Marcy on repression faced by the interracial Brotherhood of Timber Workers culminating in the ‘Grabow Riot’ where gun thugs attacked striking marchers on July 7, 1912 near Grabow, Louisiana. The workers defended themselves, setting the stage for imprisonment and trial for many B.T.W. members. Three fellow workers Asbury Decatur (“Kate”) Hall, J. Tooley, and Ed Brown were killed, as was a gun thug. Fifty were wounded and dozens arrested. Their trial reported below.

‘The Trial of the Timber Workers’ by Jack Morton (Mary E. Marcy) from International Socialist Review. Vol. 13 No. 5. November, 1912.

ON OCTOBER 8th, A.L. Emerson, president of the Brotherhood of Timber Workers, Lehman, Helton, Chatman, Hollingsworth, Brown, Payne, Ezell, and Havens were brought to court on a “conspiracy” to murder charge, in connection with the Grabow shooting at which time the gunmen of the lumber trust attempted to kill men prominent in that fighting organization.

The first sensation of the trial came when Judge E.G. Hunter, of counsel for the defense called the attention of the court to the manner in which the Burns’ detectives were meddling in the case. He accused them with tampering with veniremen, endeavoring to find out where their sympathies lay and informing attorneys for the prosecution so that those favorable to the defense could be peremptorily challenged.

It was evident that the manager of the local Burns force was passing notes to the prosecuting attorneys, notes of comment upon the desirability of the veniremen from the lumber company viewpoint. It was claimed that at his instance jurors were challenged.

Counsel for the state (?) Pujo and District Attorney Moore, wildly denied the charge, of course, and as the counsel for the timber workers cannot keep tab on fifty or sixty Burns detectives, it is certain that they will have ample opportunity to “see” the jurors and make sure that things are “right” for the lumber trust.

Still workingmen, farmers and known sympathizers with the defense are challenged. And the lumber trust (we mean the district attorney, or the state), rejects all men who admit to having read the REVIEW, The Rebel, the Rip Saw or other labor papers. All brands of union men are challenged, peremptorily, if possible. One juror was refused because he admitted to having read a single copy of the Rip Saw.

Prosecuting Attorney Pujo claims that Detective Burns is a saviour of society, but at least the counsel for the defense has stopped the obvious consultation of lists as jurors are called.

Seven jurors have been accepted, five farmers, one salesman and one restaurateur. The state was “willing” to accept men in the employ of the lumber trust, but refused all having ever had dealings with or information on the timber workers.

The last act of the grand jury that indicted the workingmen was to report no true bill against John Williams who attempted the life of H.G. Creel, evidently on the theory that it is no crime to kill Socialists or unionists in Louisiana.

The boys on trial for their lives in Louisiana are in need of funds to carry on the fight. Don’t forget to send remittances to Jay Smith, Alexandria, La. Watch the trial if you want to know what the courts, the prosecuting attorneys, the law, the state, the police and detectives are used for.

Just now the state is doing the work of the lumber trust. It is persecuting and prosecuting union leaders in order to break up the timber workers and in order to force the members of this organization into slavery to the lumber kings. The lumber companies have stooped to hire thugs to do murder and the state is trying to put the blame upon their victims. But the whole South, and the workers in the North and from Maine to California are waking up to the crime against their comrades. They have decreed that Emerson and his fellow workers shall be freed.

The International Socialist Review (ISR) was published monthly in Chicago from 1900 until 1918 by Charles H. Kerr and critically loyal to the Socialist Party of America. It is one of the essential publications in U.S. left history. During the editorship of A.M. Simons it was largely theoretical and moderate. In 1908, Charles H. Kerr took over as editor with strong influence from Mary E Marcy. The magazine became the foremost proponent of the SP’s left wing growing to tens of thousands of subscribers. It remained revolutionary in outlook and anti-militarist during World War One. It liberally used photographs and images, with news, theory, arts and organizing in its pages. It articles, reports and essays are an invaluable record of the U.S. class struggle and the development of Marxism in the decades before the Soviet experience. It was closed down in government repression in 1918.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/isr/v13n05-nov-1912-ISR-gog-ocr.pdf