by Susan Couso
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or ‘Wobblies’) was formed in 1905 to promote better working conditions for workers who had been left out of protection under other unions.
Different from the American Federation of Labor (AFL) which was made up of skilled white labor unions, the IWW represented migrant farm workers, women, and foreign immigrants who had worked in notoriously low paid jobs with unfair and diminished working conditions.
As the U. S. became involved in WWI in 1917, the Wobblies came out in full force to protest the war. The farm and lumber workers, waiters and cleaners saw the war as a Capitalist effort which harmed the ‘little man’, and they condemned all wars.
The IWW promoted the use of civil disobedience as a means to get their views out, and thus began a plot to poison livestock, burn grain and lumber mills, and do whatever was possible to harm the war effort and bring an end to the conflict with Germany.
The Wobblies were spread throughout the country, but their main concentration of opposition to the war was focused on the Pacific Coast states. Here, the U. S. government began a campaign to control the Wobblies through sedition laws, and other policies.
Lassen County was home to an abundance of unskilled laborers who worked the farms and ranches, toiled in the lumber industry and kept the towns moving smoothly. This drew the attention of the IWW, who, in a plot to harm local industry, sent a group of Wobblies to attack our county.
Area citizens were worried, and stories of poisoned wells and livestock soon spread through the farming community. There were even tales of people dying from drinking poisoned water. These were never completely verified, but in 1917, the Wobblies did attack Lassen Industry.
A gang of IWW members had worked throughout Northern California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho, terrorizing farms and industry by burning grain, haystacks and farmhouses, and poisoning wells, reservoirs and livestock. In late summer they headed into Lassen County to cause as much havoc as possible.
This group of five men and one woman managed to set fire to the Red River Lumber Company facilities in Westwood, causing $800,000 in damage.
On September 16th, in the dark of early morning, the group poured kerosene on several piles of lumber near track eleven, and the small fires grew to engulf the mill in a spectacular blaze. The Wobblies, with a get-away-car waiting nearby, sped away into the darkness.
This devastation could have been even more severe had the fire escaped into the surrounding forest with its end-of-summer dryness, but mill personnel contained the conflagration.
In February 1918, one of the pyromaniacs returned to the area to set the Red River mill ablaze again. But this time as he was stopped in Susanville, he was met by Susanville’s Town Marshall, Thomas Massey, and Massey was no dummy. Fritz Hagerman, alias Charles Aisenbach, finally confessed to Massey that he had been involved in the fire in Westwood, and that he was on his way to try again to destroy the mill.
As Hagerman, a German, told his story, he also confessed to other illegal activity, all done in an effort to aid the German cause. He was proud of his support for his home country and boasted of his achievements, saying that he would stop at nothing to help the Kaiser win the war.
In his confession he was asked, “If you could by any means destroy enough property of the United States of America so as to win this war for the Germans, would you do it?” His reply was, “Yes.”
Hagerman had been born in Leipsic, Germany and came to the U. S. in 1910, first settling in Galveston, Texas.
During his confession, he recalled working on the docks in Texas before coming to California. He joined the IWW, and became involved in the effort to fight for the German cause while hearing of the Wobblies plans to harm the U. S.
In August 1917, a group of IWW members visited Westwood to ‘scope out’ the mill. They came back in early September for further reconnaissance and departed on September 3rd. Then, later in September they returned for their attack.
The gang of six, five men and one woman, arrived by automobile. The driver of the car was the ‘boss’, and Hagerman said that he had been paid $75 by the driver for his part in the scheme. The boss had financed the trip and paid for everything with, according to Hagerman, the Kaiser’s money. Hagerman insisted that it was a Wobblies plan and that the IWW knew all about it.
On their way through Doyle, the group stopped at the store and purchased beer and candy and a gallon of kerosene. By the time they reach Susanville, it was a little after 11 P.M., and the group stopped to buy tobacco and whiskey.
As they neared Westwood, the criminals had tire trouble and found an abandoned house, where they stopped to fix the tire. By the time they reached the Red River mill it was nearing morning. The driver waited in the car by the edge of the trees while the five men took kerosene and matches to the lumber decks near track eleven. With the fires set, they raced back to the car and escaped.
That was that. They all got away, and it would have most likely have remained an unsolved case if Hagerman had not decided to return to the ‘scene of the crime’ and try again.
With the prisoner in custody, and the confession given and duly notarized by Grover Julian, Thomas Massey, Gus Pardee and Special Agent of the Department of Justice, George Hartz accompanied the German sympathizer to Sacramento.
Once in the hands of the federal officials, Deputy U.S. Marshall, Thomas Mulhall and Assistant U.S. Attorney, P.H. Johnson, they managed to extract information which helped to ‘clinch the case’ against several men who were already in jail. Hagerman’s testimony also named his six accomplices, and they were expected to be corralled soon.
Hagerman was then taken to San Francisco and questioned by federal agents there.
The popularity of the IWW suffered greatly because of its stance against the U.S. government, but in the 1960’s the antiwar policies promoted by the organization helped it to rebound a bit. Today, the IWW with its ideas of a grassroots support for the working man and woman still promotes its ideals, but with a gentler hand.
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