“Very proud,” answered the young lawyer.

[Illustration:  Elmer Smith

Attorney at law.  Old American stock—­born on a homestead in North Dakota.  By championing the cause of the “under-dog” in Centralia Smith brought down on himself the wrath of the lumber trust.  He defended many union men in the courts, and at one time sought to prosecute the kidnappers of Tom Lassiter.  Smith is the man Warren O. Grimm told would get along all right, “if you come in with us.”  He bucked the lumber trust instead and landed in prison on a trumped-up murder charge.  Smith was found “not guilty” by the jury, but immediately re-arrested on practically the same charge.  He is not related to Britt Smith.]

[Illustration:  Wesley Everest

Logger.  American (old Washington pioneer stock).  Joined the Industrial Workers of the World in 1917.  A returned soldier.  Earnest, sincere, quiet, he was the “Jimmy Higgins” of the Centralia branch of the Lumberworkers Union.  Everest was mistaken for Britt Smith, the Union secretary, whom the mob had started out to lynch.  He was pursued by a gang of terrorists and unmercifully manhandled.  Later—­at night—­he was taken from the city jail and hanged to a bridge.  In the automobile, on the way to the lynching, he was unsexed by a human fiend—­a well known Centralia business man—­who used a razor on his helpless victim.  Even the lynchers were forced to admit that Everest was the most “dead game” man they had ever seen.]

Some months previous Smith had taken a case for an I.W.W. logger.  He won it.  Other cases in which workers needed legal advice came to him.  He took them.  A young girl was working at the Centralia “Chronicle.”  She was receiving a weekly wage of three dollars which is in defiance of the minimum wage law of the state for women.  Smith won the case.  Also he collected hundreds of dollars in back wages for workers whom the companies had sought to defraud.  Workers in the clutches of loan sharks were extricated by means of the bankruptcy laws, hitherto only used by their masters.  An automobile firm was making a practice of replacing Ford engines with old ones when a machine was brought in for repairs.  One of the victims brought his case to Smith. and a lawsuit followed.  This was an unheard-of proceeding, for heretofore such little business tricks had been kept out of court by common understanding.

A worker, formerly employed by a subsidiary of the Eastern Lumber & Railway Company, had been deprived of his wages on a technicality of the law by the corporation attorneys.  This man had a large family and hard circumstances were forced upon them by this misfortune.  One of his little girls died from what the doctor called malnutrition—­plain starvation.  Smith filed suit and openly stated that the lawyers of the corporation were responsible for the death of the child.  The indignation of the business and professional element blazed to white heat.  A suit for libel and disbarment proceedings were started against him.  Nothing could be done in this direction as Smith had not only justice but the law on his side.  His enemies were waiting with great impatience for a more favorable opportunity to strike him down.  Open threats were beginning to be heard against him.