On December 31, 1910, Everett's streetcar workers walk off the job, launching the disruptive Everett transit strike. The trouble in the Snohomish County port city begins when motormen and conductors sign a petition asking the Everett Railway, Light & Water Company for higher pay. The company fires three of the men who signed the petition. Most of the other streetcar men then walk off the job that evening, causing traffic disruptions and angry demonstrations on New Year's Eve. The strike continues for seven days. Strikebreakers are brought in to operate the streetcars. Bricks are tossed through trolley windows and strikebreakers are shoved off cars. Everett residents largely back the strikers against a company they consider to be an outside monopoly. People choose to walk rather than patronize the streetcars. After a week of disruption and rough demonstrations -- but no serious injuries -- civic leaders broker a solution. The company grants the streetcar men a raise and reinstates most of the strikers.
Already Controversial
The Everett Railway, Light & Water Company was already controversial in the city located on Puget Sound north of Seattle. It was part of the nationwide Stone & Webster conglomerate, a firm based in Boston that had snapped up franchises for power and street railways all over the country, including in Seattle and Tacoma. In 1905, Stone & Webster's Puget Sound International Railway & Power Company took over the Everett company's franchises on three vital public services -- street railways, electric power and water -- on a 999-year lease (not a typo). The company still operated under the name of the Everett Railway, Light & Water Company, but most people in Everett referred to their local company simply as Stone & Webster and some likened it darkly to a "giant octopus" with tentacles stretching everywhere ("The First Skirmish").
The dispute had actually begun in July 1910, when streetcar workers presented their first petition to management asking for an increase in their wages. They argued that their basic wage of 18 cents an hour (up to 25 cents for the most experienced men) was barely enough for them to buy their required uniforms. They sought wages ranging from 20 cents to 27 cents per hour, depending on experience. The company ignored that petition.
The request for a raise "lay quiescent" for months, until the last day of 1910, when the workers circulated another petition asking for a similar increase ("Some Facts About the Strike"). According to the streetcar men, streetcar superintendent George Newell found out about the petition and called three men into his office and confronted them. When they admitted that they had circulated and signed the petition, he fired them. When the rest of the men learned what had happened, most of them believed they had no choice but to immediately walk off the job.
System Paralyzed
The streetcar system was paralyzed on one of the busiest nights of the year. On that New Year's Eve, trolleys ran intermittently, if at all. Crowds of men and boys gathered on downtown Everett street corners and further disrupted auto and horse traffic as midnight approached. Both sides in the dispute later agreed that the crowd contained no streetcar strikers. The Everett Herald said the "mob" was merely a bunch of "young fellows" who had "accepted the strike movement as an occasion for a demonstration" and were glad to "start something" ("Pulls Passengers ...").
This "mob" may have been in a particularly feisty mood for an unrelated reason. Everett had just passed a local-option Prohibition ordinance, which meant the saloons were all shutting down for good the next day. These "idlers and street loafers," as the paper later called them, might have merely been looking for an excuse to act up, yet their ire was clearly aimed at Stone & Webster ("The Street Car Controversy"). It was an early indication that public opinion would be arrayed against the company, not against the strikers.
An even stronger indicator came on New Year's Day when Everett's substantial labor population gathered for a mass meeting at the city's Labor Temple. The meeting was "crowded to the point of overflowing with enthusiastic men" backing the strikers ("Pulls Passengers ..."). The speakers warned against any violent action and instead urged everyone to wear an "I Walk" tag, indicating that they would rather walk than patronize the company's sporadically operating streetcars. The streetcar strike was not an organized labor dispute -- the streetcar workers were in no union, nor were they asking for one -- yet organized labor embraced their cause. So did other Everett organizations, including the members of the Everett Suffrage Club. "We cannot forget that the working men were responsible for giving us the right to cast ballots," said the club. "We shall walk" ("Pulls Passengers ...").
The simmering tensions came to a head on January 2, 1911. Everett Railway, Light & Water manager W. I. Sturtevant had refused to submit the dispute to arbitration by the mayor -- Roland Hill Hartley (1864-1952), who would go on to serve two terms as Washington governor -- and other civic leaders, and rumors circulated that the company was calling in strikebreakers. An angry mob formed that afternoon in front of the Stone & Webster office on Hewitt Avenue. The Everett Herald reported that the mob "stopped a Hewitt Avenue car and pulled the occupants from the inside" ("Pulls Passengers ...").
"Among the passengers who [were] unceremoniously yanked from the car was Mrs. W. I. Sturtevant, wife of the Stone & Webster manager. The car was taken to the barn. With the crowd surging around him ... Superintendent Newell drew a revolver, ordering the crowd to fall back, which command was speedily complied with. Excited members of the mob disappeared with a threat to swear out a warrant for the superintendent's arrest. Mayor Hartley assisted in clearing the mob from the street" ("Pulls Passengers ...").
Once again, the "mob" did not consist of striking workers. The Herald described them as young men and "hot-heads" ("Pulls Passengers ..."). Later that afternoon "young hoodlums soaped the tracks on Hewitt Avenue," making it impossible for cars to get any traction ("Pulls Passengers ..."). The entire Everett streetcar system was shut down that afternoon.
An Unfortunate Misunderstanding?
