1 42 Copyright, 9 , by

AL RI CH MO N D

Publirb ed

ANITA WHITNEY 1 70 Golden Gate Avenue lifornia

CON TE N T S

The H a t Glimmer

Tender , Beautiful Years

" 1 Loved My People

From Suffrage t o Socialism War and Aftermath

The Case of Anita Whitney Formative Years The Great Crisis

Be sr Known , Most Beloved

The Secret of Leadership

’ On the occasion of Anita Whit ney s 75th O bi rthda ul 7 l942 this bio ra hical y , J y , , g p ske tch is inte nded as a birthday gift to he r thousands of f riends comrades and edmi r , e rs He r l l n nd r ch has be n de . ife o a i e , g , voted to them and to those millions of othe rs who st ill do not know he r but in , time will come to love and reve re he r as those wh n w h r For them th boo o k o e do. is k is inte nded and if it se rves them eve n mi , nute l as we ll as Anita Whit ne has se r ed y y v ,

it will ha e r ed them we ll v se v .

CHAPTER ONE

she n0 t The little girl , could have been more than

- n a seven , was wide eyed at the vibra t brilli nce which filled T h the vast rotunda of the Capitol Building . e gas jet of l r flames , the source all this i lumination , spa kled through the varicolored crystals of great chandeliers which descended from the tall ceiling that soared upward an d upward in a majestic curve to form the Capitol dome . The crowd that moved thr ough this spacious cha mber was as

n as l . t brillia t the ight How beautiful were he ladies , their rich satins reflecting the glow of the lights! H ow i k mposing the gentlemen , Stiff in their formal froc coats , elegant in their white gloves! The little girl w as awed nor only by the physical of n splendor the scene, but by the vague k owledge that ’ these handsome ladies and gentlemen were America s t grea , its statesmen and soldiers , lawmakers and jurists . She clutched more tightly at the hand of her aunt who r swept th ough the crowd with aristocratic ease . At times she a gl nced at her uncle, Justice Field , bowing stiffly in of t on recognition respectful gree ings all sides . Justice 1 2 NATIVE DAUGHTER

Field looked like a Supreme Court justice should . He had a long, graying beard , its sparseness somewhat disguised by the sheer length of the hair which had remained . S imilarly, he compensated for the barrenness of his smooth t head , glistening amidst all his radiance , by the luxuriance hi s n of the remaining hair which rimmed head , begi ning t at the chin and running up he jaws , then flowing from the f H is rear incline of the skull over the nape o his neck .

Strong face , built around a broad nose, was topped by thin rimmed spectacles through which gazed alert and int elli gent eyes . i ’ Justice Field enjoyed h s niece s manifest excitement . It was his inspiration that brought the little visitor from far f o f California to the Capitol party . He had insisted that the little girl see all the sights Washington had to offer . Yes im , he said, the White House and the Capitol were pressive by day . But the Capitol rotunda illuminated at funCt ion ! night for a social Ah , there was a sight to fire

f - the imagination o a seven year old girl . And he was right . The little girl was aglow . The scene before her had driven from her mind the many fleeting images she had retained from the trip cross - country through the ma

' esric t u j Rockies , over Indian erritory and immense nsettled v z for plains which ser ed only as gra ing ground buffalo , then past a series of ever larger railroad stations and towns as the train roared eastward . The little girl had known ’ i k of 1 870 s noth ng but the Oa land the , brightened by an a occasional trip across the bay to San Fr ncisco . For her the long journey to Washington had been an ever- mount ing tide of excitement, now capped by the social elegance of the capital . T and drow smess he hour was late for her, natural , THE FIRST GLIMMER 1 3

of i blended with the splendor her surround ngs , only heightened the feeling that this was some magnificent dream through which she floated on wings of soft exhil

. t oo l aration Her big eyes shone, overwhe med by the toral effect to detect detail . she t oo t t o Of course , was li tle a girl know that really she the social season had n0 t been up to par . Even had n or been told , her mind could comprehend why the failure di hi a in of 1 87 of two lea ng Was ngton b nks the fall 3 , at of m the height the financial panic, should have di med ’ sh Washingt on s social life . Nor could e have under Stood the peculiar nostalgia which permeated some sec hi t t he tions of Was ngton socie y, fed by a resentment at w as changes in the wake of the Civil War . This a time of great change in Washingt on and social change has a f sad effect upon the molds o social amusement . The physical appearance and social habits of the capital u co ld not help but reflect the deeper change in progress . old t i The taverns were replaced by ho els , and the soph s t icat ed Washington correspondent of The New York " for t o Herald sighed , Alas those who love take their ease in inns! The old taverns are badly replaced by t he ‘ ’ ” l so so hore s so . modern , gaudy, dear and uncomfortable of With the proper touch irony, The Herald correspond " ent suggested that a college of heraldry be endowed by the government to advise the new and ill - bred Congress " ” on e of a i or for men s lection crest , sh eld and m to their " more so as s n t paper , to prevent ome amusi g mistakes tha ”

t . might occur, as o hers have occurred The anecdote of the season was perhaps most expres sive of the contempt with which the representatives of the rising and robust bourgeoisie were regarded by the 14 NATIVE DAUGHTER

old southern aristocrats and their s nobbish northern w as friends . The Story was told that a masquerade to be given by Governor Shepherd at his mansion and the Con g ressional Library was crowded with those seekin g de f signs and inspiration or costumes . " ” What character can I take ? asked a new Congress of t t she is man a Tennessee belle , said o be as wit y as

beautiful . " she of Go as a gentleman , replied, and none your u friends will recognize yo . " S of evere, but merited , was the curt comment The Herald correspondent who could n or resist publishing i um the witticism in h s col n . With the same scorn he wrote of the wives of western Congressmen in their new cheap black silks ; their hus in t - bands frock coats , dir y, ill fitting gloves and colored ” " of a neckties and the dep rtment people, with ravenous

appetites . But t he little girl could n0 t disting uish the various per

sona es . S g he moved among them entranced , oblivious of t so the deep rivalries , he petty social jealousies , much f F r o n t . o t a part Washingto socie y her, Ken ucky belles t of one and he wives Ohio Congressmen were but swirling,

unbelievably wonderful mass . The shabby Southern aris t ocrat s who salved the wounds of defeat on the field of battle with pointed witticisms at the expense of the victors had no virtues in her eyes which distinguished them from ’

. t Boss Tweed s boys of New York In her innocence, i he t oo . s was all wonderful Her head swam , and sank into a State which in older persons might have been engen f t dered by the lassitude o slow intoxication . The brigh lights began to blur and the once wide- open eyes began THE FIRST GLIMMER 1 5 to narrow as her eyelids dr ooped under the increasing f of o . weight sleep The hubub voices seemed far away, rising and falling as sound often did when sh e flapped i her hands aga nst her ears . She was relaxing into the soft of on down contented sleep , wrapped in a fatigue brought by sheer exhilaration and brimming joy . er Suddenly she was Startled ou t of her drowsiness . H “ aunt had gently nudged her, Dear, the party is not over . " We are about to see a Stage performance! food i hts Before improvised g , there appeared a young t woman , her face streaked with sorrow and drawn wi h hunger . She was clad in rags and a frayed shawl dr aped sshev led her shoulders . Her di hair strayed over her fore T w . o t t head lit le children clutched at her skirts , heir faces raised in supplication . In sorrowful tones , the ragged woman recited

Giv e me three rain: o com Mother g f , , rai Giv e me t hree g ns of com . It will kee t he little li e in me Mother p f , , o in o t he mom Till the c m g f .

Our little girl now felt pained and burdened . She was ? filled with anguish and humiliation . Who is that woman Why does she weep ? Why does she lament ? What is she so t all e t , wretched and ragged, doing amids the legan splendor? "

S w as . S r he is Ireland , the little girl told he is hung y . The poor people in Ireland are hungry and this part y was given so that food may be bought to feed them . Hunger ? Povert y? The words were new to the little t h girl and the concepts incomprehensible, excep that t ey 16 NATIVE DAUGHTER conveyed that terrible sense of shame and pain she had experienced .

The little girl was Anita Whitney . And in the 68 - of years which have gone by, the stage made image of poverty and hunger, symbolized in that figure a woman has with two children hanging on her skirts , long eclipsed t in her mind the brillian elegance of that Capitol party . f In a sense it was the pattern o her life . She could have losr t herself in the elegance, but it was dis urbed and of dispelled by the shadow something beyond . She was destined to witness poverty in all its sordid t o t reality . The pain and shame were be empered by the resolve to remove their inspiration . The insistent question , was to find an answer which went ' beyond the cause .

But the i mage remained . For to Anita Whitney it was t of t the firs awareness social injustice, the firs glimmer of social consciousness . CHAPTER TW O

TENDER , BEAUTIFUL YEARS I

Charlotte Anita Whitney was born in San Francisco on 7 1 867 of j uly , , two years after the termination the two Civil War, years before the famous golden spike was t driven into the ground a Ogden , Utah , symbolizing the unification of the country with thin bands of steel which

stretched from New York to the Golden Gate . She was the second of seven children in the middle class family f o George Edwin Whitney , an attorney who later served t t as s ate senator from Alameda Coun y . t In the Whitney household , the American tradi ion was ’ a family heirloom . On her father s side, Anita could list among her ancestors five Mayflower pilgrims and aleader of on the first Puritan settlement Massachusetts Bay . Her morher S of , Mary Lewis wearingen , was a descendant a t t Sw earin ens on Du ch family, he Van g , who first settled 1 640 this continent in in Maryland . The most famous of her early American ancestors was Thomas Dudley who succeeded John Winthrop as governor of Massachusetts ’ 16 4 r Colony in 3 . In Co ton Mather s chr onicles of the 1 8 NATIVE DAUGHTER

n Massachusetts Colony, Dudley is praised for those Purita t t qualities of intolerance, dogma ism , aus erity, devotion to of religion and a keen sense of business . A devotee the c church , Dudley nevertheless believed that the autocra y, which he in common with his Puritan peers deemed t he b esr perfect form of human organization , would be served by a Strong State which superceded the church and which of one should , in the words biographer , enforce con t mm of formi y as the superior, and the handmaid the

Ecclesiastical organization . r on 3 1 165 3 When Dudley died at Roxbu y July , , the last 1 9 years of his 77 years of life having been dev 0 t ed ow n to public office in Massachusetts , a poem in his hand ” was found in his pocket . Its title was Hate Heresy and its message :

L et men of G od in court a nd churches wa t ch ’ h d t o e a ti t ch O er suc as o u l r on hu .

i w as This severe , intolerant and autocratic Puritan Stra n tempered somewhat in the conflict which later developed between the colonies and the English Crown , and by the ’ of time of the Revolutionary War , several Anita s New t t he England ancestors served wi h revolutionary armies , most notably a William Cowen whose captain ’ s commis 1 77 5 ’ sion , issued in , is Still among Anita s prized posses ’ Sw earin n . t e s sions On her mo her s side, too , two Van g served as officers , one a major in the Maryland militia , the Other a colonel in the Virginia militia . Anita ’ s father had migrated to California in the early ’ 6 ’ f o s . o from a small town in Maine A man poor health , t of he had come o California not only in search a career , but to escape the rigors of New England climate . His

20 NATIVE DAUGHTER

a passion for honesty and the courage to profess the truth

and defend it .

Another influence in Anita ’ s childhood was Supreme

S . Court Justice tephen J Field , an uncle through marriage

S . to one of the wearingen girls The Fields , having no own t children of their , developed an ex remely Strong ’ t S of in erest in Anita and her Sisters . everal Anita s child hood years were spent at the Field mansion in Washing

ton , and later when she attended school in the east , all m her Christ as vacations were spent with the Fields . v Justice Field was a conservative jurist , whose conser a rism hardened with age and continued service on the f S o . upreme Court , that pillar encrusted conservatism t Although a Democrat , he was appointed o the bench by 1 86 t of 3 . President Lincoln in , at the heigh the Civil War t t of Despite his affiliation o the par y rebellion , Justice Field opposed secession an d sided with the North at least

to the point of preserving the Union . His appointment ’ seems to have been an attempt on Lincoln s part to cement California to the union (there was a Strong rebel of partisan faction in the state) , avoid the aggravation factional strife which the appointment of an easterner would necessarily have done , and to win wavering ele ments in the North who might have been alienated by a more radical choice .

F t S . ield joined he upreme Court when Roger B Taney, S author of the notorious Dred cott decision , was Still Chief 4 1 8 . 7 Justice He served 3 years , until 9 , when age and t on poor health compelled retiremen . His early years T F S 2 1 ENDER , BEAUTI UL YEAR the bench coincided with the Reconstruction Period and he Sided with his colleagues in emasculatin g the rev olu tionar of 1 3 t h 14t h 1 5th y content the , and amendments , the juridical fruits of the Civil War .

- of- - He was an able letter the law jurist, a firm believer in the blinders which blan ket the eyes of t he traditional - on figure of justice . Within this self imposed limitation w as v t his vision , he a man of high principle, great de o ion to his work. t In keeping wi h the California pioneer legend , Field w as supposed to have arrived in San Francisco a poverty Stricken youth whose last dollar w as spent for the first w as of an ec meal ashore . In later years , he fond telling al dotes about early California life , and these t es reveal him as a daring young man possessed of great persuasive charms . One of these tales concerned an early campaign for the legislature when nominees stumped the country on i horseback , riding from camp to camp , speak ng to the i as . o m on people Th s tale , worthy b th a co mentary ’ a l w as Field s character and early Californi ife, recorded in his own words as follows : “ G i o As I approached rass Valley, then a beaut ful sp t among the hills , occupied principally by Mr . Walsh , a n name since become familiar to California s , I came to a i t r i build ng by he wayside , a small lodging house and d nk o t o i tti ing sal on , opposite which a lynch ng jury were si ng , i on r of i try ng a man a cha ge Steal ng gold dust . I Stopped and of th e watched for awhile the progress trial . On an occasion of some delay in the proceedings I mentioned t to those present , the jury included , tha I was a candidate for the Legislature and that I would be glad if they would v join me in a glass in the saloon, an in itation seldom de 2 2 NATIVE DAUGHTER

li w a c ned in those days . It s at once accepted and leaving th e of accused in the hands an improvised constable, the of jury entered the house, and partook the drinks . I had or of discovered , imagined from the appearance the pris t v oner, that he had been familiar in o her days with a ery di fferent life from that in California and my sympathies im h . So t k were moved toward , after the jurors had a en e their drinks and were talking pleasantly together, I Slipp d out of i t o the bu lding and approaching the man , said ‘ ’ t ? ou ? him , Wha is the case against you Can I help y The poor fellow looked up at me and his eyes filled with ’ great globules of tears as he replied : I am innocent of all

I am charged with . I have never Stolen anything nor ’ a I no one cheated nyone ; but have here to befriend me . "

a w as . Th t enough for me Those eyes , filled , as they were, touched my heart . I hurried back to the saloon and as the jurors were Standing about chatting with each ’ O is ? You nor ther, I exclaimed , How this have had your

? M . cigars r Barkeeper, please give the gentlemen the ’ ‘ b eSt ou v t y ha e ; and besides , I added , let us have ano her —" — smile it is nor often you have a candidate for the ’

t ou . Legisla ure among y A laugh followed , and a ready acceptance was given t o the invitation . In the meantime my eyes reSt ed upon a benevolent- looking man among the

out . jury, and I singled him for conversation I managed to draw him aside , and inquired what state he came from . i his r He replied from C onncct cut . I then asked if pa ents ’M . v lived there He answered with a faltering oice, y ’ m her father is dead ; my or and sister are there . " ‘ sa o ou t con I then said , Your thoughts , I dare y, g f ’ St an t l t o . y o them , and you often write to them, course " H is saw - eyes glistened , and I pearl like dew drops T T S 3 ENDER, BEAU IFUL YEAR — gathering on them his thoughts were carried over the ‘ ’

u his old . o mo ntains to home Ah , my g od friend , I added , ’ ’ how their hearts must rejoice t o hear from you . Then

after a Short pause, I remarked , What is the case against ? too your prisoner He, , perhaps may have a Mother and E aSt t of him as u a sister in the , hinking yo r Mother and

do . sister of you , and wondering when he will come back ’ ’ a t ! of For God s s ke , remember his The heart the good — man responded in a voice which even to this day now t h nearly irty years past , sounds like a delicious melody ‘ ’ in do so. my ears , I will ” him O Passing from I went to the ther jurors , and d t k to x fin ing they were abou to go bac the trial , I e ’ r us a claimed , Don t be in a hur y, gentlemen ; let t ke ’ another glass . Then they again acceded t o my request and seeing that they were a little mellowed by t heir in dul en e l c t t a . g , I ventured to speak abou the ri I told them of was that the courts the State were organized , and there no necessity or justification now for lynch juries ; that the prisoner appeared to be without friends ; and I appealed t of n o them as men large hearts , to thi k how they would feel if they were accused of crime where they had no

. t o counsel , and no friends Better send him , Gentlemen , for own h Marysville trial , and keep your ands free from ’ Stain . A pause ensued ; their hearts were softened ; and fortunately a man going t o Marysville with a wagon com h v to t he ing up at t is moment, I pre ailed upon them put a prisoner in his charge t o be t ken there . The owner of him the wagon consenting, they swore to take the prisoner t S to tha place and deliver him over to the heriff, and to t make sure hat he would keep the oath, I handed him a ’ ’ of of v of Slug, a local coin octagonal form , the alue fifty 24 NATIVE DAUGHTER

i S . dollars , issued at that time by assayers n an Francisco We soon afterwards separated ; as I moved away on my

w as . horse, my head swam a little, but my heart joyous t of one Of all hings which I can recall the past, this is f ’ o the most pleasant . I believe I saved the prisoner s for life, for in those days , there was seldom any escape a person tried by a lynch jury . Such anecdotes were more common than unique and these tales , the folk lore of the California pioneer tradi ’

t . tion, played their part in shaping Anita s early at itudes

The sum toral of her childhood environment was a ’ compound of such diverse Strains as her father s mild N ew n of E gland liberalism , a Still water backwash the more turbulent abolitionism of the pre- Civil War days ; her ’ mother s southern gentilit y ; th e pioneer tradition ; the more immediate circumstance of comfortable middle class t of economic securi y, and the intangible a family heritage which dated back to the Puritans and the Revolutionary

War and was intertwined with southern aristocracy . of Anita herself was Shy and reserved as a child . One t her earliest memories , impressed upon her mind by he of it s of pain initial experience, is that having to recite " a " i . f i before a publ c school class I elt, She rec lls , as f the 40 -odd pairs of eyes of my classmates were piercing t my body, and the effort I had to make o control my ” voice would leave me faint and weak . In addition to she t this Shy reserve , also possessed hones y and integrity , traits encouraged by the tolerance of her father and his kind understanding . AR S 25 TENDER, BEAUTIFUL YE

Her early education w as obtained in private and public elementary schools and San Jose State Normal School . The formal requirements of middle class Standards for the young women of those days had been fulfilled by this t she scholastic career, bu her father insisted that attend i an eastern college . He had a deep feel ng for New Eng l of land , and be ieved that an experience the change in seasons was necessary for a true appreciation of American t li erature, and that somehow mere physical presence in the of New England , in proximity Boston and Faneuil Hall and the Cambridge elm would enhance one’ s under of r Standing Am erican histo y. Anita shied away from this trip cross -country t o a life mi away from her family, a dst Strange surroundings and ’ i sh e Strange people , but to gratify her father s wh m agreed mis to go to Wellesley for a year . She went with many

. att rac givings For her, books and Study had no Special she the tion , and had no particular ambition for future beyond the narrow orbit of her home and the limited h . S e social life around it But she went to Wellesley . went for a year and remained for four .

Historical records at Wellesley offer but a Slight clue t to her life and activities during four years a the college . There is no record of her holding office in any of the many Student organizations ; nor did she take part in c or dramati s , debate, school athletics . Her academic e t S interest se ms to have been cen ered on the sciences . he o t z o t ok courses in bo any, o logy, physics , chemistry, mat h ematics , v S t t h but ne er joined the Microscopical ocie y, e 26 NATIVE DAUGHTER

’ or Zoological Society the other enthusiasts clubs . Asso of z ciate editorship the senior class maga ine, The Leg t enda , seems o have been her sole participation in the of public life the school . The senior class book of 1 889 offers an amusing if

skimpy commentary . It lists her as follows : Politics — Republican ; Religion Episcopalian ; Literary production —” Statistics ; Opinion of the opposite sex G od bless ’ em . t o But as often happens , her failure participate in the extravert manifestations of campus life was a reverse measure of the profound effects which Wellesley had

. S 1 885 upon her he entered the college in , a shy, self of 1 8 t conscious and very handsome girl , in tha late Stage of she adolescence which , in a person as sensitive as , is so receptive to influences we choose t o call spiritual . And nor own recol Wellesley was nothing if Spiritual . Her t of lections are the bes gauge what transpired within her . " she The autumn of my freshman year, wrote many " on e of t of u years later, was unusual in ensity aut mnal of coloring . Even in that great land outdoors from which I came I had never experienced the sheer loveliness of the outside world as I did now . Winter came upon us soon t and the first snow s orm came early in the evening , filling the air with flaky softness and covering everything with of t folds whi eness and it thrilled me through and through . nor It was that I had never seen snow before, but I had never seen it in the country where it lay unsullied and it of appealed to my sense mysticism as well as beauty . " on v Then the heels of rather a se ere winter, came

Spring , when almost like magic the fields were covered t b urSt wi h green , the trees into bud and leaf, the birds

28 NATIVE DAUGHTER

Wellesley itself was in its youth then . It had been t founded fifteen years before by Henry Durant, a Bos on of lawyer, who , upon the death his only child , decided l of to consecrate his ife and fortune to the service God . He and his wife after seriously considering how their fortune would best serve God finally agreed upon en dowing an educational institution for young women of 80 modest means . rare was the humility in which the project was conceived that it was willed that the inst itu tion would not bear the name of Durant nor hold any ” ’ picture of him . This is God s college, said Durant, f and the phrase was o t repeated . w as of Daily attendance at chapel , course, obligatory . 500 The Students filed in , and were seated according to

classes , facing the rostrum and the large Stained glass w of indows behind , through which streaked the rays an n n f early morning su . On o e Side o the rostrum was en graved the Biblical inscription : Also I heard the voice of t he Lord saying, Whom shall I send , and who will go ? for us Then said I : send me . ’ n These words were engraved o Anita s mind . of Generally, the most clearly retained memories her t saw school years have a haunting quali y . She life through those Stained glass windows behind the chapel rostrum . Not that the campus did nor reflect some of the social ’

t . v realities of he day The woman s suffrage mo ement , the presidential campaign of 1 888 injected themselves S of into campus life . ome the Students engaged in social work in nearby communities ; Others helped in missions . About fifty notables and foreign personages visited the school each year and delivered lectures , among them such n t of unique characters as Queen Liliuokala i , las the T L S 29 ENDER , BEAUTIFU YEAR

H aw an an queens who had been deposed in a putsch of American settlers and who came to the United States to p lead her case, and Coquelin , the exotic French actor . Neither these activities nor personages evoked any deep r o lasting response in Anita . She read a great deal; Emerson and Lowell and Tho G reau , whom she had known before; and eorge Eliot and Leo olSt o v t T y whom She disco ered for the firs time, Tolstoy’ s "Anna Karenina made the greatest impression iv r t upon her ; its sensit e and beautifully told Sto y, i s wist t ful pathos and , above all , its typically Tols oyan moral lesson were all designed to impress her . Holidays were spent in excursions to the many historic f landmarks in the vicinity o Boston . Concord and Lex lu t W i g on, ayside Inn and Walden Pond , Faneu l Hall and Bunker Hill . They were all hallowed symbols to

. S t v t her he was hrilled at the Sight of them , and the e en s

n . s as they con oted Uncon ciously yet , there evolved within of r her a social attitude toward life, a fusion Ch istian t of ethics and morality , in the fines sense those concepts , and the American democratic ideal .

n After leaving school , havi g received her degree as S t S Bachelor of cience, Ani a floundered for four years . he k t t six too a routine and desultory rip o Europe, months of S S museums and landmarks . he tried teaching unday S o v cho l in Oakland , but gave up when the recror e inced a greater interest in church dogma than in the recorded v life and teachings of Christ . Acti ity in Collegiate NATIVE DAUGHTER

Alumnae organizations also failed to satisfy her Still ’ inarticulate quest for a life s work . ” I made an attempt to have the same pleasures and ” t she e t e pastimes as he young people around me, later , ” but I w as always more or less conscious of a feeling of of i boredom , coupled with a dread be ng thought dif f ” erent . Then something happened which changed her entire set She inexor life , the course along which traveled with ow able logic toward her n fulfillment . CHAPTER THREE

“ I LOVED MY PEOPLE"

I

In' 1 8 ni a 93 A ta ttended a class reunion at Wellesley . w t she t o t off On the home ard rip , decided s op at the College Set tlement in New York It was a decision o pr mpted by no special interest, but simply by a natural curiousit see of y to what college women , some her class w . S sa mates among them , were doing he much more she than had anticipated , and the idle curiosity turned into avid interest . S The College ettlement house was Situated then , as it is i of t E a St S now, on Riv ngton street , the heart he ide ld t . o in i s heyday The house itself was an mansion , m t renovated and altered for its co muni y purpose, and z l v k i some half do en college women i ed there, eep ng con open house for the neighborhood , organizing and i for v r duct ng varied activities boys and girls , and entu ing forth into the homes of the neighbors on missions of charity and social welfare . ’ ’ The 9o s of the past cent ury and the first decade of this century are the score of years which provided the S background for the epics of E a t Side literature . But the 32 NATIVE DAUGHTER

t ’ authors of hese books , Mike Gold s Jews Without ” ’ ” S O rni t z s P Money and amuel Haunch, aunch and on t E aSt S Jowl , had been bred and raised he ide, under v Stood it and rebelled against it, and then e aluated it n in mature retrospect . For A ita , the sensitive young wom an of 26 who had known middle class comfort and seclu t sion in Oakland , cloistered digni y in Wellesley and quiet t E aSt elegance at the Field mansion in Washing on , the S v ide was a terrible re elation . n Its debasi g poverty and squalor, its teeming tenements , its ro its bed bugs and cockroaches , its babel and noise, p of O of t so fusion dors , its tragedy maladjustmen were far outside the range of her past experience that She felt as she if had been transplanted into another world . And this 1 893 of t ! R v S t was in , the year the grea panic i ington tree W needed no panic . It as the abyss where measurements of IO St depth had their distinction . The great migration from

Eastern Europe was at high tide . Human cargoes were ’ dumped on New York s wharves and the East Side tene ov erSt uffed a ments became warehouses , j mmed with that precious commodity , labor power . The immigrants , ” ” greenhorns , came to the promised land , hopeful but frightened , fair prey for any tenement shark, any sweat

‘

or . z to shop operator, swindler charlatan Acclimati ation t i old he new world , the break ng with traditions and , at of times , an ancient culture limited by the feudal idiocy life in Eastern Europe, particularly in the ghetto villages t from which the Jews came, was a errible ordeal , rendered more difficult by the Struggle for economic survival . v com Anita could ha e escaped , back to Oakland and of fort, to recount with the aloof interest a tourist the ” ’I LOVED MY PEOPLE 3 3

t e things she had observed on the East Side . But she af mained . The settlement house needed workers , and ter ’ w as she w as v her week s residence as a visitor up, in ited w t o . as join the Sta ff She gladly accepted . It the first time ve v She had obser d poverty at first hand , and it iolated her Chr istian and democratic precepts . ’ i in our Here, She said later , certa nly some cog social

. t system had Slipped I wanted to know about it, I wan ed t o help change it . Here at Iast was something vital to be done and I wanted to have a part in it .

