The Silent Advocate for Labor
A deaf mute worker seeks a union shop, shaming non-union men with his commitment to organized labor.
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 deaf and dumb boy came into the Journal office the other day looking for work. He wanted a job either in a lumber or a sash and door factory. We told him where to look for employment and he went out. He came back in a day or two. He had been unsuccessful in his attempt to find work and, through the medium of paper and pencil, we carried on the following conversation: 'Can I get job in laundry in Seattle?' 'We don't know the labor conditions there very well, but there are lots of laundrys.' 'Big laundry union in Seattle. All work eight hours?' 'No, there is no laundrymen's union there and they all work ten hours.' 'Don't like ten hours. I don't like to work in open shops as a scab.' 'Do you belong to the union?' 'I want to join. I used to belong to pork butchers' union in Kansas City, but strike came and I lost my job.' The laundries and sash and door factories were all full handed and the deaf mute, who seemed not to want to work at anything else, left town presumably for Seattle, but very much puzzled and disappointed that there should be no laundry workers union in a great city like Seattle.
“I don't like to work in open shops as a scab.”
This 1909 encounter highlights the era's fierce labor debates and the pride workers took in union identity. While the terminology used to describe the deaf worker is outdated, the story underscores how Everett's working class identity was built on principles of mutual aid that continue to shape local political discourse today.
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