The Centralia Conspiracy: the truth about the Armistice day tragedy. Third edition, revised
Chicago: General Defense Committee, 1924. Paperback. 144p., paperback, first interior page has two rectangular toned areas where cellotape was formerly present; otherwise minor handling wear and toning. Expanded from the first 80p. edition.
On Armistice Day 1919, the American Legion in Centralia held a patriotic parade, one with the goal of destroying the local hall of the I.W.W. Acting on legal advice, the Centralia I.W.W. met the Legionnaires' rush on the hall with organized resistance and gunfire, killing three Legionnaires. One Wobbly, Wesley Everest, was chased by the mob to the Sookunchuck River, which was too deep to ford. Everest shot and killed the first member of the mob to attack him at the river, and surrendered only when he ran out of bullets. When taken to the jail and threatened with lynching, he told the mob 'You haven't got the guts to lynch a man in the daylight.' That night a small mob took Everest from the jail, castrated him, lynched him (twice) and shot him numerous times. The coroner ruled it suicide. Chaplin's pamphlet defends those Wobblies arrested and convicted.
Cat.No: 3289
Price: $125.00