Her resolve required courage . At first, every Step in new w as f on e u t her life a pain ul , r nning headon in o her

” T e ! a t i mm she t h t me I went a rear tenement , la er " o recalled, I stood at the d or and peered into the darkness il see t i of t l I could the ricke y Sta rcase ahead me, the whole ni k of place sicke ngly odorous from dampness , from lac i t of t li of so vent la ion, from the fumes he accumulated fe t w as n many people . As I stood there I felt hat I o the f ur brink o a perilous advent e . Could I go up t o that room on the third floor to which I had been sent and g et out li ? was t not h a ve I sure hat I could , but a thousand deat s were better than the ignominy of going back and con

fes sing fear . r w as O of This initial t ial followed by many thers , some t ut i them humorous in the re elling, b terr fying in their

x i . one v 1s1t1n n e per ence On occasion , she , remembers g a ld ’ o woman t o whom She took soup . At the woman s re ” ’ ni t quest, A a read from the Bible , In my Father s house

are many mansions . And while She read t his com i of ou t one of fort ng promise the hereafter , of corner her a s i eye She gl nced apprehen ively at the cockroaches , wh ch 34 NATIVE DAUGHTER

did nor crawl but calmly wa lked up and down the walls

leSt t n . and bed , terrified hey come i her direction Even then she could nO t help but think that the long vista of years before her would be dreary indeed if She had to endure them in the knowledge that a mansion without f cockroaches was but the promise o a life hereafter . One of her most terrifying memories is of being awakened in the middle of t he night by the heart- chilling clang and the clatter of hooves of a horse- drawn fire E aS wagon . On the t Side all the terrible forebodings " Stirred by the sound of a fire bell were generally ful F a who . k filled ire was terror, an enemy lur ed in the dark w his of v ti and cro ded tenements , and claimed toll ic ms

. a i each year Anit and her colleagues dashed nto the Street, into the galvanized horrorwhich gripped t heentire neigh b orhood of , pierced by shrieks and the wailing women f and the chantlike prayers o elderly Jews . It was not until morning that they learned a “ whole family had perished in the flames . S he remained at the settlement house for three months , in t of k participating he varied life a settlement wor er, and then She was called home because of the illness and death f o her father .

i S e on Riv ngton tre t became her c science , a disturbing

n one nO t be . and persiste t conscience, that would denied ’ t After her father s dea h , She taught in private schools for a while , but always her mind reverted to Rivington

Street and the questions and doubts it had instilled in her . S t he sought the answer in books , but they only posed o her

36 NATIVE DAUGHTER

1 v r n qu et dignity, e olved and deepened du i g the eight she saw S of years Since first Rivington treet, years earnest if cl umsy grappling with social problems and her own SO le for relation t o them . Her training the job consisted of the brief period on Rivington Street and the few years of association with the county charities council , but She

brought to the work a tremendous energy and zeal . In of i e the fulfillment her duties , She d scovered and develop d

as . t she a talent an executive More impor ant , learned how to fight ; her quiet persistence and the heat of con

i t , trolled anger were d rected a red tape and apathy ‘ at political corruption and particularly inhumane practices born Of bureaucratic routine in the city and county gov

A fellow social worker associated with her during those ’ t of She 85 years , later wro e her, worked long hours at $ t z on a mon h , dyed her suits , economi ed her luncheons , and gave more generously than She could afford from her own funds to alleviate distress that could nO t always be i w cared for through regular offic al channels . She as t of or keen , intelligen , impatient Sham , fraud , deceit, de a l y in action of public officials . ni m on l d A ta , in co ment those years , has said , I ove u my people . I entered into h man relationships I had ’ not known before . This comment is most revealing of her chief virtue as i a charity worker . SO genu ne was her love for t he people who came to her for help that she was able to enter i nto na human relationships with them , the mutually degrad s of ing relation hip the charity dispenser , condescending - v in her soul sa ing piety , and the Shamefaced , distressed f f o t so o t . recipient he handout, typical such institu ions ” ” I LOVED MY PEOPLE 7

’ Much of Anita s attention was devoted to juvenile

delinquency ; as a social worker , she was most interested t o in rehabilitation , and children , it seemed her, were much more easily reclaimed than broken down adults , f 1 o . 90 3 beaten by life and robbed hope In , when juvenile t i courts were crea ed by law in Californ a , Anita became the first juvenile probation officer in Alameda County , serving without pay . Later, when a salary was attached t i to he job , it became a pol tical plum and was given to someone more worthy of the gratitu de of the political machine . During her comparatively brief service as a probation insrrument al i ary officer, Anita was in effect ng some elementary reforms in the treatment of juvenile delin f quents . The nature o her work in this respect is best illustrated by a Single incident . One day ( 190 5 was the approximate year) She t e ceiv ed a hurried call from the presiding judge of the 1 1 juvenile court . The subject of the call was Isabel , year old wayward child of an Emeryville race track employe, who for days wandered away from her home in the rear of a saloon on the edge of the race track . The t t e mo her, unable to cope with her spirited daughter , quested the judge to assume responsibility for Isabel ’ s res on future, and the judge, in turn , wished to share the p i ilit i s b y with An ta . Given only 24 hours to investigate the case and arrive t S at a decision, Anita hurriedly went o work . he inter viewed the parents and their neighbors , and then went to see Isabel . It was her first visit to the Alameda County she t t jail , and found i spotless , with the women inma es seated in a large comfortable living room (done away 3 8 NATIVE DAUGHTER

with in the more modern jail constructed later) . There was Isabel . ” N or of so bad thought I , this group quiet women, t of while little Isabel , anxious to talk, old me her life at hOme of of z of , her friends , the jockeys , the est Starting out of of not knowing whither, the fun Sleeping in empty ” of i or doorways , begging d nner breakfast, Anita recalled later . z nor Then Isabel , whose est for life had seemingly n t of been dimmed by impriso ment , old her the jail , u and proudly pointed o t her cell and her cell mate . The for 1 2 cell mate, with whom Isabel was locked up hours , was none Other than a famous Emeryville prostitute whose pictures had filled the papers for days , illustrating the detailed Stories of how She killed her paramour . In those days there were no special facilities for juvenile delinquents . They were tossed into jail with their elders , t with prosti utes , drug addicts , with women suffering from n w n sexual aberrations or social diseases . A ita as as i dig e the nant as She was Shock d . Attempts to remedy Situa n tion were blocked o all Sides by red tape . Anita went of S t to the Board upervisors and the Distric Attorney, demanding that the girl be removed from the jail and put in the county hospital for detention . Finally, her t persistence, backed by threats to give the scandal he t of widest publici y, won from the chairman the Board of Supervisors an agreement t o place a room at the county of sub hospital at the disposal young Isabel . This room sequently became the detention home for all juvenile delinquents until county funds were appropriated for a separate home with necessary attendants . An equally scandalous situation arose in relation to ” ” I LOVED MY PEOPLE 39

i . s del nquent boys For a while, Oakland police in isted on t putting boys in jail , for here was a feud in progress ai between county and city officials , and the police s d they l cou d not take boys to the county hospital . Anita pro reSt ed , but to no avail . Then one day , into her office t i P out l s omped the Ch ef of olice, decked in fu l regalia , ni gold braid and all , accompa ed by an aide and a young, hi su llen boy arrested for some crime . The c ef officiously explained that he would n or take the boy to the count y ’ hospital , and hence was placing him in Anita s custody

for transfer there . His formal speech concluded , the on e chief turned his heels and , follow d by his aide, t if out . bo sa Stomped of the office The y there St fly, w a Silent and sullen . He as a big overgrown ch p and f r him i t o . S An ta , physically no ma ch , was at a loss up ou t She ? pose he decided to walk , what could do Anita h w as glanced at him rat er apprehensively, but there no u m response ; he j st sat there i mobile, his eyes fixed in a w downward Stare . Certainly hi s demeanor as not such e sa t as invited warmth , but Anita , ob ying an impulse, hi beside him and placed her hand gently upon s . This i sl ght gesture of affection had Startling results . The boy just crumpled down on the floor and let loose t ni t a Stream of tears he could neither hal nor control . A a him t let cry, hen placed a pillow under his head and gave d him a han kerchief to dry his tears and wipe his nose . S C bo he washed his face with a damp loth , and the y who se so o i had emed sullen before was now d c le and gentle . His ominous and rigid demeanor had been an attempt to conceal the fact that he was half scared to death by the of Stern pomp and gold braid the police chief . A little 40 NATIVE DAUGHTER

out kindness , and this protective Shell was broken, and flooded all his pent up fear and emotion .

’ Not all of Anita s activity as a social worker was con cerned with individual cases and isolated reforms . Toward the end of her tenure with the department a great natural v S cataclysm inter ened , the an Francisco fire and earth of 1 0 6 ! quake 9 . Case and Case Y, careful entries in of w the ledger social ork, were brushed aside by the force of an elemental tragedy which had erupted from the very bowels of the earth and had swept thousands of people of into its vortex . The magnitude and drama the event have been recorded in virtually every art form and from con almost every viewpoint . But Anita had no time to t template the event , to engage in hose ponderous and empty moralisms which later depicted it as a retributive ’ climax to San Francisco s Sinful era . She had a more for practical mission , to help provide the homeless and the hungry . 1 1 on 8 06 . fol The earthquake occurred April , 9 The t of S lowing day, as the great fire reduced mos an Fran out of cisco to ashes , some refugees Streamed the hapless city in all directions . Some found a haven in t reked t n or Marin County , others down he pe insula into

Alameda Count y . The mass exodus even overwhelmed v t the Statisticians , and the a ailable figures are conflic ing , but the b eSt guess is that there were refugees in

Oakland , of whom were given daily rations by the organized relief forces . ” ” I LOVED MY PEOPLE 4 1

Hinckle and McCann in their history of Oakland

185 2 - 1 8 S1xt - ( 93 ) record that y three churches , as well as t O z civic, fra ernal and ther organi ations opened their doors to the people of San Francisco without discrimination

r . as to class , condition, p creed m i v . t An ta , however , ser ed in the front lines I media ely she S after the quake , was called to an Francisco to organ ize the relief camp which pitched it s tents in Golden Gate h . t he s e Park For the first week after fire, remained at t i the camp , direc ing the feed ng and housing of refugees . So immersed was She in these initial phases of the relief work that her memory retained no coherent picture of n no those days , and u fortunately, there is historic data t w S to throw into sharp relief her role in tha ork . he of worked day and night , indefatigable , and in the face t of the crisis , She found , as people frequen ly do, Stores latent energy and ability she had never known She pos sessed . she w as t In her work, grea ly aided by the labor unions , t he t particularly in the later phases , when firs problems of food and shelter were superceded by those of rehabili ration and employment . Her liaison agent with the unions t was a volun eer assistant , Christopher Ruess , who later became adult probation officer of Alameda County and now serves as senior probation officer in LOS S k of is ev and t he spea s highly h d otion energy a that time . T n ul he u ions were very cooperative , partic arly in the ’ r placement of the unemployed . Th ough the carmen s for union , She found jobs many refugees in the Street rail way system of Oakland which had to expand its service

of d . i because the Sud en influx of population An ta , then 42 NATIVE DAUGHTER

t o O a prohibitionist, was particularly delighted find ther of places employment for jobless bartenders . S Ar i For a brief period , the United tates my d rected

. t t ak as relief work When he Army lef , in O land , else ’ a b usinessmen s where, committee was established to take over . This committee offered to double her salary of $75 as a month , but Anita refused , She was at odds with the committee and felt that acceptance of the salary raise t o would place her under obligation it, and give the busi o nessmen a greater voice in formulation f relief policies . as is of a These businessmen , the wont businessmen , p f proached the problems o relief in a businesslike manner . ” ” ! was t t Cut costs That their mot o , and hey haggled with Anita over every case She presented to them . If She Submitted an eStimat e of $250 as the Sum necessary fOr t the rehabilitation of a cer ain individual and his family, they countered with an offer of $ 1 2 5 and an implicit

v . . in itation to haggle Anita refused to haggle Instead , she threatened to turn the case over to Edward Devine, t of direc or the Associated Charities in New York, who had been dispatched t o San Francisco t o direct the relief work , and this threat generally brought acquiesence, for the businessmen did nor want Oakland Stigmatized na t ionally as a community which could nO t take care of its own . Her relations with the businessmen reached a crisis

' : f - when on e o the committeemen s ugge s ted ; t hat hiS social ' serv ice ex erience or daughter, a woman with no p t he training , be placed in charge of relief work , with

Anita as her subordinate . Anita indignantly handed in her resignation , but the chairman of the committee tore

t . t i up By tha time , he had become impressed with her

44 NATIVE DAUGHTER

t she doubts returned . They were complex doub s , for questioned herself as well as the nature of her work .

t . Perhaps , She hought, the fault is with me Perhaps , my own social vision is limited . Perhaps , sheer fatigue and slavishness to daily routine have dispirited me . She decided to ascertain where the fault lay, resigned her position and went eaSt to work with more experienced she social workers , people whom had admired , like Devine f B n of New York and Mary Richmond o O St o .

Her resignation occasioned deep regrets . A local paper wrote : ” Miss Whitney’ s resignation has been accepted with of m r wa has regret , in view the co p ehensive y She filled a position a t once SO trying and important t o society in all s f its elements . She ha maintained a high conduct o this clearing house for nearly all the philanthropic insti tutions of Oakland , and her resignation and withdrawal v of from this work, e en at this ripe period her useful c iz career, causes those asso iated with her to real e to what a great extent they have come t o depend upon her t o act as mediator and adviser between the needy and the pillars of support of the community .

. . of B H Pendleton , president the Associated Charities , said ” The directors of the organization cannot say t oo m uch ’ in commendation of Miss Whitney s splendid services to this community in the difficult and important work she has carried unceasingly with so much success during the Six last years . She has virtually been the head and soul of the Associated Charities . ” I LOVED MY PEOPLE” 5

The New York charities proved a disappointment . The contrast between the immensit y of the problems posed by poverty and the puny fp rces at the disposal of the charity t institutions appalled her, as did poli ical corruption , red ’ of ew tape and apathy . The very Sight N York s slums again impressed upon her the futility of coping with tuberculosis and other social diseases while the East Side remained as a huge incubus for these ailments . S t he wen on to Boston , which in those years had a f reputation or a modern charities department . Lucy Stebbins who had been charities director for South Boston w as to it w as leaving for a trip Europe , and An a given the job . Anita ’ s last residence in New England had been at ! Wellesley . What a contrast Beautiful Wellesley and S outh Boston , the Slum rim of the Hub City , inhabited m by i migrant Irish , where alcoholism and tuberculosis t m for vied in a grim race of death , and some i es joined h t he i . S e final k ll While at school , had visited Boston, d a its historic lan marks , F neuil Hall and Bunker Hill , S t k but never ou h Boston , that landmar of contemporary history . The beautiful Charles River which wound its way past Wellesley did not pass through South Boston ; of it graced the opposite end town , widened to form the ’ Back Bay and t o provide a maritime view for Boston s

. i Back Bay aristocracy New England , wh ch had con t so t no ed much of the poetic joy of her you h , now crowned

l . S t her growing disi lusionment outh Bos on finished her . s Its qualor was more demonstrative , for alcoholism was ’ more prevalent here than on New York s E aSt Side or 46 NATIVE DAUGHTER

’ w as u S . Oakland s West ide It a raucous , profane Sl m ; of w the shrieks women , beaten by drunken husbands , ere more frequent . The social sores and excrescence of pover ty were more obvious . These phenomena were impressed upon her with greater Strength for She had already begun to doubt her ability to cope with them through the insrru ‘ mentality of social work . ” so no And , She said later , I became convinced that of z real solution lay along the route organi ed charities , and I definitely abandoned the profession that I had hoped was to be my life work, and I was left adrift again. with more questions to be answered . CHAPTER F OUR

FR OM SUFFRAG E TO S OCIALISM I

The 19 1 1 1 14 1 l years to 9 , following her ex t from socia W W f he was o t o t s . S rk, ere for Ani a a period a ran ition o s cially active in those years , but She did not link herself t i t with any h ng fundamental , anything hat had the con ’ tinuity of the life s work she had abandoned when she she quit organized charity . For a while remained in com arat iv e t she p seclusion , Sick at heart, disconsola e, then became actively associated with the growing prohibition t ru of movemen , a primitive reaction to the d nkenness t e South Boston . But her energies and sense of social ’ spons ibility were fully aroused finally by the women s suffrage movement . Now that women have had the v ot e in California for rt t it thi y years and throughout the nation for twen y, is difficult t o revive and again sens e the missionary zeal with ’ w as A which the fight for women s suffrage waged . S 1n many elementary democratic reform movements , argu ’ t on ments went to ex remes ; the one hand , women s suf frage was painted as the ultimate in sin and chaos ; on the 48 NATIVE DAUGHTER

’

O . ther, as the panacea for all the world s ills The oppo nent s of equal suffrage declaimed about t he sanctity of the of t of home and the beauty mo herhood , borh which they insisted would be forthwith destroyed if women mixed in politics and neglected the duties for which God and f . o nature had designed them Ironically enough , much the money to finance the propaganda about the home and motherhood came from the saloon operators and the ’ larger liquor interests who feared women s suffrage b e cause it had been linked with the prohibition movement . The movement for enfranchisement of women was of a mixed class character, based primarily upon the middle k u and wor ing classes , with a sprinkling of pper class women . Such a mixed class composition naturally gave t of t rise o a Strange confusion Slogans , aptly illus rated in a manifesto issued by the Equal Suffrage Amendment League which urged the vore for women because : ” - 1 . Women will advance in self respect when no longer branded with the Stigma of disenfranchisement . They . will no longer hold themselves so cheap in marriage or out of it . of x t 2 . Women , by payment direct ta es on heir prop t con etty and indirect axes on what they eat and wear, i t o and of tr bute governmental revenues Should , because se in r their financial interest , be repre nted eve y govern meat .

’ e ti n in 3 . Wom n increase the na o s wealth by their dust r - t y, three fourths of the married women doing heir

ow n . house work , sewing, nursing, etc , and over working outside their homes in remunerative pursuits . 4 ” ’ . Women s ballots will hasten the golden era of

equal pay for equal work . FROM SUFFRAGE TO SOCIALISM 49

’ t 5 . Women s ballots may bring greater attention o the

t . sani ary needs of home , factory and Street ” allor v v 6 . Women with the b could pre ent destructi e

~ t own b eSt . wars , injurious to the State and heir beloved ” so 7 . Women are generally chaste that even fraud , d of force , money, pretende love and the allurements an l t ’ id e, elegant life canno tempt from virtue s path enough women to supply the demand . ” 8 . Women who are Slave mothers bring forth slave children . An enfranchised motherhood will bring forth t a race which has never been equalled for nobili y, hero ism and true greatness . ” 9 . Women in California are as intelligent and vir tu ous of and public spirited as are the women Australia , of New Zealand , Tasmania , Finland , Norway, Isle Man , n wom Wyoming, Colorado , Utah and Washi gton , where en vore for all officers elected by the people . 1 0 . Women in California deserve the b aIIO t as much t of S as do he women Kansas , England , Iceland , cotland, S S Wales , Can ad a , weden , Denmark and Natal outh

Africa where women enjoy municipal suffrage .

When Anita actively entered the women ’ s suffrage 1 1 1 movement in 9 , it had developed a mass character

v . and tremendous itality The peculiar sectarianism , which t had plagued the earlier suffragettes , manifes ed either in a distorted portrayal of the Emancipated woman or a be haviour pattern based on the assumption that t o attain one t equality with men mus imitate them , had largely 50 NATIVE DAUGHTER

a . disappeared . This sect rianism , magnified and carica t ured of in hostile journals , was swept aside by the influx t ex eri masses of women , some of hem with trade union p of ence, and by the growing political maturity the move f o . ment , evolved in decades political Struggle ’ Women s suffrage advocates were also helped by a t progressive poli ical atmosphere , then prevalent in Cali m for ia and developing throughout the country . America was on the threshold of the era of Wilsonian liberalism . adminis In California , this era was ushered in by the State t rat ion of Hiram Johnson who was elected governor in fad 1 9 10 . Typical of the times was the that the same ’ b allor which submitted the womens suffrage issue t o the 1 0 1 1 1 a ro electorate on October , 9 , lso contained such p g ressiv e reform propositions as the initiative and refer ’ endum t z of com en , he recall , authori ation a workmen s p of of of sation law , subjection judges District Courts im eachr mnt Appeal to p r . Typical of the popular spirit

- was the fact that all these measures , among twenty three

on . the ballot, were passed t i During he five months preced ng the election , Anita served as State president of the College Equal Suffrage one t League, of he most important of the many groups 1n engaged the campaign . The league , as is implied by its title , had originally been limited to ~ college and pro fessional 1 1 1 thr women , but during the 9 campaign it t open i s rolls to all women , regardless of education and so r social Status , long as they we e willing to work for ’ Suffrage . This policy reflected the league s vigorous atti in “ tude toward the campaign , and , turn , it helped add v u igor to the organization . The leag e opened offices in

52 NATIVE DAUGHTER

f u to diverse sections o the population . A large n mber of ’ ” S t S one of John tuar Mills ubjection of Women , the t v ’ traditional propaganda racts fa oring women s suffrage , O t t en of were g out . One the most effective leaflets was ” titled Opinions of Eminent Local Catholic Clergy . Father Gleason and Other Catholic priests participated in t t - six suffrage rallies , and all he thir y Catholic congrega tions in San Francisco were canvassed several times by a large committee from the College Suffrage League . From

6 m . the early morning mass at a . , until the later church t gatherings , the suffrage tes Stood at the door , handing t out their leafle s , and at the end of the campaign they oaSt ed b that they had reached every Catholic in the city . The suffragettes enlisted the active support of such k k famous Californians as Luther Burban , Fran Norris , S Jack London , Joaquin Miller , David tarr Jordan and S George terling, and such men as Henry George and t Mark Twain , associated wi h California history . ” ’ ’ We challenge t he antis to mention one distinguished name that has come out of California who has not been

H ad . a friend of equal rights , said one suffrage ” The antis did not accept that challenge , yet while t heir following may not have been distinguished , it was h bO t . large and wealthy The Los Angeles Times , tradi t ional pillar of California toryism , was most hostile to T t equal suffrage, while The Oakland ribune conduc ed a f n o . more subtle campaign oppositio Incidentally, the ownership of The Tribune had that year passed into t he hands of a woman, Mrs . Herminia Peralta Dargie . An interesting and instructive tactic of the opposition played on the divergent class groupings in the suffrage movement in an attempt to set them at loggerheads . FROM SUFFRAGE TO SOCIALISM 5 3

S S o for m elina olomons rep rted, example, that a Com ittee of z set LO S a dummy organi ation up in Angeles , can ” v assed merchants and told them that only the laboring ” ” women would vore and hence business would be hurt . ” ” k on the O she The wor ing men, ther hand added , had been told that none but ’ club women would go to the i ul polls , and , therefore, capital stic interests wo d be pro the of t i moted, to disadvantage he work ng man . One of the most widely distributed opposition pam phlet s quoted extensively from speeches by Senator San ford and reached its graphic finale in a caricatur ed draw ’ ing of a suffragette atop a world in ruins , crying, Didn t I raise hell !

The campaign reached a hectic climax . There were six v ti v S F i as to se en mee ngs e ery night in an ranc sco , well as impromptu street rallies to catch the commuters at the f i . S u was Ferry Build ng In acramento , a giant s frage rally

S . Los l 4 held during the tate Fair In Angeles , at a Ju y t celebration , when poli ical speeches were banned in the ” ” t t e parks , women chan ed Beloved California , with the ” ” frain : Hurrah! Hurrah! The vore will make us free! Automobil e tours to take the gospel of equal suffrage t o

- the countryside were organized . Noon day meetin gs were ev e held at factory gates . On election , a windup rally at ’ San Francisco S Dreaml and Rink drew 8000 persons who n jammed the huge are a . t s t i h On election day, the suffraget e , he r hopes igh, turned out in full organized force for there had been ki for of painsta ng preparations committees watchers , tabulators and agitators who paced outside the 100 - foot limit from the polling booths and buttonholed prospective w as Voters . Even automobile transportation provided for 54 NATIVE DAUGHTER

friendly Voters who o therwise might have found it diffi f cult to get to the polls . The effectiveness o the suffrage election organization found two testimonials in the news u papers o the day after the elections . There was a photo of o graph laughing suffragettes , Anita Whitney am ng

them , holding up a male voter at the corner of Grant w avenue and Bush Street . There as also a typically super ’ cillious story which related that District Attorney Fickert ” voted early but the political Dianas were on the job and popped away at him with their verbal darts of argument on e and persuasion enthusiastically and impartially, ask ing him if he were sure he understood how to mark the ” f ballot properly . If Fickert were as ignorant o election r as t he na procedu e he was of law, the question was at rrii all a ss . Some of t he suffragettes who were nor t oo wearied by their arduous campaign Stayed up for the elect ion results .

AS t . S t . the nigh wore on, their spirits sagged ome wep S Precinct after precinct, reporting from Oakland and an r i Francisco , registered a negative vo e, and past midn ght the antis had such a formidable and ever-growing margin th at Suffrage seemed doomed . ” BY~ SUFFRAGE DEFEATED 5000 . That was the headline in The Oakland Post which greeted Anita ’ s n weary eyes on the morni g after election . It was a ter rific w letdown , and the suffragettes , their hearts laden ith i t the bitterness of d sappointment , their minds tor ured by ” ” - v -b eens might ha e , hoped against hope that somehow the later returns would turn the tide . But they did not have much confidence . One of their leaders issued a ” Statement tantamount to an admission of defeat : While t t o the issue is Still in doub , the chances seem be against FROM SUFFRAGE TO SOCIALISM 55

000 on us at this hour . If we lose by less than 3 votes t he face of the returns , it will mean that we really carried

t he as u 000 v i . election , f lly 3 otes were llegally counted This charge is based on reports made to us by precinct ” aw uf watchers who in many cases s this done . Other s frage leaders discussed plans for the next campaign .

