The Western History Association
Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in the Railroad Work Force: The Case of the Far Northwest,
1883-1918
Author(s): W. Thomas White
Source: The Western Historical Quarterly, Vol. 16, No. 3 (Jul., 1985), pp. 265-283
Published by: Western Historical Quarterly, Utah State University on behalf of The Western
History Association
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and Genderin theRailroad
Race, Ethnicity,
WorkForce:
The Case of theFar Northwest,
1883-1918
W. THOMAS WHITE
( (A
new destinyis upon us," the Portland
Oregonian
pronouncedon
September9, 1883,celebratingthecompletionofthe Northern
Pacific'sline to the NorthwestCoast.' The fundamentalimportance of transcontinental
railroadsforwesternsettlementis well known.
In theFar Northwest(Washington,Oregon, Idaho, and Montana), as elseand commuwhere,the railroads'arrivalheraldeda new era ofsettlement
theeconomicand cultural
nication,at thesame timeprofoundly
influencing
American-builtenvirondevelopmentthatderivedfromthe fast-growing
mentin theregion.Withtheburgeoningmines,therailroadsweretheharbingersof large-scalecorporateenterpriseand all thatthatimpliedin the
Far Northwest.2
Less appreciatedis thesignificanceoftheroads' impacton labor relationsin theFar West.Withtherailroadscame a new,industrialworkforce,
possessedofa heritageofearlierconflictswithmanagersin theEast. Their
experience,too,servedas a modelforotherindustrieson thewageworkers'
This case studywill focus upon one segmentof the new work
frontier.3
force-the unskilledlaborerswho performedthe roads' maintenance-of-
A-
W. Thomas Whiteis curatoroftheJamesJeromeHill ReferenceLibraryin Saint Paul,
Minnesota.
'PortlandOregonian,
September9, 1883. See also Murray Morgan, Puget'sSound:A NarrativeofEarly Tacomaand theSouthern
Sound(Seattle, 1979), 192-93; Michael P. Malone and
Richard B. Roeder, Montana:A Historyof TwoCenturies
(Seattle, 1976), 132-33.
2AlfredD. Chandler,Jr.,The VisibleHand: TheManagerialRevolution
inAmerican
Business
(Cambridge, MA, 1977), 120; AlfredD. Chandler,Jr.,comp. and ed., TheRailroads:The
Nation'sFirstBig Business,Sourcesand Readings(New York, 1965). For a general assessment
oftheimpactofthe railroad on American culture,consultJohnR. Stilgoe,Metropolitan
Corridor:Railroadsand theAmerican
Scene(New Haven, 1983).
3For the laboring milieu of the Far Northwest,consultCarlos A. Schwantes,"Coxey's
Montana Navy: A Protestagainst Unemploymenton the Wageworkers'Frontier,"Pacific
Northwest
73 (July1982), 98-107; and Carlos A. Schwantes,RadicalHeritage:Labor,
Quarterly,
in Washington
and BritishColumbia,1885-1917(Seattle, 1979), 3-21. For
Socialism,and Reform
earliergenerationsofrailwayworkersin the East and Midwest,consultWalterLicht, WorkingfortheRailroad:The Organization
of Workin theNineteenth
Century
(Princeton, 1983).
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266
THE WESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
July
wayand constructionwork.Their experiencecontrastedsharplywiththat
of skilledworkersin the industrybut was typicalof that of many in the
vasttrans-Mississippi
migrantlabor pool thatformedan indispensablepart
of the West's developingeconomybeforethe FirstWorldWar.4
The thousandsofmigrantlaborerswho builtand maintainedtheroads
receivedthe least pay and endured the worstconditionsin the industry.
As late as 1914,WashingtonCommissionerof Labor Edward W. Olson
declaredunequivocallythat"theworstconditionsin thestateare to be found
on highwayand constructionwork."Usually recruitedbylargelabor contractors,workersoftenhad to travellong distancesto receivean average
$1.75-$2.25perdayUapanese and southernand easternEuropeansreceived
less), out ofwhichtheypaid $5.50-$7.00 per weekforboard, hospitalfees,
and a miscellanyof othercharges.Sanitaryand housing
transportation,
conditionswere "detestable"and thegeneraltreatmentofworkers"reprehensible,"Olson fumed,and "would not be permittedifgenerallyknown
touchedon a keyaspectoftheproband realized."5The labor commissioner
themassesofunskilledrailwayworkers-theirinvisibility.
lem confronting
That fact,accentuatedin the sprawling,sparselypopulatedWest,coupled
withthe seasonal nature of sectionand constructionwork,obscured the
plightofmanyunskilledworkersfromthegeneralpopulace.Forthelaborers
confrontedby the grimrealitiesof low pay,isolation,poor housing,and
theotherunfortunate
aspectsofunskilled,casual railroadwork,thoseconditionsformedan unhappymilieu thatalternatelyspawnedmilitantproand hinderedtheirsuccessin thoseprotest
testsand laterdemoralizedworkers
movements.
weredividedsharpLike unskilledlaborerseverywhere,
railwayworkers
were
and
nearlypowerless
ly by race,ethnicity, gender.Consequently,they
themand realize any formof
to overcomethe manyobstaclesconfronting
meaningfulredressfortheirsubstantialproblems.Only in theanti-Chinese
4Fordetailson thisregionalstudy,see W. Thomas White,"A HistoryofRailroadWorkers
in thePacificNorthwest,1883-1934"(doctoraldissertation,UniversityofWashington,1981).
consultAndrewDawson, "The ParadoxofDynamicTechnological
For a nationalperspective,
20 (Summer
LaborHistory,
in theUnitedStates,1880-1914,"
Change and theLabor Aristocracy
1979), 325-51; ChristopherL. Tomlins, "AFL Unions in the 1930s: Their Performancein
LXV (March 1979), 1021-42;K. Austin
Historical Perspective,"JournalofAmerican
History,
RailroadPolitics,1914-1920: Rates, Wages,and Efficiency
(Pittsburgh,1968);
Kerr, American
andFindings
TheActivities
Graham Adams,Jr.,AgeofIndustrial
oftheUnited
Violence,
1910-1915.
Relations(New York, 1966), 128-45; Reed C. Richardson, The
on Industrial
StatesCommission
and WorkRules(Ann Ar1863-1963: A Century
Locomotive
ofRailwayLaborRelations
Engineer,
Federation
of Labor
of theAmerican
bor, 1963); Albert Theodore Helbing, The Departments
(Baltimore, 1931),72-74. For the InternationalAssociationof Machinistsin particular,see
and
in America:Studiesin theHistoryof Work,Technology,
Control
David Montgomery,Workers'
LaborStruggles
(New York, 1979); Mark Perlman, TheMachinists:A New Studyin American
TradeUnionism(Cambridge, MA, 1961).
andFactory
InspecoftheBureauofLaborStatistics
5WashingtonState, NinthBiennialReport
tion,1913-1914 (Olympia, WA, 1914), 27-28.
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1985
W. THOMAS WHITE
267
campaigns of the mid-1880sand in the turbulenceof 1894, when most
employedon theroads werenativewhiteor northEuropean men,did rank
and file,skilledand unskilledworkersalike,join togetherto launchserious,
the
industry-wide
challengesto managementprerogatives.More typically,
Chinese,Japanese, Greeks,Bulgarians,blacks,womenin a singularway,
and others,manyof whom also servedas scapegoatsforthe accumulated
grievancesofothers,provedunable to forgetheirownformofeffective
protest.Forthemtherealityoftheregion's"newdestiny"occasionedlittlecause
forcelebration.
The originsoftherailroadlabor movementcan be tracedto thecompletionoftheNorthernPacificin 1883and theOregonShortLine thefollowing year.The skilledoperatingbrotherhoodsearlierhad establishedlocals
at Portlandand otherpoints,but theyrepresentedonly a small minority
of railwayemployees.It was the industriallyorganizedKnightsof Labor,
whichprobablyincludedmanyoperatingand shopcraft
thatquickly
workers,
became themostimportantforcein therailwaylabor relationsofthe 1880s.
