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Page A-4 - Shelton-Mason County Journal- Thursday, Nov. 3, 2016
KOMEN COMMENT
A lhundred years ago this
aturday occurred "the
oodiest battle in Pacific
Northwest labor history." That
brutal phrase has been forever
affixed to Everett for
what happened on Nov.
5, 1916.
It was a Sunday
afternoon on the city's
waterfront, when the
steamer Verona entered
Port Gardner Bay and
approached the dock at
• the foot of Hewitt Av- By JOHN
enue. Aboard were 300
Wobblies -- members KOMEN
of the radical Industrial
Workers of the World.
The IWW championed the
working class with tactics that
alarmed the public and angered
businesses, especially mill
owners and timber barons. So
Everett hadl een warned that
a group of"armed anarchists"
was on its way, perhaps to burn
down the city.
Everett had a strong repu-
tation as a union town. But it
wasn't the IWW, it was the Shin-
gle Weavers Union, a rival of
the Wobblies, that was the labor
power in the town.
The shingle weavers were on
strike, and despite their union's
antipathy toward the IWW, the
Wobblies supported the strike,
especially with street speeches
and demonstrations.
Earlier in the year, 40 of the
IWW demonstrators had been
rounded up by deputies, taken to
Beverly Park just outside Ever-
ett and there they were brutal-
ized. Beaten by clubs, some se-
verely injured, they were forced
to walk the 25-mile interurban
railway track to Seattle. It was
with this violent background the
steamer Verona, loaded with
Wobblies, headed for Everett.
Waiting at the dock was Sno-
homish County Sheriff Donald
McRae and 200 citizens he had
"deputized." They were armed.
"Boys, who's your leader?" the
sheriff reportedly shouted at the
Verona.
"We are all leaders!" was
the retort from the Wobblies on
deck. With that, Sheriff McRae
told them they could not land.
He pulled his pistol as the men
aboard prepared to swing a
gangplank dockside.
Then a single shot was heard.
Where it came from no one
knows, but it started what one
account says was "about 10 min-
utes of intense gunfire. Most of it
came from the vigilantes on the
dock."
Some of the Wobblies
also had weapons, and
in the ensuing battle
and confusion, as the
Verona's skipper tried
to maneuver away from
the dock, five Wobblies
were killed outright or
fatally wounded and
two "citizen deputies"
were slain. At least 47
men were wounded.
The Verona made
it back to Seattle. Seventy-four
Wobblies were arrested and tak-
en to jail in Everett. Gov. Ernest
Lister sent in National Guard
troops, and the stage was set for
a trial in an atmosphere of fear
and distrust.
"The men were kept waiting
for trial so long that some public
sympathy was aroused," wrote
John McClelland Jr. in "The
Wobbly War." There were plans
to try the 74 with four crimes
each. "But since seventy-four
men were far too many to try
simultaneously, a beginning was
made by trying just one."
Thomas Tracey was his name.
He was accused of firing the shot
that killed one of the two slain
on the dock. Defended by George
Vanderveer, who won.fame as
a Wobbly attorney, Tracey was
acquitted. The 73 others had
earlier been released from jail,
but not before they had waged
Wobbly demonstrations, includ-
ing a hunger strike.
The Everett Massacre -- as
it became known -- preceded
by three years the more famous
Centralia Massacre on Armi-
stice Day, Nov. 11, 1919. Three
American Legion members --
World War I veterans -- were
killed and an IWW member was
lynched from a bridge across
Centralia's Chehalis River.
• John Komen, who lives on
Mason Lake, was for 40 years
a reporter and editor, television
news executive and anchorman,
national TV network news cor-
respondent, producer, colum-
nist, editorial writer and com-
mentator. His column, Komen
Comment, appears each week
in the Shelton-Mason County
Journal.
JOURNAL EDITORIAL
eo
go?
We've jumbled a few
things around in
this week's news-
paper.
What we call our Living
section usually runs three
or four pages and includes
our obituaries, commu-
nity calendar of events and
stories promoting upcom-
ing events. Usually guest
columns and the Harstine
Island News run in these
pages, as does our church
directory.
We've moved them all to
the last few pages of the B
(second) Section.
We do this because we
consider the information,
especially the obituaries, as
vitals.
Public notices, obituar-
ies, births and the events
we share together are those
things that tell the history
of our community.
A hundred years from
now, when a researcher
goes back to look through
the pages we printed this
week in 2016, chances are
pretty good that they'll be
• looking for obituaries, so
we've decided to make them
a permanent fixture on our
inside back cover.
There's more reasoning
behind this decision: We're
trying to make the entire
second section more vital to
you, dear reader.
Without getting too tech-
nical about it, our press has
limitations, and by beefing-
up the second section it
expands our opportunities
in the first section.
Our smartest readers
(those who regularly peruse
the public notices) will see
that we've also changed
how we offer what are
sometimes called "legals."
They will now be min-
gled in with more visual
elements designed to invite
you to keep turning pages,
all the way through this
week's paper.
We understand that this
will cause some confusion.
We apologize for that
and hope that you, and
your fellow Journal faith-
ful, will find the entire
paper more inviting and
easy to read the whole way
through.
I
THIS ISN'T HOW
IMAGINED DOWNTOWN
IN SHELTON WOULD
LOOK TODAY.
SHELTON-MASON COUNTY
USPS 492-800
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Mason
County Journal, P.O. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584.
Published weekly by the Mason County Journal
at 227-W. Cota St., Shelton, Washington.
Mailing address: P.O. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584
Telephone: (360) 426-4412
Website: www.masoncounty.com
Periodicals postage paid in Shelton, Washington.
The Mason County Journal is a
member of the Washington News-
paper Publishers Association.
SUBSCRIPTION RATES:
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for Mason County addresses;
$58 per year ($43 for six months) in
the state of Washington but outside
Mason County; and $66 per year
($53 for six months) out of state.
Owned and published by
Shelton-Mason County Joumal, Inc.
Publisher: Tom Mullen
Newsroom:
Adam Rudnick, editor
Gordon Weeks, reporter
Brianna Loper, reporter
Michael Heinbach, reporter
Kariann Farrey, proofreader
Advertising:
John Lester, ad manager
Theresa Murray, ad representative
Front office:
Donna Kinnaird, bookkeeper
Dave Pierik, circulation and
classifieds manager
Delivery:
Paul Kinnaird, Gary Larimer
Composing room:
William Adams, technology and
design manager
Linda Frizzell, graphics
All editorial, advertising and legal
deadlines are 5 p.m. the Monday
prior to publication.
To submit a letter to the editor,
email adam@masoncounty.com.