The early returns , coming mostly from the large cities , V i 7 58 for Showed otes aga nst equal suffrage, 3 , 3 , t V giving the an is a comfortable margin of otes , with f 1 2 70 o V . some per cent the ote counted On October , ft k two days a er the election , things looked blac er yet, and The San Francisco Examiner carried a patronizing con 1 h a d a . 3 e solation e itori l On October , the un xpected p

‘ ”

- pened. and . it w as recorded. in Examiner headlines : SU F

~ - FR AG IST S WIN BY A NARROW MARGIN . At the 1 1 h v t hour tide of votes turns defeat into ictory . o t ns The vote now Sto d a for, agai t, V giving the amendment a majority of otes , a narrow of d margin victory which approximate the final count . The rural vote in the outlying counties had turned the i i t t de, offsett ng he edge given the antis by the large cities . S l St v i t o In an Francisco , Suffrage o by otes , fa led carry a Single district although it made it s b eSt Showing in the working class neighborhoods . California thus became i n suffragette parlance the Sixth t ” i free sta e, and the rejoic ng of the suffrage leaders ,

‘ some of whom had come from all part S Of the United States and countries as distant as Australia and England t o i x t help in the campa gn, their e hilaration after he sorrow of ili t reconc ation to seemingly certain defea , found crude expression in the triumphal note on which Selina Solo ” mons concluded her account of the campaign : Well 56 NATIVE DAUGHTER

might the band have played ’ Hail the Conquering Hero ’ ’ of t ines Come as they marched , a living proof the poe s — ’ prophecy of the woman s soul that leads on and up ” ward .

Anita had every right to feel most deeply the joys of

r for she . T victo y, had done much to bring it about he organization which she headed was in some respects the of t for most effective hose espousing votes women , and

She was one of it s most effective leaders . Her Singleness of her i z p urpose , grac ousness , her selfless eal not , only w o a m i b t i th n d irat on, u nspired o ers with that enthusiasm w which as necessary for victory . Selina Solomons described her as among the ablest and most i ndefatigable workers ” in the College Equal S of t uffrage League, a young woman he finest femi n t x ni i y, much personal magnetism and great e ecutive

ability .

Mr - s . G co k : As enevieve Allen , a wor er, later said executive secretary of the California Equal Suffrage L i rac eague, when An ta Whitney was president , I spent p T o tically a year in close daily association with her . my i she t e ki of who v m nd , has been h nd a person would ne er

sacrifice principle for expediency . She is a noble . and nd l m f t b n O wo erfu wo an , and I eel he fee le ess f words when I t ry t o express my admiration for her heart and

mind and character . Anita ’ s personality and talent attracted nationwide attention and at the annual convention of the American

S i K . Equal uffrage Associat on , held in Louisville, y , Shortly FROM SUFFRAGE TO SOCIALISM 57

l after the Ca ifornia election , She was chosen second vice of z t v n t president the organi a ion , ser ing with such o ed as S American women Anna Howard haw, president, and

a v . S t t o J ne Addams , first ice president he was delega ed 1 9 1 2 organize suffrage work in Oregon , and in January, , ‘ O re ori S helped form the g College uffrage League, pat

th e . t oo terned after California model Her work here, , was for crowned with success , after an active summer ’ t in campaign , Oregon adop ed women s suffrage the di . S November elections till later, She played a lea ng and active role in the campaign that brought Nevada into the ” f T o s fold o free States . this day She cannot pa s through v t Ne ada without recalling that campaign , he trips to the O t mining camps and ther outlying districts , he arduous journeys in a horse- drawn buggy to reach Otherwise in sh accessible camps . Everywhere e was greeted with friendly courtesy and t he utmost chivalry by t he miners .

S t he S f uffrage won , College Equal u frage League de z cided to reorgani e itself on a permanent basis , and make t he beneficent influence of women voters felt in California

. t politics The California Civic League was formed , wi h ni v branches in many localities , and A ta ser ed as president for the first two years and on the executive committ ee for l severa years thereafter . The league was a school in poli h of tics for hundreds and t ousands women , and Anita , hr th e t ough her leadership in organization , helped make ’ t California s women a po ent, conscious influence in the f f political li e o the state . The league waged a successful t he of fight for inclusion women on juries . It concerned 58 NATIVE DAUGHTER

with itself restriction of red light districts , and the social f AS of welfare featu res o state governments . president S the league, Anita engaged in extensive lobbying in ac o ramento , and in one Statewide p litical campaign to de fear t he proposition on the 1 9 14 b allor for repeal of the

red light abatement law . But Anit a soon outgrew the comparatively limited scope She of such activity . Imperceptibly at first found herself

drawn to the working class movement . The great and dramatic textile Strikes at Lawrence and Paterson Stirred t he of her as massacre Striking miners , their women and - u t bO t h children , by Rockefeller hired g nmen a Ludlow

- Shocked and angered her . She heard the first hand Stories of some of t hese momentous Struggles from their organ izers z v and leaders . Eli abeth Gurley Flynn , Arturo Gio anit t i t t he , Jim Larkin and o her famous labor orators of An it a t hem day came to California , and heard speak , and she w as attracted by their vigor and fire and an assurance which came from close identification wit h the masses and u u on their Str ggles . D ring her sojourn in Portland behalf of the American Equal Suffrage Association she had heard h . t e c Eugene V Debs , then campaigning for presiden y, and She was most impressed by t he nat ural ease with which he exchanged greetings with t he crowd of admirers h m in who flocked around him as he was leaving t e eet g . Here again w as a leader who did nor speak solely for i nor h mself, did just express inbred and incubated inner t he t convictions , but on con rary gained Strength and Stature because he expressed t he hopes and inarticulate of desires millions . The vitality of the working class movement evoked a deep and spontaneous response within her long before

60 NATIVE DAUGHTER

of t and whips . One he Wobblies subsequently died in

jail while scores of Others suffered serious injuries .

Anita could nor remain complacent . Such incidents aroused in her an indignation which by its very force for sought an outlet in action . Her chance action came during the aftermath of t he Wheatland H op Rior which ’ of 1 1 on Stirred all California in 9 3 . Anita s influence events set in morion by t he Wheatland outbreak may v n of ha e bee minute, but the influence those events upon own of t her development was th e first magnitude . I was t it her first direct con act with the class Struggle, and was

an enlightening contact , for the Wheatland episode, like

a flare dropped in pitch darkness , suddenly illuminated t v he he elemental forces and moti ations in t class Struggle . The character of the spontaneous revolt of the hop pickers on f on the Durst ranch , near Wheatland , Cali , August ’ 1 1 3 w as of 3 , 9 , as primitive as Anita s understanding the fundamental conflict which erupted in th is explosive in i c dent .

h w as m In Wheatland t ere no iddle ground . In Wheat

land , class was pitched against class in naked combat with no rules of warfare except those that arose from of the inexorable logic the brief and savage conflict itself . 2 800 In Wheatland , exploitation was undisguised . The

men , women and children who had been lured to the hop t m t ranch by Durs , the owner who later ad it ed he needed 1 500 v b eSt only workers , li ed as they could , some sleeping on of t he in the open fields , some piles straw , and some,

75 . aristocrats , renting a rent from Durst at cents a week t 2 800 There were only nine outdoor toile s for people, and many of the 1 500 women and children at t he camp FROM SUFFRAGE TO SOCIALISM 6 1

t vomi ed from the nauseating Stench . Dysentery and diarrhea were rife ; cases of malarial fever and typhoid were reported . m 4 . The workers entered the fields at a . , and by noon t he c a 1 0 6 1 1 0 t . mer ury was . and degrees in the shade the w at er Despite insufferable hear, no was brought to i f . : o the workers The reason Jim Durst , a cous n the ranch owner, peddled lemonade at a nickel a glass . From 2 00 300 i t to ch ldren worked in he fields , for the miser able wage of 90 cents per hundred pounds could nor pro vide for a family unless everyone pitched in . Into such conditions were thrust workers of thirty ns n n nationalities , Puerto Rica , America s , Hi dus , Japanese , of 30 Englishmen , unorganized except for a nucleus i Wobblies . The Wobblies , some experienced organ zers i l ke Blackie Ford , went to work with great energy and considerable skill to weld this diversified group of back ward workers inro a solid body to fight for improved r t living conditions . Their prelimina y efforts met wi h great success and within two days they were ready to n break into the open and called a camp mass m eeti g . i Some 2 0 00 workers were in attendance . The meet ng o was drawing to a close when a p sse , headed by the ’ t he t u sheriff and district a torney, who was also D rst s h t e . private lawyer, arrived on scene The sheriff and a few deputies Started elbowing their way through t he et crowd to g at Ford who had been the speaker . The crowd was angry and on e of the deputies on the fringe of ” th e t assembly fired a shor into he air to sober the mob . ’ h ShO t t T at was like the retor of a Starter s pistol in a race . 62 NATIVE DAUGHTER

en The fight was on . And in the general melee which sued , the district attorney, a deputy sheriff, and two work ers P l , a uerto Rican and an Englishman , were killed , whi e scores were injured .

on . The posse fled from the scene . The hysteria was Governor Hiram Johnson dispatched four companies of th e National Guard to Wheatland . Throughout the v agricultural regions , a reign of unbridled igilante terror was instituted against all those suspected of Wobbly sym at hies e p . Gunmen furnish d by the notorious Burns

Detective Agency were deputized by count y authorities . of no one Arrests were made in every part the State , and has ever been able t o determine the acrual number of persons jailed . Some were held incommunicado for weeks and months without trial and systematically tortured for

confessions . t he t k Eight months after Whea land outbreak, Blac ie S Ford and Herman uhr, another Wobbly who was not of t he t v even at the scene rio , were con icted of second o degree murder and sentenced t life imprisonment . The authorities did not claim t hat the t wo had fired t he fatal or for t he shors , were in any way physically responsible deaths . Their guilt lay in attempting to organize t he t he workers , and using allegedly violent language which , for authorities charged , was responsible the killings . ’ The Ford- Suhr case w as the first of California s cele r n in t o bra ed labor cases , and A ita threw herself the fight 1 14 fOr their release . That was early in 9 and there has not been an important case of labor persecution in Cali fornia since in which Anita did nor actively participate to ’ defend labor s rights and those of the individuals victim f ized because of their adherence t o t he cause o labor . FR O M SUFFRAGE TO SOCIALISM 63

Anita joined delegations of prominent liberals and labor Scharrenb er t leaders , including Paul g , then secretary of he

S . California tate Federation of Labor, and Mrs Fremont Older in pleading with the governor for executive clem S ency . he spoke in behalf of the defense of Ford and S So i r t uhr . high was the feel ng engendered th oughou of t he t the State by the expose conditions on Durs ranch , of Califor that Mrs . Durst, who had been a member the ’ z nia Civic League, Anita s organi ation , felt compelled to resign . But Ford and Suhr remained behind the bars .

California justice had set its pattern .

w as 1 14 It during this period , early in 9 , that Anita

S . joined the ocialist Party It was a logical development, so logical that the exact date and manner of joining have long since faded from her memory . Imperceptibly and t I unconsciously, she la er wrote, passed over the t t wo line , he invisible line, which divides mankind into different groups , the group which Stands for human exploitation and the group which Stands for the fullness I of life here and now , for human welfare . was not sure how w as t I it to come abou , and probably did a great deal of a s I f l e sentimentalizing about it, but had taken the road from which there is no returning and with whatever hesitations and Stumbling s I have tried ever Since to ” follow . For t i her here was no sudden conversion , no s ngle “ ” on e dramatic incident which made her see the light , no l bril iant argument or book . She evolved into Socialism t " and while here must have been a revolutionary, sudden , 64 NATIVE DAUGHTER dialectic transition from bourgeois democratic liberalism S t to ocialism , the conditions for such a transi ion had reached such a ripe maturity within her that it was accom plished without any cataclysmic effects . own v t For her , there is an inner logic to her e olu ion from childhood when she was pained and humiliated at the sight of Stage- made poverty at the Capitol party for Irish famine relief to the time when as a mature woman 47 rt of she embraced socialism as the solution to pove y, as the answer to the inarticulate questions which had agi ” I she rated her childhood . have trod a path , is wont sa t to y, and here is a path discernible, but few people are

t ereCt . given to read so Straight a path , with such dignity The two elements which shaped her social attitude toward life even in the Wellesley days , Christian ethics and the t t n0 t American democra ic radition , had become diffused of into the flabbiness middle class comfort , nor smothered by the rationalizations which protectively envelop such comfort , just as some parasitic fungus sheathes a tree ' in . a fl t trunk They remained hard and pure, and like , — t when rubbed against the rock of reality Riving on Street, h a s of the Wheatland affair , the Alameda charities , the — politics as she saw them during her lobbying days they

- generated the sparks which burst into that all consuming , f purifying flame o socialism . As the Socialist Party was then constituted 1t attracted

t oo t 5 own . many casual reformers , many for the par y good But Anita ’ s subsequent life demonstrates that the purely formal a t of Signing a party application was accompanied

t . S S by deep inner convic ion he joined a party of ocialism , formally at least pledged to the teachings of Karl Marx , and affiliated to an international which Still included FROM SUFFRAGE TO SOCIALISM 6 5

i S b . Len n and talin , Liebknecht and Luxem ourg The proc ess of differentiation then going on within the Socialist t movement, heading for the inevi able split between the c t o revolutionary elements and the so ial reformists , was accelerate her own growth into a conscious revolutionary .

r t . haSt en . S History was Still fu her to that growth he joined , 1 1 4 . remember , at the beginning of 9 A few months later the World War was to break out . The Stream of history was to become increasingly more turbulent . And Anita w as t Whitney plunged into that s ream , now possessed of a Socialist cons ciousness to guide her . CHAPTER F IVE

WAR AND AFT ERMATH I

The Socialist Party which Anita joined was not a very

vital organization . It did spring to life during election campaigns and exhibited a growing power of attraction

at the polls , but between elections it confined itself to S vague and sporadic general agitation for ocialism . Every of of day mass work, leadership the Struggles the working

tn of or t - class , be they the form strikes ex ra parliamentary ’ of r political actions , were outside the scope the pa ty s f it s v 0 in life . It was content with the Steady growth o t g Strength from a scattered for a Social Democratic 1 00 72 00 5 for ticket in the 9 State elections to , Norman S t W . Pendleton , ocialist candidate for lieu enant governor

1 14 . . in November, 9 (Noble A Richardson , gubernatorial candidate had trailed with v0 tes . ) Reformist elements in the part y env isioned such a continued and gradual growth of the Socialist vote until capitalism was submerged by the sheer weight of ballots . Those who were mathematically inclined might have reckoned that 1 00 1 14 S if from 9 to 9 the ocialist vote multiplied tenfold , t then if it continued to grow in the same propor ion , by

68 NATIVE DAUGHTER

American preparations for entrance into the conflict Shat t ered the idyllic from- election - to - election existence of the

Socialist Party . The impact of the war and the issues it posed before the Socialist movement accelerated the con flictin t g currents within the par y , delineated more sharply the division between the moderate reformists and those with militant revolutionary tendencies . An initial crisis arose around the Mooney case . When Mooney and his associates were arrested after 1 16 So the Preparedness Day bombing in 9 , the official cialist Party State leadership refused to intercede in their behalf . The World , however , defying the pressure of the ’ party s State leaders , actively entered the campaign , and became the initial rallying center for the Mooney defense movement . It was The World which first exposed the t ’ t frameup character of he case agains Mooney, Warren

K . Billings and the others . Snyder made the Mooney of case the central campaign the paper , and his judgment was validated by a doubling of circulation from some to The World provided wide agitational support to the first Mooney defense committee organized by Robert Minor . Anita also was among the first to enlist in the fight for

Mooney . She helped raise funds for the defense and during Billings ’ trial assisted in the issuance of a pamphlet exposing the corrupt jury system in San F rancisco County whereby a class of professional jurors had come into of t existence , most them with close ties to he district ’ attorney s office . Under the prevailing jury system it was possible for the prosecutor to select jurors to his ow n t taste for a major case, for the panel from which hey were to be drawn was so Stacked . WAR AND AFTERMATH 69

The alignments in the Socialist Party around the Mooney case had their origin in the more fundamental an - division over the war . The militants took anti war t position, fough against the preparedness propaganda , and v of t he regarded Mooney as a ictim the war hysteria , and case against him as an attempt to intimidate the opposi tion to American involvement in the imperialist conflict . t on O The reformis s , the ther hand , either gave their tacit approval t o the pro -war campaign or remained passive in f r o . o the face it They, therefore, were either complacent actively hostile toward Mooney . Anita was identified with the militant wing for she was actively opposed to the war and American involvement . S m t he was a ilitant pacifist , her attitude somewhat akin o

. S that of Debs , but not quite as advanced ince there was very little clarity in the party on the nature of the struggle i aga nst imperialist war, militant pacifism at that time represented a comparatively advanced , and certainly a t courageous position , even though in general pacifism is a best but an ineffect ual weapon in opposing a reactionary c war, and as a principle be omes pernicious and reactionary in a period when men fight and die for the advancement f u o h man liberty and progress . To the b eSt of her own t r t he d recollec ion , on the ve y day of fateful Prepare ness S t i Parade in an Francisco , Anita was at end ng a peace t ro- rally in Oakland , held to counter he jingoistic p war agitation . Her efforts in behalf - of peace were largely registered r - - th ough non party channels . The anti Preparedness Day t rally she at ended , for example , was organized by the l t Union Against Mi itarism , a pacifis organization which mushr oomed into existence in 1 9 1 6 and faded from the 70 NATIVE DAUGHTER

scene almost as quickly as it arose . The union was an energetic organization with a flare for publicity . It trailed t President Wilson on his preparedness tour . through he middle west and everywhere its meetings attracted larger crowds than did the President . But it did not have the substance to keep its head above the rising tide of war hysteria and it went under . During the period of its t brief and brillian existence, Anita served on its California committee . ’ After American entrance into war , the People s Council sprang into existence with branches throughout the coun try and headquarters in Chicago . Anita helped form a branch of the council in San Francisco and served as treas urer as long as the branch survived . The council fought for repeal of the conscription law and conducted general propaganda against the war, with the heaviest emphasis on of of e a pacifist expose the horror it all , and a s condary theme dwelling on the imperialist character of the Strug gle .

During the war and after , Anita developed close asso ciations O t wo with ther mass movements , of which were indicative of what was to become a lifelong concern with the rights of minority peoples . It was certainly a tribute to her reputation as a champion of the oppressed that b O t h the Negro and Irish movements sought her out and invited her to join them as a leader although she was neither Negro nor Irish . When a National Association ’ for the Advancement of Colored People s branch w as formed in the Bay Area before the war, She accepted an 1nv 1t at 1on to join its executive committee and maintained WAR AND AFTERMATH 7 1

t that membership for more than fifteen years , long af er

Other whites had been dropped . ' 1 1 t O Brenn an In the Spring of 9 9 , Ka hleen , a brilliant

t . Irish woman who has since re urned to Ireland , organized a group of Irish women in San Francisco into the American

Irish Educational League . Anita was invited to become t chairman of the organization and she accep ed , expecting , " She as later wrote , to keep the chairmanship only a limited time until some woman in whose veins flowed n Irish blood could be found who had time to carry it o . ’ " The league s avowed purpose was to tell the tru th about " Ireland and its membership was open to all women who ’ " believed that President Wilson s promise of self- deter ” mination for small nations also included Ireland . " ” " t e t e The league, Ani a later , seemed to have r sp ung into existence at just the right moment , and the fact that it was quite independent of any of the older Irish S t organizations that flourished in an Francisco , and tha w as its sole aim the movement for national freedom . quite distinct from any religious or political affiliations , brought us phenomenal success . We began our meetings in the

S . t t parlors of the t Francis Ho el , hen moved into the

Italian room , then into the ballroom , and finally Staged ” some meetings that crowded Dreamland Rink . III

i ni Wh le A ta was preoccupied with these movements , within the Socialist Party the schism grew ever deeper as history itself posed problem after problem demanding a definite atti tude and the sum t om] of these attitudes became crystallized into two increasingly hostile view of points , that the left and right wings . Coincident with 72 NATIVE DAUGHTER

1 1 7 an American entrance into the war in April , 9 , emer enc of t S t S g y convention he ocialis Party was held at t .

Louis . This convention adopted a resolution formally so opposing American entrance into the war , but it was e confused , vagu and contradictory that it failed to give any lead to the masses or any guidance to the Socialist R . S Party itself udderless , the ocialist Party drifted , and

the contradictory trends which the St . Louis resolution attempted to reconcile or gloss over waged a bitter Strug gle over the Socialist attitude toward the war . v Essentially, their differences di ided those who , despite v vacillation and confusion , desired to conduct a re olution ar t its y struggle agains imperialism and war, and those who shrank from such a struggle and hence buttressed the system of imperialism regardless of their protestations .

The combatants themselves , however , could not assay their n0 t own roles , could clearly define these differences which had divided them . t t 1 1 7 I required he Russian Revolution of November , 9 , to throw into sharp focus the nature of the different S v ro trends within the American ocialist mo ement , to p vide a mirror in which the exponents of these trends could wn Bol finally recognize their o features . Prior to the S Shevik advent to power, California ocialists , with few of exceptions , and those consisting almost entirely immi of grant workmen , had never heard of Lenin , let alone any his writings . After the revolution , they received frag mentary snatches of Leninist ideas . Such concepts as ” dictatorship of the proletariat and revolutionary mass action became the touchstones of ideological clashes b e tween left and right . Anita personally responded to the revolution with the WAR AND AFTERMATH 7 3

t . S greatest en husiasm Here, at last, were ocialists who did i th ngs , who had the courage and boldness to take t o t i power, cu through the t midity of reformism and use that power t o construct the Socialist order . That was her alrn O St instantaneous response , and it was spontaneous , ” S in S instinctive . he has s ce said wryly, ometimes I won — der how I could have been so enthusiastic I knew so ” i little . But the knowledge wh ch she avidly sought served to confirm and heighten her initial enthusiasm . t o The sheer sweep and magni ude of the event, rep rted S h in the ocialist press by Jo n Reed , Albert Rhys Williams

and . others , fired her imagination The bold , firm , concise ’ of i as logic Len n s pronouncements , contrasted with the k flounderin s of i o ok it maw ish g h s opp nents , Sho her w h their Strength . S he became , ideologically , an adherent of the left wing , a partisan of the Russian Revolution . Like Eugene V . ” Debs she might have exclaimed : I am a Bolshevik from ” the crown of my head to the tip of my toes .

Ani ta w as no longer a reformi st . Her first break with reformism was marked by her renunciation of charity f o . work, that most primitive expression reformism Her second break was marked by entrance into the Socialist l . n O Party U ike thers with a reformist past, who entered t i he party to foist their reformist ideas upon it, An ta joined t he party because she wanted to break with that She had c m conscious of for past , because be o e the need a f revolutionary transformation o societ y . Her final and irrevocable break with reformism came with the Russian

Revolution and her adherence to the Left Wing .

In California , the Left Wing enjoyed a decisive majority i following among Socialist Party members . Th s was dem 74 NATIVE DAUGHTER

onst rat ed in the election of delegates to the national party of convention , summoned to meet in Chicago at the end 19 1 9 August, , after insistent demands from the rank and

file that a convention be held . The election w as a land

. t slide victory for the Left Wing Even more impor ant , the V t he otes seemed to have been cast _in direct proportion to clarity and lack of equivocation by the nominees in sup f O t . port the Lef Wing program Max Bedacht, then a S t of leader in the German ocialis Federation , a member S the AFL Barbers Union in an Francisco , and an ardent 68 spokesman for the Left Wing , led the ticket with 5 V otes , while Cameron King , the most prominent Right

20 8 t . Winger , mustered a bare vo es IV The delegates returned from Chicago with strange tales h and a new affiliation , the Communist Labor Party , w ich f they urged upon the Socialists o California . t John C . Taylor , the inveterate s ory teller of the delega S m tion , related that when he arrived at the ocialist conve tion building in Chicago he was mildly surprised by the large contingent of police and the Black Maria at the t entrance . Pushing his way through , he headed up he on Stairs, but at the landing which the convention hall was located several policemen blocked the way . “ ” Where is you r pass ? a policeman demanded . ” i out Here are my credentials , Taylor replied , hold ng the duly certified credentials from the California organ i izat on .

’

d . Naw , at s no good , the policeman shook his head r You gotta have a pass to git in he e Gwan , go to your

Office and git yourself a white pass .

