Strange to say, almost the first really important clash occurred in the very heart of the lumber trust’s domain, in the little city of Aberdeen, Grays Harbor County—­only a short distance from Centralia, of mob fame!

[Illustration:  Eugene Barnett

(After the man-hunt)

Coal miner.  Born in North Carolina.  Member of U.M.W.A. and I.W.W.  Went to work underground at the age of eight.  Self educated, a student and philosopher.  Upon reaching home Barnett, fearful of the mob, took to the woods with his rifle.  He surrendered to the posse only after he had convinced himself that their purpose was not to lynch him.]

This was in 1912.  A strike had started in the saw mills over demands of a $2.50 daily wage.  Some of the saw mill workers were members of the Industrial Workers of the World.  They were supported by the union loggers of Western Washington.  The struggle was bitterly contested and lasted for several weeks.  The lumber trust bared its fangs and struck viciously at the workers in a manner that has since characterized its tactics in all labor disputes.

The jails of Aberdeen and adjoining towns were filled with strikers.  Picket lines were broken up and the pickets arrested.  When the wives of the strikers with babies in their arms, took the places of their imprisoned husbands, the fire hose was turned on them with great force, in many instances knocking them to the ground.  Loggers and sawmill men alike were unmercifully beaten.  Many were slugged by mobs with pick handles, taken to the outskirts of the city and told that their return would be the occasion of a lynching.  At one time an armed mob of business men dragged nearly four hundred strikers from their homes or boarding houses, herded them into waiting boxcars, sealed up the doors and were about to deport them en masse.  The sheriff, getting wind of this unheard-of proceeding, stopped it at the last moment.  Many men were badly scarred by beatings they received.  One logger was crippled for life by the brutal treatment accorded him.

But the strikers won their demands and conditions were materially improved.  The Industrial Workers of the World continued to grow in numbers and prestige.  This event may be considered the beginning of the labor movement on Grays Harbor that the lumber trust sought finally to crush with mob violence on a certain memorable day in Centralia seven years later.

Following the Aberdeen strike one or two minor clashes occurred.  The lumber workers were usually successful.  During this period they were quietly but effectually spreading One Big Union propaganda throughout the camps and mills in the district.  Also they were organizing their fellow workers in increasing numbers into their union.  The lumber trust, smarting under its last defeat, was alarmed and alert.

[Illustration:  Bert Faulkner

American.  Logger. 21 years of age.  Member of the Industrial Workers of the World since 1917.  Was in the hall when raid occurred.  Faulkner personally knew Grimm, McElfresh and a number of others who marched in the parade.  He is an ex-soldier himself.  The prosecution used a great deal of pressure to make this boy turn state’s evidence.  He refused stating that he would tell nothing but the truth.  At the last moment he was discharged from the case after being held in jail four months.]