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Hellraisers Journal: From the Industrial Worker: Spokane IWW Gives Impressive Farewell to Free Speech Fighter F. J. Ferry
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Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 18, 1910
Spokane, Washington – Impressive Funeral Honors Free Speech Martyr F. J. Ferry
Spokane, Washington – Impressive Funeral Honors Free Speech Martyr F. J. Ferry
From the Industrial Worker of April 16, 1910:
Once again the Grim Reaper Death has visited the ranks of the gallant band of men who valorously defended their principles during the recent Spokane free speech fight, and has claimed as its latest victim Fellow Worker F. J. Ferry, a member of L. U. No. 222.Fellow Worker S. O. Chinn, the first martyr to Spokane police brutality, who died four weeks ago as a result of the hardships suffered in jail, was a young man not yet in the prime of life. He was a mere youth-the prospect of life stretched before him full of possibilities; he hadn’t begun to live yet. He had just started on “Life’s fitful dream” when he was cut off. He was out of place in this capitalistic world, as is every man of principle, so he had to be sacrificed. Not for him was the boon of life enjoyed by all animated nature; he was an intruder, a revolutionist; he interfered with the smooth working of the well-laid plan of the master class to hold the workers in subjection; his presence in life was a danger to their organized system of exploitation; therefore he, the merest stripling, with every natural right to life, was ruthlessly murdered.In the mad career of the suicidal capitalist class, not only is the seed of the future society thus wantonly, but the old and storm-twisted oaks of the working class-men who have earned every right to peaceful old age-are also destroyed on the slightest pretext when the interest of the modern juggernaut demands it. Fellow Worker Ferry was an old man 62 years of age. He was a life-long veteran of the cruelest struggle in history-the struggle for existence in a capitalist society. Ever since early boyhood he has been robbed and abused by an insatiate parasite. In common with his fellow-slaves of the working class, he was denied the luxuries and necessaries that make life worth living. He was reduced to the condition of a machine, being given only enough of the product of his labor to simply keep life in his body. After many years of killing slavery as a baker, he became worn out and was cast aside to make room for a younger victim-like an old machine he was “scrapped.”An old and battle-scarred victim of capitalism-deprived of home and family and all the natural attributes of a worthy old age-he earned his scanty living as best he could with seemingly no other goal in store for him than that of so many workers-an apologetic exit from life-a hurried trip to Potters’ Field.But he became imbued with the philosophy of the new society; he joined the I. W. W.; he became a rebellious slave. For this he was made a social outcast-even more so than simply as a discarded slave-he became an object of loathing and hatred to his masters-a creature to be eradicated if possible.
Hellraisers Journal: Fellow Worker Ferry is Second to Die Due to Brutal Treatment at Spokane’s Franklin School Prison
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Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 11, 1910
Spokane, Washington – FW Ferry Dead Due Brutal Treatment at Franklin School
Spokane, Washington – FW Ferry Dead Due Brutal Treatment at Franklin School
From The Spokane Press of April 8, 1910:
—–34 DAYS ON BREAD THE CAUSE
—–F. FERRY, AN INVALID AFTER JAIL EXPERIENCE,
SUCCUMBS TO PNEUMONIA.
—–Another death is chargeable to the brutality of the system of Chief of Police John Sullivan and the members of the Spokane police department.Another agonizing face will await the coming of these men in the Great Beyond, where they will face the responsibility that they so shrewdly shift here below, in the name of the majesty of the law.The latest victim of police inhumanity to man is an aged man named F. Ferry, a resident of Spokane for years, who died last night at the Spokane general hospital, Third and Washington, following a brief but deadly attack of pneumonia.
—–Ferry took part in the free speech fight last fall and was among the first arrested and sent to the Franklin school. There, by order of chief Sullivan, he was placed on bread and water for 34 days and left the prison a physical wreck. He has since been an invalid, unable to work, and barely able to crawl around. Wednesday night he took suddenly sick with pneumonia, which found in his worn and emaciated body an easy victim, and all that medical science could do to save him was of no avail.True, Ferry was an I. W. W. Yet he was an American citizen, a resident of Spokane for many years, whose only offense was that he thought the right of free speech should be accorded his fellow workingmen. He was a quiet, inoffensive man, past 60 years of age, and even in a Russian prison his gray hairs would have been respected and less harsh treatment shown than was manifested by the cowardly police force of Spokane.
Hellraisers Journal: From the Industrial Worker: Funeral of S. O. Chinn, Spokane Free Speech Martyr, Largely Attended
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Hellraisers Journal – Friday April 8, 1910
Spokane, Washington – S. O. Chinn Gets Grand I. W. W. Send-Off
Spokane, Washington – S. O. Chinn Gets Grand I. W. W. Send-Off
From the Industrial Worker of April 2, 1910:
Continue reading—–
CHINN’S FUNERAL LARGELY ATTENDED
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Many Watch Procession on Riverside Avenue
-Strains of the Marseillaise Heard-I. W. W.
Members Who Attend Funeral Wear Red Neckties.
—–Funeral services for S. O. Chinn, age 27, which were held from the I. W. W. hall proved a magnate as the procession of men, women and children following the hearse and the brass band moved down Riverside Avenue. The last tribute was paid by James Thompson, national organizer of the Industrial Workers at the I. W. W. Hall at 616 Front Avenue, in which he declared that the man had given his life in the interest of the working class.Three hundred Fellow Workers packed the hall to capacity and after the services followed the hearse and band to Riverside Avenue and Monroe Street, from which point the hearse and pall bearers proceeded to Greenwood cemetery, where Chinn was buried. The casket was draped with the flag of the organization of which Chinn was a member and an officer. Chinn came to Spokane last fall to participate in the free speech fight. His home was originally at Hutchinson, Kansas.The funeral proceedings attracted a great deal of attention. Before the hearse walked four officers of the I. W. W. with red neckties and red badges of the organization in their buttonholes, while the band before pealed out the martial strains of the “Marseillaise.” Stretching behind for four or five blocks marched the members of the organization, who came out to pay their last respects to the man that had sacrificed his life for the cause of Free Speech.
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