Tag: Frank Little

Hellraisers Journal: From Industrial Worker: Frank Little, Horse and Wagon Agitator, to Organize Ranches Near Fresno

Janet RayeFrank Little
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Quote Frank Little, re Fresno FS May, IW p2, June 11, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday August 1, 1910
Frank Little Calls for Good Agitators to Come to Fresno

From the Industrial Worker of July 30, 1910:

A HORSE AND WAGON AGITATOR.

[-by FW Frank Little]

IWW Dont Buy Jobs, IW p4, June 11, 1910

FRESNO, Cal., July 23.-To the Editor of I. W.-Am back in Fresno, and will take up the work of organizing the ranch employes and packing house employees. Will start out with horse and wagon and travel from ranch to ranch, holding meetings in all of the small towns. But we are up against a hard fight. The masters will do all in their power to keep us from organizing the slaves. The A. F. of L. is going to try to organize, and, of course, the masters will aid them to defeat the I. W. W., and they have the money to put their labor fakirs in the field, while the few of us who are trying to build up the I. W. W. have to depend on working for a master to make a jungle stake.

I have been sick for some time, but will get out and hustle now. I will try and hustle some subs for the Worker on my trip.

Now is the time for work in this valley. I. W. W. men can get work and we need some good job agitators to get out in the fruit country and get control of the boss and make the masters raise the wages; and also build up the organization. It can be done if all of us will get in and hustle.

So, fellow workers, let us keep the work going. Yours for action,

F. H. LITTLE.

———-

IWW Frank Little re Fresno n Hanford, IW p4, July 16, 1910

[Photograph, newsclip and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Frank Little Reports to Industrial Worker on Fight of Local 66 to Speak on Streets of Fresno, California

Janet RayeFrank Little
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Quote Frank Little, re Fresno FS May, IW p2, June 11, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday June 13, 1910
Fresno, California – Fellow Worker Little Reports on Fight to Organize Local 66

From the Industrial Worker of June 11, 1910:

IWW Dont Buy Jobs, IW p4, June 11, 1910

LIBERTY VS. THE LAW.

Fresno, Cal., May 29, 1910.

Editor Industrial Worker: The meeting of the I. W. W. in the public park today was suppressed by the county officials, backed by the uniformed thugs of the city. The constitution of the nation and state was stolen by the chief of police. The Industrial Worker was taken from one of the members. This park is supposed to belong to the people of Fresno county.

So you can see we are up against a big fight here in the near future. All fighters must prepare to come to Fresno when the call is sent out.

The chief of police says he will call on the G. A. R. and the Spanish War Veterans to wipe out the i. W. W.

Yours for Industrial Freedom,
F. H. LITTLE,
Organizer of the I. W. W.

———-

We are taking in new members every day, and the sentiment is strong for Industrial Unionism. We expect to do something here this summer, as this is one of the best places in the west for agitation. There are lots of Germans and Russians here and they are ripe for organization. The Mexicans, Japanese and Chinese are lining up.

We have a bunch of agitators here-English, Mexican, German and Japanese-and are stirring things up. The masters see that we are jarring the workers loose from their conservative ideas.

The papers have announced that the A. F. of L. will organize the laborers-that is, the white slaves. They are going to run the Japanese out of the country.

They are also going to organize the farmers and the farm employes into one union. Ye gods and little fishes! Just think. The man who sweats and toils out in the hot sun, the man who produces all things good and has nothing, to belong to the same union as his master, who does nothing and has all. But I think they will fail, for the blanket stiff who is forced to hike over the road and carry his home on his back is too wise for the A. F. of L. labor faker.

All Fellow Workers who are looking for a master and who want to do good work for the I. W. W. would do well to stop at this place. We need as many agitators in this part of the country as we can get, for we expect to tie up this whole country this fall. We have the silent strike on. It is on a job for the Southern Pacific. The slave drivers are wild-the slaves won’t work as hard as they want them to. We have a bunch of I. W. W. men on the job and we swill get control soon. Then we expect to give them a dose of I. W. W. direct action. So keep your eye on Fresno and watch Local No. 66 grow. Will send you a line from time to time and let you know what is doing. Yours for Freedom.

