Tag: Spokane WA

Hellraisers Journal: From Butte Labor World: Eugene Debs Gives Rousing Speech on Class Struggle to Enthusiastic Audience

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, Socialist Ripe Trade Unionist, WLUC p45, May 31, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday June 29, 1902
Debs Speaks at Butte, Montana: “We Must Gain Possession of the Tools of Trade”

From the Social Democratic Herald of June 28, 1902
-Letter from Eugene V. Debs at Butte, Montana, June 17th:

Letter EVD from Butte June 17, SDH p4, June 28, 1902

From the Butte Labor World of June 20, 1902:

HdLn EVD Butte June 16 Speech, Lbr Wld p1, June 20, 1902

 Eugene V. Debs was given a rousing reception at the Auditorium Monday evening [June 16th]. It was an enthusiastic audience that heard him speak, and as he stood upon the platform for two solid hours and hurled rugged truths at them he was greeted with applause which at times was in the nature of an ovation.

Few public speakers of today could have filled the spacious Auditorium upon so short notice. Stopping off for a day in Butte, it had not been Mr. Debs’ purpose to speak at that time, but he was prevailed upon by a number of the most earnest workers for the cause of Socialism, and he consented. Hardly three hours was given in which to spread the news, but somehow it went the rounds and the Auditorium was filled from gallery to rostrum. Many who had come late were compelled to stand.

A Keen, Forceful Talker.

Upon the platform, as well as off, Eugene V. Debs is a wonderfully magnetic man. His flashes of humor, his clear, strong way of putting the questions before the minds of his auditors, and his cutting sarcasm directed at things and conditions he believes to be wrong, are such as to hold his audience spellbound.

“We Must Gain Possession of the Tools of Trade,” was the tenor of his remarks. “Human life will then be sacred. The badge of labor will be the badge of nobility.”

Charles Whitely, of the Butte Mill and Smeltermen’s union, was the chairman of the meeting and introduced the distinguished speaker.

Mr. Whitely referred to him as the “ablest labor leader the United States has ever produced,” and the audience cheered loudly. Mr. Debs appeared to be pleased with the cordial and earnest feeling with which he was received. It inspired him to extra effort, and the effect was truly notable.

Debs’ Speech.

It seems but a little while-yet four years have passed and many changes have taken place since I had the pleasure of speaking to you.

Never was there a greater demand for intelligent, thorough, and progressive action on the part of the laboring class than now. That such a large attendance could be secured upon so short notice proves that the workers of Butte are alive and determined to wage a struggle with increasing vigor until the working class is free. Not until the capitalist system of exploitation is overthrown and the wage system is abolished and the workers control the means of production and receive the full product of their toil, not until then will the struggle cease and they will stand as the rulers of the world.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From Butte Labor World: Eugene Debs Gives Rousing Speech on Class Struggle to Enthusiastic Audience” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for March 1912, Part II: Found Speaking in Spokane, Washington and in Missoula and Butte, Montana

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Awaken to Power, Spk Chc p6, Mar 28, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday April 16, 1912
Mother Jones News Round-Up for March 1912, Part II
Found in Spokane, Washington and in Missoula and Butte, Montana

From The Daily Missoulian of March 28, 1912:

Mother Jones Ad, Dly Missoulian p2, Mar 28, 1912

From the Spokane Daily Chronicle of March 28, 1912:

WOMAN SUFFRAGE, BAH! SAYS MOTHER
———-
“Mother Jones” Has No Use
for Equal Rights Issue.
———-

“Woman suffrage-bah! The mere thought of the movement makes me tired.”-“Mother” Jones.

“Mother” Jones, who has championed the interests of working men, women and children for over a quarter century and who has promoted strikes in various sections of the nations is a socialist but by no means a suffragist.

[She asserted at Machinists’ union headquarters this afternoon:]

The woman’s place is in the home, molding the character of her children, if she has any, and preparing them to meet the issues that will confront them later in life-educating them to the economic problems that affect them,” she asserted at Machinists’ union headquarters this afternoon.

