The Great Cigar-Maker Swindle
A labor organizer lured 200 workers to Seattle with promises of steady jobs in California, only to abandon them penniless after pocketing their displacement costs.
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.
Nearly 200 men gathered around the headquarters of the Cigar Makers' Union today discussing the swindle of which they are victims. About two weeks ago, a man named Wolff, Vice President of the Cigar Makers' Union of San Francisco, arrived here on his way East for the purpose of securing cigar makers to go to that city. Wolff represented to the fraternity that the cigar manufacturers of the Pacific coast had decided to make a systematic opposition to the Chinese. He stated that the Chinese had become powerful competitors of the white manufacturers and monopolizers of the labor of the trade. The Chinese were working into the business in a wholesale way and the manufacturers had been brought to a realization of the necessity of pooling funds with the white cigar makers. Wolff's purpose in coming East was to visit Chicago, New York, Boston, Louisville and other manufacturing cities to obtain cigar makers to go to California. He represented that permanent employment would be given to 2,000 men at higher wages than the Eastern scales. Upon arriving in Chicago, he claimed he needed 175 men. However, when he reached Seattle, he had 200 men. He then coolly informed them that he only needed 175. A lively time ensued, and Wolff was told in vigorous English the opinion entertained of his conduct. He finally decided to take 18 of the party, leaving 175 men stranded. It was learned at the headquarters of the Cigar Makers' Union that many of the 175 stranded men who had been deceived by Wolff's statement had come from Canada and points throughout the Northwest. They are now left in this city and will be sent to their homes by the Treasurer of the Union. It is alleged that Wolff has sold himself to certain San Francisco manufacturers, his marketing tour being in the interest of those who are planning the disorganization of the union at San Francisco.
“A lively time ensued, and Wolff was told in vigorous English the opinion entertained of his conduct.”
The precarious nature of itinerant labor recruitment, often used to suppress wages or break unions, remains a constant in Pacific Northwest economic history. Just as these cigar makers were treated as expendable pawns by a predatory agent, modern gig workers and contract laborers often face similar displacement and broken promises when relocated for 'opportunities' that evaporate upon arrival.
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