Labor Archives of Washington: Labor Critics & Opponents

Progressive Republican civic activist. Seattle City Councilman from 1910-1913 and 1934-1937, chief of police in 1914, Superior Court judge from 1921-1929, School Board member (1929-1930, 1931-1934). Member of Minute Men, a voluntary association of labor spies during the Seattle General Strike.

Commander of the U.S. Army's Spruce Production Division During World War I ; founder of the Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen (a company union). As Spruce Prodcution Division commander, Disque used a mixture of force and concessions to fight the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). The union had dramatically slowed logging throughout the region through a series of strikes and slowdowns to force employers to improve conditions in logging camps and institute an eight-hour day. Disque's measures substantially increased spruce production in late 1917 and early 1918 and were partly responsible for weakening the IWW in the region.

Seattle businessman who played a role in infiltrating Seattle labor union activities in 1919-1920, planting spies into the ranks of the labor movement during the era of the Seattle General Strike.

The Edwin G. Ames scrapbooks consist of two volumes which contain mainly clippings related to Washington banks (1914-1918); a single volume covering dealing with the lumber industry (1908-1912); voting returns, the Republican party, as well as agendas from the annual meetings of the Pacific Coast Lumber Manufacturers Association (1898-1909); another scrapbook with extensive material on the 1912 presidential election and the Bull Moose Party, as well as articles about the timber industry and labor unions; the final scrapbook includes miscellaneous political materials and articles on Seattle local history (1912-1928).

Edwin Gardner Ames, lumber company executive, banker, and political activist. Manager of the Pope & Talbot in the Puget Sound region. Leading Seattle business figure in the early twentieth century. Ames took a leading part in efforts to bring stability to the notoriously turbulent lumber industry. He was active in the Pacific Coast Lumber Manufacturers' Association and its successor, the West Coast Lumbermen’s Association. Ames served as president of the latter from 1918 to 1923. Founded the Pacific Lumber Inspection Bureau in 1906. Realizing that the high number of logging accidents made it difficult to recruit workers and left the company vulnerable to lawsuits, Ames led the successful 1911 effort to pass workers’ compensation legislation. This gave Washington the nation’s first compulsory workers’ compensation program. During the First World War, Ames led the group of lumber firms that unsuccessfully resisted government efforts to impose the eight-hour day. In his own mills, Ames generally fired any worker with overt pro-union sentiments. Ames was a key financial backer of conservative Republicans in state and local politics. Ames served on the board of directors of three large Seattle banks. This collection includes the Puget Sound Stevedoring Company correspondence and financial reports 1916-1928. The company was created in 1916, to supply open shop longshoremen to load lumber cargo; dissolved in 1988. Correspondence concerns organization, management, labor relations (including the Seattle General Strike, the handling of cargo, independent longshoremen, and open shop), dissolution of company.

Rennar collected right-wing political extremist literature, including those of such labor opponents as the Ku Klux Klan, Silver Legion, fascists, and white supremacist organizations.

Seattle pioneer, businessman, state legislator, civic leader. George Kinnear was born in 1836. Kinnear was a member of the state House of Representatives, 1937-1946. He was associated with the Associated Industries of Seattle, 1920; the Building Owners and Managers Association of Seattle, 1920-1923; the Silent Drama Syndicate, 1920-1927; and the Seattle Charter Revision Committee, 1926. He died in 1912. Kinnear's papers include reports from a labor spy that infiltrated Seattle labor unions around the time of the Seattle General Strike.

Employers' organization supporting right-to-work legislation, Initiatives 198 and 202

Attorney, member of Congress from Washington State, and diplomat. Initally polically progressive, Poindexter ended his career as a conservative. Poindexter worked to suppress opposition to America's entry into World War I, favoring wartime censorship, the Sedition Act, and pacifism. He also spoke strongly against "alien slackers," immigrants who turned in their first citizenship papers to avoid the draft. After the war he was an outspoken critic of President Wilson and the League of Nations. He believed Wilson was sympathetic to Bolshevism and criticized the administration for leniency in handling the prosecution of radicals. His position against labor unions and radical groups contributed to the "Red Scare" of 1919-1920. Poindexter received national recognition, in particular, for his stand against the League of Nations and being pro-American and anti-anarchists/Bolsheviks.

