San Diego Free Speech Fight
Encyclopedia
The San Diego Free Speech Fight in San Diego, California
in 1912–1913 was one of the most famous of the "free speech fights
", class conflict
s over the free speech rights of labor unions.
and their employers caused suspicion and animosity both within, and against the workers. Striking workers had taken militant
action which culminated in the Haymarket Riot in Chicago
; the Great Southwest Railroad Strike of 1886
was crushed, destroying the Knights of Labor
, coincident with the birth of the conservative American Federation of Labor
. In the western United States
the Western Federation of Miners
(WFM) inherited the mantle of militant unionism
, challenging capital in strikes from Cripple Creek to Canada. Many communities sought to limit the spread of union philosophy by revoking rights granted by the United States Constitution
, particularly the freedom of speech
granted by the First Amendment
.
(IWW) in what came to be called the "First Continental Congress
of the working class." The immediate purpose of the IWW was to unite all working people into one worldwide union, regardless of race, creed, sex, skill, or national origin. The ultimate goal was abolition of the wage system, replacing wage labour
with worker cooperative
s.
The Wobblies, as IWW members were called, frequently engaged in creative tactics, including soapbox
ing. The IWW orators spoke to workers about bosses, corruption, exploitation, and the unfairness of capitalism
. Championing such a direct challenge to capital, members of the IWW faced persecution and prejudice in North America
, and throughout the world. In many American cities, from Pennsylvania
to California
, IWW members found their right to public speech interfered with by local ordinance
or police harassment. Thus began the free speech fights
of the IWW.
From approximately 1906, the San Diego General Membership Branch of the IWW focused on various small industries, including cigar making and lumber. In 1910 the IWW attempted to organize Mexican workers of the San Diego Consolidated Gas and Electric Company. A successful strike led to the formation of a public service union, which was disbanded when many of the Mexican workers left to participate in the Mexican Revolution
.
neighborhood of San Diego, home to the city's "undesirables." The San Diego Common Council
had passed an ordinance to curb Wobbly soapbox orations, resulting in the San Diego Free Speech Fight in which the IWW clashed with law enforcement and vigilante
s who were incited to violence by local newspapers.
In response to the Germania Hall incident, the I.W.W. shifted their efforts to a form of soapbox oratory in order to win over a diverse spectrum of the working class, focusing on gaining converts through their speeches. The fifty members of the I.W.W. refocused their efforts to Heller's Corner at the corner of 5th and E Streets, in the center of the Stingaree. The Stingaree contained a mélange of ethnic groups: ranging from whites, white immigrant, blacks, Mexicans, and Chinese, most of which were members of the working class. The Stingaree and Heller's Corner were symbolic hubs for the San Diegan prejudices against different races and lower classes. The Stingaree was home to everything different and unknown that went against the "mission" ideal in San Diego, including: saloons, shops, cheap hotels, gambling houses, opium dens and prostitutes. The square block at the corner of Fifth and E Streets was home to more than just debauchery, as it also was the central location for a variety of "soapbox orators" including the Salvation Army
, Socialists
, Holy Roller
s, and the Single Taxers. The situation was relatively peaceful and there were no violent run-ins with the police, until after the Germania Hall incident.
. Prior to passage of the ordinance, the Wobblies, Single Taxers, and Socialists had signed a 250-person petition
in which they called for an allowance of unrestricted free speech. This effort countered the petitions previously submitted by the San Diego Grand Jury and the high powered San Diegan citizens, but to no avail.
There was a period of uncertainty, during which the council delayed its decision. The council may have simply been searching for affirmation from the general public in order to avoid widespread conflict and dismay throughout the city. Some council members "believed that a referendum would show that the majority of San Diegans favored speaking anywhere at anytime."
The council finally found a reason to pass the ordinance on the evening of January 6, 1912. The Socialists and Single Taxers were holding a soapbox event on the streets when an off-duty constable and real estate
man, R.J. Walsh drove his car into a crowd at the closed-off soapbox row. With his horn blaring, he attempted to disrupt the orators. His car was mobbed and its tires were slashed. The police intervened and two days later the San Diego Common Council passed Ordinance 4623 with an emergency clause that called for the immediate cessation of public free speech rights, sidestepping the customary twenty day implementation wait period. The free speech fight had officially begun.
and other trade union
s. The League attempted to take a legal stand against the free speech restrictions by holding up the Constitution
and defending the rights of non-property owning peoples. The League also hired E.E. Kirk as an attorney to provide some legal leverage against the law and its enforcement.