76 NATIVE DAUGHTER

spontaneously decided on passive resistance and refused

. i to budge The policemen lifted them bod ly, sometimes

out of t . with their chairs , and tossed them he hall S Excluded in this manner from the ocialist convention , the California delegates joined with Other Left Wingers in a convention which founded the Communist Labor t of t Par y, one the halves which was la er to be joined in what is known today as the Communist Part y of the

United States . i Returning to Californ a , the delegates met with great success in winning the Socialist membership for the newly

n t . v formed Commu is Labor Party By overwhelming otes , local after local changed its affiliation . The last and most o ak e art important to act was L cal O land, larg st in the p y ! O n and the most in uential , much f its i fluence derived f from its control of The World . Historic documents o action have a cryptic ring and the minutes of that eventful of t he v in meeting Oakland local , still preser ed the orig

f . o . a z : inal pencilled scrawl G Reed , the org ni er, read ” J

20 1 1 . of O cr. Minutes Local Oakland, , 9 9

Meeting called to order by Org . Com . Reed . Comrade

Tobey elected chairman . Minutes read and accepted . f e Order of day called or . Motion mad and seconded that of we postpone admission members till next week, carried . " Moved and seconded : That Local Oakland sever its connect ions with the Socialist Party of America and that

t u . the charter be re rned, carried MO t ion made and seconded : That we join the Com muni st Labor Party . Carried . " Morion made and seconded : That we appropriate 1 5 dollars for telegrams Stating the action of Local Oakland tonight , carried . WAR AND AFTERMATH 77

Moved and seconded : That the present party Officers be retained . Carried . " Adjourned ‘ J . G . Reed , secretary . The only hint of the travail of transition is the late hour A l d . cmal of adjournment , past mi night y there was a stormy session in which a small but vocal minority bitterly opposed t he change in affiliation . The vore was about t t eight to one for adherence to he Communist Labor Par y, ’ h and Anita s was among the votes cast for t is transfer . The World went with the local and thereafter became the of organ Local Oakland , Communist Labor Party . t t S On he initia ive of the an Francisco local , a call was issued for the first Communist Labor Party State conv en on of tion to meet at Loring Hall , Oakland , the morning

S 9 1 1 . unday, November , 9 9 Each local was entitled to t one delegate, with one additional delega e for every

- twenty five members or major fraction thereof . v h When the con ention was called to order by Jo n C . 1 45 Taylor , there were some delegates in attendance, represent ing every local throughout the state which had affiliated to the newborn party . C . A . Tobey , for many years a member of the AFL Sign Painters Union in Oak land , was elected chairman , while Taylor was chosen sec i ret ary . Among the active part cipants in the convention were Max Bedacht who had been elected to the national executive committee of the Communist Labor Party at Chicago and reported on the differences which had led to So the split in the cialist movement , Kaspar Bauer who

e . reported for the resolutions committ e , James H Dolsen who headed the committee which framed the constitution . i s creden An ta al o took an active part, serving on both the 78 NATIVE DAUGHTER

i t als and resolut ions committee . The delegates labored t from ten in the morning until en at night , and , according ’ t to Taylor s boas in the official report , that which was accomplished takes the usual convention three days to put ” of down on paper . Most the time was consumed in ratification of the constitution and a heated debate over one resolution submitted by the resolutions committee on w . as political action The controversial resolution , it feared of t o by some the delegates , represented a throwback the t of S pure parliamen arism the ocialist Party, and they succeeded in substituting for it the more comprehensive Statement on political action which had been adopted at t the national Communist Labor Par y convention . Other resolutions denounced the " undeclared war against Soviet ” i Russia then waged by the Wilson Adm nistration , de man ded of t withdrawal American roops from Russia , S m in dusrrial Mexico , Haiti and anto Do ingo , endorsed of unionism , urged agitation and work for the release " ” and political class war prisoners , and complimented the workers for their support Of the Plumb plan for govern of ment ownership and operation the railroads , but ” pointed out that ultimate solution of the labor problem of of lay in collective ownership all the means production . The convention also proclaimed The World as the ’ a execu party s official statewide org n , and elected a State tive committee on which Anita Whitney w as chosen t o

serve as alternate .

The birth of the new party was attended by great social 1 1 . h convulsions It was 9 9 , one of those years t at some ’ on how remains imprinted man s memory, long after its WAR AND AFT E R MAT H 79

t specific Significance is forgotten , leaving tha paradoxical w 1 1 as . feeling of foreboding after the event . It 9 9 Year of f the Versailles Treaty . Year of the murder o Karl of Liebknecht and Rosa Luxembourg, year the Hungarian revolution , of great social upheavals in Germany and ’ of Austria . Terrible year civil war in Soviet Russia when on half a dozen occasions the defeat of the young Soviet w as regime heralded throughout the world . Year Of the S of s m Black ea revolt in the French fleet , the glorious y pathy strikes by British and American longshoremen w ho refused t o load the munitions destined against the Red w as Army . It an angry, tempestuous , gloomy year when r t an d despai and bi terness mingled with high exhilarating ,

o iv Short l ed hopes .

In America , this year of post war upheaval was marked

- on by a great strike wave, meeting head a savage open shop assaul t of the employers waged under the banner of t he American Plan . The year was ushered in by the S ttl S of 6 ea e General trike February , the first effective ’ general Strike in the country s history . It was ushered out by bitterly contested Strikes at the opposite end of the country in the men ’ s clothing industry of New York and

t of . he textile mills New England In between , out of u men walked the steel mills , nder the leadership of i FO St er - e Will am Z . ; a half million miners l ft the coal pits in N ovember -j t housan ds Struck in Scores of Other indus~ ne of t a : r . o t ies In issue The World , he he dline shouted

ONE MILLION STRIKERS IN U . S . TODAY .

The workers of the Bay Region were caught u p by this Strike wave . Forty thousand metal trades workers 80 NATIVE DAUGHTER

an u tied up the shipyards d the ptown Shops . Longshore men , tailors , traction workers in Oakland , even the tele

ou t . t one phone girls walked that year A time, k on wor ers were Strike in the Bay Area . It was into such a world that the foundling Communist

Labor Party, inexperienced and terribly naive in many

h . t respects , was t rust History pays no deference to you h , f and it did nO t spare the party . With the discernment o class intuition , the employers recognized in the seemingly weak infant their potentially most formidable foe and with

- all the violence at their command , legal and extra legal , they attempted to crush it .

In California , as elsewhere throughout the country , the press and Other propaganda agencies of the employers had worked up a pitch of anti - red hysteria which provided f the atmosphere for acts o violence .

- In January, the newly elected legislature had convened .

. S v was William D tephens , a Hiram Johnson progressi e, ’ out t wo governor . Having served Johnson s last years as w as ow n governor, he elected in his right in November, of t 1 9 1 8 . One his opponents in the elec ion was Charles who M . Fickert, district attorney helped engineer the e u Mooney frameup . Th campaign reached its peak d ring f W a c r t u the last months o the World r, and Fi ke t S mped i t z the State, working h mself in o a fren y over the red menace , and presenting himself in hysterical tones as the sacrificial hero who was ready to lay down his life to save the women of California from revolution . N ot only was of 1 1 8 Fickert trounced in the gubernatorial elections 9 , WAR AND AFTERMATH 8 1 but when he stood for reelection as San Francisco district l attorney the fo lowing year, he was defeated by Matthew

Brady . Despite this twice- expressed mandate against the red S h hysteria , Governor tephens , in keeping with the Jo nson

t . progressive tradition, coyly yielded o it As the legisla d S ture convene , the atmosphere in acramento was colored of of IWW by a trial then in progress a group members , rounded up by Federal agents and accused of violating

. t v the Espionage Act Lurid ales of sabotage and iolence, nf t told at the trial by paid i ormers , were plastered over he front pages of the newspapers and provided favorite topics of conversation among the legislators who were puffed up with their ow n importance as guardians of the t O of rO home, mo herhood , religion and ther cliches the p fes sion al politician .

. of The legislature saw red , all right With the roar a

. . S bull , Assemblyman W A Doran , a rancher from an O Diego county , ffered a bill to outlaw the color red , to make it a crime to display a red flag in any manner or w o form . The la makers p ndered this proposed statute t t t wi h proper legislative dignity and decided agains i . What would the auctioneers do if deprived of the tradi t ion al colors O f their craft ? What would the railroads do ? ’ You just can t outlaw a color which has become part of u the c stoms and habits of a people . ’ S hr While Doran folly was t own out, the smart money i in the State was behind a bill which passed . Th s bill was in hatched a conference between Raymond Benjamin , chairman of the St at e Republican Central Committee and l common y regarded as the power behind the governor , 2 NATIVE DAUGHTER

S re re and Max Kuhl , a shrewd an Francisco lawyer who p a sented the Industrial Association . Benj min who was also Assistant Attorney General drafted the criminal syn dicalism t o S law and handed it , ready made, enator Wil of t o liam Kehoe Eureka drop into the legislative hopper .

Kehoe went through the motions like an automaton . He was in the uncomfortable position of having to pretend f O . to be the father a child which was not really his Finally, n nor when pressed , he frankly co fessed he could explain v of res on sibil the ague provisions the bill , and bore no p f or . t ad ity them All he knew , said Kehoe, was hat the ministration wanted it passed . Then it was commonly supposed that Attorney General U . S . Webb had written the bill , but when he was questioned , he professed even on greater ignorance than did Kehoe . It was e of those SO O Strange spectacles common to legislative bodies . N one knew exactly where the bill came from . Yet everyone w as given the understanding that it came with a must of pass tag . Chamber Commerce lobbyists b uttonholed legislators , whispered the magic words in their ears . The newspapers blossomed forth with fervent editorials urging f as passage o the bill . It was presented an emergency t v of measure, with the immedia e preser ation public peace and safet y dependent upon its passage . So great was the pressure that only eight Votes were cast against the bill in the assembly and none at all in the senate .

The eight dissenters waged a courageous fight . Assem blyw oman Grace Dorris of Bakersfield said on the as sembly floor : In 1 638 my ancestors came to America in order that they might have the right to believe as they chose . After three centuries there Still lives in me that same belief in freedom of speech and thought . I do

84 NATIVE DAUGHTER

i r one The American flag, sa d the sto y, hung in corner of the room in an antique cabinet and over it was i v one . a naval ser ice flag with Star But, dur ng the noon so hour, a huge red cloth was hung over the case that the American flag was no longer visible while the radicals u n- prepared to adopt their American constitution . 1 1 t Tuesday, November , was he first anniversary of the Armistice . After midnight, a mob , said to have con sisted of American Legionnaires , raided Loring Hall which served as party headquarters , wrecked it, threw

t set . books into he Street and fire to them In all , the t 2000 damage amounted o $ , mostly in books and furnish 1 ngs . The Enquirer of November 1 2 reported the raid with hardly restrained glee : " In retaliation for alleged anarchistic and Bolshevistic of remarks at a recent meeting, coupled with a display the - Am t 400 of red flag and anti erican sentimen s , members the American Legion and loyal sympathizers raided the headquarters of the Communist Labor Party at Loring

Hall , Eleventh and Clay Streets , shortly after midnight this morning and completely demolished the place . ” A police riot call was turned in and several carloads of t SO officers rushed to he scene , but well had the raid n or a been planned , with almost military precision, that Single one Of the raiders was in sight five minutes after the fire was started . v b e The raid was planned , former ser ice men State , cause they had confirmed reports that the Communists had shrouded the Am erican colors in red flags and had made speeches in favor of transforming the American gov ernm en t into a soviet . WAR AND AFTERMATH 8 5

Last evening it was decided that the alleged Bolshevists w as t must be taught a lesson , and the word passed a the t Auditorium where a dance was in progress , hat a raid was impending . Leaving their girl partners , and gather

ing comrades from all Sides , the men collected by twos

and threes in front of the hall , and just after midnight ,

t . wi h a shout , broke down the doors " u n in F rniture, ba ners , charters of German lodges , si nia of t O g fraternal rank , pic ures f Russian leaders , and O u ther junk was h rled from the windows into the Street , and while wondering householders nearby gazed on with

th e w as . astonishment, torch applied he it s z s i T Enquirer , in eal , even referred to the in ign a

‘ ” Of t he G erman fraternal lodges as Hun emblems . '

' Acru all leaders t as as y, of the par y, well Striking metal trades workers had been tipped off that a plan was afoot l th e not on y to wreck Loring Hall , but Labor Temple as m 1 1 . t well At p , November , two par y representa tiv es t of went to the police, old them the warnings they a nd o had received , asked p lice protection for the hall . m i At p , a comm ttee of metal trades strikers , l chosen at a Strike meeting then in progress , a so visited

police headquarters with a Similar plea . Police protection

was promised . None came . t k An account by Ani a , published seven years later , pic s " up the Story from there as follows : As the police did nor respond, m embers Of the Met al Trades and the Boiler

makers offered t o serve as guard . These Sturdy sons of toil looked entirely t oo Sturdy to the members of the American Legion when they first came t o Loring Hall so they disappeared to ret urn later when ou r guardians

- had left . The ex servicemen then proceeded to wreck 86 NATIVE DAUGHTER

aniton was the hall and they di d the job thoroughly . The j k locked in an upper room , desks were smashed open ; boo s O and pamphlets piled in the streets , topped by ur type

t set . wri ers , and fire to the pile And the police, who had t r promised protection , remained in their headquarters h ee blocks away and did nor get to the scene until it was t oo ” late to identify anyone . e Luckily, the Legionnair s were sufficiently discreet to ’ wait until the hall s guardians had departed or some serious bloodshed might have resulted . On the very same day, armed Legionnaires attempted to raid the IWW hall

. W at Centralia , Wash The members in the hall de fended themselves with gun in hand an d four Legion

n aires . and were shot dead Wesley Everest, an IWW

- v ex ser iceman , was seized by the Legion mob and brutally W W lynched . Eight other members were subsequently arrested , tried , convicted and sentenced to life terms in the penitentiary . A Similar tragedy could have very easily ensued in Oakland . But the newspapers blithely and approvingly reported ” on November 1 2 that members of the American Legion have taken up the cudgels against any complacency on the part of the city government toward radical Strong ”

x . 1 holds alleged to e ist here On November 3 , Police

i . . i of Commiss oner F Morse, grieved at the intimat on J " c blusrered : T i e has for k complacen y, he t m come Oa land to realize that it must prepare t o meet radicalism face to ” f face . Morse announced the immediate formation o a " ” police loyalty bureau under the direction of Detective

8. t Fenton Thompson , a former U . Depu y Marshal in Texas and a Department of Justice agent during the war WAR AND AFTERMATH 87

S LO S who ti years in an Diego and Angeles , had been ac ng

- as a one man red squad .

This did not satisfy the newspapers . They wanted t o w as for blood . They demanded know how it possible such a meeting as the Communist Labor Party convention to be held in Oakland without any interference by the i authorities . Thompson expla ned apologetically that he off on Su t had taken his regular day nday, but had no ified Police Chief J . Frank Lynch and District Attorney Ezra D ecO to i d t o a of the meet ng and , accor ing The O kland n Tribu e, he even asked Decoro whether he should arrest ’

th e . G o t t he all delegates carefully, I don want to clog ’ w as D eCO t o s i calendar , reply accord ng to The Tribune w n n ch . N o a u a . s Story , Decoro de ied y Statement, expl in ing : I gave no in srrucrioris to F enton Thompson that w as or nor t he was to raid the meetings of he Communists . ” It is nO t my business to police the cit y . h on d 1 All t is flurry occurred We nesday , November 3 . " ” of on On the same day, a delegation citizens called w as n do Morse , demanded to know what he goi g to about

d . t an the ra ical menace On the nex day, newspapers " n oun ced that Oakland vigilantes will curb Reds if police ” fail . e 1 5 k n t i t o t On Novemb r , the Oa la d ci y counc l rose he occasion and ordered the police to exterminate anarchy” t o i in Oakland . The American Legion offered recru t

1000 men t o help in the extermination . The council t n i of passed a s ringe t ord nance, prohibiting any sort public m meeting without a police permit . De ands were voiced in the council for suppression of The World on the grounds it had criticized President Wil son and had pub " ” lished a lot of Russian news . While the council Stopped 88 NATIVE DAUGHTER

re short of such action , publishers of The World had ceiv ed threats for two successive weeks , warning them to cease publication or have their premises and print Shop “ smashed . They continued publication . Then came ‘ ’ threats of tar and feathers and the police came and kindly informed the editor that he was being arreSt ed to protect him from the mob . P . B . Cowdery (the business man ’ ’ ager) was lured by a phone call to the jail to see Snyder arreSt ed b O t h and was , being charged with issuing The

. 1 9 World , etc , The World reported in its December

1ssue .

Arresrs c came in qui k succession , and within two weeks r arresred after the Lo ing Hall convention , those and charged with criminal syndicalism included James H . D ol

. . . . . S . . sen , J G Weiler, J C Taylor , Edric B mith , C A

. . S . . Tobey, Max Bedacht, J E nyder , P . B Cowdery, J G .

. . S . Reed , J A Ragsdale and Alanson essions Of all those S of jailed , only essions , who later was to become a leader

. t the Progressive Party, cracked He , reportedly hrough t of t off interven ion his family, pleaded guil y and was let with probation . The Others were released on $ 5000 bail each , pending trial . t The newspaper hysteria was now directed agains them . " ” SO - t in The called red flag inciden at the convention , volving the alleged draping of the Show case which con t ained n red t o an America flag with a cloth , was used inflame the public sentiment . m t Almost si ultaneously, Attorney General A . Mi chell

- Palmer ordered his notorious nation wide red raids . The ’ extent of the terror can be gauged from Palmer s own boastful testimony before a House Appropriations Com “ mit t ee t 1 20 our that in the la ter part of January , 9 , field WAR AND AFTERMATH 89 reports indicate that 52 per cent of our work (the work of the Department Of Justice in the country was ” - in connection with the so called radical movement. From ’ 1 1 1 1 2 1 ow n July, 9 9 , to January , 9 , according to Palmer s

r 4 1 8 . e figu es , 3 alleged aliens were arrested On Novemb r 1 4 1 1 u of , 9 9 , Palmer anno nced he had the records a list O t f persons , bo h citizens and aliens , who were under investigation by the Department of Justice . Such was the initiation of the organized Communist movement into the political life of the country . No political party in American history has ever faced such terror and repression at its birth , and it is doubtful whether an y Other party could have survived such a bap m t is . But what the Communist movement lacked in it experience and maturity , made up in tenacity and courage , and its elementary grasp of the scientific social

. t theory on which it was founded Despite the error, the s Communi t movement took roor, it survived and ulti mately grew CHAPTER SI!

THE CASE O F ANITA WHITNE Y I

of 1 1 n Against the background 9 9 , its tumult and pa ic, Ani ta Whitney Stepped forward as the central character t w as on in a drama tha to drag for seven years , from cli x of ma to climax , a Stubborn reminder the things that - she were in the post war period . If were given t o fore of bodings danger, there were certainly enough portents t o put her on guard ; the passage of the criminal syndi calism t of law , he raid on Loring Hall , the arrest her com f m . S o rades he , as a member the Co munist Labor Party State committee and as an active and effective foe of the for t v of terror regime, was a logical target he engeance t k the authorities . But She wen about her wor , speaking

she . to diverse groups , maintaining the mass contact had f established in 20 years o public life . Then the aut hori ties Struck .

k on On the day after Than sgiving , Friday afternoon , 28 1 1 1 50 November , 9 9 , some women gathered in the H O t el k t t Oa land in a State of grea exci ement . They were

92 NATIVE DAUGHTER

dinance Police Chief J . F . Lynch compelled an Oakland Mother ’ s Club to cancel a lecture by Anita on “ Women ”

. of t in Legislation On the heels tha ban , the Oakland ” Center dared invite Anita Whitney to s peak! The League of Americans , a bogus patriotic organization which had n mushroomed into existence, issued an i flammatory State of ment to the press , pleading in the name Americanism

and the war dead that Anita be silenced . All the pas of t sions the day now swirled abou the Oakland Center, of and the club women , most whom had known Anita for d many years and a mired her, resisted all this pressure and despite formal notice from the police that Miss Whit n or ney must speak Stood by their invitation . In the face of all the hysterical tirades leveled against them , the club leaders would not budge ; they insisted that Anita t had the right to speak, and hey had the right to listen to her . SO firm were they in their insistence that three days before the meeting, Police Commissioner J . F . Morse

e t e . . yielded and to Mrs Frank G Law, Oakland Cen ter president : Inasmuch as Miss Anita Whitney has been extremely active of late in giving personal support to exponents of t radicalism in this ci y, I have hesitated to permit her to

speak . However , after fuller consideration , I have de cided to withhold any Objection for the present and to merely advise you that my department will hold her Strictly to account for any unlawful or seditious statement that She may make . " Accordingly I have to advise you that I am hereby granting the permission requested by your communication

subject to the qualification Stated .

- The very wording of this formal permit , its ill graced THE CASE OF ANITA WHITNEY 93

t o or t reference unlawful seditious Statemen s , signified ’ that the police commissioner s letter did n O t close the how] . t matter And when Anita arrived a the , she was Stopped by Inspector Thompson who asked her to turn reSt ed back . She replied that the choice no longer with b e her, but would have to resolved by the women who t had invited her . Thompson then entered the mee ing room and attempted to stampede the club into rescinding

1t s 1n v 1t att on . " I have direct proof that Miss Whitney has carried food and radical literature to prisoners on Alcatraz " h f ou sa t . o t Island , shou ed T ompson Can any y y hat ” she is nor an W W ? ’ This latter question w as t ypical of Thompson s appeal . she t He knew was no an IWW , and did not dare affirm it directly, yet he employed every devious trick to play on the middle class prejudices of t he time ag ainst the ’ " n on IWW . He cited A ita s membership the IWW De ” fense Committee which had collected funds for the de fense of McH u o s n James g , arrested under the criminal y i m " dical s O on . law , and ther radicals trial Anita ’ s presence at the Loring Hall convention and " the highly publicized red flag incident were bO th in ecr d j e into the discussion . But Anita had previously taken off the edge the accusation implied in the incident , for when she had been questioned about it by club leaders , she replied : t S I love the Uni ed tates , I love the American flag , I am a loyal American citizen and I want an American flag on t t o he pla form upon which I am t Stand . hi s After Thompson concluded appeal , the women " on rim debated the issue amid scenes verging closely a , 94 NATIVE DAUGHTER

t o according The San Francisco Chronicle account . The ' heat of the discussion and the caliber of the opposition O h f b t Mrs . o . . were indicated by the action E C Robinson , of S who se wife an Oakland uperior Judge , had been leCt ed to preside at the meeting but sent word that inas much as She felt herself t o be 1 00 per cent American She did nor care t o preside at a meeting where Miss Whitney f ’ t o one o k . was be the spea ers Anita s friends , headed by Mrs . Law, Strongly defended her right to speak , told ' of her service t o the org anizat ion which She had helped f h o t e . found , and her services to community Finally, the vore was 94 to 48 to hear Anita . Anita mounted the platform possessed of that high emotional pitch which is the prerequisite for great ora t t tory, and her audience had been aroused to he poin where the intimate contact between speaker and listener on a high plane of emotion was readily established . Her " subject was The Negro Problem in the United States . She had always ‘ felt deeply about the suffering and op of t on pression he Negro people , and spoke the theme with the passion of deep conviction , but the intrinsic passion She felt for the subject of her talk now was blended with the passions aroused over the circumstances under which it was to be delivered . She spoke of the historical origin of the Negro prob t of lem in his country , the shame that perpetuated human chattel slavery for the first four score and seven years of ’ S of this nation existence as a democratic republic, the rationalizations which have been developed t o justify this of r infe bondage, the theo y that the Negro people are an rior race . She told her listeners that while the Negro people THE CASE OF ANITA WHITN EY 9 5

n as t o in were not i ferior a race, they were subject ferior sta opportunities and economic Standards . She cited the t isrics on the expenditures for the education of Negroes ' and whites in the southern states ; she cited the faCt s on t economic discrimina ion and political disfranchisement , but the speech reached its climax when she dwelt on i t t lynch ng , which to her was the mos abhorren individual social phenomenon in the United States . " S 1 8 0 t ince 9 , when our Statistics have heir beginning, there have occurred in these United States lynch

of 50 . ings , colored men and of colored women I would that I could leave the subject with these bare facts of recording numbers , but I feel that we must face all the barbarity of the situation in order to do our part in bIO t ’ ting this disgrace from our country s record . Her audience knew Anita well enough to realize that of to face all of the barbarity the Situation , as She put t t of of it , hat is , to envision all he physical horror the act be srial of and lynching, its sadism , its torment the victim of degradation the perpetrator, required almost super human effort and sheer courage for one as sensitive and h She filled with revulsion for violence as S e was . But faced tu of it , and she Shared a pic re of the full barbarity lynch ing with her listeners . She recited an eyewitness account of a lynching that spared none of the senses in its realism . " ” “ D o she on you wonder , went , that a colored sol O 1 7 dier from Georgia , which State had a record f lynch 1 9 1 9 ‘ t ings in , back from overseas said hat a Negro soldier from Georgia felt safer in No Man ’ s Land than he ever ’ or t felt before in his life, that a colored man once said tha if he owned Hell and Texas he would prefer to rent out v Texas and li e in Hell , for he had these supporting facts 96 NATIVE DAUGHTER

that in Texas the first burning of life took place and that 1 8 0 3 38 u Since 9 Texas had lynched h man beings , Stand ing second only to Georgia and Mississippi in this hor rible eminence?” Anita then invited her audience to join in the nation wide movement to halt lynching which had been launched of at a national conference in New York in May that year . She concluded : It is n O t alone for the Negro man and woman that of I plead , but for the fair name America that this terrible on our c blot national es utcheon may be wiped away . N ot our t our r country righ or wrong , but count y, may she be so right , because we , her children , will her . Let us then b O th work and fight to make and keep her right SO that the flag that we love may truly wave " ’ O er the ! a nd of tb e free And t b o e ra v e he m of tb e b .

The early Shadows of a late November evening had ’ flattened the giant Silhouettes of downtown Oakland s buildings along the Street when Anita left the H O t el f o . Oakland in the company Mrs Herman Kower , wife of f o . S a University California professor he felt tired , but exhilarated and the refrain from the national anthem with which she concluded her speech Still was ringing in her t mind . The wo women had walked only a few Steps when ou t of the Shadows emerged Inspectors Thompson and

William Kyle . " ’ You ll have to come with me to the City Hall , said ”

T You arreSt . hompson . are under THE CASE OF ANITA WHITNEY 97

On what charges ?

Cr iminal syndicalism . w as she Anita visibly taken aback , but regained her Mr u s . t o composure q ickly, and asked Kower to return the hO t el t was and fetch Miss Gail Laughlin , an a torney who

t . presiden of the California Civic League Mrs . Kower t t soon re urned wi h Miss Laughlin and the three women , a i C t . fl nked by the two officers , walked to the y Hall It

w as 5 . . o about p m The banks were closed , the p lice ’ and for judges had gone home , the arrangement Anita s e release on bail encount red some difficulties . At the City ’ T Hall , Anita s companions asked Inspector hompson to remain in the police office with the prisoner until they

“ returned wit h an order from a judge setting bail and the money necessary to meet the bail set . They were gone t only a half hour, but when they re urned , the police office t he 1 1 was empty . Anita had been rushed to t h floor " " where the city jail was located , had been frisked by an

attendant and had been thrown into a cell . i Thus began the case of Anita Whit ney . Th s original treatment she received at the hands of the police aroused d wide in ignation , an indignation that was to grow during

the subsequent Stages of the case .