Founded at Philadelphia in 1869, the Order was a national,comprehensiveorganizationthatwelcomedwageearners,farmers,
smallbusinessmen,
and professionalsalike-only bankers,stockbrokers,
gamblers,and those
involvedin themanufactureor sale ofliquor wereexcluded.Despite itsnationaljurisdiction,the Order's leadershipwas preoccupiedwithorganizational problemsand paid littleattentionto the activitiesof Knightsin the
Far Northwest.Consequently,the Order therewas almostan indigenous
labor organization.As such,itbecame an importantvehiclefortheexpression of regional attitudeson race and labor organization.6
The onsetofa severedepression,whichtriggeredgenerallabor unrest
and the order's success in the Gould SouthwesternStrikesof 1884-1885,
helpedboostmembershipsin thenew assembliesoftheregion.Withinfour
yearsat least 204 local assemblies,whichincludedmanyrailroadworkers,
were functioningin Washington,Oregon, Idaho, and Montana.7
6Harry W. Stone, "Beginning of Labor Movement in the Pacific Northwest,"Oregon
HistoricalQuarterly,
47 (June 1946), 155-64; and Jack E. Triplett,"Historyof Oregon Labor
MovementPriorto the New Deal" (master'sthesis,UniversityofCalifornia,Berkeley,1961),
6. See also Carlos A. Schwantes, "Protest in a Promised Land: Unemployment,
Disinheritance,and the Origin of Labor Militancy in the Pacific Northwest,1885-1886,"
HistoricalQuarterly,
XIII (October 1982), 373-90.
Western
7 Standard accounts ofthe Knightsof Labor include NormanJ.Ware, TheLaborMovementin theUnitedStates,1860-1895 (New York, 1929); Gerald N. Grob, Workers
and Utopia:
A StudyofIdeologicalConflict
in theAmerican
LaborMovement
(Evanston, IL, 1961); TerenceV.
V Powderly,
eds. HarryJ. Carman, Henry
Powderly,ThePathI Trod:TheAutobiography
ofTerence
David, and Paul N. Guthrie(New York,1940), but theyshould be read in conjunctionwith
more recentscholarship,includingLeon Fink, Workingmen's
TheKnightsofLabor
Democracy:
and American
Politics(Urbana, 1983); and Michael J. Cassity, "Modernization and Social
Crisis: The Knights of Labor and a Midwest Community,1885-1886,"JournalofAmerican
66 (June 1979), 41-61.For specificinformationon the locals in the Far Northwest,
History,
seeJonathanGarlock,comp.,GuidetotheLocalAssemblies
oftheKnights
ofLabor(Westport,1982).
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268
THE WESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
July
cannot
The sudden rise ofthe Knightsof Labor in the Far Northwest
be attributedsolelyto the hard timesoccasioned by economicdepression
or theOrder's earlysuccessin otherareas. Much moreimportantwas the
heavyrelianceorganizersplaced on thewidespreadanti-Chineseprejudice
in theregion.Racial tensionshad existedforsome timeas Chineseworkers
migratedto theregionto laborin theminesand otherdevelopingindustries.
In theirfinalconstructionphase, however,therailroadsbecame theirprinPacificcompleteditslinethroughthePacific
As theNorthern
cipalemployers.
thousand
Chinese constructionworkersin
fifteen
it
Northwest, employed
six thousandwere at work
an
estimated
and
WashingtonTerritoryalone,
in 1882.8With the completionof that
in Montana and Idaho territories
line,thousandsofChinese workersreenteredtheNorthwest's
alreadyoverburdened labor market.White laborers' job fearsthen combined with
fora racial
to laythegroundwork
racialand culturalresentments
smoldering
confrontation.
The Knightsimmediatelycapitalizedon popularfearsofbeingdeluged withChinese immigrants.They and, to a lesserextent,theInternational
Workingmen'sAssociation,a radical organizationfoundedat San Francisco in 1881,led the movementto purge the Chinese fromthe region's
burgeoningfrontiercommunities.Their adopted missionwas to establish
withintheNorthwest
a highdegreeofculturaland racialhomogeneity
and,
whites.
of
number
for
the
to
unemployed
large
by doing so, preservejobs
Railway workersparticipatedin the generalexclusionistcampaign and in
theregion,finding
theracialincidentsthatbecamecommonplacethroughout
theirmostspectacularexpressionin theSeattleand Tacoma confrontations
of 1885-1886.9
and withtheexcepwas short-lived,
For all that,theKnights'strength
tionoftheSpokane area, theyhad declinedprecipitously
bytheearly1890s.
Discreditednationallybytheirpoorleadershipin thesecondroundofstrikes
on the Gould systemin 1886 and by the popular fearsof labor organizaaftertheHaymarketSquare bombing,theOrder was
tionsthatintensified
thosefactors,
in fullretreatby the end of the 1880s. In the Far Northwest,
and thecoolingofanti-Chinesepassions
combinedwithrisingemployment
took hold, leftthe order a bankrupt
as the new immigrationrestrictions
a
in
most
cases, collapsingorganization.'0
and,
andBritishColum8RobertEdward Wynne,ReactiontotheChinesein thePacificNorthwest
bia,1850-1910(New York,1978), 85. For moreon thereactionsofPacificCoast wage earners
to Chinese immigration,consult Alexander Saxton, The Indispensable
Enemy:Laborand the
in California(Berkeleyand Los Angeles, 1971).
Movement
Anti-Chinese
totheChiMagazine(Denver), September1889; Wynne,Reaction
9UnionPacificEmployees
nese,173-283; Morgan, Puget'sSound,212-52; Schwantes,RadicalHeritage,22-34; Jules A.
39 (August1948),
Northwest
Quarterly,
Karlin, "The Anti-ChineseOutbreaksin Seattle,"Pacific
103-30; and Triplett,"Oregon Labor'Movement," 8-19.
'0Schwantes,Radical Heritage,27-29; and Wynne,Reactionto theChinese,288.
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1985
W. THOMAS WHITE
269
Nonetheless,theKnightslefta fundamentally
importantlegacy.Long
aftertheOrder'sdecline,exclusionistsentiment
and thedriveforindustrial
unionism remained constantthemesin the experienceof white railway
workers.The potential danger to employersof an aroused, ethnically
homogeneous,and unitedworkforcefirstbecame manifestin 1894 when
thePanic reachedits nadir.Coxeyism,theGreat NorthernStrike,and the
Pullman Boycottdemonstratedthe Gilded Age patternof labor militance
at high tide in the Far Northwest.Freed fromthe internaldivisivenessof
native-bornwhitesjoined northernand
greatracial and ethnicdiversity,
westernEuropeans in industry-wide
protestsagainsttheGroverCleveland
administrationand the railroads.In the case of the Great Northernand
Pullman strikes,thatprotesttook the formof a resoundingendorsement
ofEugene V. Debs's infantAmericanRailwayUnion, heirto theKnights'
legacy of industrialunionism."
The emergenceofCoxey's armiesin thespringof 1894,theworstyear
of the 1893-1897 depression, dramatized the plight of the nation's
unemployed.Several thousandmen and women,includingmanyrecently
laid offbytherailroads,quicklyimitatedJacob Coxey'sOhio exampleand
formedtheirown "armies" in Butte,Spokane, Seattle,Tacoma, Portland,
and smallerlocales. Determinedto carrytheirprotestto thenation'scapital
and willingto hijack trainswhen all else failed,theywereamong themost
militantofthecountry's"commonwealers."
As such,theythoroughly
alarmed
local authoritiesas well as the Cleveland administration,
whichemployed
federalmarshalsand regulartroopsto checktheirprogressin whatbecame
a dress rehearsalforinterventionin the Pullman Strike.12
While theyfocusedattentionon the unemployed,northwestern
Coxeyitesalso servedas a vehicleforthe populistand generalantirailroadattitudesthensweepingtheregion.They attractedpopularsympathynearly
Yetthe "commonwealers"enjoyedtheirgreatestsupportin the
everywhere.
smaller,more isolated communitiesthat were highlydependenton the
railroads,resentfulof Cleveland's monetarypolicies,and smartingunder
what many consideredexcessivefreightrates."'
