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

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Quote EGF, Compliment IWW, IW p1, Nov 17, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday March 4, 1910
Spokane, Washington – Gurley Flynn Reports from Free Speech Fight, Part II

From the International Socialist Review of March 1910:

Latest News from Spokane
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ELIZABETH GURLEY FLYNN.
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[Part II of II.]

IWW Spk FSF, George Prosser, ISR p831, Mar 1910

Since the release of the majority charged with disorderly conduct, suits have been entered amounting to $120,000 against Chief of Police Sullivan, Captain of Detectives Burns, Captain Miles and Officers Shannon, Warner, Nelson and Jelsett. These suits are based upon the treatment the men received in the sweat box and the Franklin School. Every man injured will certainly cost the city of Spokane thousands of dollars before the fight is settled. The tax payers seem to have no sense of justice or humanity, consequently an appeal to their pocket-books as a last resort will be the most effective. The I. W. W. have already been forced to spend hundreds of dollars from the defense fund caring for sick and disabled members as they were discharged from custody. At the present time one man, George Prosser, is ill at the Kearney Sanitarium, two others, Ed. Collins and M. Johnson, are confined in local hotels with extreme cases of rheumatism, and Frank Reed is in the Washington Sanitarium ill with erysipelas.

This little fellow [Frank Reed] who, by the way is one of Uncle Sam’s ex-soldiers, went through the hunger strike at Fort Wright and but a few days after his release was re-arrested charged with criminal conspiracy and desecrating the flag. When he was taken ill he was allowed to remain for 48 hours without medical treatment and in a terrible delirium. County Physician Webb excused this ill-treatment by saying that Reed had been left in charge of a trustee, in other words-a fellow prisoner. He was put under the care of a special nurse and during the first 48 hours he was in an extremely critical condition. The cost to the I. W. W. for the first two days alone amounted to $166.00. This is not reported in any mercenary sense for dollars are of course not to be considered in the balance with the life of a revolutionist, but the extreme character of his suffering and the costly treatment that it required is a severe reproach to the standard of civilization attained in the Spokane County jail.

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

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Quote EGF, re Spk FSF, ISR p618, Jan 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday February 26, 1910
Spokane, Washington – The Affidavit of Fellow Worker J. C. Knust

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

KNUST’S AFFIDAVIT
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State of Washington, County of Spokane, ss.:

J. C. Knust, being first duly sworn on oath, deposes and says:

That I was arrested Nov. 3rd at the corner of Howard and First avenue by Officer Logan and a plain clothes man, while talking to a crowd of about 200 people.

Spk FSF, Leaders n Editors, IW p1, Nov 17, 1909

They knocked my hat off, jerked me along, holding me by the shirt collar and choking me. When I protested they hit me over the head.

Officer Logan said: “I suppose you have been in this country about two weeks.” I told him I had fought for my country and thought I had the right to speak on the streets of Spokane.

When we reached the jail they shoved me into the booking window. I was taken into a dark cell 7 feet high by 6½ feet wide and six feet long, with 17 other men.

We were unable to lie down with so many in the cell. Those that did lie down had to do so with their heads to the wall and their feet to the center of the cell and with their feet on top of each other and higher than their heads. The man underneath was naturally restless with the heavy load from the others upon him and was always anxious to get to the top of the pile.

The air in the cell was foul, with no sanitary facilities, no soap, towels, etc.

At 6 in the evening and seven in the morning we were given food, but few of us could eat it. They kept cutting down what little grab we had, until there was hardly anything to speak of.

One day I was taken into Judge Mann’s kangaroo court and after a farce trial was sentenced to thirty days.

I tried to give a full statement of how I was arrested by the Cossacks of Spokane, when Judge Mann stepped in and refused to let me continue.

I then tried to swear out a warrant against Officer Logan for assault and battery, but Mann refused to issue the warrant.

I was placed back in the cell, where we spent an awful night, the groaning and crying of the men being terrible.

Many men fainted and many were taken out unconscious, but the jail or hospital above began to be filled up so fast from those below that the jailer refused to heed our cries.

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