She was released on bail . After a hearing before a she w as O for a i police judge, held ver the gr nd jury wh ch issued an indictmen t accusing her of violating t he cu m

inal syndicalism law on five counts . t — i of adv o Four of the coun s the teach ng violence , c mm i ca y of violence, justification of violence and co itt ng — acts of violence were virtually dropped by the prosecu tion although they formally remained part of the indict 98 NATIVE DAUGHTER

w as . t ment which the j ury to consider Actually, he pros n ecut ion dwelt o the charge which said . The said Anita Whitney prior t o the time O f the fil ing of this information and on or about the 2 8t h day of v 1 1 t t f . . 9 9 o No ember, A D , at he said coun y Alameda , S a of t te California , did then and there unlawfully, wil

fully, wrongfully, deliberately and feloniously organize z is and assist in organi ing and was , and knowingly became of a member an organization , society, group and assem of blage persons organized to advocate, teach , aid and

abet criminal syndicalism . The trial was set for January

Thus n the ou n sta t e o Cali ornia t he au hter , i y g f f , d g of a n old a nd distinguished America n fa mily was caught up by t he swirl ofev ents and singled out for v eng ea nce by

the rei nin rea ction . But a ew months la ter a t the g g f , o osit e end o the continent in the a ncient sta t e o Mas pp f , f sa chus etts t wo Ita lia n immi ra nts N icola Sa cco a nd , g , Bart olomeo Va nz etti a shoe ma ker a nd ish eddler were , f p , cau ht b t he sa me swirl o events a nd t he t oo were g y f y, , sin ou e e nce r l led t o v n a . It w s st a n a g f r g a a g e p ra l el. And or seven ea rs rom 1 20 t o 1 2 b oth cases w ere f y , f 9 9 7, t o dra on the case o this dau ht er o distin uished g , f g f g American lineag e and the cas e of the t wo immigrant

When the trial opened before Superior Judge James

. 2 7 1 20 re G Quinn on Tuesday , January , 9 , Anita was p ’c resented by Thomas H . O onnor, a brilliant criminal

100 NATIVE DAUGHTER

d on the prosecution . Decoto was the man who succeede

her as probation officer in Alameda County . She had D t . eCO t O served volun arily, without pay Stepped in when

a salary was provided for the job .

Her indirect acquaintance with Myron Harris , the ’ c prose ution s orator and flag waver , was even more

piquant . In December , she had spent a brief time in Alameda County Jail while awaiting release on a writ of habeas corpus after She had been held over to face as criminal syndicalism charges . There , she later related , " ” " she met a young and pretty woman who told her a of t she sordid tale how, hough a wife and mother had

grown to love a man , himself a husband and a father ’ ho she a w. deputy in t he District Attorney s office , had

. him the lived with him , and lavished upon all means at

her command , bought for him the car in which he drove she about the city . This woman told Anita that had been arreSt ed for passing a bad check which she had signed ’ to pay for a picture t o adorn her lover s office . While Anita omitted names in recounting this tale of i She w as great love and petty crime, a local paper sa d undoubtedly referring to Hazel Vallejo King and Myron f son o . . . Harris , Judge T W Harris

’ O Connor t ur ro of entered he co t om showing , signs ”

- t . grea strain , lacking his usual virile self assurance An influenza epidemic was raging and his little daughter had been Stricken with the disease and w as even then fighting a f for her life . All his passionate warmth fed the great feCt ion t 1m he had for he child , her suffering and the THE CASE OF ANITA WHITNEY 1 0 1

him minent peril to her life allowed no peace . He had ti been retained only a short me before the trial date, and ’ his distraction over the little girl s illness precluded any thorough preparation . He pleaded for a one- week postponement to give him t m i e to prepare, but Judge Quinn brusquely denied the ’

. O Conn or plea On the second day of the trial , himself w a s stricken with the flu . Again he pleaded for a con inuanc i t e . . Again the plea was denied On the th rd day, ’ ’ O Con nor s 1 0 3 temperature had risen to degrees , but inSiSt ed : t the judge the trial must go on, and he selection of a jury having been completed , the prosecution placed on t the s and its first witness , Ed Condon , a newspaper man who had reported the Loring Hall convention for t the Oakland Enquirer, and whose testimony a the police court hearing was largely responsible for the indictment drawn against Anita . t On direct examination , Condon told of wha he had O v t bser ed at the convention , verified that Ani a was present and had taken an active part (serving on the reso m lutions co mittee) . He told again the Story of the red ” t ’ flag incident , relating hat during the convention s morn ing session , he had noticed in the hall a glass bookcase or antique cabinet which contained an American flag . In " of the afternoon , he said , there was a large piece red cloth hung entirely across the bookcase so that the Amer ” w ican flag as no longer visible . ’ one At point during Condon s examination , a messen ’ O Connor ger entered the courtroom , informed there was ’

. O Con nor x a telephone call for him asked to be e cused , ’ and after receiving the court s permission , left hurriedly . 10 2 NATIVE DAUGHTER

t He returned greatly agitated , and Anita sensed the ele phone message w as of great moment . him When the prosecution turned the witness over to , ’ O Connor sparred for a while, asked Condon routine ques f - r- v o o . tions , settling him into the groo e yes no answers ’ O Connor Casually, swung the interrogation around to the subject of the telephone message . ” " of All right, he said , we will come to the draping the American flag . of T hom Q . Do you know a man by the name Fenton p son ?

. e s . A I do , y Q . Did Fenton Thompson ever tell you that a plant that he had at the meeting draped that flag ?

es . A . He did , y

Q . He did? Yes A . . n The courtroom was in commotion . This confessio ’ by the chief prosecution witness that the prosecution s trump card was actually a police frameup startled judge , ’

e . O Con jury, the prosecution counsel and the sp ctators

on . nor , having cornered the quarry, pressed

. t t Q In o her words , then , the red flag hat you talked about this morning as having been thrown over the Amer ican flag was placed there by a dupe that Fenton T homp son ? had in that convention . Is that the fact

A . That is what he told me .

Q . Yes . What else did Fenton Thompson tell you? ? A . When — . or O Q At any time about that convention , any ther or scheme trick, or dastardly outrage that he had petpe trat ed?

1 04 NATIVE DAUGHTER

al a terrier, exacting from Condon the confession that " though he knew that the red flag was a plant he had nO t t revealed that fact o the preliminary inquiry , but rather t allowed he original impression , created in the news papers , to remain ; after Condon had offered the weak alibi that he was Silent only because no on e had previously " ” ’ O Connor asked him whether the red flag was a plant, again turned all attention to Thompson .

. t Mr Condon , he said , as la e as this morning , Fenton Thompson told you that he had placed the red flag or that on e of his men had placed the red flag over ’ ? the American flag , isn t that a fact

A . Yes . ? Q . In this courtroom

A . In this courtroom . Yes . ’ O Connor t t urned to he red Squad chief, Thompson , ” so see ? will you stand over here, that the jury may you

Thompson Stepped forward . ’ ” O Connor IS to Condon , this the man who told you that one of his men draped the American flag with a red banner?” " It is . Having exposed the ramifications of this red flag” ’ O Conn or t incident, addressed himself to he prosecution " of I take it , gentlemen , that the red banner goes out this ”

now . case , altogether " ’ O Connor t . There is no ques ion about it , Mr , Harris “ out O t replied . The red banner does go f this case a this time as far as we are concerned . ’ ’ ’ t O Connor s At the end of this day s exci ing session , fever was run ning high and he once more requested the

no . court to postpone the case, but to avail THE CASE OF ANITA WHITNEY 10 5

’ O Connor v The next morning was back in court , a ery

Sick man . Thompson was placed on the Stand by the ’ prosecution and he categorically denied Condon s Story . ’ O Connor heatedly protested that the prosecution could w not thus impeach its o n witness . Calkins angrily replied for the prosection that they merely wanted to put their cards on the table . ” on The cards should have been the table yesterday, ’ O Conn or t he snapped , before gentlemen left, which 6 r 24 hi gave Mr. Thompson 3 o hours to think over s tes ’ im n t o y . It was Mr . Thompson s cue to come forth yester ‘ ’ sa T is i and t i w y , day, and hat a l e he s ood there s lent ith ” nor a word from him 0 ’ When time for cross examination came, Connor, his not h voice so hoarse he could speak above a w isper, asked that he be given an opportunity to cross- examine at some later date when his voice and health would be more equal ’ t o the important task at hand . Over the prosecution s ’ the Con Strenuous objections , request was granted but O nor was never to cross examine Thompson who had now f emerged as the arch villain O the case .

Thompson , even in his appearance was the perfect ” t of of in t villain , the proto ype hundreds bad guys he days when the films were Silent and made no pretense of w . o x t in as a sophistication Just short f Si fee height , he n w t thi , s arthy man , his mouth twisted into an almos per pernal sneering grin . He was a bad man with a bad of n record . Some years before he was accused attempti g rape on a 1 4- year- old girl and left town while the scandal hi was . s hushed up During enforced vacation , he was in 1 06 NATIVE DAUGHTER

San Diego and was mixed up in another Scrape wherein ’ f one of the many Spreckels accused him o blackmail . ’ Thompson s character was nor improved by his activities during the war when he first served as a U . S . Deputy Marshal in Texas and later as a Department of Justice S agent in Los Angeles and an Diego , indulging in the highhanded and illegal practices of the department during the war years . He was a vulnerable and ambitious man who even then was engaged in intrigue to become police chief and was reputedly linked to a series of Shady real of one of estate deals in behalf the police commissioners . ’ ’ O Connor s first and eminently successful thrust at Thompson reflected his intention t o wage an aggressive i ; n of . In defense and indicated h s. li e attack private con ” versation with Anita he had boasted he had t he goods on Thompson and his connections with the reigning po lit ical machine in Alameda County . Thompson was the ’ O Conn or man to get , and was the man to get him .

on 2 When court reconvened Monday, F ebru ary , ’ nn or - t T O Co was home in bed in a semi delirious sta e . he t of h exer ion the trial while he was running a igh fever, the long ferry trip across the bay bO th morning and night in the - to m S F late January cold , and from his ho e in an ran his flu - w k i . cisco , had wrec ed r dden body A j ury oman , S Mrs . Lucille tegeman , was also confined by the flu , but

‘ Judge Quinn insisted on rushing the trial thr ough and only the most Strenuous objections by Pemberton won a continuance until Wednesday .

On Wednesday, Pemberton reported the defense as

1 08 NATIVE DAUGHTER — JUDGE QUIN : Just a minute you have to be repre sented by your counsel . NI A : T . A I am not represented by my counsel , your honor PEMBERTON : I withdraw from the case if the court please . JUDGE QUIN : The court will not permit you to with at draw this time . MB PE ERTON : I decline to go on with the case . JUDGE QUIN : Then we will proceed and go on with

ou . . the case ; y must go on , Mr Pemberton Judge Quinn threatened Pemberton with contempt of court proceedings if he persisted in his refusal t o try the case . " ' b e al l Your honor may p owerful here, Pemberton " t ar e : n or of flashed , bu you the keeper my conscience, n and I ca not conscientiously represent this defendant . I am following out your order with the feeling that it will ’ cost O Connor his life and will result in a miscarriage of justice for Miss Whitney . t on Through a long and dreary day, he trial dragged

. t wo T in a desultory manner The following days , hurs of day and Friday, court was adjourned due to the illness 8 - - . . 3 H A Thompson , an year old juror who had been distinguished by earnest but seemingly futile efforts to follow the proceedings .

S . She ha r an On aturday, Anita rose early d an impo t t ’ D urrn appomt ment with O Connor . g his illness She had visited him at his home and they discussed the case at

. t t e length At first , he seemed confident tha he would t l on one turn o the tria and vehemently insisted point,

- that the cross examination of Thompson be left to him . As his illness became more serious and the judge Showed THE CASE OF ANITA WHITNEY 1 0 9

’ O Connor no inclination to postpone the case, sensed he r t would never eturn to that courtroom , and he reques ed Anita to come to hi s home that Saturday when he would dictate the line O f questioning to be followed in the ex of i amination Thompson . An ta had been greatly worried ’ ’ by the dispirited progress of her case since O Connor s an d she i enforced absence, now looked forward to th s t t meeting wi h great anticipa ion , hoping that it would

t u . t mark a rn in the tide Preoccupied wi h such thoughts ,

She arrived at the ferry landing in Oakland , ferried across S w as she to an Francisco , and it not until Stepped into the Ferry Bui lding that her eyes were struck by a headline in ” ’ S a : T the an Fr ncisco Examiner O CONNOR, WHI NEY L ” . S xi s t he AWYER, DEAD he peered an ou ly beneath headline and read : ” ’ Conn or of eSt . O b Thomas M , one the known and l t S most bri liant members of he an Francisco Bar, died at 1 360 t of in his home, Fourth Avenue , from an at ack ’ flu enza . , Shortly after one o clock this morning ’ O Connor had died after hours of delirious struggle with his wife and a nurse to get out of bed . In his fevered 1 delirium , he kept muttering , Let me go , let me go , ma n return to that trial . ’ ’ O Connor s tragic exit from the case sealed its out hi s come . He had insisted before death that Nathan C .

. a ki in Coghlan succeed him Anit , lac ng confidence ’ t O Connor ou t of Coghlan , objec ed , but persisted and deference to the wishes of a sick man who faced death ,

She agreed . ’ t O Connor ou t of Wi h the way, the prosecution took the offense and injected the issue of the IWW into the t t na of . W W rial Ani a was admittedly a member the , 1 10 NATIVE DAUGHTER

m its but the Com unist Labor Party platform . in section induSt rial on unionism , contained a clause which said ‘ In any mention of revolutionary in dusrrial unionism in this country, there must be recognized the itnmense effect upon the American labor movement of the p ropa ' ganda and example of the In duSt rial Workers of the sac World , whose long and valiant Struggle and heroic rifices in the class war have earned the affection and of respect all workers everywhere . This tribute to the militancy of the IWW and its effect

‘ upon the labor mov ement was interpreted by the prose cution to mean that the Communist Labor Party approved of IWW a ll it s ct ' a of the and a s , at le st to the point abet

. f ting them Stretching this tenuous reasoning ar; it ther , the prosecution maintained that was privileged to introduce evidence as to the alleged criminal syndi caliSt IWW t acts perpetrated by the , and tha Anita , as of an a member the Communist Labor Party , belonged to organization which approved these acts . As it s experts on the W the prosecution int roduced Court s John Dymond and Ernest , a pair of professional 1nformers who had been arrested a year before in a round of u up Wobblies , and had bo ght their freedom by turning ’ state s evidence . After this initial performance, they ‘ ' o r r admrt ted t t ured the count y f om case to case, and hat

“ on at least one occasion they. had been paid $ 2 50 for a ’ B th im ' ' single p erformance . y e t e they testified in the c r of t Whitney ase , they perfo med with the ease roopers at the end of a successful run of a Broadway Stage Show .

The lines were cut and dried although lurid , and the prosecutor simply acred as a Stooge to pace the mono n logue a d give the appearance of examination .

1 1 2 NATIVE DAUGHTER

that Anita was somehow associated with these alleged

acts of violence . " The red flag bobbed up again . Despite the prose ’ cut ion s solemn pledge that the incident was ou t of the

case , Harris in his summation exhorted the jurors as fol lows t Let me comment on tha (the red flag incident) , of ladies and gentlemen the jury . I say to you that if the police department were insrrumen tal in placing that flag

. t there, there is no censure too severe for them Tha is ’ the position taken by the District Attorney s office of this not county . We do approve of those tactics and never

shall . ” l m of t sa But then , adies and gentle en the jury , le me y to you just one more word about that flag and I am

. or through as to the flag incident If you were there , if ' ’ as I were there , and our Old Glory She Stands was t covered by hat dirty red rag , what would you have done , or what would I have done ? I would have yanked it off from the face of that American flag and thrown it into ’ t the street , and I haven t been for y years in California

yet, either . " And what would you have done ? You would have

torn it down , and you would have gone home never to think of the Communist Labor Part y again except with n n ? ask u disrespect . But did A ita Whit ey do that I yo l o f as men and women and overs the flag , did Anita

? ~ Whitney do that Not for a single minute , ladies and of gentlemen the jury , not for one minute did Anita Whitney do that which you and I have been brought up t to do , namely, o revere and honor that flag that stands "

of . for us , and speaks for our freedom and love country THE CASE OF ANITA WHITNEY 1 1 3

20 At on the afternoon of Friday, February , the Six Six jury of men and women , having heard the final t d pleas by rival counsel and the instruc ions of the ju ge , retired to deliberate . The women were on the jury large l y thanks to the efforts of Anita Whitney for She , more O as than any ther one person , was responsible for the p sage of the law permitting women to Sit on juries . For six t almost hours the jury deliberated , re urning at

. . on p m A jury woman read the verdict , guilty the first

O t . count , the ther four coun s dismissed v Normally , after rendering a erdict , a jury retires from the public scene . But not this one . It left Alameda t 000 County aghast wi h a bill of $ 3 to cover its expenses . Popular superstition has it that it is the condemned man t . t who ea s a hearty breakfast In his instance , those who did the condemning ate hearty breakfasts , dinners and suppers , smoked fine cigars , kept themselves well groomed , dipped into popular magazines at random . The jury lived han somely during the 24 days it required to arrive at the conclusion that Anita Whitney Should spend the next one to fourteen years of her life behind ’ the bars of the women s prison at San Quentin . The itemized bill included the following : 742 cigars at 1 4 haircuts at 0 47 shaves at . 5 toilet articles magazines , cigarettes , candy, chewing gum " One paper commented : Outside of that they had a t tough time , bu next time it is anticipated that a trip to 1 14 NATIVE DAUGHTER

Palm Beach or the Canadian Rockies may be thrown in ” of as a sort diversion . Another paper wondered : Can four male addicts t o

the fragrant tobacco weed , serving on the Anita Whitney 742 24 jury, consume cigars at cents apiece in days ” and nights of jury service? Still another paper exclaimed : And when the jury l— t ate well , the bill at the Ho el Oakland for board and 2 2 lodging was $ 38 . Convicting Communists was n or an unpleasant pastime

in those days . Each of the four cigar smokers averaged

better than seven cigars a day, while all the jurors ate

and slept royally at $9 per day a head . Payment for all this ? They demanded that Anita pay of with one to fourteen years her life .

24 On Tuesday, February , it was Standing room only ’ on in Judge Quinn s court . Sentence was to be passed

Anita Whitney . What transpired was described by Alma

Reed , reporter for The Call , in a special story for The f 2 2 o S t 1 7 1 . New York Times ep ember , 9 Miss Reed e t e : AS She (Anita) entered the courtroom to re ceiv e t he her sentence , I was present to witness Silent tribute of 300 men and women prominently identified

' with the leading social service and public welfare ag en he cies of the state . They arose as S passed down the t sen aisle o her seat , and they remained Standing until

tence had been pronounced .

The sentence, as prescribed by the law , was imprison f of ment o from one to fourteen years . And all the

1 1 6 NATIVE DAUGHTER

t t our not from the Cons itu ion , that we date birth as a I Nat ion . t S fundamental principle is the inalienable

right of every one to life , liberty and the pursuit of happi ness . " My father always taught me to Stand up to things to judge for myself the difference between right and wrong . And after all , the greatest satisfaction in life comes from obeying your own conscience and helping in your own small way to make the world a little better for someone else because you have lived . ’ Anita s indignation at the prison regime and her sym ’ pathy for the Other five occupants of the women s sec tion of the county jail were such as to permit of no pre occupation with self . The plight O f two occupants of an adjoining cell aroused her deepest compassion . One was a drug addict , and although Still young , her body and will had been f wrecked by the constant use o drugs . She was said to v of ha e sought imprisonment in the hope a cure , and the st prison doctor was applying a primitive cure, admini er

- ing an ever lessening daily allowance of drugs , but with out scientific treatment to cushion the shock to an organ ism deprived of the Stimulants to which it had become AS . t accustomed a result , he young woman suffered of cruel torment , smoked constantly in the futile hope relieving the nervous tension . ” she When the nervousness became unbearable , would ” e t e inject tobacco juice into her veins , Anita in an “ h t S v 2 5 1 20 . S e ar icle for The ur ey, December , 9 This did by tearing an opening in her leg and injecting the liquid obtained by heating tobacco and water in a spoon . " Sharing her cell was a quiet little woman convicted THE CASE OF ANITA WHITNEY 1 1 7

on a charge of obtaining goods under false pretenses , who has earned t o my way of thinking a place among the sain ts rather than an indeterminate sentence in San

. S Quentin where She now is uch patience , such kindness without a word of complaint or disparagement to her ’ ’ trying cell mate! Becaus e the dope fiend suffered bit t erl t y from the cold , her ministering companion slept wi h the window closed while the cell filled from time to time with th e smoke from the wretched tobacco that the prison provided and was wafted down the corridor to the other w as o cells . She called up n time after time during the night to assist in relieving the nervous suffering of the t as She hopeless wre ch , burning her fingers over and over held lighted matches under the spoon to heat t he liquid which w as to give some measure of relief to the tortured body . The physical comforts of prison life can be gathered ’ from Anita s description of her own cell : " In t wo it there were, as in all the cells , bunks , the i upper one folded up aga nst the wall by day, the lower r on e Stationa y . The foundation of the bed was an iron gridiron , on which was placed a thin mattress . One i wakened in the night st ff and sore of hip . To the placid prisoner there was always the thought that there was ‘ ’ another hip t o which one could t urn for relief and per h aps more sleep . Though papers and magazines were not l w e a lo ed , some had b en slipped in surreptitiously, and with these the fort unate possessors lined th e 1r on gratin g r and so made sleep less illuso y . A wash stand with run ning cold water and an open toilet took up part of the small cell , one wooden chair , a Stool , and a small table ni with a tiny drawer completed the fur shings . The floor 1 1 8 NATIVE DAUGHTER

of was of cement , the walls and ceiling iron , the window

and door barred . ’ of own k Although two the prisoners , to Anita s nowl t edge, had social diseases , no precau ions at all were taken f against the spread o infection to the Others . All the prisoners used the same small galvanized tub to wash ’ wn . o clothes , and no boiling water was provided Anita s tai cell mate, a prostitute arrested for shop lifting , cer nly had been exposed to infection , yet in their common cell , they were compelled to Share the available facilities . t The prison regime was as Simple as i was monotonous , At eight in the morning the cell doors were unlocked v and breakfast was ser ed , mush , milk, bread and what

e is . di was euph m tically termed coffee At noon , nner r a nd meat and potatoes , ice macaroni , beans , bread and

. N or v tea all these dishes were ser ed at one meal , but they ' were the ingredients from which the menus were concocted . Supper was much the same . There was never any fruit or fresh vegetables . The cell doors were ix closed between s and eight in the evening . Lights went out t at eight , sometimes at nine, but always withou any ” out w as warning . After lights were t here t Ot al darkness until daylight came again and ushered in its dreary monor f ” ony o waking hours . ’ S v t li in Anita s article for The ur ey , de ai ng conditions " t he : T u jail , concluded with this challenge h s does the

‘ it it z ; The s t m i s ful state treat s erring c i ens ys e venge , t of of merciless , and needlessly ignoran the source crime a ? and hum n needs . Are we building up hate Then , must we reap the whirlwind ? t For eleven days , Anita remained in prison while he courts denied her release on bail or on a writ of habeas

1 20 NATIVE DAUGHTER

of E manu -E l Rabbi Martin A . Meyer Temple , the most of important Jewish congregation . Dr . Adelaide Brown

S . . the Board of Health , Rudolph preckels , O K Cushing, n Peit t o of William De man , Dr . Jessica the University of California economics department , Miriam Michelson and Others protested her conviction and sentence . Even S S of the tate enator William Kehoe, nominal sponsor

. . t criminal syndicalism law , and W J Locke , then ci y on e attorney of Alameda , who as assemblyman had been of the most active proponents of the criminal syndicalism of law in the lower house the legislature, branded the conviction unjust . The people and movements with which Anita had been associated now rallied to her defense . The Irish nation alist movement came to her aid , for had she not been an active organizer and leader in the Struggle for Irish inde " p endence ? The Irish World noted the fact that Miss t Whitney took up the cause of s ruggling Ireland , and did gallant service in organizing the Irish women Of San " of Francisco , and termed her sentence a sample hideous ” injustice ; it took pride in that gallant Irishman, Tom ’ O Connor dissassociat ed , and itself from the Irish judge " by a reference to the despotism of the Black and Tan ” of judge Jim Quinn . The typical narrow nationalism The Irish World lent a humorous touch to its comment ; it " blamed the whole affair on the English Consul who has ruled in San Francisco . The Women ’ s Christian Temperance Union and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored the of People and Friends of Irish Freedom , all whom knew Anita Whitney, joined the protest movement .

