1901
January-March
Goldman supports herself by working as a nurse in New York City; helps to
arrange a U.S. tour for Peter Kropotkin in March and April.
Goldman reestablishes friendship with her former lover Edward Brady.
April-July
Goldman lecture tour begins with a free-speech battle in Philadelphia when she
is prevented from speaking before the Shirt Makers Union. Goldman and the
organizations that sponsor her talks, including the Single Tax Society, defy
police orders; Goldman speaks in public on at least two occasions. On April 14
she speaks at an event sponsored by the Social Science Club; other speakers
include Voltairine de Cleyre. Despite the Social Science Club's opposition to
Goldman's anarchist views, it passes a resolution protesting the violation of
her right to free speech.
Speaks in Lynn, Mass., Boston, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, St. Louis, Chicago, and Spring Valley, Ill., on such topics as "Anarchism and Trade Unionism," "The Causes of Vice," and "Cooperation a Factor in the Industrial Struggle."
July 15-August 15
Goldman spends a month with her sister Helena, in Rochester, N.Y., traveling
briefly to Niagara Falls and to Buffalo, N.Y., to visit the Pan-American
Exposition.
Early September
Goldman visits Alexander Berkman at the penitentiary in Allegheny, Pa., the
first time she has seen him in nine years.
September 6
President William McKinley shot by self-proclaimed
anarchist Leon Czolgosz in Buffalo, N.Y., at the Pan-American
Exposition. Police claim that Czolgosz was inspired by one of Goldman's
lectures. She is in St. Louis when she learns about the assassination and
recollects that she first met Czolgosz at her May 5 lecture on "The Modern
Phase of Anarchy" before the Franklin Liberal Club in Cleveland.
September 7
Goldman leaves St. Louis for Chicago.
September 9-23
In an atmosphere of intense anti-anarchist
hysteria, Goldman goes into temporary hiding at the home of American-born
anarchist sympathizers. On Sept. 10, she is arrested by Chicago police and
subjected to intensive interrogation. Though initially denied, bail is set at
$20,000.
President McKinley dies on Sept. 14.
September 24
Goldman released; case dropped for lack of evidence.
October
Goldman expresses her sympathy for Leon Czolgosz in an article, "The Tragedy at
Buffalo," published in Free Society (Chicago),
prompting many of her close anarchist associates to distance themselves from
her.
Finding much difficulty in securing an apartment and job, Goldman adopts the pseudonym "E. G. Smith."
Czolgosz executed on Oct. 29.
November-December
Goldman avoids public appearances.
1902
Criminal Anarchy Act passed in New York State.
Goldman continues to conceal her real identity, at times to no avail. Chased from her apartment on First Street, Goldman moves to a crowded Lower East Side tenement building on Market Street. She finds work as a night-shift nurse for poor immigrants living on the Lower East Side.
May-December
Increased repression in Russia and a strike of Pennsylvania coal miners propel
Goldman to resume her political work.
Conducts lecture tour to raise funds for the students and peasants under attack in Russia and for the striking coal miners. Her activities are closely monitored by police detectives; many of her lectures are outlawed, especially in coal-mining cities like Wilkes-Barre and McKeesport, Pa. Despite police harassment, Goldman holds successful lectures in Chicago; scheduled to speak in Milwaukee and Cleveland.
1903
January 27
Police arrest Goldman and Max Baginski in New York City for being "suspicious
persons"; released after questioning.
March 3
Anti-anarchist immigration act passed by Congress.
April
Edward Brady, former lover of Goldman, dies.
June-September
Alarmed by the threat to civil liberties posed by the anti-anarchist
immigration law and the public hysteria of the moment, prominent American
liberals, including Theodore Schroeder, rally to her support.
October 23
First attempt to test anti-anarchist
immigration act: At an event at Murray Hill Lyceum, where Goldman is scheduled
to speak, English anarchist John Turner is arrested and charged with promoting
anarchism and violating alien labor laws. Turner detained on Ellis Island
until his deportation.
November
In an effort to mobilize broad support from American citizens for John Turner,
Goldman acts under the pseudonym E. G. Smith to form a permanent Free Speech
League in New York City.
December
Cooper Union mass meeting protests anti-anarchist
proceedings against John Turner, still awaiting deportation.
1904
January
Goldman, on behalf of the Free Speech League, undertakes a brief lecture tour
to gain support for John Turner; speaks before garment workers in Rochester and
miners in Pennsylvania.
February
Russo-Japanese War begins.
April
Goldman seeks to extend her influence beyond the immigrant community by
exposing a broader American audience to anarchism. Travels to Philadelphia to
lecture on "The Tragedy of Woman's Emancipation." Her first attempts to
deliver lecture stalled by police. Public support for free speech gains her
eventual success in delivering the lecture.
Supreme Court rules on the John Turner case (Turner v. Williams, 194 U.S. 279) that Congress has unlimited power to exclude aliens and deport those who have entered in violation of the laws, including philosophical anarchists.
Fall
Goldman hosts two members of the Russian Social Revolutionary party seeking to
organize support for political freedom in Russia. With the assistance of the
American Friends of Russian Freedom, Goldman manages a successful tour of
Catherine Breshkovskaya (the "Grandmother of the Russian Revolution"), recently
freed from Siberian exile.
September 11
Goldman among a cast of speakers at one of the largest reported New York City
anarchist meetings in support of the Russian anarchist movement.
December
Exhausted by nursing, Goldman opens her own business as a "Vienna scalp and
face specialist" in New York City.
1905
January 9 (22)
"Bloody Sunday" in St. Petersburg, Russia. Goldman continues to lecture and
raise funds to gain support for political freedom in Russia.
February
Goldman speaks at memorial meeting for Louise Michel.
Ricardo Flores Magon moves to St. Louis where his friendship with Goldman begins.
Catherine Breshkovskaya returns to Europe.
July
Goldman meets Russian actor Paul Orleneff; assists him in the management of the
Orleneff troupe's theater engagements in New York City.
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) established in Chicago.
September
Russia and Japan sign peace treaty at Portsmouth, N.H.
October 17 (30)
Czar Nicholas II signs manifesto guaranteeing civil liberties in Russia.
November
Renewed pogroms of Jews in Russia. Orleneff troupe arranges benefit
performances on behalf of Jewish victims.
Goldman accompanies Orleneff troupe on tour to Boston.
December
Russian revolution crushed.
1906
February
Goldman, in Chicago with the Orleneff troupe, identifies herself without a
pseudonym at lectures to local anarchists.
March
First issue of Mother Earth published; first run
numbers three thousand.
Goldman begins national lecture tour with associate editor Max Baginski; speaking engagements scheduled in Cleveland, Toronto, Rochester, Syracuse, and Utica. Encounters interference in Buffalo when the police mandate that their lectures be presented in English, preventing Baginski from addressing the audience.
March 17
Death of Johann Most.
April
Goldman discontinues her scalp and facial massage business; devotes full
attention to the publication of Mother Earth.
April 1
Goldman speaks at an anarchist gathering at Grand Central Palace in New York
City to commemorate the life of Johann Most.
May 18
Alexander Berkman released from prison; Goldman and Berkman unite in Detroit.
May 22
Goldman and Berkman travel to Chicago, where they are followed by the press.
Newspaper falsely reports that Goldman and Berkman have married.
June 10-12
Goldman scheduled to speak in Yiddish and English in Pittsburgh on the
following topics: "The Constitution," "The Idaho Outrage" (addressing the
arrests of Bill Haywood, Charles Moyer, and George A. Pettibone of the Western
Federation of Miners), "The General Strike," and "The False and True Conception
of Anarchism."
June 17
Goldman and others address a crowd of two thousand people who had gathered to
greet Alexander Berkman in New York City.
Mid-July
Goldman vacations at farm in Ossining with Berkman and Baginski.
October
Goldman devotes October issue of Mother Earth to
the commemoration of the fifth anniversary of Leon Czolgosz's death,
despite the objection of many of her political associates.
October 30
Scheduled to speak at a meeting to protest the Oct. 27 arrests of several
anarchists for debating whether Czolgosz was an anarchist, Goldman is arrested
for articles published in Mother Earth and for
inciting to riot. Nine others also arrested.
October 31
Goldman released on $1,000 bail.
November 2
Goldman pleads not guilty to criminal anarchy charges before the New York City
magistrate.
November 11
Goldman scheduled to speak at the nineteenth anniversary commemoration of the
Chicago martyrs, organized by the Freiheit Publishing Association.
November 23
Mother Earth Masquerade Ball at Webster Hall in
New York City disrupted by police; owner is forced to close the hall.
December 16
Goldman lectures on "False and True Conceptions of Anarchism" before the
Brooklyn Philosophical Association.
1907
January 6
Goldman arrested by the New York City Anarchist Police Squad while delivering
the same lecture she had successfully presented the previous month; charged
with publicly expressing "incendiary sentiments." Berkman and two others also
arrested.
January 9
Case against Goldman from Oct. 30, 1906, arrest dismissed by the New York City
grand jury.
January 11
Police evidence from Goldman's Jan. 6 arrest presented before the New York City
magistrate's court; case later dismissed.
January 24
New York City police suppress meeting where Goldman is scheduled to speak.
January-March
Berkman attempts to run a small printing business.
February
Goldman speaks in Boston, Lynn, and Chelsea, Mass.
February 27
Goldman shares platform with Luigi Galleani at the Barre, Vt., opera house.
Late February, Early March
Russian exile Grigory Gershuni, recently escaped from Siberia, visits Goldman
to encourage her work on behalf of Russian freedom.
March 3
Goldman leaves New York City for national lecture tour; asks Berkman to take
charge as editor of Mother Earth in her absence.
March 9
All lecture halls in Columbus, Ohio, are closed to Goldman.
March 10-15
Mayor Brand Whitlock of Toledo, Ohio does not allow Goldman to speak until Kate
Sherwood, a respected political activist and community leader, convinces him of
Goldman's right to speak.
March 16-17
Goldman's scheduled Detroit lectures stopped by the local police.
March 18-28
Successful lecture series in Chicago before audiences of many nationalities,
including Jewish, Danish, and German. Her topics include the Paris Commune,
the trial of Moyer and Haywood, and the "Revolutionary Spirit of the Modern
Drama."
March-April
Speaking on such subjects as "Education of Children" and "Direct Action versus
Legislation," Goldman continues lecture tour in Milwaukee, Cincinnati, and
Minneapolis.
April 10-15
Goldman makes her first visit to Winnipeg, Canada; lectures in German and
English on topics including "Crimes of Parents and Education" and "The Position
of Jews in Russia."
April
Goldman expected to lecture in St. Louis; lectures in Denver.
May 5-19
Addressing audiences in German and English, Goldman speaks in San Francisco and
San Jose on such issues as "The Corrupting Influence of Religion" and character
building.
May 23-28
Hundreds of people turn out on successive nights in Los Angeles to hear Goldman
speak, and, on one occasion, debate socialist Claude Riddle. Organizes a
Social Science Club with fifty-five charter members to study social issues,
literature, and art. goldman declares her intent to start a movement on behalf
of Mexico among U.S. radicals.
June 2-16
Buoyed by the success of her speaking engagements--"the first tour of any
consequence I have made since 1898"--Goldman travels to Portland, Tacoma, Home
Colony, Wa., Seattle, and Calgary, Canada.
June 27
Goldman back in New York City in time to celebrate her thirty-eighth
birthday.
July-August
Goldman's essay, "The Tragedy of Woman's Emancipation" translated and published
by German and Japanese anarchists.
Goldman selected to act as an American representative at the International Anarchist Congress in Amsterdam.
July 28
Haywood acquitted; Goldman and associates send telegram to President Theodore
Roosevelt to express their joy.
Early August
Goldman and other anarchists speak about the Boise trials (of Haywood et al.)
at the Manhattan Lyceum in New York City.
Mid-August
Goldman travels with Baginski to Amsterdam.
August 25-30
International Anarchist Congress takes place in Amsterdam, attended by three
hundred delegates.
Early September
After attending anti-militarist congress organized by Dutch pacifist
anarchists, Goldman tours major European cities. In Paris, Goldman visits
Peter Kropotkin and Max Nettlau; visits Sébastien Faure's
experimental school
for poor and orphaned children, and studies syndicalism at the
Confédération Générale du Travail.
