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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday February 12, 1919
Seattle, Washington – An Editorial on the End of the General Strike
From the Seattle Union Record of February 11, 1919:
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In Retrospect
The first general strike in the history of the American labor movement has come to an end.
Perhaps it would not be amiss to stop just a moment and take a slant at what happened-a post mortem , as it were . It sometimes happens that much can be learned from a careful analysis of events that have transpired and, perhaps, learn how to avoid mistakes of both omission and commission.
Four things stand out above all others like a mountain in the center of a plain. These are:
First-The splendid solidarity evidenced by the 100 per cent response to the strike call.
Second-The absolute orderliness of the workers on strike and the resolute refusal to be aggravated into any action that could in the least measure be interpreted as riotous conduct.
Third-The hysterical bombast and sometimes guttersnipe comment on events that emanated from the Mayor’s office down at the City-County building, and then retailed through the Seventh avenue “friend of labor” [The Seattle Star] that has at last been unmasked.
Fourth-The desperate efforts at “playing to the gallery” that was indulged in by the Star in an effort to curry favor with big business after the management had finally come to understand that its true character was known to the workers of the community.
Taking up these several points we cannot refrain from comment on them. As to the solidarity that was so much in evidence, it more than met the expectations of the most sanguine and exacting of the enthusiasts for the sympathetic strike. It was a magnificent and inspiring demonstration. It might, perhaps, have been even more impressive but for a slight anti-climax through confusion at the last. This confusion was the inevitable result of the use of a weapon that was strange to most of those who were involved. In the [view] of the experience of the past week a like anti-climax would not be permitted to occur.
The orderliness of the men and women is just what was expected by those who really know the labor movement. Whatever of slander and wild stories of respective riot that was sent broadcast throughout the land by those who just had temporarily disgrace the city by their occupancy of high place in the city government are in every case without the slightest foundation in fact. The best response to all of this rot about the need of military protection and the protection of extra police is the record of the arrests for the period that covered the general strike. The record shows that fewer men and women were arrested during the strike than had been the case for a like period in years-if ever. And not one of the arrests were traceable to the strike.
Then we come to a discussion of Mayor Ole Hanson and his idiotic, slanderous and silly mouthings. Perhaps the less said about such a noisome [bird] as the mayor’s recent actions the better. Adequate description and critical discussion is impossible for two very good reasons-first, the postal regulations prohibit, and, second, the readers of the Union Record are perfectly reliable and clean-minded and clean-tongued men and women and it would debase this publication to indulge int the language that would fittingly characterize the mayor’s recent efforts to incite to riot and act the ignoble role of strikebreaker. Many of the readers of the Union Record have insisted steps be taken to recall the mayor. To these earnest men and women we say: FORGET IT! There is much constructive work that needs to be done in this city. The time and energies of the labor movement can best be used for that work. Let Ole rattle around down at the City-County building like fat in a skillet, for if he doesn’t rattle around there he will rattle around somewhere else, for rattle he must. Besides, it is fitting that the citizens should be engaged to endure, with what patience they can command, that rattling for having indulged in the political spree that resulted in Ole’s election to the office of mayor. We are firm believers in standing up to the rack and taking what is coming to us for our mistakes. Having taken our medicine, perhaps we won’t eat green apples again-no matter if they do happen to bear the label “Ole.” Given all of the opportunity he has had for mischief he has not shown himself capable, as yet, of doing anything worse than run off at the mouth and indulge in bombast that is neither polite or good rhetoric.
It might very well happen that a policy of “watchful waiting” will result in the haughty mayor drowning himself in his flood of words. So why worry about him? Nothing can be said or done that would so conclusively damn him in the eyes of the average fair-minded man as his own ravings. Let him rave!