Why, the men haven’t learned yet to vote intelligently and just the same as men are now selling out their votes for a schooner of beer to cunning politicians, the woman’s vote will be influenced with a bouquet or a box of candy.

Calls It Worthless Cause.

Women are simply wasting their time upon a worthless cause in their struggle for the ballot, for as soon as the economic system has become straightened out the way it ought to be, woman will be the equal of man anyway.

That time will come when the great army of working people have become awakened to their power and have taken possession of the machinery of production and the greedy capitalistic class that is now grinding out the lives of the little children of the poor for profit have been made to step down and out.

The employing class is scared almost to death of the working men and women of the nation right now, and if the workers only knew it, they would not be in want over night.

While the working people of the world are no more than a day or two from the poorhouse the year round, as a rule, the poodle doge of the rich are having banquets given in their honor and are treated better than children of the poor.

Prohibitionists say that the prevalence of the drinking habit among the working people is the cause of so much poverty, yet government statistics show that the average workingman has but $12 a year to spend for such luxuries as an occasional drink of liquor.

She 80 Years Old.

All over the nation the working people are gradually waking up and though I will be 80 years old on the first of May, I hope to see the time that the economic system has changed completely and that the working class is in power.

“Mother” Jones spoke in behalf of the striking shopmen on the Harriman railway system Wednesday night at the armory building and will leave tonight over the Great Northern for the east, expecting to be in Minneapolis in a short time.

Despite her advanced age, “Mother Jones is a splendid specimen of vigor and health and her voice is still steady and strong.

—————

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for March 1912, Part II: Found Speaking in Spokane, Washington and in Missoula and Butte, Montana” →

Hellraisers Journal: Industrial Worker: Boss’ Uniformed Clubbers (Thugs) on Labor Day and on Day After Labor Day

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Joe Hill, Murderers Slaughter Our Class, IW p3, Aug 27, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday September 14, 1910
Boss’ Uniformed Thugs on Labor Day and on the Day After

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of September 10, 1910:

Police AFL, Labor Day, Day After, IW p1, Sept 10, 1910

For years past it has been the habit of the A. F. of L. to allow the boss’ uniformed clubbers to lead the parade on Labor (?) Day. It is fitting that an institution of the boss, such as the A. F. of L., should be marshaled by the police, who are likewise of, for and by the boss. All nature is a paradox, but certainly none is more paradoxical than that men, presumably organized to fight the boss, organize to separate and to protect the boss’ property, and lastly be led in their line of march by the very force that is used to club them into submission when out on strike. It is a sign of the times that, through the efforts of a few militant members of the Cooks and Waiters, the police were eliminated from this year’s parade in Spokane. [Emphasis added.]

———-

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Spokane Industrial Worker: Latest IWW Songbook Now Available, Featuring Richard Brazier

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Richard Brazier, BRSB p388 from Lbr Hx Winter 1968———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday August 23, 1910
Spokane, Washington – Latest I. W. W. Songbook on Sale

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of August 20, 1910:

 

Ad, IWW LRSB, IW p4, Aug 20, 1910IWW LRSB Richard Brazier, IW p4, Aug 20, 1910

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Spokane Industrial Worker: Latest IWW Songbook Now Available, Featuring Richard Brazier” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the Spokane Industrial Worker: “The Scab” by Frank Gould, “Like ghouls that rob the dead.”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Frank Gould Poem Scab, IW p3, Aug 6, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday August 11, 1910
“And the victory near, then the scabs sneak in…” The Scab” by Frank Gould

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of August 6, 1910:

IWW The Scab by Frank Gould of Waiters Alliance, IW p3, Aug 6, 1910

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Spokane Industrial Worker: “The Scab” by Frank Gould, “Like ghouls that rob the dead.”” →

Hellraisers Journal: Spokane Free Speech Warrior Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Now Mother of Baby Boy in New York City

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Quote EGF, Compliment IWW, IW p1, Nov 17, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday May 29, 1910
Spokane Fellow Workers Learn of Birth of Baby Boy to Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