After the passage of free speech restrictions, the Wobblies and other groups began testing the ordinance. At a typical I.W.W. street meeting the police left the Wobblies undisturbed and merely relegated themselves to traffic and pedestrian direction. Indeed the Wobblies and the Socialists believed that they had already won back their free speech rights. But law enforcement was simply adhering to a generally accepted 30-day grace period
after the ordinance was enacted. Once the grace period was over, forty-one people were arrested during a parade and demonstration consisting of 5,000 protesters. Those arrested were jailed for twenty-four hours, held initially on a misdemeanor charge. But the prosecutors decided the violators had conspired to break the law, and thus tried the prisoners under a felony charge of conspiracy. The Wobblies and other soapbox speakers then moved their orations out of the restricted zone. But the council passed an ordinance which gave police the ability to arrest anyone that disrupted traffic throughout San Diego.
and aggression were rampant, while beatings and other abuses were relatively common throughout the ordeal. For example, one older man in the drunk tank was repeatedly struck in the groin over a period of days until he finally died.
These events coincided with the plan of the Free Speech League to "glut the jails and then to demand individual jury trial
s which would clog the courts and bring the legal machinery to a standstill." This especially appealed to the I.W.W., so much so that they called for 20,000 Wobblies to converge on San Diego in order to bring the system to a halt. There were 50 members of local 13 in 1912, but roughly 5,000 Wobblies came to San Diego to participate in the free speech fight. District Attorney
Utley tried to offer a compromise to the Wobblies, promising to free the men originally arrested for conspiracy if the I.W.W. ceased its public speaking in the restricted zone. The I.W.W. declined the offer on principle even through its attorney, E.E. Kirk, recommended that they accept the compromise. The arrests continued. The I.W.W. then protested against the detainment and the prison conditions in front of the city jail. Five thousand protesters turned out, and the police indiscriminately blasted people, including women and children, with fire hoses.
as this brutal first hand account notes:
The state of California finally intervened, as Governor Hiram Johnson
was flooded with demands for an inquiry into the arrests and vigilantism
in San Diego. Governor Johnson sent Colonel Weinstock to act as an investigative commissioner. By all accounts Weinstock was an impartial judge of situation, and he concluded that the arrests and free speech restrictions were unlawful, but that the Wobblies were wrong in their pursuance of an activist stance. Moreover, Weinstock likened the situation to Czarist Russia
and suggested the Attorney General
take action, but he did not. Although Weinstock's presence caused a temporary cessation in violence, the situation was once again aroused when Joseph Mikolash, a Wobbly, was killed by police in the I.W.W. headquarters in San Diego. The Wobblies reportedly employed firearms against the police in the incident, which led to the discovery of a small arms cache in the I.W.W. headquarters. This increased the public's hostility toward the I.W.W. and toward Weinstock's report, which had defended the Wobblies' constitutional right
to free speech.
and Ben Reitman
came to San Diego for Goldman to give her speech "An Enemy of the People" on May 15, 1912. When the two arrived at the train station the same women that allegedly needed protection from the soapbox orators yelled "Give us that anarchist; we will strip her naked; we will tear out her guts." Mayor of San Diego James E. Wadham
offered a warning, but no help to the two activists. Reitman was abducted by vigilantes from his hotel room and tortured. He later recalled,
.
By the fall of 1912, the soapbox row had been abandoned. The vigilantes ended their terror campaign, for they had brutalized, driven out, or– some believe– possibly murdered anyone who stood up for the right of free speech in San Diego. This was quite a different result from what the IWW had experienced in its other free speech fights
around the country. The Wobblies did not return to San Diego until 1914.
, the first stanza of "We're Bound For San Diego":
The bonus track "Tar and Sagebrush", from Anti-Flag
's new album, The Bright Lights of America
, is a folk punk interpretation of Ben Reitman's description of his torture.
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
in 1912–1913 was one of the most famous of the "free speech fights
Free speech fights
Free speech fights are conflicts over the right to speak freely, particularly involving the Industrial Workers of the World efforts in the early twentieth century to organize workers and publicly speak about labor issues...
", class conflict
Class conflict
Class conflict is the tension or antagonism which exists in society due to competing socioeconomic interests between people of different classes....
s over the free speech rights of labor unions.