September 24
U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization, anticipating Goldman's return
from Europe, directs the East Coast commissioners of immigration to fully
verify Goldman's U.S. citizenship before allowing her to cross the border.
October 7
Goldman speaks in London, England, on "The Labor Struggle in America"; is
trailed by Scotland Yard detectives.
Mid-October
Goldman evades U.S. immigration authorities by entering New York via
Montreal.
November-December
Finding Mother Earth in terrible financial shape
upon her return from Europe, Goldman conducts lecture tour in Massachusetts
and Connecticut.
1908
January
Goldman lectures in German, English, and Yiddish on "Trade Unionism," "The
Woman in the Future," and "The Child and its Enemies," among other topics, in
cities throughout New York State.
Large crowd turns out to hear Goldman in Baltimore.
Police prevent Goldman from delivering her lecture on "The Revolutionary Spirit in Modern Drama" in Washington, D.C.
Lectures in Pittsburgh.
February 13
Goldman heads out for a tour of the western states via Montreal, London, Ont.,
Toronto, and Cleveland; scheduled to speak in English and German on "The
[Economic] Crisis: Its Cause and Remedy," "The Relation of Anarchism to Trade
Unionism," "Syndicalism a New Phase of the Labor Struggle," and "Woman Under
Anarchism."
February 23
Giuseppe Guarnacoto, reported to be a former resident of Paterson and a
follower of Goldman, assassinates Father Leo Henrichs at the altar of a
Catholic church in Denver.
February 28
Goldman delivers several lectures in St. Louis, despite word from Chicago
authorities who, in coordination with Washington D.C. officials, threaten to
deport Goldman under the immigration law.
March 2
Chicago Chief of Police George Shippy attacked by alleged anarchist Lazarus
Averbuch; Shippy's son shot. Goldman implicated in incident, which prompts new
legislation to coordinate efforts of city, state, and federal authorities to
stamp out all anarchist agitation.
March 6
In Chicago, Goldman is barred by police from addressing any meetings in a
public hall. Goldman meets with the press, vowing that she will seek an
opportunity to lecture in Chicago no matter what the authorities do to prevent
her.
March 7-12
Goldman repeatedly barred from speaking at public lecture halls in Chicago;
meets Ben Reitman, a physician specializing in gynecology and venereal disease,
who offers to arrange a speaking engagement for Goldman at a storeroom on
Dearborn Street, the meeting place of his Brotherhood Welfare Association,
otherwise known as the Hobo College.
March 13
Despite an indication from Chicago authorities that Goldman will be allowed to
speak if she makes no incendiary remarks against the police or the government,
Goldman is prevented from speaking at Ben Reitman's hall.
March 15
Chicago newspapers report a budding romance between Goldman and Reitman.
March 16
Police forcibly remove Goldman from Workingmen's Hall in Chicago, where she is
scheduled to speak on "Anarchy as It Really Is," an event organized by the
newly created Freedom of Speech Society.
March 17-19
Goldman unable to secure a hall in Chicago.
March 20-22
Temporarily abandoning attempts to speak in Chicago, Goldman meets success in
Milwaukee, where large crowds, including Milwaukee socialist Victor Berger,
come to hear her.
March 28
Lecturing in Minneapolis, Goldman denies knowledge of those involved in a bomb
explosion at a New York City demonstration of the unemployed in Union Square.
News reports claim that Selig Silverstein, the bomb-thrower, was a member of
Goldman's Anarchistic Federation.
March 31-April 5
Goldman delivers several lectures in Winnipeg, including discussions
encouraging street railway employees to strike for an eight-hour workday.
April
President Theodore Roosevelt investigates legality of not only barring
anarchist propaganda that advocates political violence, but also prosecuting
those who produce the material.
April 6
Goldman leaves Winnipeg; temporarily detained and interrogated at the border by
U.S. immigration officials.
April 7
Goldman enters the United States; itinerary includes lectures in Minneapolis,
Salt Lake City, and Sacramento.
April 17
Accompanied by Ben Reitman, Goldman arrives in San Francisco, where the police
notify her that anarchist propaganda cannot be circulated.
April 18
Objecting to the notoriety caused by Goldman's presence, the management of the
St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco forces Goldman to leave; encounters an
escalated level of surveillance.
April 19
Despite warnings, police do not interfere with Goldman's lecture at Walton's
Pavilion in San Francisco, which is attended by five thousand people.
April 26
Goldman ends her San Francisco lecture series with a speech on patriotism. In
attendance is U.S. soldier William Buwalda, stationed at the Presidio, who is
witnessed shaking hands with Goldman following her speech. Buwalda is
subsequently court-martialed for this action.
April 28-May 2
Goldman lectures in Los Angeles; debates socialist Kaspar Bauer on the question
of "Socialism versus Anarchism." While in Los Angeles, Goldman visits George
A. Pettibone.
Mid-late May
Goldman delivers five lectures in Portland--including "Why Emancipation Has
Failed to Free Women" and "Direct Action a Logical Method of
Anarchism"--following initial free-speech battle. Goldman's success attributed
in part to support received from Charles Erskine Scott Wood, Portland attorney
and writer.
Local Portland anarchists organize protest against the court-martial and imprisonment of William Buwalda.
May 31
Goldman presents two lectures in Spokane: "What Anarchism Really Stands For"
and "The Menace of Patriotism."
June
Marking the last leg of her tour, Goldman travels to Montana; despite police
harassment and lack of press coverage, Goldman speaks in Butte and Helena.
July
Goldman vacations in Ossining, N.Y.
Goldman captivated by J. W. Fleming's invitation to make a two-year tour of Australia; tentatively plans to travel to Australia in February.
July 19
New York World publishes Goldman's article,
"What I Believe."
September 7
Ben Reitman delivers speech on the meaning of Labor Day at Cooper Union. When
the audience learns that the speech was written by Goldman, there is a
tremendous uproar; Berkman and young anarchist Becky Edelsohn arrested.
September 13
Goldman begins five-week Sunday afternoon Yiddish lecture series under the
sponsorship of the Free Worker Group in New York City; talks include "Love and
Marriage," "The Revolutionary Spirit in the Modern Drama," and "The Political
Circus."
Late September
Goldman tormented by revelation of Reitman's infidelity.
October 16
On the eve of her departure for her next lecture tour, Goldman delivers a
farewell lecture in New York City on "The Exoneration of the Devil" (based on a
popular play at the time).
October 17
Goldman begins national lecture tour while the country is immersed in
presidential campaigning; hopes to wind up her tour on the West Coast and
depart for Australia in the new year. Lecture topics include "The Political
Circus and Its Clowns," "Puritanism, the Great Obstacle to Liberty," and "Life
versus Morality."
October 18-24
Large audiences attend Goldman's lectures in Pittsburgh and Cleveland.
October 27
Goldman prevented from speaking in Indianapolis.
October 30-November 1
Goldman lectures in St. Louis; meets William Marion Reedy, editor of the
St. Louis Mirror, whose article "The Daughter of
the Dream," published later that week, praises her.
November 2-6
Goldman lectures in cities throughout Missouri: Springfield, Liberal, and
Kansas City.
November 7-13
Omaha chief of police prevents Goldman from lecturing in the hall of her
choice; crowds gather to hear Goldman at other sites in the city.
November 15
Goldman's lectures in Des Moines, Iowa, are successful.
November 17-23
Lectures in Minneapolis and St. Paul poorly attended.
November 24-30
Goldman in Winnipeg for lectures and a debate with socialist J. D. Houston.
December 2-11
Goldman scheduled to lecture in Fargo, N.Dak., Butte, and Spokane.
December 13
Seattle police take Goldman into custody after the lock on a closed hall is
broken to allow Goldman entry to speak; released when she promises to leave the
city.
December 14
Goldman protests actions of the police authorities in Everett, Wash., who
prevent her from speaking on the claim that vigilantes will harm her.
Goldman and Reitman arrested in Bellingham, Wash., in anticipation of Goldman's scheduled lecture.
December 15
Goldman released from jail; placed on board a train bound for Canada.
December 16-28
Following lectures in Vancouver, Goldman lectures in Portland and conducts two
debates--one with Democrat John Barnhill, the other with socialist Walter
Thomas Mills.
1909
January 2-6
Goldman lectures in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Pasadena on such topics as "The
Psychology of Violence" and "Puritanism, the Greatest Obstacle to Liberty."
Some of Los Angeles's leading drama critics attend her lecture "The Drama, the
Most Forcible Disseminator of Radicalism."
January 13
Goldman lectures on "The Dissolution of Our Institutions" in San Francisco,
followed by a statement by William Buwalda, the soldier court-martialed the
previous year and recently pardoned by President Roosevelt. Event takes place
without police interference.
January 14
Goldman and Reitman arrested on charges of conspiracy against the government;
both held on bail. Buwalda arrested for disturbing the peace. Supporters of
Goldman and Reitman rally to protest the arrests on Jan. 15; police forcibly
end gatherings.
In jail, Goldman learns about her father's death.
Goldman released Jan. 18; participates in a public debate on "Anarchism versus Socialism." Case dropped Jan. 28.
January 23
Goldman's anticipated departure for Australia is postponed.
January 31
Goldman speaks to a crowd of over two thousand people in San Francisco on "Why
I Am an Anarchist."
February
Goldman stays in San Francisco with hopes of delivering the lectures she was
prevented from giving during the week of her arrest and imprisonment.
March 1-10
Delivers two lectures and participates in one debate in Los Angeles.
March 12
Goldman lectures in El Paso, Tex.; prevented by city authorities from holding
meeting in Spanish.
March 14-15
Goldman attempts to lecture in San Antonio; unable to secure a hall.
March 16
Goldman speaks on the outskirts of Houston in a hall owned by the Single
Taxers; remarks that this event is "the most inspiring meeting of my entire
tour."
Mid-March
Tour ends with two meetings in Forth Worth.
March 27
Goldman in Rochester, N.Y.
April-May
Goldman conducts Sunday lecture series in Yiddish and English in New York City;
topics include "The Psychology of Violence," "Minorities versus Majorities,"
and the modern drama.
April 8
U.S. Court in Buffalo invalidates the citizenship of Jacob A. Kersner,
Goldman's legal husband; threatens Goldman's claim to U.S. citizenship and
results in cancellation of Goldman's trip to Australia.
May
Goldman's essay "A Woman Without a Country," responding to the threat of
deportation, published in Mother Earth.
With increased public attention on her citizenship status, Goldman is stopped repeatedly by the police.
May 1
Scheduled to speak at a Mother Earth May Day
concert and dance in New York City.
May 6
Goldman speaks at a convention of the National Committee for the Relief of the
Unemployed in New York City, encouraging the unemployed to organize.
May 10 and 13
Goldman scheduled to speak in New York on "Direct Action as a Logical Tactic of
Anarchists" and "How Parents Should Raise Children" (in Yiddish).
May 14
Goldman scheduled to speak in New Haven on "Anarchy: What It Stands For";
police admit her into the lecture hall, but prevent entry to thousands of
people waiting outside.
May 21
Goldman and Berkman invited by civil libertarian Alden Freeman to lunch at the
elite New Jersey Society of Mayflower Descendants; subsequent scandal threatens
Freeman's membership in the club.
May 23
Police break up Goldman's Sunday lecture series, claiming that she did not
follow the subject of her lecture on "Henrik Ibsen as the Pioneer of Modern
Drama"; two arrests made.
May 24
Goldman speaks at the Sunrise Club in New York City on "The Hypocrisy of
Puritanism," sharply criticizing Anthony Comstock, anti-vice crusader.
May 28
Brooklyn chief of police orders cancellation of a Goldman lecture.
Late May
"A Demand for Free Speech" manifesto signed and circulated by prominent
individuals to protest the recent suppression of Goldman's rights. Free Speech
Society is formed.
June 7
Free-speech conference to take place in New York City.
June 8
Goldman scheduled to speak in East Orange, N.J., at a meeting organized by
Alden Freeman to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of Thomas Paine's death;
police prevent her from entering the lecture hall. Crowd relocates to
Freeman's barn, where Goldman delivers lecture suppressed by police on May
23.
