A Challenge to a City Law Banning Speeches in Public Places: Three Views

From the Los Angeles Herald, October 4, 1903

TWO FREE SPEECH ENTHUSIASTS VIOLATE CITY ORDINANCE AND ARE ARRESTED BY POLICE

Crowd of Hoodlums Sees Sacrifice of League Members

Speakers Denounce the Law as Unconstitutional
 

Before a crowd of several hundred people and under a banner on which were inscribed the words of the first Amendment to the Federal constitution, two men were last evening arrested on the corner of Fourth and Broadway for violating ordinance No. 8539 of the city code.

This ordinance prohibits any person “to idly sit or stand on a public street or alley” and again “to conduct any public meeting or address any concourse of people on the city streets.” The arrests were made by Officers Dixon and Wood.

     On Friday the members of the Free Speech League of this city advised the officers of the police department that they intended to openly violate this ordinance and, in anticipation of a scene, a crowd of about two thousand people gathered before 8 o’clock on Fourth Street near the corner of Broadway [the intersection shown here].

. . . a group of men appeared, bearing an American flag, a poster with the words “Free Speech League,” and a large banner bearing the inscription “The Congress of the United States shall not pass any law abridging freedom of speech, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble" and, underneath, “Is the City Council greater than Congress?”

The raising of this banner was the signal for an outburst of cheering and cries of “No! No!” An express wagon was pulled out, and W.S. Smith, president of the league, mounted the small stand and announced that the purpose of the meeting was to start a movement against the “tyrannical and unconstitutional act of the city council” and “to invite arrest that a test case might be made and the law overthrown.”

The announcement that Dr. A.J. Stevens [shown] would speak was greeted with cheering that seemed very general throughout the crowd, and when the speaker reached the stand, he was compelled to stand and listen to the cheering for some moments before he could begin his address.

The remarks were brief because the speaker had a severe cold and in a very few minutes his voice gave out. but while he lasted, he poured some hot shot into the men who had made he law which the league is trying to break. . . .

At this point Officer Dixon stepped up and stopped the speaker by a touch of the arm.

“Have you a permit to speak here?” he asked.

“I have no permit,” said Dr. Stevens.

“Then I will have to trouble you to leave this stand and to come to the police station with me,” said the officer, and the speaker, raising his voice so that all in the crowd could hear, said: “I am requested by this officer to go to the station with him.”

With that, he stepped from the stand.

The noise that followed was deafening. The whole crowd joined in the shouts, and cheers for the speaker were freely mixed with hisses at the police and cries against the council. For some moments, the uproar continued, and then Rev. . . . [Frank I.] Wheat took the stand, and calls for silence followed. This second speaker talked on the same lines that Dr. Stevens had followed . . . . [According to the 1904 Los Angeles City Directory, Wheat was the director of the Socialist Party Reading Room at 204 E. Second St.]

Rev. Mr. Wheat was stopped as the first speaker had been, and his arrest by Officer Dixon was greeted by a repetition of the cheers and derisive hisses . . . . the crowd was getting restless. The fanatics present began to be moved to speech and to mutter revolutionary threats; the soberer men in the audience . . . were becoming interested and restive, and the hoodlums . . . were shoving about and trying to make the matter as bad as possible.

The numberless small boys who were in attendance added fuel to the fire, and the peaceable crowd began to assume a threatening aspect. The officers hurried their men away to a [street]car, and after they were gone the throng . . . called for more speakers.

In spite of the appeals of the presiding officer, Smith, an excitable young German who gave the name of K. Bauer dropped the larger of the two banners and sprang onto the platform. He made an appeal to the crowd for the rights of an American citizen and asked, with great excitement, “Is the city council greater than the American constitution?” He was received with loud cheers and was constantly interrupted in his harangue by the cries of the crowd.

. . . a tall man with salt and pepper suit of clerical cut and long hair and beard came forward and wanted to speak. President Smith objected strenuously. “No! No!” he cried. “Not under the name of the Free Speech League.”

