Frank Little (unionist)

Frank H. Little
Born	1879 Fulton County, Illinois,United States
Died	August 1, 1917(1917-08-01)(aged 37–38) Butte, Montana,United States
Cause of death	Lynching
Resting place	Mountain View Cemetery,Butte, Montana,United States
Occupations	Miner Labor leader
Years active	1903–1917
Organization(s)	WFM,IWW
Height	5 ft 11 in (180 cm)
Movement	American Labor movement

Franklin Henry Little(1879 – August 1, 1917), commonly known asFrank Little,was anAmericanlaborleader who was murdered inButte,Montana.No one was apprehended or prosecuted for Little's murder. He joined theIndustrial Workers of the Worldin 1905, organizing miners, lumberjacks, and oil field workers. He was a member of the union's Executive Board when he was murdered andlynched.

Early life

According to the 1880 U.S. census, Franklin Henry Little was born inIllinoisabout 1878to Dr. Walter R. and Almira Hays Little. Dr. Walter Little attended medical school in Keokuk, Lee County, Iowa between the years 1874 and 1878. In 1889 he left behind his medical practices in Missouri in the pursuit of a new home for his family, finally settling in Oklahoma, where the family became homesteaders in the1889 Oklahoma Land Rush.The family later suffered drought and penurious conditions after thePanic of 1893.After Dr. Walter Little's death in 1899, Frank Little followed his miner brother, Walter Frederick Little, to California, where he too became a miner. In 1903, Frank departed his brother and sister-in-law, Emma Harper Little, in California forBisbee, Arizona.There he worked as a miner before becoming an organizer for theWestern Federation of MinersinClifton, Arizona.In 1905 Frank Little joined theIndustrial Workers of the World.

Industrial Workers of the World

Frank Little was involved in organizing lumberjacks, metal miners, migrant farm workers, and oil field workers into industrial unions, often as part of free speech campaigns. He pioneered thepassive resistancetactics used by theFreedom Ridersduring theCivil Rights Movement.Frank Little first took part in the 1909Missoula, Montanafree speech fight along withElizabeth Gurley Flynn,helping organize lumber workers who suffered at the hands of logging company managers complicit with "sharks," or employment agencies who tricked workingmen out of their hard-earned money. Next Frank Little took part in theSpokane, Washingtonfree speech fight, where he was sentenced to thirty days in prison for reading theDeclaration of Independence.He suffered in Spokane's frigid Franklin School after refusing to work on the city rock pile.

Along with his organizer brother Walter Frederick Little and sister-in-law Emma Harper, Frank took part infree speech fightsamong workers inFresno, Californiain 1910 and 1911. On one occasion, he was sentenced to 30 days imprisonment for reading the Declaration of Independence on a street corner. Little and several hundred workers were arrested for violating a city ordinance, congregating on city streets to publicly speak. In response, Frank said he expected a large arrival of Russians, Japanese, Germans, and Chinese to join the IWW. Many more workers belonging to the Industrial Workers of the World union came to the city and struck in support after Frank calls them to solidarity on May 10 and August 27, 1910. Frank and his brother would wait until after harvest to take the fight to the streets of Fresno. In response to the free speech fights sixty-six new IWW locals formed. Eventually, Little successfully organized unskilled fruit workers in theSan Joaquin Valleyof California, a precursor toCesar Chavez's work. He also led free speech efforts inKansas City, Missouri;Webb City, Missouri;andPeoria, Illinois.

In August 1913, Little and fellow Industrial Workers of the World union organizerJames P. Cannonarrived inDuluth, Minnesota,to support the strike of ore-dock workers against theGreat Northern Railwayover dangerous working conditions. In the course of the strike he was kidnapped, held at gunpoint outside of the city, and dramatically rescued by union supporters.

In 1914, Little was elected a member of the Industrial Workers of the World's General Executive Board.Two years later he returned to the Great Lakes Region, where he organizedSuperior, Wisconsin,dock workers in a strike for better safety conditions and wages. There he was kidnapped, severely beaten, and mock hanged.

