The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1941-03-22

= 20 &c NGH7fHNf
Old Story Revived 70
Answer Inquiry
Union Fought Open Shop
With Rival Paper
OUT Of the barrel" comes the
" answer 70 a request for verifi-
cation Of Nelson Benefits con-
nection with the newspaper busi-
ness IN Tacoma. The story was
uncovered n the flies Of the late
lamented Morning Ledger and
the Morning Union, a paper es-
tablished by the printers to fight
a. open shop in Tacoma.
Nelson Benefits connection
with the newspaper business was
an accident. He had returned TO
Tacoma from a successful con-
tracing and development ven
ture in Fairhaven. now Belling-
ham, with a profit Of about
$4,000 600 This was about 1890
r. r. Radebaugh. publisher of
The Ledger, had been having
hard luck He had made some
real estate Investments which
turned out badly. He was con-
tinually in a row with the Taco
ma Land Co, which controlled
a good deal Of business here and
that was reflected in the papers
patronage. Radebaugh needed
money badly.
Besides making a fortune,
Bennett had developed an
ambition To 20 to the United
States senate. That made him
an ideal prospect for a news
paper and In 1891 Radebaugh
sold him a half-inferest. Two
wears later Bennett bought
h"h'bhhShS W rs ana
hired Clinton NJ. Snowden as
editor.
AS a contractor Bennett was
successful, and he tried 10 run
his newspaper as ne did his con-
tracing business. Construction
labor. as a rule then, was not
unioniZed and Bennett didn't like
the way printers unions were
operating the mechanical de-
partment of his paper. He want
ed TO hire and fire just as he
did on his contracting jobs and
he locked horns with the unions.
The first break came when a
composing room crew obtained
through the Printers Protective
Fraternity, arrived on the Job
and the union printers were told
that they were out. Bennett
thought he had the whip hand,
and he had, for about "a hours,
when the union pressmen walked
out on him.
The walkout of the pressmen
was hard blow. The Ledger was
reduced 10 a single sheet about
u by Is inches, printed on one
side. In a statement ITO Our
Patrons it was explained that
the pressmen had taken an un-
fair advantage of the situation
and the readers were urged 10 be
patient until a new staff could
be organized.
Great stress was laid on the
fact that most of the Printers
Protective Fraternity" staff had
come from The Los Angeles
Times. notorious for its anti
union proclivities. and that
didn't help matters much.
Benefits trouble was water
on the wheel Of The News, which
commented as follows:
Another handful a la the
old defunct Morning Globe was
issued this morning by The
Ledger and the patrons of
that paper, 10 Is said, were
satisfied with 1t as usual. The
rats did the best they could"
In another comment The
News said: why a morning
paper anyway: What you get
In a morning paper is re-
hash of what appeared in The
News the evening before"
In the meantime the union
printers, promised support from
number of business houses. as
sembled a plant and started The
Union. Though the paper did 2
fair business. il required a good
deal of scrimping to keep going
Manytimes the bills for paper
and other overhead took so much
Of the income that the printers
paYchecks were short. That
made them very unhappy.
The printers struggled along
until the summer of 1897. When it
seemed that each issue might be
the last. c. NJ. Shultz purchased
and unionized The Ledger. That
was a break for both Bennett
and the Union. Bennett was re-
heVed Of business which never
mad paid and was rapidly eating
into his fortune. The union print
to get TINS path fixed so that