Why did the prosecution need so many attorneys here, if it had the facts straight?  Why were scores of American Legion members imported here to sit at the trial at a wage of $4 per day and expenses?

They have told you this was a murder trial, and not a labor trial.  But vastly more than the lives of ten men are the stakes in the big gamble here; for the right of workers to organize for the bettering of their own condition is on trial; the right of free assemblage is on trial; democracy and Americanism are on trial.

In our opening statement, we promised to prove various facts; and we have proven them, in the main; if there are any contentions about which the evidence remains vague, this circumstance exists only because His Honor has seen fit to rule out certain testimony which is vital to the case, and we believed, and still believe, was entirely material and properly admissible.

But is there any doubt in your minds that there was a conspiracy to raid the I.W.W. hall, and to run the Industrial Workers of the World out of town?  Even if the court will not allow you to read the handbill issued by the I.W.W., asking protection from the citizens of Centralia have you any doubt that the I.W.W. had reason to fear an attack from Warren Grimm and his fellow marchers?  And have you any doubt that there was a raid on the hall?

When I came into this case I knew that we were up against tremendous odds.  Terror was loose in Centralia; prejudice and hatred against the I.W.W. was being systematically and sweepingly spread in Grays Harbor county and throughout the whole Northwest; and intimidation or influence of some sort was being employed against every possible witness and talesman.

[Illustration:  George Vanderveer

This man single handed opposed six high priced lumber trust prosecutors in the famous trial at Montesano.  Vanderveer is a man of wide experience and deep social vision.  He was at one time prosecuting attorney for King County, Washington.  The lumber trust has made countless threats to “get him.”  “A lawyer with a heart is as dangerous as a workingman with brains.”]

Not only were unlimited money and other resources of the Lewis County commercial interests banded against us, but practically all the attorneys up and down the Pacific coast had pledged themselves not to defend any I.W.W., no matter how great nor how small the charge he faced.  Our investigators were arrested without warrant; solicitors for our defense fund met with the same fate.

And when the trial date approached, the judge before whom this case is being heard admitted that a fair trial could not be had here, because of the surging prejudice existent in this community.  Then, five days later, the court announced that the law would not permit a second change of venue, and that the trial must go ahead in Montesano.

In the face of these things, and in the face of all the atmosphere of violence and bloodthirstiness which the prosecution has sought to throw around these defendants, I am placing our case in your hands; I am intrusting to you gentlemen to decide upon the fate of ten human beings—­whether they shall live or die or be shut away from their fellows for months or years.