Faced with this level of public outcry, Sturtevant gave his own, starkly contrasting, side of the story to the Herald. He asserted it was "absolutely untrue" that the three men had been fired because of the petition, saying they were discharged "for the good of the service" and for poor performance -- a decision Sturtevant and Newell claimed to have made long beforehand ("Men Not Discharged ..."). Sturtevant insisted that "No man was let out on Saturday because of his connection with the strike," and even said he considered the petition to be a "perfectly proper and courteous document" and that he would have given it due consideration as soon as he got back from a business trip to Seattle if only the men had been patient ("Men Not Discharged ..."). In other words, Sturtevant claimed it had all been an unfortunate misunderstanding. But he would not negotiate with the men until they returned to work.
This did little to soothe public opinion. Sturtevant's account was debunked the next day by a committee of civic and labor leaders appointed to seek arbitration. The three men had indeed been "summarily discharged" after being asked if they had signed the petition ("Report Upon Street Car Controversy"). Emotions were inflamed further when news broke on January 3 that the company had brought in 25 strikebreakers from Stone & Webster's operations in Seattle and Tacoma.
Someone threw a brick through the window of one streetcar and someone cut several trolley ropes on other cars. A man in a downtown crowd shouted, "Let's tip the car over!" but the crowd was dissuaded by a union man who "urged them to desist" (Labor Journal editorial). Some of the strikebreakers were pulled out of the cars and "jostled," and several of them quit after learning more about the strikers' story, saying they "did not come to Everett to 'scab'" ("Men Arrive To Break Strike").
The strikers and their sympathizers also sought to do their own public-relations repairs. They hotly disputed The Everett Herald's account of someone yanking Mrs. Sturtevant out of a streetcar. Instead, they said, she left the car under the friendly escort of a sympathetic former conductor, who ushered her into the Stone & Webster offices. The strikers were taking the lead in imploring people not to gather in crowds and engage in disturbances, because they believed it would "injure their cause with the general public" ("Seeking to Suppress Disorder"). Meanwhile, the strikers and sympathizers launched their own horse-and-wagon service to transport people who did not want to patronize the Stone & Webster trolleys.
By January 4, Stone & Webster had imported enough willing strikebreakers to keep every route running, although patronage was sharply down because of the "I Walk" movement. The Labor Journal, the weekly "Official Paper of the Everett Trades Council," reported that "Hundreds of working men, although living long distances from their places of employment, are walking to their work, night and morning" ("Whole City Sympathize with Men"). The company also brought in a number of Pinkertons -- hired operatives of the Pinkerton detective agency -- to protect company property from ongoing vandalism. Both sides accused the other of bringing in "hirelings" to foment trouble ("Seeking to Suppress Disorder").
About 3,000 citizens gathered at the Coliseum in Everett on January 4 for a mass meeting to discuss the strike. The mood was overwhelmingly against Stone & Webster -- the cry of "revoke the franchise" was heard. In the end, the gathering adopted a resolution that said in part, "We extend our deepest sympathy to the street car employees of the Everett Railway and Electric Company to secure a living wage and we hereby pledge our moral and financial support to that end" ("Crowd Hears Car Strike Discussed"). In an editorial, The Everett Herald backed a wage increase, as did, naturally, The Labor Journal.
Breakthrough
Every day it became a little harder for Stone & Webster to defy public opinion, and on January 6 a breakthrough occurred. The Herald called together a group of city business owners to meet with Sturtevant and negotiate an end to the strike. They warned Sturtevant that a prolonged strike would hurt business, create "ill-feeling," and affect the "general good of the city" at a "particularly unfortunate time" ("Street Car Company Raises Wages"). They told Sturtevant they proposed to be peacemakers who would treat both sides fairly.
Sturtevant told the group that the company had already decided to raise wages at some future date, but he was reluctant to make any concessions while the men were still out on strike. The committee persuaded him that it would harmful to wait. By the end of conference, Sturtevant agreed to a wage increase that was roughly equivalent to the workers' original request: a new pay scale ranging from 20 cents to 28 cents per hour, depending on experience. The new scale would take effect retroactively to January 1, and apply to everyone. Sturtevant said "we have no prejudice against any man for leaving us during the strike" ("Street Car Company Raises Wages").
The striking workers agreed to the plan on January 7 and the strike ended. A total of 35 workers returned to the job and streetcar traffic returned to normal. The Herald that afternoon reported that "pedestrianism was less popular in the city today" ("Street Car Strike Now at an End"). Two days later the Herald congratulated itself for initiating the settlement, with editor J. B. Best blasting those "slanderers" and "black-hearted liars" who accused the paper of colluding with Stone & Webster and asserting, "It was public opinion that made the car strike possible. Public opinion settled it" (Best").
"The First Skirmish"
In an editorial, The Labor Journal hailed the settlement as a complete victory that took the despised company "to its knees," saying:
"The Stone & Webster Corporation today probably realizes there is such a thing as public opinion, for this powerful combination of industrial pirates has had to take a licking ... Back in Boston today there is a hurried counting of the wounded, a worried look as they think of the hole in the money sack, and a haunting fear that the worst is still to come" ("The First Skirmish").
The Labor Journal called the strike the first skirmish in the region's war against Stone & Webster, and that proved accurate in some ways. The City of Everett took over the city's water service from the company in 1916. The City of Seattle rid itself of Stone & Webster's street-railway monopoly in 1919 when it bought the entire Seattle streetcar system.
However, Stone & Webster solidified its hold on Everett's street railways in 1917, when it purchased all of the local company's stock outright. Stone & Webster continued to hold sway over Everett's street railways and power for decades.