Among the most active people were the Old suffragettes . THE CASE OF ANITA WHITNEY 1 2 1

Mrs . Frank G . Law , president of the Oakland Center ,

California Civic League, a prominent club woman and : social worker, expressed their viewpoint when she said “ The women of California have n O t forgotten what har C lorre Anita Whitney has done for them in the past . ’ S a he was a le der in California s fight for suffrage , and the best people of the State were proud to enl ist under her leadership . She has deservedly won our lasting grati tude . The most amazing tribute to Ani ta came from The S i S an Francisco Mon tor, official organ of the an Fran s i ci co Catholic Archd ocese . The Monitor , in an edi " ” of totial titled Another Miscarriage Justice , cited sev eral contemporary cases of women who had been tried for murder and acquitted by juries despite overwhelming t : evidence against them , and hen went on S uppose you are, for example , an American citi z a of en , woman , highly educated , a university graduate , u disting ished family, who has spent her life in doing good t b e for o hers and acting as secretary for charity boards , friending the poor and oppressed , fighting for liberty of o of c nscience and speech , the champion downtrodden and t enslaved races , visiting hose in prison , one who would not harm the hair of a child ’ s head— wouldn ’ t you expect at least t o be allowed to remain unmolested in carrying out your noble mission of Christian charit y in behalf of God ’ s distressed and suffering children ? ” You have another guess coming because you do not appreciate the blessings of democracy as it is practised of S by the repressers freedom in America today . uch an exquisite and charming friend of humani ty as we have indicated above, a noble and beautiful character who 1 2 2 NATIVE DAUGHTER

would nor crush the broken reed nor quench the burning x or v fla , has been found guilty , not in a Turkish e en t of t Bolshevist cour justice , but in an American cour for being a horrible and blood- thirst y criminal syndicalist who would overthrow our government by force and vio shO t lence . If She had only taken a pistol and down some one in cold blood , she would probably have been declared l n O t t . t gui y To this gentle woman of peace and chari y, M t t indet er iss Anita Whi ney, who was sentenced o an minate term in prison last Tuesday in Oakland , only sym pathy is extended as a martyr victim to the present wave of un -American hysteria and illiberalism which is sweep S t ing the United tates , encouraged by all the reac ionaries ’ and profiteers in the land . They are sowing dragons teeth . As in the early Church which Stood for the poor and of of lowly ones of earth , the blood martyrs is the seed a new and better order of things where true democracy ” and Christian justice Shall reign . And if this Catholic organ had to ‘ revert to the early Christian martyrs to find a parallel for this ” noble and beautiful character who would nO t crush the broken reed t oo t nor quench the burning flax , others , , sough his

i l . t or ca T . parallels he Rev Robert Whitaker , writing in t The Western Worker (March 3 , said that he “ conviction of Anita Whitney put Oakland in the same t S category with the A hens which poisoned ocrates , the

Jerusalem which crucified Jesus , the England which burned Latimer and Ridley . The San Francisco Call recalled the persecution of the Abolitionists and the of : tyranny the Puritans , saying There is nothing in the history of America to serve as a precedent for her imprisonment . The colonists were wrong when they

1 24 NATIVE DAUGHTER

of is a woman broad mind , big heart , beautiful soul . Miss Whitney for years has been a champion and true friend f f o labor . Her arrest in the opinion o this league is merely an incident in a nationwide campaign to crush out r all labor organizations whet her conservative o radical . As Miss Whitney has never been found absent when labor was in jeopardy so will She now find the thousands of workers connected with the Labor Defense League at her side . ’ The statement was Signed by members of the league s m t executive co mi tee, including L . J . Cole, Machinists 68 Local ; George Kidwell , Bakery Wagon Drivers Local 4 4 8 . 4 8 . ; L Keller , Barbers Local ; L . V Frates , Carpen 6 P . 2 3 . ters Local ; A agama , Boilermakers Local 3 3 t There is one ironic Sideligh to the Statement , its claim ’ that Anita s association with the league was responsible for her arrest . There probably was some truth to that . But the Irish freedom movement believed that her espou sal of its cause brought down the vengeance of the author

ities . Anita was inclined to believe that regardless of the t of la er ramifications the case , it had its origins among the Irish politicians whose enmity she incurred by chair f e manship o the American Irish Educational League . R ’ form elements felt that Anita s association with them in t directly contributed to her persecution , and even tha r of r theo y contained some grains t uth , for the Alameda County vice interests and their political servants carried a grudge against Anita Since her campaign for the red light abatement law and they were among the most per

sistent in pressing the case against her in Oakland . There was a variet y of motives behind the prosecution but they were all tied together in the common hatred of the THE CASE OF ANITA WHITNEY 1 2 5

h madames and white slavers , the mac ine politicians and open Shoppers for Anita as a member of the State com i m m t t ee of the Co munist Labor Party . S ome of her lesser champions , drawn from among political small fry primarily, were Simply awed by her family and background . Alameda City Attorney W . J . a : t t o b e Locke , for ex mple, said I canno bring myself t of art icu lieve hat a woman education and refinement, p larly one whose forefathers rendered such great service to our country, is an advocate of revolution and violence . " It seems incredible that the grandniece of the man who laid the first Atlantic cable is a disciple of deSt ru c f . o tion Another granduncle this woman, David Dudley t Field , was a famous lawyer who firs codified the laws i S of th s country , while Still another was the late upreme

S . one t Court Justice tephen J Field , of the ablest juris s IS this country ever produced . it possible that an educated woman of such ancestry would destroy the country her ? ” forebears did SO much to build up I cannot believe it . The opposition also harped on this theme of family she and background , and insisted that precisely because she was a woman of education and independent means , should be hanged for betraying her class . They hated r her as an apostate . Most vi ulent were the McClatchy papers which have distinguished themselves as the self appointed hangmen and jailers of California ’ s labor mar T om . . McN a a martyrs , which vilified Mooney and J B f t o . o the day their death With venomous Sting, The " S : of acramento Bee generalized The urge these wealthy, a t - of well re d , bu really ill educated women is the urge luSt for idle restlessness , the crave for adventure, the power—even if it be the leadership of the lawless in the 1 26 NATIVE DAUGHTER

’ f in assault upon the cit adels o civilization . The Bee s dicrment : Ch arlort e t i n of was Ani a Wh t ey , a woman t of educa ion and with all the advantages , possessed wealth and with the opportunity of doing great good t o her fel t o low creatures , has prostituted her talents for years the ” service of the lawless and disorderly . The Bee even " drew the Kiplin g moral that the female of the species

is more deadly than the male . The tenor of the opposition was also exemplified in an anonymous letter Anita received from An American and ” nO t suf Proud To Be One . This American who was ficient l or e t e : y proud to Sign his her name, The people in general should deeply regret t hat the influenza ’ of of didn t get you in place some our true Americans . con America does not want such criminals as you , and I who ro- or sider anyone aids you is a p German , radical , n also . Among the epithets directed at Anita in this ow were pro - German radical traitor to Americanism government over- thrower low specimen of Amer 1cam m of s reptile scum the earth .

While there is a lower class I am in it ; while t here is a criminal element 1 a m of it ; while there ” is ul in riso 1 a o e a so n m n t re . p , f — u i D ebs E g ene V ct or .

of For Anita Whitney, this lofty moral concept Debs

served as a guide during the seven years of her ordeal . She did not relish martyrdom or being the principal of a f he . SO o s cause , celebre With the modesty typical her,

1 28 NATIVE DAUGHTER people an equal opportunity— can anything be greater than that? " t u r If believing in equali y is a crime against my co nt y,

then I am guilty . " If belief in self expression that does nor interfere with f o O . the lives thers is criminal , then I am criminal And if it is an offense to believe that men Should t r S uggle for decent hours and a decent wage, that children t should be born wi h health and a chance for happiness , and that women should be granted the privilege of decent t of reSt working hours and plen y and decent pay, then I

deserve San Quentin . t S Ani a had no illusions about an Quentin . The eleven t h t . S e days in the coun y jail were but a fore aste Yet , said ,

S . I am facing an Quentin with perfect peace If I go , I ’ go . I know what it means . I have been in the women s section there , and it is horrible . The women have no room for exercise, and no work ; they sit about and relate of Obscenities . I know the Shame the place that never ff - I o . k wears Yet go willingly, nowing that I have ” never done anything but attempt to help .

From the outset , She refused to plead for probation . When Alma Reed brought up the subject Shortly after t ! of her convic ion , Anita exclaimed , Probation Why course n ot ! That would be acknowledging that I have for done wrong . I am here a principle , and my acceptance of probation would cut the principle from under me . I na n am a free born American citizen . I will and ca not tolerate the surveillance and the Slavery that probation t o k t offers . Why, I should be ashamed loo hose people whose opinion I value in the face again . I should be nothing but a living lie . THE CASE OF ANITA WHITNEY 1 2 9

In the court of public opinion , Anita Whitney had won t an overwhelming verdict in her favor, but in the cour s she on e of law, suffered adverse decision after another . S t h he had obtained compe ent legal counsel , Jo n Francis N e lan 1 9 20 on y who entered the case in the insistence , of he said , of several the foremost prelates of the Roman

t . Catholic, Protestan and Jewish faiths and served l n wh . N e a o i t without fee y , later was to ga n notorie y was t n as chief counsel for William Randolph Hearst, he v as the of a prominent attorney, having ser ed chairman S of t v of the tate Board Control , en rusted with super ision ’ h t v 1 1 the state s c aritable ins itutions . On her lobbying s t s S of to acramento , Anita had made the acquaintance Ney t nO t lan in his official capacity , and more often . han they clashed over the various reforms which Anita w as pro w w i , r . sa t th ou h moring Ho ever, he did take her case and g for seven years . a of the 1 2 5 Having run the g mut State courts , in 9 the case of Anita Whitney w as argued before the United a 1 1 2 St S . 8 5 S ates upreme Court On ber , 9 , the upreme Court resorted t o the same subterfuge it used in the Sacco -Vanzetti case ; it dismissed the appeal for want of jurisdiction . Anita w as then tn Carmel and a reporter fOr The Oak land Tribune first brought her the news that her final appeal had been rejected . The reporter acknowledged ” that she received the news calmly and with practica lly

. t now no trace of emotion Ques ioned about a pardon , seemingly the sole means of escaping from one to fourteen 1 30 NATIVE DAUGHTER

S n r not for years in an Quentin , A ita eplied , I Shall ask ” a pardon . How can I be pardoned for doing right? ’ Her comment on the court s ruling was : " Two years ago the state supreme cour t ruled in the no s e case of Ben Bigelow . I do t e how the court could

have ruled differently in my case . If Ben Bigelow, a poor t nor i man , is sen to prison , the court could decide n my favor because I am a club woman and have influential

friends . ” r1nci l s I do not believe in class . It is against my p p e to receive any advantage that money or special privilege f r are supposed to give . If it is right o Ben Bigelow t o go to prison for making speeches against the criminal

‘ law t hen it for i t t o o syndicalism , is right An ta Whi ney g has n for the same offense . If Ben Bigelow u the right r of free speech in a supposedly free count y, then Anita n Whit ney has ot . These are the principles which have

actuated my life . The next act was summarized in The New York World of a 2 2 1 2 5 : ber , 9 , with these headlines

’ S WON T A K PARDON, CELL IS CERTAINTY FOR MISS WHITNEY

Her Refusal T o Sign Petition T O Governor Sweeps Away Last Hope of Escaping Term

Executive Will N ot Act Until She Makes Appeal

1 3 2 NATIVE DAUGHTER

Mr s . S . Francisco Community Chest ; G . Chapman , presi ’ S dent, National League for Women s ervices ; former

United States Senator James D . Phelan ; Chester Rowell ; l n . N e a S S John F y , publisher , an Francisco Call ; Charles .

S S . . tanton , publisher , an Francisco Bulletin ; P C Edwards of S - in - S - an Diego , editor chief , cripps Howard newspapers of S t S California ; Paul cha tenberg , secretary , tate Federa of t tion Labor, and Max L . Rosenberg, frui packer . Leading representatives of the Catholic hierarchy Stood of by their support Anita Whitney . The Very Rev . Mon ’

S . S signor Rogers , rector of t Patrick s Church , an Fran " n : cisco , in sig ing a pardon petition , said I deem the law under which Miss Whitney was convicted a monstrous violation of th e personal liberties of a citizen It was born the of t he calcu in insensate madness war days , and is t lated , in my opinion , to rob the nation of the loyal y and ' i izen n ~ v m of b eSt c t s . O N o e b er 1 1 devotion its , Arch t S bishop Hanna , jus returned to an Francisco from a pil t : grimage to Rome, told the press in his firs interview " t n who I feel very Strongly hat Miss A ita Whitney, is as facing a long jail sentence a criminal syndicalist , Should be given by Governor R ichardson a prompt and uncon dit ional pardon . The Archbishop was all aglow with what he termed a marvelous demonstrat ion of the spir it u al impulse of mankind that I witnessed on this visit ” As u T of to Rome . a res lt, he added , he case Miss t e as O r u Whi n y, as well ther impo tant p blic issues , appear to me at this moment particularly in a sp1r1t ual and idealistic light . San Francisco ’ s District Attorney Matthew Brady turned to scriptures , saying, A Roman governor tortured and crucified under the criminal syndicalism laws of those THE CASE OF ANITA WHITNEY 1 3 3

the n - of z days , gentle, huma ity loving Jesus Christ Na areth . ” It Should be the prayer of every libert y - loving person that the governor of the enlightened commonwealth of California will nO t follow the example of Pontius Pilate t t by further orturing Miss Anita Whitney, convic ed under f ” the criminal syndicalism laws o today . ’ S S o George terling , an Francisco s romantic p et laureate , w as moved to write three sonnets addressed to Governor “ i c t R chardson , under the title, Does Mer y Abide Wi hin the Heart of Man ? The last two read :

Merc a bides wit hin t he hea rt o ma n y f ,

And ower t o a rdon has b een iv en ou p p g y ,

L est wron t o wron una lt era bl a ccrue g g y ,

In ustice endin wha t the la b j g w ega n . Is it so deep a nd wide a gulf t o spa n

That we with si ht as clear a s ours should su e , g y ,

F or clemenc t o one s o bra v e and true y ,

’ But find you Ma mmon s eager partisa n?

h i o t o en S e s m s inn c t . She did no wrong

But in her ca lm defia nce o t he st ron f g,

hose hea rts were s et on wa r a s er o W h s n pea ce . Answer : whose footst eps has she followed in Those of the Prince of Lov e or L ord of sin? Beyond wha t portals shall her footst eps cease? 1 34 NATIVE DAUGHTER

ud ed ud s e l Say not the la w has j g ; you j g e a w l . Say not you sa ve a people from the threat Of crime unpunished : mercy shall b eget ’ Merc in turn such is com assion s s ell. y , p p What ga zn i s t here if bigot ry impel The heart of Justice on injustice set?

O t en ha v e t ra nts seen in lat e re ret f y , g , ' c l H ow they ha ve made a t emple of a e l.

The base and cruel hold alone in a we

’ The words o Ca li ornia s idiot la w f f ,

u sk And j stice less than mercy n ow we a . ’ U nder the blaze o uture reedom s li ht f f f g , ’ H ow shall you sta nd dishonored in ma n s sight Who s et t he jailer t o his monstrous task!

The labor movement voiced its plea in the more pro saic form of resolutions passed by the San Francisco and

Los Angeles Central Labor Councils . The Negro people

t . said i with petitions , and Wesley C Peoples , secretary of 5000 the Negro Progressive Club , announced that Sig natures had been gathered among the Negro people, 1 6 in of 00 San Francisco alone . The Berkeley Society t v Friends , Quakers , he denomination in which the go

ernor t o . had been reared , also appealed him for a pardon 1n Late November , the Young Ladies Institute , repte 1 200 s en senting young women , addressed thi tender treaty : We pray that you will exercise your benign

1 36 NATIVE DAUGHTER

f the tory heart o Friend W . Richardson . In an exchange S h of letters with Upton inclair, widely publicized t rough out t t he s ate, the governor contemptuously dismissed this " mass demand with the arrogant Statement : I will not f issue pardons merely because o popular clamor . This autocratic arrogance aroused even greater indignation and on 2 8 1 2 5 November , 9 , the governor felt it necessary to t t issue a laborious and tortured s a ement , covering thirteen n hi s . printed pages , explaini g refusal to pardon in S . eemingly, the end had been reached Prison was v — on 14 S e Su e itable then , December , the United tat s preme Court agreed t o a rehearing on an amended peti e an tion by John Francis N yl . The amended appeal chal lenged the constitutionality of the criminal syndicalism law on the grounds that the State legislature had violated the prerogative of the Federal Congress in legislating on t t matters pertaining o he national security, and that the law was in violation of t he 14t h amendment to the con “ st it ut ion which provides that no State shall make or ehforce any laws which shall abridge the privileges or f of immunities o citizens the United States . on 1 5 1 27 S A year and a half later , May , 9 , the upreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the criminal syn i m dical s law in a unanimous opinion . Justices Brandeis and Holmes , while concurring in the opinion , added this qualification 1 18 Whether in 9 , when Miss Whitney did the things of t complained , here was in California such clear and present danger of serious evil might have been made the important issue in the case . She claimed below that t he Statute as applied t o her violated the Federal Con stitution ; but She did not claim it was void because there THE CASE OF ANITA WHITNEY 1 37

w as t of no clear and presen danger serious evil , nor did she request that the existence of these conditions of a valid measure thus restricting the rights of free speech and r assembly be passed upon by the court o a jury . This was a statement of the famous juridical theo ry that of s i abridgment con titut onal guarantees , such as free speech and free assembly; is valid only if the existence " ” of clear and present danger t o t he State and the public m ’ t . safety makes such abridg en necessary In Anita s case, the qualification of Brandeis and Holmes was tantamount to saying that had her attorneys employed the correct

arguments , She might have been freed, but since her t one t o attorneys miscued , She must forfei fourteen years of r of her life . The issue her specific guilt o innocence or the justice of her imprisonment somehow g Ot IO St in f the twisted maze o legal ritual .

’ Again all seemed lost . The nation s highest tribunal t had ruled with the irrevocable finali y given it . But a t Strange hing came to pass , something foreseen by Gene f o . 1 2 Debs , wise with the wisdom class instinct In 9 5 , old when others had lost hope, Debs , then and ailing, i of old t : but Still reta ning the rhetoric the ora or, thundered ” i wi n t o An ta Whitney ll o g to prison .

c not Sible for her convi tion dare put her there . N ot that there is any pity or mercy in their flint hearts or their bowels of brass , but because, blind , Stupid and callous as t is i as hey are, they realize that there such a th ng going too far . 1 3 8 NATIVE DAUGHTER — If Debs added 1f the impossible should come to ‘ pass ; if the Chambers of Commerce and their constituted ’ authorities should be so low and vile enough to allow such a crowning disgrace t o come upon the State already so notoriously sodden in plutocratic misrule in the eyes of t of he world ; and if the people that State tamely, see t - supinely, shamelessly Anita Whitney, whi e souled of rO tt en apostle the dawn , flung into that dungeon , that of unspeakably vile, festering black hole capitalism , reek t n ing wi h leprosy and abomi ation at every pore , then Should all the lightning of infinite wrath be let loose at once as upon ancrent Sodom and Gomorrah for such a State is nor morally fit t o survive in even a hal f-civilized world . ’ r wa - w f D eb s fi sr s s s u . N o o impul e o ndest , the rulers for California , they who had remained silent all the past seven years , stepped forward and in all their majesty

for t t . N ow O requested a pardon Ani a Whi ney , a list f those supporting a pardon plea read like a collection of ’ gilt edged plates taken from the doors of San Francisco s f o . mightiest institutions finance There was William H . m Crocker, the financier and national Republican com it t eeman Fleishhacker t of t ; Herbert , presiden wha was then an d called the Anglo London Paris National Bank ; H . f f . S v o S o M torey, ice president tandard Oil California ; f . . o P k Cor R I Bentley, president the California ac ing ration P a r f the S a cis po ; hilip F y , p esident o an Fr n co of G r of Chamber Commerce ; eorge Cameron, publishe S S for The an Francisco Chronicle ; Oscar utro , attorney S i t t tandard Oil , and Lou s Lurie, the poli ically influen ial capitalist . Sut ros and Fleishhackers When the Crockers and spoke,

140 NATIVE DAUGHTER

t t surrounded her rial , he governor also said it was his " belief that the criminal syndicalism a t w as primarily intended to apply to organizations actually known as advocates of violence , terrorism , or sabotage, rather than to such organizations as a Communist Labor Party . ’ " The governor s reference t o organizations known as t advocates of violence was an intended slap at he IWW , an attempt to justify failure to pardon IWW members

Still in prison at the time . 7 1 27 t t On July , 9 , Ani a celebra ed her Sixtieth birthday, the first birt hday in seven when the threat of a peniten n t iary sentence did ot hang over her head .

" us tts ule t In Massa ch e , the r rs wi h flint hearts a nd ” b owels of brass insist ed t ha t Sa cco a nd Va nzetti must E v en a s Anita was a rdoned t he date or t he e ecu die . p f x tion o Sa cco a nd a nzetti ha d b een s et or u t f V f J ly 1 0 . I u A was t o t hem her hea rt went o t . month ea rli r e , when t he Su reme Court ha d ruled a ainst her she dismiss ed p g , ha t rulin in an event I a m o sli ht im ta t or nce . g , y , f g p Com a red with the case o Sa cco a nd Va nzetti whose p f , ” iv es a re a t sta ke m little t rouble is o little im ort l ance . , y f p ’ Wit hout merc a nd without it Cali ornia s rulers h y p y, f ad

N ot those o Massa chusetts . flinched . f They burn ed t o death the immi ra nt ish eddler a nd shoe maher ~ g f p . CHAPTER SEVEN

FORMATIVE YEAR S

I

1 2 1 - 2 The years 9 9 , their illusions of permanent pros perit y based on the Ford myt h in economic theory and m o t sane Republicanis in p litical prac ice, have already taken on the semblance of a Strange interlude in the con i r i tin u ty of American histo y . The reign ng reaction and i hi of o the cyn cism , the c mera C olidge prosperity and on demoralization of the labor movement, brought by the successful open Shop drive in the postwar period and the t passivi y of the official labor leadership , all served to crea te an environment hardly receptive to Communist m t ideas , and for the Com unis movement those were form

ative, painful years . The Shock of the first wave of mass persecution in 1 9 1 9 1 920 t l iz t and had left the par y a sma l organ a ion , largely di i a of it s sec vorced from the ma n stre ms American life, t arianism heightened by t he very severit y of the Struggle it for survival . One of its in ial difficulties , its twin birth , " ” w as overcome when the Communist Party and the ” Communist Labor Part y merged to form what w as t of 1 2 1 called the Workers Par y America in 9 . 1 42 NATIVE DAUGHTER

of u In California , the arrest the entire Oakland gro p of founding fathers disrupted the party organization at

v t . the ery ou set Yet , as elsewhere throughout the country , it remained an organized force with amazing tenacity and persistence . The party organ , The World , was renamed a 1 20 t The Western Worker in J nuary, 9 , and managed o S 1 2 1 survive until eptember, 9 , under the continued editor f O n . . S z ship o J E nyder . Party rga i ations were established S and maintained in Oakland , an Francisco , Los Angeles f and some o the rural communities . For a time , during that period , Anita was compelled virtually t o sever active connections with the party . Her w as she case Still dragging through the State courts , and s was a marked woman . Detective shadowed her wherever w as e d 1 she went , her mail op ned , and it was eemed adv s able that she not attend any party meeting leSt the police trail her and raid the meeting . On one occasion a re porter and an acquaintance bO th warned her that the

. t police were plotting a frameup According to their s ory, she to and had every reason believe it reliable , the police planned to lure her into an automobile driven by a pro " ” v ocat eur who would take her t o a disorderly house which then would be raided . The acquaintance who warned her of this scheme said he had been offered the role of provocateur in payment for which an indictment against him would be dropped .

'

t w i . e t b i e In the middle ent es ; the Communists s a l sh d c t t their first conta ts among he agricul ural workers , par t icularly in the Salinas Valley among Filipino field hands . t t On one occasion , par y headquar ers received a call from a Spanish comrade who operated a gas station near San v Jose . Fi e hundred pea pickers , mostly Mexican , had

144 NATIVE DAUGHTER

martial law reigned in the affected areas . When asked , Anita readily volunteered t o drive her car into the Salinas Valley with a group of comrades to get the leaflets to t he on e workers . On occasion , the car was Stopped by a high ’ way patrolman , and it was a tense moment for the car s u occ pants for they all knew that if the leaflets were found , it meant trial before a kangaroo court and alrn OSt certain ’ imprisonment at the very least . However , Anita s de meanor and appearance were so disarming that the officer

allowed the car t o proceed without any search . The leaf lets were distributed and many of the workers were so responsive that they volunteered their pennies and dimes

to the distributors . t ’ t v h Ani a s ac i ities , owever, were centered chiefly in the n of W eSt Negro commu ity Oakland during those years , she t and was instrumental in obtaining Fraterni y Hall , on S of located eventh Street , near the outskirts the Negro t t of district , as he firs Oakland headquarters the Workers

- Party after it had emerged from semi legality . Almost solely through her own energies , She later opened a Work ers Bookshop on Telegraph avenue in downtown Oak s land , the first uch bookshop in that city since the forma of t t tion the Communis Par y, and possibly the first such bookshop along the entire Pacific Coast . Despite the fact that her case was Still dragging thr ough the courts and ’

“ c i t had be ome a national ssue, Anita , with characteris ic t y H i modes y and patience and tireless energy , did Jimm g gins work in W eSt Oakland . The small trim figure of now this woman , in her late fifties , trudging through the t dreary Streets , Stopping at he wooden frame houses with their nondescript mouse- like grey color to leave a leaflet FORMATIVE YEARS 145 or deliver a personal message wit h sirn ple and earnest eloquence, became a familiar Sight in West Oakland . Her broader interests centered on Strike relief and the ’ defense of labor s men victimized because of their acriv i ties in behalf of the working class . In pursuit of this latter she t S interest , wen on fre'quent trips to an Quentin and there formed lifelong friendships with Tom Mooney and

Mc amara . particularly J . B . N Of all the people outside t 2 . he prison walls , Anita Whitney shared with William Fosrer the rare honor of being regarded with the warmest

e t . . affection , the Strong s feeling of comradeship by J B

McN amara . so i They were a Strange trio , d fferent in ’ s of background and life experience, yet bound by the tie f F t o . O St er comradeship and a common nobili y character , w ho t t o had done more than any o her one person , keep ’ McN amara S t o alive the fight for freedom , never came B n t . . Califor ia withou visiting J , and , whenever possible,

Anita accompanied him on those visits . N O t long before ’ McN amara s 1 94 1 Fosrer death in , and Anita visited him

. Fosrer at Folsom When they came out of the prison , , t hO t S m fatigued by he acra ento Valley sun , paused , and leaning against the wall his hat off, and mopping his t brow , softly exclaimed , Anita , he is magnificen . He h ” as a magnificent soul .

. So ou . You Yes , he is , Anita replied simply are y ” have the same qualities .

