Seattle Denounces Corporate 'Pinkertonism'
Thousands gather at Pioneer Place to protest the use of armed private forces against labor, following the violent Homestead Riot in Pennsylvania.
From 1,500 to 2,000 people assembled at a mass-meeting on Pioneer Place last evening to pay their respects to Pinkertonism and its part in the Homestead riot. William J. Larkin presided, and the meeting was addressed by J. R. Kinnear, James Hamilton Lewis, E. J. Jeffries, and P. H. McKernan. John R. Kinnear condemned the Pinkerton system, stating he had introduced bills in the legislature to abolish it, but was blocked. He argued that no man had a right to maintain an armed force and that civil authorities were constituted to protect life and property. James Hamilton Lewis compared the actions of corporations hiring Pinkertons to George III maintaining troops in the American colonies, warning that if disputes between employer and employed are settled by bullets, free government is a failure. The crowd adopted resolutions demanding that Congress investigate the Homestead riot and stop the entrance of armed bodies into the state disguised as protectors of private property.
“If disputes between employer and employed are to be settled by bullets, then free government is a failure.”
The 1892 protest against the Pinkerton Detective Agency reflects an ongoing tension in Seattle’s history regarding corporate power versus public safety. While modern debates often focus on the scope of private security in downtown Seattle, this era’s fierce rhetoric regarding 'corporate greed' and 'armed thugs' mirrors modern labor movements and debates over the privatization of public order.
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