June 30
Large meeting organized by the Free Speech Society takes place at Cooper Union
to protest harassment of Goldman and to win back the right of free speech.
Speakers include former congressman Robert Baker, Alden Freeman, Voltairine de
Cleyre, James P. Morton, and Harry Kelly. Telegrams from Eugene Debs and
others read.
July 2
Goldman tests her free-speech rights by delivering a lecture before the Harlem
Liberal Alliance; standoff with police, but no interference.
August 11
Goldman prevented from speaking in New York City at a meeting sponsored by
Mother Earth to celebrate the antiwar uprising in
Spain. Other speakers include Voltairine de Cleyre, Harry Kelly, and
Max Baginski.
August 24
Reitman secures a lecture hall in Boston despite police intimidation of hall
owners.
September
Goldman, accompanied by Reitman, conducts a short lecture tour of
Massachusetts, Vermont, and Rhode Island.
While in Worcester, Goldman attends lecture by Sigmund Freud at Clark University.
September 3
Mayor of Burlington, Vt., prevents Goldman from speaking anywhere in his
city.
September 8
Unable to secure a lecture hall in Worcester, Goldman is invited to speak on
the private property of Rev. Eliot White.
September 24-October 21
Goldman engaged in free-speech battle in Philadelphia. Police chief will let
Goldman speak on the condition that he review her speech prior to the
engagement; Free Speech Association deems proposed review an infringement on
Goldman's free-speech rights and Goldman refuses to comply.
When Goldman is prevented from entering lecture hall, Voltairine de Cleyre reads Goldman's lecture to the audience.
Goldman appeals for injunction to restrain the Philadelphia police from further intimidation; testifies before the Philadelphia courts.
Philadelphia judge denies injunction, claiming that the police had the right to prevent both citizens and aliens from speaking if their words were deemed likely to cause a public disturbance; in addition, claims that Goldman is not a citizen and therefore is not guaranteed constitutional right to free speech.
October 17
Goldman is chief speaker at a New York City mass meeting called to protest the
Oct. 13 execution of Francisco Ferrer, founder of the modern school movement,
in Spain.
October 23
Goldman marches in a parade of six hundred anarchists and socialists in New
York City to protest Ferrer's execution.
November 5
Prevented from speaking in a Brooklyn lecture hall, Goldman addresses a crowd
of three thousand in an open-air meeting; Reitman arrested for failing to
obtain a permit.
December 12
Goldman speaks on "Will the Vote Free Woman: Woman Suffrage" to an audience of
three hundred women, many of whom are suffragists. A collection is taken for
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, recently sentenced to a three-month prison term
resulting from her arrest during a free-speech battle in Spokane.
December 26
Goldman scheduled to deliver her last lecture, "White Slave Traffic," in New
York City before embarking on her western tour.
1910
January-June
Goldman delivers a total of 120 lectures before forty thousand people in
thirty-seven cities in twenty-five states; credits her success to the
organizing skills of Ben Reitman.
January
Her tour begins with free-speech battles that thwart her from speaking in
Detroit, Columbus, and Buffalo.
January issue of Mother Earth held by the U.S. Postmaster on Anthony Comstock's objection to the publication of Goldman's essay "White Slave Traffic." Released on Jan. 29 when officials decide there is nothing legally objectionable in the magazine.
January 9-10
Large audiences attend Goldman's lectures in Cleveland.
Mid-January
Goldman holds a successful meeting in Toledo.
In Chicago, Goldman conducts six lectures in English and three in Yiddish.
January 23-24
Goldman holds three successful meetings in Milwaukee.
January 26-27
Goldman's speaking engagements in Madison, Wis., set off a storm of protest
from state and university officials who deny any formal endorsement of
Goldman.
Late January
Press attributes Goldman's unsuccessful meeting in Hannibal, Mo., to the
intimidation posed by police when they record the names of everyone who stepped
inside the lecture hall.
February 2-6
Goldman's lectures in St. Louis include "Ferrer and the Modern School," "Leo
Tolstoy, the Last Great Christian, His Life and His Work," and "Art in Relation
to Life."
Early February
Police chief of Springfield, Ill., attempts to stop Goldman from lecturing.
February 14-18
Goldman attracts sizable crowds in Detroit.
February 19
Goldman hissed by her Ann Arbor audiences.
Late February
Goldman speaks in Buffalo, despite residues of Czolgosz-inspired
apprehension and disapproval of anarchism.
Holds three meetings in Rochester.
March 11
Goldman speaks on "The General Strike [of Philadelphia]" in Pittsburgh. Press
does not announce her talks in fear that she will prompt a riot.
March 18
A celebration of the fifth anniversary of Mother
Earth takes place in New York City.
Mid-March
Despite an absence of press coverage, Goldman conducts four lectures in
Minneapolis.
Goldman lectures for the first time in Sioux City, Iowa.
Organized on short notice, Goldman's lecture in Omaha is well received.
March 26
Amendment to the Immigration Act of 1907 is passed, forbidding entrance to the
United States of criminals, paupers, anarchists, and persons carrying
diseases.
Early April
Goldman's lectures in Denver well attended.
Goldman and Reitman arrested in Cheyenne, Wyo., while conducting an open-air meeting. Arrests spur further interest in Goldman.
Mid-April
Goldman lectures in San Francisco and debates a socialist on "whether
collective regulation or free love will guarantee a healthy race."
Late April
Goldman visits Jack London and his wife Charmian at their ranch at Glen Ellen,
Calif.
May 1
Goldman lectures on anarchism and "Marriage and Love" in Reno.
May 6-18
Goldman pleased by the overwhelmingly positive reception to her lectures and
debate in Los Angeles; claims to have delivered that city's first-ever
Yiddish lecture.
Late May
Goldman lectures in San Diego, Portland, Seattle, and Spokane.
May 31
Car in which Goldman and Reitman are riding is struck by a freight train in
Spokane. Goldman thrown from car and badly bruised.
June
Goldman speaks in Butte, Bismarck, and Fargo; travels through Milwaukee and
Chicago.
June 25
The Mann Act, popularly known as the "white slave traffic act," passed by
Congress, prohibiting interstate or international transport of women for
"immoral purposes."
Summer and Fall
Goldman divides her time between New York City and the Ossining farm where she
prepares Anarchism and Other Essays for
publication; Berkman begins writing Prison Memoirs of an
Anarchist.
October
Canadian subscribers denied receipt of Mother
Earth books on orders of Canadian authorities because of
their "treasonable nature."
October 1
Bombing of the Los Angeles Times building by James
and John McNamara kills twenty people; anarchist involvement immediately
suspected.
November 1
At a public meeting in New York City, Goldman and Reitman question Anthony
Comstock about his promotion of laws denying the use of mails for "obscene"
materials.
November 10
Goldman sets out to organize public protest in response to the pending
execution of Japanese anarchist Kotoku Shusui (Denjiro), his common-law wife,
Kanno Sugako, and twenty-four others.
November 20
Goldman scheduled to lecture on "The Danger of the Growing Power of the Church"
in New York City.
November-December
Police authorities deny Goldman the right to speak in Washington, D.C., and
Indianapolis. Escapes police interference in Baltimore where she presents five
lectures.
December
Anarchism and Other Essays published.
December 4
Goldman begins Sunday lecture series in New York City on anarchism, the drama,
"Tolstoy, the Rebel," and "The Parody of Philanthropy."
December 24
Anarchist ball sponsored by Mother Earth in New
York City.
1911
Early January
Mother Earth office moved from 210 East Thirteenth
Street to 55 West 28th Street, New York City.
January 5
Goldman speaks at the inauguration of the new Ferrer School in New York City.
January 6
Goldman begins her annual "pilgrimage" with a lecture in Rochester. Over the
next six months she will travel to fifty cities in eighteen states, delivering
150 lectures and debates.
January 8-14
Goldman's lectures in Buffalo and Pittsburgh poorly attended.
January 15-16
Successful events in Cleveland, especially the Jewish meeting.
January 17-20
Goldman has mixed results in Columbus; denied opportunity to speak on several
occasions. Goldman receives support from many members of the United Mine
Workers, although the leaders of the UMW vote against inviting Goldman to speak
at their convention.
Mid-January
Goldman holds small meetings in Elyria and Dayton, Ohio.
January 21-23
Speaks in Cincinnati.
January 24
Execution of twelve anarchists in Japan.
January 24-25
After free-speech battle in Indianapolis, Goldman is offered use of the
Pentecost Tabernacle by a preacher; the next day she speaks at the Universalist
Church.
Late January
Goldman holds two meetings in Toledo.
January 31-February 5
Lectures in Detroit disappointing.
Early February
Goldman's lectures in Ann Arbor received more favorably than previous year.
Speaking engagement in Grand Rapids hosted by William Buwalda.
February 10-16
Goldman lectures in Chicago.
February 26-March 3
With the help of William Marion Reedy, Goldman's lectures are widely attended
in St. Louis. Meets political artist Robert Minor. Roger Baldwin arranges two
speaking engagements for Goldman at the exclusive Wednesday Ladies' Club.
Lecture topics include "The Eternal Spirit of Revolution," "The Social
Importance of Ferrer's Modern School," "Tolstoy--Artist and Rebel," and
"Galsworthy's Justice."
March 5
Goldman encounters police interference in Staunton, Ill., but manages to speak
before members of this mining town despite arrest of one comrade.
March 6-12
Goldman lectures in Belleville, Ill., Milwaukee, and Madison.
March 13
Ricardo Flores Magón appeals to Goldman for support of the
revolutionary movement in Mexico.
March 13-21
Scheduling problems for Goldman's lecture series in St. Paul-- holds only one
meeting.
March 25
Fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York City kills 146 people,
mostly young women.
Late March
Goldman delivers six lectures in Minneapolis and three lectures in Omaha.
Early April
Goldman speaks to law students in Lincoln, Nebr., and Lawrence, Kans.
Scheduled to participate in a debate and speak before a Jewish audience in Chicago.
April 6-7
Goldman scheduled to speak in Kansas City, Mo.
April 7
Free Speech League incorporated in Albany, N.Y., by Leonard D. Abbott,
president, and Brand Whitlock, vice president.
April 14-19
Goldman's lecture on "Victims of Morality" among the most well attended in
Denver.
April 22-26
Goldman speaks in Salt Lake City.
May
Climax of land revolt in Baja California led by the Partido Liberal Mexicano;
Porfirio Diaz signs a peace treaty with Francisco Madero in Mexico.
April 30-May 7
Goldman immensely pleased with success of her tour in Los Angeles; holds eleven
meetings and raises financial support for the Mexican cause, and likens the
uprising to the Paris Commune.
May 9-10
Goldman holds two meetings in San Diego.
May 13
Goldman accused of being an agent provocateur by the editors of
Justice, a
publication of the Social-Democratic Party in London, England. Accusation
prompts anarchists and liberal journalists and lawyers to rally to Goldman's
defense; statement protesting charges made by
Justice is circulated.
May 14
Goldman lectures twice in Fresno, Calif.
May 16-25
Eight lectures and a debate in San Francisco.
Late May-early June
Goldman lectures in Portland and Seattle.
June
Six-month tour concluded with lectures in Spokane, Colville, Wash., Boise, and
Denver. Collections made for Mexican comrades.
Summer
Goldman spends time with Alexander Berkman at their Ossining summer retreat
while Berkman completes Prison Memoirs of an
Anarchist.
August 26
Goldman rallies support for the Mexican Revolution at a mass meeting at Union
Square in New York City. Other speakers include Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and Max
Baginski.
Fall
Unable to secure a mainstream publisher for Berkman's book, Goldman seeks
financial support from attorney Gilbert Roe and journalist Lincoln Steffens for
its publication by the Mother Earth Publishing Association.
October 1
Goldman speaks out about "The Growing Religious Superstition" at a mass meeting
in New York City.
October 13
Goldman among speakers at a New York City commemoration of the second
anniversary of the death of Francisco Ferrer. Other speakers include Leonard
Abbott, James P. Morton, and Harry Kelly. Bayard Boyesen, professor at
Columbia University and a teacher at the Ferrer School, is later fired by
university administrators for having shared the platform with Goldman at this
event.
