The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1919-09-05
FANNIE SELLERS Is
MURDERED BY GUNMEN


been received by President Harlin,
of the State Miners Union, from Of
ficers of the Miners Union in Penn
svlvania. reporting the murder in
the foulest conceivable manner OF
Mrs. Fannie Sellins, an organizer for
the Miners Union.
Mrs. Sellins will be remembered
by large number of Washington
unionists as the representative of
the striking St. Louis Garment
Workers. who toured this State IN
1912, soliciting funds for the st.
Louis strikers. She has since that
time been employed by the Miners
Union as an organizer.
The telegram is as follows:
"Pit+sburgh. Pa, Aug. 20, 1919:
Mr.. Robt. II. Harlin, 405 Mutual Lie
Bldg, Seattle, Wn.
For YOUR information / am sendtns
YOU a copy of telegram ! nave lo[-
warded to President Wilson, WHICH,
is as follows: 1,;don+
United States Of America, Whlte
House. Washington, ID. c. The rep
resentatives of District No. 5, Unlteu
Mine Workers of America. represent
ing approximately forty-flVe Ihou-
sand coal miners in Western fehh-
svIvania. do hereby request that
Federal investigation be given us LOT
the purpose of fixing the respolis,-
bility for the most shocking uoupIe
murder that has ever peen ColIiill.
tod in the history of Allegheny
Countv In order that you may ap-
nreciate the circumstances surround
| ing the murders we might cite llat
six weeks ago the employees at tne
mine of the Allegheny steel Conh-
rorv located at Breckenridge, Ha.'
unanimously requested the lilio
workers organization to assist theHl
in the establishment of a local loose
of the United Mine workers aI
Breckenridge, Pa. The represeieaa
| tives of the mine workers ~ aep,S
to the request of the coal miners III
| structed a committee of their EXecu-
! five BOARD to make an investigation
and discover the condition unoer
which the men were required 10 Ia
| bor The result of the mine work
| org investigation revealed the TACT
| that the mine workers at tnls pdi
| ticular mine were determined 10
cure the establishment OF our UNION
primarily for the purpose or protect-
| ing their interest and improving
their conditions of labor and short
ening their work day from a ten
hour to an eight hour day. The Oh
ficials of the mine workers orgahiH-
alton. in order to work out a. harhlo
nious. arrangement, requested tne vi
ficials of the Allegheny steel COM
many to meet with them for the pur
pose of working out an amlcaple
working arrangement between 'le
employer and employe. rms, no"
e,ier the officials of the Allegheny
steel Company refused to do. Ihere-
upon the mine workers at Bracken-
ridge inaugurated a strike. rms
strike has been in progress tor the
mast six weeks. The mine workers
union has been and is now support
ing the striking miners, their wives
and children. No disturbances hau
arisen at an ytime between the strlk-
ing miners and the officials OF the
company, but on Tuesday morning,
August 26, the chief deputy advised
the mine workers committee that
thev had better look out today, that
they proposed to make 1t mlghty
rough for the coal miners. The same
day the deputies numbering anout
thirty. arrived in Breckenridge from
the city of Pittsburgh. each man
fully equipped with riot gun. Ihat
same afternoon the mine guards ana
deputies, with their riot guns over
tn cir shoulders, marched up on the
public highway and proceeded to fire
shots at a number of men, women
and children who were grouped
around their own homes. While the
DEPUTIES were firing into the crowd,
an old man y-eight years or age,
who was a coal miner, peaceable.
aw-abiding citizen, not a member or
the strikers committee, came walk
ing down the public road. The dep
uty, seeing him coming, walked over
to him and insisted that he was
striker and told him he was going
to beat him up. The deputy then
proceeded to use a mace on the old
mans head, and when he had beaten
him into a helpless pulp, the depu-
ties stood over his PROSTATE body ana
fired five shots into his back, KILL
ing him instantly.
A Mrs. Fannie Sellins, employed
by District No. s, United Mine work
ers, as an organizer, was there at
tending TO the women and children,
and seeing the foul deed committed
by the mine guards and deputies,
she Immediately turned upon them,
begging for Gods sake that they dol
not kill this old man. Mr. Norman
Adams, superintendent of the mine,
standing not more than twenty feet
from Mrs. Sellins, ran to his depu-
ties and ordered them to kill Mrs.
Sellins. Fearing that they would
murder her, along with a number of
other women who were there, she
made an attempt to run into neigh
bors yard for shelter, and was shot
in the back by one of the deputies.
She just reached the fence OF the
neighbor's yard when three more
shots were fired at her, one piercing
the back of her head, one going
through her jaw and anotheri
through her temple. The effect of
the bullets killed Mrs. Sellins in
stantly. However, not perfectly sat
isfied with the foul work they had
done, the superintendent Mr.. Adams,
ran over and dragged the dead body
by the heels to a waiting automobile,
threw her into the machine along
with the other dead body, that of
Mr.. Sterzlescki, who was shot at the
same time and at the pitch of his