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| Title | Labor spy report by Agent #106 to Broussais Beck, March 13, 1920 |
| Author | Unknown |
| Date of Publication | 1920 |
| Notes | In this report to Broussais Beck on March 13th, 1920, "Agent #106" relates a conversation with Dr. Strong, who is in charge of educational efforts at the Labor Temple. Strong evaluates the first year of the workers' college as a success, and laments the fact that "the schools are not free", and that professors who can teach "honest-to-goodness facts" at the workers' college are forced to avoid them in their professional lives. Strong goes on to describe a model "Labor Senate" that will be created, giving legislative practice to the workers as it is expected that they will need it. #106 then converses with Phil Pearl of the "Class war prisoners' committee", who expresses his happiness that only 7 of the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.) members charged after the Centralia Massacre will be found guilty. Pearl feels that there was no chance of a fair trial, so the fact that none of the accused were convicted of first-degree murder shows that there must have been very little evidence presented against them. Pearl looks forward to the labor jury's "verdict", which will show whether or not the trial was fair. |
| 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 movement--Washington (State)--Seattle; Labor unions--Washington (State)--Seattle; Business intelligence--Washington (State)--Seattle; Union busting--Washington (State)--Seattle |
| Geographic Coverage | United States--Washington (State)--Seattle |
| Digital ID Number | PNW00895 |
| 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 1/21 |
| 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 |
