Tag: James P Thompson

Hellraisers Journal: From the Industrial Worker: Funeral of S. O. Chinn, Spokane Free Speech Martyr, Largely Attended

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote EGF, re Spk FSF, ISR p618, Jan 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday April 8, 1910
Spokane, Washington – S. O. Chinn Gets Grand I. W. W. Send-Off

From the Industrial Worker of April 2, 1910:

IWW Spk FSF v Employment Sharks, IW p1, Apr 2, 1910—–

CHINN’S FUNERAL LARGELY ATTENDED
—–
Many Watch Procession on Riverside Avenue
-Strains of the Marseillaise Heard-I. W. W.
Members Who Attend Funeral Wear Red Neckties.
—–

Funeral services for S. O. Chinn, age 27, which were held from the I. W. W. hall proved a magnate as the procession of men, women and children following the hearse and the brass band moved down Riverside Avenue. The last tribute was paid by James Thompson, national organizer of the Industrial Workers at the I. W. W. Hall at 616 Front Avenue, in which he declared that the man had given his life in the interest of the working class.

Three hundred Fellow Workers packed the hall to capacity and after the services followed the hearse and band to Riverside Avenue and Monroe Street, from which point the hearse and pall bearers proceeded to Greenwood cemetery, where Chinn was buried. The casket was draped with the flag of the organization of which Chinn was a member and an officer. Chinn came to Spokane last fall to participate in the free speech fight. His home was originally at Hutchinson, Kansas.

The funeral proceedings attracted a great deal of attention. Before the hearse walked four officers of the I. W. W. with red neckties and red badges of the organization in their buttonholes, while the band before pealed out the martial strains of the “Marseillaise.” Stretching behind for four or five blocks marched the members of the organization, who came out to pay their last respects to the man that had sacrificed his life for the cause of Free Speech.

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Hellraisers Journal: Latest News from Spokane Free Speech Fight by Fellow Worker Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Part II

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

Hellraisers Journal – Friday March 4, 1910
Spokane, Washington – Gurley Flynn Reports from Free Speech Fight, Part II

From the International Socialist Review of March 1910:

Latest News from Spokane
—–

ELIZABETH GURLEY FLYNN.
—–

[Part II of II.]

IWW Spk FSF, George Prosser, ISR p831, Mar 1910

Since the release of the majority charged with disorderly conduct, suits have been entered amounting to $120,000 against Chief of Police Sullivan, Captain of Detectives Burns, Captain Miles and Officers Shannon, Warner, Nelson and Jelsett. These suits are based upon the treatment the men received in the sweat box and the Franklin School. Every man injured will certainly cost the city of Spokane thousands of dollars before the fight is settled. The tax payers seem to have no sense of justice or humanity, consequently an appeal to their pocket-books as a last resort will be the most effective. The I. W. W. have already been forced to spend hundreds of dollars from the defense fund caring for sick and disabled members as they were discharged from custody. At the present time one man, George Prosser, is ill at the Kearney Sanitarium, two others, Ed. Collins and M. Johnson, are confined in local hotels with extreme cases of rheumatism, and Frank Reed is in the Washington Sanitarium ill with erysipelas.

This little fellow [Frank Reed] who, by the way is one of Uncle Sam’s ex-soldiers, went through the hunger strike at Fort Wright and but a few days after his release was re-arrested charged with criminal conspiracy and desecrating the flag. When he was taken ill he was allowed to remain for 48 hours without medical treatment and in a terrible delirium. County Physician Webb excused this ill-treatment by saying that Reed had been left in charge of a trustee, in other words-a fellow prisoner. He was put under the care of a special nurse and during the first 48 hours he was in an extremely critical condition. The cost to the I. W. W. for the first two days alone amounted to $166.00. This is not reported in any mercenary sense for dollars are of course not to be considered in the balance with the life of a revolutionist, but the extreme character of his suffering and the costly treatment that it required is a severe reproach to the standard of civilization attained in the Spokane County jail.

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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: 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: “We can keep up the fight all winter.” -Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Reports from Spokane Free Speech Fight

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

Hellraisers Journal – Friday December 3, 1909
Spokane, Washington – Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Reports from Scene of Battle

From the International Socialist Review of December 1909:

ISR IWW FSF, p483, Dec 1909

[Part I-Report from Spokane by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn]

Letter T, ISR p483, Dec 1909HE working class of Spokane are engaged in a terrific conflict, one of the most vital of the local class struggles. It is a fight for more than free speech. It is to prevent the free press and labor’s right to organize from being throttled. The writers of the associated press newspapers have lied about us systematically and unscrupulously. It is only through the medium of the Socialist and labor press that we can hope to reach the ear of the public.

