The Working People of Seattle Protest Wage Cuts
Thousands pack the Armory to demand relief and protest corporate wage suppression across the city.
The trades unionists and laborers of Seattle, in mass meeting at the Armory last evening, protested against the reductions in wages which have been made in this city within the past year. Several thousand men and a few women were in the hall, the floor being literally packed from the stage to within a few feet of the door. When the meeting adjourned, not over 500 were present due to weariness and overcrowding. W.G. Armstrong presided, and resolutions were adopted condemning the action of the Pacific Coast Steamship Company, the Great Northern Railway Company, the city of Seattle, and several street railway corporations for reducing the wages of mechanics and laborers below a just rate of compensation. A memorial was also presented from the Industrial Army of the Northwest, urging a National Industrial Congress to demand relief from the United States Congress.
“The prevailing disposition of all corporations, especially in Seattle, is to oppress workingmen in an unfair manner.”
This meeting captures the desperation of the 1894 economic depression, where labor organizations and the 'Industrial Army' movement (Coxey’s Army) mobilized against systemic poverty. Today's Seattle struggles with similar debates over the 'living wage' and the power of corporations to dictate local economic conditions during times of precarity.
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