The Wage Theft That Shook the Front Street Cable Line
Thirteen teamsters and laborers sue the city's transit company and a contractor for unpaid wages, exposing the precarious financial lives of Seattle’s working class in the early 1900s.
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.
THIRTEEN TEAMSTERS OF LASS.
Thirteen teamsters and laborers on the Front Street cable line who were defrauded out of their wages by the failure of an contractor, Henry L. Kochelle, on January 5, commenced suit in the district court yesterday to foreclose the liens filed by them on February 2 against Henry L. Kochelle and the Front Street Cable Company, who are made joint defendants to the suit.
The names of the plaintiffs and the amounts alleged to be due them are as follows: J. Johnson $22, D. Ellies $18, H.J. Lealard $25 40, J. B. Cunningham $17 30, D. Landsburg $17 60, G. Harrison $9 40, P. Nelson $10 60, Charles Wilson $21 00, T. Stackpole $9 30, F. J. Hill (assignment) $18 80, J. I. Brown $15, J. Hunter $18 40, D. Clark $11 40.
This story highlights the fragility of labor contracts in an era before robust wage protection laws. When a contractor failed, it was the workers—not the corporation or the city—who bore the brunt of the loss, forcing them into litigation to survive. It mirrors modern gig-economy disputes where workers must fight for basic compensation when intermediaries collapse.
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