The Labor Leader Eyeing the Governor's Mansion
State Labor Commissioner William Blackman plans to launch his gubernatorial campaign at the state labor convention in Spokane.
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 candidacy of State Labor Commissioner William Blackman for the Democratic nomination for governor will probably be launched informally in Spokane this week when the State Federation of Labor holds its annual convention. Mr. Blackman is president of the state federation, and while nobody anticipates that the federation will take any official action, it is generally expected that Mr. Blackman will communicate his ambition to the delegates and solicit their co-operation. Blackman, a former railroad engineer blacklisted after the 1894 A.R.U. strike, rose to prominence as a protégé of the late Governor John R. Rogers, whose daughter he married. Though he resides officially in Olympia, his real home is in Seattle.
“He was a railroad engineer until the famous A. R. U. strike of 1894 when he went out at the command of Eugene V. Debs. It is claimed that he was blacklisted at that time by the railroads.”
William Blackman’s career highlights the deep, historic intersection of organized labor and Washington state politics. Today, unions remain a central force in the Democratic party’s machinery in Olympia, though the shift from railroad labor politics to modern tech and service sector advocacy marks a significant evolution in the movement.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.