Tag: Industrial Workers of the World

Hellraisers Journal: Russian Methods Prevail in Spokane Free Speech Fight, Report from The Progressive Woman

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Quote EGF, Heaven n Hell, ISR p617, Jan 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 31, 1910
Spokane, Washington – Free Speech Fighters Suffer Sweating, Hunger and Cold

From The Progressive Woman of January 1910:

RUSSIAN METHODS IN SPOKANE.
—–

EGF ed, Prog Wmn p2, Jan 1910—–

Every once in a while things happen in the United States that seem for the world like Russia. The “bull-pen” episode in Colorado a few years ago was one of these. The present fight for free speech out in Spokane is another. The authorities out there took it upon themselves to deny the right of free speech to the Socialists, and the Socialist labor organization, the Industrial Workers of the World, with its official organ, The Industrial Worker, and its headquarters in Spokane, is bearing the brunt of this fight.

As fast as men are thrown into jail for attempting to hold their usual street meetings others come to take their places. In fact, the comrades are pouring in from every section of the country to help in this fight.

And it is a serious business. Young men, without funds, but anxious to help, take advantage of every possible means of reaching Spokane, even to “riding the rods” through the long dreary cold of the north west. One splendid young comrade from Chicago was killed while making his way in this manner; another was hurt in a wreck. Others suffered agonies from hunger and the cold. But none have turned back.

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Hellraisers Journal: Centralia IWW Defendants Forced to Stand Trial in Montesano Where Lynching Is Threatened

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Wesley Everest, Died for my class. Chaplin Part 15———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 27, 1920
Montesano, Washington – Centralia I. W. W. Defendants Threatened

From The Butte Daily Bulletin of January 26, 1920:

Centralia, Montesano Trial Armed Camp BDB p1, Jan 26, 1920———-

CENTRALIA I. W W. FORCED TO TRIAL IN TOWN
WHERE LYNCHING IS THREATENED
—–

(Special United Press Wire.)

Montesano, Wash, Jan. 26.-An attempt by George Vanderveer, chief counsel for the defense, to introduce articles and editorials printed in a Gray’s Harbor newspaper during November and December, as the basis of his request for a change of venue for the I. W. W. defendants accused of the Centralia Armistice day killings, met defeat when the trial began this morning. Judge Wilson ruled that only new matter arising since his previous ruling denying a change of venue can be considered now.

The accused were freshly shaven when they entered the courtroom this morning. For the most part their faces were expressionless.

Montesano, lying in a valley between wooded hills, doesn’t seem unduly excited. There is, however, a rather grim determination to mete out “justice” apparent in the faces of the citizens who thronged the corridors of the courthouse.

Elaborate precautions have been taken by the authorities to prevent any trouble during the trial. Twenty-four deputy sheriffs are constantly patrolling the streets. Sheriff Barten announced he had deputized 100 members of the American Legion at Centralia, 300 at Hoquiam and 100 at Elma, who will be called if trouble arises.

The hundreds of witnesses who will be called during the trial will be fed in a huge dining room established at the city hall.

The defense’s application for a change of venue was denied by Judge Wilson at the end of the morning session. The court held that the showing of the defense was insufficient to cause the trial to be shifted from Montesano and that the law does not permit a second change of venue in a case of this kind.

All doubt that self-defense will be the keynote of the defense was swept away by Attorney Vanderveer in his argument on a motion for a change of venue.

[He declared:]

That the legionaires attacked the I. W. W. hall will not even be disputed before we finish this trial. Even from the prosecution’s own witnesses we will prove the attack was made before a shot was fired.

—–

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Hellraisers Journal: William Z. Foster, Reporter for Workingman’s Paper, Locked Behind the Bars of Spokane City Jail

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

Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 24, 1910
Spokane, Washington -Foster Locked Up for Covering Free Speech Fight

From the Seattle Workingman’s Paper of January 22, 1910:

Wkgmns Paper HdLn re WZF in Jail, p1, Jan 22, 1910———-
IWW Spk FSF, From WZF in Jail, Wkgmns Paper p1, Jan 22, 1910—–

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks to Workingmen and Their Women Folk in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Part II

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Make Our Neighbors Wrongs Our Own, II Altoona Tb p6, Jan 12, 1920 ———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 15, 1920
Altoona, Pennsylvania – Mother Jones Speaks at Mishler Theater, Part II

From the Altoona Times Tribune of January 12, 1920:

Mother Jones Elucidates Theories To Altoona Audience

[Part II of II.]

Mother Jones, Crpd Lg, Chg Tb p120, Oct 26, 1919

OVERWORK AND UNDERPAY

She scored the conditions which permit men and women to be overworked and underpaid and results in riots and strikes when women and children are shot by brutes. Under her own personal observation at a time like this in the south, she said, was a case of a woman run down by mounted police who gave birth to a child as she was being taken to the morgue.

[She passionately declared:]

You have no Christianity. If you had conditions like this would not exist.

