Tag: James Kelly Cole

Hellraisers Journal: From the Industrial Worker: Life and Work of James Kelly Cole, Martyr of Spokane Free Speech Fight

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote James Kelly Cole, Martyr Spk FSF, ISR p557, Dec 1909—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday June 23, 1911
Poems of James Kelly Cole, Martyr of Spokane Free Speech Fight

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of June 15, 1911:

THE LIFE WORK OF KELLY COLE
—————

By Frank Bohn.

James Kelly Cole, Cover Rev Writings Poems ed w text, 1910

James Kelly Cole was killed in a railway accident at Tomah, Wisconsin, November 17th, 1909. He was on his way to take part in the Spokane free speech fight and was riding free.

At that time I wrote a short letter in the [New York Socialist] Call, drawing attention to the self-forgetfulness which led to the untimely death of this young comrade. To me he was simply one of many who were then fighting for freedom of speech in Spokane and elsewhere. I had not even learned his name. It is therefore a peculiar pleasure to discover that, dying in the cause, he left us something very much worth while. A little book of poems entitled “Revolutionary Writings” suggest to us the deep loss suffered by the movement when he went to his death.

His picture as well as his poems makes one regret not to have known him personally. He was a representative of a type-the type of idealistic young Americans of both sexes who are now thronging into the Socialist movement. He was fortunate in having had educational advantages. He had been a student at one of the Chicago High schools and abundant leisure during his youth afforded him opportunity for wide reading on a variety of subjects.

The most significant feature about his personality and his work was the revolutionary spirit. His intense hatred for misrule coupled with his desire for emancipation from wage slavery once led him into a tactical error. He was forced to spend more than a year in the federal prison at Leavenworth, Kansas.

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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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WE NEVER FORGET-James Kelly Cole Who Lost Life on November 17, 1909, En Route to the Spokane Free Speech Fight

Janet RayeWe Never Forget
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Quote Mother Jones, Pray for dead, Ab Chp 6, 1925———-

WNF, James Kelly Cole, IWW Spk FSF, Nov 17, 1909, Rev Writings Poems p12, 1910 ———-

WE NEVER FORGET
James Kelly Cole Who Lost His Life in Freedom’s Cause,
November 17, 1909, at Tomah, Wisconsin
———-

James Kelly Cole, Poems Cover, 1910
“It was on a pilgrimage to help others
who believed in the rights of men
that James Kelly Cole was halted suddenly by death.
A railroad accident at Tomah, Wis., November 17th, 1909,
ended only too untimely his brief, young, hopeful life.
He lived well and bravely and thus did he die.”

———-

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Hellraisers Journal: James Kelly Cole Killed While Riding the Rods from Chicago to Spokane Free Speech Fight

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote re James Cole, Spk FSF Martyr, ISR p557, Dec 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday December 5, 1909
Fellow Worker James Kelly Cole Killed on the Road to Spokane

From the International Socialist Review of December 1909:

IWW Spk FSF, Chg HQ Signs, ISR p557, Dec 1909

KILLED ON WAY TO SPOKANE.

James K. Cole, one of the members of Chicago Local 85, I. W. W., who left here in company with many comrades Monday evening, November 15th, to join the men and women engaged in the fight for free speech at Spokane, was killed on Tuesday [Wednesday November 17th] while jumping a train, en route, in Wisconsin. James Cole was only 23 years of age and for a long time had been known as one of the most uncompromising members of the I. W. W. Always ready to lend his aid to any struggle of the wage-working class, Cole was one of the first to volunteer to go to Spokane. The following photograph of the men who left this city on the 15th was taken Sunday the 14th. Comrade Cole is the fourth man from the right of the picture, in the front row. Cole said:

It’s a long trip and it’s a cold trip out to Spokane at this time of year. But don’t talk about that. We’re going and we are going to WIN.

Men like Cole are the fighting timber of the revolutionary movement of the working class. They do not weigh consequences, they scoff at dangers threatening themselves; silently, without any demonstration, or brass bands, or RAILROAD TICKETS they pick up [their] hats and are on the way whenever their class sends out a call for help. James Cole and his fellow-workers are the BACK-BONE of the revolutionary army. Cole never looked back. He was never afraid. He never gave up. He was the best that can be said of any man or woman of our class—he was a revolutionist. He fought living and died on the way to help in a great fight.

—–

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