The State Labor Federation’s Clarion Call
Washington State Federation of Labor President Charles R. Case decries court-sanctioned 'money rule' and calls for a worker-led revolution through direct legislation.
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Charles R. Case, President of the Washington State Federation of Labor, delivered a fiery address to the federation’s annual convention. Case argued that workers are effectively the true employers of labor and that union membership is the only path toward protecting dignity. He highlighted the ongoing struggle in Spokane, where the Industrial Workers of the World faced mass arrests for simply exercising their right to free speech on street corners—a conflict fueled, he claimed, by corrupt private employment agencies. Case warned that American courts, presided over by life-appointed judges, had become the 'miners and sappers' of national liberty, serving the interests of the wealthy over the masses. He advocated for the immediate, aggressive pursuit of the initiative, referendum, and recall as the only tools capable of breaking the power of 'shrewd, unscrupulous men' and achieving genuine social progress.
“Are we in Russia? Was not Jefferson right when he prophesied that the United States courts would prove to be the 'miners and sappers' of the liberties of this country?”
Case’s 1910 warning about a government 'of the people by the courts' resonates deeply in modern debates over judicial influence on labor rights and public policy. The tension between local workers and corporate-backed legislative frameworks remains a defining struggle in Everett’s civic life more than a century later.
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