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Hellraisers journal – Wednesday September 10, 1913
Profiles of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Inez Haynes Gillmore, and Caroline Lowe
From The Progressive Woman of September 1913:
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Month: September 2023
Hellraisers Journal: John Lawson Arrives in Trinidad; Frank Hayes and Mother Jones to Return Soon, UMW Officials Gathering
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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday September 9, 1913
Trinidad, Colorado – John Lawson Arrives from Denver
From the Trinidad Chronicle-News of September 8, 1913:
Hellraisers Journal: From the Michigan Copper Miners’ Bulletin: The Story of a Strike Heroine, in Her Own Words
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Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 8, 1913
Heroine of the Michigan Copper Strike Tells a Story of Fighting Scabs
From the Miners’ Bulletin of September 6, 1913:
Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones in Southern Colorado; Delagua Coal Miners Discharged; Gunthugs Threaten Union Hall
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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 7, 1913
Southern Colorado Coal Camps – Mother Jones Arrives; Union Miners Discharged
From the Denver United Labor Bulletin of September 6, 1913:
Hellraisers Journal: Kearsarge, Michigan-Margaret Fazekas, Age 14, Shot in the Head by Deputies While Performing Picket Duty
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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday September 6, 1913
Kearsarge, Michigan – Young Margaret Fazekas Shot Down by Deputies
From The Calumet News of September 2, 1913:
[…..]
Saturday September 6, 1913
Keweenaw Peninsula, Michigan – Girl, fourteen, shot in head, not expected to live.
Disturbing stories of violence against the women and children in the Michigan Copper Country Strike Zone are making there way out of the area. A young fourteen-year-old girl was shot in the head when deputies opened fire on a strikers’ parade. The girl is Margaret Fazekas. She was shot near the Kearsarge shaft during the Labor Day parade by Sheriff Cruse’s armed deputies.She was rushed to the hospital and was not expected to live.
On September 4th, a guardsmen was so enraged by a woman waving a broom and cursing at him that he threatened her:
I’ll fix you so that you won’t handle a broom anymore!
The guard attempted to tie her to his horse for the purpose of dragging her along the ground. However, his plan was thwarted when more women came running to her aid, pelting the guardsmen with rocks and sticks.
Militiamen routinely ride their horses into the strikers who gather for any reason, and, by this practice, a small child has been injured in Laurium.
But it is for the children that the strike must go on, for as one woman said pointing to her children:
These are the ones we are striking for. You don’t want to see them bent and crippled before their time, do you?
Another woman joins the picket lines even though her husband is dead, killed in the mines leaving her with four young children. She said:
Men killed, company pay nothing. Many families get poor by strike, but maybe men win. I hope so.
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Hellraisers Journal: From the Miners Magazine: Appeal to the Labor Movement from Michigan Copper District Union No. 16
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Hellraisers Journal – Friday September 5, 1913
Hancock, Michigan – W. F. of M. District Union No. 16 Appeals to Labor Movement
From the Miners Magazine of September 4, 1913
-Dan Sullivan, C. E. Hietala, and John H. Walker Sign Appeal to Labor Movement:
…..Now, we turn to you, the organized workers of this country, in our hour of need. We stand united, determined to win. We are fighting one of the richest mining corporations in the world. It is as heartless as it is rich.
We have nothing but empty hands, our wives and children. They are urging us on, helping in the struggle. A northern winter will soon be here. We must have food and fuel. We are fighting this battle for all. We are willing to endure any sacrifice. The copper barons hope to drive us back to the mines through the hunger of our wives and children That is the only thing that can defeat us. Bayonets do not scare us, and thugs won’t mine copper.
If the mine managers of this district knew that the American labor movement was behingd us, that you would not see us defeated for the lack of bread, the fight would be won now.
Speak so that the copper kings and the world will know that you are behind us in this strike with your dollars as well as sympathies…..
[Emphasis added.]
Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks on Labor Day to Miners at Thurber, Texas; Travels by Train to Trinidad, Colorado
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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 4, 1913
Mother Jones Speaks to Miners at Thurber, Texas; Travels to Trinidad
From the Fort Worth Record of August 31, 1913:
From the Trinidad Chronicle-News of September 3, 1913:
Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Visits with Eugene Debs at His Home in Terre Haute, Indiana; Debs Speaks on Populism
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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 3, 1903
Terre Haute, Indiana – Mother Jones Spends Day as Guest of Eugene Debs
From The Cincinnati Enquirer of September 1, 1903:
ECHO OF THE PAST
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Is Populism, Says Eugene Debs, the Labor Leader.SPECIAL DISPATCH TO THE ENQUIRER
Terre Haute, August 31.-Eugene Debs, who has closed his Chautauqua engagement, spent yesterday at home, with Mother Jones as his guest. In regard to the conference at Denver to revive the Populist party, Mr. Debs says:
The committee on the exhumation of issues and galvanization of corpses reported both in a state of satisfactory preservation. There is no inspiration in a cadaver. Populism is an echo of the past, with gray whiskers on it. The Denver funeral procession and its Populist pallbearers present a sorry picture in contrast with the advancing, enthusiastic, confident, cheering, revolutionary hosts of International Socialism.
[Photographs and emphasis added.]
Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: The Michigan Copper Miners’ Strike by Edward J. McGurty, Part II
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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday September 2, 1913
“Copper Country” of Michigan – Striking Copper Miners Standing Firm
From the International Socialist Review of September 1913:
The Copper Miners’ Strike
By Edward J. McGurty[Part II of II]
So far [the mine operators] have been unable to intimidate the miners. The men are standing firmly. Parades are held every day along the 28 miles which comprise the range. Meetings of from three to six thousand are held every day in Calumet, Hancock, South Range and Mass City. There is no sign of weakening on the part of the men. They are determined upon a victory. They will refuse to submit to the slavery of the Copper Kings any longer. Thirty years of it has been enough.
The principal bone of contention at present is the recognition of the union. The men have made up their minds on this point. The mine-ownes have also apparently done so. The struggle is on in earnest. The miners are up against tremendous odds. They have absolute solidarity in their ranks, however, and that means a great deal. They are going to win! The copper barons are already desperate!
August 5th. The enclosed affidavit was sent to Ferris on the 29th of July and Ferris has absolutely refused to take the troops from this county. They are still in Keweenaw county at this writing.
Hon. W. N. Ferris, Governor,
Lansing, Michigan.I, John H. Hefting, sheriff of Keweenaw county, Michigan, hereby certify, that I was requested and urged by certain mining officials to call troops, and I refused as I did not see any necessity, inasmuch as there had been perfect peace and order and not a single infraction of the law committed since the strike commenced. The said mining officials urged me to get your permission to call upon General Abbey for troops, in case I needed them and not otherwise. My intention was not to call troops into this county. On July 29, 1913, several troops appeared at the boundary line, and I protested against troops being brought into this county as conditions did not require it. Whereupon one of the officers of the army stated to me that if I did not permit the troops to enter Keweenaw county at that time, that no matter how bad conditions became even though the location would burn down, they would not give any assistance thereafter. The telegram was made out by the attorney for the company and my attention was called to sign it. I requested them to give me time to consider the case at least one day, but their answer was that I must decide at once. Therefore I request you to withdraw all troops from this county.
Respectfully yours,
JOHN HEFTING,
Keweenaw County Sheriff.Subscribed and sworn to before me this day, the 29th of July, 1913. My commission expires March 4, 1917.
]. A. HAMILTON,
Notary Public.The newspapers here carried on a three-day campaign to form a “back-to-work” movement and yesterday got one of the company tools to act as chairman, surrounded on the platform by shift and trammer bosses, at a meeting called by the Calumet & Hecla Co., to appoint a committee from the workers to meet with the bosses, and as the chairman put it, find out on what terms the C. & H. would allow its employes to go back to work. The miners saw through the game immediately and refused to “fall” for the game. They started the cry of “scab” and left the hall for union headquarters.
