A Strike Argument at a Shingle Mill Ends with a Knife in a Man's Abdomen
Two mill hands fall to blows over the strike question; the ex-preacher parries a club and stabs the man his neighbors call crazy on the industrial question.
B. M. Howell and A. H. Baker, workmen at Moore's shingle mill near this city, became involved in a discussion over the strike this afternoon. Their arguments finally came to blows, and Baker took a big club and made a pass at Howell, who parried it and a moment later stuck his pocket knife into Baker's abdomen. Baker was brought to town and is now in a critical condition. He is regarded as crazy on the Commonweal and industrial question, while Howell is an ex-preacher and ex-deputy county auditor. Baker has a large family. Howell has given himself up.
“He is regarded as crazy on the Commonweal and industrial question, while Howell is an ex-preacher and ex-deputy county auditor.”
Labor disputes at Northwest shingle mills could turn violent fast, and this knife fight over the strike question shows how the industrial battles of the 1890s reached individual workers on the shop floor. The tension between a steady wage and a strike — and what it does to a community that has to live together afterward — is one Washington timber towns still remember.
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