The struggle was precipitated by the I. W. W. and it is still doing the active fighting, namely, going to jail. But the principles for which we are fighting have been endorsed by the Socialist Party and the Central Labor Council of the A. F. of L.

IWW Spk FSF JP Thompson, ISR p483, Dec 1909

The I. W. W. in Spokane is composed of “floaters,” men who drift from harvest fields to lumber camps from east to west. They are men without families and are fearless in defense of their rights but as they are not the “home guard” with permanent jobs, they are the type upon whom the employment agents prey. With alluring signs detailing what short hours and high wages men can get in various sections, usually far away, these leeches induce the floater to buy a job, paying exorbitant rates, after which they are shipped out a thousand miles from nowhere. The working man finds no such job as he expected but one of a few days’ duration until he is fired to make way for the next “easy mark.”

The I. W. W. since its inception in the northwest has carried on a determined, relentless fight on the employment sharks and as a result the business of the latter has been seriously impaired. Judge Mann in the court a few days ago remarked: “I believe all this trouble is due to the employment agencies,” and he certainly struck the nail on the head. “The I. W. W. must go,” the sharks decreed last winter and a willing city council passed an ordinance forbidding all street meetings within the fire limits. This was practically a suppression of free speech because it stopped the I. W. W. from holding street meetings in the only districts where working men congregate. In August the Council modified their decision to allow religious bodies to speak on the streets, thus frankly admitting their discrimination against the I. W. W.

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Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn for the Spokane Industrial Worker: “Call to Action…Free Speech Fight Is On”

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Quote Who Edits God Knows, Spk FSF, IW p2, Nov 10, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday November 11, 1909
Spokane, Washington – “Call to Action…Free Speech Fight Is On”

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of November 10, 1909:

CALL TO ACTION BY GURLEY FLYNN
—–

EGF, ISR p466, Nov 1909

The free speech fight is on in Spokane. Over 100 men are in jail. More are going every hour. Some are sentenced to 30 days, others to 30 days and $100 fine and costs.

Five I. W. W. men are charged with criminal conspiracy. They are Wilson, Thompson, Foote, Filigno and Cousins. Five women are awaiting trial. Foote was taken out of the lawyer’s office, the others from the I. W. W. hall. Our office has been raided and ransacked by Chief Sullivan and his gang, and this paper is now being made up in secret.

This fight is serious. It must be won. Remember, “an injury to one is an injury to all.” We must never give up. We have just begun to fight. The men in jail have refused to work on the rock pile. They are starving rather than eat the dry bread flung to them. These men are brave, loyal supporters of a great cause. They are heroes in the battle of labor.

Can you afford to be a coward?

Don’t be a quitter. Don’t “sympathize” with free speech.

Go to jail for it!

Sympathy won’t stop the police from striking our women.

Sympathy won’t stop the police putting old men and young boys in the sweat-box.

Sympathy won’t choke the lies down the throats of the miserable capitalist press, now doing its worst to alienate public feeling.

Sympathy won’t pile up expenses on the city government till the taxpayers cry “quits.”

Sympathy won’t prevent our five fellow workers from being railroaded to the penitentiary for five years.

Sympathy won’t win this fight.

Only going to jail by the hundreds will do that.

If you have a family, if you are too far away to come at once-dig up money.

You locals that owe the “Industrial Worker” for bundles, it is your imperative duty to pay up now. Then if there is still coin in the treasury send that for a contribution.

Remember that printers’ bills go on just the same. Order more bundles of this edition and help advertise Spokane, where the constitution is dead.

The “Boosters’ Club” will be “de-light-ed.”

Send donations to help defend the so-called “conspirators.” Now is the opportune time.

It’s now or never, boys!

Get busy! Hurry up!

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Spokane Industrial Worker: “Free Speech Fight is On” -IWW Hall Raided, FWs Arrested

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

Hellraisers Journal – Friday November 5, 1909
Spokane, Washington – “Free Speech Fight Is On”

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of November 3, 1909:

IWW Spk FSF, Come to Spk, IW p1, Nov 3, 1909—–

[From page 1:]

IWW Spk FSF, Defend Rights o Wkrs, IW p1, Nov 3, 1909—–

FREE SPEECH FIGHT IS ON IN SPOKANE
—–

With the end of the trial of James P. Thompson held in the Municipal court of Spokane Tuesday morning, November 2, the fight for free speech or the right to speak on the streets has started in earnest by the members of the union here in the city and many others that have arrived from all over the northwest.