Anita regarded J . B . with deep reverence as did hun of t dreds o hers who had come to know him even slightly . of McN am ara In all the years their friendship , never once asked for a personal favor, although he often asked favors ’ f r McN am ara o O h . s t t ers Steadfas ness , his iron will , his uncompromising devotion to principle and deep faith in 146 NATIVE DAUGHTER the working class which grew and deepened during thirty of years imprisonment were for Anita guiding stars , she s u models to which aspired , and with greater ccess t han she would concede . In 1 928 Anita for the first time became the Standard bearer of her party in a Statewide election . She was nominated for United States Senator and although the n or she on t of party was on the ballot , went the firs her of t election tours the State , reaching into communi ies where hitherto Communists had never spoken from a pub of lic platform . One experience that campaign impressed she w as LO S her most . While in Angeles , a Negro com rade named Owens requested that she come to Blythe in m um the Palos Verdes Valley, a growing region near the Arizona border, where a large Negro population was aroused by the segregation of Negro children in the of schools . Anita gladly agreed for it was the sort issue she she to which responded rapidly, and enjoyed going to t t he t outlying distric s , far removed from large ci ies where the Communists had their greatest Strength . She arrived in Blythe on Sunday afternoon and attended a Negro com t t munity meeting where a defeatist a ti ude was prevalent, and the dominant sentiment seemed to favor abandonment of the fight against segregation . Both Owens and Anita t t Spoke , urging tha the figh be revived and waged with greater vigor . A Baptist minister present was so impressed by Anita that he invited her to address his congregation

. S that evening he did , and helped inspire a renewed f Struggle which culminated in the defeat o segregation . t t oo Tha year, , Anita was elected a delegate to the national nominating convention of the Communist Party

148 NATIVE DAUGHTER

A feeling of the world- wide scope of the protest move ment may be gotten from the following items gathered at random — BUCHAREST Resolutions against the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti adopted at mass meetings in many

an . Rumanian cities d sent to American Minister W . S

Culbertson . BUENOS AIRES—Workmen back at work after a three- day general st rike against the Sacco-Vanzetti execu 1 t ons . — LONDON Thirty- five were injured as thousands in this city stormed the United States Embassy in protest

- against the Sacco Vanzetti execution . It was the worst S disorder in England since the General trike . A mass meeting of was held in Hyde Park . — ROME The Italian capital was under guard . — ATHENS U . S . buildings have been placed under special guard . STOCKHOLM— Swedish workers engaged in protest

Strikes . — OSLO A five- minute Stoppage of work throughout w the Norweg ian capital as reported . — HELSINGFORS A boycott of United States goods has been voted by Finnish labor unions . z Warsaw , Hamburg, Paris , Berlin , Leip ig, Mexico City, — O Moscow, Lisbon , Johannesburg all these cities and thers r were astir . The world was ang y . Two innocent men in were going to their death , pushed inexorably by an u t of t h man au ocracy , by the prejudice and reaction capi al and its 1nsr1tut 1ons bent on this monstrously conspicuous

demonstration of their ruthless power . Here was injustice . miSt ake This was no slip , no , no miscarriage, as the FORMATIVE YEAR S 149

phrase runs . It was willful , deliberate . And the world

out t . cried in pro est In America , all the popular impulses , the democratic precepts which survived the corruption of the Coolidge era welled up against this terrible crime . for t With all her passionate hatred injustice , Ani a plunged into this movement for Sacco and Vanzetti . She th e i of spoke at mass meetings , organized d spatch protests t o s she t Governor Fuller of Massachu etts , alked and worked and felt the terrible frustration of knowing that the efforts expe nded did not match in magnitude the monstrosity of the crime being contemplated by the rulers f of h t . o Massac uset s In the eyes the labor movement , her very n ame and person became associated wit h the f battle for liberation o Sacco and Vanzetti . In Alameda n t n Cou y , there had been formed an A ita Whitney Con t 30 k ference, representa ive of some AFL unions , to ta e up the fight for her freedom when she faced prison in the criminal syndicalism case . After Governor Young granted t S her a pardon , the unions consti uted themselves a acco

Vanzetti conference to campaign for their release . On ’ of she t the night execution , spoke to he women s auxiliary of the AFL Carpenters Union in Oakland and the men ow n adjourned their meeting early to join the women . T o the t very las they hoped against hope that somehow, by t t h e execu some miracle , the news would be flashed tha

‘ F e had off. n tion been put inally, th y Stood in sile t tribute t t w o t t ru a s o the mar yrs , those ly noble spirits whose n me t will long survive hose of their jailers and hangmen . S n on 2 2 In a Francisco August , a crowd of per sons gathered at a protest demonstration in Civic Center at the call of the Communist Party and the International i t . Labor Defense . C y Hall resembled an armed fortress 1 50 NATIVE DAUGHTER

Machine guns were mounted on top of the building and

at the windows . Police and plainclothes men were in tw o evidence everywhere . When husky demonstrators t on t she lif ed a woman speaker heir shoulders , had but

the opportunity to shout , Fellow workers when the t police attacked and broke up the mee ing . The crowd t o of 1 2 1 2 S then surged the rear Market treet , which C who faced the Civic enter , and was addressed by orators spoke from the windows of the Communist headquarters

d t . then locate in tha building After a brief meeting, the w as to S throng urged proceed down Market treet , and some 2000 had joined the rapidly swelling columns by

e k . the time th y reached Third and Mar et Here , another meeting was held and then the crowd w as called on t o t o on t march Garibaldi Hall Broadway in Nor h Beach . e The columns formed and headed up Kearny Str et , but of of as they came abreast the Hall Justice, they ran into r a cordon of motorcycle police Stretched ac oss the street . The head of the column w as steered into Washington of of street , and then into the basement the Hall Justice, 1 2 and 7 persons were thus corralled and jailed . The following day all those arreSt ed were given suspended

- six month sentences . The militant spirit and the size of the demonstration S were unprecedented in an Francisco , and the leadership of some 7 5 Communists who managed t o organize this ' expression of the profound protest movement evoke d by t he S acco- Vanzetti case , marked a hig h p oint in the devel f r opment o the Communist movement in Califo nia .

1 52 NATIVE DAUGHTER

of did exist , that untold hardships did warp the lives of m millions A ericans . In New York, persons

demonstrated in Union Square . The police attacked the riO t demonstrators , mounted officers and police wagons rode through the great mass of people jammed into the F r . . osre square, injuring hundreds William Z , Robert arreSt ed Minor, Israel Amter and Harry Raymond were after the demonstration and serv ed a minimum of six months in jail . In Detroit, demonstrated . In t of m of every large ci y A erica , in hundreds industrial

. t towns , thousands responded The au horities expressed their fear of this demonstrative upsurge among the work ers in tremendous mobilizations of police and Other armed s and r of force , in sco es cities these forces were used to

attack the jobless . The demonstration achieved its pur I pose . r projected unemployment as the primary issue th e in American politics , and there it was to remain for next five years . S w as on 6 In an Francisco , there no violence March for the simple reason that the police did not attack the f demonstration o pe rsons . The newspapers were as out very smug about it , if somehow Mayor Rolph had witted the unemployed by nor ordering the police to bash their skulls in with nightsticks . The San Francisco Ex " t t amine sneered , Al hough paraders carried banners de nouncin g the government and the police , and some frankly

“ longed for the mart yrdom of craéked sku lls and imprison t ment, hey met with nothing but courtesy and gentle ”

t . trea ment The Examiner may have sneered , but hun dreds of workers did nOt . They flocked into Communist 145 m headquarters at Turk Street , seeking ad ission into “ t the par y. THE GREAT CRISIS 1 53

1 9 3 3 the From then on , until the middle of Struggles and organization of the unemployed occupied the party ’ s major attention in California as throughout the country .

These Struggles assumed mass demonstrative forms , and were the most dramatic expression of any wide movement T w o r among the people . o State hunger marches were g anized in January of 1 93 2 and 1 93 3 . Numerous demon

St rat ions were held in the separate localities of the State .

Tens of thousands of persons participated in these actions , t c and thanks o their organization and militan y, given lead ershi t he m t p by Co munists , the principle tha hunger is a social concern was established . These Struggles wrested the first relief concessions from the local governments , t then moved on to securing relief from the Sta e, and finally laid the foundation for the New Dea l measures of social security and relief . t t During these turbulent years , Ani a Whi ney resided Int ernat 1onal in Oakland , devored her energies to the Labor Defense and the many Jimmy Higgins jobs of a m good Co munist . In the ILD she was associated with " " Ella Reeve Morher Bloor who had been sent to Cali forn ia t by the national ILD office as a field represen ative, Mrs an d . t Warwick , then Alameda Coun y ILD secretary . All three women were in their Sixties and Anita w as the of t Morher youngest the rio , Bloor being her senior by w B . O th five years and Mrs Warwick by t o . her partners n were old friends . A ita first met Mrs . Warwick at the Loring Hall convention which founded the Communist

Labor Party in California , and became acquainted with Mother Bloor in the early twenties when the latter was dispatched t o California as the first national representa of tive the Workers Party . The three women worked 1 54 NATIVE DAUGHTER

closely together , and developed a comradeship which went far beyond the formal associations in common polit ical activity .

Those were busy years for the ILD . There were scores of t O arrests of Communis s and ther militants in California , most notably the Imperial Valley criminal syndicalism

i t . case in the late twent es and early thir ies In those years , the ILD interceded nationally in behalf of the SCO t t Sb O l‘ O and Boys Angelo Herndon . Anita worked with her t i of cus omary selfless devot on , particularly in behalf Hern don and the Scottsboro Boys and regards as the high point of that period of her activity the hug e mass meeting in

S . Oakland for one of the cottsboro mothers Locally , She t helped raise funds and bail for those arres ed . Only at rare and brief intervals was her modest property not tied up in bail commitments . This activity of hers frequently kept her on the sidelines as a reserve during the more f o t . on e demonstrative actions he party For example , in of t she he early unemployed demonstrations , was ordered to Stay away so that in e vent of arrests she could help raise bail for those jailed . She With her comrades , regularly trudged down to the Southern Pacific and Key System railroad shops early in

- the morning to distribute leaflets . She Spoke at noon day factory gate meetings before the cotton mills . She also - 1 0 t h soap boxed at and Broadway , the only corner where the police allowed the Communists to hold street meet ings in Oakland then . She collected Signatures to place the Communist Party on 1 the ba 10 t in California . More than signatures t were collected throughout the Sta e, although only

. S F were required by law Yet, in an rancisco , reputedly

1 56 NATIVE DAUGHTER

r t branch , and an ordina y branch meeting generally las ed far into the night . Anita spoke at the Street meetings organized by the

on . branch , and one occasion had an unusual experience She had delivered a brief Speech from an improvised plat in . S form , her usual calm and placid manner A panish party member then mounted the platform to translate her

? speech , and launched into a typically fiery Latin oration .

Anita listened am a z ed and shocked and wondering , ” Could I really have said all that! ”

1 2 In 93 , a new and reinvigorated movement for the freedom of Tom Mooney was ushered in by a huge meet ing of persons at Civic Auditorium in San Fran " ” Calicorre cisco , where Paul M . confessed that it was he t who placed he fatal Preparedness Day bomb . The meet ing was organized officially by the Tom Mooney Molders S Defense Committee , represented by am Goodwin , but S heard such diverse speakers as Lincoln teffens , Theodore S O rnit z Dreiser , amuel , Leo Gallagher, Irvin Goodman , S c of t and am Dar y, then State secretary he Communist

Party . The Communist participation in the meeting was t drama ized by the entrance of workers , including t from Alameda Coun y, who marched into the audi t orium in organized fashion , having previously been mobilized at Street rallies of the Communist Part y . The movement quickly assumed a mass organized char acter and the following March , a meeting at the Civic u 74 Auditori m was sponsored by organizations , including 6 O two of 3 AFL locals and seven ther unions , which were THE GRE AT CRISIS 1 57

s of old established independent union , the Brotherhood 1 43 Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen , Lodge , Oak t 8 land , and the Amalgamated Clo hing Workers , Local , while the remainder were unions of the Trade Union

Unity League . of During the initial Stages this movement , Anita Still in t resided Oakland , and She canvassed vir ually every t she AFL union in that city, and proudly recalls hat was t greeted wi h enthusiasm in all these unions , being ex n cluded from but o e .

1 Early in 93 3 , The Western Worker began to carry increasing references to Strikes in the agricultural regions . 1 7 1 9 3 3 t A typical issue (April , ) had such Stories scat ered Over the front page : Pea Pickers Refuse To Work For l 5c Per Hour ; Many Join Union Strawberry Workers in Southern California Plan Strike ” East Bay Workers Fight Wage Cuts In Pea Fields Jail Agricultural Work T ers in Effort o Stop Strike .

As more crops ripened , more such items appeared , and thousands of additional workers joined in the strikes of which seemed to sprout with the inexorability nature , u t just as the blossoms t rned into frui , and the seed in the ground bore fruition in the rich and diversified crops of ’

. t California s fertile valleys Peas and s rawberries , lettuce , h t t en raspberries and potatoes , hen cherries , apricots , pears and peaches , tomatoes and chile, hops , grapes and , finally, t corton . From he Imperial Valley in the south , along the of t slopes the mountains that descend to he seashore , up the rich San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys to the hardier 1 58 NATIVE DAUGHTER

of t he of fruits northern end the state, crops and revolt ripened in unison . And the revolt seemed to be motivated by forces as elemental as those which turned the dull ’ Y v . es brown of California s alleys into rich , lush green , the Struggles were elemental . They were Struggles to survive Wages were below the minimum necessary to . sustain life . They had been driven down to ten and of fifteen cents an hour . In the early phases the strike

t o t - movement , the workers aspired twen y five cents an houn This Strike movement reached its climax in October f with the great Cotton strike o workers . The walk out started in the Bakersfield area and swept northward with the ripening of the crop of over acres of

t . cot on The growers , who increasingly had been resorting

to terror to Stem the Strike wave , outdid themselves in the brutalit y with whi ch they sought to break the corton strikes . The terror reached its tragic and bloody crescendo in

. t the Pixley massacre A Pixley, the workers had for days pleaded with the judge and sheriff to disarm the vigilantes f . o lest bloodshed ensue On the day the massacre, a t worker came to the court house, told the judge tha armed men were in the vicinity and again pleaded that the author

ities take some action . The judge refused , and even while

the worker was remonstrating , another worker rushed in excitedly and said that armed vigilantes were moving into inv es i a e town . Sheriff Hill sent two officers out to r g t and they returned in fifteen minutes with seventeen men u — of nder arrest all them unarmed Strikers , including the one who had come to the court house t o warn the

authorities .

160 NATIVE DAUGHTER movement of the organizers who entered the valleys with ou t funds and carried on t heir activity often without food of of Califor and lodging, won the admiration thousands ’ nia s most exploited and oppressed workers . The terror reign had its aftermath in 1 934 and 19 3 5 when eighteen S workers were tried in acramento for criminal syndicalism , and several of them were sent to prison for terms ranging n from o e year upward . ’ t Anita s efforts , through her associa ion with the ILD , were centered on raising funds for the legal defense of

t . the Strikers , and relief for the Strike ki chens As the most famous of those who had been persecuted under the she v criminal syndicalism law, acti ely engaged in the broad mass movement launched during those years for of repeal that law . Although the campaign did not suc ceed t of in i s objective repealing the law , it did score a major victory in a State supreme court decision reversing the convictions of all the Sacramento criminal syndicalism case defendants . The agricultural strikes were overshadowed by the great industrial Struggles of the following year and little attention has been given t o their particular significance in the growth of the labor and progressive movement in

. t k California Yet, these s ri es , together with the unem of of ployed movement, were the seed the great upsurge f 1 934 and thereafter . Three features o these Strikes are particularly nOt ew ort hy : 1 v . Although the mo ement began before passage of tr Stirn ulat ed the National Indus ial Recovery Act, it was ’ S 7 - a by NIRA S famous ection , which held forth the f formal promise o the right to organize . The Strikes represented the first mass dramatic response to NIRA in THE GREAT CRISIS 1 61

v t o in California , and thus ser ed spire a Similar response in Other industries . l 2 . They Struck at the most powerfu potential reserves w n of reaction in California . Agriculture as or only the ’ State s largest industry ; not only did it represent the great eSt c single concentration of apital , but this capital imposed such a rule upon the rural communities of Ca lifornia as to make them potential shock troops against labor . The

Strikes , therefore , were flank attacks against California t t i capi al , and when he marit me walkout came the follow i so ing year, condit ons in the valleys were Still unsettled , the great landowners were Still so shaky that they were unable to us e rural California as a battering ram against of the industrial workers the coast cities .

3 . The Strikes occurred just as the economic index was beginning to curve upward after having reached its depth 2 in the summer of 1 93 . Many of the workers involved had been thrown out by industry and took t o the fields 1n t of k ti he hope pic ing up a few dollars harves ng crops . of r With the further progress recove y, these workers t r r i h il re u ned to indust y, tak ng wit them the m itant tradi tions of Struggle and organization acquired 1n the ag ricul tural strike movement . of its i in The Communist Party , because leadersh p t he t unemployed and agricul ural movements , registered its it s 1 1 first decisive growth since formation in 9 9 . CHAPTER NINE

BEST KNOWN . MOST BELOVED I Anita Whitney ’ s emergence as a public tribune of the ’ Communist Party coincided with the party s own emer gence as an important factor in the labor movement and BO th political life of California . events , closely related , 1 4 can be dated as beginning with 93 . The very date is t significant, connoting as it does he fundamental truth that the growth of the Communist Party and its public figures proceeds in direct relationship with the growth of labor organization and the popular democratic mass 1 4 movement among the people . The year 9 3 marked a turning point not only for the Communist movement in for t of a California , not only Anita as a represen ative th t for t he movement, but also labor and progressive political currents in the State . These interrelated t urning points were in turn related to great realignments then in process on t a worldwide scale, setting into motion the greates con fliC t s in world history . ’ For t t he labor movement , the year s high point was he n maritime Strike and the General Strike in San Fra cisco .

1 64 NATIVE DAUGHTER

1 3 NR A t In 93 , the advent of stimulated he longshore men to challenge the Blue Book” company union which had held undisputed sway on the docks through every devious means of intimidation made possible by job con f trol and the active assistance o the Shipowners . The Communists and ot her militants among the seamen gave all the support they could to this revolt among the long of shoremen , but the mainspring the movement naturally came from among the longshoremen themselves . They ’ organized into the AFL International Long shoremen s Association which had long been moribund on the Pacific Coast and managed to retain only a precarious toehold one t wo f in or isolated ports o the Northwest . The influx of longshoremen into the ILA and the existence of a con - t S scious , well organized militan group in an Francisco , t e centered around The Wa erfront Worker, a mim o graphed publication , quickly transformed the character of the ILA . By the time the Strike was called in the of 1 4 spring 9 3 , the militancy and democratic spirit among t S the longshoremen , par icularly in an Francisco , had t l reached such heights tha the old ine officials , including hi s International President Joseph P . Ryan as well as t Pacific Coast henchmen , could no longer control he of membership , and during the course the Strike itself,

' t he rank it s ow n i t and file established m li ant leadership , headed by Harry Bridges . T v of the t ik

he ital role. Communis s in that str e was attested to by Bridges himself in his testimony before

Dean James M . Landis during the first of his deportation hearings . The Communists helped rally public sympathy for the Strikers , helped raise relief and provide legal defense . Through The Western Worker, which was ST K ~M S 1 65 BE NOWN , O T BELOVED

t adopted as an official organ by the Strike commi tee , and r th ough individual Communists among the Strikers , the party sought to project those policies which it believed t would ensure vic ory . The Western Worker was the i t Com only newspaper wh ch supported the s rike , the muniSt Party was the only organized political force to assist the Strike, and the workers , engaged in a desperate f mm u t . o Co ba tle, welcomed this aid The prestige the nists t in the labor movemen generally, and among the i i maritime workers particularly, reached a h gh po nt . The Communist Part y thereafter became a recogni zed factor on the waterfront whose opinion and advice was wel comed by thousands of workers as coming from a tested friend , one who had rallied to their Side when they were in need . They remembered that one of the Strike martyrs who gave his life ’ s blood on Bloody Thursday was a B r i o do s . Communist, Nick

Anita herself was in Berkeley , convalescing from an AS out . illness , when the Strike broke the Situation grew more tense and the terror against the Strikers and the u she t S Comm nists more acute, re urned to an Francisco t she o do what She could , although was Still feeble from her illness . Her home was used for some time as a liaison headquarters for the distribution of literat ure among the strikers and the workers of the cit y generally . A rich anecdote growing ou t of the Strike serves to cast Anita in an unusual light . The incident occurred after the General Strike had been called off and a wave of terror w as directed against the Communists and Other i Com m litants by armed vigilantes , aided by the police . mun iSt headquarters and the offices of The Western 166 NATIVE DAUGHTER

f Worker were smashed . Homes o individual Commu n ists were raided , their occupants beaten and jailed . ’ on Macondra Anita s nephew, who lived in her home y leSt Lane , was apprehensive their house be raided and ' r his aunt beaten o jailed . He at first suggested that

v t . Anita lea e town , but she would not hear of i He then exacted from her a promise that she would place the chain latch over the door while he was away at work for during the day . When he left work, Anita kept her promise, chain latched the door . A Short while later , the door bell rang . Anita opened the door the few inches t which the chain la ch permitted , and peered through to see a tiny and pitiful beggar woman who was peddling pencils . This experience shamed and humiliated her . ” I , a free born American , she thought , sitting in my ” own ! home behind a latched door It was too much , she and unlatched the door . However, She realized there t was clear and presen danger , and decided to find a weapon with which to protect herself against any unw el S un come intruder . he found a cane, but that was too S v wieldy . he then tried a fire poker but it was too hea y

t . to be maneuvered wi h ease Finally, She settled upon t bO t tle an emp y milk , and all day She went about her bO t t le she work, the milk at her side, and when answered she the door bell , opened the door wide, but the milk bottle was in her right hand .

With the entire State St 1rred by such events as the t m mari ime Strike and the EPIC upheaval , the Co munist Party managed to get on the California election b allor

1 68 NATIVE DAUGHTER

she V 90 of tallied , had otes , at least per cent them received from people who Voted for Sinclair on the

EPIC ticket . S Upton inclair was defeated in an historic campaign , unprecedented for its bitterness and the unprincipled use " ” by the reactionaries of the red scare bogey to win the T t elections . he Communists correc ed their previous esri of b e mation the EPIC movement , and the antagonism tween Communists and Epics was largely eliminated in the course of a number of united front campaigns on economic and political issues , in which Epics , progressive trade unions and the Communists participated . Large numbers of disillusioned Epics turned to the Communists for leadership and many joined the party . ’ of t Anita s vore , more than twice that any o her Com muniSt r for candidate, legally qualified the pa ty a place n all r o the b o in the next State elections . Although some t v minor special circumstances a tended her unusual ote, fundamentally it was a personal tribute, an indication of the prestige she enjoyed among thousands of Californians who regarded her as the best representative of the Com munist Party , thousands who had come to admire her for ’ her self- sacrificing work in the women s suffrage move t her of men , in efforts on behalf the Negro people and the Irish liberation struggles ; thousands of union men and women w ho had come to know her as a Staunch of d champion labor, thousands who a mired her noble and courageous behaviour during the seven years that the of r shadow a penitentia y sentence hung over her , and Still Other thousands who became acquainted with her in the of course her modest , patient and tireless activity as a S K M S 169 BE T NOWN , O T BELOVED

member of the Communist Part y . Anita Whitney became recognized as the best known and most widely beloved of t in one the Communis spokesmen California , whose life w as associated with that which was finest and beSt in the f State Since the beginning o the century . The party with which her name was now inseparably i f linked continued to grow and ga n in luence . Many hun t dreds swelled its ranks from among the Epics , he mari S l time and agricultural workers , and ocia ists who became dismayed with the ruinous course of their party .

In 1934 3 5 the shadow of the coming war became the

t 1n o . its mce t ion dominan fact w rld politics From p , the Communist Party had warned of the imminent danger of F r a . o w as war in the m king many years , it virtually a lone voice, a harsh voice to those lulled by the idyllic n pacifism of the Coolidge era . Beginni g wit h 1 929 and r t for several yea s thereafter, the Communists ini iated in t ernat ion al demonstrations against imperialist war on 1 of of August , anniversary the outbreak the World War . Anita herself w as jailed for picketing in connection wit h f 1 the first o these August demonstrations . A newspaper photograph shows her marching, carrying a placard read " ing : August First Is The International Day Against ” i and 1 h pe riaIiSt War . An ta Ot hers arrested with her

- e received 30 day Suspended s ntences . 1 93 3 of to o But after , after the advent Hitler p wer, after the emergence of the Fascist bloc of powers intent on t aggression , af er these intentions materialized in the t on reann amen t of az at ack Ethiopia and the N i Germany, 170 NATIVE DAUGHTER

the Communists were no longer a lone voice . Hundreds of millions of people thr oughout the world sensed the irnminence of war and ident ified this menace with fas ism m c . With these millions , the Co munists made com t mon cause . They worked to uni e these millions around a common program of collective agreement among the democratic nations to halt the aggression of the Fascist t o Axis , and within each country crush the Fascist reaction which Was making a bid for power . Within t he United States the break between the Roose velt Administration and the most reactionary forces with r in 1 5 of in the count y 93 , symbolized by the formation t t t the Liber y League to fight he New Deal , and the wi h draw al of support to the a dministration by such gentry as Charles E . Coughlin and William Randolph Hearst, created realignments wherein it became possible for the Communist Part y to collaborate with the popular forces which gravitated around the New Deal . This collabora tion reached its high poin t during the second Roosevelt 1 37 i term , beginning with 9 , when the adm nistration opened its campaign for reform of the Supreme Court in the wake of such legislative enactments as the Social S ecurity Law , the National Labor Relations Act , the

- Walsh Healey Act , and Still later, the Wages and Hours

Law .

- e f. In California, the beneficent eff cts o the united front

’ act 1v 1t ies t t he ' CommuniSt S who be ween and former Epics , now formed a militant progressive wing within the Dem ocrat ic 1 6 Party, made themselves felt in the 93 elections t 1 and bore their most frui ful results in the 9 38 campaign . With the help of Earl Browder who in 1 936 personally

1 72 NATIVE DAUGHTER

’ the party s message of unity of labor and all progressive forces against the Fascist menace . She pleaded with all the eloquence at her command for mass petitions and on S protests to lift the embargo democratic pain , then t and t a fighting for i s life , to force a halt o the sh meful of oil i shipments scrap iron , and munitions to mil tarist

Japan . The crowning symbol of t he progressive unit y then achieved in California for a brief time and a source of great personal joy to Anita was the liberation of T om F r r 1 . o Mooney in Janua y , 939 her, who had taken up the fight for Mooney in 19 16 and who personally expe rienced the same reactionary hysteria which was respon i f his i not cul S ble or his imprisonment, liberat on only mi n at ed 22 of o alSo years consistent eff rt, but was a token of of i she set hope, v ctory in the wider goals had herself in life .