F. H. LITTLE

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Hellraisers Journal: From The One Big Union Monthly: Butte Miners’ “Picket Line of Blood” by Ralph Chaplin

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote re IWW Martyr Manning ACM Massacre, BDB p1, Apr 26, 1920———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday June 10, 1920
Butte, Montana – Metal Miners’ Honor Picket Line of Blood

From The One Big Union Monthly of June 1920:

ACM Massacre Butte, by Ralph Chaplin, OBU Mly p9, June 1920

“The Richest hill in the world” has once more been stained with the blood of workers. Its arrogant industrial autocrats of Butte have again taken refuge in murder to shield themselves from the organized power of the union miners. The lynching of Frank Little has been paralleled by the massacre on Anaconda road. Butte-naked, barren, black—the city of gun-men and widows, of “sweat-holes” and cemeteries, stands out before the world today a blot on what we call civilization. Machine guns and searchlights command the city from the heights. Armed soldiers guard the approaches to the mines and gun-men loiter at every corner, or whiz up and down the streets at all hours of the day and night. There is one place on Anaconda road where everything in sight has been riddled with bullets. The blood of the dead and wounded has hardly dried in the dust. Miners have been told in unmistakable language that their constitutional right to picket means nothing and that the will of the copper trust is mightier than the law of the land. Bloody Butte! It is an ignoble title—ignobly won. But it is a fitting title.

The overlords of Butte will not permit their right to exploit to be challenged. Drunk with unbridled power and the countless millions profiteered during the war, with lying phrases of “law and order” on their lips, the blood of workingmen dripping from their hands and the gold of the government bursting their coffers they face the nation unreprimanded and unashamed—reaction militant, capitalism at its worst. The copper trust can murder its slaves in broad daylight on any occasion and under any pretext. There is no law to call a halt. In the confines of this greed ruled city the gun-man has replaced the Constitution. Butte is a law unto herself.

This huge mining camp is typical of the present stage of capitalism. The parasites of big business, furious with the realization of their approaching doom, are striking at the working class more blindly,more ferociously and more frequently than ever before. Even their most savage anti-labor laws are proving themselves inadequate to darken the rising sun of solidarity.

The gunman and lynch-mob are more and more replacing the law as measures of labor repression. The old maxim “whom the gods would destroy they first make mad” is finding daily confirmation.

Holy grove, Ludlow, Calumet, Everett and Bisbee still stand as grewsome monuments to the White Terror in America. Butte has been added to the list for a second time. Armistice Day in Centralia is only a few month past yet we can no longer refer to it as “yesterday” but the day before. Yesterday was the massacre on Anaconda road. Nobody knows where the blow will fall tomorrow. Things are moving rapidly these days.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Butte Daily Bulletin: A. C. M. Gunthug Advocates for “Some More Killings and Hangings”

Janet RayeFrank Little
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Quote Frank Little re Guts, Wobbly by RC p208, Chg July 1917———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday April 22, 1920
Butte, Montana – Gunthug of Anaconda Copper Mining Co. Wants More Hangings

From The Butte Daily Bulletin of April 20, 1920:

HdLn Butte Gunmen Active, BDB p1, Apr 20, 1920

Alley Openly Urges Murder
—–

“The wobblies have got us tied up again. It wouldn’t be so bad if they only quit themselves but they are interfering with our loyal men.

We need some more killings and hangings here, and if there were any red-blooded Americans in the camp it would be done.”-Roy Alley, secretary to John D. Ryan of the A. C. M. in the Thornton Hotel barber shop about 9:30 yesterday morning.

So Roy Alley wants to hang someone AGAIN!

He wants some MORE killings and hangings!

WE need some more killings!