Introduction
By the beginning of the 20th century, growing confrontations between the working classWorking class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
and their employers caused suspicion and animosity both within, and against the workers. Striking workers had taken militant
Militant
The word militant, which is both an adjective and a noun, usually is used to mean vigorously active, combative and aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in 'militant reformers'. It comes from the 15th century Latin "militare" meaning "to serve as a soldier"...
action which culminated in the Haymarket Riot in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
; the Great Southwest Railroad Strike of 1886
Great Southwest Railroad Strike of 1886
The Great Southwest Railroad Strike of 1885 was a labor union strike against the Union Pacific and Missouri Pacific railroads involving more than 200,000 workers. In March 1886, railroad workers in the Southwest United States conducted an unsuccessful strike against railroads owned by Jay Gould,...
was crushed, destroying the Knights of Labor
Knights of Labor
The Knights of Labor was the largest and one of the most important American labor organizations of the 1880s. Its most important leader was Terence Powderly...
, coincident with the birth of the conservative American Federation of Labor
American Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers was elected president of the Federation at its...
. In the western United States
Western United States
.The Western United States, commonly referred to as the American West or simply "the West," traditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. Because the U.S. expanded westward after its founding, the meaning of the West has evolved over time...
the Western Federation of Miners
Western Federation of Miners
The Western Federation of Miners was a radical labor union that gained a reputation for militancy in the mines of the western United States and British Columbia. Its efforts to organize both hard rock miners and smelter workers brought it into sharp conflicts – and often pitched battles...
(WFM) inherited the mantle of militant unionism
Unionism
-Trades:*Community Unionism, describes the various ways in which trade unions can work with communities and community organizations*Craft unionism, an approach to union organizing in the United States and elsewhere that seeks to unify workers in a particular industry along the lines of the...
, challenging capital in strikes from Cripple Creek to Canada. Many communities sought to limit the spread of union philosophy by revoking rights granted by the United States Constitution
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...
, particularly the freedom of speech
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...
granted by the First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
.
Industrial Workers of the World
In 1905 the WFM and other unions, together with socialist, and anarchist groups met in Chicago to form the Industrial Workers of the WorldIndustrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
(IWW) in what came to be called the "First Continental Congress
First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from twelve of the thirteen North American colonies that met on September 5, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, early in the American Revolution. It was called in response to the passage of the Coercive Acts by the...
of the working class." The immediate purpose of the IWW was to unite all working people into one worldwide union, regardless of race, creed, sex, skill, or national origin. The ultimate goal was abolition of the wage system, replacing wage labour
Wage labour
Wage labour is the socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer, where the worker sells their labour under a formal or informal employment contract. These transactions usually occur in a labour market where wages are market determined...
with worker cooperative
Worker cooperative
A worker cooperative is a cooperative owned and democratically managed by its worker-owners. This control may be exercised in a number of ways. A cooperative enterprise may mean a firm where every worker-owner participates in decision making in a democratic fashion, or it may refer to one in which...
s.
The Wobblies, as IWW members were called, frequently engaged in creative tactics, including soapbox
Soapbox
A soapbox is a raised platform on which one stands to make an impromptu speech, often about a political subject. The term originates from the days when speakers would elevate themselves by standing on a wooden crate originally used for shipment of soap or other dry goods from a manufacturer to a...
ing. The IWW orators spoke to workers about bosses, corruption, exploitation, and the unfairness of capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
. Championing such a direct challenge to capital, members of the IWW faced persecution and prejudice in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, and throughout the world. In many American cities, from Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, IWW members found their right to public speech interfered with by local ordinance
Local ordinance
A local ordinance is a law usually found in a municipal code.-United States:In the United States, these laws are enforced locally in addition to state law and federal law.-Japan:...
or police harassment. Thus began the free speech fights
Free speech fights
Free speech fights are conflicts over the right to speak freely, particularly involving the Industrial Workers of the World efforts in the early twentieth century to organize workers and publicly speak about labor issues...
of the IWW.
From approximately 1906, the San Diego General Membership Branch of the IWW focused on various small industries, including cigar making and lumber. In 1910 the IWW attempted to organize Mexican workers of the San Diego Consolidated Gas and Electric Company. A successful strike led to the formation of a public service union, which was disbanded when many of the Mexican workers left to participate in the Mexican Revolution
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...
.
