many Watch Procession on Riverside Avenue
-Strains of the Marseillaise Heard-I. W. W.
Members Who Attend Funeral Wear Red Neckties.
—–

Funeral services for S. O. Chinn, age 27, which were held from the I. W. W. hall proved a magnate as the procession of men, women and children following the hearse and the brass band moved down Riverside Avenue. The last tribute was paid by James Thompson, national organizer of the Industrial Workers at the I. W. W. Hall at 616 Front Avenue, in which he declared that the man had given his life in the interest of the working class.

Three hundred Fellow Workers packed the hall to capacity and after the services followed the hearse and band to Riverside Avenue and Monroe Street, from which point the hearse and pall bearers proceeded to Greenwood cemetery, where Chinn was buried. The casket was draped with the flag of the organization of which Chinn was a member and an officer. Chinn came to Spokane last fall to participate in the free speech fight. His home was originally at Hutchinson, Kansas.

The funeral proceedings attracted a great deal of attention. Before the hearse walked four officers of the I. W. W. with red neckties and red badges of the organization in their buttonholes, while the band before pealed out the martial strains of the “Marseillaise.” Stretching behind for four or five blocks marched the members of the organization, who came out to pay their last respects to the man that had sacrificed his life for the cause of Free Speech.

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Hellraisers Journal: Latest News from Spokane Free Speech Fight by Fellow Worker Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Part I

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

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday March 3, 1910
Spokane, Washington – Gurley Flynn Reports from Free Speech Fight, Part I

From the International Socialist Review of March 1910:

Latest News from Spokane
—–

ELIZABETH GURLEY FLYNN.
—–

[Part I of II.]

Letter T, ISR p828, Mar 1910HE agitation of the I. W. W. and free speech fight in Spokane, Washington, if it brought no other effects has been valuable in that it has forced the officials to take action against the employment agencies. In the beginning of the difficulty they were admitted by Judge Mann to be the cause of all the trouble. Since that time Mayor Pratt has frankly admitted refunding thousands of dollars to working-men who had been sold fictitious jobs by the employment agencies. There were about thirty-one in the city of Spokane but the licenses of all but twelve of these were revoked.

IWW Spk FSF, EGF, ISR p828, Mar 1910

The following statement from Mayor Pratt explains this action: “On the whole we have found that the larger agencies have not been causing so much trouble. Some of the larger men have made a study of the business, understanding human nature, and have been successful. In some cases we find that men who do not understand the business have engaged in it nevertheless and have made a little money and have held on to every dollar that has come into their possession whether they were entitled to it or not.”

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Hellraisers Journal: “Facts Suppressed in Spokane” by Fellow Worker J. C. Knust for the Socialist Workingman’s Paper

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote re IWW Spk FSF n Solidarity, IW p1, Nov 3, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday February 25, 1910
Spokane, Washington – Facts of Free Speech Fight from J. C. Knust

From the Seattle Socialist Workingman’s Paper of February 19, 1910:

FACTS SUPPRESSED in SPOKANE
—-
By J. C. Knust, of Spokane

IWW Spk FSF, Dont Buy Jobs, IW p4, Feb 19, 1910

EDITOR’S NOTE.-Here we give yet another dose of FACTS to the sick Spokane authorities. It is killing testimony, and until the record is disowned officially it will damn Spokane in the eyes of the whole world.

The second round in the fight against the Working class is now being fought by the city authorities of Spokane, backed by the employment agencies and other expressions of corporate rule.

Spokane is the natural and the principal distributing point of labor and its supplies to the great Northwestern lumber regions, agricultural districts and mining camps.

Spokane, being a comparatively young city, is necessarily under heavy expense, and, like many young cities in the past, through their spasmodic growth, has given undue power to certain official individuals, who sometimes make, either wilfully or maliciously, grievous mistakes in the use of such power in order to serve private interests.

In order that the reader may get a fairer and more clear conception of the immediate cause of this fight of the workers to maintain their rights, it will be necessary to begin at the beginning.

Every year thousands of men are sent out by the employment agencies to all parts of the country, through faked advertisements, to work which does not exist. For many years these licensed thieves have reaped in this way a rich harvest. Men would come here, buy a job and ship out. Some would find work for only a week where they expected to find steady employment. Others found no work at all.

