On the night of July 23rd, 1917, as G. J. Bourg, the Branch Secretary of the Agricultural Workers Industrial Union, passed the Commercial Club Building on his way home. He was seized and taken to jail. At 2 o'clock in the morning he was taken from the cell and thrown into an automobile containing the Chief of Police and two sluggers. More brave champions of "Law and Order" awaited them outside of town, where Bourg was held face to the ground while Aberdeen's "best citizens" beat him with heavy clubs. Brutal? Yes! Unlawful? Certainly! A chance of legal remedy? Not the slightest!
AT Franklin, New Jersey, on August 29, 1917, John Avila, an I.W.W., was taken in broad daylight by the Chief of Police and an auto load of "business men," to woods near the town and there hung to a tree. On second thought they cut him down before death came and, unconscious and bleeding, they returned him to town where a "judge," who was paymaster for the mining company, sentenced Avila to three months at hard labor.
