Representatives From Many Communities Attend Meeting in
Chamber of Commerce, Presided Over Secretary of Employers' Association.
"The labor situation was thoroughly discussed this afternoon at a meeting
held in the local Chamber of Commerce which was attended by representative
business men from various parts of Lewis County.
"George F. Russell, Secretary of the Employers' Association, of
Washington, presided at the meeting.
"A temporary organization was effected with F. B. Hubbard, President of
the Eastern Railway & Lumber Company, as chairman. He was empowered to
perfect his own organization. A similar meeting will be held in Chehalis
in connection with the noon luncheon of the Citizens' Club on that day."
[Illustration: "Special Prosecutor"
C.D. Cunningham, attorney for F.B. Hubbard and various lumber interests,
took charge of the prosecution immediately. He was the father of much of
the "third degree" methods used on witnesses. Vanderveer offered to prove
at the trial that Cunningham was at the jail when Wesley Everest was
dragged out, brutally mutilated and then lynched.]
The city of Centralia became alive with gossip and speculation about this
new move on the part of the employers. Everybody knew that the whole thing
centered around the detested hall of the Union loggers. Curiosity seekers
began to come In from all parts of the county to have a peep at this hall
before it was wrecked. Business men were known to drive their friends from
the new to the old hall in order to show what the former would look like
in a short time. People in Centralia generally knew for a certainty that
the present hall would go the way of its predecessor. It was just a
question now as to the time and circumstances of the event.
Warren O. Grimm had done his bit to work up sentiment against the union
loggers and their hall. Only a month previously--on Labor Day, 1919,--he
had delivered a "labor" speech that was received with great enthusiasm by
a local clique of business men. Posing as an authority on Bolshevism on
account of his Siberian service Grimm had elaborated on the dangers of
this pernicious doctrine. With a great deal of dramatic emphasis he had
urged his audience to beware of the sinister influence of "the American
Bolsheviki--the Industrial Workers of the World."
A few days before the hall was raided Elmer Smith called at Grimm's office
on legal business. Grimm asked him, by the way, what he thought of his
Labor Day speech. Smith replied that he thought it was "rotten" and that
he couldn't agree with Grimm's anti-labor conception of Americanism. Smith
pointed to the deportation of Tom Lassiter as an example of the
"Americanism" he considered disgraceful. He said also that he thought free
speech was one of the fundamental rights of all citizens.
"I can't agree with you," replied Grimm. "That's the proper way to treat
such a fellow."