WHOM does Roy Alley mean by WE?

WHAT does he mean by MORE?

The Bulletin desires to call the attention of the county attorney to the fact that this individual-the distributor of the corruption fund of the Anaconda Mining Co.-is openly urging murder as a means of settling the strike of the miners.

We desire to call the attention of the federal authorities to the fact that this gentlemen is “preaching violence” and “defiance of constituted authority.”

The Bulletin also desires to call the attention of the county attorney to the fact that Mr. Alley said MORE hangings. To us this appears to indicate previous activities in that direction.

We do not believe that Roy Alley can be quite sane if he thinks that he or anyone else is going to settle anything by a few MORE murders.

More than that, if any of the strikers or their supporters are to be murdered by the thugs of the Anaconda Mining Co. as an example of red-blooded Americanism, Mr. Alley wants to be sure that he has enough troops in here at the time to keep him and his band of degenerate outlaws from the wrath of an outraged working class.

———-

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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: W. F. Little Learns His Brother Is Doing 30 Days in Spokane for Reading Declaration of Independence

Janet RayeFrank Little
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Quote re Frank Little Ready for IWW Spk FSF, Wenatchee Dly Wld p2, Nov 2, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 22, 1909
Fresno, California – Telegram from Spokane Tells of Free Speech Fight

From The Fresno Morning Republican of November 16, 1909:

TELLS OF SPOKANE INDUSTRIAL FIGHT
—–
W. F. Little Learns That His Brother Is
Doing 30 Days for Reading
Declaration of Independence.

Spk FSF, IWW Notices, Spk Prs p2, Nov 3, 1909

W. F. [“Fred”] Little, of the local union of Industrial Workers of the World, received an official communication from the Spokane local yesterday reciting the treatment of members of the order in Spokane in their fight with the city authorities. The letter gives this bit of personal news.

I understand that you are a brother of F. H. [“Frank”] Little, the hobo agitator, in jail in Spokane with 200 more as a result of the free speech fight. He was reading the Declaration of Independence on the street corner. He was sentenced to thirty days for this terrible crime.

The letter describes some of the Third Degree methods pursued by the police and jailors. It is related that the men are crowded into stuffy cells, without creature conveniences and the steam temperature was kept on one occasion at 100 degrees for a period of thirty-six hours in an effort to “break” the men.

Mr. Little yesterday took up a private collection among the local “Industrial Workers” to aid their brothers in their Spokane fight.

———-

[Insert added from Spokane Press of November 3, 1909.]

Fellow Worker Frank Little was also jailed during the Missoula Free Speech Fight, and described that experience for Industrial Worker of October 27th:

THE BEATING OF JONES BY
THE MISSOULA SHERIFF.

[-by F. H. Little]

On September 30th Fellow Workers Jones, Appleby [George Applebee], Tuchs [Herman Tucker] and myself were sentenced to 15 days each in the county jail. That night five more of the boys were arrested. The morning of October 1st, after breakfast, the prisoners called for a speech. We moved the table to the southwest corner of the jail. Jones got up and made a talk on Industrial Union. The sheriff sent in word not to talk so loud. So Jones lowered his voice. He talked for about five minutes, then we started to sing the “Red Flag.”

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Industrial Worker: “Free Speech Is Won in Missoula” by Fellow Workers Flynn & Jones

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Quote JA Jones, Victory Missoula FSF, IW p1, Oct 20, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday October 21, 1909
Missoula, Montana – FWs Flynn and Jones on Victory for Free Speech

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of October 20, 1909:

Banner, IWW Victory Msl FSF, IW p1, Oct 20, 1909

[From page 1:]

FREE SPEECH IS WON IN MISSOULA, MONT.
—–
[-by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn.]

IWW, Dont Buy Jobs ed, Industrial Worker p1, Oct 20, 1909

The I. W. W. in Missoula, Mont., has practically won its fight for free speech, as we are now speaking on the streets without being molested. We didn’t appeal to justice, but the taxpayers felt the pressure on their pocket-books and capitulated.

