iles at the
instant when the officially 'wanted' strike-leader was addressing a mass
meeting of excited men, women, and children. After a short and typical
period of skirmishing and the minor and major events of arresting a
person under such circumstances, a member of the posse standing outside
fired a double-barreled shot-gun over the heads of the crowd, 'to sober
them,' as he explained it. Four men were killed--two of the posse and
two strikers; the posse fled in their automobiles to the county seat,
and all that night the roads out of Wheatland were filled with pickers
leaving the camp. Eight months later, two hop-pickers, proved to be the
leaders of the strike and its agitation, were convicted of murder in the
first degree and sentenced to life imprisonment. Their appeal for a new
trial was denied."

In his report to the Governor, written in 1914, Carl characterized the
case as follows:--

"The occurrence known as the Wheatland Hop-Fields riot took place on
Sunday afternoon, August 3, 1913. Growing discontent among the
hop-pickers over wages, neglected camp-sanitation and absence of water
in the fields had resulted in spasmodic meetings of protest on Saturday
and Sunday morning, and finally by Sunday noon in a more or less
involuntary strike. At five o'clock on Sunday about one thousand
pickers gathered about a dance pavilion to listen to speakers. Two
automobiles carrying a sheriff's posse drove up to this meeting, and
officials armed with guns and revolvers attempted to disperse the crowd
and to arrest, on a John Doe warrant, Richard Ford, the apparent leader
of the strike. In the ensuing confusion shooting began and some twenty
shots were fired. Two pickers, a deputy sheriff, and the district
attorney of the county were killed. The posse fled and the camp remained
unpoliced until the State Militia arrived at dawn next morning.

"The occurrence has grown from a casual, though bloody, event in
California labor history into such a focus for discussion and analysis
of the State's great migratory labor-problem that the incident can well
be said to begin, for the commonwealth, a new and momentous labor epoch.

"The problem of vagrancy; that of the unemployed and the unemployable;
the vexing conflict between the right of agitation and free speech and
the law relating to criminal conspiracy; the housing and wages of
agricultural laborers; the efficiency and sense of responsibility found
in a posse of country deputies