In 1910,
I.W.W. agitators began to hold public meetings in the streets, in
the course of which their language increased in ferocity until
the indignation of the community was aroused. An ordinance was
then passed by the city council prohibiting street speaking
within the congested portions of the city, but allowing street
meetings in other parts of the city if a permit from the police
department were first obtained. There was, however, no law
requiring the issue of such a permit, and none was granted to the
agitators. This restriction of their liberties greatly incensed
the agitators, who at once raised the cry of "free speech" and
began to hold meetings in defiance of the ordinance. The jail was
soon glutted with these apostles of riotous speaking. In order to
delay the dispatch of the court's overcrowded calendar, every one
demanded a jury trial. The mayor of the town then received a
telegram from the general secretary of the organization which
disclosed their tactics: "This fight will be continued until free
speech is established in San Diego if it takes twenty thousand
members and twenty years to do so." The national membership of
the I.W.W. had been drafted as an invading army, to be a constant
irritation to the city until it surrendered. The police asserted
that "there are bodies of men leaving all parts of the country
for San Diego" for the purpose of defying the city authorities
and overwhelming its municipal machinery. A committee of
vigilantes armed with "revolvers, knives, night-sticks, black
jacks, and black snakes," supported by the local press and
commercial bodies, undertook to run the unwelcome guests out of
town.
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