" Schwantes,Radical
25-36. See also White,"Railroad Workers,"13-123,which
Heritage,
findsa patternof community-basedprotestsimilarto thatdiscoveredin Pennsylvaniaby
HerbertG. Gutman, "Trouble on the Railroads in 1873-1874:Prelude to the 1877 Crisis?"
LaborHistory,
2 (Spring 1961),215-35. For more recentassessmentsofthe role ofcommunity in railwaylabor relations,see Fink, Workingman's
Democracy;
James H. Ducker, Men of
theSteelRails: Workers
on theAtchison,
Topeka& SantaFe Railroad,1869-1900(Lincoln, 1983);
Nick Salvatore, "Railroad Workersand the Great Strikeof 1877: The View froma Small
MidwestCity,"LaborHistory,
21 (Fall 1980), 522-45; and Cassity,"Modernizationand Social
Crisis."
'2Donald L. McMurry,Coxey's
A StudyoftheIndustrial
Movement
Army:
Army
of1894 (1929;
andCivilDisorder:
Federal
reprint,Seattle,1968), 199-226.See also JerryM. Cooper, TheArmy
in LaborDisputes,1877-1900 (Westport,CT, 1980), 106-14;and Gerald
MilitaryIntervention
G. Eggert,RichardOlney:Evolutionofa Statesman
(UniversityPark, PA, 1974), 67, 115-27.
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270
THE WESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
July
Popularsupportwas perhapsthemostpronouncedin Montana, where
theNorthern
Pacific'sattemptto claima substantial
partofthestate'smineral
lands as partofitsland grantoutragednearlyeveryone.Consequently,antiNP, pro-Coxeyitesentimentsdid not evaporatewhenWilliam Hogan and
fivehundredfollowers,impatientwiththe road's refusalto carrythemto
Washington,D.C., brokeintothe NorthernPacific'sButteroundhouseon
theHoganites,who includeda number
April21.Defyinga federalinjunction,
comofexperiencedrailroadmen and a reporterfromtheAnaconda
Standard,
mandeeredthetrainand immediately
begantheirraceto theEast. En route,
onlookers,particularlyin railroadtownssuch as Livingston,cheeredthe
"commonwealers"and offeredthemsupplies,while freshrecruitsflocked
to theirbanner.When the local citizenryin Billingsjoined the Hoganites
E. Rickards
to repelan attackbythetrailingfederalmarshals,GovernorJohn
added his voice to the conservativeclamorforU.S. troops,insistingit was
"impossiblefor[the] State militiato overtakethem."The Cleveland administration
agreed, and federaltroopsapprehendedthebulk of the force
outsideForsyth.Nonetheless,pro-Hoganitepassionswereso intensein Butte
had to be takento Helena
and otherNorthernPacifictownsthattheprisoners
fortrial.14
communitysupportfortheCoxeyitecause
ThroughouttheNorthwest,
remainedstrongafterthe Hoganites' adventureand afterother"armies"
had begun to move. Consequently,when Frank "Jumbo" Cantwell,forand a memberof theKnightsof Lamerlya saloon bouncer,prizefighter,
out ofTacoma, he saw no reason
four-hundred-man
led
his
bor,
contingent
to allay the fearsofjitteryofficials.Asked about the Hoganite precedent,
retorted:"We ain't too proud to steal a train.Them fellers
he confidently
in Congress has broke the law. Why can't we?""5
ArmyNews
13In addition to local newspapers,see the Coxeyite publications,Industrial
Collection,UniversityofWashington,Seattle;and Anaconda
(Seattle),April 1894,Northwest
(MT) KeepOfftheGrass,June 1, 1894, Universityof Montana Archives,Missoula. See also
theprolabor Tacoma
MorningUnion,March-June1894. Usefulmanuscriptcollectionsinclude
Records of the DepartmentofJustice,RG 60, Year File 4017-1894,National Archives;Letterssentby the Headquarters of the Army(Main Series), RG 108, U.S. Navy and Old ArmyBranch,MilitaryArchivesDivision,NationalArchives;RobertW. Baxterto E. Dickinson,
May 7, 1894, Union PacificCollection, Nebraska Historical Society,Lincoln; Minutes of
theTacoma TradesCouncil, April26, 1894; PierceCountyCentralCouncil Records,Univerof War,53d Cong.,
sityof WashingtonLibrary (UWL), Seattle; and ReportoftheSecretary
3d sess., 1894, H.E.D. 1, pt. 2, vol. 1. See also Carlos A. Schwantes,"Law and Disorder:
25 (Summer 1981),10-15,18-26;
The SuppressionofCoxey's Armyin Idaho," IdahoYesterdays,
LXV
HistoricalQuarterly,
and Herman C. Voeltz, "Coxey's Armyin Oregon, 1894," Oregon
(September 1964), 263-95.
14Thomas A. Clinch,"Coxey's Armyin Montana,"MontanatheMagazineofWestern
History,
15 (Autumn1965),2-11;and "The NorthernPacificRailroad and Montana'sMineral Lands,"
April
PacificHistoricalReview,XXXIV (August 1965), 323-35. See also AnacondaStandard,
26, 1894 [quotation].
'5Morgan, Puget'sSound,283-85.
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1985
W. THOMAS WHITE
271
Despite Cantwell'sbluntreply,Coxeyitesin all the major (and many
of the smaller)populationcentersworkedhard to enlistcommunitysupportbyholdingparades and benefits.In thecase oftheSeattlegroup,they
established a women's auxiliary "to assist all poor workinggirls and
unemployedwomen to earn an honestlivelihoodforthemselvesand aid
those in distressedcircumstances."'6
Further,theyconstructedan inclusive,Populistplatformdesignedto
appeal to a wide varietyof potentialsupporters.Calls forthe freecoinage
of silverand generalcurrencyreformheld an obvious appeal forthe region'sminingcommunitiesas wellas forthoseinterestedin currencyinflation. Calls forimmigrationrestrictionand forrestrictions
on alien land
to
earners
and
whereas
demands
farmers,
ownershipeasilyappealed wage
forgovernmentownershipof the railroadsand telegraphs,public works,
directelectionof senators,and the initiativeand referendumappealed to
insurgentwhitecommunitiesthroughoutthe region.Reflectingthe views
oftheirrailroadmembers,as wellas theirsupportforstrikers
on theGreat
Northern,the Coxeyites reiteratedtheir enthusiasmfor the American
Railway Union and urged "organized and unorganizedlabor to pull togetherforthe good of all.""'
Called to protestrepeatedwage cuts and layoffs,
the Great Northern
StrikeofApril 1894occurredsimultaneously
withtheCoxeyiteturbulence.
theunrestamongunemployedand workingrailway
Togethertheyillustrated
men. In the GN Strike,unorganizedwhiteworkersand membersof the
establishedbrotherhoods
alikeflockedto thenewAmericanRailwayUnion,
that
at
last
hopeful
theywould have an effective
organization.Later the
that
a
swelledtheARU's membermyth
greatvictoryhad been wonfurther
ship rolls.
The insurgentworkersof the Far Northwestplayeda centralrole in
thatstrikethatso benefitedtheyoungindustrialunion. IgnoringPresident
militantsled by theyouthfulJames
Eugene V. Debs's instructions,
Hogan
(one of the ARU's national organizers)called the strikein westernMontana whenone oftheirnumberintercepteda coded messagefromtheroad
calling forthe dismissalof all ARU membersin the Butte,Helena, and
Great Falls yards.UntilDebs arrivedat Saint Paul forthenegotiationsand
arbitrationproceedingsthat ended the dispute,strikeheadquarterswere
in Butte,whereHogan dispatchedorganizerseast and westof the Rocky
Mountains to directthe fight.Meanwhile,GN employeesin the Cascade
16Anaconda
Standard,
April4-26, 1894; Clinch, "Coxey's Army,"6; Seattle
Post-Intelligencer,
April 17 [quotation], April 18-19,1894; Industrial
ArmyNews(Seattle), April, 1894; Tacoma
MorningUnion,April 14-29, 1894; and Morgan, Puget'sSound,282; Portland
Oregonian,
April
18-20, 1894; and Voeltz, "Coxey's Armyin Oregon," 274-75.
7lIndustrial
ArmyNews (Seattle), April 1894; and Keep OfftheGrass(Anaconda), June
1, 1894.
