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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 28, 1919
Seattle, Washington – “Mass Meeting Endorses Big Strike”
From the Seattle Union Record of January 27, 1919:
SHIPWORKERS ARE IN FIGHT TO WIN
—–Jamming the big Hippodrome to its doors with cheering thousands on Sunday afternoon [January 26th], the Boilermakers, Iron Shipbuilders and Helpers held what was probably the largest and most enthusiastic meeting of organized labor which has been held in the Northwest.
The last doubt, if one still existed, that the big union stood behind the industrial battle as one man was dispelled by the meeting. Impressed not only with what it meant to them, but what it means to all of labor, a motion to endorse the strike was carried by a unanimous standing vote and three rousing cheers.
Jack Duschack, business agent of the union, was the first to speak. He told the story of the endeavor of the Metal Trades Council to secure living wages for the workers.
Tells of Victories
Dan McKillop told of other victories of the boilermakers in Seattle, for the boilermakers union has had a victorious career on Puget Sound. He said that they had never gone into a strike with such bright prospects. He denounced [Charles] Piez [Director of the Emergency Fleet Corporation] and [V. Everit] Macy [Chairman of the Shipbuilding Labor Adjustment Board], and said that these men, always enemies of labor, were merely endeavoring to throw a big scare into the workers. He pointed out how the representatives of government were trying to help the men who were making millions to maintain starvation wages.
Said John McKelvey:
J. F. Duthie and Skinner and the other shipyard employers have been getting all the credit for the ships which we have built. Oh, yes, they’re the ship builders! If they think they can build ships, let ’em go ahead and build them! They’ve got the yards. Can they build ships?
And now Piez says if we don’t give in and go back to work, so these millionaires can go back to making their millions, they’ll take the contracts away from Puget Sound, and do all the shipbuilding back East. Well, let ’em do it. If they want to start a revolution, let ’em start it.
Workers Not Impressed
Evidently the tremendous throng of shipworkers were as little impressed with Piez’ threat as McKillop and McKelvey were, for they punctured the remarks of both speakers with cheers which nearly lifted the roof from the building.
Bread Prices Cut
The action of master bakers in cutting the price of bread in two for the shipworkers on strike was reported to the meeting. Fred Nelson, manager of the South End Co-operative Market at Second and Washington, told of the arrangements being made by that organization to meet the effort of the Retail Grocers’ Association to break the strike by shutting off credit for all strikers.
August Belmont spoke at some length for the Union Record, and the audience endorsed his remarks with thunders of applause.
Jim Lansbury, delegate from the Boilermakers, Iron Shipbuilders and Helpers to the Mooney convention at Chicago, made his report. The union endorsed the general strike next July for Mooney.
By the decision of the body, Sunday’s meeting will be the last meeting of the union during the strike. The union is so large and requires so large a hall that meetings would be a heavy drain on the strike funds of the organization, all of which may be needed to take care of needy members and pay the necessary expenses of the strike.
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[Emphasis to first two paragraphs in original, emphasis thereafter added.]
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SOURCES
Seattle Union Record
(Seattle, Washington)
“Published for Principle and Not for Profit”
-Jan 27, 1919
http://depts.washington.edu/labhist2/SURjan/SUR%201-19-27%20full.pdf
Revolution in Seattle: A Memoir
-by Harvey O’Connor
Haymarket Books, 2009
(search: with names emphasized above)
https://books.google.com/books?id=ayj5zs40WtoC
IMAGE
Seattle General Strike, re Mass Meeting, SUR p1, Jan 27, 1919
http://depts.washington.edu/labhist2/SURjan/SUR%201-19-27%20full.pdf
See also:
The Seattle General Strike:
-An account of what happened in Seattle, and especially in the Seattle Labor Movement, during the General Strike, February 6 to 11, 1919
-[by Anna Louise Strong]
Pub’d by History Committee of General Strike Committee
https://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/digital/collection/pioneerlife/id/9191
Seattle General Strike Project
“The Solidarity Centennial Is Coming In February”
http://depts.washington.edu/labhist/strike/index.shtml
Seattle Union Record
-by Natalia Salinas-Aguila
http://depts.washington.edu/labhist/laborpress/Union_Record_1900-1928.htm
SUR & 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
Seattle Shipyard Workers on the Eve of the General Strike
-by Patterson Webb
http://depts.washington.edu/labhist/strike/shipyards_webb.shtml
Emergency Fleet Corporation
https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/emergency-fleet-corporation
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Joe Hill on The General Strike