Tag: Fresno Free Speech Fight of 1910-1911

Hellraisers Journal: From the Industrial Worker: “Fresno Police Show Brutality”-by Fellow Worker Jack Whyte

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote John Whyte, re Fresno Aroused Working Class, IW p1, Dec 22, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 7, 1911
Fresno, California – Brutal Police, Fellow Workers Not Weakening

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of January 5, 1911:

Fresno FSF, 500 Men Wanted, Bnr HdLn IW p1, Jan 5, 1911

FRESNO POLICE SHOW BRUTALITY
———-

THE TRUTH JUST IN-MORE POLICE BRUTALITY-HELL IN FRESNO.
MEN ARE NOT WEAKENING.
———-

[-by Jack Whyte]

Fresno FSF, Plea for Men fr Jack Whyte, IW p1, Jan 5, 1911The last week has been a very busy one amongst the members on the firing line. The workers have been treated to all kinds of Christmas presents by their kind Christian masters, even your fellow members laying in jail. They had a hunger strike. Were treated to the Water Cure, first by the jailor and then by the fire department. They were compelled to walk around all night up to their knees in water, and then we had the slimy, reptile press of this city tell us the reason we were handed all those presents was that we used vulgar and obscene language towards the sheriff and his lackeys. (Great joke, isn’t it?) The following is the facts about the so-called riot and what led up to it.

On December 22 the police arrested a Frenchman (not a Mexican , as the papers stated), and charged him with drunkenness. When they brought him into the jail he was handcuffed. Four officers jumped on him, beating him up unmercifully. Our boys protested and they also protested against the actions of the sheriff, who stood idly by and made no attempt to stop this one-sided battle. This poor drunk was so badly beaten up that they did not dare take him up to court the next morning. For telling the sheriff and his lackeys what they thought of him, the boys were put on a bread and water diet, which they refused, preferring to go on a hunger strike.

At 3 p. m. on the 23d I was arrested and charged with vagrancy ad was an eyewitness and partaker of all that happened to the boys on December 23. 

At 4 p. m. they came around with the bread. The boys refused it. Some one proposed that we SING THE RED FLAG FOR SUPPER. We did. We kept on singing until a crowd of citizens gathered around the jail. We took this opportunity of addressing them through the bars. It was the largest street meeting we every had in Fresno. This was too much for the sensitive nerves of Day Jailor Jones. He proceeded to quiet the boys in the usual brutal way. He came down to the bull pen and turned the fire hose on the boys. We protected ourselves as best we could, using the mattress and blankets for a barricade. After playing this hose on the boys for two hours they only laughed at him for his trouble. He then called out the fire department. Then the trouble started.

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Hellraisers Journal: The Appeal to Reason: Mrs. W. F. (Emma) Little Reports from Fresno: “They Are Mobbing Workers”

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote Emma Little, re IWW Fresno FSF Mob Attack of Dec 9, AtR p3, Dec 31, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 1, 1911
Fresno, California – “They Are Mobbing Workers” by Mrs. Emma Little

From the Appeal to Reason of December 31, 1910:

They Are Mobbing Workers

Fresno, Cal., December 13-Friday night [December 9th] Fresno mob attacked I. W. W. members who were speaking on the street and severely beat them. The mob then proceeded to the I. W. W. camp. The boys on the street rushed out to our house [home of Fred and Emma Little], then on out to camp, to give the boys in camp what warning they could.

I could hear the autos going past our house right behind the boys. Shortly after the autos passed I could bear the yell, the mob yell.

IWW Fresno FSF, Mob Attacks, FMR p1, Dec 10, 1920

They burned down the tent and then they took a vote on whether or not they should burn our house. They decided not. Then they proceeded back to town, stood around town awhile, then went to the jail and demanded the prisoners. This request was refused, and shortly after the mob dispersed.

Friday afternoon Murdock, one of the I. W. W. speakers, was tried for vagrancy before Judge Briggs by a jury of business men. Murdock was a well-dressed, well educated man, who, it was proved, was employed by and receiving a salary from the I. W. W. as organizer. The jury convicted him of vagrancy. Judge Briggs put off sentencing him until the next day.

When Murdock came to receive his sentence the next day, Briggs stated that he liked Murdock, but as he was one of the instigators of last night’s trouble he would have to sentence him 180 days (six months).

For weeks the papers have been urging the citizens to form a mob and drive the I. W. W. from the country. The I. W. W. had violated no law. They had lived quietly and peaceably in their own little canvas homes. The officers bad no excuse for molesting them.

