Spokane Police Crack Down on Free Speech
Nineteen members of the IWW are jailed after defying a city ordinance prohibiting street oratory.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
SPOKANE, March 8.—Because they did not take the police department seriously when it issued orders prohibiting street oratory, 19 members of the Industrial Workers of the World awoke today in cells of the city jail. The Industrial Workers were surrounded by 3,000 listeners on Main Avenue late yesterday afternoon, when ten policemen broke through the crowd and seized the orators. The prisoners offered no resistance and were taken off to jail in the most peaceable manner. For committing a similar offense, six members of the labor organization are now in the state workhouse, being unable to pay a $100 fine imposed on each of them.
“Because they did not take the police department seriously when it issued orders prohibiting street oratory, 19 members of the Industrial Workers of the World awoke today in cells of the city jail.”
The struggle for public space and the right to protest remains a flashpoint in Pacific Northwest cities. The suppression of IWW 'soapbox' orators in the early 20th century mirrors ongoing modern debates about the criminalization of street-level political speech.
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