entralia and to the working class in
general: We beg of you to read and carefully consider the following:

"The profiteering class of Centralia have of late been waving the flag of
our country in an endeavor to incite the lawless element of our city to
raid our hall and club us out of town. For this purpose they have inspired
editorials in the Hub, falsely and viciously attacking the I.W.W., hoping
to gain public approval for such revolting criminality. These profiteers
are holding numerous secret meetings to that end, and covertly inviting
returned service men to do their bidding. In this work they are ably
assisted by the bankrupt lumber barons of southwest Washington who led the
mob that looted and burned the I.W.W. hall a year ago.

"These criminal thugs call us a band of outlaws bent on destruction. This
they do in an attempt to hide their own dastardly work in burning our hall
and destroying our property. They say we are a menace; and we are a menace
to all mobocrats and pilfering thieves. Never did the I.W.W. burn public
or private halls, kidnap their fellow citizens, destroy their property,
club their fellows out of town, bootleg or act in any ways as
law-breakers. These patriotic profiteers throughout the country have
falsely and with out any foundation whatever charged the I.W.W. with every
crime on the statute books. For these alleged crimes thousands of us have
been jailed in foul and filthy cells throughout this country, often
without charge, for months and in some cases, years, and when released
re-arrested and again thrust in jail to await a trial that is never
called. The only convictions of the I.W.W. were those under the espionage
law, where we were forced to trial before jurors, all of whom were at
political and industrial enmity toward us, and in courts hostile to the
working class. This same class of handpicked courts and juries also
convicted many labor leaders, socialists, non-partisans, pacifists, guilty
of no crime save that of loyalty to the working class.

"By such courts Jesus the Carpenter was slaughtered upon the charge that
'he stirreth up the people.' Only last month 25 I.W.W. were indicted in
Seattle as strike leaders, belonging to an unlawful organization,
attempting to overthrow the government and other vile things under the
syndicalist law passed by the last legislature. To exterminate the
'wobbly' both the court and jury have the lie to every charge. The court
held them a lawful org