Mayor Rowell, the saloon champion, owns the Republican, or most of it. A short time before the day of the mob the Republican said that in Portersville, a small town about thirty miles from here, the citizens had formed a committee and requested the I. W. W. to leave; and that the I. W. W. had immediately left. The paper suggested that would be good tactics to pursue here. The whole article was a tissue of lies. The I. W. W. was not driven out of Portersville. The article and many more along that line were written for the sole purpose of making a mob spirit.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Spokane Industrial Worker: “500 Men Wanted in Fresno, California, Immediately”

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote John Whyte, re Fresno Aroused Working Class, IW p1, Dec 22, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday December 31, 1910
On to Fresno! – Call Goes Out for 500 Fellow Workers to Join Free Speech Fight

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of December 29, 1910:

Fresno FSF, Bnr HdLn, 500 Men Wanted Immediately, Spk IW p1, Dec 29, 1910

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Hellraisers Journal: Fresno Jailers Turn Fire Hoses on Fellow Workers, Jailed for Fighting for the Right to Speak in Public

Janet RayeFrank Little
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Quote John Whyte, re Fresno Aroused Working Class, IW p1, Dec 22, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 27, 1910
Fresno, California – Jailed Fellow Workers Given “Water Cure” 

From The Fresno Morning Republican of December 24, 1910:

Fresno FSF, re Water Cure, FMR p1, Dec 24, 1910

As the result of a second hostile demonstration in two days on the part of eighty Industrial Workers of the World, a fire hose attached to engine No. 5 was brought into play at 6 o’clock last night at the jail. For twenty minutes the howling prisoners put up a frenzied but futile resistance, and were finally subdued. This method of enforcing discipline within the confines of the jail proved effective and half an hour later the men informed Sheriff Chittenden that they would respect prison rules in the future.

From early morning until 6:30 last night the I. W. W.’s stormed within the jail. The riot was continuous and the authorities were powerless in their efforts to quell the raving Industrialists.

One minute they were singing their “Red Flag” song and the next they were climbing up the bars of the “bull pen” cursing and fuming. Not content with abusing officers and yelling with all the strength their lungs afforded, the men rushed to the windows and hurled insulting remarks to men, women, and children who were passing through the court house park.

Riot Lasts All Day.

The second riot started at 8 o’clock yesterday morning when the trusties appeared at the bull pen with a quantity of bread and water. The obscene demonstration of Thursday night, when the eighty I. W. W.’s wilfully broke the jail rules, resulted in an order from Sheriff Chittenden to place the men on a bread and water diet.

When breakfast arrived the Industrialists rebelled and the sight of the loaves of bread and buckets of water fanned the flames of fury within them. As the bread passed in the men in a long line accepted the loaves. After all had been served the riot began. As if from a gattling gun the loaves were hurled at the trusties and Major Ed Jones, day jailer. In the afternoon at 4 o’clock the men were again offered bread and water but they refused to eat a bite and declared with a shower of oaths that they would starve to death before they would partake of a bite of bread.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Spokane Industrial Worker: “Capitalist Sluggers in Fresno” -Mob Destroys IWW Camp

Janet RayeFrank Little
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Quote Frank Little, Fresno Jails Dungeons, FMR p6, Sept 2, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday December 22, 1910
Fresno, California – Mob Destroys I. W. W. Camp as Police Stand By

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of December 15, 1910:

Fresno FSF, Telegram StJ CRTN re Mob Attack, IW p1, Dec 15, 1910

———-

Fresno FSF, HdLn Capitalist Sluggers in Fresno, IW p1, Dec 15, 1910

Again we have been taught another lesson in LAW AND ORDER. On Dec. 7, F. H. Little, secretary of the I. W. W. local in Fresno was tried in that city on a charge of DISTURBING THE PEACE. Disturbing the peace meant to use his constitutional rights to address an audience of workers or whoever wished to stop and listen to him expound the teachings of the I. W. W. At the trial of Little it was discovered (after men had been tortured in the cells of the Fresno jail for breaking LAWS) that there was no LAW in Fresno denying a man FREEDOM OF SPEECH. Fellow Worker Little was acquitted and it was then up to the authorities to release all the prisoners from the dungeons, where they had been tortured with the fire hose and other barbarous methods. The following dispatch to the Spokesman-Review from Fresno proves our statement:

The Industrial Workers of the World have won their fight for “free speech” in Fresno and are speaking throughout the city advocating the principles of their organization, while the police, helpless to interfere, are merely watching to see that none of the agitators incite rioting.

The victory was due to the discovery today that the ordinances of the city do not prohibit speaking on the streets without a permit. Police officials say that probably the 49 I. W. W. speakers now in the county jail will be liberated tomorrow.

