The Political Infighting Within Seattle’s Labor Movement
A blistering letter to the editor exposes internal power struggles and corruption allegations within the Knights of Labor, revealing the fractious state of turn-of-the-century worker politics.
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.
To the Editor: There was a communication in the Post-Intelligencer on April 2, purporting to come from a club located in the K. of L. hall, calling themselves the People's Party. I was one of those who organized the club in that hall. It was the Club of the Industrial League of King County. After the organization of the People's party in King County on November 21, 1891, I, with H. C. Odell and M. F. Knox, withdrew from that organization for the purpose of forming a club in the Third ward where we resided, as did those who lived in the different wards and were People's party members. A few Democratic boomers, of which there are one or six posing as K. of L. members, formed a Democratic Central Club and published through the press that they were the Central Club of the People's party. This was a scheme of two or three, and in particular one, Robert Bridges, who has heretofore been a chairman of a labor committee and then as chairman of the local executive board of the K. of L., and now he pretends to represent the state board and is secretary of the trades assembly, to which office he was elected. This is the same Robert Bridges who on May 20, 1891, issued a circular for a meeting purporting to be a mass meeting of all labor organizations, and signed his name as chairman of the local executive board of the Knights of Labor. No Knight of Labor authorized any such authority or sanctioned such a meeting, nor do they know what became of the money received from this large meeting. This is the same Robert Bridges who was on the Democratic ticket and presented to J. T. Ronald at their ratification meeting a horse shoe wreath in behalf of the laboring men of the city. Now I would like this Robert Bridges to show what laboring people he represents. Now, the labor wants to be appointed street commissioner. I would say, as a duty, to the people of Seattle, that this Bridges is not a proper person to hold such an important office. I will advise the Democratic party to go to Black Diamond and learn the character of this man, a former coal miner. Now, a few politicians are sitting in his place and for his appointment some of them want to be street commissioners and others to run the fire department through his influence. Now, Mr. Editor, I do not want to use too much of your valuable space, but think this is due to all the true Knights of Labor and the people of Seattle.
“This was a scheme of two or three, and in particular one, Robert Bridges, who has heretofore been a chairman of a labor committee... and now he pretends to represent the state board.”
The internal bickering between grassroots organizers and professional politicians within labor unions remains a staple of Seattle's civic landscape. Over a century later, the tension between authentic labor advocacy and party-machine politics still defines our municipal election cycles.
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