Part 2 (2/2)

”Oh no, no. That isn't the idea,” rejoined Kelly. ”We have strikes on, labor troubles here, and we don't want you to speak here at all. You are welcome at any other time, but not now.”

”Well,” said Thompson, ”as a representative of labor, when labor is in trouble is the time I would like to speak, but I am not going to advocate anything that I think you could object to.”

”Now, Thompson,” said Kelly, ”if you will agree to get right out of town I will let you go. I don't want to lock you up.”

”Do you believe in free speech?” asked Thompson.

”Yes.”

”And I am not arrested?”

”No, you are not arrested.”

”Come up to the meeting then,” Thompson said with a smile, ”for I am going back and speak.”

”Oh no, you are not!”--and Kelly kind of laughed. ”No, you are not!”

”If you let me go I will go right up to the corner and speak, and if you send me out of town I will come back,” said Thompson emphatically. ”I don't know what you are going to do, but that's how I stand.”

”Lock him up with the rest!” was the abrupt reply of the ”Commissioner of Public Safety.”

At this juncture James Rowan was brought in from the patrol wagon, and searched. As the officers were about to put him in the cell with the others, Sheriff McRae called out:

”Don't put him in there, he is instigator of the whole d.a.m.n business.

Turn him over to me.” He then took Rowan in his automobile to the county jail and threw him in a cell, along with B. E. Peck, who had previously been given a ”floater” out of town for having spoken on the street on or about August 15th. McRae was drunk.

More than half a thousand indignant citizens followed the twenty-one arrested persons to the jail, loudly condemning the outrage against their const.i.tutional rights. Editor H. W. Watts, of the Northwest Worker, a union and socialist paper published in Everett, forcibly expressed his opinion of the suppression of free speech and was thereupon thrown into jail. Fearing a serious outbreak, Michel secured permission to address the people surrounding the jail. The crowd, upon receiving a.s.surances from Michel that the men would be well treated and could be seen in the morning, quietly dispersed and returned to their homes.

The free speech prisoners were charged with vagrancy on the police blotter, but no formal charge was ever made, nor were they brought to trial. Next morning, Thompson and his wife, who had return tickets on the Interurban, were deported by rail, together with Herbert Mahler, secretary of the Seattle I. W. W. Mrs. Mahler, Mrs. Frennette and the balance of the prisoners were taken to the City Dock and deported by boat. At the instigation of McRae, and without a court order, the sum of $13. was seized from the personal funds of James Orr and turned over to the purser of the boat to pay the fares of the deportees to Seattle.

Protests against this legalized robbery were of no avail; the amount of the fares was never repaid. Mayor Merrill of Everett, replying to a letter from Mahler, promised that this money would be refunded to Orr.

His word proved to be as good as that of the Everett s.h.i.+ngle mill owners. Prominent members of the Commercial Club lent civic dignity to the deportation by their profane threats to use physical force in the event that any of the deported prisoners dared to return.

Upon their arrival in Seattle the deported men conferred with other members of the union, telling of the beating some of them had received while in jail, and as a result there was organized a free speech committee composed of Sam Dixon, Dan Emmett and A. E. Soper. Telegrams were then sent to General Headquarters, to Solidarity and to various branches of the organization, notifying them of what had happened. At a street meeting that night, Mrs. Frennette, Mrs. Mahler and James P.

Thompson, gave the workers the facts and collected over $50.00 for the committee to use in its work. In Everett the Labor Council pa.s.sed a resolution stating that the unions there were back of the battle for free speech and condemning McRae and the authorities for their illegal actions. The Free Speech Fight was on!

Remick, in the meantime, had returned to Everett and found that all the literature had been confiscated from the hall. The day following his return, August 24th, Sheriff McRae bl.u.s.tered into the hall with a police officer in his train. Leering at Remick he exclaimed:

”You G.o.d d.a.m.n son of a b----, are you back here again? Get on your coat and get into that auto!”

Seizing an I. W. W. stencil that was lying on the table he tore it to shreds.

”If anybody asks who tore that up,”--bombastically--”tell them Sheriff McRae tore it!”

Shoving Remick into the automobile with the remark that jail was too easy for him and they would therefore take him to the Interurban and deport him, the sheriff drove off to make good his threat. McRae was drunk.

On the corner that night, Harry Feinberg spoke to a large audience and was not molested. That this was due to no change of policy on the part of the lumber trust tools was shown when secretary Herbert Mahler went to Everett the following day in reference to the situation. He was met at the depot by Sheriff McRae who asked him what he had come to Everett for. ”To see the Mayor,” answered Mahler. ”Anything you have to say to the Mayor, you can say to me,” was McRae's rejoinder. After a brief conversation Mahler was deported to Seattle by the same car on which he had made the trip over. McRae was drunk.

F. W. Stead reopened the hall on the 26th and managed to hold it down for a couple of days. Three speakers appeared and spoke that night. J.

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