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Hellraisers Journal – Friday March 3, 1911
Fresno, California – The Jail and Eleven of 100 (+) IWWs from Behind the Bars
From The San Francisco Call of March 2, 1911:
Tag: John Murdock
Hellraisers Journal: The Appeal to Reason: Mrs. W. F. (Emma) Little Reports from Fresno: “They Are Mobbing Workers”
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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.
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.
Hellraisers Journal: Fresno Jailers Turn Fire Hoses on Fellow Workers, Jailed for Fighting for the Right to Speak in Public
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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 27, 1910
Fresno, California – Jailed Fellow Workers Given “Water Cure”
From The Fresno Morning Republican of December 24, 1910:
As the result of a second hostile demonstration in two days on the part of eighty Industrial Workers of the World, a fire hose attached to engine No. 5 was brought into play at 6 o’clock last night at the jail. For twenty minutes the howling prisoners put up a frenzied but futile resistance, and were finally subdued. This method of enforcing discipline within the confines of the jail proved effective and half an hour later the men informed Sheriff Chittenden that they would respect prison rules in the future.
From early morning until 6:30 last night the I. W. W.’s stormed within the jail. The riot was continuous and the authorities were powerless in their efforts to quell the raving Industrialists.
One minute they were singing their “Red Flag” song and the next they were climbing up the bars of the “bull pen” cursing and fuming. Not content with abusing officers and yelling with all the strength their lungs afforded, the men rushed to the windows and hurled insulting remarks to men, women, and children who were passing through the court house park.
Riot Lasts All Day.
The second riot started at 8 o’clock yesterday morning when the trusties appeared at the bull pen with a quantity of bread and water. The obscene demonstration of Thursday night, when the eighty I. W. W.’s wilfully broke the jail rules, resulted in an order from Sheriff Chittenden to place the men on a bread and water diet.
When breakfast arrived the Industrialists rebelled and the sight of the loaves of bread and buckets of water fanned the flames of fury within them. As the bread passed in the men in a long line accepted the loaves. After all had been served the riot began. As if from a gattling gun the loaves were hurled at the trusties and Major Ed Jones, day jailer. In the afternoon at 4 o’clock the men were again offered bread and water but they refused to eat a bite and declared with a shower of oaths that they would starve to death before they would partake of a bite of bread.