Then we come to that other almost unmentionable subject-the Seattle Star. Sam Johnson, once said: “Patriotism is ofttimes the last refuge of the scoundrel.” It would almost seem that Johnson had written this sentence for the express purpose of characterizing the sheet that has so successfully played the game of bunk on the workers of this community for so many years. And now it has been unmasked and stands forth in all of its naked shame for the sham it is-and always has been. Now it attempts to preach on “Americanism” to the men and women who have built all of the ships that were built in the time of the country’s need; to the men and women who went “over the top” 100 per cent strong for every Red Cross drive and war measure that was pulled off in the city. This, too, at the same time that the principal owner of the Star was using every bit of influence he had to get exemption from the draft, going finally to the president to get what his draft board would not give him. What does the Star mean by “Americanism?” The kind that stays at home while other young men go overseas to brave the dangers of the battlefield? Such piffle and rot as has been spewed from the Seventh avenue bunk-shop during the past week, including the mayor’s ravings, are best answered by a reading of the stuff. The good that comes out of it all is that many of the workers who have fallen for the stuff in the past will never be caught again. Exit Star! As an influence in the cause of labor it will be about as efficient as a last year’s bird nest is in moulding opinion.
Just one thing more seems to need passing comment. That is the general strike as a weapon. There has been a good deal of loose talk about the general strike in times past. There are some who have sought to bring about a general strike on any and all occasions.Many of these well-meaning but mistaken persons, now that they understand the immensity of the weapon they would use, will not lightly venture upon its promiscuous use. The immensity of the undertaking has sobered many enthusiasts. The general strike has proven to be an efficient weapon but it has also shown to many of the unionists that its use carries certain responsibilities that are not light and should not be assumed except under the times of the gravest industrial crisis. This general strike has cleared the air of much stuff that was floating about to the distraction of the movement. The trades union organization of the city are better off because of that clearing of the atmosphere and we will all be better off because of the close-up view we have had of the immensity of the weapon about which we have been talking and writing so much.
Perhaps we will get from our friends and “near-friends” a lot of “advice” about how our organizations should be conducted. This has been the case ever since Adam was a boy and the labor movement has, somehow or other, survived it all and is going on forward, growing increasingly efficient as the years go by.
Mistakes have been made. The man or woman who never makes a mistake never learns anything. Earnest men and women prefer to play the role of a trout rather than that of the turtle. They want movement, they want to go forward. They may stumble, and even fall, but ever will they go forward on the road that will finally lead to a land that is a better place for men and women to live and work in .
IT WAS ALL WORTH WHILE!
[Emphasis added.]
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote Anna Louise Strong, NO ONE KNOWS WHERE, SUR p1, Feb 4, 1919
http://depts.washington.edu/labhist2/SURfeb/SUR%202-19-4%20full.pdf
Seattle Union Record
(Seattle, Washington)
“Published for Principle and Not for Profit”
-Feb 11, 1919
Note: “In Retrospect” transcribed to the best of my ability. Some words are difficult to make out. Hopefully, one day a better view of the article will become available.
http://depts.washington.edu/labhist2/SURfeb/SUR%202-19-11%20full.pdf
See also:
Tag: Seattle General Strike of 1919
https://weneverforget.org/tag/seattle-general-strike-of-1919/
Note: “In Retrospect” appears to be written in the style of Anna Louise Strong [Anise], however I have no conclusive proof of authorship. Another possibility would Harry B. Ault.
Seattle Union Record
-by Natalia Salinas-Aguila
http://depts.washington.edu/labhist/laborpress/Union_Record_1900-1928.htm
Jan Feb 1919-SUR re Seattle General Strike
http://depts.washington.edu/labhist/strike/news.shtml
http://depts.washington.edu/labhist/strike/unionrecord_Jan1919.shtml
http://depts.washington.edu/labhist/strike/unionrecord_Feb1919.shtml
Revolution in Seattle: A Memoir
-by Harvey O’Connor
Haymarket Books, 2009
https://books.google.com/books?id=ayj5zs40WtoC
“Ole Hanson’s Fifteen Minutes of Fame”
-by Trevor Williams
http://depts.washington.edu/labhist/strike/williams.shtml
Note: for coverage of the Seattle General Strike by
The Seattle Star
(choose 1919, choose February, choose Feb 6-11)
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87093407/
Note: for more coverage of the Seattle General Strike, see:
Jan & Feb 1919-SUR & Kept Press of Seattle
http://americainclass.org/sources/becomingmodern/prosperity/text6/seattlestrike.pdf
Political views of Samuel Johnson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_views_of_Samuel_Johnson
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