Bayonets at the Bridge
Tensions rise as National Guardsmen are deployed to patrol regional rail infrastructure, leading to a direct confrontation with an I.W.W. member.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The mean little moment of reality hit the people in this community this week when a detail of Idaho National Guardsmen pitched camp in Pasco and established military guard on the railroad bridges in this section. To one of the many I.W.W.'s who have been loafing around and making themselves conspicuous for two weeks, the war became still more reality when he walked onto the bridge between here and Pasco Tuesday night at the point of a bayonet. The man had reached the end of the bridge by the town side and told that he could not pass. He was just relieving himself of some complimentary remarks about the United States government and soldiers when one of the soldiers stepped behind him, pointed a bayonet at his back and demanded that he walk. He was later locked up in Pasco.
“He was just relieving himself of some complimentary remarks about the United States government and soldiers when one of the soldiers stepped behind him, pointed a bayonet at his back and demanded that he walk.”
This reflects the acute anxiety of the 'Red Scare' era and the suppression of the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.) in the Pacific Northwest, who were often labeled as 'loafers' or radicals by local authorities and press during wartime.
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