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S. R. Justham letter to James A. Duncan, including an affidavit given by William Spears regarding the Centralia Massacre, November 1919
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| Title | S. R. Justham letter to James A. Duncan, including an affidavit given by William Spears regarding the Centralia Massacre, November 1919 |
| Author | Justham, S. R.
Spears, William |
| Date of Publication | 1919 |
| Notes | This document was sent from S. R. Justham, a notary public in Roslyn, Washington, to James A. Duncan, the secretary of the Central Labor Council of Seattle. The top of the document is a duplicate of an affadavit given to Justham on November 13, 1919, by William Spears, a citizen of Roslyn who had been in Centralia on November 11th and witnessed the event later referred to as the Centralia Massacre. Spears's affidavit relates a conversation he had with two men who "were going down to raid the I.W.W. Hall", and the scene he witnessed just after the shooting began. He also saw a mob preparing to lynch a bloodied man who was taken away to jail, and lynched later that night. Below this affadavit, Justham informs Duncan that he had taken this affidavit about the "Centralia outrage", and that he thought it would be useful for the Council to get back at "the Yellow Press papers and those calamity hollers who are trying to make capital out of the false reports". He tells Duncan that, having heard Spears's story, he convinced Spears that it would be good to have it written down as a sworn statement, which Spears gave despite being reluctant. Justham informs Duncan that he has the original affidavit, as well as Spears's identification of another eyewitness who would be willing to come forward, which he will supply if Duncan indicates it is needed. |
| Contextual Notes | E. B. "Harry" Ault (1883-1961) was a journalist and a prominent member of the socialist and labor movements in Washington state. In 1898, when Ault was in his teens, his family relocated from Kentucky to Washington state, where they joined the Equality Colony, a socialist commune located near Edison in Skagit County. Ault became editor of the colony's newspaper, "Industrial Freedom", later that year. Ault lived at Equality Colony for two years, after which he left for Seattle in 1900 to found a newspaper called "The Young Socialist". Ault had become involved in Eugene Debs' Social Democratic Party, and would join the new Socialist Party in 1901.
After a decade of prominent involvement in the Socialist Party, particularly working for the newspaper "The Socialist" and its publisher, Hermon Titus, Ault left the socialists for the more "mainstream" labor movement, working as the secretary of the Central Labor Council of Seattle from 1909 to 1913. In 1912, he took over the editorship of the council's newspaper, the Seattle Union Record, which he edited until the paper's termination in 1928. In connection with his work as editor, he collected and saved many documents relating to the growth and activism of the labor movement in the Pacific Northwest. He then worked as a commercial printer, until re-entering active involvement in politics in 1936, when he ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for Congress from the 1st Congressional District -- a race he lost to Warren G. Magnuson. Ault was appointed a deputy U.S. Marshal for Tacoma, Washington in 1938, a position he held until his retirement 15 years later. |
| Subjects (LCSH) | Justham, S. R.--Correspondence; Duncan, James A.--Correspondence; Centralia Massacre, Centralia, Wash., 1919--Personal narratives; Labor movement--Washington (State)--Centralia; Labor unions--Washington (State)--Centralia; Industrial workers of the world |
| Geographic Coverage | United States--Washington (State)--Centralia
United States--Washington (State)--Roslyn |
| Digital ID Number | PNW00928 |
| Ordering Information | To order a reproduction or inquire about permissions contact: photos@u.washington.edu. |
| Digital Collection | Pacific Northwest Historical Documents
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| Repository | University of Washington Libraries. Special Collections Division. |
| Repository Collection | Harry E. B. Ault papers, Accession No. 0213-001, Box 2/60 |
| Object Type | Letter (correspondence)
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| Physical Description | 1 leaf; 30 x 21 cm. |
| Digital Reproduction Information | Scanned from original text or image at 150 dpi saved in TIFF format, resized and enhanced using Adobe Photoshop, and imported as JPEG2000 using Contentdm software's JPEG2000 Extension. 2011. |
| Restrictions | For information on permissions for use and reproductions please visit UW Libraries Special Collections Reproduction & Use page: http://content.lib.washington.edu/sc-use.html |
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