Tag: Industrial Workers of the World

Hellraisers Journal: Testimony of Fellow Workers Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and C. L. Filigno at Spokane Free Speech Trial

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Quote EGF, Compliment IWW, IW p1, Nov 17, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday February 28, 1910
Spokane, Washington – Trial of Gurley Flynn and Filigno, Part II

From The Workingman’s Paper of February 26, 1910:

IWW Spk FSF, EGF Filigno Trial, HdLn Workingmns p4, Feb 26, 1910

[Part II of II.]

IWW Spk FSF, EGF Filigno Trial Verdict, Workingmns p4, Feb 26, 1910

The Jury

The first two days of the trial were taken up with impaneling the jury. It fell to Mr. Don Kiser’s lot to have charge of the prosecution’s side of this part of the performance.

About forty men were called before it was possible to get twelve men who were satisfactory. The vast majority were prejudiced against the I. W. W.; in fact, it was a surprise when a man would make the statement that he had formed no opinion concerning the case, or even when one would say he considered labor had a right to organize in order to better its conditions, etc.

Finally, however, by Friday afternoon the jury began to look like a jury and things were ready for taking up the testimony.

[The Prosecution’s Case.]

[Main witness for the prosecution were:

-Detective Martin J. Burns who testified that 20% of those arrested said no more than “Fellow Worker.”

-Chief Sullivan, witness for the prosecution, was unable to explain why foreigners who said no more than “Fellow-Workers” could draw such big crowds.

-“Floor-Spitter” Detective McDonald testified that the men he arrested were all foreigners whose names he could not remember nor pronounce.]

Defense Opens

At 3:30 [Tuesday February 15th] Mr. Symmes addressed the jury, and on request of defense court adjourned at about 4, to take up defense testimony in the morning.

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Hellraisers Journal: The Spokane Trial of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and C. L. Filigno by Bessy Fiset for Workingman’s Paper

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Quote EGF, re Spk FSF, ISR p618, Jan 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday February 27, 1910
Spokane, Washington – Trial of Gurley Flynn and Filigno, Part I

From The Workingman’s Paper of February 26, 1910:

The Flynn-Filigno Trial
—–

(Reported for “The Workingman’s Paper” by its
Editorial Correspondent, Bessy Fiset.)

[Part I of II.

Wednesday, the 9th of February, 1910, saw the opening of the case of the State against C. L. Filigno and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn-Jones for criminal conspiracy.

IWW Spk FSF, EGF Filigno Trial, Workingmns p4, Feb 26, 1910

The fact is that this trial is bringing to light the greatest conspiracy on the part of the MASTER CLASS AGAINST FREEDOM OF SPEECH, PRESS AND ASSEMBLAGE that has yet been revealed in this country, making it rank with the foremost cases that have had direct bearing, or been the direct outcome of the Revolutionary movement in America.

* * *

To any one looking on at this trial the spectacle was certainly a representative in miniature of conditions as they exist in society today. On entering the large courtroom-seating approximately three hundred-one faced the court with the jury box on the left, counsel’s table immediately in front of judge, clerk’s desk just to right, and at extreme right along the wall a row of seats reserved for women spectators.

Between the right wall and the court was a door opening into an anteroom, which in turn let into a corridor leading to the county jail. Between the court and the jury box on the left was the door leading into court chambers.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: The Spokane Trial of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and C. L. Filigno by Bessy Fiset for Workingman’s Paper” →

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

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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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
—–

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

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote re IWW Spk FSF n Solidarity, IW p1, Nov 3, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday February 25, 1910
Spokane, Washington – Facts of Free Speech Fight from J. C. Knust

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

FACTS SUPPRESSED in SPOKANE
—-
By J. C. Knust, of Spokane

IWW Spk FSF, Dont Buy Jobs, IW p4, Feb 19, 1910

EDITOR’S NOTE.-Here we give yet another dose of FACTS to the sick Spokane authorities. It is killing testimony, and until the record is disowned officially it will damn Spokane in the eyes of the whole world.

The second round in the fight against the Working class is now being fought by the city authorities of Spokane, backed by the employment agencies and other expressions of corporate rule.

Spokane is the natural and the principal distributing point of labor and its supplies to the great Northwestern lumber regions, agricultural districts and mining camps.

Spokane, being a comparatively young city, is necessarily under heavy expense, and, like many young cities in the past, through their spasmodic growth, has given undue power to certain official individuals, who sometimes make, either wilfully or maliciously, grievous mistakes in the use of such power in order to serve private interests.

In order that the reader may get a fairer and more clear conception of the immediate cause of this fight of the workers to maintain their rights, it will be necessary to begin at the beginning.

Every year thousands of men are sent out by the employment agencies to all parts of the country, through faked advertisements, to work which does not exist. For many years these licensed thieves have reaped in this way a rich harvest. Men would come here, buy a job and ship out. Some would find work for only a week where they expected to find steady employment. Others found no work at all.

Investigation proved often that employers, foremen and agents were dividing spoils, their fee being anywhere from $1 to $15 for jobs. After a few days work these men would be discharged and another crew would be sent to fill their places, thus keeping three crews-one going, one coming and one working. [Perpetual motion!]

