the strike and no evidence tying them to the violence which resulted, were acquitted. Legacy Despite the convictions of Ford and Suhr, the stature of the IWW grew among the migrant workers of California following the Wheatland Hop Riot and that organization emerged as a primary representative of farm workers in the state. The number of Wobblies in California rose to 5,000 by the end of 1914, with forty locals of the organization dotting the state. The Wheatland hop riot of 1913 focused public opinion for the first time on the plight of California's agricultural laborers. California's progressive Republican Governor Hiram Johnson empowered a new Commission on Immigration and Housing to investigate the underlying causes behind the Wheatland Riot, which resulted in new legislation providing for the state inspection of labor camps. The California State investigation attracted federal attention and in August 1914 the US Commission on Industrial Relations conducted hearings on the Wheatland Hop Riot in San Francisco. Testimony gathered further exposed the conditions faced by California agricultural workers in general and those on the Durst Ranch in particular, as well as the systemic violence practiced by private detectives working in cooperation with Yuba County law enforcement authorities. Appeals to the California Supreme Court on their behalf were unsuccessful and the two convicted leaders of the Wheatland strike remained behind bars for over a decade. Blackie Ford was eventually paroled in 1924 only to be immediately re-arrested and charged for murder by the Yuba City District Attorney, this time for the death of sheriff's deputy Reardon. A trial was held, after which the jury deliberated for 77 hours before returning a verdict of acquittal. Herman Suhr was pardoned not long after. Today, the site of the Wheatland hop riot is registered as California Historical Landmark #1003. See also California agricultural strikes of 1933 1933 Yakima Valley hop strike Salad Bowl strike List of worker deaths in United States labor disputes List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States Footnotes Further reading Cletus E. Daniel, Bitter Harvest: A History of California Farmworkers, 1870–1941. Paperback edition. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1982. —, "In Defense of the Wheatland Wobblies: A Critical Analysis of the IWW in California", Labor History, vol. 19, no. 4 (1978), pp. 485–509. Vincent DiGirolamo, "The Women of Wheatland: Female Consciousness and the 1913 Wheatland Hop Strike," Labor History (Spring-Summer 1993), 236–55. Greg Hall, Harvest