(RADICALISM.) Collection of books and ephemera on the Centralia Tragedy of 1919. 48 items (one box and one oversized volume), various sizes and conditions. Various places, most 1919-1935
On Armistice Day in 1919, an American Legion parade in Centralia, WA stopped in front of the union hall of the Industrial Workers of the World (the Wobblies), a year after the hall was looted during another parade. Soon five legionnaires and one of the Wobblies were dead, with the facts and meaning of these events still hotly debated to this day. Offered here are 24 items on the tragedy issued from 1919 to 1935, and 24 additional books and ephemera published more recently. Many but not all of these items are cited in Miles, "Something in Common--An IWW Bibliography."
1. "You Ought to Know", 4 pages on one folding sheet. Miles 4742. [Centralia, WA], circa 1920s.
2. "Speeches by Elmer Smith and Capt. Edward P. Coll." 16 pages; Miles 4514. Centralia: Centralia Publicity Committee, 1929.
3-5. 3 mimeographed 2-page bulletins issued by the Centralia Publicity Committee: "Loren Roberts Released" 21 August 1930; "James McInerney Buried in Centralia," 21 August 1930; "Elmer Smith Passes Away", 24 March 1932. None of these are recorded in Miles.
6. "The Centralia Case: A Chronological Digest." 4 pages; Miles 4006. Seattle: General Defense Committee, 1927.
7. "Judicial Murder," 4 pages; Miles 4275. Seattle: General Defense Committee, undated.
8. Ralph Chaplin, "The Centralia Conspiracy." 3rd edition; Miles 4011. Chicago: General Defense Committee, 1924.
9. Walker C. Smith, "Was It Murder?" Miles 4519. Seattle: Northwest District Defense Committee, August 1922.
10. Walker C. Smith, "Was It Murder?" 8th edition. Seattle: Centralia Publicity Committee, August 1923.
11. Memorial card for IWW victim Wesley Everest, 5 x 3 inches. Seattle: Centralia Victims Washington Branch General Defense, undated.
11a. Ed Delaney and M.T. Rice. "The Bloodstained Trail: A History of Militant Labor in the United States." Miles 4058; features a reproduction of the Wesley Everest memorial card on page 135. Seattle: Industrial Worker, December 1927.
12a-b. "I.W.W. Songs; Special Centralia Edition." 21st edition; two copies, one with much larger margins. Chicago: Industrial Workers of the World, 1925.
13. "The Anvil: The Proletarian Fiction Magazine," No. 11, featuring "One Night in Centralia" by McCauley & Kilraine (and an unrelated Langston Hughes story, "Dr. Brown's Decision"). St. Louis, MO, May-June 1935.
14a-c. "American Protective League . . . The Minute Men Division." Organizational booklet for the Washington state chapter of a prominent anti-IWW organization, with two pieces of letterhead for the Lewis County District naming George Dysert as county chief; his son Lloyd was suspected in the lynching of Wesley Everest in Centralia. Seattle, circa 1919.
15. Bound volume of the New York Times for November 1919, including reports on Centralia from 11 November onward, particularly a two-page pictorial spread on 27 November; brittle with moderate wear.
16. Walker C. Smith. "Their Court and Our Class," one-act play. 16 pages; Miles 4517. Seattle, undated.
17. Walker C. Smith. "In the Kangaroo Court of the State of Lumberlust." 32 pages; not in Miles. Several pencil changes are made to page 20 to make clear that this is a fictionalized recounting of the Centralia trial. Seattle: Seattle Prison Comfort Club, undated.
18a-c. Three newspaper clippings concerning Centralia: issue of the Seward (AK) Gateway on 12 November 1919 with headline "I.W.W. Lynched by Mob"; page from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer of 25 January 1920 with photos of "Radicals Who Will Be Tried Monday on Centralia Murder Charge"; page from the Seattle Union Record of 5 February 1920 with photos of "Montesano I.W.W. Defendants and Wife and Daughters of One of Them."
19a-g. Seven later books concerning Centralia: "Centralia Tragedy and Trial" (1965 reprint of 1920 American Legion publication); Ralph Chaplin, "The Centralia Conspiracy" (1973 reprint); "Centralia Dead March" (1980); "The Centralia Tragedy of 1919: Elmer Smith and the Wobblies" (1993); "The Centralia Case: Three Views of the Armistice Day Tragedy" (1971), "Ripples of a Lie: A Biographical/Labor History of Eugene Barnett" (2010); and "Wobbly War: The Centralia Story" (1987).
20. Issue of Labor's Heritage with three articles on Centralia headed "Labor History and Community Reconciliation." Silver Spring, MD, Fall 1999.
21a-c. Pamphlet and two photographs from a 2000 clocktower commemoration at Centralia College; one of the photographs shows Governor Gary Locke seated with the aged son of Elmer Smith, who according to the consignor said at the event "Until that day he was told his father had done something wrong."
22a-g. Packet of handouts from a 2019 commemoration.
23. Group of 3 photocopies of reference sources on Centralia
24. Poster, "The Resurrection of Wesley Everest," featuring a mural by labor artist Mike Alewitz, circa 1997.
25-26. Modern reproductions of two I.W.W. broadsides.
