Bert Faulkner

Bert Faulkner was an Industrial Workers of the World member detained after the November 11, 1919 Centralia violence and prosecuted with the IWW defendants. Ralph Chaplin’s contemporary defense booklet identifies him in a portrait caption as a 21-year-old logger and former soldier and states that he was held in jail for four months before being discharged from the case. The opposing American Legion account by Ben Hur Lampman likewise says the court dismissed his case and he was released when the prosecution rested, after which he testified for the defense. Neither account supplies an exact discharge day. No imposed prison term established. Contemporary portrait caption reports four months actually held in jail before discharge from the case; no exact release day is inferred. Arrest and initial confinement are stored only at November 1919 month precision; November 1 is a storage placeholder. The accounts link the individual capture to the Centralia episode but an exact admission-day record has not been established.

Ralph Chaplin, Centralia Conspiracy, printed p. 15 / PDF p. 17; Lampman, printed p. 34 / PDF p. 35.

The May 1920 issue individually identifies him in a photograph of eleven Centralia defendants outside the Montesano jail. The caption’s Roy Becker refers to Centralia defendant Ray Becker, not the separate Omaha prisoner Roy Becker. The accompanying March 15 Not Guilty verdict was issued by six labor observers acting as an independent labor jury; it was not the official court verdict and does not acquit all eleven defendants. The official seven convictions and individual dismissals/acquittals remain distinct.

The One Big Union Monthly, May 1920, vol. 2 no. 5, PDF page 11.