"WATER CURE," "DECEMBER 9, 1910," and "SPEECH ORDINANCE."

The “WATER CURE”

The Industrialist prisoners in jail
locked up for speech-making,
sleeping four to a cell
on bare concrete floors.
Given two meals a day,
one cup of water, no tobacco.
If they wanted a shower,
It would be the “water cure,”
with a garden hose.  

One minute, the Wobblies
in the Fresno County Jail
singing the “Red Flag” song,
the next moment climbing
up the bars of the bull-pen,
cursing and insulting officers. 

Yelling with all their might,
The IWW men rushed to the windows,
hurled nasty remarks
to men, women, and children
passing through Courthouse Park.

It looked like rioters
ready to break out of jail.
They beat against the walls,
pulled at the bars for hours,
shouting threats of dynamite,
vile language from the windows.

          *

A second riot began unceremoniously
when breakfast of bread and water arrived.
The Industrialists rebelled,
hurled loaves at the trustees
and Major Ed Jones, the day jailer.

At 4 o’clock, prisoners were tendered
bread and water again, but refused to eat.
Declaring, with a shower of oaths,
they would starve to death first.

At 5 o’clock, after singing all afternoon,
the men broke loose
with a torrent of hateful language
and angry criticism.

The terrific noise
drew two hundred people
around the outside of the jail.
Through the windows, the howling mob
hurled their vile epithets,
that could be heard from a block away.
Scores of women were insulted.
The jail was surrounded
by three Sheriff’s deputies
with sawed-off shotguns.

At 5:30, Major Jones threatened rioters
with a drenching from the fire hose.

As Jones was talking, through the bars,
someone hurled a bucket of water
in his face.
The Major turned a garden hose
into the bull-pen.
The mob howled with laughter,
continuing to taunt and defy officers.

Under direction of Fire Chief Wintermute,
four firemen rushed a new fire-hose into the jail.
A hose attached to Engine No. 5.

When the stream of water
was turned into the bull-pen,
men ran to the north end.
A torrent, two inches in diameter,
under fifty-pounds pressure,
aimed on the fleeing inmates.
The force knocked them off their feet.
as fast as they got up,
the strength threw them to the floor.
Water was directed in all directions,
eighty beds were floating around the room.
From the far corner, mattresses were used
as protection from the torrent.
For twenty minutes,
IWW rioters withstood the drenching,
then gave in.

One fellow insisted
Industrialists should never give in,
was struck in the mouth,
beaten to the cement floor
by two others ready to surrender.

Eighty men waded up to their knees
in cold water, and gave up.
Later that night
The water was drained off.

*

7 P.M., a committee of three
notified the Sheriff
the IWW inmates would behave
like other prisoners.

The sheriff declared,
he was ready to quit
if the men were. Peace,
restored in the county jail.

An announcement was made
in the morning,
Industrialists would be served
regular jail rations.

Frank Little, IWW leader,
told city authorities,
no more Industrialists would arrive
until after the holidays,
when five-hundred men would invade.

DECEMBER 9, 1910.

1.

Mob awaits speakers

Word passed around quietly
From housewives to husbands,
Among the citizens of Fresno.

To take matters into their own hands,
Put an end to the Industrialist
Union trouble in the city.

Industrial Workers of the World,
Speakers gathered at the corner
Mariposa and “I” Streets,

As they did almost every night.
A crowd of local men and boys
Stood waiting their arrival.

Then the signal came
When one of the IWW speech-makers
Mounted the fruit boxes.

The crowd rushed him,
Tossed him to the sidewalk
And beat him severely.

Two former prize-fighters*
Led the attack,
Beating IWW members with fists.

Other IWW’s were thrashed,
The remaining Wobblies,
Were pursued by a mob.

The IWW men, being chased,
Thought union headquarters
Outside town was a safe place.

The Chief of Police Shaw
Issued an order for all officers
To allow all IWW members to speak.

