On October 19th the Centralia Hub published an item headed "Employers
Called to Discuss Handling of 'Wobbly' Problem." This article urges all
employers to attend, states that the meeting will be held in the Elk's
Club and mentioned the wrecking of the Union Hall in 1918. On the
following day, October 20th, three weeks before the shooting, this meeting
was held at the hall of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks--the
now famous Elks' Club of Centralia. The avowed purpose of this meeting was
to "deal with the I.W.W. problem." The chairman was William Scales, at
that time Commander of the Centralia Post of the American Legion. The
I.W.W. Hall was the chief topic of discussion. F.B. Hubbard opened up by
saying that the I.W.W. was a menace and should be driven out of town.
Chief of Police Hughes, however, cautioned them against such a course. He
is reported to have said that "the I.W.W. is doing nothing wrong in
Centralia--is not violating any law--and you have no right to drive them
out of town in this manner." The Chief of Police then proceeded to tell
the audience that he had taken up the matter of legally evicting the
industrialists with City Attorney C.E. Grimm, a brother of Warren O.
Grimm, who is said to have told them, "Gentlemen, there is no law by which
you can drive the I.W.W. out of town." City Commissioner Saunders and
County Attorney Allen had spoken to the same effect. The latter, Allen,
had gone over the literature of the organization with regard to violence
and destruction and had voluntarily dismissed a "criminal syndicalist"
case without trial for want of evidence.
[Illustration: Lewis County's Legal Prostitute
Herman Allen, prosecuting attorney of Lewis County. He stood at the corner
during the raid and received papers stolen from the hall. There is no
record of his having protested against any illegal action. He turned over
his office to the special Prosecutors and acted as their tool throughout.
During the entire trial he never appeared as an active participant.]
Hubbard was furious at this turn of affairs and shouted to Chief of Police
Hughes: "It's a damned outrage that these men should be permitted to
remain in town! Law or no law, if I were Chief of Police they wouldn't
stay here twenty-four hours."
"I'm not in favor of raiding the hall myself," said Scales. "But I'm
certain that if anybody else wants to raid the I.W.W. Hall there is no
jury in the land will ever convict them."
After considerable discussion the meeting started to elect a committee to
deal with the situation. First of all an effort was made to get a
workingman elected as a member to help camouflage its very evident
character and make people believe that "honest labor" was also desirous of
ridding the town of the hated I.W.W. Hall. A switchman named Henry, a
member of the Railway Brotherhood, was nominated. When he indignantly
declined, Hubbard, red in the face with rage, called him a "damned skunk."