SERVING ORGANIZED LABOR IN OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON SINCE 1900
NORTHWEST
LABOR
PRESS
VOLUME 121, NUMBER 16
120th
ANNIVERSARY
LABOR DAY
Special Edition
PORTLAND, OREGON
AUGUST 21, 2020
Labor Press celebrates 120th Anniversary
Portland unions in 1900 started
the Labor Press because of the
lack of coverage of labor activ-
ities by the commercial press.
The Portland Federated Trades
Assembly, the city’s labor
council of that era, announced
in the new newspaper—the
Portland Labor Press— that
“the trade unions of this city
have organized the Portland
Labor Press Publishing Associ-
ation ... in order to educate the
wage-workers upon the various
phases of the modern labor
movement, as well as to
strengthen, protect, and pro-
mote their interests. Its object is
to publish a weekly paper ...
and to give to the wage-work-
ers, as well as the general pub-
lic of this city and state, reliable
information concerning the lo-
cal as well as international la-
bor movement.”
Today—two decades into its
second century—the Labor Press
pursues those same objectives.
The Labor Press printed
weekly for its first 81 years. In
1915 the newspaper’s name was
changed to Oregon Labor Press at
the request of the Oregon State
Federation of Labor. It was forced
to go to twice-a-month frequency
in 1982 to cope with a doubling of
postage rates. In 1986 the logo
was given the transitional name of
Oregon/Washington Labor Press,
and a year after that came the
changeover to Northwest Labor
Press—to reflect the newspaper’s
role as the only surviving provider
of general labor news in the Pa-
cific Northwest. It continues to
publish semi-monthly on the first
and third Fridays.
In the early days, Labor Press
circulation hovered around
10,000. By age 50 it had broad-
ened its reach to 25,000 house-
holds, with circulation peaking in
1975 at 69,000. Average circula-
tion today is 55,000, although
some issues (such as this anniver-
sary edition) go to more than
70,000 households because of
specialized local union newslet-
ters that are attached to the news-
paper. Articles are also published
on line at nwlaborpress.org.
Throughout its lifetime, the La-
Otto R. Hartwig, president of the Oregon Federation of Labor from 1916 to
1924, looks at the 1917 bound volume of the Labor Press.
Zoe Wilson, chair of the Portland women’s division of Labor’s League for
Political Education, works a dial phone while reading her Labor Press in
1955.
bor Press has been delivered by
the all-union United States Postal
Service as Second Class or peri-
odical (time certain) mail.
Since its founding, the Labor
Press has changed editors 13
times, but has had only five edi-
tors since 1914.
The first editor was H.B. Met-
calf, who held the job just two
years. His union affiliation isn’t
known. Printer H.G. Kundret of
Multnomah Typographical Union
No. 58 came next. He left after
three years because he’d been
elected secretary-treasurer of the
Oregon State Federation of Labor,
which had been formed in 1902.
Another printer, R.A. Harris, fol-
lowed in the editor’s chair, but his
occupancy was short-lived be-
cause he supported Democrat
William Jennings Bryan for pres-
ident in 1908 in opposition to the
labor council’s choice—Republi-
can William Howard Taft, who
won.
Then came H. J. Parkison, a
lawyer-carpenter who’d moved to
Portland from California in 1905.
He practiced law from an office in
the Labor Temple and also was
business manager of the Labor
Press while Harris was editor.
Parkison belonged to Carpenters
Local 808, which later lost its
identity in mergers. Parkison once
disguised himself as a hobo and
succeeded in getting himself ar-
rested for vagrancy in order to get
an account of the conditions in the
city jail. After three years as edi-
tor, Parkison left the paper for
other pursuits.
Clarence Mortimer Rynerson,
another printer-editor member of
Typographical No. 58, succeeded
Parkison early in 1911, but ill
health caused him to leave after
only three months. However, he
was to be heard from later.
William A. Marshall, another
printer, was the next editor. It was
common in bygone decades for
printers to also possess editorial
skills. In fact, the International Ty-
pographical Union claimed organ-
izing jurisdiction nationwide as
being the logical union to repre-
sent the staffs of labor newspa-
pers.
Editor Marshall was given the
appellation “godfather of the
state’s workmens’ compensation
law” in recognition of his leader-
ship in the initiative petition cam-
paign that led to a ballot measure,
approved by voters, establishing
an insurance system to provide fi-
nancial benefits to injured work-
ers and to the dependents of work-
ers killed on the job. In 1912, Gov.
Oswald West, known for saving
Oregon’s ocean beaches for the
public, appointed Marshall to the
first State Industrial Accident
Commission to administer the
new workers’ compensation in-
surance system.
Another printer, Arthur
Lawrence, became interim editor
in 1912 while doubling as secre-
tary pro tem of the Portland Cen-
tral Labor Council. He also repre-
sented the printing trades unions
on the Labor Press board of direc-
tors. Lawrence ran the paper
briefly until A.H. Harris was ap-
pointed Marshall’s successor.
There is no indication that he was
related to the earlier editor with the
same last name. But Harris, a
printer-editor, moved on in 1914
after only a two-year stint.
It was commonplace for earlier
generations of printers, reporters
and editors to move from city to
city, working on one newspaper
after another, as though they re-
garded life as one long job hunt.
Turn to Page 29
Unions blast
USPS changes
Trump’s newly appointed post-
master is removing sorting ma-
chines and slowing the mail
By Mark Gruenberg
WASHINGTON, D.C. (PAI)—
The National Association of
Letter Carriers (NALC) has
filed a national grievance
against Postmaster General
Louis DeJoy. DeJoy became
postmaster general June 15 and
promptly fired or reassigned
two dozen top post office exec-
utives and imposed an overtime
ban that slows the mail down.
Since then, USPS has been re-
moving mail sorting machines
from facilities around the coun-
try without any official explana-
tion or reason given.
DeJoy is a prominent sup-
porter of President Trump who
has given almost $1 million to
Turn to Page 7
Labor Day union
picnics canceled
This year’s Labor Day picnics in
Oregon and Southwest Wash-
ington have been canceled due
to COVID-19 pandemic con-
cerns. Large gatherings are
banned by governors orders un-
til there’s a reliable treatment or
vaccine for the coronavirus.
It will be the first time since
1985 that Northwest Oregon
Labor Council (NOLC) hasn’t
held a picnic on Labor Day.
NOLC hosts one of the largest
Labor Day events west of the
Mississippi at Oaks Park in
Southeast Portland, attracting
18,000 people.
Picnics traditionally have also
been hosted by Lane County,
Central Oregon, Southern Ore-
gon, and Marion-Polk-Yamhill
labor chapters; all are cancelled.
Southwest Washington and
Cowlitz-Wahkiakum central la-
bor councils also canceled their
joint picnic at Haydu Park in
Kalama. Last year was their in-
augural event.