Everett Labor Council Mobilizes for McNamara Defense
Local labor leaders coordinate benefit events and organize support for the McNamara brothers amid national union unrest.
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.
At the Labor Temple meeting, President Olioger presiding, the Council formally seated new delegates, including S. O. Roberts and Chas. Moore. A five-dollar donation was approved for striking garment workers in Cleveland. A committee was tasked with securing motion picture footage of the John J. McNamara arrest and kidnapping, to be screened in Everett as part of an A. F. of L. national campaign. The McNamara benefit dance committee reported securing the Coliseum rink for the 10th, with the musician's union donating their services. Additionally, the Council discussed municipal candidates, urging labor members to support only those who unequivocally favored labor's demands.
“Members of organized labor urged to support no candidates who were not unequivocally in favor of recognizing the demands of labor.”
This meeting highlights the height of the McNamara brothers' legal defense saga—a case that polarized the nation and galvanized labor activism across the Pacific Northwest. Today, these union halls have vanished from Everett's landscape, and while political endorsements remain a staple of civic life, the specific industrial militant spirit of 1911 echoes the ongoing tensions in modern labor-management relations.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.