Industrial Workers of the World

Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Acquitted of Inciting to Riot in Paterson, New Jersey

Miss Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
Gets Chief Bimson as mad as sin;
When Chief Bimson gets mad as sin,
Sweetly smiles Miss Gurley Flynn.
-The Lincoln Star

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Saturday December 11, 1915
Paterson, New Jersey: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Found "Not Guilty" of Inciting to Riot

On Tuesday November 30th, Fellow Worker Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was found "not guilty" of inciting to riot in Paterson, New Jersey. Hellraisers will be covering this story over the next few days. We begin our coverage with this report from the Chicago Day Book of December 1st:

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Free Speech Trial, Paterson, Day Book, Dec 1, 1915.png

Paterson, N. J., Nov. 30. - "The constitution of the United States is on trial-I'm not!" So said Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, I. W. W. orator on the eve of her appearance in Paterson court for "inciting to personal violence"-a charge that grew out of her attempt to deliver a speech in a Paterson hall when the police did not want her to.

"It is free speech, that right guaranteed to every American by the constitution of our fathers, that Paterson seeks to abridge," she went on.

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