The Day Seattle Marched: Labor, Liberty, and the 1887 Fourth of July
A massive parade of unionized labor, from shipbuilders to coal miners, takes over Seattle’s streets for a patriotic Fourth of July that doubles as a fierce critique of land monopoly.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
July 4th was a 'perfect day' in Seattle, with thousands of people flocking to the city. The industrial procession formed on Commercial Street, between Main and King, featuring nearly every trade union in the city: mill men, stevedores, boilermakers, printers, tailors, and the Newcastle coal miners—who marched behind a banner declaring, 'A day when we get left.' The procession wended its way through Front Street to Pike, then to Third, and out to the university grounds. A speech by J.T. Ronald warned against two great dangers: the 'landlord system' of corporate monopolies grabbing the public domain, and 'mobocracy,' or the tendency toward violence and chaos. Ronald declared that land monopoly was the 'curse of all,' predating ancient empires, and insisted that the remedy for all evils remained at the ballot box. The day concluded with sporting events, including a yacht race and a baseball game against the Portland team, capped off with a grand ball at Turn Verein Hall.
“A score of our domestic monopolies own and control over one hundred and sixty million acres—all of the best land of America. Monopoly of any kind is a curse, but monopoly in land is the worst curse of all.”
The 1887 speech, delivered at the site of what would become the University of Washington's original downtown campus, highlights a recurring Seattle anxiety: the tension between industrial growth, land ownership, and the fear of losing public space to large corporations. The call for 'conservative' reform at the ballot box echoes the ongoing modern debates over land use, housing affordability, and the role of corporate developers in shaping the city's character.
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