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Labor spy report by Agent #106 to Broussais Beck, November 14, 1919
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| Title | Labor spy report by Agent #106 to Broussais Beck, November 14, 1919 |
| Author | Unknown |
| Date of Publication | 1919 |
| Notes | In this report to Broussais Beck on November 14th, 1919, "Agent #106" notes at the outset that "today the topic of discussion was the Union Record suppression". Radicals gathered at the Labor Temple to denounce inaction on the part of organized labor in response to the newspaper's seizure. Walter Smith comments that the authorities can hardly be blamed for suppressing the Union Record, given that labor was unwilling to give the paper any support. Smith does note that the event should give warning to conservatives who have believed that business interests only opposed the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.): he calls Rust, who was arrested along with Union Record editor Harry Ault, "one of the most conservative men in the labor movement", and claims that this will prove to all that "no labor organization is safe in this country". Clem, one of the Union Record's employees, points out that the whole raid was planned well in advance and in collusion with the city's other newspapers. Clem says that, once Ault told the staff to leave, one of the men conducting the raid telephoned the Seattle Star and told them that the story was "released" for publication. Clem laments the loss of a "dandy story on the Centralia incident" which the Union Record was preparing to publish when the raid occurred, and says that the newspaper was closed down because the authorities knew they were going to print the truth. #106 then talks to Charles Doyle, who tells him that nothing can now be done other than taking court action, in the confidence that no judge would uphold "such injustice". |
| 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; Seattle union record (Seattle, Wash. : 1918) |
| Geographic Coverage | United States--Washington (State)--Seattle |
| Digital ID Number | PNW00884 |
| 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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