Several of the prominent merchants here have advocated the organization of a citizens’ committee to force the industrialists out of the city, but no one has been willing to take the initiative.

The headquarters of the organization, just outside of the city limits, was the scene of jollification this evening , over the acquittal of F. H. Little, secretary of the organization, on a charge of disturbing the peace.

When the authorities could find no legal way to stop FREEDOM OF SPEECH they began to throw out hints to the Citizen’s Alliance and other thugs to go at it themselves and clean out the I. W. W. men with violence. The following dispatch to the Spokesman-Review on the 9th again bears out our statement that the respectable mob was invited to do bodily harm to our members, and probably murder in cold blood:

Following an order given by the chief of police to all patrolmen to allow members of the I. W. W. to speak unmolested on the streets of Fresno, and a statement that the citizens might do as they wished, a large mob gathered in this city tonight about 7 o’clock, attacked and severely beat a number of industrial workers, who sought to speak, and then marched to the I. W. W. camp, outside the city limits, and burned a big tent in which the members lived, together with all the supplies kept there.

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Hellraisers Journal: Fresno Free Speech Fight Continues: Jailed Fellow Workers Get Water Cure; Pimps Get Turkey Dinner

Janet RayeFrank Little
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Quote Frank Little, Fresno Jails Dungeons, FMR p6, Sept 2, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday December 12, 1910
Fresno, California – “Water Cure for Workers; Turkey for Pimps”

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of December 8, 1910:

IWW Fresno FSF, Jail Workers v Pimps, IW p1, Dec 8, 1910

Fighting for the right to tell the truth to workers so that they will organize and put an end to this CLASS STRUGGLE is no play for children. The rich are rich by virtue of the fact that the great mass of the people are IGNORANT.  It pays to keep the workers in IGNORANCE, as no one recognizes the old axiom that KNOWLEDGE IS POWER any better than the parasites that revel in luxury from the toil and misery of others. Under the guise of PATRIOTISM  the children are taught to murder each other in the name of their country when in reality they have no country and are fighting for the boss. Under the guise of the GOLDEN RULE they are taught to suffer on earth, and that the more they surfer and starve on earth the better off they will be after they die. Ay one who preachers this SPOOK DOCTRINE  will never be cast into jail even if all the street cars in America are stopped because of the crowd.

That I. W. W. men want to block the streets and obstruct traffic is an absolute lie. This bunk was peddled daily by the Spokane lying capitalist press, while at the same time religious organizations were having free use of the streets. This same bunch of LIES is being peddle now in Fresno, where the fight for Free Speech is on. I. W. W. men in jail have had the hose turned on them by the POLICE for singing the Marsellaise. The capitalist press of Fresno is a unit in endorsing the actions of the police in this matter. One daily paper of Fresno gleefully tells how the prisoners were floating around in the water, but yet they sang the Marsellaise.

In another department of the jail were PIMPS that were arrested for dealing WHITE SLAVES. They were fed on good food and were given daily papers and tobacco, and were furnished with good beds. The WHITE SLAVE TRAFFIC is a product of capitalism. The I. W. W. is the result of the best thoughts and intelligence of the workers who rebel against the rule of the master.

The CAPITALIST CLASS knows that if the workers are organized on the lines laid down by the I. W. W. that the smoke it off with them. Among the men in jail in Fresno for Free Speech is an old man 81 years of age. He was put through the horrors of the water cure with the younger men. This old white-headed man stands for Freedom on earth. The crawling coward that will stand for all the insults and misery that is handed out to him on earth, believing that he will be better off after death, is too despicable a thing to notice. When are we to profit by the torture that is being dealt out to us in the lousy cells of the master class? Fall in around the banner, boys, and organize to put the PARASITES to work doing something useful. The day of reckoning is yet to come. Down with  IGNORANCE.

———-

[Emphasis and paragraph breaks added.]

IWW Fresno FSF, Telegram Jack Whyte, IW p4, Dec 8, 1910

———-

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Hellraisers Journal: Fresno Free Speech Fight Back On; Frank Little Among Many Fellow Workers Arrested and Jailed

Janet RayeFrank Little
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Quote Frank Little, Fresno Jails Dungeons, FMR p6, Sept 2, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 6, 1910
Fresno, California – Free Speech Fight Renewed; Fellow Workers Arrested

From The Fresno Morning Republican of November 30, 1910:

Fresno FSF IWW Renews, FL Arrested, FMR p1, Nov 30, 1910

The Long threatened clash between the Industrial Worker of the World and the local police materialized last night. Twenty-four of the followers of the red flag were lodged in jail by Chief Shaw and a squad of ten policemen.

