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Labor spy report by Agent #106 to Broussais Beck, November 7, 1919
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| Title | Labor spy report by Agent #106 to Broussais Beck, November 7, 1919 |
| Author | Unknown |
| Date of Publication | 1919 |
| Notes | In this report to Broussais Beck on November 7th, 1919, "Agent #106" describes a meeting held in honor of Eugene Debs' birthday. The meeting had been advertised to take place in the Arena, but the Arena informed the organizers that the meeting could not be held there, so the gathering was relocated to the I.L.A. hall, which was too small for the crowd in attendance. The meeting was organized by the workers defense committee of the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.), whose goal is to raise funds to bail out political and industrial prisoners. The first speaker, Doherty, talks about "industrial peace", and insists that Debs is only in jail for being faithful to his principles, and that only the I.W.W. is working to free him. Doherty is followed by Red Doran, a man recently released from Leavenworth prison. Doran notes that his subject is to be "industrial democracy" but that all he knows is that there is no industrial democracy in the United States. He praises the I.W.W.'s membership, and assures the crowd that the I.W.W. will stand by them, and asks them to stand by the I.W.W. in return. |
| Contextual Notes | Broussais Coman Beck (1886-1936) was a prominent Seattle businessman and rowing enthusiast. He was educated at the University of Washington and at Yale, graduating from the latter university in 1911. He returned to Seattle later in the 1910s to work as the store manager for the Bon Marche. In the wake of the Seattle general strike of 1919, Beck paid spies to infiltrate the labor movement in Seattle, and received frequent reports from his agents (often accompanied by clippings or ephemera relating to labor organizations) in 1919 and 1920. Due to the information acquired through these reports, the Bon Marche was centrally important to the alliance of Seattle employers who organized against labor, a group called the Associated Industries of Seattle -- and, consequently, the Bon Marche became the target of increased pressure and boycotts by organized labor in this time period. |
| Subjects (LCSH) | Beck, Broussais C., 1886-1936; Labor movements--Washington (State)--Seattle; Labor unions--Washington (State)--Seattle; Business intelligence--Washington (State)--Seattle; Union busting--Washington (State)--Seattle; Debs, Eugene V. (Eugene Victor), 1855-1926 |
| Geographic Coverage | United States--Washington (State)--Seattle |
| Digital ID Number | PNW00880 |
| Ordering Information | To order a reproduction or inquire about permissions contact: photos@u.washington.edu. |
| Digital Collection | Pacific Northwest Historical Documents
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| Repository | University of Washington Libraries. Special Collections Division. |
| Repository Collection | Broussais C. Beck papers. Accession No. 0155-001. Box 1/16 |
| Object Type | Typescript
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| Physical Description | 1 leaf; 28 x 21.5 cm. |
| Digital Reproduction Information | Scanned from original text or image at 150 dpi saved in TIFF format, resized and enhanced using Adobe Photoshop, and imported as JPEG2000 using Contentdm software's JPEG2000 Extension. 2011. |
| Restrictions | For information on permissions for use and reproductions please visit UW Libraries Special Collections Reproduction & Use page: http://content.lib.washington.edu/sc-use.html |
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