The West Seattle Seine Clash
A standoff on the flats between unionized fishermen and independent dealers turns violent as the harbor becomes a theater of industrial war.
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 Fishermen's Union held a meeting last evening and completed arrangements to sell their fish to D. Drysdale, of the Point Roberts cannery. The union fishermen succeeded in preventing by force any fishing being done in the harbor yesterday, and Arthur C. Dunn, of Ainsworth & Dunn, fish dealers, was the most disgusted man in town. Mr. Dunn attempted to have his men fish for some salmon on the flats near West Seattle and when he came back remarked that there was no protection for a man in this country unless he was a thief. Mr. Dunn's firm owns a seine which is kept at West Seattle where the fishing crew live. He went over to have the seine fished and his men were beaten by the union fishermen. When he arrived on the west side he was informed by the union men that they would not be allowed to fish. He got out the seine and entered the boat himself, calling on his crew to follow. They attempted to do so, but Martin Banich, chairman of the executive committee of the union, and Schafferland assaulted one of Mr. Dunn's men, Antone Juravich, striking him several times. The other union men set on, Mr. Dunn says, like a pack of wolves, and his men were frightened off.
“Mr. Dunn remarked that there was no protection for a man in this country unless he was a thief.”
Labor disputes over control of the waterfront were foundational to Seattle's history. The 'fishermen's war' illustrates the raw, physical combat that preceded the formalization of modern maritime labor relations.
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