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THE WESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
272
July
and coastal areas also ignoredthe initialcalls forcaution by Debs.In the
case oftheengineers,firemen,
trainmen,and conductors,manydefiedtheir
national leaders' explicitordersand joined the strikers.'8
Afteran arbitrationboard chairedby Charles Pillsburyawarded the
ARU whatessentiallywas wageparitywithworkerson theNorthernPacific,
thenew union claimed a greatvictory.The claim had littlesubstance,but
the widespreadbeliefthat a smashingvictoryhad been won led directly
to theARU's tragicinvolvementin thePullman Striketwomonthslater.19
At theirfirstconvention,held inJune at Chicago, theARU delegates
ignoredDebs's pleas forrestraintand declareda sympathyboycottagainst
thePullman Palace Car Company.20 As thedisputeescalated,it paralyzed
all roads west of Chicago, with the exception of the Great Northern.
in thenorthernRockies,
Throughouttheregion,but again moststrikingly
Farmers
variouselementsofsocietythrewtheirsupportto theARU strikers.
donatedtheircrops.A hostofelectedofficials,
merchants,clergymen,professionals,labor organizers,and othersvigorouslyprotestedthe road's labor policies.PopulistsympathizerGovernorSylvesterPennoyerofOregon
castigatedthe SouthernPacific"forstoppingothercars than Pullmans to
seriouslydiscommodethe travellingand businesspublic forthe sole purpose .
. .
of settling a dispute between an exacting monopolist and his
offederal
objectedto theSP's enlistment
employes."Further,he strenuously
be settledby arbitration."In
powerwhen the dispute "should rightfully
Washingtonstate,the Spokane and Sprague contingentsof the National
membersoftherailroad
Guard refusedto moveagainstthestrikers.
Similarly,
brotherhoods
ignoreddirectordersfromtheirnationalleadersto honorthe
boycott.21
'8Department ofJusticeYear File 4017-1894;Minutes of the WesternCentral Labor
Union, April 11-May2, 1894, Archivesand ManuscriptsDivision, UWL; President'ssubject files 107 and 2572, Great NorthernEastern Railway,Great NorthernRailway Company Records, Minnesota Historical Society(MHS), Saint Paul; RailwayTimes(Chicago),
TacomaMorningUnion,SeattlePost-Intelligencer,
SpokaneReview,AnacondaStandard,GreatFalls
Tribune,
January-June1894. See also Nick Salvatore,EugeneV Debs: CitizenandSocialist(Urand
bana, 1982), 119-25;AlmontLindsey, ThePullmanStrike:TheStoryofa UniqueExperiment
ofa GreatLabor Upheaval(Chicago, 1942), 113-14;Eggert,RichardOlney,127-30; and Albro
(New York, 1976), 415-16.
Martin,JamesJ. Hill and theOpeningof theNorthwest
'9For the assertionthattherewas more myththan substancein the American Railway
Union (ARU) victoryover the Great Northern,see Martin, JamesJ. Hill, 416; White,
"Railroad Workers,"71-75. See also Hill's suggestiveresponseas quoted in Joseph Gilpin
Pyle, The Life ofJames . Hill, vol. 2 (Garden City, NY, 1916-17),81.
20ForaccountslargelyconcernedwiththePullman Strikein Chicago, see Senate, United
53d Cong., 3d sess., 1894; Lindsey,PullmanStrike;
Commission
StatesStrike
StanleyBuder,
Report,
and Community
Order
in Industrial
Planning1880-1930(New York,1967);
Pullman:An Experiment
and Salvatore,EugeneDebs.See also theARU's RailwayTimes
and CivilDisorder;
Cooper, Army
and theARU Proceedings
ofChicago,1893 and1894 (Chicago,
ManagersAssociation
oftheGeneral
1893-94).
21Inadditionto local newspaperssee W. Thomas White,"Boycott:The Pullman Strike
29 (Autumn 1979), 2-13; Appendixto
in Montana," MontanatheMagazineof Western
History,
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1985
W. THOMAS WHITE
273
and norThe factthattheARU represented
white,largelynative-born,
thernand westernEuropean workers,manyofwhomweresolid members
oftheirrespectivecommunities,was an importantelementin thehighdegree of supportaccorded strikersin much of the region.Indeed, cultural
combinedwithsharedeconomichardshipsoccasionedbythePanic
affinity,
and withthe risingPopulisttide,workedto forma crucibleof discontent
in the Far Northwest.22
The solidaritydemonstratedby communityand regionin the Pullman Strikeprovedinsufficient,
however.In concertwiththeClevelandadministration
and theGeneral Managers Association(an organizationofall
railroadswithterminalsin Chicago), the NorthernPacific,Union Pacific,
and Southern Pacific railroads easily destroyedthe American Railway
the railroadsand theirallies,the
Union.23While it thoroughlyfrightened
PullmanStrikealso demonstratedtheinadequacyoflocal and regionalprotestswhenconfrontedby a combinationoflarge-scalecorporateenterprise
and an unsympatheticnational government.
More to the point here,the turbulenceof the 1890s,whichthe Pullman Strikedemonstratedso spectacularly,
triggeredan abruptchange in
the road's hiringpolicies. By the end of 1894, employerssaw clearlythat
the racial and culturalhomogeneityof the workforcewas a fundamental
factorin the comparativeunityexhibitedby railwayworkersin all sectors
of the industryand in the widespreadcommunitysupporttheyenjoyed.
Since the anti-Chineseagitationofthe 1880s,the roads had employed,for
themostpart,nativewhitesand immigrants
drawnfromnorthern
and western Europe. After1894 theroads radicallyalteredtheiremploymentpractices,recruiting
Japanese and southernand easternEuropean workersto
fulfillthetasksin theirunskilledsectors.FollowingthePullman Strike,labor organizersin theindustry
wereforcedto deal, again,withtheinescapable
problemof ethnicand racial diversity.
theAnnual ReportoftheAttorney
GeneraloftheUnitedStatesfortheYear 1896(Washington,
DC, 1896); Adjutant General's OfficeRecords Pertainingto the Chicago Pullman Strike
of 1894, RG 94, National Archives;Letterssentby the Headquarters of theArmy.See also
Portland
Oregonian,
July 3, 1894 [quotation]; and PatrickMcLatchy, "The Developmentof
the National Guard of Washingtonas an Instrumentof Social Control, 1854-1916"(doctoral dissertation,Universityof Washington,1973), 284-91.
22The ARU specificallyrestrictedmembershipto whites(Lindsey,PullmanStrike,110),
and thelarge-scaleimportationofsouthernand easternEuropeans did notbegin untilafter
the Pullman Strike.For general assessmentsof the economic and social milieu of the Far
Northwestand the West during this period, consultSchwantes,RadicalHeritage,3-79; and
Melvyn Dubofsky,WeShall Be All: A HistoryoftheIndustrialWorkers
oftheWorld(Chicago,
1969), 5-56.
23Fordetails on the defeatof the ARU by federalintervention,consult the Adjutant
General's Records; Letterssent by the Headquarters of the Army;ReportoftheSecretary
of
andCivilDisorder,
War,1894;Cooper,Army
114-43;and Lindsey,PullmanStrike,
147-78,256-307.