Anti-war activism

Little was a strong opponent of capitalism after witnessing many late 19th and early 20th-century American businessmen use what he viewed as unscrupulous methods to get rich. As a result, he also opposedWorld War I,which many believed to be a "rich man's war and a poor man's fight." While General Secretary-TreasurerWilliam Haywoodand members of the General Executive Board shared Little's opinions about the war, they disagreed about whether to create anti-war agitation. When the United States joined the war in April 1917,Ralph Chaplin,the editor of the Industrial Workers of the World's newspaper,Solidarity,claimed that opposing the draft would destroy the union through government repression. Other Board members argued that organized labor would not have the power to stop the war until more workers were organized, and the union should continue to focus on organizing workers at the point of production, even if their actions might incidentally impede the war effort.

Little refused to back down on this issue and argued that "...the IWW is opposed to all wars, and we must use all our power to prevent the workers from joining the army." He planned to go toButte, Montana,to support union organizing after theSpeculator Mine Disasteron June 8, 1917, where 168 men died. A fire began in the Granite Mountain shaft of the Spectacular Mine owned by North Butte Mining Company. Sealed bulkheads prevented men from escaping toxic fumes in the various levels of the mine. Afterwards, mine workers formed a new union, Metal Mine Workers' Union, and were joined in a strike by other trades.

Prior to Little's arrival in Butte, on July 12, 1917, about 1200 striking mine workers in Arizona were rounded up and deported toNew Mexico.Xenophobia, especially against German Americans, pervaded the nation. Mine operators used the volatile atmosphere as an excuse to deport striking miners, "undesirables" or immigrants that were perceived to be a threat. Little had broken his ankle and was not part of theBisbee Deportationbut visited organizers inMiami, Arizona,before leaving forButte, Montana.He also suffered from a double hernia after being jumped and kicked inEl Paso, Texas.By some accounts, he carried 135 pounds on his 5'11 "frame and was in terrible pain.

The day before the Bisbee deportation, Frank purchased a seat in the Pullman Berth to Salt Lake City. He was unable to travel by side-door Pullman anymore because of his current physical state. He was still recovering from his hernias as well as a broken ankle. On the day he left for Butte, Frank contacted Arizona's Governor Campbell about his protest to the Bisbee deportation. Frank wrote, "If you, as governor, cannot uphold the law, we will take same into our own hands. Will you act or must we?"

In this physical condition, on July 18, 1917, Little arrived in Butte to help organize the copper miners' union and lead the miners' strike againstAnaconda Mining Companyfor better safety conditions and higher wages, abolition of the contract system, and removal of the "rustling card." The striking workers had been subject to attack by a "home guard" organized by the company, and newspapers worked to undermine public support for the workers. Little created a picket line at the mines, persuaded women to join the lines, and ultimately encouraged the other trades to join the strike. During this period, he also spoke out against US involvement in the war, calling soldiers serving in Europe "Uncle Sam'sscabsin uniform. "This raised the ire of the press andAnaconda Mining Companyofficials, who did not want the copper output affected.

Lynching

In the early hours of August 1, 1917, six masked men broke into Nora Byrne's Steel Block boardinghouse where Frank Little was staying. The men initially kicked in the wrong door in the boardinghouse, and when confronted by Byrne claimed to be (law) officers. Little was beaten in his room and abducted while still in his underwear. He was bundled into a car which sped away.

Little was later tied to the car's rear bumper and dragged over the granite blocks of the street. Photographs of his body show that his knee-caps had possibly been scraped off.Little was taken to Milwaukee Bridge at the edge of town where he was then hanged from a railroad trestle. The coroner found that Little died of asphyxiation. It was also found that his skull had been fractured by a blow to the back of the head caused by a rifle or gun butt.A note with the words "First and last warning" was pinned to his thigh, referring to earlier vigilantes giving people three warnings to leave town. The note also included the numbers3-7-77(a sign ofVigilantesactive in the 19th century inVirginia City,Montana, some people thought referred to grave measurements), and the initials of other union leaders, suggesting they were next to be killed. This was the first hanging of a militant labor leader in America sinceHaymarket,which occurred on May 4, 1886.

The attorney for the Metal Mine Workers said after Little's murder that the union had received warnings about Joe Shannon, Tom Campbell, and another man.

