As might be expected the I.W.W.  Halls in Washington were hated by the lumber barons with a deep and undying hatred.  Union halls were a standing challenge to their hitherto undisputed right to the complete domination of the forests.  Like the blockhouses of early days, these humble meeting places were the outposts of a new and better order planted in the stronghold of the old.  And they were hated accordingly.  The thieves who had invaded the resources of the nation had long ago seized the woods and still held them in a grip of steel.  They were not going to tolerate the encroachments of the One Big Union of the lumber workers.  Events will prove that they did not hesitate at anything to achieve their purposes.

The First Centralia Hall

In the year 1918 a union hall stood on one of the side streets in Centralia.  It was similar to the halls that have just been described.  This was not, however, the hall in which the Armistice Day tragedy took place.  You must always remember that there were two halls raided in Centralia; one in 1918 and another in 1919.  The loggers did not defend the first hall and many of them were manhandled by the mob that wrecked it.  The loggers did defend the second and were given as reward a hanging, a speedy, fair and impartial conviction and sentences of from 25 to 40 years.  No member of the mob has ever been punished or even taken to task for this misdeed.  Their names are known to everybody.  They kiss their wives and babies at night and go to church on Sundays.  People tip their hats to them on the street.  Yet they are a greater menace to the institutions of this country than all the “reds” in the land.  In a world where Mammon is king the king can do no wrong.  But the question of “right” or “wrong” did not concern the lumber interests when they raided the Union hall in 1918.  “Yes, we raided the hall, what are you going to do about it,” is the position they take in the matter.

During the 1917 strike the two lumber trust papers in Centralia, the “Hub” and the “Chronicle” were bitter in their denunciation of the strikers.  Repeatedly they urged that most drastic and violent measures be taken by the authorities and “citizens” to break the strike, smash the union and punish the strikers.  The war-frenzy was at its height and these miserable sheets went about their work like Czarist papers inciting a pogrom.  The lumber workers were accused of “disloyalty,” “treason,” “anarchy”—­anything that would tend to make their cause unpopular.  The Abolitionists were spoken about in identical terms before the civil war.  As soon as the right atmosphere for their crime had been created the employers struck and struck hard.

It was in April, 1918.  Like many other cities in the land Centralia was conducting a Red Cross drive.  Among the features of this event were a bazaar and a parade.

The profits of the lumber trust were soaring to dizzy heights at this time and their patriotism was proportionately exalted.