ABSTRACT

The lynching of Frank Little seemed to be the culmination of the violence and hatred directed toward the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) since the beginning of the war. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn spent the weekend on the women's side of the jail, "a damp, evil-smelling place" with "unspeakably awful food" and an "atmosphere dreary and full of human sorrow". Despite the general misery of the Tombs, Flynn hit it off with the Irish American matron, who appreciated Flynn's connection to Irish radicals and gave her copies of the Sunday papers. Even before war broke out in Europe, Flynn imagined herself as part of an epic battle between capital and labor. By 1914, she had been in daily contact with workers and their struggles for eight years. In this era before welfare or unemployment insurance, the government had no comprehensive plan to provide for unemployed workers or their families. Bill Haywood refused to give Flynn any further assignments,.