Can you suggest anything for these men to do but to organize to do away with such thievery? No redress was to be had from the courts, the city attorney saying, “Nothing can be done,” showing plainly that there is plenty of “law,” but it is not for the benefit of the masses.

These conditions grew to be intolerable. One office alone in this benighted town boasts proudly of having sent out in one year 85,000 men. Think of it! Out of that number there were less than 1 per cent. who actually found remunerative employment. And again consider that there are many of these slave markets here, and all doing a thriving business.

Then these men grew desperate; something had to be done. So about two years ago they began to organize themselves into one union known as “The Industrial Workers of the World,” one object being to educate its members to buy no more jobs, but compel employers to come to a union headquarters for their men, where no fee would be charged.

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Hellraisers Journal: Fellow Worker Ben Fletcher, Imprisoned Since September 1918, Released on Bond from Leavenworth

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Frank Little re Guts, Wobbly by RC p208, Chg July 1917———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday February 18, 1920
Leavenworth Penitentiary, Kansas – Ben Fletcher Released on Bond

From The Leavenworth Times of February 8, 1920:

FOUR PRISONERS WERE RELEASED AT FEDERAL PEN
—–
All but One, Ben Fletcher, Colored I. W. W.
Were Taken Immediately into Custody.
—–

[…..]

IWW, Ben Fletcher, 13126 Leavenworth, Sept 7 or 8, 1918
Fellow Worker Ben Fletcher

Ben Fletcher, the only colored I. W. W. of “Big Bill” Haywood’s tribe, received, September 8, 1918, at the Federal penitentiary was released yesterday from that institution on an appeal bond to the amount of $10,000. The bond was furnished in Chicago and Ben, immediately upon his release, set out for that metropolis.

The colored “wobbly” was one of four inmates, who were released yesterday, but Fletcher is the only one to enjoy his freedom. The others were taken into custody at the prison gates…..

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: The One Big Union Monthly: Message to the Men, Women and Children of Labor from Big Bill Haywood

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote BBH, Poem A Message Part 3 ed, OBU p56, Feb 1920———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday February 16, 1920
“O Men and Women and Children of Labor” by William D. Haywood

From The One Big Union Monthly of February 1920:

BBH, Poem A Message Part I, OBU p56, Feb 1920BBH, Poem A Message Part 2, OBU p56, Feb 1920BBH, Poem A Message Part 3, OBU p56, Feb 1920

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Hellraisers Journal: “47 Days in Spokane City Jail” by William Z. Foster, Part II -from the Seattle Workingman’s Paper

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote EGF, Compliment IWW, IW p1, Nov 17, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday February 15, 1910
Spokane, Washington – Foster Describes I. W. W. Organizing within City Jail

From the Seattle Socialist Workingman’s Paper of February 12, 1910:

Spk FSF, 47 Days WZF, Workingmans p1, Feb 12, 1910Spk FSF, 47 Days by WZF, Workingmans p1, Feb 12, 1910

[Part II of II.]

[Fellow Workers Organize Behind the Bars of City Jail]

Our propaganda meetings were a howling success, and we made at least forty I. W. W. converts in the city jail. These were all workingmen who were arrested for the crime of being broke, and when they listened to our talks and saw how we handled ourselves they promised to read up on industrial unionism and to join the I. W. W. as soon as possible.

In the jail the cells are in a double row, opening from a corridor about six feet wide and it was in this corridor that we held our meetings.

Another good feature of our meetings was the spirit of democracy prevailing. We practically forced men to get up and speak who had never but once before attempted to speak before a crowd (said “Fellow-Workers” on Spokane streets), and a couple of these give promise of becoming excellent “soap-boxers.”

We were getting along swimmingly when someone decided that our meetings were too successful and that we must have some “leaders” amongst us. As a result of this, on Jan. 3rd, Fellow-Worker Jones of Los Angeles (commonly called “Voiende Sulpher Smoke”) who was speaker of the evening, and myself, who had acted as chairman of the meeting the night previous, were “grabbed” and put into the “strong box” (a steel cage reserved for the more serious criminals). Our seizure simply stimulated the remainder to greater efforts, and from that time on the jail organization became a pronounced success. Once more the grabbing of men suspected of being “leaders” acted as a boomerang.

* * *

The effects of the organization upon the work done on the rock pile was remarkable, and the possibilities of the passive resistance strike, even as evidenced by us chained prisoners, of working. We accomplished almost nothing. For instance, two men chained together pounded for four days upon one rock, when it was accidentally broken. To break that small rock (about as large as a wash bucket) cost the city of Spokane $4.00 for food alone, at the rate of 50 cents per day per man, besides the other expenses for guards, etc. This is only a sample of how we worked, and by no means an exceptional one.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “47 Days in Spokane City Jail” by William Z. Foster, Part II -from the Seattle Workingman’s Paper” →

Hellraisers Journal: “47 Days in Spokane City Jail” by William Z. Foster, Part I -from the Seattle Workingman’s Paper

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Quote EGF, Compliment IWW, IW p1, Nov 17, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday February 14, 1910
Spokane, Washington – Foster Describes 47 Days in City Jail

From the Seattle Socialist Workingman’s Paper of February 12, 1910:

Spk FSF, 47 Days WZF, Workingmans p1, Feb 12, 1910Spk FSF, 47 Days by WZF, Workingmans p1, Feb 12, 1910

[Part I of II.]

