Hellraisers Journal: News From Strike Zone of Michigan’s Copper Country; Threats and Mob Attacks Against Union Miners

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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday December 14, 1913
Michigan Copper Country – MacNaughton’s Eye, Threats and Mob Rule 

News From Michigan Copper Country

From the Michigan Miners Bulletin of December 2, 1913:

“Seen by the Search-Light” is a regular feature of the Miners’ Bulletin and refers to “MacNaughton’s Eye,” the giant searchlight that James MacNaughton, manager of the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company, has had erected on top of the main tower situated in the middle of the town of Calumet, Michigan. The searchlight roams about the streets of Calumet, keeping a watchful eye on strikers and scabs alike. It shines into windows of the homes of the residents, interfering with a peaceful night’s rest. Of course most of those streets, the houses, and the property upon which the town itself sits, is owned by C & H. Therefore, we suppose, MacNaughton has a perfect right to make of the town something resembling a prison.

Seen by the Search-Light

Senator James, in his office staring at the labor situation of the day, and concluding to remain silent; to draw the votes from both sides at election time.

James Torreana, the Laurium scab supporter, at mid-night when the Hyena walks around the graveyard walls, going to meet the modern Judas A. C. Marinelli, to furnish him with news of strike-breaking nature.

Mike Bargo, the Italian scab herder at the telephone, communicating some scabious news to the “Gazette.”

A small man with spectacles riding a bicycle, from West Portland St. to the office of “The Italian Miner” of Laurium, with a parcel of written matter for publication.

Paul Tinetti looking at Pietro Micca’s picture.

5th St.-The green grass growing in front of Keckonen store, but no other place for lack of pollen matter in the seeds.

[Emphasis added.]

Regarding the “green grass growing,” we will remind our readers that MacNaughton has vowed that “grass would grow in the streets” of Calumet before he would treat with the Western Federation of Miners. This kind man has also vowed to teach the strikers and their families how to eat potato pairings.

Poetry from Miners Bulletin of December 2, 1913:

THE WORKER
By Berton Braley

I have broken my hands on your granite,
I have broken my strength on your steel,
I have sweated through years for your pleasure,
I have worked like a slave for your weal.
And what is the wage you have paid me.
You masters and drivers of men?
-Enough so I come in my hunger
To beg for more labor again!

I have given my manhood to serve you,
I have given my gladness of youth;
You have used me, and spent me, and crushed me,
And thrown me aside without ruth;
You have shut my eyes off from the sunlight,
My lungs from the untainted air;
You have housed me in horrible places.
Surrounded by squalor and care.

I have built you the world in its beauty,
I have brought you the glory of spoil;
You have blighted my sons and my daughters,
You have scourged me again to my toil.
Yet I suffer it all in my patience,
For somehow I dimly have known
That some day the worker will conquer
In a world that was meant for his own!

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Monday December 8, 1913
Painesdale, Michigan – Boarding House Attacked, Three Dead, Girl Wounded

At 2 o’clock Sunday morning someone opened fire on the boarding house in Painesdale, run by Thomas and Julia Dally for non-union Cornish men. Harry and Arthur Jane, brothers, both died instantly from head wounds. Thomas Dally was also struck in the head, and died a few hours later. A young girl was struck in the shoulder, and was treated at the scene.

At sunrise, Anthony Lucas, prosecuting attorney for the area, was called to the scene by Sheriff Cruse. Lucas was surprised to find the Sheriff in the company of the Waddell Detective, Raleigh, the same Raleigh who is now a defendant in the murder of our union brothers at Seeberville. Raleigh was bailed out, at great expense, by a local mine superintendent.

We plainly state, here and now, that we deplore these murders, and that the guilty should be brought to justice. However, we find it interesting that the Waddell men, on duty near Cornish boarding house, carry high-powered rifles which use ammunition of the same caliber as the shells picked up from the snow at the scene of the shooting. Not one single Waddell guard on duty near this boarding house responded to the shooting. Three Waddell men were in the guard headquarters, and yet they seemed strangely unconcerned as thirty-two shots were fired from high-powered rifles at a home just across the street from them.

The Daily Mining Gazette wasted no time in fixing the blame for these shootings upon the Western Federation of Miners. Its headline this morning read:

Foreign agitators must be driven from district at once.

The papers’ president, William G. Rice, is one of the few admitted leaders of the Citizens’ Alliance.

We are left to wonder what would happen to the Miners’ Bulletin should it begin to advocate the driving-out of James MacNaughton who answers to Boston, and not to the people of the Keweenaw.

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Tuesday December 9, 1913
The Daily Mining Gazette Publishes Threat Against the Western Federation of Miners

Today’s edition of the Gazette published an announcement of meetings and rallies of the Citizens’ Alliance to be held tomorrow in various cities of the Keweenaw. William G. Rice, the president of the paper is a known leader of the Citizens’ Alliance. Therefore, this threat can be interpreted as coming from Mr. Rice himself:

Full details have not been worked out, that is as to speakers and plan of action to follow the meetings. In a broad way the purpose, it is understood, is to notify the Western Federation of Miners, Agitators, that they have twenty-four hours in which to leave the district; if they do not act upon this notice they will be sent out of the district in the manner that suggests itself as most convenient and effective. This is the purpose of the Citizens Alliance of Houghton and Keweenaw counties.

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Thursday December 11, 1913
The Keweenaw, Michigan – Citizens Alliance Holds Rallies, Mobs Attack W. F. of M.

