Hell Popping in Peoria; Rebels War Prisoners (23/29 June 1913) (original) (raw)

James P. Cannon

(23/29 May 1913)

From The Industrial Worker, Vol. 5 No. 11, June 5, 1913.
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Peoria, Ill., May 23. Keep your eyes on Peoria and head all rebels this way quick. Terror stricken at the wonderful results of four weeks of I.W.W. propaganda the Merchants and Manufacturers of this town are striking blindly and desperately at the organization, determined to “stamp it out.” Those are the words of the prosecuting attorney, used in his address to the kangaroo court which gave fellow worker Thomas E. Moore, six months for picketing in the strike at the Avery plant. The writer is on trial now for the same offence before a “jury of peers,” composed of employers of open shops and members of the Commercial club. They have taken two days to pick and sort out a venue of parasites who would be “safe,” and conviction is as certain as the ultimate triumph of the I.W.W. when enough men from the outside get here.

F.H. Little and Jack Law arrived yesterday to help in the fight and today were arrested state warrant for God knows what. A socialist sympathizer appeared to give ball, but the sheriff coolly informed him that he would rearrest them on “suspicion” and hold them 24 hours.

There is absolutely no way to avoid this fight. It has not been caused by any provocation on our part and we must fight or crawl in the first battle In the Mississippi valley. This is the second largest industrial town in the state of Illinois and the slaves are the most responsive of any we have tackled this side of the Rocky Mountains.

The game of the other side is to throttle us at the start by grabbing all the experienced rebels. Moore. Watts, Lavine. Little and Law are already in the coop and the writer is alone with 500 of the best strikers ever assembled on the globe and tomorrow sees my finish. Twenty-four strikers are also in jail with rebellion in their hearts, and we have plenty more ready to follow, but they are all inexperienced and some outside rebels are needed to hold them together and keep up the action.

This old village Is stirred to the depths and feeling runs high both for and against the I.W.W. This is the best town on the map to put up a real fight in. All “constitutional” rights are a joke. some sympathizers have hired a lawyer for us, but he Is of no help whatever. It is going to take jail material and lots of it to win this fight.

You can get an idea of the mental state of the parasites when I tell you that the prosecuting attorney spent half an hour at the trial this afternoon trying to show that we intended to confiscate the Avery plant right away. They are scared stiff and all three newspapers are putting out editorial screams about the menace of the I.W.W. and demanding that we be handled without gloves.

Pull away from the Jungles and deserts and head for a place where the slaves swarm thick as files. There is no better place for organization than here. Peoria is a strictly open shop town and a ten hour town. With help from the outside we can pull off a general strike for the eight hour day. You are needed in Peoria, and you are needed now!

Peoria. Ill., May 29. – Prisoners of war, held incommunicado in the Peoria county jail on charges of conspiracy and inciting riot, we are sending our story to the rebel world by the underground route.

Little, Law, Moore, Levine and the writer were bound over for trial on the above charges day before yesterday and since then our attorney has not been allowed to see us. Newspapers and visitors are denied and the real conspiracy to make good the prosecuting attorney’s threat to “send these agitators to the penitentiary and stamp out the I.W.W. in Peoria” goes on in full swing. Meanwhile there are practically no experienced men outside to canary on the fight and turn the searchlight of publicity on some of the rawest “legal” work ever attempted in this country.

Twenty others, active pickets, were also bound over on the charge of rioting. They are in the bull pen below us. We are cut off from all communication with them, but are dally assured of their presence by the inspiring strains of the Red Flag and Casey Jones, The Union Scab, which their dauntless chorus sends to us through floors of steel and stone. Bolts and bars cannot confine, their rebel spirit – these young recruits who. a month ago, had never heard of the I.W.W. Flattery and ridicule have alike failed to shake their solidarity and secure their promise to go home and stay away from “that damned I.W.W.” They are ours forever; 300 of their kind belong to the new metal and machinery workers local here and thousands of them in Peoria await the call of One Big Union. These we are fighting with and fighting for, and we call on all footloose rebels the country over to give us the help that is badly needed.

Organizers and speakers alone can do nothing. These jail doors must be forced open by sheer force of numbers who will come in.

Let no one imagine that this is a sham fight or that it has been needlessly provoked. Our persecution is the result of a cool, calculating determination on the part of class-conscious parasites to crush out the organization right at the start of its agitation in this Industrial slave pen. They are determined to keep Peoria a ten hour town and an open shop town; and nothing will stop their purpose to send the agitator to the penitentiary except the resistance which we have always had to put up in similar fights. That requires men, money, and publicity.

Since the strike at the Avery Implement Company started on May 15th, until today, there has been no rioting, no disorder not even a disturbance of the peace. A large force of police and deputies were on duty at the plant from the first day of the strike. They saw the picket line grow from a dozen men to several hundred May 21st, when the first arrests were made. Morning, noon, and night we were always on the job- urging, persuading, and marching. Women and children were there with us and their presence had telling effect.

Meetings were held at the entrances during the noon hour. Several slave drivers and superintendents were always there and they were invited by the speaker to make arguments against the I.W.W. or the strike; with the agreement that if bis arguments could be refuted to the satisfaction of the crowd, the strike would be called off.

These were the tactics which, finally got the goats of the masters. The strike was gaining every day and it began to look like a sure winner, so on May 21st, the picket line was broken up, and twenty-five pickets arrested and thrown into jail, where they have since been held.

A dozen or more others have since been picked up on the streets or in the courtroom and given similar treatment. The day before the first arrests were made, both the Mayor and Chief of Police told us that they had no complaint whatever. Then they got their orders from the Merchants and Manufacturers association and now we are in jail for doing the things which they found no fault with and which a force of police and deputies made no attempt to stop.

First we were charged with disorderly conduct, and Moore and the writer were railroaded for six months by hand-picked Juries of well fed parasites. Appeal Bonds were signed for us by a sympathizer and we were released – pardon me, not released; just exchanged from the clutches of the law to the custody of the Sheriff who was on hand to re-arrest us before we got out of the court room. He refused to say what charge he had against us, but during the night the entire crew of official lickspittles pooled their wisdom and brought forth nice little, brand-new warrants for conspiracy and inciting to riot.

Frank Little and Jack Law hit town about that time and were included in the charges. His reader gave as his reason for binding them over for trial that they are prominent numbers of an unlawful organization.

That’s it! The I.W.W. is on trial!

The prosecuting attorney’s chief argument against us consisted of waving the red flag cover of the May Day Worker before the terrified Jury – all perfectly respectable labor-skinners – and reading one of Smith’s revolutionary editorials.

Fellow workers, we need money and wo need it quick; we need men, lots of them, and we need them quicker. Come with the intention of going to Jail or going to work in one of the slave pens here to agitate for a general strike. Breaking their necks to do the bidding of the men who own them, the city and county officials have thrown down the gauntlet to the Industrial Workers of the World.

Pick It up! Address all communications care Rudolph Pfeiffer, 118 N. Madison St., Peoria, Ill.

Last updated: 20 January 2023