Hellraisers Journal – Sunday December 10, 1911 “FREE SPEECH must be established in Aberdeen! ON TO ABERDEEN!!”
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of December 7, 1911:
We will now sing that touching hymn entitled “Throw a Little Dough Upon the Drum.”
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ABERDEEN FULL OF THUGS —————
A LULL IN THE STORM -700 AUTHORIZED THUGS TO STOP FREEDOM OF SPEECH -MAYOR PARKS THREATENS TO MURDER. —————
ABERDEEN, Wash., Dec. 1.-Aberdeen is quiet after the storm. The I. W. W.’s have left, and can’t come back now if they want to. In fact, they did petition the mayor for permission to return peaceably, and were refused. So say the citizens.
Sympathizers with the organization, however, say guardedly that the “woods are full” of I. W. W.’s waiting for the proper time to strike a second blow against the town which, they say, has denied them the right of free speech.
The bustling lumber town is in a hubbub of excitement. The recent “invasion” is the topic of conversation on every street corner. Every one is aroused. “Aberdeen for law and order,” is the motto.
The 700 citizen police are still in authority and have their hickory ax handles and stout wagon wheel spokes handy in case they are needed again. The town is unnaturally quiet-like the calm before a storm. Serious men realize that the war may not yet be ended, and are waiting.
When the first skirmish took place five men mounted soap boxes on prominent street corners and demanded the right to preach their doctrine wherever they pleased. They were arrested. The next night 150 men wearing red tags made a demonstration before the city jail in favor of their imprisoned comrades. City officials ordered out the fire department and the crowd of I. W. W.’s and many bystanders were soaked with water. Several arrests followed. Friday Mayor Parks gave the oath to 500 special police. The number has since been swelled to 700. The I. W. W.’s attempted to hold a meeting in the Empire theater and the hardest struggle of the week took place. Citizen police patrolled all streets in squads and arrested every man they could find wearing the red tag of the I. W. W.’s. The meeting was dispersed.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday December 1, 1911 I. W. W. Free Speech Fight On in Aberdeen, Washington
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of November 30, 1911:
The Spokane local of the Industrial Workers of the World is to rush 100 of its members to Aberdeen, Wash., to fill the jails of that town. They will help in a street speaking agitation now being waged there.
A telegram from Aberdeen Wednesday to the local secretary, W. A. Douglass, stated the fight was on and urged that all available men in Spokane start immediately. The communication stated the organizer and secretary of the Aberdeen local were already in jail for street speaking.
Reports from Portland, Ore., tell of an outbreak of “soap box orators” in that city. In conference Wednesday the chief of police and Commissioner Coffey decided to jail all speakers creating street demonstrations. The Spokane local says men will be rushed to the Rose city immediately, if necessary.-Spokane “Chronicle.”
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Reinforcements From Vancouver.
VANCOUVER, B. C., Nov. 24.-At the local headquarters of the I. W. W. it was declared tonight that 368 men are going from here to Aberdeen, Wash., to participate in the free speech fight there.-“Spokesman-Review.”
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday November 11, 1911 Kansas City, Missouri – Walker C. Smith Describe I. W. W. Victory
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of November 9, 1911:
KANSAS CITY HAS BEEN PLACED ON THE MAP —————
(Walker C. Smith)
Kansas City is built on a bluff, but they can’t bluff the I. W. W.
The I. W. W. has succeeded in putting K. C. on the map and today in that hilly village the principal topic of conversation in the One Big Fighting Union of the working class. It is conceded that the authorities had to back down and they made quite a neat job of it. Chief of Police Griffin, Judge Burney and Clark, together with the public persecutor, saved their face through the medium of the Board of Public Welfare. The board consists of well meaning, old fossils, recently retired from the cockroach strata of society, who spend their time and the “dear public’s” money in sprinkling cologne on the dunghills of capitalism or in poulticing boils on the body politic. With the threat of “ONE THOUSAND MEN FOR THANKSGIVING DINNER AT LEED’S FARM” haunting them like a specter, these souphouse reformers went straight up in the air, Kansas City under normal conditions cannot care for its “unfortunates” and the present business depression, coupled with threatened I. W. W. invasion made these sentimental gentlemen throw up their lily white hands in holy horror.
