Abandoned in the Snow
Forty laborers hired by the Great Northern Railway are left destitute in Snohomish after being denied work and food.
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.
A tale of wretched suffering and brutality at the hands of Great Northern railroad agents was told today by forty railroad laborers who were dropped off at the Great Northern depot in Snohomish early yesterday morning. The men say they were brought from Spokane, where agents of the road advertised for 150 men to work at siding No. 30. About 140 men responded and were hired, all being furnished passes to their destination. When siding No. 30 was reached, only about 100 were given work; the remaining forty were put on a train consisting of a box car and two flats and hurried west through the mountain passes. On the flat cars, they suffered intensely from cold and hunger, having nothing to eat from Monday morning till Wednesday night, while train hands stopped frequently to eat. Upon reaching Snohomish, the men were told to get off and clear out. Some have since engaged lawyers to file damage suits against the Great Northern Railroad Company.
“The men say they were brought from Spokane... the rest, numbering forty, being told that there was no work for them... suffered intensely from cold and for want of food.”
This incident reflects the raw, often predatory nature of early industrial labor recruitment in the Pacific Northwest. While the specific tactics of transit-as-punishment have evolved, the exploitation of itinerant workers remains a persistent tension in the region's labor history.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.