The War Over Electric Lights
Everett union workers are turning off their lights to force the local power company to the bargaining table.
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 electrical workers have a man in the field who has been quietly gathering data on the number of union men in the city who are still burning electric lights. It is their intention to publish that list in the Labor Journal in the near future. They say that a great many unionists are aiding them by going without electric illumination, but there are members of local unions who have disregarded all appeals. Patience has about ceased to be a virtue, and they propose to take more radical steps with the ones who they claim are aiding the electric company to beat the strikers.
“Patience has about ceased to be a virtue, and they propose to take more radical steps.”
This 1911 labor dispute demonstrates a classic strategy of consumer boycotts against utility monopolies. Today, Everett residents struggle with the rising costs of energy, but in 1911, the power was both a financial commodity and a political battlefield over the right to organize.
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