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274
THE WESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
July
The experienceofJapaneseworkers,
recruited
largelyintotheunskilled
and
construction
trades
maintenance-of-way
paralleled that of Mexican
laborersin the Southwestand was decidedlydifferent
fromthatofthe "labor aristocracy"of the operatingbrotherhoods.At theverybottomof the
railroadlabor hierarchy,theyreceivedless pay than "foreigners"(European immigrants)and "white men." They also bore the burden of antiAsian prejudice,while theysharedthe harshworkingconditions,routine
connectedwith
exploitationby labor contractors,and generaluncertainty
in
of
railroads'work
work
all
that
sector
the
that
beset
migrant
employed
force.24
numbers
Japanese began arrivingin the Far Northwestin significant
in the 1890s.By 1906 theirnumberhad risento thirteenthousand,mostly
constructionand sectionhands employedon westernrailroads.Of those,
theNorthernPacific,Great Northern,SouthernPacific,Union Pacific,and
Milwaukeelinesweretheprincipalemployers.Indeed,at itspeak,theGreat
Northernalone employedfivethousandof the newcomers,althoughtheir
number declined rapidlyin the wake of the Gentlemen'sAgreementof
1907-1908.25
To anxious managersdesperateforlarge numbersof cheap tractable
oftheday,seemed
workers,
bytheracial stereotypes
Japanese immigrants,
an ideal solution."Jap sectionlaborers. . . are certainlymorereliablethan
GN AssistantSuperinteneitherGreeks,Italiansor whitelabor generally,"
dent H. A. Kennedy wired fromSpokane, adding thatthey"seem to be
peculiarlyadaptedto sectionwork."Kennedy'ssuperior,E E. Ward,seemed
overjoyedthat"theJaps are turningout so well" in Montana, and he entertainedthenotionofplacing"our main relianceon themand havingnothing
to do with Italians or otheroutside labor."26
24White,"Railroad Workers,"170-79. For more on the workingconditionsfacingall
see Yuji Ichioka, "Japanese Immigrant
workersin thissectorand on the pay differentials,
Labor Contractorsand the NorthernPacific and Great NorthernRailroad Companies,
Relations:Final Re21 (Summer 1980), 325-50; Senate, Industrial
1898-1907,"LaborHistory,
RelationsCreated
onIndustrial
toCongress
Submitted
bytheAct
bytheCommission
portand Testimony
ofAugust23, 1912, 64thCong., 1stsess., 1916,S.D. 415,1:29, 77-78,and V:4381-86,4553-54,
in Industries,
61stCong., 2d sess., 1911,S.D. 633,
4673, 4721-23,4745-63; Senate, Immigrants
XXV:23; WashingtonState, ThirdBiennialReportoftheBureauofLabor,1901-1902(Seattle,
1903), 11-12;WashingtonState, NinthBiennialReportoftheBureauofLabor,27-28; and H.
W. Osborn to J. R. W. Davis, May 24, 1909, Great NorthernRailway Vice PresidentOperating,General Manager subjectfile34-09,Great NorthernRailwayCompany Records,
MHS. See also Shank and Smith to F E. Ward, January 11, 1902, Great Northernand
NorthernPacific Railway Company Records, Subject Files Relating to Japanese Labor,
1897-1942,MHS.
inIndustries,
XXV:37; and
25Ichioka,"JapaneseLabor Contractors,"325-29; Immigrants
and theStruggle
in California
Movement
Roger Daniels, ThePoliticsofPrejudice:TheAnti-Japanese
forJapaneseExclusion(Berkeley,1962), 31-45.
in Industries,
XXII:38-39, XXV:20-22; H. A. Kennedyto G. T. Slade, June
26lmmigrants
24, 1903 [firstquotation], and General Superintendentto P. T. Downs, June 7, 1900 [second quotation], Great NorthernVice President-OperatingSubject File 34-01; Great NorthernAssistantGeneral Superintendentto Oriental TradingCompany,February27, 1903,
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1985
W. THOMAS WHITE
275
The growingJapanese
presenceon therailroadsand in otherindustries
quicklyignitedan intenseopposition,spearheadedby organizedlabor. As
the new centurybegan, SeattleUnionRecordeditorGordon A. Rice commenceda long-termanti-Japanesecampaign,warning:"The Northwest
is
on thevergeofa giganticstrugglewithOrientallabor" similarto thatwaged
againstChineseworkersin the 1880s."JimHill [presidentoftheGreatNorthern]will have Japs as yardmen,engineersand conductorsif a check is
not put upon his career of greed,"Rice fumed,and the SpokaneFreemen's
Journaland other prolabor publications broadcast a similar message
throughouttheregion.In Oregon thePortlandCentralLabor Council registereditsdecided oppositionto the "Mongolizationofwesternstates."To
the east the ButteReveillecharged: "J.J. Hill is veryfondof theJaps; they
workcheaper than the Irishman,or Englishman,or Dutchman,and then
besides theywill stand all kinds of abuse fromtheiremployers."27
Many factorsplayed into the anti-Japanesestance adopted by labor
in theProgressiveEra. Fears ofjob displacementmeshedwithgeneralapofalien races
prehensionsfeltin thewhitecommunityovertheintroduction
and cultures.Anti-Japanesesentimentalso held obvious institutionaladvantagesfororganizedlabor,as instancedin thefallof 1900whentheGreat
Northernreplaced a numberof whiteworkerswithJapanese immigrants
at Everett,Washington.Local merchants
joined withtheirwhitecustomers
in thelabor forceto protestthe road's decision,a developmentsuggestive
of the continuingforceof communityloyaltiesthat had supportedmuch
of the nineteenth-century
industrialprotest.Spyingthe main chance for
AFL organizers,the UnionRecordrejoiced: "Everettis fastcomingto the
frontas a union town. . . . [T]he anti-Jap agitation is the chief incentive
and it is a powerfulone." Otherlabor papersimmediatelycarriedthestory
and its moral to the interior,and discussionsof the "Asiaticlabor question" became an importantrationaleforthe formationofthe Washington
state federation.28
Alienatedfromthelabormovementand fromtheregion'scommunities,
Japanese workershad scant opportunityto remedythe conditionsunder
whichtheytoiled.In at leastone instance,however,
theydid tryto organize,
and J. M. Gruber to G. H. Emerson,June 28, 1909,Great Northernand NorthernPacific
Records, MHS.
27UnionRecord
(Seattle), May 4 and October 27, 1900, and August 10, 1901;Freeman's
Labor
(Spokane), April 11,18,and 24, 1902,and January25, 1901;and Portland
LaborJournal
Press,March 16, 1911.For more on the Asian exclusion movement,see Daniels, Politicsof
in theLand: Pat16-19;Saxton, Indispensable
Prejudice,
Enemy,249-57; John Higham, Strangers
terns
Nativism,1860-1925(New Brunswick,NJ,1955), 166-75;andJosephCellini,
ofAmerican
ed., Proceedings
oftheAsianExclusionLeague,1907-1913(New York, 1977). See also Aileen S.
Kraditor,TheRadicalPersuasion,
andtheHistoriography
oftheIntellectual
History
1890-1917:Aspects
Radical Organizations
of ThreeAmerican
(Baton Rouge, 1981).
28UnionRecord(Seattle), November3-24, 1900; and Freeman's
LaborJournal(Spokane),
October 19, 1900.
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276
THE WESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
July
formingtheirown union at Seattlein 1906.Angeredbytheexploitivepractices of the Oriental Trading Company-the largestJapanese labor contractorin theregion-the newunion,led byK. Saskai andJikeiHashiguchi,
editor of TheJapan Current,
tried to strikeup an alliance with the AFL
organizationsof westernWashington.Predictably,their effortsproved
unavailing,and no othereffective
agencyemergedto challengethe roads'
contractors.29
In thishostileatmosphere,
tendedto signaltheirdisafJapaneseworkers
fectionby votingwiththeirfeet.Some foundworkon otherroads, such
as theMilwaukee,whichcompleteditsline to thecoast duringthoseyears.
Ultimately,however,most leftrailwayworkto findotherjobs on farms,
aftertheoutbreakoftheRusso-Japanese
in thecoastalcities,or,particularly
War,theyreturnedtoJapan. When the Gentlemen'sAgreementcurtailed
further
Japanese immigrationto the United States,the roads were compelled, once more, to discovernew sourcesof unskilledlaborers.30
Suddenly,the new immigrantsfromeastern and southernEurope
assumeda vastlygreaterimportance.Althoughtheyhad been arrivingsince
the mid-1890s,the new Europeans now became the principalmeans of
meetingthe unskilledlabor shortfallleftby the 1907-1908understanding.
Generally,theywere paid somewhatbetterthan Asian workers-roughly
centsmoreperday-althoughtheyreceivedlessthannativewhite
twenty-five
workersuntilafter1911.Of course,all sharedthe same poor workingconditions.31
LikeJapanese workers,mostof thenew Europeans wererecruitedby
theImmigrantLabor Commislabor contractors.In its 1911investigation,
sion observedthateach road employedone such agentto handle all nonlaborers.Like theOrientalTrading
European immigrant
English-speaking,
contractors
the
exploitedtheirchargesthrough
routinely
Company, European
commissions,overpricedsupplies,and a varietyof otherdevices.32
29
October 2, 1907;
UnionRecord
(Seattle), September21-28,1907; Spokane
Daily Chronicle,
and D. W. Hertel, Historyof theBrotherhood
of WayEmployees:
ofMaintenance
1887-1955 (Washington,DC, 1955), 38.
