The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-06-01
THE MINERS AFFAIRS
Details of the Negro Shooting
Affair at Franklin.
WHITE MEN INTEND TO STAY
Some Of Them Selling Out and Leaving
why Black Diamond Men
Joined the Strike.


the city yesterday and told the story OF the
shooting OF negro ct that place on Friday
night, as related by an eyewitness. He says thar
a eolored woman had left the man with whom
abe came from st. Louis and was living Win
another man. The abandoned lover was crazed
with jealousy, and went TO the house where the
couple are living to seek vengeance. He nreo
two shots from q 44-caliber revolver up the
stairs at his rival, who stood at the top. The
second shot entered the breast, took an upward
course and came out near the collar-bone, in
ficting only a slight wound 1t was Impossible
to learn the mems names, as the guards prevent
communication between whites and blacks.
The same man said: "The negroes have es-
tablished two houses OF prostitution in the
upper end Of the town and are running them
openly. Fights occur there almost nightly and
the women 60 about the town drinking and
using vile language in the hearing of children.
These houses are right among q number OF
houses occupied by respectable white people
"The white miners are generally settling
down to fight il out with the company. NOT
more than twenty have left the place and only
about five have sold out to the company A
number OF the miners who had houses at
Franklin have been working at Black Diamond
and other mines and are living at the places
where they work. They have given up their
houses to other miners TO live in, rent free.
Some white men have been asked to go to work,
but they refused to work with the negroes, as
they are determined that the camp shall be
either all black or all white.
"some of the guards are spelling for fight.
One of them was heard TO say to another after
the white miners meeting last Sunday that, If
he had had his way, he would have fired on the
procession as it was going down the road to the
flats. Such men az he are only restrained by
their officers.
"Most of the negroes are at work, about 800 OF
them in the mine. but fifty whites could get out
as much coal a. they are mining If the results
they attain are any criterion, the importation OF
the negroes will not be paying investment.
"Some of the negroes have tried to get their
children admitted to the school, but they were
told that no new admissions could be made this
term, as it is nearly ended. The negroes were
satisfied with this explanation. and so the diff
Guilty In regard to the school is postponed until
next term. good many things may happen
before that time to change the situation"
superintendent Corey was in the city yester-
day, and said that all was going well. "The
coored men are all at work. he continued,
"and the whites are leaving every day, many OF
them being bought out by the company. The
shooting on Friday was not serious affair, and
the man who did it has been in irons ever
since"
A number of the white men at Franklin have
received an intimation that II they like to go to
work at Newcastle, they are at liberty to do so
but IL Is not intended to work any more white
men at Franklin, at least for the present.
A train of twenty-five cars of coal arrived from
franklin on Saturday. Work will be resumed
at the Columbia & Puget Sound shops in this
city today.
ing Saturday, came from Gilman and not Frank
lin, as stated. He was implicated In the fatal
riot at Newcastle about two years ago, and still
has relatives there.
The following letter was addressed to the
PosT-INTELLIGEScER yesterday, explanatory Of
the position of the Black Diamond miners in the
present dispute:
FRANKLIN, May 81, 1891.
To THE EDITOR: IN todays issue of your
paper appears an interview with Morgan Nor
gans, superintendent of the Black Diamond
mines, in which he states his reasons why the
miners of Black Diamond should go to work.
Consequently, in justice to the public and the
miners themselves, they, the miners, should ex-
plain their side OF the question.
About one year ago two gangways were started
from the foot of one of the new slopes at Frank
lin. one going north and the other south. They
were driven Sufficient distance to win out
about sixty or seventy breasts. A little work
was done in the first and second breasts, but all
work on said breasts was suspended some time
In the beginning OF September last. Since that
time and until the negroes were shipped in all
work was at a standstill, and the miners to the
number OF 80 were laid Off work, and through
the promises OF the management lay around
from that time until now awaiting the
opening OF the mines. Before the miners
were shut down the Oregon Improvement Com
pany entered into a contract with the Black
Diamond Company to supply its demands for
coal. This was done in order to starve out the
miners OF Franklin so that they would be sub
missive creatures, and at the will and mercy of
T. B. Corey when he brought In his negroes
from the East The above plot was a precon.
certed movement, got up by the two companies
in order to reduce wages and compel the miners
TO work from ten to twelve hours per day in the
mines. II this was not the case, why was ii
that the mine was kept shut down so Ion e. and
SO many men kept lying around idle?
The Black Diamond company stands in the
same position today to the Oregon Improvement
Company as it has always done. Allow the
Black Diamond miners to go to work tomorrow,
and with the coal produced there and negro coal
at the Franklin mines, there would be no re-
dress for the white miners of Franklin
A FRANKLIN MINER