• Beck, Dave – Very important figure in the history of the Teamsters and is almost single-handedly responsible for their rise to power in Washington.  Participated in his first strike at the age of 23 with the Laundry & Dye Drivers Local No. 566 in 1917.  In 1923 he was elected President of the Seattle Joint Council of Teamsters No. 28.  Employers trusted him and listened to him because he was able to convince them that he believed in their right to make a profit.  His position was simply stated as “We recognize that labor cannot receive a fair wage from business unless business receives a just profit on its investment. (Frank 203)” With this unlikely support from employers, his plan to organize the long-haul truckers and use this as economic leverage is what led to the unprecedented power of the Teamsters.  He also “provided a model for bridging the gap between craft and industrial unionists. (Dembo 412)” which was one of the biggest and toughest schisms that existed within organized labor.

 

• Bouck, William – Important figure in the farmer labor movement.  He served as Grangemaster but wasn’t able to be very effective due to the fact that the Eastern Washington farmers were a lot more conservative than those of Western Washington, which is the faction that he represented.  In 1921 he left the Grange and formed the Western Progressive Grante which split the farmers down the middle and ultimately limited their power.

 

• Brown, E. J. “Doc” – Led the Socialist Party of Washington’s more conservative faction often referred to as the “Yellows”.  He felt that the Socialist party should extend beyond just ‘workers’ and involve anyone who might be interested in social change.  Refuted a lot of the revolutionary Marxist ideals of the more radical factions of the SPW and believed the true path to change was through fusing movements together and working within the infrastructure to cause change.  He walked out on the SPW in 1921 and joined the Democrats with whom he launched a successful run for Seattle Mayor in 1922.

 

• Call, Henry – Secretary of the Washington State Federation of Labor under William Short.  When Short decided to leave the WSFL, he wanted Call to be elected President and gave him the appointment to finish out the term that Short was elected for just to give Call the upper-hand in the race for the Presidency.  Call eventually lost to James A. Taylor in 1927.  Call began his career in labor as a member of the Shingle Weaver’s Union Local No. 8 in Fairhaven, WA in 1903.  In the Washington State Labor News, which he helped Short edit, in an article entitled “Communism a Menace”, Call claims that Communism is a “menace” because the dictatorship of the working classes if “just as undesirable and just as un-American as would be dictatorship of the middle classes or groups, or a dictatorship of capital.”  Communism, as he described it, was a movement for “destruction,” not “construction” and was an appeal to hatred.  Labor, he believed, should learn to follow the teachings of Christ and reject the “lying effrontery” of communism.

 

• Duncan, James A. – Important leader in the Seattle labor movement as the Secretary of the Seattle Central Labor Council.  He led the progressive faction, often referred to as the “Duncanites”, and wielded a very powerful hammer locally.  “Theirs was a radicalism of the practical.  The progressives sought only slightly more than what they expected their enemies would concede; they operated by the methods that would engender the least opposition. (Friedheim 47)” A Scottish immigrant trained as a machinist in the UK, he was strong willed and willing to work hard, which were characteristics that helped him to garner the respect of fellow laborers.  He futilely attempted to bridge the gap between the extreme radicals and the conservatives within the AFL.  Supported industrial unions as opposed to craft unions and also was a supporter of third party politics.

 

• Flyzik, Marin J. – President of the Mine Workers District No. 10 and from this office continually harassed and opposed William Short, President of the Wasthington State Federation of Labor.  Attacked Short during his run for President in 1922 and eventually attempted to bring a libel suit against Short to discredit him but Short brought a counter-suit where he exposed Flyzik as the cause of a failed miner’s strike which ultimately led to Flyzik being run out of the labor movement.  He was appointed as the ‘supervisor of safety’ in the Department of Labor and Industries where he continued his hounding of Short and was a constant voice of opposition to the conservative faction that he Short led.

 

• Green, Leon – A Communist member of the Board of Directors of the Union Record.  He was a delegate to the Seattle Central Labor Council and also a business agent for the Electrical Worker’s Local #77.  His arrest for sedition following the Seattle General Strike ultimately left a ‘red’ tinge on the public’s perception of the Strike when the truth was that such radical views like Green’s were not generally very indicative of the ‘official’ leaders of the strike.

 

• Hanson, Ole – Mayor of Seattle during the General Strike of 1919.  A very chameleon-like political that was helped into his office by labor, yet at times seemed to come out against labor.  Many still insisted that he supported labor, yet another view presented was “…rather, he was a shrewd, calculating opportunist who consistently prepared himself for auspicious openings which would further his fortunes. (Friedheim 20)”

 

• Hesketh, Robert – Member of the Seattle Central Labor Council’s non-partisan Provisions Trades Section.  Tended to be a craft unionist and was very loyal to the AFL.  He was elected to the Seattle City Council in 1911 and stayed there until 1928 being a voice for labor.

 

• Jepsen, John, H. – Elected President of the Seattle Central Labor Council in 1925 where he endeavored to oust the communist factions.  Originally came from a Teamsters background from the Milk Wagon Driver’s Union Local #66.  In 1927 he was appointed to the Washington State Federation of Labor’s Executive Board.  Suddenly disappeared in 1928 with the Milk Wagon Driver’s Union’s entire treasury and never heard from again.

 

• Marsh, E. P. – Assumed presidency of Washington State Federation of Labor in 1913.  Came from English ancestry and was very religious and tended to be politically moderate and supported the war effort.  In 1925 he was appointed United States Labor Commissioner and in that role was a firm supporter of immigration restrictions aimed against the Japanese and Mexicans.  In May of 1925 he spoke to the Washington State Federation of Labor where they gave him their full support for his immigration restrictions and pushed him to implement them.