Events leading to the fight
One of the most brutal and significant of the free speech fights occurred in the StingareeStingaree
The Stingaree was a neighborhood of San Diego between the boom of the 1880s and the cleanup of 1916. The reason for the neighborhood's fame was its role as the home to the city's "undesirables", including prostitutes, pimps, drug dealers and gamblers. For similar reasons of societal exclusion, it...
neighborhood of San Diego, home to the city's "undesirables." The San Diego Common Council
San Diego City Council
The San Diego City Council is the legislative branch of government for the city of San Diego, California. The city councilmember seats are all officially non-partisan by state law. There are currently 8 members of the city council, which will be expanded to 9 members in 2012 under the terms of a...
had passed an ordinance to curb Wobbly soapbox orations, resulting in the San Diego Free Speech Fight in which the IWW clashed with law enforcement and vigilante
Vigilante
A vigilante is a private individual who legally or illegally punishes an alleged lawbreaker, or participates in a group which metes out extralegal punishment to an alleged lawbreaker....
s who were incited to violence by local newspapers.
Germania Hall incident
The San Diego Free Speech Fight began on February 1, 1912, but confrontation with the San Diego's "old guard" began as early as 1910. On November 10, 1910, Local 13 of the I.W.W. held a meeting to celebrate the martyrs of the Chicago Haymarket Riot. The police closed down the Wobbly meeting place, Germania Hall, before the event could take place. In response, the I.W.W. took their grievances to the streets and began their soapbox free speech campaign. Afterwards, Wobblies who spoke "on the soapbox" were jailed, "fingerprinted, photographed in jail and then released."In response to the Germania Hall incident, the I.W.W. shifted their efforts to a form of soapbox oratory in order to win over a diverse spectrum of the working class, focusing on gaining converts through their speeches. The fifty members of the I.W.W. refocused their efforts to Heller's Corner at the corner of 5th and E Streets, in the center of the Stingaree. The Stingaree contained a mélange of ethnic groups: ranging from whites, white immigrant, blacks, Mexicans, and Chinese, most of which were members of the working class. The Stingaree and Heller's Corner were symbolic hubs for the San Diegan prejudices against different races and lower classes. The Stingaree was home to everything different and unknown that went against the "mission" ideal in San Diego, including: saloons, shops, cheap hotels, gambling houses, opium dens and prostitutes. The square block at the corner of Fifth and E Streets was home to more than just debauchery, as it also was the central location for a variety of "soapbox orators" including the Salvation Army
Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....
, Socialists
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
, Holy Roller
Holy Roller
Holy Roller is a term in American English used to describe Pentecostal Christian churchgoers. The term is commonly used derisively, as if to describe people literally rolling on the floor or speaking in tongues in an uncontrolled manner....
s, and the Single Taxers. The situation was relatively peaceful and there were no violent run-ins with the police, until after the Germania Hall incident.
Ordinance prohibiting free speech
The free speech fight officially began on January 8, 1912, when the San Diego Common Council passed Ordinance No. 4623, which called for a restricted zone of 49-square blocks (more than which was requested by San Diegans) in the middle of San Diego, encompassing all of "soapbox row." The ordinance came as a result of a recommendation given by the San Diego grand jury and a petition signed by eighty-five prominent citizens and property owners who had hoped to prohibit free speech in a seven-square block zone centered around 5th & E. The meetings blocked traffic, it was officially argued, and that necessitated an ordinance for "the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, and safety and one of emergency." The initial punishment for violating the ordinance was punishable by a $25 to $100 fine and/or thirty days' imprisonmentImprisonment
Imprisonment is a legal term.The book Termes de la Ley contains the following definition:This passage was approved by Atkin and Duke LJJ in Meering v Grahame White Aviation Co....
. Prior to passage of the ordinance, the Wobblies, Single Taxers, and Socialists had signed a 250-person petition
Petition
A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer....
in which they called for an allowance of unrestricted free speech. This effort countered the petitions previously submitted by the San Diego Grand Jury and the high powered San Diegan citizens, but to no avail.
There was a period of uncertainty, during which the council delayed its decision. The council may have simply been searching for affirmation from the general public in order to avoid widespread conflict and dismay throughout the city. Some council members "believed that a referendum would show that the majority of San Diegans favored speaking anywhere at anytime."
The council finally found a reason to pass the ordinance on the evening of January 6, 1912. The Socialists and Single Taxers were holding a soapbox event on the streets when an off-duty constable and real estate
Real estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
man, R.J. Walsh drove his car into a crowd at the closed-off soapbox row. With his horn blaring, he attempted to disrupt the orators. His car was mobbed and its tires were slashed. The police intervened and two days later the San Diego Common Council passed Ordinance 4623 with an emergency clause that called for the immediate cessation of public free speech rights, sidestepping the customary twenty day implementation wait period. The free speech fight had officially begun.
