The Seamen's Union and the Dynamite Scare
A wave of paranoia hits the Pacific Coast as authorities hunt for a fugitive sailor linked to a fatal San Francisco bombing.
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 Sailors' Union of the Pacific is reported to be in a very bad way. The recent dynamite outrage on Main street, by which Curtain's non-union boarding house was blown up and four men killed, is generally attributed to the Sailors' Union. The authorities in San Francisco and Port Townsend believe that Fred Johnson, alias Wilson, a Swede sailor whom they suspect as being implicated in placing a dynamite bomb in John Curtain's boarding house, has visited Puget Sound. Chief Hickman ascertained that a Swede sailor completely tallying with the description had been here and was seen in conversation with union sailors. The suspect shipped aboard the Kingston and left for Victoria. Since that time nothing has been heard of the man.
“Last night over 150 members slept on the floor and in the corridors of the union headquarters.”
The fear of 'radical' labor violence was a staple of 1890s journalism, framing the Coast Seamen's Union as a dangerous entity. This highlights the historical precarity of maritime workers during an era of extreme labor-capital violence.
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