Labor Leaders Wage War on State 'Incapacity'
Union officials lash out at Labor Commissioner Charles P. Hubbard and Governor M. E. Hay over the controversial firing of Blanche Mason.
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At the eighth annual session of the Washington State Federation of Labor in Spokane, union leaders launched a bitter attack on State Labor Commissioner Charles P. Hubbard and Governor M. E. Hay. Secretary-Treasurer Charles Perry Taylor and Seventh Vice-President J. K. Campbell of Everett directed their ire at Hubbard’s performance, particularly his dismissal of his assistant, Blanche Mason. Taylor, in his report, accused the administration of 'useless, spineless incapacity' and claimed that Mason was the only person in the office performing real service for working people since the days of Billy Blackman. Campbell, known as the 'father of the women’s eight-hour law,' noted that Everett labor forces had been forced to take up law enforcement duties themselves because the Commissioner failed to act. The union leaders vowed to influence upcoming political elections to ensure labor-friendly officials replace those they consider 'traitors' to the cause.
“There is more humanity, more unionism in that woman's soul than in a thousand so-called union men who lick the boots of political tyrants.”
The defense of Blanche Mason by the state labor council highlights the historic struggle for representation and gender equity within the male-dominated labor institutions of the early 20th century.
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