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President and Publicity Committee of the Federated Unions of Seattle letter to the delegates of the Central Labor Council and the workers of Seattle, May 14, 1919
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| Title | President and Publicity Committee of the Federated Unions of Seattle letter to the delegates of the Central Labor Council and the workers of Seattle, May 14, 1919 |
| Author | Mohr, P. K. |
| Date of Publication | 1919 |
| Notes | This letter from the Federated Unions of Seattle to the "delegates of the Central Labor Council, and Workers of Seattle", written on May 14, 1919, is explicitly designed to challenge claims being made about the Federated Unions' purpose and aims. It clarifies that the Federated Unions was "originally called into being by the Central Labor Council", and that it is designed to respond to the difficulty of organizing workers from many different industries in order to be more successful in pressuring "organized capital". It identifies the birth of the Federated Unions as a "permanent body" on Sunday, May 4th, with representatives from 46 separate unions. A convention was held on May 11th to approve the body's constitution, which instituted the shop-steward system "in its most modern sense". The letter concludes by reiterating that the Federated Unions are not in any way a challenge to the Central Labor Council, but to the contrary, the organization is "intended to assist and co-operate with the Central Labor Council, which is now over-burdened". The letter is signed by President P. K. Mohr, as well as by the Publicity Committee (only the surnames of committee members are supplied: Robertson, Oberg, and Alderton). |
| Contextual Notes | Paul K. Mohr was a prominent figure in the Seattle labor movement for several decades. He was a charter member of the Bakers' Union in 1889 and its first presiding officer. He served on the Western Central Labor Council and on the Central Labor Council of Seattle, and was president of the latter organization at one time. He was the foreman of the Labor Jury that independently assessed the charges made in the trial of I.W.W. members in Centralia following the Centralia Massacre in 1919.
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) | Central Labor Council of Seattle and Vicinity; Labor movement--Washington (State)--Seattle; Labor unions--Washington (State)--Seattle |
| Geographic Coverage | United States--Washington (State)--Seattle |
| Digital ID Number | PNW00850 |
| 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 1/2 |
| Object Type | Ephemera
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| Physical Description | 1 leaf; 33 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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