The Labor War Veteran's Guard was organized in Seattle during the 1919 general strike to preserve order. Numbering about three-hundred volunteers from a local veteran's organization, and based on this quote from H. Zinn's book, it was a successful example in the U.S. of an alternative to conventional police forces, and perhaps one of the most successful examples of collaboration between labor and veterans in the U.S..
"A Labor War Veteran's Guard was organized to keep the peace. On the black board at one of its headquarters was written: 'The purpose of this organization is to preserve law and order without use of force. No volunteer will have any police power or be allowed to carry weapons of any sort, but to use persuasion only.' During the strike crime in the city decreased. The commander of the U.S. army detachment sent into the area told the strikers' committee that in forty years of military experience he hadn't seen so quiet and orderly a city." A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn.
"A Labor War Veteran's Guard was organized to keep the peace. On the black board at one of its headquarters was written: 'The purpose of this organization is to preserve law and order without use of force. No volunteer will have any police power or be allowed to carry weapons of any sort, but to use persuasion only.' During the strike crime in the city decreased. The commander of the U.S. army detachment sent into the area told the strikers' committee that in forty years of military experience he hadn't seen so quiet and orderly a city." A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn.
