One of hundreds of ‘free speech’ fights fought by the I.W.W. in their campaign to bring the One Big Union to workers.

‘Graphic Story of Yakima Fight and Victory’ from Industrial Worker. (New) Vol. 1 No. 27. October 14, 1916.

NORTH YAKIMA, Wash. Every demand of the I.W.W. for the right to organize, the right to free speech and the right to agitate for higher wages has been unconditionally granted by the authorities of North Yakima. They have seen that the economic and fighting power of the I.W.W. organization is not a figment of the imagination, but a very potent and conquering force,

The story of the fight and victory is but, another of the many incidents in the history of the I.W.W. showing our vast organized power.

The fight was not the result of any lack of tact on the part of the members, but was caused by the direct and willfully lawless acts of the Commercial Club, acting thru their special agents–the city police. The motive back of the fight was, as usual, the dollar. The members of the Commercial Club are vitally interested in low wages for the workers. The members of the I.W.W. were equally interested in raising the wages. We were standing out for a scale of $3.00 a day and were actually succeeding in getting it. This hit the employers of North Yakima in their most sensitive spot–their pocket nerve. It seemed preposterous to the Commercial Club that workers should wish to dictate the portion they would receive of the wealth they were creating.

Fellow Workers Adams, Siko, Brown, Cooke and others rented a hall, and opened up an I.W.W. headquarters. About an hour after the officers announced: “You fellows are all under arrest.” After taking all the literature in sight, the follow workers, eleven in all, were marched to the city jail.

The judge appeared an hour later and reprimanded the boys for being members of the I.W.W. He informed them that North Yakima would not recognize their rights to organization. He forgot all about his own law books and flatly stated that no civil or Constitutional rights existed for the members of the I.W.W.

Worker Refused to Leave Jail.

The next day Fellow Workers Doll and Riley were arrested as the officers had discovered that they were advocating higher wages. The same day a fellow worker was taken out of a restaurant and arrested for vagrancy, altho the officers were very distinct in stating the real charge was being a member of the I.W.W. At the trial such as I.W.W. members are often given, Doll was released and Riley sentenced to 20 days. The officers and judge discovered how little. the I.W.W.s fear their jails. Doll refused to leave without Riley. The judge scratched his head and finally, at Doll’s request, sentenced him to jail with Riley.

Two days later, Fellow Workers Nix, Moody and Howell were arrested as ring leaders and booked, as the Yakima papers admitted, on another charge than being members of the I.W.W. The judge wanted to have them leave North Yakima, but they flatly refused. Fellow Worker Wilson attended this trial and was amused by its kangaroo nature. It was such a farce and joke on justice, Fellow Worker Wilson had to laugh. Judge Milford noticed him enjoying what the court was doing to the American constitution, and said: “Young fellow, you seem to be taking this trial as a joke.”

Wilson answered: “It is a big joke.” Questioned by the judge, he said he was an organizer for the I.W.W. and that he was going to do considerable organizing in North Yakima.

The judge said: “Thirty days; lock him up.”

“You are a cheap guy, why don’t you make it a million, we’ll have this town licked in a few days anyway,” was Wilsons parting shot.

Forced to Hold Street Meeting.

Every right the workers are supposed to have had been trampled upon. The Yakima papers had misrepresented the I.W.W. thru their pages. The only recourse left the workers was to hold a street meeting. The members of the I.W.W. had been arrested, altho there had been no charge that they had broken any of the city ordinances. Altho the Salvation Army were speaking on the streets regularly, and numerous politicians had been speaking, the I.W.W. meeting was broken up by the police. Fellow Worker Ryan was brutally jerked off the box. Fellow Worker. Errson, why immediately took his place was knocked off the box, and, while laying prostrate, he was kicked on the ribs by one of the starred thugs of the Commercial Club. This meeting resulted in the arrest of forty-six fellow workers.

Over sixty men were crowded in the city jail. Deprived of food and surrounded by filth and vermin, and jailed without charges, we rebelled. This resulted in the demolishing of the jail. The fellow workers on the inside simply tore up the wooden shack. There was no other way to force the attention of the citizens. The members could have gone free at any time by giving up or compromising their principles; and they did not destroy the jail to gain their freedom, but as a lesson to the officers that they cannot expect obedience to the law from men to whom they refuse all legal protection.