And then he ordered the men about him to put the banners and the stand into the wagon. . . .

At the station the men were booked on the charge of misdemeanor and released on depositing $25 cash bail to appear in the police court Monday afternoon at 1:30 o’clock. . . .

 

The photo of Dr. A.J. Stevens, a dentist and political activist, is from the Los Angeles Herald of October 4, 1903. The postcard view of Fourth and Broadway is from Brent C. Dickerson’s fine site, A Visit to Old Los Angeles.
From the Los Angeles Sunday Times,
October 4, 1903

ANTI-POLICE MOB RAIDED.

Insulting epithets and threats hurled at the police and boisterous conduct characterized the meeting of a mob at Fourth street and Broadway last night when A.J. Stevens, a dentist and labor-union agitator, and Rev. Frank I. Wheat of the Free Speech League were arrested for speaking on the street without a permit in violation of the city ordinance.

There were hundreds drawn by curiosity . . . , but the core of the crowd was ready, judging by its unbridled language and demeanor, to go to extremes.

The meeting was the outcome of a defi [challenge] hurled at Chief [Charles] Elton in an open letter, in which “yours respectfully” stated that a meeting would be held . . . in spite of the city ordinance . . . .

Stevens led off with some pacific remarks . . . but the mob’s cheers made him warm up . .  . . when he was about to say something really lurid, Policeman Dixon tapped him gently on the arm . . . . Stevens waved a melodramatic farewell to the crowd and descended the platform amid deafening cheers. . . .

Sergt. Jeffries, who is the best crowd hustler who ever came down the pike, happened along. Streetcar traffic was being blocked . . . and many women were being roughly used. The big sergeant didn’t like that sort of thing and proceeded to clear the street . . . .

Lem Biddle and other labor agitators were lurking in the crowd, and Biddle called the sergeant an insulting name. Others of the same ilk tried to create a disturbance, but “Jeff” waded in and in fifteen minutes had the streets passable. . . .
From the Los Angeles Express,
October 5, 1903

FREE SPEECH LEAGUE PLANS

Members of the Free Speech League were disappointed in their efforts to pose as martyrs Saturday evening.

As might have been expected, quite a crowd assembled at Fourth street and Broadway to witness the “demonstration.” The leaguers had notified Chief Elton that they intended to test the ordinance, and the chief took the necessary steps to accommodate them.

A.J. Stevens, a dentist, and Rev. Frank I. Wheat attempted to make speeches from an improvised rostrum in the shape of an express wagon and were promptly placed under arrest . . . .

In each case, the arresting officer asked the speaker if he had a permit to hold a public meeting, and when he answered in the negative, the arrest followed.

There was some jeering and shouting on the part of the small boys and rowdies who had gathered in the expectation of seeing trouble, but the great body of curiosity-seekers looked on quietly as the men were removed from the wagon and marched through the crowd.

As the men marched to the police station, they were followed by a number of men and boys, who howled and yelled at the officers and their prisoners but did not attempt any violence.

As the leaguers profess that the only object of the meeting Saturday night was to test the constitutionality of the ordinance, it is not believed there will be any further demonstration pending the trial of the case in the courts.

Should any further attempt be made to hold meetings without securing permits, the speakers will be arrested exactly the same as would any other petty offender.

Cartoon from the Los Angeles Herald,
October 8, 1903

 

PROSPERITY IN
LOS ANGELES

Capitalists (wearing top hats) put cash in at the top of the funnel, labeled Realty Investment, with exclamations of ”It’s a cinch,” “It’s a mint” and “Lemme in.“

In the second panel, the original owners (farmers hats) make off gleefully with some of it. “It used to be a pasture,” says one happy Angelino, while another exults, “Got my own price, by ginger!”

The community prospers, including carpenters, real estate agents, artisans, contractors and plumbers (all with melon hats).

At bottom, the capitalists make off with their profits, returns and more profits. “Oh, I have done worse,” says one. “Just like finding it!” exclaims another.

AND THE CAPITALISTS ARE SATISFIED.
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Los Angeles history

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