Hellraisers Journal – Sunday August 28, 1910 Fresno, California – Fellow Workers Arrested for Speaking on Street
W. H. Little, secretary of Local 66, his wife, Emma Little, brother, Frank Little, and one other Fellow Worker, were arrested Wednesday evening, August 24th, for street-speaking. A call for assistance has been issued.
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
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W. F. Little Learns That His Brother Is
Doing 30 Days for Reading
Declaration of Independence.
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.
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[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.”
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday February 1, 1919
Sacramento, California – I. W. W. Defendants Silent Except for the Coughing
From The Liberator of February 1919:
The Silent Defense in Sacramento
By Jean Sterling
Silent Defenders
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“Do the defendants, not represented by attorneys, wish to interrogate the talesman?”
The court reporter held his pencil suspended. The forty-three defendants faced with mocking eyes and closed lips their jailers, prosecutors and the presiding judge.
“Do they wish to exercise the right of challenge?”
For a tense second the inexorable wheels of justice stopped turning. Some one had thrown a felt slipper in the cogs. The defendants gave the prospective juror not so much as a glance. They had read and yawned and gazed vacantly out of the high windows while the attorneys for the prosecution had been probing the talesman’s soul for any humane or modern ideas on the subject of labor.
Then, after a decorous silence, such as is observed in court procedures and funeral rites, the Judge said quietly, “If, then, there are no objections to the talesman, he may take his seat in the jury box.”
And so the juryman, an ancient rancher, the prophesy of the type to follow, took his seat.
And in this manner did the forty-three defendants, I. W. W.’s, now being tried in Sacramento, California, on charges of conspiracy, under the Espionage Act, open their “silent defense.”
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday December 12, 1918
Sacramento, California-Charges Dismissed Against Fred Little
Fred Little, brother of Martyred Fellow Worker, Frank Little, is now free, having had charges against him dismissed by federal prosecutors. Emma Little, wife of Fred Little, has also suffered her share of persecution. Her home has been invaded by federal agents, her children terrorized, and her papers seized. Yet she continues steadfast in her support for the imprisoned members of the Industrial Workers of World.
From the San Francisco Examiner of December 10, 1918:
JURY EXAMINED TO TRY I.W.W.
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Four of Seven Talesmen Examined
Passed Temporarily
and Three Are Excused.
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SACRAMENTO, December 9.-Questions as to what impressions they had formed from reading literature on the Industrial Workers of the World, news stories and other matter relating to the Bisbee deportations more than a year ago and who they thought responsible for the dynamiting of the executive mansion here December 17, 1917, were asked by counsel for three of the defendants in the Industrial Workers of the World conspiracy trial, which was begun here today.
Don’t worry, Fellow Worker,
all we’re going to need
from now on is guts.
-Frank Little
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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday October 3, 1918
Sacramento, California – Fellow Workers in Jail, Hungry and Cold
The federal trial of Sacramento members of the Industrial Workers of the World is set to begin in November (see article below.) Meanwhile, most of those arrested remain in jail under wretched conditions which has greatly undermined their health. Jail conditions are described:
They must sleep in relays due to crowded conditions with one cotton blanket given to each man to ward off the winter chill. Food consists of “two ounces of mush in the morning, less than two ounces of bread, and at night three fetid little smelts and less than two ounces of potatoes, with ‘coffee’ twice a day.” They are allowed to send out for food, bought and paid for with their own money, but when the meal arrives, it is placed before their cells, just out of reach, where they can watch it rot.
From the San Francisco Examiner of October 1, 1918:
I.W.W. TRIALS START NOV. 8
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All Cases in State to Be Consolidated for
Sacramento Hearing in U.S. Cases.
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John W. Preston, special assistant to the United States Attorney General, yesterday announced that the numerous I. W. W. cases, including the ones which are before the court in Los Angeles, have been consolidated for trial in Sacramento. There will be seventy-five defendants, charged with violation of the espionage law and obstructing the draft.
The case will not go to trial next week as was scheduled, but will be continued until November 8 by Federal Judge Wm. C. Van Fleet.
G. N. Murdock, special agent of the Department of Justice who prepared the evidence in the Chicago I. W. W. trials, has been assigned to take charge of the investigation in the present case, Deputy United States Marshal Thomas Mulhall, who has been conducting the collection of evidence, will be assigned other duties.
Hellraisers Journal, Thursday August 30, 1917
Fresno, California – Sister-in-Law of Frank Little Pens Poem
Emma Little, staunch supporter of the Industrial Workers of the World, lives in Fresno with her husband, Fred, brother of our martyred Fellow Worker, Frank Little. Emma and Fred have three children: Walter, Lawrence and Victoria.
Fresno was the scene of the famous Free Speech Fight of 1910-1911 in which Frank Little, along with Fred and Emma, played active and heroic roles.
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