Although no one was apprehended or prosecuted for Little'slynching,a number of people have speculated about his murder. The authorDashiell Hammettwas working as a strikebreaker in Butte forPinkerton's,and (allegedly) turned down an offer of $5,000 to assassinate Little.Hammett later made use of his experiences in Butte to writeRed Harvest.Rory Carrollwrites, "In her memoirs Lillian Hellman, Hammett's companion, said he told her about the offer to murder Little. 'Through the years he was to repeat that bribe offer so many times that I came to believe… that it was a kind of key to his life. He had given a man the right to think he would commit murder.'"William Nolan, one of Hammett's biographers, thinks that "the fact that someone even asked him, thinking that he would be that kind of person, and that he was that deep into the thing made him feel guilty. He never got over and it always haunted him."

Union leaders who had seen Little's body at the time insisted that one of the murderers was Billy Oates, a notorious hired thug employed by Anaconda. The rationale for Oates' involvement was a small hole at the back of Little's head that had been "inflicted by the steel hook used by Oates on the stub of his amputated right arm."

Over the next nine years two more men were named as possibly being involved in Little's lynching. At the time of the 1918 Industrial Workers of the World conspiracy trial in Chicago, the union's lawyers questioned why Ed Morrissey, who had been Butte's chief of detectives at the time of the murder, had taken a twenty-day leave of absence on the day following the killing. It was alleged at the trial that Morrissey had scratches on his face. The autopsy of Little's body had found that he had tried to fight off his assailants and that he had someone's skin under his fingernails. In 1926,William F. Dunneidentified Peter Prlja as one of the "death squad." Prlja was at the time a motorcycle officer in the Butte police department and like Oates had worked as a security guard for Anaconda.

An estimated 10,000 workers lined the route of Frank Little's funeral procession, which was followed by 3,500 more persons. The funeral is still the largest ever in Butte history.He was buried in Butte's Mountain View Cemetery. His grave marker reads "Slain by capitalist interests for organizing and inspiring his fellow men."

Effects of Little's Lynching

Little's assassination gained national attention and was widely spread throughout the community of theIndustrial Workers of the World(IWW). In the wake of the news, reporters awaited onBill Haywood,the founding member of the IWW, and what he had to say regarding the lynching. Haywood wrote an editorial for Solidarity the same day as Frank's death, stating that Frank was murdered for taking part in the strike atButte, Montana.Haywood goes on to say, "The tragic, brutal death of Frank Little will unite the working forces of this country against the masters of bread. He has not died in vain, and with his blood will be written the abolition of the wage system."Bill Haywood used Little's death as an advancement for the IWW to gain popularity and strengthen the loyalty amongst members. In addition, Bill Haywood felt Frank's body should be buried in Butte, where his grave would promote positive propaganda for the IWW and be safe from mobs. For the time following Franks death, IWW members shouted "We never forget!"as a rally cry in honor of Little.

Legacy

• Travis Wilkerson's 2002 documentary filmAn Injury to Onetells the story of Frank Little and his lynching in Butte, Montana.
• Season one of the podcastDeath in the West,hosted by Montana-natives Chad Dundas, Erika Fredrickson, Leif Fredrickson, and Zach Dundas, tells the story of Little's murder in Butte, Montana.They also discuss the larger context of unionist actions and labor disputes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
• Frank Little is a character inJess Walter's 2020 historical fiction novelThe Cold Millions.

See also

• Anti-union violence
• Anaconda Copper
• List of worker deaths in United States labor disputes

Further reading

• Jane Little Botkin.Frank Little and the IWW: The Blood That Stained an American Family.Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2017.
• Mike Byrnes and Les Rickey,The Truth About the Lynching of Frank Little in Butte, Montana, 1917.Butte, MT: Old Butte Publishing, 2003.
• John A. Jackson,Go By Go.Tucson, AZ: Dennis Mcmillan Publications, 1998.
• Phillips Russell, "To Frank Little (Lynched at Butte, Montana, August 1, 1917)."International Socialist Review,vol. 18, no. 3 (September 1917), pg. 133.
• "The Man that Was Hung,"International Socialist Review,vol. 18, no. 3 (September 1917), pp. 134–138.

External links

• "Frank Little - A True American Hero." Industrial Workers of the World