From the Spokane Spokesman Review of May 28, 1910:

GURLEY FLYNN IS MOTHER
———-

I. W. W.’S EX-LEADER ENDS WARFARE TO CARE FOR SON.
—–
Youngster Will Be Named Frederic Vincent Jones,
According to Letter.
—–

EGF, Restored, Spk Rv p7, July 9, 1909

The birth of a son to Mrs. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Jones, leader of the recent street speaking fight in this city, is announced in a letter received by Mrs. Fred Heslewood, of E703 Providence avenue. Mrs. Jones is with her mother in New York, engaged in the preparation of a book called “Women in the Industrial World.” The boy has been named Frederic Vincent Jones, it is said. It was born May 19.

Mr. Jones, better known by her maiden name, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, was the leader of the street speakers in their fight against the authorities last winter. She was arrested on a charge of criminal conspiracy, found guilty by a jury in a justice court, and acquitted on appeal to the superior court. She spent one night in the county jail and made charges of misconduct against the jailers that were taken up later by members of the Woman’s club. She left for New York before the final adjustment of the street speaking difficulties. Her husband’s home is in Missoula, Mont.

———-

[Photograph added is from Spokesman Review of July 9, 1909.]
[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Industrial Worker: Spokane IWW Gives Impressive Farewell to Free Speech Fighter F. J. Ferry

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote EGF, re Spk FSF, ISR p618, Jan 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 18, 1910
Spokane, Washington – Impressive Funeral Honors Free Speech Martyr F. J. Ferry

From the Industrial Worker of April 16, 1910:

IWW Spk FSF, Bnr, IW p1, Apr 16, 1910IWW Spk FSF, Martyr Ferry, IW p1, Apr 16, 1910

Once again the Grim Reaper Death has visited the ranks of the gallant band of men who valorously defended their principles during the recent Spokane free speech fight, and has claimed as its latest victim Fellow Worker F. J. Ferry, a member of L. U. No. 222.

Fellow Worker S. O. Chinn, the first martyr to Spokane police brutality, who died four weeks ago as a result of the hardships suffered in jail, was a young man not yet in the prime of life. He was a mere youth-the prospect of life stretched before him full of possibilities; he hadn’t begun to live yet. He had just started on “Life’s fitful dream” when he was cut off. He was out of place in this capitalistic world, as is every man of principle, so he had to be sacrificed. Not for him was the boon of life enjoyed by all animated nature; he was an intruder, a revolutionist; he interfered with the smooth working of the well-laid plan of the master class to hold the workers in subjection; his presence in life was a danger to their organized system of exploitation; therefore he, the merest stripling, with every natural right to life, was ruthlessly murdered.

In the mad career of the suicidal capitalist class, not only is the seed of the future society thus wantonly, but the old and storm-twisted oaks of the working class-men who have earned every right to peaceful old age-are also destroyed on the slightest pretext when the interest of the modern juggernaut demands it. Fellow Worker Ferry was an old man 62 years of age. He was a life-long veteran of the cruelest struggle in history-the struggle for existence in a capitalist society. Ever since early boyhood he has been robbed and abused by an insatiate parasite. In common with his fellow-slaves of the working class, he was denied the luxuries and necessaries that make life worth living. He was reduced to the condition of a machine, being given only enough of the product of his labor to simply keep life in his body. After many years of killing slavery as a baker, he became worn out and was cast aside to make room for a younger victim-like an old machine he was “scrapped.”

An old and battle-scarred victim of capitalism-deprived of home and family and all the natural attributes of a worthy old age-he earned his scanty living as best he could with seemingly no other goal in store for him than that of so many workers-an apologetic exit from life-a hurried trip to Potters’ Field.