Its Birthand Growth,
30Ichioka, "Japanese Labor Contractors,"344-47. See also General Manager toJ. D.
Farrell,September26, 1904; Howard Elliottto D. W. Willard,April7, 1906; C. T. Takahashi
to J. M. Gruber, September 9, 1908; E. D. Sewall to J. M. Gruber,January 7, 1909; C.
T. Takahashi to George T. Slade, November 9, 1909; and [?] to E. L. Brown, December
10, 1909,all in Great Northernand NorthernPacificRecords,MHS. FortheJapanesereaction
to the exclusionmovementand to otheraspects of theirsojourn in the United States, conin NorthAmerica,trans. by Shinichiro
sult Kazuo Ito, Issei: A HistoryofJapaneseImmigrants
Nakamura and Jean S. Gerard (Seattle, 1973).
1:29, 77-78; WashingtonState,
Relations,
31White,"Railroad Workers,"179-92;Industrial
in Industries,
NinthBiennialReportof theBureauofLabor,27-28; Immigrants
XXV:15-16; and
Yuzo Murayama, "The Economic HistoryofJapaneseImmigrationto thePacificNorthwest,
1890-1920" (doctoral dissertation,Universityof Washington,1982), 151-237.
in Industries,
XXV:28; Ichioka, "JapaneseLabor Contractors,"348-50. See
32Immigrants
also Theodore Saloutos, "Cultural Persistenceand Change: Greeksin theGreat Plains and
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1985
W. THOMAS WHITE
277
H. W. Osborn's WesternEmploymentCompany suppliedimmigrant
laborers to the Great Northernin a fashiontypical of other agencies
throughoutthecountry.Withofficesin Saint Paul, Duluth,Bemidji,Sioux
citiesofSeattle,
City,GrandForks,Fargo,Memphis,and in thenorthwestern
Portland,and Spokane,Osborn'scompanypossessedan extensivenetwork
forthe recruitment
and distributionof workers.Until the road dispensed
withhis servicesin 1910because of overchargesagainstthe companyand
exploitationof workersthat resultedin slowdowns,Osborn was the principal supplierofGreek,Bulgarian,Austrian,and otherEuropeanlaborers.
ComClearlyoperatingon a grandscale,in 1908theWesternEmployment
pany supplied over fourthousandsuch workers(and 5,745 "whitemen")
at Spokane alone.33
LikeJapaneseworkers,
southernand easternEuropeanrailwaylaborers
bore the additionalburden of hostilityand nativismlevied by labor and
the local populace. Though such sentimentswere not as intenseas those
expressedtowardAsians, nativistpronouncements
byorganizedlabor still
served as a strongbar to any substantiveimprovementin the new imthenew Europeans
migrants'condition.Outside theregion'scommunities,
could not relyon the same social structurethathad cut across class lines
and supportedearlier effortsat organizationand militantaction.
Ed Teasdale ofPortlandexemplifiedthecontrastbetweenthesupport
commonlytenderednativewhiteand northwestern
Europeansand thereception accorded new immigrants.A fieryKnightsof Labor leader,Teasdale
had been an importantactivistand ally of the Coxeyitesand the ARU in
1894.By 1912he was concernedprincipallywith"theevilsimpendingfrom
a floodof unskilledlabor fromSouthernEurope." Similarly,Washington
Labor CommissionerWilliamBlackman,formerly
an ARU stalwartin Seattle, successfully
urged the State Federationof Labor, as one of its firstofficialpronouncements,
to declare"the immigration
oflabor fromtheSouth
and East of Europe is a menace to the Americanstandardof living."34
At the 1913ImmigrationConferencein Portland,in newspapers,and
in otherforumsthroughoutWashington,Oregon, Idaho, and Montana,
AFL spokesmenpounded home the constantrefrainthatthe regionwas
a "whiteman's country"and thatthenew Europeanimmigration
benefited
only"the greatcombinationsofCapital thatsponsoredit." Equally significant, the weak Brotherhoodof Maintenance of Way Workers,whichhad
Rocky Mountain West, 1890-1970,"PacificHistorical
Review,XLIX (February1980), 77-103.
33H. W. Osborn's activitiescan be traced in the Great NorthernVice PresidentOperating,General Manager subjectfile34-09, 1905-9;and H. A. KennedytoJ. M. Gruber,
February3, 1910, Great NorthernPresidentsubject file 4000, MHS.
34Portland
LaborPress,May 16, 1912[firstquotation]; and WashingtonState, ThirdBiennial Reportof theBureauofLabor,21-22 [second quotation]. See also Jonathan Dembo, "A
UniverHistoryoftheWashingtonState Labor Movement,1885-1935"(doctoraldissertation,
in theLand, 114-16,123-30.
sityof Washington,1978), 99-100; and Higham, Strangers
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278
THE WESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
July
seemed almostdeterminedto
jurisdictionoverthatsectorof the industry,
itsimobstructitsown growthby retainingitscolorbar and by reiterating
placable oppositionto "Italian and Greek labor that takes fromhonest
Americanlaborersthe money and workthat are rightfully
theirs.""35
As in the case ofJapanese workers,some of the new Europeans did
attemptto organize and bettertheirlot, principallythroughthe United
ofRailwayEmployeesand theIndustrialWorkersoftheWorld.
Brotherhood
Althoughboth groupswere largelyindigenousto the region,neitherhad
anylastingimpactin the railroadindustry.They lacked boththepopular,
base thattheKnightsofLabor and theAmericanRailwayUnion
community
had enjoyedand thestrategicjob skillsand effective,
nationallycentralized
were learnbrotherhoods
that
the
and
operating
leadership
organization
Era.
in
the
effect
with
such
to
use
Progressive
telling
ing
The short-livedUBRE was organizedby George Estes at Roseburg,
Oregon, in 1901.An industrialunion in the KL/ARU mold, Estes's group
absorbed a Winnipeg-basedorganizationof the same name and affiliated
withthe AmericanLabor Union, whichaspired to become an important
Estesquietlysoughtto lead theUBRE
rivaloftheAFL. Despitethatrivalry,
himand after
intoSamuel Gompers'sfold.When theAFL soundlyrebuffed
a disastrousstrikeon the Canadian PacificRailway in 1903, the UBRE
disbanded. Many of its membersprobablyfollowedtheirleader into the
IWW in 1905. Estes himselfsoon fellinto oblivionuntilafterWorldWar
I, whenhe resurfacedas an importantspokesmanfortheOregon Ku Klux
Klan. 36
The IWW was somewhatmoreactivein theregion,launchingjob actionsat Odessa, Washington,and in Montana, at Whitefish,
Troy,and Columbia Falls. However,southoftheCanadian border,theWobbliesfocused
on the Northwest's
theirprincipalorganizingefforts
loggingcamps, mills,
mines,and fields.It was not until 1920, accordingto one of the Northern
thata muchweakenedIWW decidedtolaunch
Pacific'sPinkerton
infiltrators,
35PortlandLabor Press,April 21, 1913 [firstquotation], and June 9, 1913; UnionRecord
Relations,
(Seattle), February9, 1907 [second quotation], and April 4, 1908; and Industrial
V:4392-93.
36Schwantes,RadicalHeritage,142-50; Dubofsky,WeShallBe All, 71-76;J. Hugh Tuck,
"The United BrotherhoodofRailway Employeesin WesternCanada, 1898-1905,"Labour/Le
onIndustrial
11(Spring 1983), 63-88; Canada, Report
Disputes
oftheRoyalCommission
Travailleur,
in theProvince
ofBritishColumbia,Sessional Paper No. 36a, 9thParl., 3d sess. (Ottawa, 1903),
2-29; American Federationof Labor (AFL) Records: The Samuel Gompers Era, 1877-1937
JuneJournal,
(microfilm,Sanford,NC, 1979), rolls 142-43;San FranciscoRailwayEmployees
July 1903. For an example of Estes's bombast, see his bizarre account ofhis fighton behalf
of the Order of Railroad Telegraphersagainst the Southern Pacific in which he claimed
to have affected"the welfareofeveryEnglish speakingrailroad man in the world,"George
(Portland, 1931),70. After
Estes, RailwayEmployees
United.A StoryoftheRailroadBrotherhoods
WorldWar I, Estes became well knownin Oregon as authorand publisherof TheOld Cedar
School(Troutdale,OR, 1922), a Ku Klux Klan tractwrittenin supportofcompulsorypublic
education of all childrenbetween eight and sixteen.