However, the speaker gave it as her opinion that the workers are becoming educated, getting a different vision; they feel the pulse of the world beating and different days coming. In West Virginia 65,000 men are organized since the inception of the union movement in that section a short time ago. Recently 10,000 of these men marched in a parade which the mayor of the city characterized as the most orderly parade he ever saw. All of which is a good omen.

BRUTALITY COVERED UP

[She cried:]

We want to give America a well fed humanity, intellectually, morally and physically. If the ministers do not wake up they will be thrown on a scrap heap.

At this point she derided the idea of saying “Your honor” to the governor of a state, who has permitted the murder of women and children in industrial uprisings.

This is the most insidiously brutal age that ever was, but it is covered up.

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Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: “The Shame of Spokane” by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Part II

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

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 2, 1910
Spokane, Washington – The Story of Joseph Thompson, Courageous Newsboy

From the International Socialist Review of January 1910:

The Shame of Spokane
—–

By Elizabeth Gurley Flynn.
—–

[Part II of II.]

IWW Spk FSF, Newsboy Joseph Thompson, ISR p615, Jan 1910

This same Judge Hinkle had made himself infamous in connection with the juvenile cases. Perhaps the most disgraceful affair of many connected with the Spokane free-speech fight was the raid on the hall December 1st, resulting in the arrest of eight little newsboys. Simple on the surface, it is a subtle attempt to undermine the right of a parent to teach a child ideas different from the established order. The children were taken to the chief’s office and put through a severe cross examination, after which they were locked up for the night.

“The third degree” on youngsters ranging in years from eight to sixteen is quite a credit to the Spokane detective force. Couldn’t you get evidence from grown-ups, Captain Burns, throwing light on the “secrets” and “conspiracy” of the I. W. W. without scaring it out of a lot of little boys? “The I. W. W. hall is no fit place for them,” said Prosecuting Attorney Pugh of these poor, ragged, little urchins who trudge the streets in their thin little shoes going in and out of saloons and cheap resorts all hours of the day and night. The parents of the boys with that innate respect for law came in fear and trembling to say that they had not sanctioned the children joining. One woman said she was too poor to buy her boy a necktie so let him wear the red one that a man gave him. The parents knew nothing of the I. W. W. and the little youngsters were rather deserted by the very ones who ought to know what’s wrong with conditions that force them to send their little ones on the streets this frosty weather.

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Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: “The Shame of Spokane” by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Part I

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

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 1, 1910
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Reports from Spokane Free Speech Fight

From the International Socialist Review of January 1910:

The Shame of Spokane
—–

By Elizabeth Gurley Flynn.
—–

[Part I of II.]

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

Letter O, ISR p610, Jan 1910N December 3rd Prosecuting Attorney Pugh thundered, in his attack upon the Industrial Workers of the World: “Let them feel the mailed fist of the law,” amply justifying our definition of government as “the slugging committee of the capitalist class.” This threat was presumably made in a full appreciation of what a roaring farce “constitution,” “justice,” “rights” constitute in Spokane—city of the Washington Water Power Company and the employment sharks.

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Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Age 19, Braves Motherhood in Spokane Jail Cell in Fight for Free Speech

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Quote EGF, Work for Justice Despite Hardships, Tacoma Tx p7, Dec 29, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday December 31, 1909
Spokane, Washington – Miss Flynn, Age 19, Braves Motherhood in Jail Cell

From The Tacoma Times of December 29, 1909:

ONLY 19, SHE BRAVED MOTHERHOOD IN CELL
TO AID IN STRUGGLE FOR FREE SPEECH

EGF, ed Spk Chc p2, Nov 18, 1909

(Special Correspondence.)

SPOKANE, Dec. 29.,-“If I have found work to do in a struggle for what is right, and just and human, then I would be unworthy and unhappy, should I lay down the work because of hardships, persecutions or privations. That is all.”

Nineteen years old, a wife, soon to be a mother, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, member of the national committee of the I. W. W., explained in her cell in the city prison here why she passed unflinchingly through the indignity of arrest, trial and conviction, through the insults of the “third degree” and the tortures of the “sweat box;” why she faced bravely a coming ordeal of motherhood behind jail bars.

This girl was arrested here for her activities in the struggle for free speech being carried on by the Industrial Workers of the World against the city authorities who are attempting to enforce what has been declared by one judge an unconstitutional ordinance against street speaking. She was tried for “criminal conspiracy,” convicted and sentenced to a term in jail. She heard the sentence without any visible manifestation of emotion and though in a delicate condition, she smiled calmly when the grated door of her cell was swung shut, leaving her alone.

Ten miserable years of childhood spent in the squalid poverty-ridden tenement districts of New York are the explanation of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn’s activities in the “free speech war” in Spokane. Filled with a spirit of revolt against existing industrial systems, she allied herself, four years ago, with the work of the Industrial Workers. She was a frail slip of a girl, 15 years old, then. When she was 17 she became the wife of J. A. Jones, an I. W. W. organizer. Though her married life has been happy, in her work she has retained her maiden name. Her education, snatched from bitter expedience and what few books she could find time to read, this girl leader is refined and gentle in speech and manner.

———-

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