Wobblies and the threat of strikes causes wartime unrest

Talk of martial law was in the air, and the farmers and orchardists of the Yakima Valley were preparing to take the law into their own hands.

Their enemy: the Wobblies, formally known as the Industrial Workers of the World.

The Yakima Valley Producers Protective Association, a secretive group of growers and business people, was “prepared to resist the I.W.W. by physical means if necessary.”

The Yakima group was headed by “an inner circle of seven, whose identity is kept secret.”

“It has a system of signals for use in case of emergency and an appointed rendezvous,” said a reporter for The Spokesman-Review, who was allowed access to the group as long as he did not divulge names.

The entire Northwest was abuzz with talk about the Wobblies and their planned strikes of the fruit, lumber, mining and grain industries. This was an especially controversial issue in wartime, when production of food and other commodities were considered crucial to the war effort. The Wobblies were routinely denounced as being disloyal, unpatriotic and seditious.

In Yakima, people were freely discussing the idea that the governor should declare martial law to curtail the Wobblies.

From the yeggman beat: A Spokane police officer heard an explosion from the National Laundry Company offices at 1:30 a.m.

Then he saw three yeggmen (safe crackers) run out of the building into the shadows. The officer gave chase and when he turned into an alley, he heard one man say, “I’ve got you! (Expletive) you!” Three shots were fired at the officer.

The shots missed, and the officer shot five times, shooting and killing the unidentified yeggman. The other two escaped.