When the fellow workers began demolishing the jail, a great crowd gathered on the outside. Fellow Worker Murphy spoke to the crowd out of the jail window, exposing the rotten jail conditions. He told them the blankets were saturated with human excreta, the toilets out of order and the smell beyond human endurance. He asked that the Woman’s Club of the city investigate the conditions under which a civilized city held its prisoners.

Those on the outside agreed that an investigation should be made. The officers, to forestall investigation of the conditions, rushed the fire department to the jail with the real object of covering up the unsanitary conditions.

Meeting of Yakima’s Lawless Element.

The mayor and prosecuting attorney, after the destruction of the jail, called a meeting of the business men of the city. This meeting was for the purpose of using mob violence instead of regular legal process. The first motion made was that they take autos and haul every member of the I.W.W. ten miles out of Yakima and see that they did not return. This was not fiendish enough to suit the desires of the business men. They advocated that each member be taken out separately and horsewhipped. It was not any consideration of the law or common humanity that retarded the business men from putting this into effect, but the fear that the I.W.W. might be as illegal as Yakima business men and invest in horsewhips to repay the beating-up of our members.

There was much discussion of this plan by the business men, who were perfectly willing to revoke all laws in order to keep low wages for the Yakima farmers, providing they could do this without danger to their own hides. Finally, the business men passed a motion which suited the perjurers who had sworn to support the laws of the United States. This motion instituted a government with pick handles.

At noon the same day the civilized, Christian people of Yakima headed by the mayor, armed themselves with pick handles; marched to the jail; took the members of the I.W.W. out of the jail; brought them to the N.P. tracks and loaded them into box cars. The railway men, however, had more respect for the law than the officers. They refused to couple up the cars or have anything to do with the lawlessness of Yakima’s mayor and citizens.

One Officer Stands Against Mayor for Law.

Defeated in their purpose of deporting the I.W.W. members, with the city jail practically destroyed, they were compelled to bring the fellow workers to the county jail. On delivering the men to the sheriff they demanded that they be given nothing to eat, but bread and water. The sheriff was a man in comparison with the filthy scum composing the citizen’s committee. He refused point blank to have anything to do with their lawlessness. The men were placed under good jail conditions and fed properly, in remarkable contrast to the treatment given them by the mayor and city police.

The men had been arrested the day before and had not been given anything to eat till late the following afternoon when they were placed in the County jail.

Even Lawlessness Futile Against I.W.W.

Finding every method they could use powerless against the I.W.W., the officers began sparring for a way to get out of the mess they had created for themselves. They finally made an unconditional surrender, when nothing else was possible. They granted the I.W.W. the right to open a hall, the right to hold street meetings and the other privileges due an organization willing to fight till they win all their demands.

All the fellow workers are released and have gone out on the job, where the authorities of Yakima will hear from them in the shape of higher wages for the workers.

In releasing the members the mayor tried to apologize for his lawlessness and that of the police force. He asked the I.W.W. to be considerate to the officers, they having acted as they were directed to act. The Mayor and Chief of Police, of course, under the orders of the Commercial Club, did the directing. The I.W.W. are satisfied with the amount of consideration they have the power to demand. The City of North Yakima has been licked. It is part of the I.W.W. domain now. All members should concentrate on the job, where the battle of the workers must be fought and won.

The Industrial Union Bulletin, and the Industrial Worker were newspapers published by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) from 1907 until 1913. First printed in Joliet, Illinois, IUB incorporated The Voice of Labor, the newspaper of the American Labor Union which had joined the IWW, and another IWW affiliate, International Metal Worker.The Trautmann-DeLeon faction issued its weekly from March 1907. Soon after, De Leon would be expelled and Trautmann would continue IUB until March 1909. It was edited by A. S. Edwards. 1909, production moved to Spokane, Washington and became The Industrial Worker, “the voice of revolutionary industrial unionism.”

PDF of full issue: http://iw.applefritter.com/Industrial%20Worker/1916/1916%2010%2014%20IW.pdf