Why Everett Labor Boycotted the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition
Local union leaders refused to celebrate Seattle's massive world's fair, citing a long history of anti-labor practices by the contractors who built it.
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.
The union men were patient until they had to stand in the sun in the hope of getting their grievances adjusted. It was with reluctance that the matter was brought before the annual convention of the Washington State Federation of Labor and that body was asked to place the exposition under the ban of organized labor. This action was not taken until the highest officials of the fair were appealed to, to persuade the contractors to right the wrong they had done to organized labor, and these officials had refused to act. There doesn't seem to be any other course of action left open to union men to retain their self-respect but to place the exposition on the unfair list. Always a shadow came between them and the beauties of the exposition—of those days of the building when the principles organized labor fought for were trampled in the mud that the building contractors might wring more dollars out of the pockets of the workingmen. Pride and dishonor are two hand-maidens who do not well agree.
“Pride and dishonor are two hand-maidens who do not well agree.”
In 1909, Everett unionists were deeply skeptical of the 'boosterism' surrounding Seattle's A-Y-P Exposition, which served as the launchpad for much of modern Seattle. This tension between the high-minded promises of regional development and the reality of the labor conditions on the ground mirrors the ongoing local debates about who benefits from the rapid growth of the Puget Sound economy.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.