The Price of Refusing the Knights of Labor
A Seattle tavern keeper finds his livelihood evaporating after he crosses a powerful labor union, proving the reach of social and economic pressure in 1886.
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.
John Edgler, proprietor of the Haines Hall and saloon, is feeling the effects of a boycott instituted against him by the Knights of Labor. Unless he can prevail upon the union to withdraw the boycotting order, he will have to withdraw from business. Edgler can get no one to rent his building, he can get few to patronize his bar, and he can get no one to deliver his liquor. The strife began when the streetcar drivers requested his hall for a ball after the 'dynamite fiends' tried to blow up several streetcars loaded with women and children. As some of the union leaders were on the hall committee, Edgler thought the ball was not deserving of patronage and refused to rent them the hall.
“Edgler can get no one to rent his building, he can get few to patronize his bar, and he can get no one to deliver his liquor.”
This 1886 standoff between a local business owner and a powerful union over social politics mirrors the ongoing tension in Seattle's labor market today, where economic leverage is often used as a tool to enforce community standards and political solidarity.
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