The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1916-12-01
ANENT CAPTAIN HARRY RAMWELL'S
HISTORY OF EVERETT TROUBLES

And now comes Capt. Henry Ram
well, manager of the City Dock Com
pany and manager Of the American
Packing Company in the role of his
torian of the recent period of unrest
and riot in Everett The captain
doubtless thinks the daily papers are
poor historians, and if he does think
that he is more than half right.
The captain says:
"The tragedy of November was
not the result OF accident. 1t was a
logical sequence, and only careful, in
teligent preparations by law-abiding
citizens prevented possible unspeak-
able horrors. If any one has any
doubts as to what might have hap
pened one has but to peruse the song
book of the |. w. w. copies of which
we're found in possession of nearly all
the armed invaders who were sup
posedly journeyng to glory or martyr
dom on that fatal November day.
Here, for example, is one of their
songs, which already has been pub
lished."
Here follows the song already pub
lished in the Everett papers. 1t was
written by John T. Kendrick, in
tended to describe and condemn the
un-Christian and unspeakable human
slaughter now going on in Europe in
the name of civilization and is not
descriptive of the creed of the l. w.
w. The Hon. Captain Ramwell and
the daily papers of Everett and Sc
attic drew a wrong inference from
the appearance of "Christians at
War" in the I. w. w. song book. The
l. w. WIS were not singing that song
when the Verona arrived at Everett.
Now the captain launches an attack
upon peaceful picketing, which the
mill owners rendered unpeaceful
picketing in their attempt to prevent
the single weayers from persuading
the strikebreakers to stop work under
unfair conditions, and through I'M
scrupulous leaders, employed for the
purpose, started the disorders by
violently attacking the single weav-
ers' picket line. The captain didn't
mention this first row (and it was
only rough and tumble row, but to
have done so would have spoiled the
impartial" history from that gentle
mans pen.
He then narrates the difficulties
under which the strikebreakers
worked and their imminent danger of
being deprived of life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness.
The impartial historian says not
one word for the striking single
weavers, who struck for a just cause
He knows, or should know if he had
exercised ordinary intelligence and
wished to be fair, that the single
weavers struck because the mill
owners violated their promise to re-
store the wage scale which had been
1
with their employees on the subject.
They promised that when the price of
shingles raised, the wage scale would
be raised. They violated their
promise. But then, perhaps, the cap
tain does not concede to the Everett
single weavers the right to life, lib
erty and the pursuit of happiness
when they stand in the way of the
greed of their employers. In his his
tory he does not state that nearly all
these strikers are citizens of Everett,
some Of them residing here since
childhood. He doesn't seem to think
that these men have a right to seek
work-that some of them need it-at
a fair wage,
His overflow of sympathetic tears
for the strikebreakers is simply to
blind himself to his wish for condi-
ton of wage slavery, and to create
public sympathy for those men who
really caused the disorders in this
city and now seek an excuse to shift
the responsibility.
The historian then calls into the
case the strikes of the longshoremen
and the steamboatmen.
Never before in the history of the
Pacific coast have the profits of water
transportation lines been so great as
now. The longshoremen, as a very
important factor in the business,
asked for a share of these increased
profits. They failed to get it and a
same methods by which we created
disturbances. l believe today if we
had not our internal trouble and if
we had the supply of cars, Everett
would see the best times today it has
seen in years. There is promise of
better markets than ever before to the
men Of that business, and yet with the
conditions that prevail it is absolutely
impossible to realize this. | believe
we can very we'll hope for these
things I believe there is clearing
of the atmosphere Let officers Of the
law be cool and level-headed; let all
citizens practice self-control and