‘SOAPBOX ROW’

“Fellow workers . . .

I’ve been run out of this town five times.

Every time I found my way back, this proves

conclusively, the earth is round.”

For the benefit of poor,

working-class, the fruit-pickers,

and packing-shed workers,

speakers on the sidewalks

of the city delivered social

and political messages.

“Street meetings,”

with speeches and leaflets

to advance their agendas,

the emancipatory news

given to the people

at a poor-man’s town hall.

1910, in Fresno, California,

“soapbox row,” was on “I” Street.

The Grand Central Hotel corner

at Mariposa, the lodging

near the train tracks

where the men gathered,

a preferred location

on the shady-side.

Soapboxers mounted three

raisin sweat-boxes stacked up,

placed on the sidewalk,

as a means to elevate the speaker

to orate an impromptu

and extemporaneous speech.

“Talkin’ Union,”

attracting the wage-slave,

street moocher, and saloon soak.

Industrial Workers of the World,

the IWW agitating for:

higher wages for farm workers,

railing against worker exploitation.

Chief of Police, William Shaw,

granted “speaking permits,”

and revoked them

for speaking unfavorably

of him, or against business

(or farming) interests,

which he equated with “treason.”

The IWW’s permit was rescinded,

as a speaker ascended the boxes

at the Grand Central sidewalk,

exhorting the cheering mob

to support industrial unionism,

demand less hell on earth.

Chief Shaw, and his squad,

were on scene, at the corner

infiltrating the crowd.

The speaker was ordered to stop.

When he kept speaking, was arrested

and manhandled by officers

and hauled off to jail.

Rumor was, the cops drilled out

their clubs, filled them with lead.

The IWW strategy: obstruction,

sabotage, and passive resistance.

Wobblies in the county jail

spoke loudly about dynamite.

One-by-one, like choreography,

twelve other IWW soapboxers

jumped-up onto the boxes to speak.

Only to be swiftly arrested,

taken to the dilapidated jail

in the stately Courthouse Park,

thrown in the basement bull-pen.

Thirteen IWW men were arrested

violating the city ordinance

against speaking in public

without a police-issued permit.

Soapbox orators, of the street

corners, farm towns, or labor camps.

The next night, a local crowd met

on “soapbox row,” to await the clash

between Wobblies and police.

An IWW speaker began his speech

with no hostilities or antagonism

toward the chief of police.

He sang “The Red Flag Song,”

told stories of labor struggles,

read a poem, “Der Chief, of Fresno,”

specially written by Joe Hill

who was in the crowd that night.

He insisted, while creating a scene,

“Jerusalem Slim was a Wobbly,”

before being arrested.

The IWW plan: flood the town

with soapboxers, only to be hauled off

to the overflowing jail.