About 40 members have seen the inside of the Missoula jails during the last two weeks, giving this town a forcible example of the motto, “An injury to one is an injury to all.” Eight men served time; two women, Mrs. Frenette and myself, have each inhabited a cell in the county jail over night; the rest of the boys are all “enthusiastic defenders” of the city jail. At first the police were very full of fight, “blue moldin’ for a baitin’,” and every man was arrested and tried who attempted to speak. But when the night and day force had to get cut night after night and the number of arrests increased by leaps and bounds, they began to lose interest in the fun.

The last night there were 30 men in jail and the next night we had a list of 50 volunteers, when the police lay down and let our speakers continue. The 30 arrested demanded a jury trial each, and the judge said to me, “A little town like Missoula can not stand the expense.” The mayor got out of town to let the acting mayor settle the thing for the taxpayers, who have a steel bridge and a new court house a-building, and they began to howl about the expense. One breakfast for the I. W. W. boys alone cost the city $6.

The populace were very much in sympathy with the I. W. W. Our membership is growing steadily in spite of the A. F. of L. carpenters ordering their membership not to attend the I. W. W. meetings. One little newsboy stopped me on the street and gave me half a dozen papers “for the boys.” When we found that eating in restaurants was too expensive for the boys we put up Knust’s tent, appointed a cook and steward, and started co-operative “Mulligan stews. Bread was given freely by some socialist bakers, and even though the city government refused to feed its visitors we could have held out for a year, feeding them ourselves.

The chief of police himself arrested me on the charge of causing trouble, inciting a riot, etc. I was taken to the county jail and given an individual cell, designed for witnesses, I understand. It had a pile of old papers in one corner, an old slop-pail in another, some dirty food left from several days before, and during the time I was there, from 8 o’clock Sunday until 5 o’clock Monday, the jailer kept promising to clean it out, but the cleaning never materialized. The bonds for all the others were placed at $10 each, but bonds for me were placed at $50, so I must be quiet a dangerous criminal.

When Mrs. Frenette was arrested there was an enormous crowd followed her to the jail, and while not riotous, were certainly indignant. She was arrested for speaking. I was arrested for standing on the street corner asking a man to come to the hall meeting of the I. W. W. The arrest of us two women aroused the town all right.

ELIZABETH G. FLYNN.

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Hellraisers Journal: “Missoula Police Wage Brutal War on Free Speech” Report from Socialist Montana News, Part II

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Quote EGF, Western IWW Aggressive Spirit, IW p3, Aug 12, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday October 20, 1909
Missoula, Montana – City Wages Brutal War on Free Speech, Part II

From the Montana News of October 14, 1909:

Missoula FSF, Brutal, EGF to Bastile, MT Ns p1, Oct 14, 1909

[Part II of II.]

Sheriff Assaults Speaker.

Davis Graham, the republican sheriff of Missoula county, proved himself a tyrannical brute of the worst description by violently assaulting Organizer Jones when he was incarcerated within the jail. The assault was uncalled for and cowardly, and a stamped Graham as a man of violent and brutal instincts, only waiting a chance to wreak his vengeance on his political enemies. Jones was not only absolutely helpless but a very much smaller man than his assailant, and it is common rumor that Graham used a large iron key to emphasize his physical powers upon Jones.

Friday night the home wagon was run out and connected. The evening paper had announced that there would be at change of tactics, and this was discovered in the determination to turn the water on every speaker.

A nice, civilized method of enforcing th law! A method worthy of the Middle Ages! The violation of every democratic principle of liberty humanity has achieved. An insult and contempt thrown upon law and order by the people that have been put in office to uphold such things. How long will a deluded people vote for such things?

Such defiance of justice on the part of officials put a large portion of the crowd in a very radical maid toward the police. Upon playing the water pretty close to one corner of the street the crowd would not move. The hose play was a move that caused resentment in hundreds of people who were not of the Industrial Workers, or sympathizers.

