Talk:Centralia Massacre (Washington)
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I wrote the original article on this, not because I am an expert, but because there was no article. It was my first for Wik. And I see that the first edit by someone else was a nice job. The reminisces I added were without names, because this is still a sensitive topic in this area. When all parties have died I may consider adding names, or at least more details.
You did a fine job. I think that someone sould also do a piece on Wesley Everest as well.
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[edit] Just questioning some of the facts
I checked the link provided in the article (http://content.lib.washington.edu/iwwweb/read.html) which gives a somewhat different view than the article itself. Also, this incident has been discussed in at least three history classes I've taken at a university in Washington State and the viewpoint has been quite a bit different, and has been perhaps just a bit less slanted towards the American Legion's viewpoint. I'd be interested in seeing this article edited by a historian who might have a slightly different viewpoint than the current one expressed, perhaps a viewpoint a bit more distant or disinterested. Thank you. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 12.160.163.50 (talk • contribs) .
This is my first time on Wikipedia so I'm not familiar with how this works. I was very happy to see an article on the Centralia event. There are a number of factual errors, however: 1) Wesley Everest was not castrated 2) Everest was not hung from three separate locations 3) He was not buried in an unmarked grave (I've seen his gravestone - Wobblies met at his gravesite for meetings starting soon after he was buried - There's even a photo of the burial in Chaplin's book) 4) The coroner's report did not list the cause of death as suicide. 5) McElfresh was probably killed by someone from inside the IWW hall, not by someone from Seminary hill. 6) Cassagranda was killed by someone from the Avalon Hotel, not by Everest. 7) Everest did not pistol whip Grimm. 8) Legionnaires were the ones who formed the mob to break into the jail and get Everest, they were not enlisted by the sheriff to protect him.
I am the author of the book The Centralia Tragedy of 1919 published by the U of Washington in 1993.
I would be happy to assist with making these corrections in this article, but I'm not sure how to go about doing so.
Tom Copeland tom(insert "at")redleafinstitute.org —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 66.173.112.254 (talk • contribs) .
[edit] Why the animosity between the IWW and the Legionnaires?
The article doesn't say why the IWW and the Legionnaires were in the adversarial relationship that resulted in the incident. What was the conflict between the two groups? Cla68 20:47, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
- It was largely due to the 1919 Red scare. The American Legion was then, as always a patriotic organization of war veterans. The IWW, by contrast has always been a labor union with strongly anti-capitalistic views, which some perceive as anarcho-syndicalist. The lumber companies, which pretty much controlled the local government of Centralia used the veteran's organizations, the Legion, the Elks and others to fight the IWW by stating that the union was in league with the newly formed Communist Party (not really true) and that by fighting the IWW they would be defending Democracy and the american way of life.
- In fact, the year 1919 almost ended the IWW. Many of its leaders including Bill Haywood, Ema Goldman and left the United States to settle in Soviet Russia, though Goldman lived to regret it. Others were arrested and spent time in prison. Still others were lynched by mobs, often spurred on by local governments. And finally, many rank-and-file members abandoned the IWW in favor of the Communist Party which adapted a campaign of more covert operations by infiltrating more mainstream unions in the AFL. Though the IWW did make a comeback in recent years, its membership never exceeded 1000 world wide since the end of WW I. Piercetp 08:32, 12 May 2006 (UTC)
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- Your explanation is very informative. In fact, if no objection, I think I'll add it almost verbatim to a "background" section in the main article. Cla68 16:44, 12 June 2006 (UTC)
The IWW is an unabashedly anarcho-syndicalist organization in fact as well as perception. It refers to itself as such. This article seemed to me at first reading somewhat slanted towards the Legion's perspective of events, but with a little work could become a reasonable account.
[edit] Centralia massacre (Missouri)
I want to put up a page on Centralia Massacre (Missouri) about an attack during the Civil War involving Jesse James. In the process I would like to convert the Washington page to Centralia massacre (Washington) and then set up a disambiguation page for Centralia Massacre. Of the two incidents the Missouri incident was probably the bigger of the two. Americasroof 13:25, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
- All done now. Twisted86 09:39, 20 August 2006 (UTC)
- I just fixed all the internal links.-- Randall Bart 05:43, 14 November 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Pictures
If anyone who reads or edits this page lives in the Centralia, WA area and has access to a digital camera, perhaps they might consider taking a picture of the park memorial statue for the killed Legionnaires and of the Elk's mural honoring the Wobblies and then posting the pictures here in this article under a "PD (self made)" license. It would make the article look much better. Cla68 20:36, 17 July 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Emma Goldman
This article makes it seem that Emma Goldman settled in the USSR of her own will, when in fact, she was forcibly exiled there by the FBI. Beret 21:22, 30 August 2006 (UTC)