The expected invasion began at 6 o’clock and continued till 9 when the 34th agitator was taken into custody. During these three hours the police department was never busier in the history of Fresno. As fast as central could ring the bell at police headquarters, Night Desk Sergeant Frank Truax was kept busy jotting down the various corners in the downtown section where the I. W. W.’s were trying to make speeches. Several of the “red shirts” were making wild-eyed speeches to a handful of men. At H and Kern streets two were talking at the same time from soap boxes to a half dozen listener.

Among the twenty-four arrested were three of the leaders, James Murdock, C. L. Fligino [Filigno] and F. H. Little. Yesterday morning Chief Shaw appeared in the police court and swore to complaints charging Murdock and Fligino with vagrancy. It is said that they receive no compensation from the Industrial Workers. In fact, Murdock and Fligino admit that they are speaking for the “good of the cause.”

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Spokane Industrial Worker: “Fresno Free Speech Fight Is Re-opened-On To Fresno”

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote Frank Little, Fresno Jails Dungeons, FMR p6, Sept 2, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday November 26, 1910
Fresno, California – I. W. W. Declares Free Speech Fight Re-opened

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of November 24, 1910:

IWW Fresno FSF Re Opened, IW p1, Nov 24, 1910

From The Fresno Morning Republican of November 23, 1910:

COUNTY INSTITUTIONS TO HAVE THANKSGIVING
TURKEY FEASTS
——-
School Children of Fowler Send 1-2 Ton 

Fruit to County Orphanage.
——-
Jail Prisoners Only Ones Who Will 

Not Taste Turkey and Pie
——-

Thanksgiving cheer will gladden the hearts of the inmates of the various county institutions tomorrow, all excepting tho prisoners in the county jail. Visions of the voluntary incarceration of the I. W. W. “martyrs” still afflict the officers in charge of “La Maison Fresno” and they strenuously deny any attempt to make jail life attractive with the garnishings of the American holiday. So if any prisoners partake of turkey it will be through the instrumentality of “Kangaroo Court,” the co-operative fund established by the prisoners, or through the assistance of friends…..

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Spokane Industrial Worker: “Fresno Fight Postponed” -Message from Jungle Press Committee

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote Frank Little, Fresno Jails Dungeons, FMR p6, Sept 2, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday November 10, 1910
Fresno, California – I. W. W. Free Speech Fight Has Been Postponed

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of November 9, 1910:

FRESNO FIGHT POSTPONED
—————

Dont Buy Jobs, IW p4, Oct 19, 1910
Industrial Worker
October 19, 1910

Fellow Workers: The fight for free speech has been postponed. On the 2d. of November the boys all came out of jail. Their excuse was that there were not enough men. It is true, the men were coming in awful slow, but they were coming. Public sentiment was changing in our favor, and if the men had stuck we would have won out. This fight is important and we must win or the I. W. W. will feel the painful consequences all over the west. Until we erase this blot from our crimson banner we must hang our heads in shame. If they can suppress our street meetings, they can also suppress our hall meetings and will hound us at every step.

We are not going to try to coax or persuade anyone to take part in this fight. If this fight is won it will be won by Industrial Unionists. The Industrial Unionist is the man who practices a large part of what he preaches. He does not walk around with a chip on his shoulder, telling the timid and modest members what he knows and what he would do in each and every case and what a splendid fighter he is. No, he is sadly lacking in these eminent virtues. Somehow he can never spare the time for it. Some few have a faint suspicion that he is too busy practicing or trying to practice Industrial Unionism. About half the men who went to jail here are pretty fair Industrial Unionists.

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Hellraisers Journal: Fresno Claims Victory in City’s Fight Against Free Speech for Industrial Workers of the World

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote Frank Little, Fresno Jails Dungeons, FMR p6, Sept 2, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday November 9, 1910
Fresno, California – City Claims Victory Over Industrial Workers of the World

From The Fresno Morning Republican of November 3, 1910:

Fresno FSF, IWW Beaten Leave County, FMR p6, Nov 3, 1910

Fresno has won its battle to govern the right of free speech.

The city ordinance which prohibits speech-making on the public streets without a permit from the chief of police holds good and the Industrial Workers of the World are the ones who discovered that the law is iron-clad.

A month’s fight against the city authorities ended at 10 o’clock yesterday morning, when fifty-three members of the I.W.W. left the local jail and marched to police court, where they entered individual pleas of guilty and were released from custody with a suspended sentence of ninety days hanging over each man. Three I.W.W.’s “double-crossed” their fellow workers and pleaded not guilty, after promising to go into court and abide by the decision of the majority. This trio was returned to jail.

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