Opposition to the ordinance
The California Free Speech League was created on January 16, 1912, with the support of Socialists, Wobblies, church groups, the AFLAmerican Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers was elected president of the Federation at its...
and other trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
s. The League attempted to take a legal stand against the free speech restrictions by holding up the Constitution
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...
and defending the rights of non-property owning peoples. The League also hired E.E. Kirk as an attorney to provide some legal leverage against the law and its enforcement.
After the passage of free speech restrictions, the Wobblies and other groups began testing the ordinance. At a typical I.W.W. street meeting the police left the Wobblies undisturbed and merely relegated themselves to traffic and pedestrian direction. Indeed the Wobblies and the Socialists believed that they had already won back their free speech rights. But law enforcement was simply adhering to a generally accepted 30-day grace period
Grace period
A grace period is a time past the deadline for an obligation during which a late penalty that would have been imposed is waived. Grace periods, which can range from a number of minutes to a number of days or longer, depending on the context, can apply in various situations, including arrival at a...
after the ordinance was enacted. Once the grace period was over, forty-one people were arrested during a parade and demonstration consisting of 5,000 protesters. Those arrested were jailed for twenty-four hours, held initially on a misdemeanor charge. But the prosecutors decided the violators had conspired to break the law, and thus tried the prisoners under a felony charge of conspiracy. The Wobblies and other soapbox speakers then moved their orations out of the restricted zone. But the council passed an ordinance which gave police the ability to arrest anyone that disrupted traffic throughout San Diego.
Jail conditions and civil disobedience
The increase in arrests led to the rapid filling of the San Diego jails, causing overcrowding and the rapid decline of prison conditions, increasing Wobbly anger toward law enforcement. The reports about jail conditions were conflicting, but the general trend seems to show that the Wobblies and other pro-free speech detainees were treated badly. The jails filled up so quickly that the police used their sobering rooms or drunk tanks for housing inmates. These tanks had no beds and the arrested were forced to sleep on vermin infested concrete floors. Moreover, police brutalityPolice brutality
Police brutality is the intentional use of excessive force, usually physical, but potentially also in the form of verbal attacks and psychological intimidation, by a police officer....
and aggression were rampant, while beatings and other abuses were relatively common throughout the ordeal. For example, one older man in the drunk tank was repeatedly struck in the groin over a period of days until he finally died.
These events coincided with the plan of the Free Speech League to "glut the jails and then to demand individual jury trial
Jury trial
A jury trial is a legal proceeding in which a jury either makes a decision or makes findings of fact which are then applied by a judge...
s which would clog the courts and bring the legal machinery to a standstill." This especially appealed to the I.W.W., so much so that they called for 20,000 Wobblies to converge on San Diego in order to bring the system to a halt. There were 50 members of local 13 in 1912, but roughly 5,000 Wobblies came to San Diego to participate in the free speech fight. District Attorney
District attorney
In many jurisdictions in the United States, a District Attorney is an elected or appointed government official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminal offenses. The district attorney is the highest officeholder in the jurisdiction's legal department and supervises a staff of...
Utley tried to offer a compromise to the Wobblies, promising to free the men originally arrested for conspiracy if the I.W.W. ceased its public speaking in the restricted zone. The I.W.W. declined the offer on principle even through its attorney, E.E. Kirk, recommended that they accept the compromise. The arrests continued. The I.W.W. then protested against the detainment and the prison conditions in front of the city jail. Five thousand protesters turned out, and the police indiscriminately blasted people, including women and children, with fire hoses.
Vigilantes
The increase in arrests left Police Chief Keno Wilson with a dilemma; he wanted to punish the protesters, but simultaneously faced overcrowded jails and stockades. After local newspapers began editorializing vociferously against the protesters and their tactics, groups of vigilantes began transporting arrested Wobblies and free speakers to the county line. The vigilantes began patrolling trains that were inbound from the north, and would grab Wobblies and invited speakers before they could get to the city. The vigilantes then proceeded to "reeducate" the speakers on patriotismPatriotism
Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...
as this brutal first hand account notes:
They were drunk and hollering and cursing the rest of the night. In the morning they took us out four or five at a time and marched us up the track to the county line… where were forced to kiss the flag and then run a gauntlet of 106 men, every one of which was striking at us as hard as they could with their pick ax handles. They broke one man's leg, and everyone was beaten black and blue, and was bleeding from a dozen wounds.These disturbing incidents occurred quite frequently, but there was no significant outcry from the middle class citizens of San Diego.
