No free speech fight was as costly and ferociously fought than the one in San Diego. Laura Payne Emerson was witness to the campaign.

‘As It Is in San Diego’ by Laura Payne Emerson from Industrial Worker. Vol. 4 No. 30. October 17, 1912.

The vigilantes and police of San Diego, no doubt, are congratulating themselves on their victory in the late free speech fight, and from other sections of the country comes the news that vigilantes are forming for the purpose of handling the I.W.W. as they were handled in San Diego, Cal.

Sunny San Diego by the sea! The spot to which all the world is invited to come and enjoy the glories of nature. The plutes to enjoy, rather, and the slaves to wait upon them.

If you were in some distant place and should read about San Diego as described by the capitalist press, you would think it a paradise where all things worked together for the common weal of man. And if you were to walk down Fifth street any evening you would swear we had free speech as on several street corners you would find assemblages of people listening to some spell binder (?) and should you visit the halls and churches any “Lord’s Day” you would think that all cults and doctrines might be propagated here, yet if you observe closely you will find one organization exempt from any such privilege, viz: “The Industrial Workers of the World.”

Draw near to the street speakers and you will find they are peddling patent medicine or some other useless if not harmless dope, or bidding the poor devils set their eyes on that fair country across the river of death and quit bothering about this one. This is a safe and sane doctrine, for if the poor working stiffs will continue to look up into the sky and speculate on an imaginary mansion there they will never contend with the robbers here for possession of the earth. Socialists, Spiritualists, Holy Rollers, Methodists, Baptists, A.F. of L., Democrats, Bull Moosers, and all the rest may find a place in San Diego, but not, not the I.W.W.

The Holy ground between Fifth and Sixth, on E street, is vacant and lonely by night and by day. That sacred spot where so many I.W.W. were clubbed and arrested last winter lies safe and secure from the unhallowed tread of the hated anarchist, and in fact, from all other human beings. The street is paved, or grass would no doubt spring up in the midst thereof, or perhaps thorns and thistles.

While they fought for the streets here for meetings, the I.W.W. were told to rent halls and conduct their propaganda there, but now they find it impossible to get halls. Two propaganda meetings were held recently in Germania ball, but as soon as it was found they had started regular meetings they were denied that or any hall.

Evidently the owners of halls are intimidated by vigilantes and police against renting to them. Porter, one of the leaders of the vigilante gang, makes the rounds of the jobs and when he recognizes an I.W.W. he orders the boss to fire him.

They call them the “I won’t works” and declare they will not work, but the fact is that the authorities, such as reign in San Diego, will not let them work if they can prevent it in the hope they will be compelled to leave.

R. Gosden, who served about six months in the county jail here, on a conspiracy charge, but really for violating the street speaking ordinance, was, after the trial, released on probation. A day or two later he was arrested and tried for deportation. That was more than two months ago. He has not been deported nor released. He is just held in jail. No reason why he should be only that they have the power and they hold him.

So here we are in the midst of an organized band of thugs, legal and extra egal, who deny us all rights and privileges. Perhaps there is no country in the world or no spot in this country where club and gun, brute force and ignorance reign more supreme than here in San Diego.

They have the courts, the jails and guns. What are we going to do about it?

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: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/industrialworker/iw/v4n30-w186-oct-17-1912-IW.pdf