“Who is that?” asked the young lady stenographer.
“That’s Mr. Hammond,” was the answer of the chief clerk. “He owns a couple of hundred thousand acres of timber land, and he’s got about twenty ships tied up at the harbor.”
“Oh,” said the young lady stenographer, “then he’s got a right to pound on the table.”
He exercised his right, and pounded, and cursed so freely that the young lady was moved to get up and close the office door; but still we heard the uproar. The substance of it was that the San Pedro strike, which had been on for about two weeks, must be smashed without another day’s delay. Mr. Rice argued and expostulated; they were doing their best. Finally he promised there would be “a meeting” that afternoon, and arrangements would be made. That you may understand clearly, I explain that Mr. Andrew B. Hammond, president of the Hammond Lumber Company, is one of the big “open shop” despots of San Francisco, a bigger man even than Mr. Rice; and he had come down on the night train to lay down the law to the timid crowd at Los Angeles and insist that his ships be moved. Wishing to make sure there was no mistake in identity, I engaged the head clerk in conversation, asking him how long he thought “those irate ship-owners” would stay in there. He rose to the bait and discussed the “irate ship-owners,” assuring me that they would not need to stay much longer; the Merchants’ and Manufacturers’ Association was not going to have any trouble in opening up the harbor. Subsequently, as part of the preparing of this manuscript, I wrote to Mr. Hammond, asking if he cared to deny that he was in Mr. Rice’s office at the hour specified. He did not reply.
Come now to San Pedro, where three thousand men are fighting to get their babies a chance to grow up into full-sized human beings. They have won their strike, they have won it strictly under the law; they have kept order rigidly—having even smashed the boot-leggers, to the great dismay of the police! Here again I do not have to ask you to take my word for it: Police Captain Plummer, in command at the harbor, stated to my brother-in-law, Hunter Kimbrough, in the presence of several witnesses, that he had no fault to find with the I. W. W., they were fine fellows, and had kept order through the strike. Also he stated in the presence of witnesses: “I smashed that strike.” Before an investigating committee of the clergymen of Los Angeles he stated: “Yes, I said that, and I’ll say it again.” Officer Wyckoff—who arrested us—stated to Hunter Kimbrough, in the presence of two ladies, whose signed statements I have, that “Black Jack” Jerome, the strike-breaker, had brought in hundreds of gunmen, heavily armed; Captain Plummer had disarmed them, but someone saw to it that they received another supply of arms.
Mr. Hammond and his Shipyard Owners’ Association and his horde of gunmen having failed to provoke violence, or to move the ships, Mr. Rice must act; and how is he to act? For ten or twenty years he and his Black Hand have been preparing for precisely such an emergency; they have been buying both political machines, and controlling the nominations of all candidates, so that now they have their own governor, their own legislators, their own mayor, their own city council, their own chief of police, and their own judges. They control the governmental machine from top to bottom; and they give the orders, let this strike be smashed.
The man who put through the job is Asa Keyes, then deputy district attorney, since promoted to be district attorney as reward for his efficiency. “The mayor is not handling this situation,” said Chief of Police Oaks to me. “The man we’re getting our orders from is Asa Keyes, and if you want to speak at the harbor, see him.” Keyes is the man who has been enforcing the “suspicion of criminal syndicalism” law; he pays an army of secret agents and provocateurs, and a year or two ago he stated to two different informants of mine: “I have spent between four and five thousand dollars, trying to ‘get’ Kate Crane Gartz and Upton Sinclair. If ever I become chief, I will spend ten times that amount to ‘get’ them.”
Mr. Rice, Mr. Keyes, Chief Oaks, and Captain Plummer attended the “meeting” which Mr. Rice promised to Mr. Hammond. “I have attended several conferences of the Merchants’ and Manufacturers’ Association,” said the naive Captain Plummer to Hunter Kimbrough, in the presence of witnesses. “Mr. Rice was present and Mr. Marco Hellman, and others.” Marco Hellman, the biggest banker of Los Angeles, we shall hear of again before long.
In the early days of the strike a Presbyterian clergyman and Harvard graduate was arrested while addressing the strikers, the charge being “blocking traffic.” Police Magistrate Sheldon, in sentencing him to jail, said: “Why don’t you hire a hall, or speak upon private property? Then you will not be molested.” The strikers thought this was good advice; they found a piece of vacant land, whose lessor was willing for it to be used for mass meetings, and on this land, known as “Liberty Hill,” the strikers held numerous meetings. At one of these meetings a group of them raised the flags of fifteen nations, with the American flag at the top, and the flag of Russia included. There were Russians among the strikers, and presumably they thought their country had a right to be represented.
This incident took place five days after the meeting between Messrs. Rice and Hammond, and it afforded the pretext for which the police were waiting. “You’ve lost your constitutional rights now!” shouted Captain Plummer, and he arrested twenty-eight men for the crime of raising the red flag. Again and again, in negotiations with the police officials, and with Mayor George E. Cryer, we were told that this act of raising the red flag afforded complete justification for the abrogation of all civil liberties at the harbor. It seems therefore worth noting[noting] what happened some three weeks later, when these men were arraigned in court upon the charge. Police Magistrate Crawford declared that in his opinion everyone who displayed a red flag should be sent to prison, but unfortunately the Supreme Court of California had declared the red flag ordinance of the city of Los Angeles unconstitutional!