The state of California finally intervened, as Governor Hiram Johnson
Hiram Johnson
Hiram Warren Johnson was a leading American progressive and later isolationist politician from California; he served as the 23rd Governor from 1911 to 1917, and as a United States Senator from 1917 to 1945.-Early life:...
was flooded with demands for an inquiry into the arrests and vigilantism
Vigilante
A vigilante is a private individual who legally or illegally punishes an alleged lawbreaker, or participates in a group which metes out extralegal punishment to an alleged lawbreaker....
in San Diego. Governor Johnson sent Colonel Weinstock to act as an investigative commissioner. By all accounts Weinstock was an impartial judge of situation, and he concluded that the arrests and free speech restrictions were unlawful, but that the Wobblies were wrong in their pursuance of an activist stance. Moreover, Weinstock likened the situation to Czarist Russia
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
and suggested the Attorney General
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...
take action, but he did not. Although Weinstock's presence caused a temporary cessation in violence, the situation was once again aroused when Joseph Mikolash, a Wobbly, was killed by police in the I.W.W. headquarters in San Diego. The Wobblies reportedly employed firearms against the police in the incident, which led to the discovery of a small arms cache in the I.W.W. headquarters. This increased the public's hostility toward the I.W.W. and toward Weinstock's report, which had defended the Wobblies' constitutional right
Constitutional right
An inalienable right is a freedom granted by a Nature or the Creator's endowment by birth , and may not be legally denied by that government.-United States:...
to free speech.
Emma Goldman and Ben Reitman
Emma GoldmanEmma Goldman
Emma Goldman was an anarchist known for her political activism, writing and speeches. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century....
and Ben Reitman
Ben Reitman
Ben Lewis Reitman was an American anarchist and physician to the poor . He is best remembered today as radical Emma Goldman's lover.Reitman was a flamboyant, eccentric character...
came to San Diego for Goldman to give her speech "An Enemy of the People" on May 15, 1912. When the two arrived at the train station the same women that allegedly needed protection from the soapbox orators yelled "Give us that anarchist; we will strip her naked; we will tear out her guts." Mayor of San Diego James E. Wadham
James E. Wadham
James E. Wadham was an American Democratic politician from California.Wadham was born c. 1865 in Illinois, but moved to San Diego, California around 1870. He was a conservative Democratic attorney who ran for mayor of San Diego in 1903 but was defeated. He ran again a few years later and served...
offered a warning, but no help to the two activists. Reitman was abducted by vigilantes from his hotel room and tortured. He later recalled,
With a lighted cigar they burned the letters I.W.W. in my buttocks; then they poured a can of tar over my head and, in the absence of feathers, rubbed sage-brush on my body. One of them attempted to push a cane into my rectum. Another twisted my testicles. They forced me to kiss the flag and sing The Star-Spangled BannerReitman had not been a member of the IWW, although he was a supporter. At risk of a similar fate, Emma Goldman returned to Los AngelesThe Star-Spangled Banner"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States of America. The lyrics come from "Defence of Fort McHenry", a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy ships...
.
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
.
By the fall of 1912, the soapbox row had been abandoned. The vigilantes ended their terror campaign, for they had brutalized, driven out, or– some believe– possibly murdered anyone who stood up for the right of free speech in San Diego. This was quite a different result from what the IWW had experienced in its other free speech fights
Free speech fights
Free speech fights are conflicts over the right to speak freely, particularly involving the Industrial Workers of the World efforts in the early twentieth century to organize workers and publicly speak about labor issues...
around the country. The Wobblies did not return to San Diego until 1914.
San Diego Free Speech Fight in Song
From the July 11, 1912 edition of the IWW's Little Red SongbookLittle Red Songbook
thumb|180px|right|The Little Red SongbookSince the founding of the Industrial Workers of the World, also known as the IWW, songs have played a big part in spreading the message of the One Big Union...
, the first stanza of "We're Bound For San Diego":
- In that town called San Diego when the workers try to talk,
- The cops will smash them with a sap and tell them "take a walk",
- They throw them in a bull pen and they feed them rotten beans,
- And they call that "law and order" in that city, so it seems.
The bonus track "Tar and Sagebrush", from Anti-Flag
Anti-Flag
Anti-Flag is a punk rock band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the United States, formed in 1988. The band is well known for its outspoken political views. Much of the band's lyrics have focused on fervent anti-war activism, criticism of United States foreign policy, corporatism, U.S. wealth...
's new album, The Bright Lights of America
The Bright Lights of America
-Chart positions:...
, is a folk punk interpretation of Ben Reitman's description of his torture.