Tag: Jane Little Botkin

Hellraisers Journal: The Appeal to Reason: Mrs. W. F. (Emma) Little Reports from Fresno: “They Are Mobbing Workers”

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote Emma Little, re IWW Fresno FSF Mob Attack of Dec 9, AtR p3, Dec 31, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 1, 1911
Fresno, California – “They Are Mobbing Workers” by Mrs. Emma Little

From the Appeal to Reason of December 31, 1910:

They Are Mobbing Workers

Fresno, Cal., December 13-Friday night [December 9th] Fresno mob attacked I. W. W. members who were speaking on the street and severely beat them. The mob then proceeded to the I. W. W. camp. The boys on the street rushed out to our house [home of Fred and Emma Little], then on out to camp, to give the boys in camp what warning they could.

I could hear the autos going past our house right behind the boys. Shortly after the autos passed I could bear the yell, the mob yell.

IWW Fresno FSF, Mob Attacks, FMR p1, Dec 10, 1920

They burned down the tent and then they took a vote on whether or not they should burn our house. They decided not. Then they proceeded back to town, stood around town awhile, then went to the jail and demanded the prisoners. This request was refused, and shortly after the mob dispersed.

Friday afternoon Murdock, one of the I. W. W. speakers, was tried for vagrancy before Judge Briggs by a jury of business men. Murdock was a well-dressed, well educated man, who, it was proved, was employed by and receiving a salary from the I. W. W. as organizer. The jury convicted him of vagrancy. Judge Briggs put off sentencing him until the next day.

When Murdock came to receive his sentence the next day, Briggs stated that he liked Murdock, but as he was one of the instigators of last night’s trouble he would have to sentence him 180 days (six months).

For weeks the papers have been urging the citizens to form a mob and drive the I. W. W. from the country. The I. W. W. had violated no law. They had lived quietly and peaceably in their own little canvas homes. The officers bad no excuse for molesting them.

Mayor Rowell, the saloon champion, owns the Republican, or most of it. A short time before the day of the mob the Republican said that in Portersville, a small town about thirty miles from here, the citizens had formed a committee and requested the I. W. W. to leave; and that the I. W. W. had immediately left. The paper suggested that would be good tactics to pursue here. The whole article was a tissue of lies. The I. W. W. was not driven out of Portersville. The article and many more along that line were written for the sole purpose of making a mob spirit.

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Hellraisers Journal: Spokane Industrial Worker: “Fresno Fight Postponed” -Message from Jungle Press Committee

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote Frank Little, Fresno Jails Dungeons, FMR p6, Sept 2, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday November 10, 1910
Fresno, California – I. W. W. Free Speech Fight Has Been Postponed

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of November 9, 1910:

FRESNO FIGHT POSTPONED
—————

Dont Buy Jobs, IW p4, Oct 19, 1910
Industrial Worker
October 19, 1910

Fellow Workers: The fight for free speech has been postponed. On the 2d. of November the boys all came out of jail. Their excuse was that there were not enough men. It is true, the men were coming in awful slow, but they were coming. Public sentiment was changing in our favor, and if the men had stuck we would have won out. This fight is important and we must win or the I. W. W. will feel the painful consequences all over the west. Until we erase this blot from our crimson banner we must hang our heads in shame. If they can suppress our street meetings, they can also suppress our hall meetings and will hound us at every step.

We are not going to try to coax or persuade anyone to take part in this fight. If this fight is won it will be won by Industrial Unionists. The Industrial Unionist is the man who practices a large part of what he preaches. He does not walk around with a chip on his shoulder, telling the timid and modest members what he knows and what he would do in each and every case and what a splendid fighter he is. No, he is sadly lacking in these eminent virtues. Somehow he can never spare the time for it. Some few have a faint suspicion that he is too busy practicing or trying to practice Industrial Unionism. About half the men who went to jail here are pretty fair Industrial Unionists.

