The Test of Conscience for Seattle’s Citizen Militia
Company E implements a rigorous questionnaire for recruits, aiming to filter out labor unionists and drinkers in an era of intense industrial unrest.
Within recent time much interest was excited at the publication of the fact that Company E had prepared a list of questions to be submitted to men applying for membership and enlistment in its ranks. The list is fifteen in number. The most interest, however, attaches to questions 11, 12 and 15: Do you have any conscientious or political scruples which would interfere with your duties as a soldier in case you were ordered out by the governor to maintain the peace or suppress riot, insurrection or invasion? Are you a member of any secret or other organization which would interfere with your duties? Are you in the habit of drinking intoxicating liquors? The bearing of these questions can be easily perceived. Other attacks have been covertly made by trades unions upon the military forces. As long as the law needs force to uphold itself against ruffianism or outlawry, it is well to see to it that only men that believe in law and order should be admitted to the state soldiery.
“As long as the law needs force to uphold itself against ruffianism or outlawry it is well to see to it that only men that believe in law and order should be admitted to the state soldiery.”
This 1893 report captures the height of the labor-capital wars, illustrating how the state militia functioned as a paramilitary bulwark against unionization. Today’s debates over the role of law enforcement in political and social movements mirror the same tension between institutional power and organized labor.
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