Meetings were started in different parts of the city at about 1 o’clock in the afternoon and kept up till 5 o’clock in the evening; as one speaker was pulled off the box by the police another would take the stand for the purpose of being arrested. All told there were about 100 men arrested on Monday, including James Wilson, James P. Thompson, C. L. Filigno, A. C. Cousins, who were arrested on a warrant charged with criminal conspiracy. Also Mrs. Fernette was taken for street speaking, and Mrs. Arquette and Miss Huxtable were arrested in the raid made on the hall at 3 o’clock Monday afternoon.

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Hellraisers Journal: Miss Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and the Missoula Free Speech Fight of the Industrial Workers of the World

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Quote EGF, Western IWW Aggressive Spirit, IW p3, Aug 12, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday November 3, 1909
Missoula, Montana – Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and the Victory for Free Speech

From the International Socialist Review of November 1909:

EGF, ISR p466, Nov 1909

FREE SPEECH FIGHT. Missoula, Mont., Oct. 3.—Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, organizer of the Industrial Workers of the World, was arrested here tonight for persistently attempting to hold an advertised open-air meeting in the business section.

The plan of action outlined by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was to select leaders of small squads and distribute them about town, giving each a chance to gather a crowd before the police might become cognizant of the movements of the I. W. W.

At the police station Mrs. Flynn said the I. W. W. could not be suppressed and that the work would be carried on as outlined if 10 men are jailed every day.

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Hellraisers Journal: Chicago Trial: FW Big Jim Thompson Weeps as He Recalls Wheatland Hop-Pickers Strike of 1913

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Chicago IWW Trial, H George, p71-2, JP Thompson, June 25-26, 1918
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Saturday June 29, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – Big Jim Thompson for the Defense

James P. Thompson, known to his Fellow Workers as Big Jim Thompson, was the first witness called by the defense in the Chicago I. W. W. Trial. He was on the stand for two days and spoke of his many years as an I. W. W. organizer.

FW Thompson wept as he recalled the Wheatland hop-pickers strike of 1913 and the massacre of the improvised workers there, shot down by sheriff’s deputies for the crime of attempting to organize.

Hop Pickers, Durst Ranch, Wheatland, California, 1913
Hop Pickers, Durst Ranch, Wheatland, California, 1913

Through his tears, Thompson predicted:

Some day, when Labor’s age-long fight for life and freedom is ended, then will there be a monument raised over the graves of the Wheatland martyrs-and it will show the little water-carrier boy and his tin pail lying there on the ground mingling his blood with the water that he carried, and over him, in a posture of defense, the brave Porto-Rican with the gun he had torn from the cowardly hands of the murderers who had fired upon a crowd of women and children.

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Hellraisers Journal: Judge Landis Deals Hard Blow to IWW at Chicago Trial; George Vanderveer Opens for the Defense

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Vanderveer re The Pyramid, Chg IWW Trial June 25, 1918
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday June 26, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – Landis Rules Against I. W. W.; Defense Opens

From The Daily Pantagraph (Bloomington, Ill.) of June 25, 1918:

HARD BLOW IS DEALT I. W. W.
—–
Judge Landis Declines to Admit Report
of Industrial Relations Committee.
—–

(By Associated Press)

George Vanderveer, larger, Chaplin Centralia

Chicago, June 24.-Federal Judge Landis dealt a hard blow to the defense in the I. W. W. trial today, counsel admitted, when he barred from evidence the eleven volume report of the federal industrial relations commission of which Frank P. Walsh was chairman.

On the commission’s report the I. W. W. based its entire course of dealing with the industrial situation, according to George F. Vanderveer, chief of counsel for the defense.

The attorney, in making his opening statement of the case of the defendants, who are charged with seditious conspiracy, denied that the I. W. W. organization had attempted to destroy the existing industrial system.

It was to lay the foundation of his case that the lawyer sought to submit in evidence the “I. W. W. Bible,” as published in 1915 [1916]. He declared the Walsh report was the “guiding light” of the I. W. W. members in all that they did.

Judge Landis refused to allow the defense to go into a general inquiry of industrial conditions.

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