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Hellraisers Journal: W. F. Little Learns His Brother Is Doing 30 Days in Spokane for Reading Declaration of Independence

Janet RayeFrank Little
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Quote re Frank Little Ready for IWW Spk FSF, Wenatchee Dly Wld p2, Nov 2, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 22, 1909
Fresno, California – Telegram from Spokane Tells of Free Speech Fight

From The Fresno Morning Republican of November 16, 1909:

TELLS OF SPOKANE INDUSTRIAL FIGHT
—–
W. F. Little Learns That His Brother Is
Doing 30 Days for Reading
Declaration of Independence.

Spk FSF, IWW Notices, Spk Prs p2, Nov 3, 1909

W. F. [“Fred”] Little, of the local union of Industrial Workers of the World, received an official communication from the Spokane local yesterday reciting the treatment of members of the order in Spokane in their fight with the city authorities. The letter gives this bit of personal news.

I understand that you are a brother of F. H. [“Frank”] Little, the hobo agitator, in jail in Spokane with 200 more as a result of the free speech fight. He was reading the Declaration of Independence on the street corner. He was sentenced to thirty days for this terrible crime.

The letter describes some of the Third Degree methods pursued by the police and jailors. It is related that the men are crowded into stuffy cells, without creature conveniences and the steam temperature was kept on one occasion at 100 degrees for a period of thirty-six hours in an effort to “break” the men.

Mr. Little yesterday took up a private collection among the local “Industrial Workers” to aid their brothers in their Spokane fight.

———-

[Insert added from Spokane Press of November 3, 1909.]

Fellow Worker Frank Little was also jailed during the Missoula Free Speech Fight, and described that experience for Industrial Worker of October 27th:

THE BEATING OF JONES BY
THE MISSOULA SHERIFF.

[-by F. H. Little]

On September 30th Fellow Workers Jones, Appleby [George Applebee], Tuchs [Herman Tucker] and myself were sentenced to 15 days each in the county jail. That night five more of the boys were arrested. The morning of October 1st, after breakfast, the prisoners called for a speech. We moved the table to the southwest corner of the jail. Jones got up and made a talk on Industrial Union. The sheriff sent in word not to talk so loud. So Jones lowered his voice. He talked for about five minutes, then we started to sing the “Red Flag.”

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Hellraisers Journal: Frank Little & “Agitators” of Butte “Against Everything” Proclaims Company Newspaper

Janet RayeFrank Little
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Don’t worry, Fellow Worker,
all we’re going to need
from now on is guts.
-Frank Little

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday July 25, 1917
Butte, Montana – “Agitators” Support Striking Miners

Metal Miners, Butte MT, Mining Artifacts, date unknown

The Anaconda Standard, voice of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, declared recently that the “agitators” of Butte are “against everything.”

Yet the striking miners have made it quite clear exactly what they stand against-i.e., the blacklist (Rustling Card system), long hours, low wages, and unsafe working conditions such as led to the deaths of 168 copper miners in the Speculator Mine Fire Disaster just a few short weeks ago.

From the Anaconda Standard of July 23, 1917:

AGITATORS TALKING AGAINST EVERYTHING
—–

A mass meeting for miners of the Butte district, held last evening at the ball park, was attended by about 2,000 men. All the speakers urged the miners to stay out and said the modifications of the rustling card and the weekly pay day announced by the Anaconda Copper Mining company on Saturday should be disregarded.

Joe Shannon made a fiery speech in which he urged every miner to start picket duty today, and he remarked that the Campbell union [Butte Metal Mine Workers Union] had the “number of every miner now working.”

R. L. Dunn, strike leader of the electricians, who had pledged the miners the electricians would not go back to work until the miners were underground, said the papers had called him an I. W. W. and he would admit it.

[Said Dunn:]

This strike is an expression against the form of society which allows a few to control the wealth of the nation and a protest against the system of society which keeps workingmen from enjoying the comforts and good things of life.

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