America’s “Fighting Mayor” vs the 1919 Seattle General Strike

Communist-backed unions shut down major city for the first time in US history

This article is a part of an ongoing series on the First Red Scare. The last two entries in this series were a recounting of a forgotten anarchist bombing campaign that paralyzed New York City in 1915 and a reproduction of several intelligence reports from the American Expeditionary Force in Siberia during the Russian Civil War (1917-1921). Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to support my work, it really does make a difference in my life.

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Ole Hanson (January 6, 1874 – July 6, 1940) was the sort of man who made this country great. Ole’s parents were Norwegians who immigrated to the United States to take advantage of the Homestead Act, which gave free government land to American citizens or prospective citizens in the hopes of settling the enormous frontier. He was born in a log cabin in Wisconsin. The family had very little to their name except 6 healthy children. Ole was their first child born in the United States.

Ole was a child prodigy. By 13, he was teaching at the local schoolhouse. He worked nights at a tailor’s shop so he could spend his days studying law. He passed the Bar exam at 19, two years before he would even be eligible to practice. In 1902, he and his family were seriously injured in a train derailment in Texas. Two of his daughters were killed and doctors concluded that Ole would never be able to walk again.

Ole, however, refused to accept this. His idol was Theodore Roosevelt, then President. As a child, Roosevelt had been diagnosed with asthma and a number of other physical ailments. Doctors claimed that even slight stress could kill him. Roosevelt ignored their advice and set about a regime of strenuous exercise. By the end, his illnesses had disappeared and Roosevelt was a giant of a man.

Ole knew that story and followed Roosevelt’s lead. He constructed an elaborate sling and harness system that would allow him to walk unassisted. He then walked with his family alongside a covered wagon containing all their possessions to Seattle. His supposedly permanent disabilities disappeared as he undertook the long journey, at first in immense pain. It’s reported that when Hanson first saw the lights of Seattle while approaching the city at night, he declared that he would be mayor one day.

After bouncing between several different jobs and then pursuing a long and successful political career, he eventually was elected mayor in 1918. Following the example of Roosevelt and other Progressive Republicans, he ran on a platform of improving working conditions, especially for people in industrial settings. He didn’t get to enjoy the position in peace for long.

The end of WWI was followed by enormous labor unrest in the United States as returning troops reentered a very crowded labor market. The successful Russian Revolution had accelerated union organizing to a fever pitch. In 1919, unionized dockworkers, influenced by the communists, refused to load ships bound for areas of Russia still controlled by the anti-communist White Army. The arrival of a mysterious Russian vessel, supposedly containing money and Bolshevik agents, was followed by thousands of pamphlets praising revolutionary activity throughout the city.

This agitation was accompanied by a wave of real-world violence. On January 13, leftists staged huge demonstrations blocking all traffic on a major road (against city ordinance) and attacked police who tried to move them off the street. A police captain was brutally swarmed and almost stabbed by the mob. The assailants disappeared into the crowd.

Marauding leftists cursed and randomly attacked uniformed soldiers and sailors they encountered. A off-duty Marine was sucker punched by a passing laborer. When the assailant was captured with the help of passersby he was revealed to be a 20-year-old Russian immigrant. The communist-controlled International Workers of the World (IWW) union immediately provided lawyers and bail money for 13 rioters who police managed to arrest. It was an organized conspiracy.

On February 6, 1919, shortly after the official World War I Armistice was signed, a massive alliance of labor unions, including the IWW, declared the first General Strike in American history in Seattle. At the time Seattle had a population of 300,000. That day 65,000 workers walked off the job. The entire city shut down. No work could occur. Nearly all businesses closed. The city was at the mercy of the unions.