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Free speech fights were vital to the early efforts of the Industrial Workers of the World. (IWW). Originating from attempts to organize workers, they evolved into civil liberties crusades that called upon the faithful to journey great distances and face imprisonment. Consequently, early in 1911, over one hundred "Wobblies" and sympathizers travelled by rail and by foot from the Pacific Northwest toward Fresno, California, where a free-speech fight had been in progress since October 1910. IWW local had already developed a large and militant membership of farm workers and railroad laborers, including many Mexican Americans. Pressing for additional members, the union concentrated on construction workers at a nearby dam and stepped up the campaign with street corner agitation. City officials and businessmen responded by refusing to rent balls, threatening imprisonment and mob violence and banning street speeches. Still, the speech crusade gained momentum. But in January the pace slackened, not so much because of faint heartedness as from the remoteness of the California city and the limited population from which participants could be drawn. The Fresno fight illustrated a weakness of the tactic as well as the need for a constant renewal of participants.

Presents an obituary for Bruno Klopfer, an analytical psychologist, who died on October 23,1971.