The 'Rat' Printers of Seattle
When an 1877 newspaper attempted to cut costs by firing union compositors, the resulting strike sparked a fierce, public feud between rival publications.
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.
Evidences of stringent circumstances have been multiplying in the office of our morning contemporary of late. Some time ago that paper began retrenching by employing cheap and incompetent editors. But obligations continuing to accumulate against the office beyond the ability to pay, other retrenchments of course became necessary. Last Saturday a move was inaugurated to discharge the competent printers working on the Intelligencer and supply their places with boys. One of the compositors was accordingly discharged, and his case given to a boy. There is a rule among honorable printers that when one of their number is discharged for the purpose of giving his situation to an incompetent man or boy at less rates, the other printers in the office will strike. Accordingly, the compositors of the Intelligencer struck yesterday, and their places were filled by what are known among printers as 'rats,' persons who by thus accepting these situations are forever barred from associating with honorable printers. The printer discharged is Osborne; the ones striking are Snyder and Andrews. The 'rats' accepting the situations are W. S. Nelson and Jake Foster. The boy, Walter Hall, who accepted the other situation, is yet too young to share in the disgrace of the two rats mentioned. Printers abroad will please remember them and pass them around.
“There is a rule among honorable printers that when one of their number is discharged for the purpose of giving his situation to an incompetent man or boy at less rates, the other printers in the office will strike.”
This 1877 labor dispute over the replacement of skilled, union-represented compositors with cheaper, non-union labor mirrors the modern struggle to maintain wage standards against the pressures of media consolidation and gig-economy labor practices. The use of the term 'rat' as a social pariah status highlights how deeply labor solidarity was etched into the professional identity of 19th-century tradespeople.
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