There is no evidence linking the Western Federation of Miners with the Dally-Jane murders. In fact, Prosecuting Attorney Lucas found evidence at the scene which links the Waddell-Mahon men to the crime, and further notes that these gunmen were headquartered near to the boarding house when it was shot up. Nevertheless, the Citizens’ Alliance has fixed the blame for these murders upon the W. F. of M, and with the aid of the mine owner’s newspapers is loudly advocating that the W. F. of M. be driven from the Copper Country.

Yesterday, mass rallies were held across the Keweenaw by the Citizens’ Alliance, well attended as mine owners gave the scabs working in their mines the day off. The rallies were followed by mob-attacks upon union halls and union members. And small wonder that mobs were worked up into a frenzy, considering vile speeches given at the rallies.

At the Amphidrome in Houghton, this is a bit of the speech given by John A. Doelle, chairman of the rally:

Why is it that a community that was free for years from robbery, is not free at present? Why is it possible that innocent young women are being followed and chloroformed in order that they may be robbed of their virtue?

We could, perhaps, suggest that hundreds of gunthugs, imported by the mine operators, could be the cause, but let us continue. This is part of a speech by Reverend J. R. Rankin:

My sentiments since the beginning of this labor trouble, and I expressed them to some of the leading men in this town, are that the agitators of this trouble should be deported; driven out of the county, for I claim today that they were the cause of all this trouble and crime that has been committed…That kind of a man [a W. F. of M. man] has no right to the protection that that flag affords. That man has no right to live in a country were that flag floats.

As union halls were being raided by the mobs yesterday, the law did nothing to stop the attacks, indeed, the deputies were right there in the middle of the roving mobs along with the Waddell men and the members of the Citizens’ Alliance.

The Western Federation sought a restraining order against the Citizens’ Alliance from Judge O’Brien which was granted:

ABSOLUTELY AND ENTIRELY DESIST AND REFRAIN From in any manner interfering with, molesting or disturbing Charles H. Moyer, John C. Lowney, Yanko Tersich, Ben Goggia, Mor Oppman, Peter Jedda, William J. Rickard or by way of threats, personal violence, intimidation or by any means whatsoever, calculated or intended to compel Charles H. Moyer [et al.] to leave this District against their will All of which WE STRICTLY COMMAND YOU TO OBSERVE until the further order of this court in the premises.

However, we are hearing reports that, restraining order or no, the mob-attacks are continuing today.

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Friday December 12, 1913 – The Keweenaw, Michigan
-Raids Continue Against Union and Socialist Halls and Homes

In spite of the injunction granted by Judge O’Brien, raids continue against the Western Federation of Miners and their Socialist allies. There is no-one to arrest the members of the Citizens’ Alliance or the Waddell men, for the Sheriff and his deputies are participating in these raids. The union hall in South Range which is shared with the Socialist, has been attacked. The door was broken down without a warrant and shots were fired. There were women and children in the hall at the time of the attack. Eighteen Finns were arrested.

The Citizens Alliance uses the fire whistles of the various towns to call forth their mobs for riot duty. The Deputies and Waddell men join the fray when summoned.

In Red Jacket, the union relief store was attacked early this morning. The reason being that the union men were reported to have guns. The conclusion being that only those in the mob of the Citizens’ Alliance and the imported company gunthugs should have guns. Homes in Franklin, Raymbaultown, Laurium, and Ahmeek, have also been raided without warrants and searched for guns, homes of striking miners, that is, not the homes of scabs, nor of the imported gunthugs, nor of the upstanding citizens of the Citizens’ Alliance, nor of the mine operators.

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SOURCES & IMAGES

Mother Jones, Stick Together, MI Miners Bulletin p1, Aug 14, 1913
Copy in possession of Janet Raye

Miners’ Bulletin
“Published by authority of Western Federation of Miners
to tell the truth regarding the strike of copper miners.”
-Dec 2, 1913
Copy in possession of Janet Raye

Big Annie of Calumet
A True Story of the Industrial Revolution
-Jerry Stanley
Crown Publishers, 1996
(search: grass potatoes)
https://books.google.com/books?id=cXHhAAAAMAAJ

Death’s Door
The Truth Behind Michigan’s Largest Mass Murder
-by Steve Lehto MI, 2013
https://books.google.com/books?id=CdQ-nQEACAAJ

Rebels on the Range
The Michigan Copper Miners’ Strike of 1913-1914
-by Arthur W. Thurner
MI, 1984
https://books.google.com/books?id=I4DhAAAAMAAJ

See also:

“The Italian Miner”
https://www.1913strike.mtu.edu/immigrants.html

Pietro Micca
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietro_Micca

The Daily Mining Gazette (Houghton, Mich.) 1899-Current
https://www.loc.gov/item/sn83016612/

Tag: Michigan Copper Country Strike of 1913-1914
https://weneverforget.org/tag/michigan-copper-country-strike-of-1913-1914/

RE TRUTH, published by the Citizens’ Alliance
-from Lehto’s Death’s Door:

By December, the Alliance was publishing its own newspaper, Truth. The December 2 issue claimed a membership of 8,675 and reminded readers, “You Promised ‘To Wear at All Times WHERE IT CAN BE SEEN’ the Button Indicating Your Membership.” The buttons were round and white, with the words “Citizens Alliance” in tall red letters. The paper was filled with anti-union rants-often in all capital letters…

None of the diatribes were signed; there was no reference to anyone at the paper, nor an address given where they might be reached. The only possible hint of ownership-and it wasn’t all that revealing-was the line beneath the title: “Published by authority of the Citizens Alliance to tell the truth about the Western Federation.” The printing costs were paid by Calumet & Hecla, at the direction of MacNaughton.

PHOTO TRUTH
https://www.1913strike.mtu.edu/tumult.html

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