Biography
Elmer Smith was a Centralia, WA attorney and the IWW's local defense lawyer. After the Armistice Day 1919 raid on the Centralia IWW hall, Smith was charged alongside the IWW defendants as a co-conspirator in the murder of American Legion commander Warren Grimm. Acquitted at trial but disbarred for his IWW work. Spent the rest of his life campaigning for the release of the convicted Centralia defendants until his death in 1932.
The two opposed contemporary Centralia accounts agree that Elmer Smith was acquitted in the final March 13, 1920 verdict: Ralph Chaplin, Centralia Conspiracy, printed page 77 (PDF page 79), and Ben Hur Lampman, Centralia: Tragedy and Trial, printed page 69 (PDF page 70). April 5 was the sentencing of seven convicted co-defendants, not a sentence imposed on Smith. Lampman’s printed page 70 further reports that Smith and Mike Sheehan were immediately rearrested as they left court on a separate accusation involving Arthur McElfresh and were subsequently at liberty under bail, with trial not fixed. The acquittal therefore is not represented as the end of all legal jeopardy or an exact final physical-release date.
Centralia: Tragedy and Trial, printed pp. 69–70; Centralia Conspiracy, printed p. 77.
White dates the disbarment proceeding’s notice to June 1, 1923 and loss of license to early February 1925, attributing the complaint to Smith’s public advocacy for the IWW. His license was restored in 1930, two years before his death. These professional sanctions are distinct from physical custody.
Ahmed White, Under the Iron Heel (University of California Press, 2022), physical PDF pages [189] (printed page = physical minus 11); source193 SHA256 7c24fb0ba336fcbf379fb9720f70dcdbf754d796a50dee77b39e38e0f9bd2868.
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.