On Wednesday night with six arrests, the “hobo agitators” numbered two dozen. These boys were kangarooed to the tune of $500 each for which they thanked the judge in sarcastic terms. One of them, charged with speaking on the street so as to blockade traffic, stutters so it took him several minutes to tell his name and occupation.
Trifles like this, however, never block the road of capitalist justice. This last haul filled all available space at the municipal farm and since then no further arrests have been made although the meetings are being held exactly as heretofore. On Friday night the speaking started at Sixth and Main, as usual, and the box was moved up to 12th and Grand. This is the busiest section and the crowd that had followed the speakers and singers, together with those who quickly gathered, became so large as to block traffic for the first time. Coyle, Saunders, Lyons and myself were the speakers and the cop on the beat-well, he beat it accompanied by the jeers of the crowd. Saturday was spent in putting out “Bulletin No 1,” which was a statement of the position of the I. W. W.
On Saturday morning G. E. B. member Tom Halero and I, went to the board to get permit to see the boys on Sunday. We were told to return at 3 p. m. and upon doing so were taken down to the office of the chief of police. Some of the members of the board were there and they endeavored to maneuver it into a conference with Halero and myself protesting that we had no power to take action and telling them that the men in jail were the only ones who could settle the fight. Not withstanding this the conference continued for three hours and assumed the appearance of a treaty council between equal powers. It conclusively demonstrated the tremendous power of organized might and clearly showed that we are building the new society within the shell of the old. We are gaining general recognition as a fighting force disputing control with the powers that be…..
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday November 9, 1921 Walter T. Nef Writes from Leavenworth Penitentiary
From Then Messenger of November 1921:
MISCARRIAGEOFJUSTICE
[by Walter T. Nef] (Continued)
OnJuly16, 1916,Ilefttheofficein Philadelphia andwenttoworkasalongshoremanandworked mostofthetimeonammunitionandpowder, general cargoforMurphy,Cook&Co.,andsometimes on lumber,towhichIcanget manymemberstotestify. TherehavebeennoexplosionsonthedocksofPhiladelphiaoronanyshipsoutofthatportandall the ammunitionwasloadedbymembersoftheI.W.W.andtherewerenoguardsonthedocks.The head foreman, called “Billboro,” cantestifytomy work asalongshoreman. BesidestherearemanymemberswhocantestifytomypositioninregardtoGermany andthewar.
AsIstatedbeforeHonorableJudgeK.M.Landis before sentencewaspassed, Iknowofnoconspiracy andiftherehadbeenaconspiracyagainstthegovernmentthenexplosionsandobstructions would havetakenplace. Buttherewerenone. We had lotsofmembersonthePanamaLine, whichis under governmentcontrol, andtherewasnotrouble. Besidesthememberslikedtoworkonthoseboatsand notimewaslostonanytrips. TheBulletinstestify tothis,Ithink. TheBulletinswerepublished in “Solidarity,” Ithink, and“Solidarity”wasintroducedasevidence.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday November 8, 1911
Kansas City, Missouri – Twenty-Four Fellow Workers Released from Leeds Farm
From The Kansas City Times of November 6, 1911:
THE I. W. W. SAY GOOD-BY. ——— A Few of the Street Speakers Who
Remain Here Have Gone to Work.
