Hellraisers Journal – Saturday February 25, 1911 Big Bill Haywood to Make Tour of Socialist Locals for the Review
From the International Socialist Review of February 1911:
INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW LECTURE BUREAU
FREE TO LOCALS
Our object in planning the Review Lecture Bureau is to increase the circulation of the INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW, to supply lecturers who are representative of revolutionary socialism—men and women who will drive home the things the REVIEW is trying to say to the working class, and to put some money into the local’s treasury [locals of the Socialist Party of America].
We have been fortunate in securing William D. Haywood to fill dates for us. Comrade Haywood has returned from his tour of Europe filled with enthusiasm for the growing solidarity of labor he has found in every country. No American has ever spoken to the enormous crowds in Europe that greeted Haywood every where he went. Stokers, dockers, boiler makers, thousands upon thousands of miners and other working men and women heard him and refused to go home when his meetings closed. “More, more”! was the cry that greeted Haywood wherever he spoke.
We have a plan whereby it will be possible for every Local in the country to have a Haywood date, without any expense to the Local. The comrades guarantee to take 500 admission tickets at 25 cents each. Each card is good for a three month subscription to the INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW, wherein Haywood hopes to repeat, drive home and clinch the arguments he makes in his lectures. This is the perfect propaganda. No man or woman ever grew sleepy at a Haywood lecture or forgot what Haywood said. They will get these things in permanent form in copies of the REVIEW.
The 500 tickets sold at 25 cents each, will be $125 of which we will pay $25 on hall rent, furnish posters, dodgers, and pay all of Haywood’s expenses. We will send FREE 200 copies of the current number of the REVIEW to be sold at the meeting for the benefit of the Local. The Local keeps the collection and literature sales. The Local takes half of all tickets sold over 500. Remember each admission ticket is good for a three-months’ subscription to the REVIEW. There is no better way to arouse the workingmen and women in your city than to get them to hear Haywood speak and to send copies of the REVIEW into their homes every month.
We are filling dates for Haywood in the central states at this time. Take up this matter with your local and write for a date NOW if you want to plan a lecture for February, March, or April. We will send on the cards, to be paid for on date of lecture.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday February 24, 1911 Fresno, California – Latest News from the Free Speech Fight
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of February 23, 1911:
THE LATEST FROM FRESNO. ———- City Would Like to Holler “Enough” -More Men Are Needed to Board With the County. ———-
Fresno Morning Republican February 2, 1911
The fight for Free Speech is still going on in Fresno. The men are all “stickers” and are determined to stick until they win. We have held two street meetings, Sunday, February 5 and 12. We had large crowds at both meetings, and the public sentiment is changing in our favor.
The city officials would like to quit, but they hate to lay down under fire. The city has enough, but hates to holler “quit.” Now that the fight has lasted as long as it has, they will never want to tackle the I. W. W. again. It is now up to the members to get to Fresno in strong enough numbers to FORCE the officials to “lay down.”
This has been a clean fight on our side and has been carried on by “Direct Action.” We want no compromise. Nothing but the unconditional surrender on the part of the city, and the release of all prisoners will go with us. I think after this fight is over we will have no more Free Speech fights for awhile. The officials of other cities will think twice before they tackle us.
I have been out of jail since February 1, when I was acquitted by a jury of farmers in four minutes on a charge of vagrancy. I have done some outside work since my release. Some of the boys will have jury trials on Friday. I will plead their cases, then speak on the streets and go to jail. Am getting homesick for my beans and raisins. Can’t stay out much longer. Wake up, boys. Come to Fresno and help whip the BOSS as he should be whipped. Meet us in the Fresno jail.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday February 14, 1911 Fresno, California – 94 Free Speech Fighters in Bullpen, 47×28 Feet
From the Appeal to Reason of February 11, 1911:
Court Crookedness in Fresno ———–
Some time ago the APPEAL printed a story about the fight on free speech at Fresno, signed by Mrs. W. F. [Emma] Little, a comrade of that city. The story resulted in Mrs. H. H. Roberts, of Connecticut, getting trace of a relative who had engaged in the fight and who was in jail at Fresno. F. W. Boyle, of Humboldt, Kan., and A. F. Boyle, of Dunneweg, Mo., also discovered that their cousin, Frank Little, was one of the prisoners of the free speech fight. The result has been a protest from various sections of the United States. It would be well for all acquainted with these parties and others to write to the chief of police and the police judge and the mayor of Fresno protesting against the imprisonment of these people. Following are some further facts furnished the Appeal relative to the fight by Comrade Mrs. Little:
Before the I. W. W. was organized at all the chief of police told my husband, “You mustn’t organize the common workers, for we have a raisin crop here that must be handled cheap. A painter belonging to the painters’ union here gets $4 a day and works eight hours. A man digging a ditch or picking raisins gets $1.50 to $2 a day and work ten hours. Both are out of work a good deal of the time.
In spite of the chief of police and his cheap raisin crop, my husband did his best to organize the common workers in the I. W. W., and shortly after a small local was formed. For some reason the chief of police got the idea into his head that the workers wouldn’t join the I. W. W. anyway, so he graciously allowed us to speak on the street. The chief was mistaken, and our local grew from fifteen to over a hundred in a couple of weeks. Then the chief took our permit to speak on the streets away from us. He informed my husband that he knew where his bread and butter came from.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 21, 1911 Fresno, California – 90 Fellow Workers Now Lodged in Unsanitary Jail
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of January 19, 1911:
FRESNO WEAKENING, WE MUST WIN ———-
HELP IS NEEDED IN FRESNO-FIGHT TO WIN
-ON TO FRESNO-SEND MEN AND MONEY. ———-
With 90 I. W. W. men in jail worrying the pin-headed city officials, the county officials are now refusing to pay any part of the expense of the fight.
“Der Chief” is bravely pushing his vagrancy charges and the noble “business juries” find all “GUILTY,” regardless of fact or condition. Any I. W. W. man is a ‘vag,” but that will last but a short time, as the tax payers are getting tired.
The last circular was widely read and is having quite an effect, for every word is known to be a fact.
A new sheriff and a new jail crew took charge on the second inst., and from all news to be had the boys are getting as good treatment as it is possible for men to get in jail.
The “FLOWER” of the I. W. W. is in jail here and you must not let them lose the fight; so do your best.
But few men are coming at present , and many of them are being deterred from going to jail by a few slimy “knockers,” who will not do anything themselves and seem to wish to keep others from doing anything.
Some of the locals are doing well with financial assistance, but so far the greater part goes for postage and for tobacco for the boys in jail. Fellow workers, boost hard and help all you can.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 7, 1911 Fresno, California – Brutal Police, Fellow Workers Not Weakening
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of January 5, 1911:
FRESNO POLICE SHOW BRUTALITY ———-
THE TRUTH JUST IN-MORE POLICE BRUTALITY-HELL IN FRESNO. MEN ARE NOT WEAKENING. ———-
[-by Jack Whyte]
The 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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———-The 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.