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1985
W. THOMAS WHITE
279
a serious organizational efforton the region's roads. The campaign bore
partialfruittwoyearslaterin the Shopmen'sStrike,but even thatbelated
show of strengthproved insufficientto wrest concessions fromthe roads.3"
Spurned by organized labor and excluded fromeven the marginal relief benefits conferred by agencies such as the Itinerant Workers Union
(Hoboes Union), thenew EuropeansreactedmuchliketheirAsian counterparts,therebyaggravatingthe roads' chroniclabor shortage.They sought
otherjobs or, particularlyafterthe outbreakof WorldWar I, returnedto
their home countries. To meet the new shortage, the railroads called for
a reintroduction
ofJapanese workers.When thateffortfailed,theyagain
were compelled to seek out new sources.38
To meet the wartime challenge, the northwesternroads turned their
recruitment
to enlistpettycriminals,blacks,and women.Expressefforts
ed resentments toward the newcomers, however, were more muted and
than those levied against theirpredecessors.In large
decidedlydifferent
measure, this comparative quiescence was due to the intervention of the
federalgovernmentin the railroadindustry.Anxious to preventstrikesor
slowdownson theroads,WoodrowWilsoncreatedtheRailroad
anyfurther
whichimprovedwagesand workingconditionsthroughout
Administration,
thenation.The RA also encouragedorganizationamongtheAFL unions,
whichgrewfromonlythirty
includingtheMaintenanceofWayBrotherhood,
thousand in 1917 to over three hundred thousand members by the end of
1920.39 While such policies defused worker unrest on the roads, they also
deflected potential attacks on the new workers.
Desperate to employ more unskilledlaborers,the carriersfirstattempted
to obtain the services of men convicted of misdemeanors. Great Northern
"3Dembo, "WashingtonLabor Movement,"vii-viii,68; Hannon to Gompers, May 9,
1912,AFL Records, roll 39; OneBig UnionMonthly
(Chicago), November1919; UnionRecord
(Seattle),January22, 1916;M. J. Lins, "Report ofChiefSpecial Agent,Fiscal Year Ending
June 30, 1917,"Great NorthernVice President-Operatingfile 1114;A. H. Hogeland to J.
M. Gruber,June 12, Gruber to R. H. Aishton,June 25, L. W. Hill to William Sproule,
June 26, 1917,Great NorthernPresidentsubject file 6860; J. M. Hannaford to Howard
Elliott,October 25, 1917,NorthernPacificPresidentsubject file591-G; and Charles Donnelly to W. T. Tyler,November 12, 1920, NorthernPacific Presidentsubject file591-G-7,
all in MHS.
38Industrial
in Industries,
Relations,
V:4242-48, 4721-23,4745-63; Immigrants
XXV:3-36;
November20, 1914,AustinE. Griffiths
J. B. Powles to AustinE. Griffiths,
Papers,Archives
and ManuscriptsDivision, UWL; Portland
December 16, 1914;Roger A. Bruns,
Oregonian,
Knights
oftheRoad:A HoboHistory
(New York,1980), 115-19;C. T. TakahashitoJ. M. Gruber,
February28, R. Budd to Col. J. H. Carroll, April 10, 1918,Great NorthernPresidentsubject file6860, MHS; and David M. Kennedy, OverHere: TheFirstWorldWarandAmerican
RailroadPolitics,39-71; Robert D.
(New York, 1980), 252-53. See also Kerr,American
Society
Cuff, "The Politicsof Labor AdministrationduringWorld War I," LaborHistory,21 (Fall
theA. F
1980), 546-69; and Frank L. Grubbs,Jr., The Struggle
forLaborLoyalty:Gompers,
1917-1920 (Durham, NC, 1968).
ofL. and thePacifists,
RailroadPolitics,
39Kerr,American
40-44, 72, 91-92[quotation];Kennedy,OverHere,252-53;
William Gibbs McAdoo, CrowdedYears:TheReminiscences
ofWilliamG. McAdoo(Cambridge,
Railroads(New Haven, 1928),
MA, 1931),446-47; WalkerD. Hines, WarHistoryofAmerican
152-53; and H. D. Wolf, The RailroadLabor Board(Chicago, 1927), 10-13,58-59.
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280
THE WESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
July
President Ralph Budd instructed his subordinates to utilize "laborers who
have been jailed for petty offences at such points as Havre, Great Falls,
etc., where help is hard to get." Refusing to be caught up in the anti-German
hysteria,Budd also directed that no German-born applicant would be barred from the road unless there was firmevidence to "suspect him of being
an enemy of the Government."40
The roads also expanded their campaign to recruit black workers.
Typical of that effort,the Great Northern obtained black workers through
labor agencies such as the Minneapolis-based Fogg Brothers, which had
connections to the Pinkerton's National Detective Agency and the Koenig
Labor Agencies of Saint Louis and Kansas City, Missouri. In May 1917
the Fogg Brothers instructed their Missouri contacts "to get every possible
negro you can get into Great Falls ... the next bunch of nigers [sic] to
Glasgow . . . and the next bunch . . . to Havre for pipe culvert work, [at]
20 cents per hour."41
Black workers proved no more satisfied with low pay, poor conditions,
and long hours than whites or Asians. "Negroes don't seem [to] be [a] paying investment," C. O. Jenks wired from Sand Point, Idaho, since "they
don't stay long enough."42 As the surging wartime economy provided more
and better paying jobs, there seemed little reason to settle for low wages
and harsh working conditions in remote areas. With the possible exception
of Pullman porters, blacks never became a numerically significantpart of
the Northwest's railway work force.
At the same time, the roads considered recruiting Puerto Rican and,
like their counterparts in the Southwest, Mexican laborers. They quickly
discarded such notions, however,largely because of the high cost necessary
to transport such workers in large numbers over great distances. Further,
Mexican railway workers could remain legally in the United States only
for the duration of the war. Although the Southern Pacific employed some
Mexican workersin Oregon, theirlarge-scale importationinto the Northwest
made little economic sense to the officials of other roads in the region.43
Women, however, did provide an important new source of labor for
the roads. By the end of 1918, theynumbered 2,384 on the Northern Pacific
alone, including over 900 in Washington, Idaho, and Montana. Most held
40R. Budd toJ. M. Gruber,August 25 [quotation] and July-August,1917,Great NorthernPresidentsubject file 8324, MHS.
41FoggBrothersto G. A. Weston and D. E. Dwyer, May 7; and [?] to G. A. Weston,
GeneralManager subjectfile34-13,
May 22, 1917,Great NorthernVice President-Operating,
MHS.
42C. O. Jenks to H. W. Lillegren,June 27, 1917, ibid.
43GeorgeHodges-Louis W. Hill Correspondence,July 1917,Great NorthernPresident
subjectfile6860; and NorthernPacificPresidentsubjectfile591-G-8,MHS. For a synthesis
ofMexican laborersin the Southwest,consultMark Reisler,BytheSweatofTheirBrow:MexLabor in theUnitedStates,1900-1940 (Westport,CT, 1976).
ican Immigrant
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1985
W. THOMAS WHITE
281
clerical jobs, but many women also worked in machine shops, on the tracks,
and in roundhouses.44 They constituted only a fraction of the work force,
but women employees attractedconsiderable attentionfromfederaland state
officials concerned with the type and conditions of their work.