October 15-December 10
Series of Sunday afternoon and evening lectures in Yiddish and English to
residents of New York City's Lower East Side. Lecture topics include "Marriage
and the Lot of Children among the Poor," "Government by Spies: The McNamara
Case and Burns," "Art and Revolution," "Communism, the Most Practical Basis for
Society," "Mary Wollstonecraft, the Pioneer of Modern Womanhood," and
"Socialism Caught in Its Political Trap."
November 18
Mother Earth concert and ball to take place in New
York City.
December 1
John and James McNamara plead guilty to bombing the Los Angeles
Times
building; admission of guilt creates controversy among their supporters who
believed them to be innocent. Goldman defends their action in
Mother Earth editorial.
December 17
Goldman scheduled to present a farewell lecture on "Sex, the Element of
Creative Work," in New York City, before departing for annual lecture tour with
Ben Reitman.
1912
January
Paul Orleneff returns to the United States for a brief series of dramatic
performances.
January 12
Lawrence, Mass., textile strike begins.
February
Goldman debates socialist Sol Fieldman twice in New York on "Direct versus
Political Action." Bill Haywood and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn take collections
for the striking textile workers.
Mother Earth alerts its readers to a major free-speech fight in San Diego.
February 3
Goldman a scheduled speaker at a meeting organized by the Italian Socialist
Federation in Union Square to raise support for the Lawrence strikers.
February 10-18
Goldman's annual lecture tour begins in Ohio; speaks in Cleveland, Lorain,
Elyria, Columbus, and Dayton; topics include "Anarchism, the Moving Spirit in
the Labor Struggle" and "Maternity," a Drama by
Eugene Brieux (Why the Poor Should Not Have Children)."
February 21-29
Lectures in Indianapolis and St. Louis.
March
Aroused by the experience of hearing her lecture, Almeda Sperry begins a
passionate correspondence with Goldman.
March 3-9
Goldman continues lectures in Chicago; topics include "The Failure of
Christianity" and "Edmond Rostand's Chantecler."
Debates Dr. Denslow Lewis
on "Resolved, that the institution of marriage is detrimental to the best
interests of society."
Meets Russian revolutionary Vladimir Bourtzeff.
March 10-April 13
Speaking engagements in Grand Rapids, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Milwaukee, Madison,
Minneapolis, Omaha, Kansas City, and Lawrence, Kans.
April 14-27
Goldman's lectures in Denver positively received; lecture topics include
"Woman's Inhumanity to Man" and "The Failure of Charity."
Denver
Post features interviews with and articles by Goldman.
Extends stay in Denver to teach a course on the modern drama.
Late April
Goldman in Salt Lake City.
May 1-13
Continuation of lecture tour in Los Angeles; Goldman responds to growing
intensity of free-speech battle in San Diego. On May 13, she speaks at the Los
Angeles funeral of IWW agitator Joseph Mikolasek, killed by the San Diego
police on May 7.
May 14
Mob of vigilantes waits for Goldman's arrival at the San Diego train station;
follows her to the Grant Hotel in an attempt to run her out of town. Reitman
is kidnapped, tarred, and sage-brushed, his buttocks singed by cigar with the
letters "I.W.W." Goldman flees from San Diego to Los Angeles.
May 15
U.S. grand jury initiated to investigate the IWW as "an organization operating
contrary to the laws of the United States." Proceedings terminated before
Goldman formally called to testify.
May 16
Goldman and Reitman among speakers at two large protest meetings held in Los
Angeles.
May 18-29
Goldman and Reitman in San Francisco; lectures on anarchism and the San Diego
free-speech battle are widely attended despite condemnation of Goldman in the
press.
Socialists deny Goldman use of their Oakland auditorium.
May 30
Reitman and Goldman speak in Sacramento about their recent experience in San
Diego.
June 1-6
Goldman continues lecture tour in Portland.
June 9-20
Goldman's lecture series in Seattle threatened by U.S. military veterans who
protest her right to speak. Mayor orders a large contingent of police to
monitor, rather than bar, her lectures. Goldman speaks in public in defiance
of anonymous death threat; no attempts made on her life.
Mid-June
Goldman travels to Spokane, Colville, Wash., and Butte to lecture.
June 20
Following a long illness, Voltairine de Cleyre dies at the age of forty-five.
June 26-July 13
Goldman returns to Denver intending to teach classes on eugenics and on modern
drama; eugenics class canceled for lack of interest. Public lecture topics
include "Patriotism--a Menace to Liberty" and "Vice, Its Cause and Cure."
July 16
Her lecture circuit completed, Goldman stops at the Waldheim cemetery in
Chicago to visit Voltairine de Cleyre's grave.
July 22
Goldman pleased to return to a well-organized _Mother Earth_ office in New
York.
Summer and Fall
Goldman vacations and writes at the Ossining farm; grows impatient with
Berkman's difficulties with revision of Prison
Memoirs.
August 1
Goldman impressed by African-American political theorist W. E. B. Du Bois
lecture at the Sunrise Club in New York.
October 6-December 22
Goldman holds a Yiddish and English Sunday lecture series in New York City;
topics include "The Psychology of Anarchism," "The Dupes of Politics," "Sex
Sterilization of Criminals," "The Resurrection of Alexander Berkman:
Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist," "The Failure of
Democracy," "Economic
Efficiency--the Modern Menace," and Damaged
Goods by Eugène
Brieux (A Powerful Drama, Dealing with the Curse of Venereal Disease).
November 5
Woodrow Wilson elected president; Socialist candidate Eugene Debs receives over
900,000 votes.
November 11
Goldman participates in major commemoration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of
the Haymarket martyrs in New York, sponsored by more than a dozen anarchist and
labor organizations.
November 26-30
Goldman scheduled to speak at a meeting organized by Almeda Sperry in New
Kensington, Pa., followed by meetings in Pittsburgh, New Castle, and McKees
Rocks.
December 6
Goldman scheduled to lecture on syndicalism in the Brownsville section of
Brooklyn.
December 7
Gala celebration of Peter Kropotkin's seventieth birthday in New York City
cosponsored by the Freie Arbeiter Stimme and
Mother Earth; Goldman a featured speaker.
December 11
Berkman and Goldman speak at the Chicago celebration of Kropotkin's birthday.
December 20
Goldman scheduled to lecture on Leonid Andreyev's King
Hunger in Brownsville.
December 24
Mother Earth Grand Ball and Reunion in New York.
1913
January 12-February 16
Goldman delivers six Sunday lectures in New York City on the modern drama,
discussing the plays of Scandinavian, German, Austrian, French, English, and
Russian dramatists including August Strindberg, Gerhart Hauptmann, Arthur
Schnitzler, Frank Wedekind, Maurice Maeterlinck, Edmond Rostand, Octave
Mirbeau, Eugène Brieux, George Bernard Shaw, Arthur Pinero, John
Galsworthy,
Charles Rann Kennedy, Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, Maxim Gorki, and Leonid
Andreyev.
February 12
Lecture in Hartford, Conn.
February 14
Lecture in Newark, N.J.
February 17
The International Exhibition of Modern Art--the Armory Show--opens at the 69th
Regiment Armory in New York City.
February 20
Benefit event for Mother Earth's eighth
anniversary and for Goldman on the eve of her departure for her annual
lecture tour.
February 22-April 22
Goldman describes her engagements in Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit, Ann Arbor,
Indianapolis, St. Louis, Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Mo.,
Coffeyville, Lawrence, and Topeka, Kans., as "dreadfully uneventful and dull."
Lecture topics include "Sex Sterilization of Criminals," "The Psychology of
Anarchism," "Woman's Inhumanity to Man," "Syndicalism--the Modern Menace to
Capitalism," "Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist,"
"Syndicalism, the Strongest
Weapon of Labor--a Discussion of Direct Action, Sabotage and the General
Strike," and the modern drama.
February 25
Paterson, N.J., silk strike begins.
April 25
Goldman opens series of lectures on Nietzsche at the Woman's Club in Denver.
May 1-8
Goldman lectures on the modern drama in Denver, which "brought larger and more
representative audiences than we have ever had in Denver."
May 11-19
Goldman delivers thirteen lectures in Los Angeles.
May 19
Goldman accompanies Reitman, obsessed with returning to San Diego, to the place
of his abduction by vigilantes the previous year.
May 20
Goldman and Reitman arrested on arrival in San Diego; vigilantes surround the
police station. Police order Goldman and Reitman to board the afternoon train
back to Los Angeles.
May 22
In Los Angeles, Goldman and others speak out against continued vigilante
intimidation in San Diego.
May 25-June 8
Goldman delivers a series of anarchist propaganda lectures in San Francisco,
followed by several talks on the modern drama, including Stanley Houghton's
Hindel Wakes, John Galsworthy's The
Wheels of
Justice Crush All, and Charles Rann Kennedy's The
Dignity of Labor.
June
Arahata Kanson translates Goldman's essay "The Tragedy of Woman's Emancipation"
into Japanese.
June 16-July 9
Goldman lectures on anarchism and the modern drama in Los Angeles. General
lecture topics include "Friedrich Nietzsche, the Anti-Governmentalist," "The
Social Evil," and "The Child and Its Enemies: The Revolutionary Developments in
Modern Education." Dramatists discussed include Henrik Ibsen, Hermann
Sudermann, Otto Hartleben, J. M. Synge, William Butler Yeats, Lady Isabella
Gregory, Lennox Robinson, Thomas C. Murray, and E. N. Chirikov.
July
Paterson silk strike ends in failure.
July 13-31
Due to her popular success the previous month, Goldman is welcomed back to San
Francisco to continue her lecture series. Debates socialist Maynard Shipley,
and, in addition to a series on the modern drama, delivers several talks on
general topics including "The Relation of the Individual to Society" and, in
Yiddish, "Should the Poor Have Many Children." Goldman notes that her lecture
on "The Social Evil" attracted the biggest and most diverse audience.
August 3-9
In Portland, Goldman delivers lectures on the modern drama, including the works
of playwrights Ludwig Thoma, Stanley Houghton, and Katherine Githa Sowerby.
Other public speaking engagements include a debate with socialist W. F. Ries
and a lecture on the sterilization laws adopted by the state of Oregon.
August 9
In Seattle, while distributing advance lecture bills for Goldman, Reitman and
another publicist are arrested on the charge of "peddling bills without a
license," and released on five dollars bail.
August 10
The Seattle Free Speech League protests the actions of the president of the
University of Washington, who disallowed the scheduling of Goldman's lectures
at campus facilities.
August 11-17
Goldman delivers several lectures in Seattle, including three in the IWW
meeting hall; describes them as "the most wonderful I have addressed in many
years."
Mid-August
Canadian immigration authorities prevent Goldman from entering the country.
August 17
Goldman participates in debate on "Anarchism versus Socialism," and speaks on
"Marriage and Love" in Everett, Wash., despite the mayor's intention to bar her
public talks.
Late August
Goldman delivers three lectures in Spokane, including "The Social and
Revolutionary Significance of the Modern Drama."
"The Growing Danger of the Power of the Church" is the most popular of two lectures delivered by Goldman in Butte, Mont.
September
Back in New York City, Goldman engages in a search for a large apartment to
combine the Mother Earth office with a household
comprised of Reitman and his
mother, Berkman, Mother Earth secretary M. Eleanor
Fitzgerald, and French
housekeeper Rhoda Smith. By the end of the month, she moves from 210 East 13th
Street, where she has lived since 1903, to 74 West 119th Street.
Fall-Winter
Settled in her new home, Goldman prepares her modern drama manuscript for
publication.
Goldman organizes political support for IWW members arrested in connection with strike of Canadian miners, and for Jesus Rangel, Charles Kline and twelve members of the Partido Liberal Mexicano charged with murdering a deputy sheriff in San Antonio, Tex.
October 12
Goldman among speakers at a Francisco Ferrer memorial meeting in New York
City.
October 18
Annual Mother Earth reunion concert and ball takes
place in New York.
October 26
Goldman delivers two lectures in Trenton, N.J.
November 2-December 28
Goldman conducts Sunday evening lectures series in New York City; topics
include "Our Moral Censors," "The Place of Anarchism in Modern Thought," "The
Strike of Mothers," "The Intellectual Proletarians," and "Why Strikes Are
Lost."