But he became imbued with the philosophy of the new society; he joined the I. W. W.; he became a rebellious slave. For this he was made a social outcast-even more so than simply as a discarded slave-he became an object of loathing and hatred to his masters-a creature to be eradicated if possible.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Industrial Worker: Spokane IWW Gives Impressive Farewell to Free Speech Fighter F. J. Ferry” →

Hellraisers Journal: Fellow Worker Ferry is Second to Die Due to Brutal Treatment at Spokane’s Franklin School Prison

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote EGF, re Spk FSF, ISR p618, Jan 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 11, 1910
Spokane, Washington – FW Ferry Dead Due Brutal Treatment at Franklin School

From The Spokane Press of April 8, 1910:

IWW Spk FSF, WNF FJ Ferry, Spk Prs p1, Apr 8, 1910—–

34 DAYS ON BREAD THE CAUSE
—–

F. FERRY, AN INVALID AFTER JAIL EXPERIENCE,
SUCCUMBS TO PNEUMONIA.
—–

Another death is chargeable to the brutality of the system of Chief of Police John Sullivan and the members of the Spokane police department.

Another agonizing face will await the coming of these men in the Great Beyond, where they will face the responsibility that they so shrewdly shift here below, in the name of the majesty of the law.

The latest victim of police inhumanity to man is an aged man named F. Ferry, a resident of Spokane for years, who died last night at the Spokane general hospital, Third and Washington, following a brief but deadly attack of pneumonia.

IWW Spk FSF, Franklin School Jail, ISR p612, Jan 1910—–

Ferry took part in the free speech fight last fall and was among the first arrested and sent to the Franklin school. There, by order of chief Sullivan, he was placed on bread and water for 34 days and left the prison a physical wreck. He has since been an invalid, unable to work, and barely able to crawl around. Wednesday night he took suddenly sick with pneumonia, which found in his worn and emaciated body an easy victim, and all that medical science could do to save him was of no avail.

True, Ferry was an I. W. W. Yet he was an American citizen, a resident of Spokane for many years, whose only offense was that he thought the right of free speech should be accorded his fellow workingmen. He was a quiet, inoffensive man, past 60 years of age, and even in a Russian prison his gray hairs would have been respected and less harsh treatment shown than was manifested by the cowardly police force of Spokane.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Fellow Worker Ferry is Second to Die Due to Brutal Treatment at Spokane’s Franklin School Prison” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the Industrial Worker: Funeral of S. O. Chinn, Spokane Free Speech Martyr, Largely Attended

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote EGF, re Spk FSF, ISR p618, Jan 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday April 8, 1910
Spokane, Washington – S. O. Chinn Gets Grand I. W. W. Send-Off

From the Industrial Worker of April 2, 1910:

IWW Spk FSF v Employment Sharks, IW p1, Apr 2, 1910—–

CHINN’S FUNERAL LARGELY ATTENDED
—–
Many Watch Procession on Riverside Avenue
-Strains of the Marseillaise Heard-I. W. W.
Members Who Attend Funeral Wear Red Neckties.
—–

Funeral services for S. O. Chinn, age 27, which were held from the I. W. W. hall proved a magnate as the procession of men, women and children following the hearse and the brass band moved down Riverside Avenue. The last tribute was paid by James Thompson, national organizer of the Industrial Workers at the I. W. W. Hall at 616 Front Avenue, in which he declared that the man had given his life in the interest of the working class.

Three hundred Fellow Workers packed the hall to capacity and after the services followed the hearse and band to Riverside Avenue and Monroe Street, from which point the hearse and pall bearers proceeded to Greenwood cemetery, where Chinn was buried. The casket was draped with the flag of the organization of which Chinn was a member and an officer. Chinn came to Spokane last fall to participate in the free speech fight. His home was originally at Hutchinson, Kansas.

The funeral proceedings attracted a great deal of attention. Before the hearse walked four officers of the I. W. W. with red neckties and red badges of the organization in their buttonholes, while the band before pealed out the martial strains of the “Marseillaise.” Stretching behind for four or five blocks marched the members of the organization, who came out to pay their last respects to the man that had sacrificed his life for the cause of Free Speech.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Industrial Worker: Funeral of S. O. Chinn, Spokane Free Speech Martyr, Largely Attended” →