It was a different sort of campaign in a different atmos 1 4 phere that Anita waged in 9 0 . Her party was under of of attack, the subject an unprecedented wave slander , misrepresentation and vilification . As candidate for the ’ St S she w as United ates enate , the party s most prominent public champion against its enemies and their frenzied ow c a she can abuse . Just h suc essful champion was be

u b her r . She ive 97 478 t v i ga ged y vo e rece d , vo es , rtually the same number obtained in 1 9 38 . The vote was a pop ular demonstration of the fact that despite the orgy of

- t t red bai ing, masses of people retained their faith in Ani a

Whitney and the party she represented . ’ Anita s opponent was Hiram Johnson , the isolationist S K S 1 7 3 BE T NOWN , MO T BELOVED

n - and w appeaser . A ita assailed his anti labor record , dre ’ the sharp cont rast between the isolationist appeasers t espousal of a negotia ed peace with Hitler, and the Com ’ ’ - munisrs consistent anti Fascist fight for a people s peace . Replying to those who had slandered the Communists and t on she misrepresen ed their position the war, declared in 1 940 : a Statewide broadcast in October , " t a Our par y is an American party, which m kes its own nO t decisions , and is influenced or controlled by any of foreign power . We Stand for the defense American of democratic institutions , for the defense our country and the interests of the American people . To the red- baiters who sai d the Communists were fifth um t and of l she col nis s allies Hit er , scornfully replied " We have been fighting Hitler and Hitlerism long before some of these Republican and Democratic politi ~ i c ans found it has become fashionable to do so . Where were these great patriots when we Communists fought to save Spai n and China from t he Axis powers ever since 1 936? Where were they when we fought an r the Munich policy? Where were they when we were picket ing Japanese Ships that were picking up American oil and munitions t o bombar d Chinese women and children ? If i there is any fifth column in this country , you will f nd it ” f - in the ranks o the red baiters . Johnson was a fortunate opponent for he provided an opportunity for dramariz ing the distinct ion between his " " bogus isolationism and the positive foreign policy o on al advanced by the Communists , a p licy based an lian ce S t S t i of the United ta es , the ovie Un on and China . " S i S uch a constellation of powers , the Un ted tates ,

t he Sov iet - China and Union , moving along agreed upon 1 74 NATIVE DAUGHTER

lines fully consistent with th e needs of the three great

peoples , would be very powerful indeed , said Earl Brow 1 4 “ t on 6 0 . der in a speech at Bos on October , 9 It would

be a Stable combination , for these countries have no rival

ries of conflicting interests . It would be Strategically i powerful , because it would mmediately hold the keys to

- - three continents ; a Washington Moscow Chungking bloc, l t o so idly welded wi h correct p licies , would be unmatch

able in world politics . It would be physically Strong, combining seven hundred to eight hundred millions of ’ of population , and the preponderance the world s pro d iv ucr e . n forces It would be morally invincible , attracti g t h e enthusiastic adherence of the suffering people all over the globe . The Communist belief w as t hat this powerful combma r t of tion , suppo ted by he countries Latin America and the peoples of all the world , presented the hope of prevent ing the evolution of the conflict into a world war , and offered the opportunity to use the balance of power it ’

t o t . S enjoyed bring about a democra ic, people s peace uch did t he S an alliance not come into being then , and oviet ’ Union s involvement in the war removed t he last hope that America could retain its democracy and independence Amen ca nor by remaining aloof from the conflict . could t of n withdraw in o the Shell sple did , isolation , while all ’ the reSt of the world was threaten ed by Hitler s conquest . The ; SOv iet i n i i ts we u R ed - a d Un o ; w th po rf l Army , n its

' ’ Strategic position lying at hWart Hitler s path through t he Near East and Middle E asr to a juncture with his Japa t b e nese par ners , had been the most powerful barrier tween the United States and Axis aggression . When Hit ler t at empted to remove that barrier, he Struck directly at

1 76 NATIVE DAUGHTER

I Anita glanced downward . might have known it! Y u she . o t exclaimed are wearing silk s ockings . A paci ’ fiSt ! You re just helping to pay for the bombs to wreck

i ~ Chinese cities , k ll and maim Chinese women and chil dren . she ou f With that arose and walked t o the house . Her companion trailed after her, and when he came alongside , ” ’ suggested , Anita , don t you think we could have gone a ” bit easier on those people? " No , Anita replied , there comes a time in any con versation when there is an end to it . And that was the end .

’ T 1 41 7 5th of he year 9 , the year Anita s life , contained t wo dates which will forever loom large in world history,

June 22 and December 7 . Only five months intervened between that Sunday morning in early summer when Hitler’ s luftwaffe and panzer divisions Struck ' across the Soviet border in treacherous attack and that Other Sunday morning in late autumn when with equal Stealth and Ac treachery Japanese planes bombed Pearl Harbor . ru al l t y, the dates are more closely related than even he Short interval between them would indicate . They borh de nored the desperate desire of the Fasc1St Axis to press for ' 2 world conquest regardless o f Cost . June 2 ushered in the greatest crisis in contemporary history ; December 7

- was its inexorable echo . The world wide war which was ’ inevitable after Hitler s attack on the Soviet Union b e came a grim reality in the death and wreckage wrought by Japanese bombs in Hawaii . ST K M ST 1 77 BE NOWN , O BELOVED

For tw o t Anita , the dates are associated wi h two meet ings of the national committee of the Communist Party where she participated in arriving at the most important ’ ’ decisions in the party s life . Only a week after Hitler s r S t n a mies crossed the oviet frontier, he Commu ist na t ional committee was convened in plenary session . Out " ’ n S of u s deliberations came a ma ifesto titled . The People Program of Struggle for the Defeat of Hitler and Hitler ism! ” It addressed these bold clear words to the Amer ican p eople : " T h e people of our country are facing a new world situation . Hitler fascism has brazenly attacked the Soviet U m f ion . This has immeasurably increased the menace o

Hitler and fascism to the national existence of all peop les , to the social and national security of the people of the of h United States . The involvement t e Soviet Union in the war has changed the character of the war . The glorious and mighty defense by the Red Army and the of t S t r united people he oviet Union , heir valiant St uggle out o or to drive and crush the aggressor , create the pp t unity for the people of the United States and for all peoples to unite and assure the complete and final an nihilation of t Hitler and Hi lerism . " of of The defeat Hitlerism , which means the defense of the liberty and independence all nations , calls for the world- wide unity of all peoples in the Struggle against

Hitler fascism . " Organized labor and t he whole working class are the of a s In sworn enemies re ction , fa cism and Hitlerism . this new and critical world situation the working class 1 78 NATIVE DAUGHTER

therefore faces the duty to assume leadership in the peo ’ — ple s fight against the Fascist menace in the fight to bring speedy and effective aid to the Soviet Union . It is the duty of the working class to lead the fight to establish American- Soviet- British collaboration for the defeat of Hitlerism and to make this the official and active policy ” of the government . The manifesto concluded with such Slogans as " Defend America by giving full aid ' to the Soviet t Union , Great Bri ain and all nations who fight against Hitler! “ For full and unlimited collaboration of the United St S u ates , Great Britain and the oviet Union to bring abo t the military defeat of fascism! For a government policy of democratic struggle against fascism! ” But a few days after Anita returned home from this meeting where She participated in the drafting of t his t she of historic manifes o , was honored on the occasion

- t . her seventy fourth bir hday It was an inspired occasion , the audience of seven hundred who jammed the audi t orium at Communist headquarters in San Francisco b e yond capacity was ent hu sed and excited by the great battle being waged by the Red Army against the Nazi t invaders , by the knowledge hat the Fascist reaction which had marched from victory to victory for more than a

decade had now, come to grips with a force which could

Stop it . And all the emotions evoked by that gigantic d t conflict were associate with this tribu e to Anita , for to those present she w as a living embodiment of those i things for which Red Army men were fighting , bleed ng,

180 NATIVE DAUGHTER

t fully the gravity of the crisis facing the nation , he weight of the responsibilities which now evolved upon them as ’ f m t leaders o the Com unist Party . On Fos er s proposal a committee of five was chosen t o draft a Statement of

. t policy In a half hour, he committee returned with a of short , concise, unequivocal declaration the Communist

attitude toward the new turn in the war .

That Statement , as submitted by Robert Minor and t adopted by he assembly, proclaimed the Communist ’ ” Part y s central slogans : Everything for Victory Over World-Wide Fascist Slavery! Everything for National ” Unity! " t of Through he mouths Japanese cannon , the Axis V and its vassal States , from ichy to Helsinki , have de clared war against the United States and all powers that

stand against enslavement . " Never in the history of our country has the need for f mmu unity o the Nation been so great as now . The Co niSt t Party pledges its loyalty , i s devored labor and last drop of its blood in support of our country in this greatest of all the crises that ever threatened its existence . In the tradition of the Communist leaders who in 1 861 joined t he United States Army under commissions issued by

President Lincoln , American Communists today t Step forward to support he bigger war against Slavery, a ’ war in defense of the whole world s freedom .

The meeting was hastily completed , and the national committee members and Other part y leaders rushed back to their posts throughout the country to help weld the

n . American people into a u ified , invincible whole By the t o S time Anita returned her home, an Francisco had ex ri pe enced its first blackout . War tension was evident in S M S 1 8 1 BE T KNOWN, O T BELOVED

m . the city . California had been proclai ed a combat zone Thr ough the windows of her living room which overlook S n see an Francisco Bay, A ita could the Golden Gate and e t of b yond , where American ships , wi hin sight the Cali fornia t sub coast, were sent to the bot om by Japanese se a marines . She could e huge tr nspo rts laden with uni o ou t the formed American b ys , gliding of harbor into the sunset whose golden hues animated the hills of Marin and transformed the Golden Gate Bridge into thin bracelet e like bands . B yond the sunset was Pearl Harbor , Wake , ’ Manila , Corregidor, outposts of America s Pacific fron i t er . Everything for Victory! It was an unequivocal slo t t gan , and Anita sough to put it into life withou equivoca S tion . he went to her local fire house to register for

civilian defense . She offered her services to the American ’ Red Cross and the American Women s Volunteer Service . she t Everywhere, tacitly or openly, was met wi h the Story, " ” i no di T l . oo o d But An ta was t to be smissed . The " ” phrase too old is a challenge to her although she is w modest about her o n ability . She insisted that while t young people were given more important tasks , here was

something for her to do . And despite the apathy or red she tape which met her, finally found a job , winding 7 5 surgical bandages for the Red Cross , and now, at , she punctual and faithful , appears at Red Cross head quarters weekly to wind bandages and discuss the issues

- of the war with her co workers . Her home has been the block meeting place for the organization of air raid pre t on cau ions , and the raid warden has consulted with her m of the improve ent the work . of t o Most all , her contributions the war effort lie in 182 NATIVE DAUGHTER

the leadership she gives t o her party . With the same pas sion and unyielding attachment to principle that She once 1 17 opposed American participation in the war of 9 , she

‘ t o i v 1 2 S now expends her energies ach eve ictory in 94 . he ’ " t nO twith unders ands that this war , to use Lenin s words , t Standing all the horrors , cruelties , miseries and tor ures , inevitably connected with every war, had a progressive " character ; it served the development of mankind , aid ing in the destruction of extremely pernicious and reac t ion ary institutions helping to remove the most n barbarous despotisms 1 Europe .

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? What makes her a leader The answer is complex . she t One cannot point to books has writ en , political she t or theories has evolved , or any particular stra egy h f tactics s e has innovated . The secret o her leadership she lies in her person, in what is , in what she has come of to represent to thousands her comrades , and many

f . more thousands outside the ranks o her party . Hers is t he f rare quali ty o leadership by example . People not t only follow her ; more importan , they are inspired to r emulate her . There are people whom you have neve seen , yet you have heard a great deal about them and f unconsciously you create a mental portrait o them . Were you t o be asked to describe the details which contributed

ou . toward that portrait , y would be at a loss And yet , the v of ery name this person , who is actually unknown to you , connotes a picture which has all the force of reality . is has t Anita such a person , and an aura been crea ed t around her , a legend all the more wonderful because i has such deep r0 0 ts in reality . Her leadership is no of formal process , it reaches into the lives people , into v their minds and hearts , and is manifested in all the aried f and complex expressions o living itself . S F ’ In an rancisco s North Beach , an Italian worker , not one t a Communist, who had never seen Anita , decided o ’

his t . name daughter af er her In California s valleys , u is un among the Mexican agricult ral laborers , it not

- common t o ’ meet some little girl w ho answers to the name

‘ of Anita Ramirez or Anita Gomez . Among the Negro ’ of W eSt or t families Oakland Bakersfield , there are Ani a s namesakes . And if her name is remembered at the blessed of t event birth , it is also remembered in he tragic even

tualit of . one y death On occasion , Anita was called by THE SECRET OF LEADERSHIP 1 85

an Oakland bank and was informed that some worker w as had just died , his name unfamiliar to Anita , and he ’ v t had his life s sa ings , some deposited in a join " account for himself and Anita . The name Whitney is " no misspelled , the bank official explained , but there is

f. w doubt as to the intent o the deceas ed . The account no ” is solely in your name . On another occasion the Irish f landlady of a rooming house called Anita . One o her o old ro mers , an German immigrant worker , seemingly i e alone in the world , had d ed . The landlady had no fix d t m t or ideas abou the Com unist Par y Anita Whitney , t of except that the roomer had talked constan ly both , and she modesrf ortun e was certain that his , if any, must have been willed either to the party or Anita . At the bank ’ t old where his worker s savings were , a will , several years old , was found , leaving his meager funds to a niece in

S . tuttgart , Germany The landlady was incensed at the of t o She thought the money going Hitler Germany , and felt cert ain that a later will muSt have superceded that old w as d one , but it never iscovered . ’ The ripening of California s diverse crops can be ’ o judged by the packages that arrive at Anita s h me . Citrus S fruits from the an Fernando Valley , apples from Eureka , S plums and cherries from anta Clara , peaches from the S t . her an Joaquin Valley , gif s from many admirers On t oo she 15 speaking tours , , showered with gifts , primitive and generous expressions of the warmth and affection with which she is regarded . Anita returns this affection and warmth with a remarkable sensitivit y to the emotions of n people, their in er thoughts and hopes . she Once spoke in the town of Fort Bragg . One man r t a rived late a the meeting, and after it was over came 1 86 NATIVE DAUGHTER

for forward to apologize to Anita his latecoming . He explained he had been detained at the funeral parlor ’ where his wife s body lay . She had died that day . ’ an t o Then , as afterthought , he turned Anita s com " panion and said, It would be wonderful if Comrade Anita could say a few words at the funeral services to

morrow Just a few words . It would mean so much to

me . But I don ’ t know the comrade Anita said to her

companion . ” ’ ou of t e Anita , y know the life a worker s wife, he sa plied . Just y a few words about what this woman f r f o or . aspired to , what She hoped , what She lived t Ani a agreed , and the next morning delivered a brief, ’

t . simple alk at the bier The dead woman s children , m Strangers to the Co munist movement, wept . They came w ’ k forward to ring Anita s hands , to than her for an apt and wonderful tribute which made them see their ow n mother in a new and finer light .

Anita has a passion for going to the people . Her cam i n o of p a g n tours are r a series speaking engagements . she of Whenever possible goes into the homes the people , u those who are poorest , in the sl m shacks on the outskirts of t town , in the farm labor camps , those who are mos

t . oppressed and persecuted , he Negroes and Mexicans Sa Once she was scheduled to speak in nta Barbara , and she her comrades , knowing had a Strenuous schedule, prepared a room and bed where she could rest prior to —oh her meeting . But when Anita arrived , no , there was

188 NATIVE DAUGHTER

masses . During her 1 940 election tour she was in an

automobile accident . The car turned over and several of

her ribs were broken . It was painful and very serious for 7 3 a woman of , but there were several towns where she had been scheduled to speak and she insisted on fill ” ing those engagements . But the comrades are expecting he s . me, protested And only the firm insistence of the t she par y finally dissuaded her , and even then only after t had been promised tha as soon as she was well , even

after the elections , meetings would be arranged for her in those towns t o compensate for the disappointment the

local comrades must have felt at her failure to appear . t Her devotion to people is as cons ant as it is tender . of Her solicitude for the health of people , leading persons t - of in the par y, rank and file comrades , non party people

t . her acquain ance is no formal matter , it is a deep concern S she ome time ago , undertook to supply a Communist organizer in one of the rural communities with periodicals t n or and li erature which the latter could afford to buy . It is an obligation she fulfills with painstaking care and

t t . punc uali y Upon returning from a trip , no matter what its duration , among the first things she does it to gather O up The New Masses , The Daily Worker and ther bits ff o . of literature , wrap them carefully, and send them morher 1 27 Her , who died in October , 9 , Suffered from failing eyesight during the last years of her life . Those were difficult years for Anita ; her criminal syndicalism case was Still pending in the courts , she was preoccupied S t min with the fight to save acco and Vanzet i , yet she ’ iSt ered to her mother s needs , read to her aloud for many hours from works she thought her mother would enjoy . " co- of S As a worker those years said , he was never too THE SECRET OF LEADERSHIP 1 89

t oo o . busy , absorbed to give this pleasure to her m ther ’ Ani ta s capacit y for Strong human ties is exemplified by her relations with her family . None of the family is t o t of sympathetic her poli ical views , yet with most them She has maintained the closest bonds , and she commands of n their respect . One her ephews is a Wesr Pointer and t recently he has corresponded wi h her , expressing admira tion for the Red Army and his amazement at t he facr s he t of had known the s rength the Red Army while he, a

n or. military man, had

Her love for people is no blind abstraction . It is tem pered by a keen, and when necessary , a critical appraisal is of of them . She proud the fact that She was among the first t o det eCt on e of the most notorious stoolpigeons who once wormed his way into the Communist Party in

- l . Ca ifornia On another occasion , after only a two day t t visit to a cer ain rural community , she reported to he party’ s State headquarters that the organizer in that local w so ity as unreliable . Her diagnosis of his failings was accurate that virtually all her specific predictions of what t l would happen if he remained in tha region were fulfi led . Stalin has said that modesty is a cardinal virtue of a t no Bolshevik . Modes y is r only a trait deeply ingrained f o . t in Anita , it is a way life for her I is expressed most forcibly in her insistent readiness to fulfill the modest

t . t tasks , he humble jobs The faithful regulari y with which She reports at Red Cross headquarters to wind bandages f i is illustrative o this . She nsists on distributing leaflets o to t d or door, is regular and punc ual in attendance at the of t o meetings her Communis Party neighb rhood branch , and oftentimes pleads that some trip out of town be post so she no poned a day that will r miss her branch meeting . 90 NATIVE DAUGHTER

Some years ago She w as twice urged to go to the Soviet She t Union , and each time refused , insis ing that the money and her t ime could borh be expended more usefully in work at home . of Her manner living , her home are Simple to the ex

t t . reme, in keeping with her innate modes y During her

criminal syndicalism trial and after , the Story was assidu ousl of y spread that She was a woman great wealth , and

somehow the legend persisted in some quarters . Her foes even used this legend as an arg ument for her imprison insi u u ment . So d o s had that legend become that John Francis N eylan deemed it necessary t o dispel it in his

pardon plea to Governor Young . " t of t Under he heading extenuating circums ances , " N e lan wrote y , may I first dissipate a fiction which has

been widespread , and which probably accounts for what ever superficial reason has been advanced for the incar of ceration Miss Whitney . I refer to the story that she is a woman of great wealth and has had the means to employ counsel to make an unusually vigorous fight in

her behalf . First let me assure Your Excellency that whatever h S wealth Miss Whitney in erited was never great . econdly may I advise you that even her modest inheritance has t long since approached the vanishing point, due o her

activities in behalf of the poor and lowly, the distressed

and suffering and particularly needy children . The of S of of t records the tate California , the histories chari able organizations and the memories of public officials can supply some of the detail of how She served for years of without one cent of compensation . Hundreds men,

1 92 NATIVE DAUGHTER

e or that r ality, and never takes refuge in Sham petty f moralisms to escape some of the unpleasantness o realit y .

. t Anita has a passion for life Once, somewhat abs ract edl she t y, began to cite instances of longevi y in her family .

So- - so 86 so- - s o 87 . S and lived to be , and omeone inter " ru t ed v ou p , Oh , Anita , you , the way you li e, y will beat them all . " so? she Do you really think inquired .

Of course . Really .

She felt more cheerful . Her passion for living is most radiant in her enthusiasm for t t nature , in a you hful delight at raveling, especially to places which are new to her . On the road , she is wont to interrupt the 111 0 51: serious political conversation with ’ t ! some exclamation , Oh , isn t tha larkspur wonderful And she has a remarkable knowledge of the various species of flowers and trees which dot the California countryside , and she Still finds time to tend the flowers L . t o os outside her home Going Angeles not long ago , she grew wistful as the car passed by fields of ripening ”

. S t grain he turned o the driver , I remember in my youth , going through the midwest and seeing whole fields of t grain waving in he wind for miles and miles , as

see . S far as the eye could he paused , lost in remi i Sh n scence . e Then , suddenly, with naive sincerity , added , Don ’ t you think we can manage to go by here again some time when the grain has ripened?” S an he has a mild distaste for rocking chairs , and anecdote she has remembered for more than fifty years he . s v may explain this furniture quirk In her youth , isited f f of t he the home o a friend o the family . The lady house, Sitting and knitting in a rocking chair, suddenly THE SECRET OF LEADERSHIP 1 9 3

w t exclaimed , Oh , how I like to just sit and rot and and ” ' ror! Ani ta w as mystified by this unusual preference , t and upon returning home told her mo her of it . Her morher explained that the poor woman suffered from a Speech impediment which transformed many hard con " ” sonants 1nto t " ’ t r I ve thought of that later , Ani a says , and I neve want to just sit in a chair and w t and rot and ror!

O ld rocking chair will never get Anita . There is t oo

t o . S n or t much to do , too much live for he does permi herself the indulgence of old age . She keeps abreast of world events with a keen eye and exhibits a remarkably fine appreciation for change , for the need of readjusting ‘ r t t old attitudes and concepts to confo m with, cons an ly

. S r changing objective reality he reads a great deal , litera y works as well as political tracts or topical books of current

t t . interest , all with cri ical judgmen she In addition to her routine work as a Communist , has special interests related to the activities of the Com h muniSt t . s e Par y As always , is most deeply aroused by some act of injustice and persecution against a spokesman

for . the working class In the past year and a half, this indignation at injustice was centered on the case of Earl i of t Browder . She collected hundreds Signa ures on pet ’ : tions requesting Browder s freedom . Through her indi vidual efforts dozens of prominent Californians were in duced to intercede personally with President Roosevelt ’ h s . s e in Browder behalf Wherever went , whether to a meeting of Wellesley alumnae or to visit old associates ’ in the women s suffrage fight, the Browder case became the central topic of conversation . She had taken up the 194 NATIVE DAUGHTER

fight with a crusadin g zeal born of a sense of deep per sonal outrage at the thought of a man like Browder being of kept behind the bars a Federal penitentiary . ’ w as In the campaign for Browder s freedom , She asso ciat ed with Elizabeth Gurley Flynn , whose youthful ora tory some t hirty years before had helped to awaken t ’ t S Ani a s in erest in the labor movement and ocialism . In the intervening years Anita had made Elizabeth Gurley Flynn ’ s acquaintance during the latter ’ s frequent trips to

the Pacific Coast and long sojourn in Portland , Oregon , t t and his acquain ance ripened into friendship . Now , Eliz ’ ab et h of Gurley Flynn had become one the party s leaders , and as secretary of the Citizens Committee To Free Earl of Browder , an organizer the fight to free him . Anita has always taken a special interest in t he work of m t the Co munist Par y among women , and in the educa t of t tion and developmen women wi hin the party . In of she pursuit this special interest , has been closely

old co- t associated with her friend and worker , Mo her

Bloor . These two veterans have maintained a constant on and close correspondence in late years this problem , ’ so near to them both . Anita s interest in work among women Stems nor so much from the fact t hat She is a ’ or woman , from long association with the women s move r ment , dating back to the suff age fight, but primarily from the Marxist understanding that in capitalist societ y o of w men are the victims special exploitation , the social of horizons women are more limited , their lives more warped by the pressure of social norms and economic practice . A similar motivation is responsible for her more than thirty years of active association with the struggle for

1 96 NATIVE DAUGHTER

t she poised . The audience leaned forward o catch what ’ had to say . She rested her folded arms on the speaker s

Stand before her , leaned slightly forward , and began to h . AS s e speak in a soft , placid , narrative tone became more immersed in her talk , her shoulders hunched some a he what and She clasped her hands . For emph sis s leaned further forward , waved her head . The words flowed t smoothly, impelled by a direct earnest sinceri y, lightened at times by the g ent leSt humor . They conveyed a personal

. S t warmth he used extensive nores , almost a ranscript , but digressed from them frequently to elaborate on a

or . S point , lend it greater emphasis oon , her preoccupa tion with what she had to say loosened some of the ear t lier restraint , and she apped the table with her fingers , r o permitted herself a slight flourish of the hand . The n audience was completely attentive . There was ot even t he n erv ou s t so - ‘ fidge ing customary in an all day meeting which then was in its afternoon session . She spoke in a sh personal vein . She to you . What e said came so directly from her ow n emotions and thoughts that it w as not merely a report of what she had observed and heard ; it f was a testament o personal conviction . She related her ow n experiences in the Browder campaign . She told of w as the prison regime to which Browder subjected . N o of m and visits except by immediate members the fa ily, "

. t i those only once a month These are he cond tions under .

. S which Earl Browder lives today, she said he under

Stood and explained . the political factors involved in ’ t Browder s imprisonment , the complex issues which wen nor into the struggle for his release . It was only a simple ’ act of justice which was sought . Browder s release was his a war measure, for America needed his services , active THE SECRET OF LEADERSHIP 197

be mind and ability to lead . His freedom would a boon n t t t to national u i y, to the consolida ion of hose forces

actively engaged in the gigantic war effort . She said b ut w as these things , beyond that , there the deep concern

for O t . a comrade, for a victim f injus ice t Despi e the visible emotion , there was no oratorical he crescendo or finale . S concluded with a simple appeal ou r t for Still greater efforts to free Browder . That is du y ” and we must face it as Bolsheviks . The thousands who have seen and heard Anita Whitney On a public plat form have caught something of her per n I e on so . r is a common tendency to emb llish oneself the so an platform . But Anita is completely free of guile d pretense that she is one of those rare persons who conveys

her true self to an audience . Anita ’ s ceaseless activities to free B rowd er were

crowned with a happy ending . One beautiful San Fran S t 1 6 cisco May morning (it was a urday, May , her

telephone rang . An excited voice on the Other Side y ou t ? bubbled , Have heard the news , Comrade Ani a ” ’ Earl Browder is free! Anita s reply w as blurred by tears w O o . as f j y welling up in her throat It a joy, as deeply ’

e o . s p rsonal as it was s cial Yes , Browder s relea e had vast

political meaning . It symbolized the developing national t y y, the growing determination to place victor over

the Axis above all other considerations . It added a great d w an . as valuable force to the fight against Hitler Yet, it w . as more A comrade , a friend free , back in the ranks , r back in the St uggle . Anita knew Browder and his family . She had enjoyed visits at the Browder home on her ft c t quen trips to New York . She felt for him not only the of O attachment political comradeship , but also the ties f NATIVE DAUGHTER

personal friendship . Browder , in turn , valued very highly she t her contributions to the party, the things had come o personify to the party membership and to many thousands ’ outside of the party s ranks .

t O f Anita Whitney , daugh er America in whose veins ’ flows the blood of the nation s revolutionary creators , in ’ her person bridges the g ap between America s past and

. r its present and future , Her life, its measured t ead , its is t of logical development , he story of the unfolding the e t American id al . Her attachment to the American radi one tion is the thread that runs through it, from early t t i youth until the presen day, and her loyalty o that trad tion , its revolutionary living meaning, guided her along a her inevitable course to Communism . Just s the Amer ican revolutionary heritage was handed on by history t o so t t the working class , Ani a Whitney , who claimed hat ow n heritage as her , found her identity with the working class , with its most conscious section , the Communist

Part y. she w as Once asked , Anita , how do you regard the Communist Party? What has it come to mean to you ? ” “ she Why, smiled incredulously, a bit taken aback by " SO amazing a question . Why it has given purpose e of to my life. The Communist Party is the h op the world .

She t one . It was a long path trod , but a Straigh These are the mileposts along that path : social welfare and t e ’ form , women s suffrage, political education and organiza O tion f women , movements against national oppression,