Mother Jones arrived today [morning of August 5th] and was met at the depot by the strikers. They stood bare-headed in two lines two miles long, while she went through to the union hall. She refused to ride in an automobile which had been brought for her. Ten thousand strikers will pack the Palestra and neighboring halls tomorrow to hear her. She will then go over the range, addressing meetings in the various “locations.”
Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: The Michigan Copper Miners’ Strike by Edward J. McGurty, Part I
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Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 1, 1913
“Copper Country” of Michigan – Western Federation of Miners Issues Strike Call
From the International Socialist Review of September 1913:
The Copper Miners’ Strike
By Edward J. McGurty[Part I of II]
THE territory known as the “Copper Country” of Michigan is a peaked peninsula lying to the north of the Upper Peninsula. It is washed on three sides by the waters of Lake Superior, embracing the counties of Keweenaw, Houghton and Ontonagon.
The country is rich in copper and has one of the deepest incline shafts in the world, the Calumet & Hecla No. 7, at Calumet, which goes down about 8,000 feet. The Calumet & Hecla Company, with its subsidiaries, owns and controls practically all the property up here. For the past thirty years there has been no labor trouble here of any consequence. In that time the C. & H. has paid out $125,000,000 in dividends on an original capitalization of $1,200,000. The employes, many of them Cornish miners, have not revolted for years. They have submitted to every injustice and to tremendous exploitation.
For a number of years it was impossible for the Western Federation to make any headway in the Upper Peninsula. Attempts at organization have been met by the sacking and firing of men. Little could be accomplished. Gradually the Federation formed organizations at various points along the range. The Finns were very zealous in keeping activity alive. This last year especial efforts have been made to organize the men of the various nationalities. Those working in the mines are Cornish, Finnish, Croatian, Italian and Austrian. Up to May first, about 7,000 men were taken into the union.
The companies have worked a pseudo-contract system and cheated the men outright. They have paid low wages, many of the men getting as low as a $1.00 a day and some even less. The shifts have been long, running as high as twelve and thirteen hours. Last year the companies installed what is known as a “one-man” drill which is a man-killer.
It was the straw that broke the camel’s back in the copper zone. On the night of July 22, men went from one end of the range to the other, on foot and in rigs rousing the miners and making known the strike order. The next day there were 15,000 mine-workers who had laid down their tools. Smelter-men, surface-men, under-ground-men, all were out and the copper mines were tied up as tight as a drum. Then the men who had not already joined the union began to make their way to the offices and in a few days 90 per cent of the miners were organized.
Directly the men went out the sheriff of Houghton county deputized about 500 men and sent them about to create trouble. They provoked the strikers to the breaking point and there were 500 deputies without stars or guns in a short time. There were also a few of them went to the hospitals.
The papers here, under the control of the companies, have, as usual, lied about the strike, slandered the strikers, burned the “locations” up in their columns; killed law-officers, etc. The second day of the strike the sheriff acting under orders from McNaughton, $85,000-a-year-manager of the Calumet & Hecla, requested troops from Governor Ferris. Without any investigation of the situation Ferris ordered the entire state militia dispatched here. Protest after protest has been made by the people here, because the presence of the troops is for the purpose of creating trouble. But Ferris stalwartly keeps them here.
The commander of the troops is a real, dyed-in-the-wool conservative. He says that the refusal of the union men to work the pumps and keep water from flowing into the mines amounts to the DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY. Even in times of industrial war, the mine-owners are accustomed to meek wage slaves that pump the water out of the mines.
The troops have ridden up the streets of Calumet and Red Jacket at night on horse-back and have ruthlessly clubbed innocent men and women conversing on the side-walks. They knocked down an old man of 70, and threw a baby out of a buggy onto the pavement. They have shot at strikers all over the range when the strikers were doing picket duty.