December 15
Goldman hosts a social gathering for British syndicalist Tom Mann.
December 16
Despite warnings by the Paterson, N.J., police forbidding Goldman from
speaking, she addresses members of the IWW on "The Spirit of Anarchism in the
Labor Struggle." Goldman is forced off the platform; audience members engage
in battle with the police to release her.
December 24
Annual "Christmas Gathering of the Mother
EarthFamily" in New York City.
1914
January
Goldman's Mother Earth essay "Self-Defense for
Labor" responds to a series of
violent labor violations; in the absence of legal protection against the danger
of exercising their right to organize, Goldman calls on workers to arm
themselves for self-defense.
Joe Hill arrested in Utah; charged with murder despite lack of evidence.
Goldman's household arrangement with Reitman and his mother fails. Goldman's relationship with him becomes "unbearable"; Reitman moves back to Chicago.
Goldman continues to work on the manuscript of Social Significance of the Modern Drama.
January 4
Philadelphia police expel audience and lock the hall where Goldman is scheduled
to lecture on "The Awakening of Labor"; event moved to another location where
the lecture proceeds without interruption.
January 5
Under the auspices of the Free Speech League, Goldman addresses large meeting
in Paterson, N.J., to protest recent violations of free speech; other speakers
include single-taxer Bolton Hall, Leonard Abbott, and Lincoln Steffens.
January 11-March 8
Goldman delivers extensive lecture series in New York City on the modern drama;
expands her repertoire to discuss the works of British poet and dramatist John
Masefield, and American playwrights Mark E. Swan, William J. Hurlbut, Joshua
Rosett, and Edwin Davies Schoonmaker. Responding to the massive unemployment
of the time, Goldman requests contributions for the jobless at each lecture.
March
Goldman offered high-paying speaking engagements in vaudeville; after brief
contemplation of proposition based on desperate financial need, she turns down
offer.
March 6
Lecture in Newark, N.J.
March 9
Goldman delivers lecture in Philadelphia; notes free-speech victory with
complete retreat of police authorities.
March 15
Goldman, in Yiddish, among speakers at an afternoon celebration of the ninth
anniversary of the publication of Mother Earth
and a commemoration of the
Paris Commune; other speakers include Berkman, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Harry
Kelly.
Goldman delivers farewell lecture in New York City. American playwright George Middleton and actresses Fola La Follette and Mary Shaw speak on "What Drama Means to Me."
March 21
Goldman addresses demonstration of unemployed workers at Union Square in New
York City; rally is followed by march along Fifth Avenue. Event launches
city-wide campaign of the unemployed, in which Berkman takes an active role.
April
The Social Significance of the Modern Drama
published.
April 3
Reunited, Goldman and Reitman open their seventh annual tour in Chicago with
"splendid" Jewish meetings.
April 5
Goldman lectures on "The Conflict of the Sexes" in Chicago; attended by at
least one thousand people.
April 6-12
Goldman presents expanded afternoon lecture series on the modern drama in
Chicago. Playwrights analyzed include British dramatist St. John Hankin, Welsh
author John O. Francis, and American dramatists Eugene Walter and George
Middleton.
Other lectures presented in Chicago during this period include "Our Moral Censors," "The Individual and Society," "The Hypocrisy of Charity," "Beyond Good and Evil," "Anarchism and Labor" (in German), and "The Mother Strike."
In Chicago, Goldman befriends Margaret Anderson, editor of the literary magazine Little Review.
April 19-26
Goldman lectures in Madison, Minneapolis, and Des Moines.
April 20
Massacre of striking coal miners in Ludlow, Colo., by armed company guards from
John D. Rockefeller's Colorado Fuel & Iron Co.; eleven children and two
women among those killed.
April 28-May 9
Goldman delivers seven propaganda lectures and eleven modern drama talks in
Denver.
On May 3, Goldman addresses large meeting organized by the Anti-Militarist League of Denver to protest the use of federal troops in the Colorado mining strike and the war with Mexico.
Goldman attributes Denver IWW free-speech victory in part to the efforts of Reitman, who helped secure the release of twenty-seven IWW members from the county jail.
May 11
Goldman makes brief appearance in Salt Lake City.
May 15-June 11
In Los Angeles, Goldman continues delivering propaganda and modern drama
lectures, which includes discussion of Irish playwright Seamus O'Kelly. Her
propaganda lectures include "Revolution and Reform--Which?" and "The Place of
the Church in the Labor Struggle." Goldman reports to birth-control advocate
Margaret Sanger that "Not one of my lectures brings out such a crowd as the one
on the birth strike and it is the same with the W[oman] R[ebel]. It sells
better than anything we have" (May 26, 1914).
June 14-July 10
Goldman reception in San Francisco disappointing compared to her experience in
Los Angeles. Lectures include "The Intellectual Proletarians," "The Superman
in Relation to the Social Revolution," "The Mothers' Strike," and
"Anti-Militarism: The Reply to War."
July 4
Accidental bomb explosion at Lexington Avenue in New York City kills four
people, including Arthur Caron, Carl Hansen, and Charles Berg, anarchists who
knew Berkman from the protests at John D. Rockefeller's estate in Tarrytown,
N.Y.
Mid-July
Goldman travels to Eureka and Arcata, lumber towns in Humboldt County, Calif.;
delivers first-known anarchist lectures there to enthusiastic audiences.
On July 11 in New York City, a rally and public funeral of six thousand people mourn the deaths of those killed in the Lexington Avenue explosion. Berkman, a key organizer of event, speaks at rally despite heavy police surveillance. Goldman furious when she receives the July issue of Mother Earth, which, unbeknownst to her, has been filled with "harangues...of a most violent character.... [including] prattle about force and dynamite."
July 19-26
Goldman lectures in Portland, much aided by C. E. S. Wood. Among the most
notable and well attended of her lectures is "Intellectual Proletarians" at the
Portland Public Library. Other talks presented include "The Immorality of
Prohibition and Continence," about the prohibition campaign of Portland, which
Goldman later described as "one of the most exciting evenings in my public
career." The focus of her drama criticism expands during this tour to include
the work of Norwegian playwright Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson.
July 26-August 3
Goldman reports that her lectures in Seattle are "flat and uninteresting."
August
Outbreak of World War I in Europe.
August 4
Goldman speaks at a hastily organized event in Tacoma, Wash., on "The Birth
Strike--Why and How the Poor Should Not Have Children." Following Tacoma, she
travels to Home Colony.
August 7-14
Goldman returns to Portland to deliver a series of free lectures.
August 16-19
Goldman delivers five lectures in Butte, of which the most popular are her
antiwar and birth control talks.
Late August
Goldman makes brief stop in Chicago before returning to New York City, where
she finds Mother Earth in disastrous financial
condition as a result of Berkman's poor management.
Margaret Sanger indicted for obscenity in connection with her journal The Woman Rebel. A few months later, Sanger flees the country until Oct. 1915.
October
To decrease financial burden, Goldman relocates her residence and the _Mother
Earth_ office from West 119th Street to smaller quarters located at 20 East
125th Street.
Goldman encourages Berkman to embark on an independent lecture tour; places Max Baginski and her nephew Saxe Commins in charge of editorial work of Mother Earth.
November
Part one of Peter Kropotkin's 1913 essay, "Wars and Capitalism," reprinted in
Mother Earth, in an effort to refute Kropotkin's
stance in favor of the war.
October 23-November 15
Goldman returns to Chicago for series of propaganda and modern drama lectures,
delivered in both English and Yiddish. General lecture topics include "War and
the Sacred Right of Property," "The Betrayal of the International," "The False
Pretenses of Culture," "The Psychology of War," "The Tsar and 'My' Jews," "The
War and 'Our Lord'," "The Misconceptions of Free Love," and "Woman and War."
Her English series on the drama, titled "The Modern Drama as a Mirror of Individual, Class and Social Rebellion Against the Tyranny of the Past," takes place in Chicago's elegant Fine Arts Building, made possible by the financial backing of a wealthy supporter. Goldman's usual focus on European dramatists is expanded to include for the first time Swedish dramatist Hjalmar Bergman; French playwrights Paul Hervieu, (Félix) Henry Bataille, and Henri Becque; Italian dramatists Gabriele D'Annunzio and Giuseppe Giacosa; Spanish playwright José Echegaray; Yiddish dramatists Jacob Gordin, Sholem Asch, David Pinski, and Max Nordau; and American playwright Butler Davenport.
Goldman describes the audience of her Chicago Press Club luncheon lecture on "The Relationship of Anarchism to Literature" as "five hundred hard-faced men."
November 11
In Chicago, Goldman participates in event to commemorate the twenty-seventh
anniversary of the death of the Haymarket martyrs.
November 20-24
Goldman delivers lectures in Detroit and Ann Arbor.
November 26
Goldman delighted with the success of her meetings, including lecture on "The
War and 'Our Lord,'" in Grand Rapids, Mich., organized by William Buwalda of
the Analyser Club.
November 29-December 6
In St. Louis, Goldman delivers eight English and two Yiddish lectures to
receptive audiences.
December 7-10
Lectures in Indianapolis and Cincinnati; interaction with Indianapolis audience
at her lecture on "Free Love" described as "both interesting and funny."
December 11-14
Goldman presents two English and two Yiddish lectures in Cleveland, and
delivers an address before the Council of Economics.
December 15-18
In Pittsburgh, Goldman holds a meeting organized by lawyer Jacob Margolis.
December 20
Goldman delivers lecture on the war to an audience of eighteen hundred people
at an event organized by her niece Miriam Cominsky in Rochester. Days later,
Goldman speaks on "The Birth Strike."
December 31
Goldman hosts New Year's eve party at her apartment on East 125th Street; Mabel
Dodge among those invited.
1915
Winter
Goldman helps organize defense of Matthew Schmidt and David Caplan, arrested
for complicity in the 1910 bombing of the Los Angeles
Times building.
January-April
Goldman delivers series of lectures on the war and on sexuality in New York
City, Albany, Schenectady, and Boston. Topics include "Anarchism and
Literature," "Feminism--A Criticism of Woman's Struggle for the Vote and
'Freedom'," "Nietzsche, The Intellectual Storm-Center of the Great War," "The
Intermediate Sex (A Study of Homosexuality)," and "Man--Monogamist or
Varietist?"
At the end of 1915, Reitman reports that Goldman has delivered a total of 321 lectures that year.
January 15
Goldman attends concert of her nephew David Hochstein, a violinist with
exceptional talent.
January 19
William Sanger arrested for circulating a copy of Margaret Sanger's pamphlet
Family Limitation.
February
Goldman lectures on "Limitation of Offspring" to six hundred people, one of the
liberal New York Sunrise Club's largest audiences. Although she details
explicit information about birth control methods, Goldman is not arrested.
February 20
Mother Earth "Red Revel" Ball takes place in New
York City; attended by close to eight hundred people of many nationalities.
March
Goldman helps raise money for the defense fund of Frank Abarno and Carmine
Carbone, members of the Italian anarchist Gruppo Gaetano Bresci, arrested on
March 2 for conspiracy to bomb St. Patrick's Cathedral. On April 9, Abarno and
Carbone are convicted and sentenced to six to twelve years in prison.
March 11
Goldman disappointed by the poor attendance at the tenth anniversary of
Mother Earth in New York.
March 18
Goldman shares the platform with Harry Kelly, Italian anarchist Carlo Tresca,
Pedro Esteve, Russian anarchist William Shatoff, and physician and anarchist
Michael Cohn for an international celebration of the anniversary of the Paris
Commune. Goldman attributes poor turnout to the divided stance among radicals
on the war.
March 28
Goldman lectures again on "Limitation of Offspring--Why and How Small Families
are Preferable" in New York. Although explicit information is repeated and
detectives are present, no arrests are made.
March 30
Goldman invited by the students of the Union Theological Seminary in New York
to speak on "The Message of Anarchism," but administration cancels the
engagement.
April
Writing from exile in Europe, Margaret Sanger criticizes Goldman for failing to
provide adequate support and coverage of Sanger's legal battles. Goldman calls
her charge "very unfair" and assures her that Mother
Earth will stand by her.
The Organizing Junta of the Partido Liberal Mexicano, including the Magón bothers, appeals to the readers of Mother Earth for solidarity with the Mexican revolutionary movement.
