[Illustration:  The Stool Pigeon

Tom Morgan, who turned state’s evidence.  There is an historical precedent for Morgan.  Judas acted similarly, but Judas later had the manhood to go out and hang himself.  Morgan left for “parts unknown.”]

The Plot Leaks Out

By degrees the story of the infamous secret committee and its diabolical plan leaked out, adding positive confirmation to the many already credited rumors in circulation.  Some of the newspapers quite openly hinted that the I.W.W.  Hall was to be the object of the brewing storm.  Chief of Police Hughes told a member of the Lewis County Trades Council, William T. Merriman by name, that the business men were organizing to raid the hall and drive its members out of town.  Merriman, in turn carried the statement to many of his friends and brother unionists.  Soon the prospective raid was the subject of open discussion,—­over the breakfast toast, on the street corners, in the camps and mills—­every place.

So common was the knowledge in fact that many of the craft organizations in Centralia began to discuss openly what they should do about it.  They realized that the matter was one which concerned labor and many members wanted to protest and were urging their unions to try to do something.  At the Lewis County Trades Council the subject was brought up for discussion by its president, L. F. Dickson.  No way of helping the loggers was found, however, if they would so stubbornly try to keep open their headquarters in the face of such opposition.  Harry Smith, a brother of Elmer Smith, the attorney, was a delegate at this meeting and reported to his brother the discussion that took place.

Secretary Britt Smith and the loggers at the Union hall were not by any means ignorant of the conspiracy being hatched against them.  Day by day they had followed the development of the plot with breathless interest and not a little anxiety.  They knew from bitter experience how union men were handled when they were trapped in their halls.  But they would not entertain the idea of abandoning their principles and seeking personal safety.  Every logging camp for miles around knew of the danger also.  The loggers there had gone through the hell of the organization period and had felt the wrath of the lumber barons.  Some of them felt that the statement of Secretary of Labor Wilson as to the attitude of the Industrial Workers of the World towards “overthrowing the government,” and “violence and destruction” would discourage the terrorists from attempting such a flagrant and brutal injustice as the one contemplated.

[Illustration:  “Oily” Abel

Suave and slimy as a snake; without any of the kindlier traits of nature, W.H.  Abel, sounded the gamut of rottenness in his efforts to convict the accused men without the semblance of a fair trial.  Abel is notorious throughout Washington as the hireling of the lumber interests.  In 1917 he prosecuted “without fee” all laboring men on strike and is attorney for the Cosmopolis “penitentiary” so called on account of the brutality with which it treats employes.  Located in one of the small towns of the state Abel has made a fortune prosecuting labor cases for the special interests.]