Hanson was Seattle mayor and later founded the city of San Clemente, California. Hanson was Seattle mayor during the Seattle General Strike.

Army Post Committee of the Seattle, Washington Chamber of Commerce

Memorabilia re Soviet Flight, Moscow to New York, Oct. 1929, in "Land of Soviets"

Right-wing fascist political organization. The Silver Shirt Legion of America was founded by William Dudley Pelley (1890-1965) in 1933. The parent organization began as Silver Shirts of America, was later renamed Silver Legion of America and, in 1934, became Silver Shirt Legion of America. State liason office was Orville W. Roundtree.

The U.S. Army's Spruce Production Division was a major logging and spruce manufacturing operation under the command of General Brice P. Disque, who was appointed to direct the cutting of spruce and other trees for Allied aircraft production. In the Pacific Northwest, The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) had dramatically slowed logging throughout the region with a series of strikes and slowdowns primarily aimed at forcing employers to improve conditions in the logging camps and to institute an eight-hour day. After consulting with employers, the American Federation of Labor (AFL), and members of the Washington Defense Council, Disque used a mixture of force and concessions to fight the IWW. General Disque dispatched a number of soldiers to work as loggers and to harass IWW organizers. He also convinced the War Department to add an eight-hour day requirement to all of its contracts with logging companies in the region.

Stephen Fowler Chadwick was born in Colfax, Washington, in 1894, the son of Stephen J. Chadwick, who was a judge of the Supreme Court of the state of Washington and its chief justice from 1918-1919. Stephen F. Chadwick attended schools in Colfax and Olympia, Washington, and then the University of Washington, 1911-1912. He graduated from the law school at Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia, in 1914 and from the University of Washington law school in 1915, entering the practice of law in Seattle in 1915.

Chadwick withdrew from the law practice to enter the U.S. Army in May 1917, serving with the 91st Division at Camp Lewis, Washington, and the 8th Division at Camp Fremont, California, before being assigned to the 27th Infantry American Expeditionary Forces in Siberia from August 1918 to May 1919. He was honorably discharged from the service in May 1919 and resumed his law practice in Seattle.

Chadwick was active in veteran's associations, particularly the American Legion, and helped in handling legal matters for the legion. Chadwick served as the legion's national commander from 1938 to 1939. He was also a member of the operating committee of the United Service Organization and the chair of the Council on Services to Armed Forces (United Service Organization Council) in Seattle.

Quasi-judicial US government agency concerned with communist and communist front activites. Hearing records, May 5-Oct. 16, 1953. The accession also includes the notes of Ed M. Fitzroy.

Hearing transcript, court papers, correspondence, writings. Primarily regarding the the Committee's investigations of six faculty members for the purpose of deciding whether to dismiss them for their alleged association with the Communist Party. The faculty members were often also painted as radicals because of their association with the faculty union on campus.

Forester. conservative anti-IWW labor organization leader. Served as Western representative for Bates & Rogers Construction Company, 1903 to 1915; secretary and manager of the Loyal Legion of Loggers & Lumbermen (a company union) from 1921 to 1926; president of the Loyal Legion of Loggers & Lumbermen, 1926 to 1936; and secretary and manager of Columbia Basin Sawmills and Columbia Basin Loggers from 1937 onward.

United States veterans organization formed in 1919. The American Legion has male and female members drawn from the veterans of the two world wars and the wars in Korea and Vietnam. The legion was founded in Paris in 1919. It is organized into local posts. It is basically concerned with the social and political interests of veterans. The Legion was a frequent opponent of the Industrial Workers of the World and other radical labor organizations.