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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday February 14, 1911
Fresno, California – 94 Free Speech Fighters in Bullpen, 47×28 Feet
From the Appeal to Reason of February 11, 1911:
Court Crookedness in Fresno
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Some time ago the APPEAL printed a story about the fight on free speech at Fresno, signed by Mrs. W. F. [Emma] Little, a comrade of that city. The story resulted in Mrs. H. H. Roberts, of Connecticut, getting trace of a relative who had engaged in the fight and who was in jail at Fresno. F. W. Boyle, of Humboldt, Kan., and A. F. Boyle, of Dunneweg, Mo., also discovered that their cousin, Frank Little, was one of the prisoners of the free speech fight. The result has been a protest from various sections of the United States. It would be well for all acquainted with these parties and others to write to the chief of police and the police judge and the mayor of Fresno protesting against the imprisonment of these people. Following are some further facts furnished the Appeal relative to the fight by Comrade Mrs. Little:
Before the I. W. W. was organized at all the chief of police told my husband, “You mustn’t organize the common workers, for we have a raisin crop here that must be handled cheap. A painter belonging to the painters’ union here gets $4 a day and works eight hours. A man digging a ditch or picking raisins gets $1.50 to $2 a day and work ten hours. Both are out of work a good deal of the time.
In spite of the chief of police and his cheap raisin crop, my husband did his best to organize the common workers in the I. W. W., and shortly after a small local was formed. For some reason the chief of police got the idea into his head that the workers wouldn’t join the I. W. W. anyway, so he graciously allowed us to speak on the street. The chief was mistaken, and our local grew from fifteen to over a hundred in a couple of weeks. Then the chief took our permit to speak on the streets away from us. He informed my husband that he knew where his bread and butter came from.
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