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Home / Washington Business - January/February 2004 / AWB Celebrates 100 YEARS - Part I: 1904-1970 |
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AWB Celebrates 100 YEARS - Part I: 1904-1970 |
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Written On: January/February 2004 |
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Written By: By Scott Carlson |
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Before its induction into the Union on Nov. 11, 1889, Washington’s first businessmen were fur trappers making their living off beaver, otter and other animal pelts. These early explorers took advantage of the wide-open desert hills of what is now eastern Washington and the lush, green forests west of the Cascade Mountains.
After Washington was granted statehood, manufacturing, logging and farming would follow, rounding out the new state. After the construction of transcontinental railway was completed, a major influx of producers and consumers would make their way westward across the country to find a new beginning in the Pacific Northwest. By 1890, there were 518,000 people living in Washington state.
Today, employers, employees and a population of six million have put the Evergreen State on the map as a leader in many industries.
The Weyerhaeuser and Simpson Timber companies have been providing the U.S. and foreign markets with lumber while replenishing forests here in Washington. The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railroad Co. and Boeing have climbed to the top of the transportation industry, moving millions of people and tons of much needed goods all over the world. Microsoft has been on the forward tip of the high-tech spear for decades, developing some of today’s most advanced computer systems.
Over the last 100 years, there has been one constant in Washington’s economy and legislative lobbying; a small group of business-savvy individuals acting as the state’s chamber of commerce – the Association of Washington Business (AWB).
This year, the Association of Washington Business celebrates 100 years of representing the state’s employers in the legislative arena. Since 1904, industry heads have been coming together under the umbrella of AWB to make Washington a place where businesses have an opportunity to thrive and provide jobs to residents – 100 years of legislative wrangling to create a business-friendly and competitive state.
AWB has stayed on course with these missions and goals over the last century. Even though AWB represents some of the world’s largest companies who call Washington home, almost 75 percent of the Association’s membership base consists of businesses with 50 or fewer employees.
“We believe in harmonious industrial relations between employer and employee, and that the latter should receive adequate compensation and timely advancement for his services, measured by his individual efforts,” states a 1920s informational pamphlet put out by the Federated Industries of Washington (FIW), an early name of AWB.
From the beginning, the AWB had established itself as an organization that was advantageous for Washington state’s businesses to be associated with. Every legislative session has been a time for hard work and little play for the Association as it has advanced its business-oriented agenda.
For example, a gentleman by the name of John H. McIntosh headed up the Federated Industries of Washington (FIW) in the 1920’s. In a report given to members at an annual year-end meeting in Seattle, McIntosh described that year as the most strenuous year of important work ever encountered by the FIW.
“At the very outset, starting with the session of the state legislature, there was issue after issue of major importance to be dealt with,” he wrote.
The report continued to say that the Association’s progress had been steadily forward and calls from 75 percent of members for various services and support had been taken by his staff.
“The member who seeks assistance or advice is always interested,” he concluded.
The Association, which was then located in Seattle’s White Henry Stuart Building, continued to grow. Its membership base was constantly expanding, solidifying the organization’s name and influence in the state capital and across Washington.
“We shall not countenance any employer who does not pay a fair day’s wages for a fair day’s work, nor any employee who shirks a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay,” continues the FIW pamphlet.
The words may have taken on a whole new meaning during the darkest industrial and economic times ever experienced by businesses in the United States or abroad; the Great Depression.
In October of 1929 the stock market crashed, leaving millions of Americans jobless with nowhere to turn. That is is the same year AWB member PACCAR Inc.’s Renton plant fell into disrepair due to declining business.
The market would rebound and dive over and over again, until June of 1938.
The FIW executive committee received a telegram from General Hugh Johnson. The General invited the Association to, “ … use its influence in making a success of [President Hoover’s] Emergency Reemployment Campaign.”
“I would suggest that your local organizations offer their services to the local campaign committee of their respective cities,” Johnson wrote.
The FIW executives stepped up to the plate and agreed to comply with the request to help get America back on track.
The United States would be pulled out of the Great Depression by World War II after Japanese bombers all but destroyed the Pacific Fleet. With the deployment of hundreds of thousands of American troops to Europe, North Africa and the West Pacific, assembly lines and factories back home would be packed with employees as tanks, trucks and ammunition rolled off production floors and warships were launched from dry docks from coast to coast.
Sherman tanks were leaving the PACCAR’s Renton plant. Boeing began manufacturing the B-17 Flying Fortress, one of the first planes to make daylight bombing raids on Germany. Pendleton Woolen Mills was weaving blankets by the ton to keep troops on the front lines warm. Americans, rich and poor, were doing their part to support the war effort, freeing Europe and Asia from the tyranny of evil regimes.
Some may claim the war was won after atom bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in August of 1945. But if not for the engineers designing aircraft, craftsmen and women sewing parachutes and clothing, and gunsmiths turning out a weapon that could fire true, American troops would never have marched through Europe or sailed through the Pacific as successfully as they did.
During the war, the FIW had merged with the Manufacturers Association of Washington and became the Association of Washington Industries (AWI).
Around the same time, Washington Gov. Arthur Langlie was dedicating the new Seattle-Tacoma Airport, earthquakes were rocking the Northwest and Washingtonians were witnessing the state’s first wide-audience television broadcast.
World-wide attention would be drawn to Seattle and its businesses, big and small, during the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair. The Space Needle would be erected in commemoration of the seven-month fair, forever changing the Seattle’s skyline. The 6,000-ton structure has become one of the most recognizable architectural landmarks in the world.
Architecture also played a vital role for AWI in 1967. With its new building completed, the Association would madke a big move from downtown Seattle to its present location in Olympia. In 1971, AWI would expand to include the Washington Retail Council, giving the Association a new name, the Association of Washington Business.
“With the growing influence of government in our daily lives, it is difficult to over-emphasize the need for a continued interest and involvement in public affairs at all levels,” said 1969 AWB President C. David Gordon. “An enlightened public is the greatest guarantee for a governmental climate that will allow business to operate in a productive and competitive manner, and also provide the maximum of freedom for all of us as private citizens as well.”
“This has been the bedrock of AWB’s long-term goals when each legislative session begins and measures are endorsed or drawn up by the AWB Governmental Affairs team,” said AWB’s 17th President Don Brunell. “Mr. Gordon’s words are still pertinent today.”
From the Industrial Revolution to high-tech evolution, Washington state has been forged by a broad spectrum of business leaders and industries. At the forefront of the group is the oldest and most influential business organization in the state. As long as Washington’s business jungle is cluttered with bureaucratic undergrowth, AWB will be leading the way for its members, creating a path to a more competitive and business-friendly state.
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