The War Over the Draft
A young member of the I.W.W. is arrested for failing to register for the draft, exposing the intense friction between local authorities and the labor movement during WWI.
Ed. Richeson, a slacker picked up by Chief of Police Copeland last Sunday, had a preliminary hearing before U. S. Commissioner E. W. Trenbath this morning and was bound over in the sum of $1,000 to appear at the next session of the federal court. The defendant, whose home is in Delaware, and who has been a floater in the West for the last five years, says he is willing not only to register but to enlist in the navy if released. The youth, who was 21 years old last January, testified that he spent registration day in the jungles near North Yakima. Richeson is an I. W. W., having taken out membership recently in the Cle Elum local. He claims he was forced to join the order to get a job at the Cascade Lumber company’s camp, which has been closed down for several weeks on account of the I. W. W. laborers who struck following a demand for unreasonable pay and shorter hours. Local authorities are keeping the closest lookout for slackers, and no youthful strangers enter the city who are not called upon to produce their cards.
“Older men with whom he associated he said, regarded the registration as a joke and advised him to pay no attention to the call.”
The arrest of an I.W.W. member for 'slacking' highlights the state-sanctioned suppression of labor during WWI, a period when the government used war mobilization to break union power. The 'jungles' mentioned were transient labor camps, a site of constant conflict between itinerant workers and established town interests.
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