La Conner pioneer reached labor's pinnacle

Another day, another dollar.

More than a familiar lament, it was truly a way of life for one of La Conner’s more famous – or infamous, depending on your political leanings – native sons.

Hulet M. Wells, born in 1878 on a farm near town, toiled in hayfields as a young man for a buck a day.

He also worked variously as a railway section hand, postal worker, street paver, logger, miner and shingle weaver.

And that’s just to name a few.

But his eventual calling was that of a labor activist, a role that led Wells in 1912 to run for mayor of Seattle. His name appeared on the ballot in that crossroads...