 

• Maston, George J. – President of the Railroad Brotherhood who opposed William Short’s non-partisan stance and wanted to form a third political party.  He supported the Farm Labor Party and wanted the Commission for Progressive Political Action to run its own state candidates in 1922.

 

• Mills, Walter Thomas – A Populist turned reform Socialist who was aligned with the ‘Yellows’ in the Socialist Party of Washington.  He founded the Saturday Evening Tribune and used it as a voice for the Socialist cause.  He was willing to work within the AFL to pursue worker’s rights as opposed to the more radical, left wing faction of the SPW who were more bent on revolutionary ideals.  In 1918, the Seattle Central Labor Council nominated Mills for a seat on the State Supreme Court against the wished of the Washington State Federation of Labor and ultimately paved the way for two anti-labor judges to be elected in his stead.

 

• Short, William M. – From humble beginnings in the Mine Worker’s Union District No. 10, Short ascended to the Presidency of the Washington State Federation of Labor in 1918.  He was strongly allied with Samuel Gompers and the AFL conservatives to almost fanaticism.  Being very pro-war and carrying on numerous campaigns against the Seattle Central Labor Council’s gaggle of radicals, he seemed to always be under attack from all sides by the numerous factions within the WSFL, the SCLC, and even the AFL itself.  He blamed the Seattle General Strike on the IWW and felt that most of society’s ills could be blamed on radicals.  In his fight against the more radical factions of the AFL and the SCLC he continually and repetitively acquiesced to Gompers time and time again.  He was a staunch supporter of non-partisanship within labor and eventually just faded from the labor scene after his resignation from the WSFL in 1926.

 

• Strong, Anna Louise – A socialist and pacifist reporter for the labor-owned Union Record.  She received her PhD from the University of Chicago, being one of the first women to achieve such a high degree.  She worked for various anti-war groups where she met many leftist activists who helped to polish her political ideals.  Elected to the Seattle School Board but she was recalled after appearing at very high-profile trials of anti-war activists and even testifying at Hulet Well’s trial.  Best know for authoring the article “No One Knows Where”, the most famous document concerning the Seattle General Strike.  The article was a very rousing and emotional portrait of the labor sentiment that unfortunately scared the opponents of the Strike and ultimately undermined the Strike’s goals by scaring everyone away from the negotiating table for they feared that the Record was trying to incite a revolution.  She eventually moved to Russia where she published books defending revolutionaries worldwide, married Joel Schubin who was a Soviet agricultural expert, and was in time deported from Russia charged as ‘a notorious intelligence agent.’  She arrived back in New York in 1949 and was promptly handed a summons to appear before a grand jury investigating Communism.  She promptly left for China and since has lived in Peking being a vocal supporter of radical causes and sentiments.

 

• Taylor, James A. – In 1919 was the vice president of the Washington State Federation of Washington’s Seattle district and then ascended to the presidency in 1927.  One of his first actions as president was to welcome teachers into the labor movement.  He also attempted to repair ties with the Grange by supporting favorable power bills.  He was a very anti-Filipino activist claiming that “…the Filipino preyed on their female co-workers, they were unhealthy and spread disease, they were a menace, and both and economic and social canker. (Dembo 476)” In June of 1934, emerging from the Depression, Taylor was able to report that WSFL membership was at 13,503 and that by 1938 it had doubled.

 

• Titus, Dr. Hermon – State organizer for the Social Democratic Party and the original editor of The Socialist.  Leader of the more revolutionary faction of the Socialist Party of Washington often referred to as the ‘Reds’ from 1901 to 1909.  Believed that there was no chance of immediate relief for the working class under capitalism and that there needed to be a class revolution to overthrow the capitalists and render control to the workers.  Denounced the AFL and wanted to replace it with an industrial union.  He caused a huge schism within the Socialist party by suggesting a change to the process of party recognition that would have been unfavorable to the more conservative Socialist Labor Party.

 

• Turco, Frank – A member of the Blacksmith Union, he was a freewheeling radical who was a “ferocious battler who was constantly on the attack with no holds barred. (Friedheim 44)” He had a strong sense of working class solidarity and was against the creation of permanent officials within the union.  He didn’t classify himself as a Wobbly, yet still supported unification of entire working class.  Very vocal and physical support of union causes and issues.  At the age of 85 he was still in the labor movement as a member of the Seattle Newsboy’s Local 621 out on the street corner hawking newspapers.

 

• Wells, Hulet – An anti-war Socialist allied with Dr. Titus and the ‘reds’ who at one time had held the presidency of the Seattle Central Labor Council.  In March of 1917, Wells published a pamphlet that was anti-conscription.  He was eventually arrested for this pamphlet.  James Duncan and the SCLC defended him and were able to secure his freedom, but then federal authorities re-arrested him and were able to convict him in February of 1918 where he was sentenced to two years in federal prison.  After being released Wells traveled to Moscow to attend Lenin’s Red International and when he returned he firmly placed himself right back in the middle of the labor movement by working with the SCLC again.

 

   

Works Cited

   

Dembo, Jonathan.  Unions and Politics in Washington State 1885-1935.  New York:       Garland Publishing, Inc., 1983.

  Friedheim, Robert L.  The Seattle General Strike.  Seattle: University of Washington       Press, 1964.

  Frank, Dana.  Purchasing Power: Consumer Organizing, Gender, and the Seattle Labor Movement, 1919-1929.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.