Investigation proved often that employers, foremen and agents were dividing spoils, their fee being anywhere from $1 to $15 for jobs. After a few days work these men would be discharged and another crew would be sent to fill their places, thus keeping three crews-one going, one coming and one working. [Perpetual motion!]

Can you suggest anything for these men to do but to organize to do away with such thievery? No redress was to be had from the courts, the city attorney saying, “Nothing can be done,” showing plainly that there is plenty of “law,” but it is not for the benefit of the masses.

These conditions grew to be intolerable. One office alone in this benighted town boasts proudly of having sent out in one year 85,000 men. Think of it! Out of that number there were less than 1 per cent. who actually found remunerative employment. And again consider that there are many of these slave markets here, and all doing a thriving business.

Then these men grew desperate; something had to be done. So about two years ago they began to organize themselves into one union known as “The Industrial Workers of the World,” one object being to educate its members to buy no more jobs, but compel employers to come to a union headquarters for their men, where no fee would be charged.

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Hellraisers Journal: Philadelphia Shirtwaist Strikers Fighting to Live, Part II -from the International Socialist Review

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Spirit of Revolt, Philly Dec 19, NY Call Dec 21, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday February 8, 1910
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – Shirtwaist Strikers Fight to Live, Part II

From the International Socialist Review of February 1910:

Fighting to Live
—–

By Tom A. Price.
—–

[Part II of II.]

[Mother Jones in Philadelphia.]

Mother Jones. This little woman whose heart is as big as the nation and beats wholly for humanity, came to Philadelphia while the trumpet was still reverberating after the call to arms had been sounded. Under her bold leadership the fighters were organized before the manufacturers had fairly realized that their workers had at last been stung to revolt by the same lash which had so often driven them to slavery.

Mother Jones, ISR Cover crpd p673 ed, Feb 1910

In impassioned speech after impassioned speech Mother Jones urged the girls on to battle. Shaking her gray locks in defiance she pictured the scab in such a light that workers still shudder when they think of what she would have considered them had they remained in the slave pens of the manufacturers. Every man and woman and child who heard her poignantly regrets the fact that her almost ceaseless labors at last drove her to her bed where she now lies ill.

But she had instilled into the minds of her followers the spirit which prompted her to cross a continent to help them. That spirit remains and is holding in place the standard which she raised. It is leading the girls to every device possible to help the cause. Many of them are selling papers on the street that they may earn money to contribute to the union which they love.

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Hellraisers Journal: “Barbarous Spokane” by Fred W. Heslewood from the International Socialist Review, Part II

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote Sheep Herder Anderson re Spk FSF, ISR p712, Feb 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday February 2, 1910
Spokane, Washington – Fellow Workers Donates Last Dollar to Free Speech Fight

From the International Socialist Review of February 1910:

Barbarous Spokane
—–

By Fred W. Heslewood.
—–

[Part II of II.]

[Fellow Worker Donates All He Has.]

One man donated $50 to the defense fund and deposited $100 more, which was all he had, to be used if required. In thirty-four days he came from the horse doctor a living wreck, scarcely able to crawl, and said that Judge Mann had fined him $100; that he now wished the union to accept the money that he had left on deposit, to be used in giving hospital treatment to those who were in a worse condition than himself. He stayed around a day or so to regain some of his former strength, then off to the woods to hunt a master.

IWW Spk FSF, On the Rock Pile, ISR p610, Jan 1910

Some of the men only had four or five dollars. Some had $20. Some had $50, but all had money. They are hoboes, vags, and undesirable citizens; they should have taken their money to the jail and allowed themselves to be robbed by the thugs in blue, who formed the slugging committee in the dark corridors between the booking window and the cells. These men of honor that smash men’s jaws, blind men, knock them down and kick their ribs in; these honorable brutes who squeeze men into an air-tight cell and then coolly open the steam valve. These human hyenas who gently tell you that they have orders to kill the first man that says a word back to them. These human beasts that are responsible for 1,000 treatments of green capsules to men with broken jaws, broken ribs, blinded eyes, etc. Green capsules to men who are starving, to increase the pain in the stomach. An emergency hospital. God save the word.

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Hellraisers Journal: “Barbarous Spokane” by Fred W. Heslewood from the International Socialist Review, Part I

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote Sheep Herder Anderson re Spk FSF, ISR p712, Feb 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday February 1, 1910
Spokane, Washington – Battleground of Great Fight for Free Speech

From the International Socialist Review of February 1910:

Barbarous Spokane
—–

By Fred W. Heslewood.
—–

[Part I of II]

Letter N, ISR p705, Feb 1910OT Mexico, but Spokane—the battleground of the greatest fight for Free Speech, Free Press, and Public Assemblage in America.

