Labor Tensions Flare Over City Appointments
The Knights of Labor claim Seattle's mayor is prioritizing corporate security over working-class interests.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The Knights of Labor have come to the conclusion that Mayor Ronald is not their friend. He not only passed by Robert Bridges, one of their leaders, in distributing patronage, but he gave an office to Du Rose Fitten, whom they place among their enemies. Fitten was one of the guards at the Gilman mines last summer during the strike, and is therefore denounced by the strikers and their friends as a thug. On one occasion when he was escorting a party of the new men, called by the strikers 'scabs,' through the town, he lingered behind and, when somebody in a group of strikers shouted 'Scab' at him, he pulled a revolver and threatened to shoot if they molested him. He was arrested and fined $5 and costs on a charge of assault by Justice Vaughn, of Gilman. The Knights of Labor remember him, for one of them has sent a communication to the Post-Intelligencer recalling these facts.
“Fitten was one of the guards at the Gilman mines last summer during the strike, and is therefore denounced by the strikers and their friends as a thug.”
This clash over municipal appointments and the hiring of strikebreakers as 'guards' mirrors contemporary debates about the role of private security in labor disputes and who city administrations truly serve. The tension between municipal power and the influence of unions remains a core feature of Seattle's civic identity.
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