June 30th, 1919.—­“Make some of the Seattle papers print the truth ...  Get rid of the I.W.W.’s.”

July 2nd, 1919.—­“Educate along the line of the three R’s and the golden rule, economy and self denial ...  Import Japanese labor ...  Import Chinese labor.”

July 31st, 1919.—­“Deport about ten Russians in this community.”

August 31st, 1919.—­“Personal contact between employer and employee, stringent treatment of the I.W.W.”

October 15th, 1919.  “There are many I.W.W.s—­mostly in the logging camps....”

October 31st, 1919.—­(A little over a week before the Centralia raid.) “Run your business or quit ...  Business men and tax payers of Vancouver, Washington, have organized the Loyal Citizen’s Protective League; opposed to Bolsheviki and the Soviet form of government and in favor of the open shop ...  Jail the radicals and deport them ...  Since the armistice these radicals have started in again.  Only two communities in Washington allow I.W.W.  Headquarters.” (!!!)

[Illustration:  Arthur McElfresh

A Centralia druggist.  His wife warned him not to march to the union headquarters because “she knew he’d get hurt.”  McElfresh is the man said to have been shot inside the hall when the mob burst through the door.]

December 31st, 1919.  “Get rid of all the I.W.W. and all other un-American organizations ...  Deport the radicals or use the rope as at Centralia.  Until we get rid of the I.W.W. and radicals we don’t expect to do much in this country ...  Keep cleaning up on the I.W.W....  Don’t let it die down ...  Keep up public sentiment...”

These few choice significant morsels of one hundred percent (on the dollar) Americanism are quoted almost at random from the private bulletins of the officials of the Iron Heel in the state of Washington.  Here you can read their sentiments in their own words; you can see how dupes and hirelings were coached to perpetrate the crime of Centralia, and as many other similar crimes as they could get away with.  Needless to say these illuminating lines were not intended for the perusal of the working class.  But now that we have obtained them and placed them before your eyes you can draw your own conclusion.  There are many, many more records germane to this case that we would like to place before you, but the Oligarchy has closed its steel jaws upon them and they are at present inaccessible.  Men are still afraid to tell the truth in Centralia.  Some day the workers may learn the whole truth about the inside workings of the Centralia conspiracy.  Be that as it may the business interests of the Northwest lumber country stand bloody handed and doubly damned, black with guilt and foul with crime; convicted before the bar of public opinion, by their own statements and their own acts.

Failure and Desperation

Let us see for a moment how the conspiracy of the lumber barons operated to achieve the unlawful ends for which it was designed.  Let us see how they were driven by their own failure at intrigue to adopt methods so brutal that they would have disgraced the head-hunter; how they tried to gain with murder-lust what they had failed to gain lawfully and with public approval.