randy_byers (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
randy_byers) wrote2007-04-13 01:17 pm
randy_byers) wrote2007-04-13 01:17 pm
Potlatch riots
Thanks to a discussion with Craig Smith that started on the topic of the West Coast literary science fiction convention called Potlatch, I've become aware of an interesting morass of Seattle history. It seems that in the aftermath of the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, the city began holding an annual Potlatch Festival to try to keep up its national profile. In 1913, the Potlatch Festival was disrupted by a riot that foreshadowed some of the region's history in the next few years.
According to the Seattle General Strike Project (which is mostly dedicated to history of the general strike of 1919, which is one thing foreshadowed by this riot):
The Potlatch Festival celebrated Seattle’s maritime heritage and was used by local businessmen and boosters as a means of getting Seattle some national attention. The United States Navy would send a portion of its Pacific Fleet into Elliot Bay and patriotic parades and speeches, along with auto and boat races, drew spectators from all over the Pacific Northwest. The festival also doubled as a shore leave for the hundreds of Navy personnel serving on the craft that visited the bay. The rowdiness of the sailors was legendary, and taverns and saloons in Seattle did a rousing business with so many young men in town who had been at sea for months at a time. In 1914, the year after the riot, the Potlatch Festival was held with much less fanfare as memories of the destruction fueled rumors about more attacks. The event was discontinued after the 1914 celebration and did not return until 1934. The Potlatch Festival was held sporadically during the depression years and World War Two, but was renamed the Seafair Festival in 1950 and has taken place every year since.
The 1913 riots were the result of an altercation during the Festival in which a pacifist named Annie Miller was giving a soapbox speech and was heckled by some of the sailors in town. There was a fistfight between the sailors and sympathizers of Ms. Miller, with the sailors getting the worst of it, and The Seattle Times under publisher Col. Alden J. Blethen published an "incendiary news article" blaming the brawl on members of the Industrial Workers of the World -- the leftist labor union also known as the Wobblies, famed in story and song. The next day came the riots, when sailors and anti-Reds ransacked and destroyed the IWW headquarters in Seattle as well as two Socialist Party offices. The mayor was so outraged by the Times' rabble-rousing coverage, that he had the paper temporarily shut down, with fifty policemen surrounding the newspaper offices to make sure no papers were distributed. Col. Blethen was able to locate a judge on a Saturday who was willing to get the mayor off his back and the paper back in the streets.
The cast of characters and issues of the day involved are quite fascinating. Amongst other things, there was an ongoing debate between the "open town" and "closed town" factions, with the former advocating tolerance of the brothels, bars, and gambling dens that had sprung up to exploit the gold miners who came through Seattle on the way to Alaska. Then there were the socialists, who were strong enough in Seattle that the mayor in 1913, George Cotterill, a Progressive, had barely beaten the Socialist candidate, Hulet Wells. Cotterill's successor, Hiram Gill, was a friend of labor, and as the Wikipedia says, "even spoke out on behalf of the IWW after the 1916 Everett Massacre." During Gill's earlier term as mayor, which lasted less than a year due to a recall, prostitutes paid $10 a month to the Police Commissioner to avoid prosecution. But Gill was also an eager enforcer of the Dry Law that passed in Washington in 1916, three years before Prohibition.
Lots of interesting stories in all this. In our fallen era, we're left with Seafair and the tawdry Seafair Pirates. Well, okay, we did have the WTO riots not too long ago, didn't we? Maybe things haven't changed so much around here after all.
According to the Seattle General Strike Project (which is mostly dedicated to history of the general strike of 1919, which is one thing foreshadowed by this riot):
The Potlatch Festival celebrated Seattle’s maritime heritage and was used by local businessmen and boosters as a means of getting Seattle some national attention. The United States Navy would send a portion of its Pacific Fleet into Elliot Bay and patriotic parades and speeches, along with auto and boat races, drew spectators from all over the Pacific Northwest. The festival also doubled as a shore leave for the hundreds of Navy personnel serving on the craft that visited the bay. The rowdiness of the sailors was legendary, and taverns and saloons in Seattle did a rousing business with so many young men in town who had been at sea for months at a time. In 1914, the year after the riot, the Potlatch Festival was held with much less fanfare as memories of the destruction fueled rumors about more attacks. The event was discontinued after the 1914 celebration and did not return until 1934. The Potlatch Festival was held sporadically during the depression years and World War Two, but was renamed the Seafair Festival in 1950 and has taken place every year since.
The 1913 riots were the result of an altercation during the Festival in which a pacifist named Annie Miller was giving a soapbox speech and was heckled by some of the sailors in town. There was a fistfight between the sailors and sympathizers of Ms. Miller, with the sailors getting the worst of it, and The Seattle Times under publisher Col. Alden J. Blethen published an "incendiary news article" blaming the brawl on members of the Industrial Workers of the World -- the leftist labor union also known as the Wobblies, famed in story and song. The next day came the riots, when sailors and anti-Reds ransacked and destroyed the IWW headquarters in Seattle as well as two Socialist Party offices. The mayor was so outraged by the Times' rabble-rousing coverage, that he had the paper temporarily shut down, with fifty policemen surrounding the newspaper offices to make sure no papers were distributed. Col. Blethen was able to locate a judge on a Saturday who was willing to get the mayor off his back and the paper back in the streets.
The cast of characters and issues of the day involved are quite fascinating. Amongst other things, there was an ongoing debate between the "open town" and "closed town" factions, with the former advocating tolerance of the brothels, bars, and gambling dens that had sprung up to exploit the gold miners who came through Seattle on the way to Alaska. Then there were the socialists, who were strong enough in Seattle that the mayor in 1913, George Cotterill, a Progressive, had barely beaten the Socialist candidate, Hulet Wells. Cotterill's successor, Hiram Gill, was a friend of labor, and as the Wikipedia says, "even spoke out on behalf of the IWW after the 1916 Everett Massacre." During Gill's earlier term as mayor, which lasted less than a year due to a recall, prostitutes paid $10 a month to the Police Commissioner to avoid prosecution. But Gill was also an eager enforcer of the Dry Law that passed in Washington in 1916, three years before Prohibition.
Lots of interesting stories in all this. In our fallen era, we're left with Seafair and the tawdry Seafair Pirates. Well, okay, we did have the WTO riots not too long ago, didn't we? Maybe things haven't changed so much around here after all.