Goldman poses for a portrait by artist Robert Henri.
April 7
Goldman debates economist Isaac Hourwich on "Social Revolution versus Social
Reform" in New York City in a benefit for the Ferrer School; attended by nearly
two thousand people.
April 19
Goldman speaks on "The Failure of Christianity" and the Billy Sunday movement
in Paterson, N.J., after attending one of Sunday's revival meetings.
Late April
Motivated primarily by need to pay off debts of Mother
Earth, Goldman embarks on a lecture tour. One of her first
engagements, in Philadelphia, is delivering "The Limitation of Offspring"
in Yiddish before an audience of twelve hundred.
May
International Anarchist Manifesto on the War issued from London; Goldman among
over thirty anarchist signatories from the United States, Italy, France, Spain,
the Netherlands, and Russia.
Goldman lectures on the war, drama, birth control, and sexuality in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Denver. topics include "Jealousy, Its Cause and Possible Cure," the Modern School, and feminism. Finds that audiences are most receptive to her lectures on war and on birth control, although Catholic socialists harass her in Washington, D.C.
June
Goldman continues her lecture tour in Los Angeles and San Diego, raising
support for the Caplan-Schmidt defense fund.
While in Los Angeles, Goldman presents her critique of feminism to a hostile group of five hundred members of the Woman's City Club, who, according to Goldman, denounce her as "an enemy of woman's freedom."
July
Goldman delivers twenty-four lectures in San Francisco; topics include "The
Psychology of War," "The Follies of Feminism (A criticism of the Modern Woman's
Movement)," "Religion and the War," and "The Right of the Child Not to Be
Born." According to Reitman, Goldman presents "an inspired address" on "The
Philosophy of Atheism" before the Congress of Religious Philosophy at the Civic
Auditorium.
August
Lectures continue in Portland; on Aug. 6, while beginning a speech on "Birth
Control," Goldman and Reitman are arrested for distributing birth control
literature. Goldman released on $500 bail provided by C. E. S. Wood.
August 7
Goldman and Reitman are fined $100. Despite proclamation by the chief of
police that Goldman will not be allowed to speak again in Portland, she
presents "The Intermediate Sex" later that night, and two lectures the
following day.
August 10
Goldman speaks on "The Sham of Culture" at the Portland Public Library to
overflowing crowd.
August 13
Goldman's case dismissed by Portland Circuit Judge Gatens who concludes, "There
is too much tendency to prudery nowadays."
Mid-late August
Goldman lectures in Seattle where she has difficulty securing halls.
September
Goldman returns to New York.
September 10
William Sanger convicted for illegal distribution of birth control literature;
Sanger serves thirty-day jail sentence in lieu of paying $150 fine.
September 16
Goldman scheduled to speak at meeting to rally support for David Caplan and
Matthew Schmidt prior to the opening of their trials. (During the course of
Schmidt's trial, it is revealed that Donald Vose, the son of an anarchist
friend of Goldman's, had been employed since May 1914 by detective William J.
Burns to spy on Goldman in order to locate Schmidt. Vose resided at Goldman's
apartment and at her farm in Ossining the previous year, and witnessed Schmidt
visiting Goldman. Schmidt was later arrested.)
October
Reitman, in Chicago, begins work on a book about venereal disease; Goldman
reviews the first chapter.
October 26-30
Goldman delivers five lectures--including "Preparedness, the Road to Universal
Slaughter" in Philadelphia. Scott Nearing of the University of Pennsylvania
attends one of her lectures.
Late October-mid-November
Goldman lectures in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, Ann Arbor,
Detroit, Akron, and Youngstown. On Nov. 11, the anniversary of the Haymarket
martyrs, Goldman delivers her "Preparedness" lecture to three thousand
employees of a Westinghouse defense plant at a street lecture in East
Pittsburgh.
November 19
IWW member and songwriter Joe Hill (Joseph Hillstrom) executed in Utah.
November 19-December 5
Goldman presents sixteen lectures in Chicago, including six in Yiddish; "Sex,
the Great Element of Creative Art" and "The Right of the Child Not to be Born"
among the topics addressed.
December 8-21
Goldman lectures in St. Louis, Indianapolis, Columbus, Akron, Cleveland, and
Youngstown. Goldman remarks that the Akron newspaper reports on her birth
control lectures were among the most intelligent she had ever seen.
Late December
Goldman returns to New York ill and exhausted; seeks better accommodations at
the Theresa Hotel in New York, as the Mother Earth
office has no bath. Hotel management refuses to grant her residence.
Attorney Harry Weinberger protests on Goldman's behalf.
1916
January
Goldman lectures in New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Pittsburgh,
on sexuality, modern drama, and the war, including "Preparedness: A Conspiracy
between the Munitions Manufacturers and Washington." Also lectures before
enthusiastic members of a prominent women's club in Brooklyn.
Matthew Schmidt convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
January 15
Berkman announces publication of the first issue of his San Francisco-based
journal The Blast.
February-March
Goldman continues her lectures--including "The Ego and His Own, a review of Max
Stirner's book," "The Family, the Great Obstacle to Development," and
"Nietzsche and the German Kaiser"--in New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C.,
and Pittsburgh. Her lectures on modern drama include Irish playwrights Synge,
Yeats, Thomas Cornelius Murray, Rutherford Mayne, and Lennox Robinson.
February 11
Goldman arrested in New York City for her birth control lecture the previous
week; released on $500 bail. Preliminary hearing takes place Feb. 28; case
postponed for Special Sessions April 5. Goldman appeals for support.
February 18
Ricardo and Enrique Flores Magón, editors of the Mexican anarchist
periodical
Regeneración, arrested and jailed on
charges of "having used the mails to
incite murder, arson, and treason." Months later, they are both convicted and
given prison sentences and fines.
February 20
Celebration in New York City for Margaret Sanger following the dismissal of all
charges against her; Robert Minor's motion for Goldman to speak at the meeting
is not supported.
March 10
Mass meeting held in San Francisco to protest Goldman's Feb. 11 arrest.
April
Goldman prepares for her birth control trial and continues to lecture in New
York; drama critique includes discussion of British playwright Harley
Granville-Barker.
April 2
Goldman chairs public meeting in New York to protest imprisonment of Matthew
Schmidt.
April 5
Goldman's courtroom hearing on her birth control violation takes place amid
ruckus between police and her supporters.
April 19
Benefit banquet for Goldman at the Hotel Brevoort is attended by notable
artists, writers, socialists, and doctors, including John Cowper Powys,
Alexander Harvey, Robert Henri, George Bellows, Robert Minor, Boardman
Robinson, and Rose Pastor Stokes.
April 20
Goldman defends herself in birth control trial. She is convicted, and, in lieu
of paying $100 fine, serves fifteen days in the Queens County Penitentiary;
released May 4.
April 27
Reitman arrested in New York for distributing pamphlets on birth control.
May 5
Large gathering at Carnegie Hall to celebrate Goldman's release from jail.
Program includes speeches by Masses editor Max
Eastman, Harry Weinberger, Arturo Giovannitti, and socialist Rose Pastor
Stokes. At the close of the meeting, Rose Pastor Stokes hands out one
hundred typewritten notices including
outlawed information about birth control.
May 8
Reitman convicted and sentenced to sixty days in Queens County Jail.
May 20
Goldman speaks from the back of a car at an open-air demonstration in Union
Square to protest Reitman's imprisonment for distributing birth control. Ida
Rauh Eastman, Bolton Hall, and Jessie Ashley are arrested later and charged
with illegally distributing birth control information at the meeting.
Late May-July
Goldman conducts lecture tour in Philadelphia, Cleveland, Denver, Los Angeles,
and San Francisco; topics include "Free or Forced Motherhood," "Anarchism and
Human Nature--Do They Harmonize?," "The Family--Its Enslaving Effect upon
Parents and Children," "Art and Revolution: The Irish Uprising," in addition to
lectures on the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt
Whitman.
Goldman plans meeting with Giovannitti and others to begin work on an anti-militarist manifesto.
July
During strike of thirty thousand iron-ore miners of the Mesabi range in
northern Minnesota, Carlo Tresca and other IWW strike leaders are arrested on
charge of inciting the murder of a deputy.
July 1
Social dance and benefit for the defense funds of David Caplan and Enrique and
Ricardo Flores Magón takes place in Los Angeles. Goldman and Berkman
celebrate
their success in raising the $10,000 bail necessary to secure the release of
the Magon brothers.
July 22
A bomb is thrown into the crowd at a Preparedness Day parade in San Francisco,
killing ten and wounding forty people. On the same day, Goldman proceeds as
planned with her scheduled talk on "Preparedness, the Road to Universal
Slaughter."
The authorities immediately suspect anarchist involvement in the bombing. A few days later, they search and seize material located at the offices of The Blast, and threaten to arrest Berkman and M. Eleanor Fitzgerald. Later that week, Warren Billings, Israel Weinberg, Edward Nolan, Thomas Mooney, and Rena Mooney are arrested. Goldman and Berkman begin to organize support for their defense.
August-September
Goldman lectures in Portland, Seattle, and Denver; Goldman's lecture "The Gary
System" addresses the topic of public school education. In Denver, Goldman's
lectures include "The Educational and Sexual Dwarfing of the Child," and a
course on "Russian Literature--The Voice of Revolt."
September 11
Trial of Warren Billings begins in San Francisco.
Late September-October
Goldman's lecture tour concluded, she takes a brief vacation in Provincetown
with her niece Stella. Following the conviction and sentencing of Warren
Billings to life imprisonment, Goldman resumes work with Berkman in New York in
support of the Mooney case.
October 20
Appearing in court to testify on behalf of Bolton Hall, Goldman is arrested for
having distributed birth control information on May 20. (Hall is later
acquitted of the charge.) Goldman released on $500 bond; Harry Weinberger
serves as her attorney.
October 26
Margaret Sanger is arrested for distributing birth control information.
November 5
Protesting violations of free speech and vigilante intimidation, five members
of the IWW are killed and thirty-one wounded by vigilantes in Everett, Wash.;
seventy-four IWW members are later tried for the murder of a deputy and a
lumber company official.
November-December
Goldman lectures in Chicago, Milwaukee, Ann Arbor, Detroit, Cleveland, and
Rochester on education, Russian literature, birth control, sexuality, and
anarchism.
November 11
Bill Haywood, Lucy Parsons, and Goldman speak at a large memorial meeting in
Chicago for the Haymarket martyrs. Collections are made for, in Goldman's
words, "the living victims in the social war," including Mooney, Tresca,
Caplan, Schmidt, and the IWW members arrested in Everett.
December 2
Goldman speaks at a large meeting in Carnegie Hall called by the United Hebrew
Trades to protest the arrests and trials of those accused of throwing a bomb at
the San Francisco Preparedness Day parade. Other speakers include lawyer Frank
Walsh, Max Eastman, United Hebrew Trades leader Max Pine, Giovannitti, and
Berkman.
December 12
Reitman arrested in Cleveland for organizing volunteers to distribute birth
control information at Goldman's lecture "Is Birth Control Harmful--a
Discussion of the Limitation of Offspring."
December 15
At one of Goldman's lectures in Rochester, Reitman is again arrested for
distributing illegal birth control literature.
1917
January-April
Goldman lectures before Yiddish- and English-speaking audiences in New York,
Cleveland, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Passaic, N.J., Boston, Springfield,
and Brockton, Mass.; topics include "Obedience, A Social Vice," "Celibacy or
Sex Expression," "Vice and Censorship, Twin Sisters--How Vice is Not
Suppressed," "Michael Bakunin, His Life and Work," "Walt Whitman, the Liberator
of Sex," "The Speculators in War and Starvation," "American Democracy in
Relation to the Russian Revolution," and a course on Russian literature.
Goldman preoccupied with threat of Berkman's extradition to California in connection with the Mooney case.
Following the February Revolution in Russia, Goldman supports William Shatoff's return to Russia with a contingent of Russian exiles and refugees. Goldman and Berkman entrust Louise Berger with the delivery of a manifesto they have written to the people of Russia to protest the imprisonment of Mooney and Billings. Goldman and Berkman attend Leon Trotsky's farewell lecture in New York City. They contemplate visiting Russia, but decide to postpone plans when they learn that the British government has held up the return of several Russian revolutionaries.
