The Streetcar Strike at a Boiling Point
A labor leader speaks out against the mayor's accusations of violence and calls for a fair living wage.
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.
It has been stated that though organized labor offered the services of 600 men, when they were called for they were not forthcoming. I contend that no disorder has yet arisen with which the regularly paid police were not amply able to deal. It is hardly possible to imagine that we should police Hewitt Avenue, dispersing mobs and maintaining order without police authority. With the possible exception of two or three hot-headed youthful unionists, no member of organized labor has had any part in the crowds that have harassed the company in their efforts to operate cars with strikebreakers. This is not a fight of organized labor of this city. It is the fight of every honest citizen of Everett against a corporation which demands of its employees the best they have in the way of service, and gives in return a beggarly pittance. Put those men back to work at an increased wage sufficient to feed and clothe themselves and their families and retain their self-respect.
“Put those men back to work at an increased wage sufficient to feed and clothe themselves and their families and retain their self-respect.”
This 1911 dispute over fair pay for transit workers echoes current debates in Everett regarding cost-of-living wages. The tension between public safety, corporate service mandates, and labor's demand for dignity remains a recurring theme in local municipal politics.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.