100 years ago in Spokane: Socialists rap Wobbly arrests

A mass meeting of Spokane’s socialists proved that not everyone in the region was anti-Wobbly.

In fact, the crowd at the Spokane socialists hall approved a unanimous resolution protesting the military raid on the Spokane headquarters of the Industrial Workers of the World (Wobblies). The resolution said the arrest of 27 Wobblies by Fort George Wright soldiers was an “un-American and criminal” act.

“If Prussianized methods like these shall be permitted to go on, we will eventually drift into a state of terrorism equal to the darkest days of Russia,” said the resolution.

In fact, the leaders of the socialists’ meeting said they had fully expected the same treatment at the hands of the military. The organizer of the meeting said he asked the mayor for police protection, although the mayor said he could do nothing about it if military forces appeared. A Spokesman-Review reporter claimed people at the meeting were “openly disappointed that the troopers with fixed bayonets did not appear on the scene.”

However, the speakers did not shy away from combative rhetoric. One speaker, who identified himself as a Wobbly, said the raid was “a slap in the face of every red-blooded workingman in the country.” Another man said the arrests were the work of “paid lickspittles” of the Chamber of Commerce and the commercial clubs.

Mrs. A.E. House, who submitted the resolution, said the arrest violated the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence.

The speakers also presented a counternarrative to what the newspapers had called the “fizzle” of a Wobbly general strike.

“The newspapers say there has been no strike; that we can’t strike because it is illegal,” he said. “We did strike, and our men are going out everyday. … Our organizers are on the job.”