The Centralia Conspiracy | Page 3

fittings nor roofs above their heads. Wood is one of the
most primitive and indispensable of human necessities. Without its use
we would still be groping in the gloom and misery of early savagery,
suffering from the cold of outer space and defenseless in the midst of a
harsh and hostile environment.

From Pioneer to Parasite

So it happened that the first pioneers in the northern were forced to bare
their arms and match their strength with the wooded wilderness. At first
the subjugation of the forests was a social effort. The lives and future
prosperity of the settlers must be made secure from the raids of the
Indians and the inclemency of the elements. Manfully did these men

labor until their work was done. But this period did not last long, for
the tide of emigration was sweeping westward over the sun-baked
prairies to the promised land in the golden West.
[Illustration: Fir and Spruce Trees
The wood of the West coast abound with tall fir trees. Practically all
high grade spruce comes from this district also. Spruce was a war
necessity and the lumber trust profiteered unmercifully on the
government. U.S. prisons are full of loggers who struck for the 8 hour
day in 1917.]
Towns sprang up like magic, new trees were felled, sawmills erected
and huge logs in ever increasing numbers were driven down the
foaming torrents each year at spring time. The country was new, the
market for lumber constantly growing and expanding. But the
monopolist was unknown and the lynch-mobs of the lumber trust still
sleeping in the womb of the Future. So passed the not unhappy period
when opportunity was open to everyone, when freedom was dear to the
hearts of all. It was at this time that the spirit of real Americanism was
born, when the clean, sturdy name "America" spelled freedom, justice
and independence. Patriotism in these days was not a mask for
profiteers and murderers were not permitted to hide their bloody hands
in the folds of their nation's flag.
But modern capitalism was creeping like a black curse upon the land.
Stealing, coercing, cajoling, defrauding, it spread from its plague-center
in Wall St., leaving misery, class antagonism and resentment in its trial.
The old free America of our fathers was undergoing a profound change.
Equality of opportunity was doomed. A new social alignment was
being created. Monopoly was loosed upon the land. Fabulous fortunes
were being made as wealth was becoming centered into fewer and
fewer hands. Modern capitalism was entrenching itself for the final and
inevitable struggle for world domination. In due time the social
parasites of the East, foreseeing that the forests of Maine, Michigan and
Wisconsin could not last forever, began to look to the woods of the
Northwest with covetous eyes.

[Illustration: Cedar Trees of the Northwest
With these giants the logger daily matches his strength and skill. The
profit-greedy lumber trust has wasted enough trees of smaller size to
supply the world with wood for years to come.]

Stealing the People's Forest Land

The history of the acquisition of the forests of Washington, Montana,
Idaho, Oregon and California is a long, sordid story of thinly veiled
robbery and intrigue. The methods of the lumber barons in invading
and seizing its "holdings" did not differ greatly, however, from those of
the steel and oil kings, the railroad magnates or any of the other
industrial potentates who acquired great wealth by pilfering America
and peonizing its people. The whole sorry proceeding was disgraceful,
high-handed and treacherous, and only made possible by reason of the
blindness of the generous American people, drugged with the vanishing
hope of "success" and too confident of the continued possession of its
blood-bought liberties. And do the lumber barons were unhindered in
their infamous work of debauchery, bribery, murder and brazen fraud.
As a result the monopoly of the Northwestern woods became an
established fact. The lumber trust came into "its own." The new social
alignment was complete, with the idle, absentee landlord at one end
and the migratory and possessionless lumber jack at the other. The
parasites had appropriated to themselves the standing timber of the
Northwest; but the brawny logger whose labor had made possible the
development of the industry was given, as his share of the spoils, a
crumby "bindle" and a rebellious heart. The masters had gained
undisputed control of the timber of the country, three quarters of which
is located in the Northwest; but the workers who felled the trees, drove
the logs, dressed, finished and loaded the lumber were left in the state
of helpless dependency from which they could only extricate
themselves by means of organization. And it is this effort to form a
union and establish union headquarters that led to the