The
longshoremen's strike started on June 1st and was marked by more or less
serious disorders at various points, most of the violence being
precipitated by detectives placed in the unions by the employers. The
tug boat men were also on strike in Everett, particularly against the
American Tug Boat Company owned by Captain Harry Ramwell. All of the
unions on strike in Everett were affiliated with the A. F. of L.
Striking longshoremen from Seattle aided the shingle weavers on their
picket line from time to time, and individual members of the I. W. W.,
holding duplicate cards in the A. F. of L. stood shoulder to shoulder
with the strikers, but officially the I. W. W. had no part in any of the
strikes.

[Illustration: One of the thousands who donate their fingers to the
Lumber Trust. The Trust compensated all with poverty and some with
bullets on November 5, 1916.]

Meanwhile in Seattle the I. W. W. had planned to organize the forest and
lumber workers on a scale never before attempted. Calls for organizers
had been coming in from the surrounding district and there were demands
for a mass convention to discuss conditions in the industry. Yet,
strange as it may seem to those who do not know of the ebb and flow of
labor unions, there were at that time less than half a hundred paid-up
members in the Seattle loggers branch, so great had been the depression
from 1914 to 1916. The conference was set for July 4th and five hundred
logger delegates responded, representing nearly as many camps in the
district. Enthusiasm ran high! The assembled workers suggested the
adoption of a plan of district organization along lines more in keeping
with the modern trend of the lumber industry. The loggers' union, then
known as Local 432, ratified the actions of the conference. As a
preliminary move it was decided that an organizer be secured to make a
survey of the lumber situation in the surrounding territory. General
Headquarters in Chicago was communicated with, James Rowan was found to
be available, and on July 31st he was sent to Everett to find out the
sentiment for industrial unionism at that point.

That night Rowan spoke on Wetmore Avenue fifty feet back from Hewitt
Avenue, in compliance with the street regulations. No mention was made
of local conditions as Rowan had just come from another part of the
country and was unaware that a shingle weavers strike was in progress.
His speech consisted mainly of references to the Industrial Re