Remember, too, that in each of these raids the union men were not the aggressors and that there was never any attempt at reprisal.  In spite of the fact that the lumber workers were within their legal right to keep open their halls and to defend them from felonious attack, it had never happened until November 11, that active resistance was offered the marauders.  This fact alone speaks volumes for the long-suffering patience of the logger and for his desire to settle his problems by peaceable means wherever possible.  But the Centralia raid was the straw that broke the camel’s back.  The lumber trust went a little too far on this occasion and it got the surprise of its life.  Four of its misguided dupes paid for their lawlessness with their lives, and a number of others were wounded.  There has not since been a raid on a union hall in the Northwestern District.

It is well that workingmen and women throughout the country should understand the truth about the Armistice Day tragedy in Centralia and the circumstances that led up to it.  But in order to know why the hall was raided it is necessary first to understand why this, and all similar halls, are hated by the oligarchies of the woods.

The issue contested is whether the loggers have the right to organize themselves into a union, or whether they must remain chattels—­mere hewers of wood and helpless in the face of the rapacity of their industrial overlords—­or whether they have the right to keep open their halls and peacefully to conduct the affairs of their union.  The lumber workers contend that they are entitled by law to do these things and the employers assert that, law or no law, they shall not do so.  In other words, it is a question of whether labor organization shall retain its foothold in the lumber industry or be “driven from the woods.”

Pioneers of Unionism

It is hard for workers in most of the other industries—­especially in the East—­to understand the problems, struggles and aspirations of the husky and unconquerable lumber workers of the Northwest.  The reason is that the average union man takes his union for granted.  He goes to his union meetings, discusses the affairs of his craft, industry or class, and he carries his card—­all as a matter of course.  It seldom enters his mind that the privileges and benefits that surround him and the protection he enjoys are the result of the efforts and sacrifices of the nameless thousands of pioneers that cleared the way.  But these unknown heroes of the great struggle of the classes did precede him with their loyal hearts and strong hands; otherwise workers now organized would have to start the long hard battle at the beginning and count their gains a step at a time, just as did the early champions of industrial organization, or as the loggers of the West Coast are now doing.