On the afternoon of December 11th, when a contingent of men left the I. W. W. headquarters for the purpose of speaking on the street, I accompanied them, as usual, so as to witness their arrest and be enabled to report any unusual features attending it. On this particular afternoon Korthagen and Holland, two I. W. W. members from Seattle among others, were billed to speak, and having been closely associated with them in Seattle, I was anxious to be in at the death.

I walked with them to the appointed street corner, and while they spoke I stood some twenty feet away in the thick of the crowd. They were duly arrested and a few moments later the redoubtable Captain Burns came on the scene in answer to a call sent in to the station, and although he knew nothing whatsoever as to what had taken place, and had no warrant for my arrest, he immediately placed me under arrest when he happened to see me standing in the crowd.

At the police station I had the honor of a half-hour talk with Pugh, Sullivan and Burns, during the course of which conversation these worthies attempted to pump me. They adopted a dozen different ruses by which they hoped to secure a promise from me to desist from taking part in the street fight in return for my liberty. One of these was ridiculous in the extreme. Chief Sullivan (brainy man) said that he had just received a letter from the I. W. W., stating that I was a Pinkerton, his plan being to rouse my ire against the organization and to get me to desert it, or at least promise to take no active part in the fight. Failing in this he adjudged me guilty in his office of some unknown offense, because I wouldn’t answer for my conduct for the future, and I was taken to the notorious sweat-box, where I joined the balance of the street-speaking “criminals.”

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “47 Days in Spokane City Jail” by William Z. Foster, Part I -from the Seattle Workingman’s Paper” →

Hellraisers Journal: “Barbarous Spokane” by Fred W. Heslewood from the International Socialist Review, Part II

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote Sheep Herder Anderson re Spk FSF, ISR p712, Feb 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday February 2, 1910
Spokane, Washington – Fellow Workers Donates Last Dollar to Free Speech Fight

From the International Socialist Review of February 1910:

Barbarous Spokane
—–

By Fred W. Heslewood.
—–

[Part II of II.]

[Fellow Worker Donates All He Has.]

One man donated $50 to the defense fund and deposited $100 more, which was all he had, to be used if required. In thirty-four days he came from the horse doctor a living wreck, scarcely able to crawl, and said that Judge Mann had fined him $100; that he now wished the union to accept the money that he had left on deposit, to be used in giving hospital treatment to those who were in a worse condition than himself. He stayed around a day or so to regain some of his former strength, then off to the woods to hunt a master.

IWW Spk FSF, On the Rock Pile, ISR p610, Jan 1910

Some of the men only had four or five dollars. Some had $20. Some had $50, but all had money. They are hoboes, vags, and undesirable citizens; they should have taken their money to the jail and allowed themselves to be robbed by the thugs in blue, who formed the slugging committee in the dark corridors between the booking window and the cells. These men of honor that smash men’s jaws, blind men, knock them down and kick their ribs in; these honorable brutes who squeeze men into an air-tight cell and then coolly open the steam valve. These human hyenas who gently tell you that they have orders to kill the first man that says a word back to them. These human beasts that are responsible for 1,000 treatments of green capsules to men with broken jaws, broken ribs, blinded eyes, etc. Green capsules to men who are starving, to increase the pain in the stomach. An emergency hospital. God save the word.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “Barbarous Spokane” by Fred W. Heslewood from the International Socialist Review, Part II” →

Hellraisers Journal: “Barbarous Spokane” by Fred W. Heslewood from the International Socialist Review, Part I

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote Sheep Herder Anderson re Spk FSF, ISR p712, Feb 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday February 1, 1910
Spokane, Washington – Battleground of Great Fight for Free Speech

From the International Socialist Review of February 1910:

Barbarous Spokane
—–

By Fred W. Heslewood.
—–

[Part I of II]

Letter N, ISR p705, Feb 1910OT Mexico, but Spokane—the battleground of the greatest fight for Free Speech, Free Press, and Public Assemblage in America.

Where over four hundred men and women of the ranks of labor, using the weapons of Passive Resistance, are pitted against the law of brutality, tyranny, oppression and greed. Where the ancient methods of torture are being used to subdue the workers, who wish to safeguard the weapons of the dispropertied, disfranchised—yes, disinherited class. Where truth is crushed to earth, and where a lie is a wholesome morsel, and is relished by the arrogant and ignorant who do not want the truth. The truth hurts. It is a two-edged sword. It must be driven to the hilt. The people must be torn from their lethargy and made to realize that the boasted liberties of this country are fast being taken away.

Spk FSF, FW Beaten by Police, ISR p705, Feb 1910—–

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “Barbarous Spokane” by Fred W. Heslewood from the International Socialist Review, Part I” →