The Everett Massacre
A bloody confrontation between I.W.W. free-speech protesters and a citizens' posse leaves six dead and scores wounded on the Everett waterfront.
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.
Everett, Wash., Nov. 6.—Six men are dead and 50 are suffering from bullet wounds as the result of a battle here Sunday afternoon, when 250 members of the Industrial Workers of the World sought to land from the steamer Verona, which had carried them from Seattle. The boat was met by Sheriff McRae of Snohomish county, who, with a posse, forbade the men to land. A shot fired from the Verona was followed immediately by firing from both sides. The steamer hastened back to Seattle with the dead and wounded. The trouble between the I.W.W. members and the authorities at Everett has been of several months’ standing, and was the outgrowth of a strike of shingle weavers. After several minor outbreaks, Sheriff McRae organized the citizens’ committee and expelled all members of the I.W.W. from the city. The official organ of the I.W.W. in Seattle had announced that the forcible expulsion must be avenged and called for 2,000 volunteers to establish the 'right of free speech.'
“The fight must be won.”
The 1916 Everett Massacre remains a defining moment in Pacific Northwest labor history, illustrating the violent extremes to which authorities and vigilante committees would go to suppress labor organizing. Today, the site of the wharf serves as a reminder of the historical struggle for civil liberties and the right to assemble.
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