The Seattle Panic of 1888
A grand jury report warns of a secret 'International Workmen’s Association' conspiracy to seize Seattle's property and industry.
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.
A grand jury report has been issued in Seattle that is terrible to contemplate, which would have been even more terrible if the sober men of the community had not asserted themselves. The report of the grand jury is based upon what it terms 'unmistakable documentary evidence' of an 'International Workmen’s Association,' with headquarters in San Francisco. The report claims this organization secretly instructs its followers to 'take the Pacific Coast, particularly, by reason of its peculiar population and its natural wealth,' and that it intends to destroy private ownership in lands, mines, machinery, and all kinds of property. They assert that when they are established in power, their first act will be to burn all books wherein the title of private ownership is recorded. The report warns that these secret elements aim to control every affair of life and that the printing press is to be under their control. We have all labored, and have sprung from the loins of the laboring class; with the beauty of toil we sympathize. We have deemed it to be our duty to call the attention of our fellow laborers and our fellow citizens to the danger ahead, believing that it needs but to be exposed to be defeated.
“The state's solemn duty is to protect the individual in the enjoyment of life and property.”
This 1888 report captures the intense 'Red Scare' rhetoric of the late 19th-century Pacific Northwest, where fears of labor organizing were frequently framed as existential threats to the social order. Today, these echoes reappear in the recurring tension between Seattle’s rapid development and the anxieties of those who fear the city is being hollowed out or 'taken' by outside forces—though the targets of those fears have shifted from labor unions to modern corporate interests.
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