The Fight Not Over.

The fight is not over. The union men are undaunted. Volunteers are on the way from various points of the west, to attempt free speech, to fill the jails, to work for political and industrial freedom.

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Hellraisers Journal: “Missoula Police Wage Brutal War on Free Speech” Report from Socialist Montana News, Part I

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Quote EGF, Western IWW Aggressive Spirit, IW p3, Aug 12, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 19, 1909
Missoula, Montana – City Wages Brutal War on Free Speech, Part I

From the Montana News of October 14, 1909:

Missoula FSF, Brutal, EGF to Bastile, MT Ns p1, Oct 14, 1909

[Part I of II.]

The city government of Missoula, the police the authorities, are making first-class fools of themselves in their efforts to violate the United States constitution, turn the American government upside down, become censors of public speech and keep the I. W. W. doctrine’s from being proclaimed.

In other words, the capitalist government of Missoula has plunged into the trap of forcibly controlling the protest and activity of the workers, and of upsetting all the guarantees of democracy to do so.

Campaign for Industrialism.

The Industrial Workers of the World brought their speakers into Missoula and began a campaign for the industrial form of unionism, such a as they hate been pushing with much vigor in various parts of the country. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn of New York, a most devoted promoter of this cause, has been touring the northwest all summer, pushing the I. W. W. doctrines with great vigor. Miss Flynn is an able speaker, has good organising ability and an immense amount of determination. Her husband, J. A. Jones, and other organizers and workers are with her.

The Industrial Workers do not mince words. They say what they have to say, and they say it on the street, and they keep on saying it. They talk the language of revolt against capitalism, they urge consolidation of the workers in order to get hold of all the means of industry, push the drones out of the way and have the product of their toll for themselves.

Free Speech Constitutional.

They know that the American constitution gives them the right to talk on the street. Free speech is one of the rocks on which the American government is founded. People have a right to express what opinions they please. If anyone feels injured by the opinions that another expresses he has the right to appeal to a court of adjudication, but he has no right to take the law into his own hands.

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Hellraisers Journal: Eye-Witness Account from Sacramento Courtroom: Fellow Workers “Were Led Back to Jail Singing”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Frank Little re Guts, Wobbly by RC p208, Chg July 1917—–

Hellraisers Journal – Friday February 7, 1919
Sacramento, California – Fellow Workers Sang Their Way Back to Jail

From The Butte Daily Bulletin of February 3, 1919:

43 I.W.W. RECEIVE THEIR SENTENCE
WITH A LAUGH

The Defiant Stand of Unionists in Sacramento Trial
Told in Eye-Witnesses’ Account.

WWIR, In Here For You, Ralph Chaplin, Sol Aug 4, Sept 1, 1917

An eye-witness’ account of the courtroom scene when 43 members of the I. W. W. were sentenced in Sacramento 10 days ago, after having maintained a “silence strike against capitalist justice” during the trial, has just been published by the New York defense committee, 27 East Fourth street, New York City. After being out only 70 minutes the jury brought in a verdict of “guilty as charged” against all of the defendants, showing that the case of each had been dispatched in a minute and a half.

The men seemed rather glad to have it over with, it is reported. There never had been any doubt in their minds as to what the verdict would be. As they were led out of the courtroom they sang “Solidarity Forever!”

The next morning, Jan. 17. the 43 “silent defendants” were brought in for sentence. The three who had refused to join in their decision to put up no defense were absent. “Have any of the defendants anything to say before I pass sentence?” asked Judge Frank H. Rudkin.

They had, indeed. Their pledge of silence, “in contempt of court,” was to last only until they had been convicted. Their tongues were now loosed. Eleven of them spoke, occupying the entire morning, during which time the 43 stood shoulder to shoulder before the court and delivered probably as scathing an arraignment of capitalist justice as has ever been voiced by workingmen.

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