King County Mining Towns Denounce Labor Unrest
Citizens in Franklin and Newcastle rally to condemn strikers in Idaho and Pennsylvania, pledging support for those who continue to work.
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 citizens of Franklin to the number of over 100 held an open-air mass meeting on Friday evening to pass resolutions concerning the recent events at Homestead and Coeur d'Alene. Dr. J. J. Smith was chosen chairman and H. R. Sanderson secretary. W. P. Williams opened the meeting with a short speech. Mr. Diggs, one of the colored citizens, then made an excellent speech of some length, after which the chair appointed a committee of five to draft resolutions. The committee presented resolutions condemning the action of the Coeur d'Alene mine workers and the Homestead mill workers in their cowardly and unlawful assassination of non-union men and interference with the rights of property owners. The resolutions stated that Pinkertonism is preferable to lawlessness and pledged financial aid to those seeking employment who were driven away by the mob. Similar resolutions were passed by the citizens of Newcastle on the same day, calling the actions of the strikers unworthy of American citizens and akin to anarchism.
“Resolved, That we condemn the action of the striking miners in the Coeur d'Alene district... as being unworthy of American citizens, and worthy only of the anarchist and the lawless ruffian.”
This reflects a volatile period in Pacific Northwest labor history, where the violent suppression of mining strikes in the Coeur d'Alene mountains was a major civic concern. The tension between union mobilization and the property-owning class continues to define the political discourse of the region over a century later.
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