January 8
Goldman acquitted by a New York court on charge of circulating birth control
information at the May 20, 1916, Union Square open-air meeting. Goldman
credits especially Ida Rauh Eastman, who risks self-incrimination in order to
disprove Goldman's involvement in distributing literature.
January 17
Reitman is convicted on charges resulting from his arrest of Dec. 12, 1916, and
sentenced to serve six months in jail and to pay a fine of $1,000 in addition
to court costs. Goldman angry that Margaret Sanger, in Cleveland at the time,
failed to help rally support for Reitman.
February
Alien Immigration Act passed; allows deportation of undesirable aliens "any
time after their entry."
February 4-5
In Cleveland, Goldman speaks on "The Message of Anarchism" before a full
assembly of the North Congregational Church. The following day she addresses a
free-speech meeting; Goldman dismayed that other speakers have refused to
attend event if birth control included among issues addressed.
February 7
Mooney convicted and sentenced to hang on May 17. Goldman intensifies
organizing efforts to prevent his execution.
February 28
Following large rally in support of Reitman the prior evening, Reitman is
acquitted on charges from his Dec. 15, 1916 birth control arrest in
Rochester.
March
Mooney's defense attorney W. Bourke Cockran speaks at mass meeting at Carnegie
Hall organized by Goldman and Berkman.
April
Goldman speaks at several meetings chaired by John Sloan of the New York Art
Students League.
April 6
The United States enters World War I.
April 7
Political Prisoners Ball, which Goldman has helped organize, benefits the San
Francisco Labor Defense for Mooney and Billings; features "cell-booth bazaar
and prison garb and military costumes." Goldman counts forty-five hundred
people in attendance.
May
Goldman lectures in New York, Springfield, Mass., and Philadelphia; topics
include "Billy Sunday (Charlatan and Vulgarian)," "The State and its Powerful
Opponents: Friedrich Nietzsche, Max Stirner, Ralph Waldo Emerson, David
Thoreau, and Others," "Woman's Inhumanity to Man," and Russian literature.
May 9
Conference to organize a No-Conscription League held at the
Mother Earth
office; away lecturing, Goldman claims that she sent a message that, as a
woman, she felt she could not claim a position on whether or not the League
should urge men against registering for the military.
May 17
Mooney's scheduled date of execution is stayed while case is appealed.
May 18
On the same day that the Selective Service Act is passed authorizing federal
conscription for the armed forces and requiring the registration of all men
between the ages of twenty-one and thirty, Goldman addresses an
anti-conscription gathering of close to ten thousand people chaired by Leonard
Abbott in New York City. Other speakers include Berkman and Harry Weinberger.
No arrests made, but many detectives present.
May 31
Goldman speaks before a Jewish audience in Philadelphia on "Victims of
Morality," addressing morality as it relates to private ownership, government
and laws, and women. The police warn her against addressing conscription when
she begins to urge mothers to prevent their sons from fighting in the war.
Event inspires the formation of a No-Conscription League in Philadelphia.
June
On an order from Washington, D.C., New York postal authorities hold up June
issue of Mother Earth.
Kropotkin returns to Russia.
June 1
At a peace meeting in Madison Square Garden, Morris Becker, Louis Kramer, and
two others are arrested for circulating leaflets advertising a June 4 mass
meeting of the No-Conscription League. Although Goldman and Berkman attempt to
claim full responsibility for the event, Becker and Kramer are later found
guilty of conspiracy to advise people against military registration.
June 4
On the eve of the official military registration day, Goldman, among others,
addresses a mass meeting organized by the No-Conscription League; attended by
ten thousand people. Goldman stops the meeting when a conflict with uniformed
soldiers and sailors breaks out.
June 14
Ignoring rumors of a death threat, Goldman speaks at an anti-conscription
meeting chaired by Berkman. Officers arrest all men of draft age who cannot
show proof of registration.
June 15
Goldman and Berkman arrested by U.S. Marshal Thomas McCarthy; later indicted on
charge of conspiracy to violate the Draft Act.
President Wilson signs the Espionage Act, which sets penalties of up to twenty years imprisonment and fines of up to $10,000 for persons aiding the enemy, interfering with the draft, or encouraging disloyalty of military members; also declares nonmailable all written material advocating treason, insurrection, or forcible resistance to the law.
June 16
Goldman and Berkman plead not guilty on conspiracy charges; bail set at $25,000
each.
Goldman disappointed by Reitman's failure to return to New York to support their pending trial.
June 21
Goldman freed on $25,000 bail; the press spreads charges that Goldman's bail
was provided by the German Kaiser. Berkman released on bail June 25.
June 26
Goldman consults with some of her closest associates--including writer and
editor Frank Harris, journalist and socialist John Reed, Max Eastman, and
Gilbert Roe--about her disbelief in courtroom justice and her decision to
participate minimally in her pending trial.
First U.S. troops arrive in France.
June 27-July 9
Goldman and Berkman act as independent counsel in their conspiracy trial;
Goldman denies charge that she stated, "We believe in violence and we will use
violence" at the May 18 meeting. After a brief jury deliberation, they are
both found guilty and given the maximum sentence--two years in prison and
$10,000 fine. Judge Julius Mayer recommends their deportation as undesirable
aliens. Goldman's plea to have sentencing deferred is denied; Goldman taken to
Jefferson City, Mo., and Berkman to Atlanta, Ga., to begin their sentences.
Mid-July
Federal authorities demand removal of Mother Earth
office from its location
at 20 East 125th Street; M. Eleanor Fitzgerald relocates office to 226
Lafayette Street.
Vigilantes forcibly gather and ship over twelve hundred striking members of the IWW in cattle cars from Jerome and Bisbee, Arizona, to California and New Mexico, where they are guarded by federal military authorities.
July 17
Berkman indicted in absentia in San Francisco for complicity in three murders
stemming from the bombing at the 1916 Preparedness Day parade.
July 25
Goldman released from Jefferson City, Mo., prison to New York's Tombs prison;
later released on $25,000 bail pending the appeal of her case before the U.S.
Supreme Court. Berkman not released on bail until Sept. 10.
August
This month's issue of Mother Earth is held up by
Post Office authorities (it proves to be the final issue published).
Goldman steps up efforts to prevent Berkman's extradition to California--solicits support from the United Hebrew Trades, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, the Freie Arbeiter Stimme, the Forward, prominent individuals including Max Eastman, social worker and nurse Lillian Wald, Bolton Hall, publisher Benjamin Huebsch, and Sholem Asch, and many other unions and organizations.
August 1
In Butte, Mont., while assisting striking miners, IWW General Executive Board
member Frank Little is brutally murdered.
August 23-25
Accompanied by Reitman, Goldman speaks about the status of her case, Berkman's
threatened extradition, and conscription at several meetings in Chicago.
September
Mother Earth denied second-class mailing
privileges by Post Office authorities.
September 1
The People's Council in Minneapolis convenes; although elected by various
anarchist groups to serve as a delegate, Goldman refuses, objecting to its
implicit prowar stance.
September 5
In response to growing IWW opposition to the war, federal authorities raid IWW
headquarters in twenty-four cities. Raids precede arrests later that month of
over one hundred IWW members, including Bill Haywood, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn,
Arturo Giovannitti, and Carlo Tresca.
September 9
Anarchist Antonio Fornasier is killed by Milwaukee police after heckling a
priest. His comrade Augusta Marinelli, wounded on the same occasion, dies five
days later. Ten men and a woman are arrested for inciting the riot; later
linked to Nov. 24 bomb explosion that occurred while they were still
imprisoned; each found guilty and sentenced to between eleven and twenty-five
years imprisonment. Goldman will later protest the injustice of their case,
claiming a frame-up.
September 10
Upon Berkman's release from prison on $25,000 bail, he is arrested for murder
in connection with the Preparedness Day bombing in San Francisco. Prompted by
demonstrations in Russia, President Wilson later orders a federal investigation
of the case.
September 11
Police authorities prevent Goldman from speaking publicly at a meeting at the
Kessler Theater in New York; to protest and dramatize police suppression of her
address, she nonetheless appears on stage, a gag over her mouth.
September 30
Labor delegation organized by Goldman calls on New York Governor Whitman to
protest Berkman's threatened extradition to California.
October
Goldman, her niece Stella, and M. Eleanor Fitzgerald begin publication of
Mother Earth Bulletin. Reitman returns to
Chicago, in sharp disagreement with Goldman over the direction of the
Bulletin.
Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. Goldman defends Bolshevism against attacks by the American press and liberals.
November
Federal agents begin to investigate Goldman for her suspected role in "the
Guillotine Plot"; implicated in masterminding the organization of "Committees
of Five" to assassinate simultaneously the president and other state officials.
Investigation continued through early 1918, when inconclusive evidence forces
its abandonment.
November 13
California District Attorney Charles Fickert temporarily withdraws demand for
Berkman's extradition. Berkman released from prison the following day.
November 16
Goldman speaks at New York's Hunt's Point Palace on "The Russian Revolution:
Its Promise and Fulfillment" before two thousand people; describes it as a
"most inspiring event."
December
Goldman meets Helen Keller at a benefit ball for The
Masses.
Anarchist and feminist poet Louise Olivereau convicted for antiwar activities; sentenced to ten years in Colorado prison.
December 13-14
Weinberger presents Goldman's and Berkman's appeals before the U.S. Supreme
Court; argues that the Draft Act is unconstitutional.
December 14
Police authorities prevent Goldman and Berkman from speaking at a meeting at
the Harlem River Casino in New York organized by labor for the San Francisco
defense.
1918
January
Prior to imprisonment, Goldman delivers her last public lectures in Chicago,
Detroit, and Rochester (in Yiddish and English); topics include "The
Bolsheviki--Their True Nature and Aim," "The Russian Revolution and its
Forerunners," "Maxim Gorki," "Leonid Andreyeff," "America and the Russian
Revolution," "The Spiritual and Intellectual Development of Russia," "The
Spiritual Awakening of Russia," and "Women Martyrs of Russia."
The mayor of Ann Arbor, responding to pressure from the Daughters of the American Revolution, cancels Goldman's public engagements. Plans to speak in St. Louis, Minneapolis, Denver, Kansas City, and Cleveland are abandoned in light of difficulty securing halls and her pending imprisonment.
January 7
U.S. Supreme Court upholds constitutionality of the selective service law; on
Jan. 14, affirms all criminal charges arising from non-compliance with the
draft.
January 8
President Wilson presents his Fourteen Points peace program to Congress.
January 28
Supreme Court mandates return of Goldman and Berkman to begin their prison
sentences.
January 30
From Petrograd, the U.S. ambassador notifies the State Department of the
Russian anarchists' threat to hold him personally responsible for Goldman's and
Berkman's safety in prison.
February
Goldman's niece Stella Ballantine establishes the Mother Earth Book Shop in
Greenwich Village.
February 1
Goldman and Berkman are honored in New York at the first United Russian
Convention in America, attended by over 160 delegates from Russian
organizations in the United States.
February 2
Prior to surrendering to federal authorities, Goldman meets with
representatives of the newly formed League for the Amnesty of Political
Prisoners, including the chairman, educator Prince Hopkins, treasurer Leonard
Abbott, and secretary M. Eleanor Fitzgerald.
Goldman held in the Tombs prison in New York until Feb. 4, when she is transported to the federal penitentiary in Jefferson City, Mo.
February 6
Goldman begins serving her prison sentence in Jefferson City, Mo., one of about
ninety women federal prisoners. She is assigned the task of sewing jackets and
other items for the state of Missouri, which in turn sells the clothing to
private firms throughout the United States. Her prescribed daily quota causes
intense strain and contributes to her ongoing physical decline.
Goldman is initially allowed to write only one two-page letter every week; soon granted the right to send an additional weekly letter to her attorney, Harry Weinberger. Allowed one monthly visit, with some exceptions. Goldman denied outside recreation on Sunday afternoons when she refuses to attend morning church services. Throughout Goldman's incarceration, she receives weekly deliveries of fresh groceries from St. Louis anarchists.
February 22
Birth Brutus, Ben Reitman's son with Anna Martindale.
