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Organizational History of Brotherhood of Timber Workers
The first Chapter of The Brotherhood of Timber Workers was founder by Arthur Lee Emerson and Jay Smith in 1910. It consisted of people from East Texas and Western Louisiana. In June 1911 representatives met in Alexandria, Louisiana  to formalize the Brotherhood of Timber Workers. By the end of spring 1912 the Brotherhood had over 25,000 workers; half of them were African-American. The union was started because of the anger and displeasure from sawmill workers and poor farmers. They were dissatisfied with the unannounced paydays, which led them to strike and form the Brotherhood of Timber Workers (BTW). Their constitution consisted of peace, it listed abuse by their employers, and it states that any employee could meet with the employer to discuss their problems with the business. The constitution also consisted of a decent living wage, union recognition, and respect of a union employee. The Operators Association characterized the BTW as “socialists” and “anarchists,” they imposed a lockout of the mills that are unionized. This was a strategy to destroy the union, C.B Sweet of Long-Bell Mills declares his workers loyal and threatens to ignore the lockout.

Historical Achievements
The Strike of 1907 was an achievement for the union because it radicalized the timber workers, it is what brought the idea of timber workers unionizing and assembling the BTW. Although John Henry Kirby, Head of the Kirby Lumber Company tried to get rid of the union by organizing antiunion rallies all throughout east Texas the BTW kept going strong. The BTW also opened up to women, blacks and anyone else working in the sawmill industry. The BTW also managed to successfully organize blacks and whites in the union. Originally blacks and whites were separated in to different lodges. In 1912 one of the founders Emerson made a deal to merge with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). This was a great accomplishment because they were a radical union that helped organize events for the BTW. In 1913 the IWW helped the BTW launch a seven month strike against the American Lumber Company; over 1,200 workers were involved. The IWW brought radicalism to a pacifist organization.

Historical Problems
The IWW also caused the downfall of the BTW. They were too much of a radical organization for the BTW who were not as aggressive. The biggest failure of the Brotherhood of Timber Workers was the strike of Grabow. The Grabow Riot were considered a massacre that involved the BTW and the Galloway Lumber Company. The riot left four union members dead and 50 injured. The union workers felt that they were still being treated unfair so they marched to the sawmill and demanded better working conditions. Although not all of the union workers that were striking were from the BTW, the majority was. The outcome from the riot was not good for the Brotherhood. Emerson and sixty-four BTW members were arrested. They were soon acquitted but they lost everything they worked for. The organization went bankrupt. The Brotherhood tried to get back up and running with launching a massive strike with over 1,200 people, the strike was quickly shut down. That was the last of the Brotherhood of Timber Workers.

Affiliated Unions
The BTW had a lot of smaller unions on their side during strikes but the biggest accomplishment for them was getting the support of the Industrial Workers of the World. The IWW was a union that was founded by Eugene V. Debs, Bill Haywood, Mary Harris Jones, and Lucy Parsons. Early on they consisted of a lot of amateur workers. By 1912 they were known and were affiliated with unions other than the BTW also. Although this was a great move for the up and coming union it also later caused the downfall of the Brotherhood. The IWW was too much of a radical group to help the BTW. The Brotherhood of Timber Workers was known as pacifist and would not violently strike or riot. Until the Grabow riot which caused the Brotherhood to lose everything.