-from Solidarity of January 11, 1913
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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday February 1, 1913
Fourteen Strikers, Organizers and Speakers of Little Falls Strike Remain in Jail
From the International Socialist Review of February 1913:
IN the Herkimer County jail at Herkimer, N. Y., are fourteen strikers, organizers and speakers-Legere, Bocchini, Vaughn, Hirsh, Lesnicki, Wladya, Morlando, Preta, Scitrona, Bianco, Flamena Cornacchio, Furillo and Capuano. They must stand trial on serious charges because the authorities of Little Falls and Herkimer county hold that:
Ten persons who gather together during a strike constitute a “riot.”
An open-air meeting in which quotations from the Bible, Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States are read constitutes “an unlawful assemblage.”
Speakers who encourage strikers to stand firm but urge them to be peaceful and orderly are guilty of “inciting to riot.”
Organizers who are present in an orderly assemblage which is broken up by police and in which two detectives are hurt by unknown persons must face long terms in jail for “assault in the first degree.”
Workingmen who are members of a strike committee are conspirators and should be locked up where their influence will not be felt.
If convictions are obtained in these cases then the working class of America might as well abandon all agitation and education both for political and economic action unless they are prepared to serve from one to ten years in the penitentiary.
The Little Falls strike is over, but the big fight has just begun. The commonest rights of human beings and citizens have once more been annulled and spit upon by the capitalist class and their legal lackeys. Are they going to be allowed to get away with it? These cases were originally set for the second week in January, but they may be continued. Meantime send your protests to Governor Sulzer at Albany, N. Y., who says he is the “workingman’s friend”; to District Attorney Farrell at Ilion, N. Y., and Mayor Shall at Little Falls, N. Y. It is time the voice of labor be heard.
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[Emphasis added.]
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