February 25
Newspapers report on government charges that Goldman and Berkman had worked
with German spies in foreign countries, an allegation based on correspondence
from Indian nationalist Har Dayal to Berkman found among the papers seized from
the Mother Earth office.
March 1
Goldman receives visit from Prince Hopkins, who reports on the activities of
the League for the Amnesty of Political Prisoners.
March 3
Germany and its allies sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the Soviet
Republic.
March 4
The Bureau of Investigation of the Department of Justice orders copies of all
correspondence to and from Goldman sent to its office in Washington, D.C.
March 7
Harry Weinberger submits motion to the U.S. District Court, Southern District
of New York, that the bail money provided for Goldman and Berkman should not be
used to pay their fines. Motion granted by Judge Augustus N. Hand on Mar.
11.
March 18
Reitman begins his six-month prison sentence in Cleveland for his Jan. 1917
conviction for distributing birth control information.
March 21
Ricardo Flores Magón arrested in Los Angeles, placed under $25,000
bail. Later
convicted under the Espionage Act for obstructing the war effort; sentenced to
twenty years imprisonment.
April
Final issue of Mother Earth Bulletin produced;
future publication made impossible by ongoing government seizures.
Ferrer Center in New York closes.
In reaction to growing protests of Russian anarchists to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the Cheka--the Soviet secret police--raids anarchist centers in Moscow. Approximately forty anarchists are killed or wounded, more than five hundred taken prisoners.
April 1
Weinberger meets with the assistant superintendent of prisons in Washington,
D.C., to complain about government tampering and confiscation of Goldman's
mail.
April 16
Prince Hopkins arrested, indicted by federal grand jury in Los Angeles for
violating the Espionage Act; released on $25,000 bail. On Aug. 30, he pleads
guilty, fined $27,000.
May 16
The Sedition Act is passed, penalizing anyone judged to be hindering the war
effort by making false statements, obstructing enlistment, or speaking against
production of war materials, the American government, its constitution, or
flag. Signed into law by President Wilson on May 21.
June
Goldman granted permission to write two letters every week, in addition to her
letters to Weinberger.
Contemplates writing about the situation of women in prison. Receives news that William Marion Reedy and attorney Clarence Darrow are interested in the League for the Amnesty of Political Prisoners, but believe that nothing can be done until after the war. Anticipating orders for her deportation, Goldman begins to investigate her citizenship status.
Following suspension of the Mother Earth Bulletin, Stella Ballantine publishes a mimeographed newsletter, Instead of a Magazine.
June 27
Goldman spends her birthday in agonizing pain, induced by strain from her
prison work.
June 29
Federal agents raid the apartment of Goldman's associate M. Eleanor Fitzgerald,
seizing mailing lists and other relevant material. Goldman's associates Carl
Newlander and William Bales arrested for draft evasion following the raid of
their apartment.
July
U.S. intelligence agencies begin to circulate the names and addresses of over
eight thousand Mother Earth subscribers, targeting
them for investigation.
Goldman reluctantly concurs with Stella Ballantine's decision to close the Mother Earth Bookshop.
July 23
Roger Baldwin visits Goldman in prison.
July 28
National Mooney Day; Governor Stephens grants Mooney a reprieve until
December.
September
Goldman is disturbed by Catherine Breshkovskaya's condemnation of the
Bolsheviks.
Reitman is released from prison.
Goldman impressed by Eugene Debs's courageous stand during his trial and conviction for violation of the Espionage Act.
U.S. Committee on Public Information promotes widespread publication of alleged Russian documents that prove Bolshevik leaders are German agents.
October
With the spread of a deathly strain of influenza, a quarantine is established
at the penitentiary in Jefferson City, Mo., where Goldman is imprisoned; all
outside visits are suspended.
Goldman congratulates her lawyer Harry Weinberger for his brave defense in the Abrams case. Jacob Abrams, Samuel Lipman, and Hyman Lachowsky are convicted on charges of violating the Espionage Act and sentenced to twenty years in federal prison; Mollie Steimer sentenced to fifteen years.
Roger Baldwin tried before U.S. District Judge Julius Mayer for failure to register for the draft; sentenced to a year in prison.
October 15
Goldman's nephew, the talented violinist David Hochstein, dies in battle; news
about his death does not reach family members until Jan. 1919.
October 16
Anti-Anarchist Act passed by Congress, granting the government authority to
deport aliens living in the United States.
November
Mooney's death sentence commuted to life imprisonment.
Gabriella Segata Antolini, a nineteen-year-old anarchist arrested and convicted for transporting dynamite in Chicago, is imprisoned in the Jefferson City, Mo., penitentiary; she and Goldman become good friends.
November 11
End of World War I.
December
Goldman granted the privilege of writing three letters each week in addition to
her weekly communication with Harry Weinberger.
1919
January
Prison quarantine lifted; influenza outbreak under control. Goldman visited by
M. Eleanor Fitzgerald, who brings her a smuggled communication from Berkman.
Goldman reads and responds to Louise Bryant's book Six Red Months in Russia: An Observer's Account of Russia before and during the Proletarian Dictatorship; Goldman is critical of Bryant's portrayal of the Russian anarchists.
January 15
Revolutionaries Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht arrested and murdered in
Berlin.
January 21
New York City Police Inspector Thomas J. Tunney testifies before a Senate
subcommittee chaired by Senator Overman investigating links between German
agents and the U.S. Brewers' Association and allied liquor interests; recounts
his investigation of Goldman and Berkman in connection with the Hindu
revolutionary Har Dayal. Claims that Goldman and Berkman are close associates
of Leon Trotsky. Describes Goldman as "a very able and intelligent woman and a
very fine speaker."
February
Goldman receives a brief visit from Kate Richards O'Hare, who is anticipating
her incarceration for violation of the Espionage Act.
Goldman notes that her mail is being monitored by federal authorities.
Suffering from intense pain from the physical hardship of her prison work, Goldman resorts to paying her fellow inmates to help her reach the daily quota.
February 14
Catherine Breshkovskaya testifies before the Overman Subcommittee on Bolshevik
propaganda. Louise Bryant testifies on Feb. 20: states her belief that
Breshkovskaya is being manipulated by Russian counter-revolutionists;
remarks on Goldman's imprisonment.
March
Harry Weinberger appeals to the U.S. assistant superintendent of prisons in
Washington, D.C., to assign Goldman to less physically demanding work. Prison
authorities agree to investigate the conditions.
Goldman responds to an anonymous editorial published in the Liberator attacking the Russian anarchists.
Goldman urges Harry Weinberger to embark on a national speaking tour to promote amnesty for all political prisoners; Weinberger feels unable to comply because of lack of financial and human resources.
March 31
Goldman interviewed by Winthrop Lane for an independent investigation of
federal prisons slated for publication in the research magazine
Survey.
April
Eugene Debs incarcerated.
Immigration officer interrogates Goldman in prison. Following visit, the Bureau of Immigration privately concludes that there are no legal barriers to Goldman's deportation. Anthony Caminetti, Commissioner General of the Bureau of Immigration, pursues policy for allowing her deportation.
Socialist Kate Richards O'Hare joins Goldman in prison at the Jefferson City, Mo., penitentiary.
April 12
Benefit concert at Carnegie Hall for the League for the Amnesty of Political
Prisoners organized by M. Eleanor Fitzgerald, Stella Ballantine, and Harry
Weinberger.
May
German anarchist Gustav Landauer killed following his arrest by a unit of the
anti-revolutionary Freikorps.
Goldman emphatically rejects Reitman's request to visit her in prison.
May 9
Socialist Ella Reeve Bloor visits Goldman in prison.
May-June
Mail bombs purportedly sent to Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer and other
prominent officials gain media attention. Government agents wrongly implicate
Goldman and Berkman in the conspiracy.
June
Goldman laments that "nothing vital" is being done to promote amnesty.
Goldman notes Kate Richard O'Hare's ability to influence much-needed prison reforms at the Jefferson City penitentiary.
Goldman and other prisoners allowed for the first time weekend picnics in the city park.
Frank Harris assists Goldman with planning a public celebration to welcome her home.
June 27
Goldman celebrates her fiftieth birthday in prison. Especially touched that
William Shatoff sends her a bouquet of flowers from Russia.
July
Much to Goldman's disappointment, an amnesty conference scheduled to take place
in Chicago July 2-4 is canceled.
Kate Richards O'Hare begins to type Goldman's weekly dictated letters.
August 29
Goldman's prison sentence for her primary conviction ends; one-month
sentence in lieu of paying her fine begins.
September 12
Still in prison, Goldman is served a warrant for her arrest and deportation;
bond set at $15,000.
September 25
Underground anarchists bomb Communist headquarters in Moscow.
September 27
Goldman's term of imprisonment at Jefferson City penitentiary expires; released
on bail with orders for deportation pending. Greeted in Jefferson City by mobs
of reporters, friends, and niece Stella Ballantine, who accompanies her to
Rochester. Berkman released from Atlanta penitentiary on Oct. 1.
Stops in Chicago to visit Reitman; meets his wife and child.
October 8
General strike called to demand Mooney's release and amnesty for all political
prisoners.
Bureau of Investigation Director J. Edgar Hoover, in New York to review evidence collected for Goldman's deportation, monitors protest rally that night. In search of further evidence, Hoover personally inspects storage room leased by M. Eleanor Fitzgerald and Reitman.
Mid-October
Goldman and Berkman spend a few days in the country to recuperate from harsh
prison conditions before they begin work to oppose their deportations.
October 27
Goldman appears before immigration authorities at Ellis Island to appeal her
deportation order.
Dinner in honor of Goldman and Berkman is sponsored by the Ferrer School and a committee of supporters at the Hotel Brevoort in New York City. Margaret Scully, who will hold a job as Goldman's secretary for a week, acts as a spy for the Lusk Committee, submitting her first report detailing events at the Hotel Brevoort celebration.
October 28
Immigration officials question Goldman to determine her citizenship status;
Goldman claims U.S. citizenship from her marriage to Jacob A. Kersner.
October 31
Benefit theater performance in New York City raises $500 for Goldman and
Berkman's deportation fight.
Early November
Violent raids of the homes of hundreds of suspected radicals take place in New
York City.
November 1
Goldman and Berkman send out a three-thousand-piece
solicitation to raise support for political prisoners, the fight against
deportation of aliens, and to announce their proposed lecture tour scheduled to
begin at the end of the month.
November 17
Goldman speaks at a New York dinner organized by friends of Kate Richards
O'Hare.
November 23-26
Goldman and Berkman begin a short lecture tour in Detroit; Nov. 23 event
attended by fifteen hundred people; Goldman claims that two thousand people had
to be turned away for lack of space. Large Jewish audience attends a meeting
on Nov. 25.
November 25
Department of Labor orders Berkman's deportation to Russia. Goldman's
deportation order follows on Nov. 29.
Weinberger meets in Washington, D.C., with immigration officials, including Anthony Caminetti and Assistant Secretary of Labor Louis F. Post.
November 29
Goldman and Berkman address an audience of forty-five hundred people in Chicago
about their prison experiences. The following day they address another large
crowd. Large benefit banquet takes place at the Hotel Morrison in Chicago on
Dec. 1. Goldman describes the Detroit and Chicago meetings as "among the most
inspiring in our public career."
December 5
Goldman and Berkman detained at Ellis Island.
December 8
Goldman and Berkman appear in federal court before Judge Julius M. Mayer, who
declares that as aliens, they have no constitutional rights. They remain in
detention at Ellis Island.
December 9
Goldman and Berkman send a mass appeal for political and financial support.
December 10
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis declines to overrule the lower
court's decision in Goldman and Berkman's case.
December 15
Soviet representative Ludwig C. A. K. Martens writes to Goldman and Berkman at
Ellis Island, assuring them of their right to travel and speak freely in
Russia.
December 19
Goldman and Berkman send a farewell letter to their supporters.
December 21
At dawn, Goldman, Berkman, and 247 radical aliens set sail on the S.S.
Buford, bound for Russia.
Continue to
Chronology (1920 - 1940).
Go to Guide contents
For more information about the complete guide or microfilm,
refer to Overview.
For more information about the
project, refer to "About
the Emma Goldman Papers Project".
Go to Contents.
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