Most of the twenty-four members of the Industrial Workers of the World who were paroled last Wednesday from the Leeds Farm have left the city for warmer climes. A few have obtained work in the city and say they will remain here until another free speech fight calls them away.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday October 29, 1911 Kansas City, Missouri – Fellow Worker Frank Little Sent to County Farm
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of October 26, 1911:
The long threatened fight with the city authorities is on in real earnest. On Saturday, October 14th [Saturday], the blue coated minions of “law and order” came up to our open air meeting at Missouri and Main streets and without giving any warning arrested the speaker, F. H. Little. The then turned to other members and asked if they were leaders,. When they were informed that we had no leaders in the crowd they stated that being a member of the I. W. W. was enough, and so they arrested all who admitted membership. After laying in jail over Sunday the the seven I. W. W. men who were arrested were treated to a burlesque show in the shape of a kangaroo court presided over by Judge Burning. “His honor” listened to a cockroach business man telling that the thought that we were unfair (how horrible Archie) in our statements…
Fellow Worker Little asked for a jury trial which was denied. The “kangaroo” said, “I know what you men want and I don’t want to be bothered with you this winter and I am not going to stand for any stump speeches.” Little told the court why we were organized and the reason he wished a jury trial was so he could be tried in a real court….
Little then went on explaining to the judge the purposes of the I. W. W. and in the middle of a sentence the judge cut him off with “You are fined $25.00 and rest $10.00 each.” Little and the writer were the only ones allowed to say a word in our own defense. Fellow Workers [Albert V.] Roe, [J.] McGuire, [H. D.] Montgomery, [G. W.] Reeder and [Carl] Strobach were kangarooed without saying a word in their own defense…..
After we had gone back to the jail a delegation from the local saw his honor and after telling im that we intended to have free speech he decided to reconsider his former action and he discharged us all but Fellow Worker Little. …
Little left for county farm this morning…This attempt to do away with the selling of I. W. W. literature and street speaking must be met with determined opposition. Men are needed. We are sure they will be found.
Nunca Olvidamos: Tomás Martínez, 1893-1921, Class-War Prisoner -Died October 23, 1921, after Deportation to Guadalajara, Mexico
Photograph of Tomás Martínez, sent to Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, shortly before his death.
From Iron in Her Soul by Helen C. Camp, page 95:
Thomas Martinez was deported to Mexico after he left the Kansas penitentiary in the spring of 1921. He arrived there very ill, suffering from tuberculosis-“which I suppose I took from the jail of Free America”-and the effects of a botched appendectomy. The Mexican IWW gave him a little money, as did [Elizabeth Gurley] Flynn, and the Workers’ National Prison Comfort Club branch in Milwaukee sent him two union suits and a pair of shoes. A friend of Martinez sent Elizabeth a photograph taken of him shortly before he died in October of the same year.
[Emphasis added.]
From “Red Scare Deportees” by Kenyon Zimmer:
Tomás Martínez (Thomas Martinez)
Born 1893, Mexico. Miner. 1905, a founding member of La Unión Liberal Humanidad in Cananea, which was affiliated with the new Partido Liberal Mexicano (PLM) and helped lead the 1906 Cananea miners’ strike. Member of several more PLM-affiliated groups. Migrated to the US circa 1907; active in Morenci, Arizona; helped plan and joined the PLM’s cross-border invasion of Baja California in 1910. Taken prisoner by Carranza’s forces and ordered executed, but escaped. 1914 organizing miners in Cananea; denounced and expelled as a “Huerta supporter,” leading to a strike of 2,500-3,000 miners until he was allowed to return. 1915-1918 active in IWW and PLM activities in Arizona and Los Angeles. Wrote numerous articles for the IWW’s paper El Rebelde (1915-1917). Arrested Miami, Arizona, March 1918; convicted to two years in Leavenworth Penitentiary and a $500 fine for violation of the Espionage Act [convicted of having literature of seditious nature]. Contracted tuberculosis while in prison, and a botched operation resulted in septicemia. Upon his release, detained for deportation but he petitioned to be allowed to leave what he called “the Jail of Free America” to another country at his own expense for fear that he would be executed for his past revolutionary activities if returned to Mexico; his petition was denied and he was deported in 1921; according to one report, “When he was finally shipped across the border he was more dead than alive.” Furthermore, he wrote to a friend in the US, “When I arrived at the border, they left me naked, they burned my clothes and shoes.” He never recovered, and died in Guadalajara, October 23, 1921. Comrades buried him with a headstone reading: ¡Nunca olvidamos! (We Never Forget!).
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