When the unruly mob attacked
IWW speakers and union members,
Fresno Police could not be found.

*Nig Normart and James Quinn.

2.

The Jungle is burned

They came by street car,
Automobiles, trolleys, horses,
And mostly on foot.
Frank Shuck, the owner
of Acme Restaurant,
Conveyed many in his car,
Making several trips.
Ernest Robinson,
A clerk at the Ogle House hotel
Was a prominent participant.
When the angry throng
Of roughly 250 men and boys
Reached the IWW headquarters, 
A large canvas tent
Referred to as “The Jungles.”
Erected outside the city limits
On Palm Avenue, north of Belmont.
The Wobblies warned them
Stay back on threat of death.
Warnings went unheeded,
The angry crowd surged forward
Rushed the encampment.
All of the IWW members ran,
Many in their underwear
Clutching garments in hand.
The red IWW flag flying
Above the door of the tent
Incited the mob’s fury.
Attackers entered the tent,
Piled everything in a heap;
A torch was applied.
Watching total destruction
The vicious crowd howled
In sadistic delight
As the contents of the tent
Lit up the night sky.
All that remained
Of the IWW Camp was ashes.
Rioters marched back to town,
Assembled on the corner
Of Mariposa and “I” Streets.

3.

March on the County Jail

Someone yelled out,
“Take them out of the jail.”

The assembled crowd
Of local men and boys
Quickly took up the cry.

Marching through Courthouse Park
Toward the county jail.

Hearing the mob coming near,
Deputies cordoned off the jail
To resist invasion
For just such an occasion
Should one take place.

A jailer closed and locked
The double-steel door.

Chief of Police William Shaw
And his deputies,
H.C. Collins, and H.B. Staley,
Stood at the entrance
Of the old red-brick jail.
Another lawman was poised
At the top of the steps
Directly in front of the door
With a sawed-off shotgun.

Terrified detainees peeked out
Of bull-pen windows
At the crowd that demanded
Their hanging. When,

Upon the mob’s arrival,
It began to rain.
A demand was put forth
For the Wobbly captives within.
The Chief and two deputies 
Politely refused.

They promised the crowd
That the IWW prisoners
Would be released that day.

Menace of the mob subsided.
“Give us just one of them,”
A rioter called out.
“Well, lend us one,
We’ll return him in a minute,”
Shouted another.

Shaw’s bulldog stance held firm,
The throng finally dispersed
To the relief of all inside.

SPEECH ORDINANCE

On Sunday, November 26, 1910,
in front the ornate fountain
at Fresno’s Courthouse Park,

Mariposa and K Streets,
next to a life-sized pewter boy
holding a leaking boot emptying water,

where Frank Little, IWW organizer,
gave a forceful, passionate speech
on the fight for an eight-hour day.

Telling the crowd gathered
that California law guaranteed
an eight-hour day for wage-earners.

Pointing out that Fresno Police
worked ten-hour days
uncontested out of fear.

Introducing the possibility
He might organize the cops.
Policemen stood by,

shifting their weight
from one leg to another,
uncertain whether to arrest him.

The Fresno Free Speech Fight,
International Workers of the World
versus the Fresno Police resumed,

Chief of Police Shaw decided
enough was enough on Tuesday.
Shaw expressed his disfavor

being called a “bean-shooter,”
and other “pet names.”

All soapbox speakers and IWW’s
who pedaled papers on the streets
were to be arrested for vagrancy.

Frank Little declared
no law prohibited street speaking.

Chief Shaw believed such a law
existed on the city’s books,

his unlimited authority
to govern free speech
in the city at his whim.

(before a judge later failed
to find such an ordinance).

The soapbox speakers attracted
a small crowd on the sidewalk
at the Grand Central corner

in front of the hotel,
speech-making unfettered
by the Chief or the Sheriff.

While Fresno city trustees
rushed to call a special meeting

to immediately discuss passing
a “so-called” free speech ordinance.