The Postmaster's Purge
Tacoma citizens rally to support female postal clerks targeted for dismissal by the new postmaster.
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.
Postmaster Hogue says one of the three women clerks will be retained. She works in the money order department and her duties do not bring her into communication with the public. Hogue says this fortunate clerk doesn't 'gossip.' Postmaster Hogue's action has met with the strong disapproval of the people of Tacoma. Nelson Bennett, prior to his departure for the East, in a communication to the Ledger, championed the cause of the women clerks in a vigorous manner. This was followed by several hundred protests against the contemplated change, and then the Tacoma papers opened fire on the postmaster. In spite of this general protest Hogue persists in following a course which all Tacoma feels is manifestly unjust, and further allege that nepotism and politics is at the bottom of it. The girls were notified of their dismissal by Hogue's nephew, Hill, who is one of the clerks in the office.
“Hogue says this fortunate clerk doesn't 'gossip.'”
Public sector jobs were often patronage targets in the late 19th century, but the aggressive firing of women to make way for 'male appointees' became a flashpoint for gendered labor politics. Today, similar debates about workplace culture and the 'gossip' bias reflect how personal character is still used as a cudgel to enforce structural inequality.
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