Pigeon Park, 1962 The Salvation Army Band playing in Pigeon Park at Carrall and Hastings streets. Back during the Free Speech Fights of 1909 and 1912, the area around Carrall and Cordova was filled with itinerant resource workers (ie, loggers and miners) looking for work through the various employment agencies located there and who stayed in the many rooming houses that still dot the landscape (today’s SRO hotels). Soap box orators from the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) were in stiff competition with the Salvation Army Band for the hearts and minds of the unemployed on the street. One of the arguments the IWW made when their street meetings were outlawed was that the Salvation Army made far more racket and were more disruptive than the IWW ever were. This drama played out in many cities on the Pacific coast and inspired the Wobbly classic, The Preacher and the Slave, which is where the expression “pie in the sky” originates.  Source: Photo by Fred Herzog, via Equinox Gallery
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Pigeon Park, 1962

The Salvation Army Band playing in Pigeon Park at Carrall and Hastings streets.

Back during the Free Speech Fights of 1909 and 1912, the area around Carrall and Cordova was filled with itinerant resource workers (ie, loggers and miners) looking for work through the various employment agencies located there and who stayed in the many rooming houses that still dot the landscape (today’s SRO hotels).

Soap box orators from the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) were in stiff competition with the Salvation Army Band for the hearts and minds of the unemployed on the street. One of the arguments the IWW made when their street meetings were outlawed was that the Salvation Army made far more racket and were more disruptive than the IWW ever were. This drama played out in many cities on the Pacific coast and inspired the Wobbly classic, The Preacher and the Slave, which is where the expression “pie in the sky” originates. 

Source: Photo by Fred Herzog, via Equinox Gallery

Source: equinoxgallery.com

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