The Knights of Labor Strike Back in Whatcom
A fiery public letter from the local labor organization dismantles the 'social assassins' and 'poltroons' who questioned their political legitimacy 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.
Some forlorn individual, under the bewildering hallucination that he knows something with reference to the status of our city and the character of our organization of Knights of Labor, has seen fit to air his ignorance through the columns of your esteemed journal under the somewhat suggestive diphthong of 'K. of Q.' The status of the Knights of Labor in this city—morally, socially, physically, and financially—is such that none but a poltroon and social assassin can attack. They are the responsible business men, farmers, and mechanics of the county; the men who pay their taxes and their debts. It is such an organization upon which good government can hope to be built. K. of Q. seems to give great credit to the actions of the City Council for the past year for the reason that they were 'conservative business men.' Now, the facts of the case are of an altogether different character. Those 'conservative' men were elected one year ago by fraud instituted by themselves, including the inducing of minors, tramps, and irresponsible persons to vote. One councilman, according to his own oath, did not own a dollar's worth of property within the city limits. Another was a bankrupt merchant. The Knights of Labor may justly feel proud of the victory they have gained over deceit and fraud.
“The daily press we regard as the great educator of the people, through which all questions involving the public welfare are filtered, and the truth finally arises to the surface under the electric illumination of journalistic friction.”
This 1886 dispute over the legitimacy of labor-backed political candidates and accusations of 'fraud' by incumbent elites mirrors the recurring tension in Seattle politics between organized working-class platforms and the established business class. The rhetoric of the era—casting opponents as 'social assassins'—remains a hallmark of our polarized civic debates today.
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