Where over four hundred men and women of the ranks of labor, using the weapons of Passive Resistance, are pitted against the law of brutality, tyranny, oppression and greed. Where the ancient methods of torture are being used to subdue the workers, who wish to safeguard the weapons of the dispropertied, disfranchised—yes, disinherited class. Where truth is crushed to earth, and where a lie is a wholesome morsel, and is relished by the arrogant and ignorant who do not want the truth. The truth hurts. It is a two-edged sword. It must be driven to the hilt. The people must be torn from their lethargy and made to realize that the boasted liberties of this country are fast being taken away.

Spk FSF, FW Beaten by Police, ISR p705, Feb 1910—–

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Hellraisers Journal: “We can keep up the fight all winter.” -Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Reports from Spokane Free Speech Fight

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

Hellraisers Journal – Friday December 3, 1909
Spokane, Washington – Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Reports from Scene of Battle

From the International Socialist Review of December 1909:

ISR IWW FSF, p483, Dec 1909

[Part I-Report from Spokane by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn]

Letter T, ISR p483, Dec 1909HE working class of Spokane are engaged in a terrific conflict, one of the most vital of the local class struggles. It is a fight for more than free speech. It is to prevent the free press and labor’s right to organize from being throttled. The writers of the associated press newspapers have lied about us systematically and unscrupulously. It is only through the medium of the Socialist and labor press that we can hope to reach the ear of the public.

The struggle was precipitated by the I. W. W. and it is still doing the active fighting, namely, going to jail. But the principles for which we are fighting have been endorsed by the Socialist Party and the Central Labor Council of the A. F. of L.

IWW Spk FSF JP Thompson, ISR p483, Dec 1909

The I. W. W. in Spokane is composed of “floaters,” men who drift from harvest fields to lumber camps from east to west. They are men without families and are fearless in defense of their rights but as they are not the “home guard” with permanent jobs, they are the type upon whom the employment agents prey. With alluring signs detailing what short hours and high wages men can get in various sections, usually far away, these leeches induce the floater to buy a job, paying exorbitant rates, after which they are shipped out a thousand miles from nowhere. The working man finds no such job as he expected but one of a few days’ duration until he is fired to make way for the next “easy mark.”

The I. W. W. since its inception in the northwest has carried on a determined, relentless fight on the employment sharks and as a result the business of the latter has been seriously impaired. Judge Mann in the court a few days ago remarked: “I believe all this trouble is due to the employment agencies,” and he certainly struck the nail on the head. “The I. W. W. must go,” the sharks decreed last winter and a willing city council passed an ordinance forbidding all street meetings within the fire limits. This was practically a suppression of free speech because it stopped the I. W. W. from holding street meetings in the only districts where working men congregate. In August the Council modified their decision to allow religious bodies to speak on the streets, thus frankly admitting their discrimination against the I. W. W.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Spokane Industrial Worker: “Free Speech Fight is On” -IWW Hall Raided, FWs Arrested

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote re IWW Spk FSF n Solidarity, IW p1, Nov 3, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday November 5, 1909
Spokane, Washington – “Free Speech Fight Is On”

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of November 3, 1909:

IWW Spk FSF, Come to Spk, IW p1, Nov 3, 1909—–

[From page 1:]

IWW Spk FSF, Defend Rights o Wkrs, IW p1, Nov 3, 1909—–

FREE SPEECH FIGHT IS ON IN SPOKANE
—–

With the end of the trial of James P. Thompson held in the Municipal court of Spokane Tuesday morning, November 2, the fight for free speech or the right to speak on the streets has started in earnest by the members of the union here in the city and many others that have arrived from all over the northwest.

Meetings were started in different parts of the city at about 1 o’clock in the afternoon and kept up till 5 o’clock in the evening; as one speaker was pulled off the box by the police another would take the stand for the purpose of being arrested. All told there were about 100 men arrested on Monday, including James Wilson, James P. Thompson, C. L. Filigno, A. C. Cousins, who were arrested on a warrant charged with criminal conspiracy. Also Mrs. Fernette was taken for street speaking, and Mrs. Arquette and Miss Huxtable were arrested in the raid made on the hall at 3 o’clock Monday afternoon.

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