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The Grabow riot or Grabow massacre was a violent confrontation that took place near Grabow (Graybow), Louisiana, on July 7, 1912, between factions in the timber industry. The main factions involved were the Galloway Lumber Company and a party of striking unionized mill workers and their supporters. The union workers were known as the Brotherhood of Timber Workers,〔(kilgorenewsherald ) 〕 a branch of the Lumber Workers Industrial Union (LWIU), which was affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). The Botherhood tried to recruit mill workers by giving speeches and conducting meetings at various mills. Although they had limited success in Louisiana, the LWIU became very successful from 1917 to 1924. The clash left four men dead, including Asbury Decatur ("Kate") Hall, and an estimated fifty wounded. It was a crucial event in attempts to organize locals and unionize sawmill workers in Louisiana, which finally bore fruit in October 1940, when the Wages and Hours Act (later the Fair Labor Standards Act) was upheld by the United States Supreme Court on February 3, 1941. ==The Graybow riot== Wanting better working conditions and pay, workers confronted the mill owners at the little sawmill town of Grabow, Louisiana, at around 6 p.m. on July 7, 1912. This might have signaled the beginning of the end of the 1911–1912 timber war fought in the Piney Woods of west Louisiana and east Texas. There is nothing to indicate that either the Brotherhood of Timber Workers or the Southern Lumber Operators Association had planned this riot. But there is much evidence foreshadowing a violent confrontation between them to occur somewhere in Beauregard Parish during this period. It was the stated intent of the union to strike against the mills in DeRidder, Louisiana, and the surrounding area, and it was the stated intent of the mill owners and operators to shut down the mills in the DeRidder area and to lock out and blacklist the workers. The Hudson River Lumber Company, the Long-Bell Lumber Company's subsidiary in DeRidder, was not part of the Southern Lumber Operators Association; not only did it honor the Brotherhood, but it paid cash to employees. The Grabow Riot was fought by a small wandering group of timber workers (not all Brotherhood members) and the owners, close friends and employees of the Galloway family-owned mill at Grabow. The Galloway Mill was not affiliated with the sawmill operator's association; it employed some 60–80 workers, of whom only 8–10 were present at the mill at the time of the riot. The riot happened on a Sunday evening while the mill was closed. The union group was a remnant of a larger group of approximately 200 workers who had been demonstrating at the large corporate mills in Bon Ami and Carson, Louisiana. They were going home from Bon Ami, some 6 miles east of Grabow, when they decided to stray from the road back to DeRidder and demonstrate at Grabow. This instantaneous decision led to a violent confrontation at Grabow, resulting in 4 deaths and 50 wounded in a shoot-out of around 15 minutes and an estimated 300 shots. The timber workers and their associates, including the notorious gunman Charles ("Leather Britches") Smith, took part in this exchange of gunfire. Subsequently, 58 of the timber workers' group were tried on charges ranging from inciting a riot to murder. The trial ended in Lake Charles, Louisiana, on November 2, 1912. Most of the men were acquitted and set free; none was charged with murder or inciting a riot. Smith died soon after in a hail of gunfire from 4 deputies on September 25, 1912. There is a historical marker at the site of the riot, on what is now the property of DeRidder Airport, Louisiana. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Grabow riot」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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