The Bonus March taught many lessons to men like Tatro, including the lengths to which men like Herbert Hoover would go to avoid offering relief to the working poor. The same men who had been cheered as heroes when they marched down Pennsylvania Avenue after the war were attacked by the army for which they had fought, for the crime of camping on public property. Tatro returned to the northwest and began organizing for the Sawmill and Timber Workers Union. Strikes in the summer of 1935 shut down half the sawmills and pulp mills in the northwest before the workers won some important concessions at some unionized mills, but three years later, the union was still trying to organize the remaining sawmills. At Millwood, the Columbia River Lumber Company ran one of its larger mills, with a hundred and fifty workers. Columbia River had avoided the 1935 strike by paying fifty cents a day more than most of the mills, but its owners still refused to recognize the union or its right to strike. If there was a strike, the company threatened to throw out the union and bring in scabs. That was why Tatro had been trying to get Jake to come work at the sawmill. By hiring a few men who were capable fighters, Tatro hoped to strengthen the resistance of the other workers.

“They’re good men, strong and tough,” Tatro said of the sawmill workers. “They’re just not used to fighting. If the company tries to bring in scabs, they come armed with axe handles and crowbars. I’ve seen what happens. They jump out of the trucks and charge, or sometimes they’ll try to drive the trucks right through the picket line and run over anybody who gets in the way. All we need is a few men who aint afraid of a fight and know how to go about it. Best thing I’ve found is to go right at ’em, don’t wait for them to come to you. Same as a street fight or a bar brawl. Guy who hits first is generally the one standing at the end.”

“Unless the other fella knows what he’s doin.”

“That’s where you come in too. Some of the fellas, they’re willing as all hell, but they need to be taught. I got fifteen or twenty men I’ve picked out, the youngest and strongest. I want them to work with you and learn how to box. You’ve been in plenty of street fights too, you can teach them how to fight dirty. There aint no rules once the strikebreakers wade in.”

“Be a pleasure. Got to earn my pay somehow.”

“You’ll earn it all right. Once we call a strike and they come in to bust it up, you’ll earn every last dime.”