The 'Rat' Ledger and the Union Strike
After the Tacoma Ledger arbitrarily cut printers' wages by 30 percent, the labor union responded by boycotting the paper and launching a rival daily.
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The Tacoma Ledger, according to the Eima Eagle, has become a 'rat' concern—the only one on the Pacific coast. Management attempted to reduce already low wages by 30 percent, prompting union printers to walk out. The Ledger imported a non-union force from California to replace them, but in response, union workers have launched their own credible morning paper. A representative of the Pacific Coast Council of Federated Trades, W. G. Armstrong, is in Tacoma to coordinate a general boycott against the Ledger.
“The Ledger is reported as 'ready to sink to the lowest depths of hell' before submitting to the dictation of the union.”
This clash between a 'machine organ' and organized labor highlights the historic volatility of the newspaper industry. It mirrors the modern tension between declining legacy media and the rise of independent, community-driven journalism.
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