The last echoes of the prolonged legal battle had hardly died away when these six men sojourned to Tacoma to ballot, deliberate and to reach their decision about the disputed facts of the case.  At the very moment when the trust-controlled newspapers, frantic with disappointment, were again raising the blood-cry of their pack, the frank and positive statement of these six workers came like a thunderclap out of a clear sky,—­“Not Guilty!”

The Labor Jury had studied the development of the case with earnest attention from the beginning.  Day by day they had watched with increasing astonishment the efforts of the defense to present, and of the prosecution and the judge to exclude, from the consideration of the trial jury, the things everybody knew to be true about the tragedy at Centralia.  Day by day the sordid drama had been unfolded before their eyes.  Day by day the conviction had grown upon them that the loggers on trial for their lives were being railroaded to the gallows by the legal hirelings of the Lumber Trust.  The Labor Jury was composed of men with experience in the labor movement.  They had eyes to see through a maze of red tape and legal mummery to the simple truth that was being hidden or obscured.  The Lumber Trust did not fool these men and it could not intimidate them.  They had the courage to give the truth to the world just as they saw it.  They were convinced in their hearts and minds that the loggers on trial were innocent.  And they would have been just as honest and just as fearless had their convictions been otherwise.

It cannot be said that the Labor Jury was biased in favor of the defendants or of the I.W.W.  If anything, they were predisposed to believe the defendants guilty and their union an outlaw organization.  It must be remembered that all the labor jury knew of the case was what it had read in the capitalist newspapers prior to their arrival at the scene of the trial.  These men were not radicals but representative working men—­members of conservative unions—­who had been instructed by their organizations to observe impartially the progress of the trial and to report back to their unions the result of their observations.  Read their report: 

Labor’s Verdict

Labor Temple, Tacoma, March 15, 1920, 1:40 p.m.

The Labor Jury met in the rooms of the Labor Temple and organized, electing P. K. Mohr as foreman.

Present:  J.A.  Craft, W.J.  Beard, Otto Newman, Theodore Mayer, E.W.  Thrall and P.K.  Mohr.

1.  On motion a secret ballot of guilty or not guilty was taken, the count resulting in a unanimous “Not Guilty!”

2.  Shall we give our report to the press?  Verdict, “Yes.”

[Illustration:  Labor’s Silent Jury

W.J.  Beard, Central Labor Council, Tacoma:  Paul K. Mohr, Central Labor
Council, Seattle:  Theodore Meyer, Central Labor Council, Everett:  E.W. 
Thrall, Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen, Centralia:  John A. Craft, Metal
Trades Council, Seattle.]