The Governor Who Stood Between Corporations and the Workingman
When railroads threatened to use militia to break a strike in 1873, Governor Elisha Ferry refused to deploy state power until the laborers were paid, carving out a legendary reputation for fairness.
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.
An incident in the administration of Governor Elisha Ferry during his service in the executive chair, when the Northern Pacific railroad was being constructed, was related to the Globe yesterday by a life-long Democrat, an old and prominent citizen of this city. The story to which the narrator refers is well known to the old settlers, and there are many reasons to refer to the bold stand taken by the Republican standard bearer when filling the office of governor, to which he will shortly be returned. 'In 1873,' said the gentleman, 'General Sprague was building the roadbed of the Northern Pacific, about ten miles from this city on the Portland division. The laborers were paid in time checks which they were forced to discount. They at last refused to work longer without their pay in cash or some security for the honor of the time checks. The latter were losing their negotiation value by inspiring confidence which was sadly lacking. This demand of the laborers was wholly ignored by the railroad company, who went on with other men, until about seventy-five of the old men, enraged at such treatment, armed themselves with rifles and revolvers and, placing themselves on the tracks, drove away the new-comers and stopped construction. General Sprague called on Governor Ferry to disperse the men by calling into service the militia. 'What do the men want?' asked Ferry. 'Security for their pay,' said General Sprague. 'Then,' quoth the governor, 'first secure to the men what the company owes them, and afterwards, if they obstruct the work, I will call out the militia. Not until then.' And there the governor rested. Threats, coaxing, and argument could not overcome his inflexible determination to see justice done to the most defenseless laborers on the road before he would array the military against the strikers. When General Sprague found that the intention of the governor was to protect the men rather than espouse the cause of his corporation, he induced Captain Ainsworth to satisfy the employees that they would be paid when all of them laid down their weapons and resumed work on the railroad. The Northern Pacific was built without further difficulty.'
“First secure to the men what the company owes them, and afterwards, if they obstruct the work, I will call out the militia. Not until then.”
This 1889 account of Washington's first governor highlights a historical tension that remains central to Seattle politics: the recurring struggle to prioritize the rights and wages of laborers over the demands of powerful corporate developers. Ferry’s refusal to weaponize state police power against striking rail workers serves as an early, striking contrast to the frequent calls for increased policing of modern labor actions in the city.
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