RA Director William Gibbs McAdoo worried particularly about the
employment of women in freighthouses and on section gangs. Most "expressed themselves as thoroughlysatisfiedwith the conditions of work," NP
General ManagerJ. M. Rapelje reassured him, adding that "they are not
asked to exert themselves beyond their strength."While he also tried to deflect McAdoo's anxieties, Federal Manager Jule M. Hannaford (formerly
of the Northern Pacific) instructed his subordinates that although "the labor situation is [not] yet in such shape, especially on the West End, that
we can dispose entirely with female labor in these classes ... as rapidly
as consistent, our officerswill see that his [McAdoo's] wishes are complied
with."45
At the state level, Washington Commissioner of Labor C. W. Younger
also worried about women's welfare on the roads, as well as their impact
on society. While he seemed generally satisfied with women's working conditions in Washington and he applauded McAdoo's policy of nondiscrimination in wages, Younger cautioned: "Only under the sternestnecessityshould
[women] be taken out from under the ancient shelter of the home." His
bureau's investigationof the Tacoma, Parkwater,and Spokane railway shops
revealed a generally beneficent new "shelter," but he could not "forbear
... a few words of warning." "Woman is not always a good judge of her
own strength," the labor commissioner fretted,while he worried over the
"real danger that she will in an excess of zeal undertake tasks too heavy
for her."46
Younger failed to specify his principal concern about women in the
industrial workplace. Certainly, the perceived dangers of women working
outside the home included a potential threatto the traditional familystructure, as Younger and others viewed it. Also, there were "moral risks" attendent upon "night work," which he felt "should be discouraged." Not
least among Younger's and other progressives' apprehensions was the fear
that ifwomen worked night shiftsthey would "not get the requisite amount
of rest, going home in the morning, preparing breakfast and then tackling
the house work." Such pronouncements were hardly exceptional, and con44J.M. Hannaford to R. H. Aishton, December 17, 1918, NorthernPacific Federal
Manager subject file 2223, MHS.
45FederalManager to George T. Reid and J. M. Rapelje, October 3, J. M.
Rapelje
to J. M. Hannaford, October 5, R. H. Aishtonto J. M. Hannaford, November 13, 1918,
and
Aishton
to
A.
L.
December
ibid.;
Dickson,
2, C. R. Gray to A. L. Dickson, October
3, 1918,Pierce County Central Labor Council Records, Archivesand Manuscripts Division, UWL.
BiennialReportoftheBureauofLabor,1917-1918(Olympia,
46WashingtonState, Eleventh
1918), 42-44.
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282
THE WESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
July
in the
sequently,theyillustratedtheadditionalburdenswomenconfronted
industrialworkplace,includingthose in comparativelywell-regulatedindustries.47
The wartimeworkerswerelast in thesuccessionofvariedgroupsthat
had enteredthe railroads'unskilledlabor pool since thearrivalof the first
transcontinental in the Far Northwest. Afterthe Great War, the roads' demand for such workers declined, while postwar legislation restricted immigration. In the lean years of the 1920s, the remaining unskilled wage
to retainthe benefitsconferearnersfoughthard, thoughunsuccessfully,
red upon themby the Railroad Administration.48
Not untiltheearlydays
of the New Deal, however,did theyobtain the legal tools to organizeand
bargain collectivelyto bettertheircondition.49
Between the years 1883 and 1917, unskilled workers in the Far Northwest,as elsewhere, proved unable to better their situation. Many factors
militated against their success. The very nature of the railroad industry,
whichdictatedthatmanyworkersbe widelydispersedto maintaintheroad,
troublesome
was a constantunderlying
obstacle,one thatprovedparticularly
in the sparselypopulatedWest.The intransigenceof the region'srailroad
managersto wide-scalecollectivebargainingand union recognition,like
thatoftheircounterpartsin otherindustries,remainedan importanthurdle forthose interested in organization of the entire industry.Yet the same
managers could and did make exceptions for smaller organizations repre-
sentingskilledworkers.On occasion, theyutilizedthose relationshipsto
theiradvantage by alliances withthe national leaders of the Big FourBrotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, Brotherhoodof Locomotive Firemen
and Enginemen,BrotherhoodofRailroad Trainmen,and OrderofRailway
Conductors-and oftheAFL to oppose industrialunionism,whichthreat47Ibid.,43 [quotation];Maurine WeinerGreenwald,"Women Workersand WorldWar
9 (Winter1975),
I: The AmericanRailroad Industry,A Case Study,"JournalofSocialHistory,
173; and Maurine Weiner Greenwald, Women,Warand Work:TheImpactof WorldWarI on
in theUnitedStates(Westport,CT, 1980). See also Alice Kessler-Harris,Out
WomenWorkers
Women
in theUnitedStates(New York, 1982), 117,219-24.
to Work:A Historyof Wage-Earning
of Way
ofMaintenance
48White,"Railroad Workers,"212-304; and Hertel, Brotherhood
97-100.Formoreon railwaylabor and politicsin the 1920s,consultDavid P. Thelen,
Employees,
and
and theInsurgent
Robert
M. La Follette
Spirit(Boston, 1976); Robert H. Zieger,Republicans
Labor,1919-1929(Lexington,KY, 1969); Hamilton Cravens, "A HistoryoftheWashington
Farmer-LaborParty,1918-1924"(master's thesis,Universityof Washington,1962); Irving
1920-1933(Cambridge,MA, 1960);
Worker,
Bernstein,TheLean Years:A History
oftheAmerican
under
Leonard A. Lecht,Experience
(New York,1955); EdwardKeating,
RailwayLaborLegislation
Front(Washington,DC, 1953);
YearsonRail Workers'
TheStory
Fighting
of "Labor". Thirty-Three
Movement
Kenneth Campbell MacKay, The Progressive
of 1924 (New York, 1947); and Edward Berman, LaborDisputesand thePresident
oftheUnitedStates(New York, 1924).
1933-1941(Boston,
Years:A HistoryoftheAmericanWorker,
491rvingBernstein,Turbulent
Policy(Berkeleyand
Bargaining
1970), 214-15;and Irving Bernstein,TheNew Deal Collective
Los Angeles, 1950), 41-56. See also White, "Railroad Workers,"304-19.
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
1985
W. THOMAS WHITE
283
no lessthanthose
ened theestablishedunions'jurisdictionsand prerogatives
of management.
The presenceof such powerfulforcesdid not automaticallypreclude
effective
attemptsat mass organization.BoththeKnightsofLabor and the
AmericanRailwayUnion did presentcomparatively
united,industry-wide
challengesto management.In both cases, theywere able to relyupon insurgentcommunitysupportpeculiarto thedevelopingregion,which,like
so much of the Far West,was almostentirelydependenton the railroads,
subjectto thevagariesof a largelyextractiveeconomy,remotefrommuch
ofthenationalmarketplace,and imbuedwiththefiresoffrustrated
expectations.Yettheirprotestswere,in one sense,an aberration,sincetheywere
launched when therewas comparativeethnicand racial homogeneityin
the railwayworkforce.
Afterthe great turbulenceof the 1890s, the roads changed all that.
In theirperennialquest forcheap labor, the railroads,frightened
by the
and
the
strikes
of
no
ARU
were
less
aware
than
their
counter1894,
Coxeyites
partsin otherindustriesand in otherregionsof the benefitsto be gained
byemployingworkersofdiverseoriginsto do theirunskilled,oftenseasonal, work. As the roads sought out new sources of labor, the resulting
demographicchallengeemergedas a decisivefactormilitating
againstunificationoftheworkforce,whichwas dividedincreasingly
alongthelinesdecreed
and gender.Subsequentattemptsat mass organization,
by race, ethnicity,
the
including Japanese workers'organizationin Seattle,the UBRE, and
the IWW, proved to be short-lived,and finallyonly futile,experiments.
Consequently,nearlyall involvedin unskilledrailroadworkremained
divided,unorganized,poorlypaid, subjectto thevicissitudesofcasual labor, and victimsof the generallyharshconditionsimposedby employers
and labor contractors.Not untilthe federalgovernmentintervenedto resolve the transportationcrisisof the FirstWorldWar on a national level
did the unskilledsectorrealize significant,
albeit temporary,
gains in pay,
workingconditions,and unionorganization.Aside fromthatbriefmoment,
mostworkersin the industryexperiencedonlylean yearsbetweenthe settlementof the farnorthwestern
frontierand the onset of the New Deal.
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