The Mine That Stood Still: How One Man’s Leave Sparked a Labor War in Newcastle

THE MINERS' STRIKE.

Newcastle, Wash. — The Newcastle mine remains closed due to a conflict between the Knights of Labor and the mining company. Mr. Milner will arrive today at noon to hear claims, after which the situation will be assessed.

There has been some agitation among the miners recently, but no serious trouble has occurred. Mr. Morgan, superintendent of the Newcastle mine, stated yesterday that he would not start up more miners than were necessary to keep those already working from getting rusty, and he refused to take back any men who had left their posts until the trouble was settled.

THE ARBITRATION COMMITTEE

A little during the past few days, and as soon as possible, the company will be in the hands of the miners. As a representative of the miners, I shall withdraw myself from the difficulty until the men settle their troubles among themselves. However, Mr. Milner, Treasurer, and a number of others came to me today in Mr. Milner's office, thinking that he would do better by them than I, showing that the company would take Kenny Ramsay back, everything would turn all right, and the miners would start up. That is not true. As soon as we should take Ramsay back, the Knights of Labor would demand that we take back a definite list of twenty workers without asking who they are, and their places have been filled by others. When three strikers were reinstated, they would then demand that the workmen of their order be re-employed and none other. That means that a committee must own in the employ of the company shall dictate to their employers who they shall and who they shall not employ, who they shall and who they shall not discharge under this arrangement the company would make no arrangement or no representative at the mines, and all they would have to do would be to send a laymaster to the mine once or twice per month to pay off the men. I feel confident the company would insist on having something to say about who shall be employed at the mine and who shall not be employed, and for that reason I have refused to commence any negotiations with them.

"What have you to say about Ramsay?"

"The facts in regard to Kenny Ramsay are as follows: Ramsay has been at Newcastle for a long time, and been in the company's employ a greater portion of that time. He was an experienced and capable man, and was employed by the company by the month. He came to me on Saturday and said he would like a few days' leave of absence and must get away in half an hour. Although it inconvenienced me greatly I let him go and went with him twice to the office, so that he could draw what was due him before he started. During the last conversation I had with him I told him I would put Vaughn in his place until such time as he came back, when he should have his job back and I would find something else for Vaughn. He left, apparently well satisfied, and the next I saw of him he was AT THE HEAD OF A MOB.

"He attempted to shut down the mine. This is the reason the Knights of Labor now demand the company to take him back into its employ."

"Will Franklin be closed down?"

"I think not. A committee from Newcastle went over there on Saturday to induce the miners to come down the mines, but from all that I can learn they did not meet with much encouragement.

THE FRANKLIN MINE

We realize that this is a row between two labor organizations at an end, and very wisely refuse to mix up in the affair at all."

"How soon will the Newcastle mines start up?"

"I do not know, but I feel sure that if it is kept shut down much longer, the company may safely say at South Prairie, take out the pumps and let the mine fill with water. As long as the Franklin mine is kept running, the company can get along very well, and especially during the summer months."

THE OILMAN MINE

"Have the Oilman miners left Seattle?"

"No, they have all gone, and we only have the Newcastle men to deal with. Some of them do have will a crowd of four or six hundred men and go to Franklin and shut down the mine, but I don't take much stock in such threats, as the main body of laboring men in this country must have some real grievance, or we see great injustice being done, before they will resort to such high-handed measures as have been proposed."

The Master Workman.

"How are things in Newcastle?" said a reporter to Frank Terrare, master workman of the Newcastle assembly, Knights of Labor, yesterday. "Everything is quiet," was the reply, "and I think there will be no trouble in settling the difficulty when Sir Milner arrives from Victoria tomorrow, as our RELATIONS WITH THIS COMPANY

Are one of the best, and it must pity that such a small matter should cause such trouble. The arbitration committee is now here awaiting Mr. Milner's return. We have Ramsay with us to see Mr. Morgan, the superintendent, is also in the city. We hope that when Mr. Milner returns tomorrow the trouble will be settled satisfactorily and the men can resume work at once."

"How do you think it will benefit? By Ramsay's reinstatement?"

"I don't care to say just now, but I think the old hands will go back to work. Some of the mine men went to the mine the morning to go to work and we one treated them. They decided, however, to wait until the matter was settled."

The committee's claims.

County Miner Willcox, along with Frank Terrare, in the city as a committee of the Knights of Labor to meet Mr. Milner, said yesterday: "We will tell Mr. Milner that Kenny Ramsay had nothing to do with the cause from Oilman to Newcastle; that some men from Newcastle went over to Oilman, where Ramsay was taking his leave of absence, and told him that his discharge was the cause of the trouble because they wanted Vaughn, under all the work, would not work, had been put in his place. We will also give Mr. Milner the following:

Ramsay said that he could not go back today and take my place in the morning. The crowd of men came from Oilman on their own account to run out with the company at Newcastle about the trouble. Neither Ramsay nor any one else threatened the breach out at a point of a pistol or at all. The arms were not pulled and nobody fired the union men out with pistols, and no man in the crowd exhibited a pistol handle. Ramsay went into the streets to go down into the mine, made them off, and told them that the way was defective, and that with such a crowd when it got to the end of the chain it would break and close the ladder and kill them all. To get the crowd from going down or at once I told the men in the same that the boys are not to go down. I told Ramsay the trouble was a fixed point between us and the company, but we do not take him as a bad man as the country believes him to be a false friend of labor."