I studied carefully the New York East Side,
the slums, the dives, and the sweatshops
and the terrible conditions of the people there
drove me into socialism.
-Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday September 18, 1907
Chicago, Illinois – Girl Socialist Is I. W. W. Delegate
Miss Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, age 17, of New York City, is a delegate to the Convention of Industrial Workers of the World which opened its first session on Monday morning, September 16th.
From The Chicago Daily Tribune of September 17, 1907:
…Industrial Workers of the World Open
Annual Convention…..
With a gavel valued at $100 in the chairman’s hands, the annual convention of the Industrial Workers of the World opened in the morning at Brand’s hall. The gavel was presented by the unions of Alaska. It is made of walrus tusks. It is expected a tangle over the credentials will be straightened out today, and the unionists will take up business matters…
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[Photograph added.]
Miss Flynn, “Platform Wonder”
MISS GLYNN IN SOAPBOX TALKS.
—–
“Platform Wonder” Tells Her Hearers
the General Strike Is to Be the
Watchword of Future.
—–
Standing on a soapbox at Halsted and O’Brien streets last night, Miss Elizabeth Gurley Glynn [Flynn], the 17 year old union “platform wonder,” addressed a crowd of 200 workingmen and exhorted them to prepare for the “general strike” in Chicago in the near future. Other unions “revival” meetings were held at Clark and Erie streets and elsewhere about the city. The soapbox campaign will be conducted while the convention of the Industrial Workers of the World is in session this week at Brand’s hall.
[Declared Miss Flynn:]
Not until every workingman quits his labor and refuses to go back until he is given a fair share of the profits will the labor question be settled. The general strike is the watchword of the future. It is certain to come soon.
Meetings will be held tonight in the Milwaukee avenue district and at several places on the west side.
———-
[Photograph added.]
