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Hellraisers Journal – Friday January 16, 1914
Houghton, Michigan – Cheering Crowd Meets Moyer and Tanner at Station
From the Miners Magazine of January 15, 1914:
From the Miners’ Bulletin of January 9, 1914:
From the Michigan Miners’ Bulletin of January 14, 1914:
Strikers Hold Monster Meetings
———-Thousands Renew Their Allegiance to
the Western Federation of Miners
———-During Friday and Saturday of last week monster meetings of the striking miners were held at Hancock, Calumet and Ahmeek at which several noted men addressed the assemblages. The result of the visit of governor Ferris in settling the strike was soon discovered to be of no consequence, and as a result these meeting were called in protest of his weak and vacillating attitude in the matter. The Governor while here conducted his conferences in a very tactful and evasive way, and tread lightly on the toes of both warring factions. However since his return to his native haunts, he is credited with having made some statements that do not reflect much credit on the attitude he took while in the copper country.
The Governor’s remarks in question were substantially as follows: “That if the strikers and Mine Owners would get together without the assistance of agitators, the strike would soon be settled,” or in their words, if the strikers went to the Mine Owners and begged for their jobs back, tore up their union cards and conceded every point to the Mine Owners, they would be gladly put on the pay roll again.
The Governor would have us believe that an “agitator” is of some peculiar species, whose sole aim is to create discontent then to intensify it by creating more discontent and so on ad infinitum. The foreign agitator referred to by the Governor is not nearly so insistent as the home product of which every striking miner in the district must be classed. Should the strikers and Mine Owners get together and settle the industrial war it could not be done without some agitation on the part of the strikers if they were conceded a single point, and the Governor knows this as well as does the strikers.
The Governor is as persistent in his overt desire to see the Western Federation eliminated from the district, as are the Mine Owners. His wishes in this matter, however will not be fulfilled, and he might as well understand this first as last…
[Paragraph breaks added.]
The Governor (Democrat of Michigan), apparently, wasn’t listening when James MacNaughton told the thousands of striking copper miners and their families that grass would grow in the streets before he would negotiate with them, and that further, he would teach them to eat potato parings.
Many fine speeches were delivered at the mass meetings by such noted speakers as Charles Edward Russell of the Socialist Party of America, now in the copper country investigating conditions, James Lord of the United Mine Workers of Illinois, Seymour Stedman of the Illinois Legislature. Due to his recent gunshot wound at the hands of the Citizens’ Alliance mob, W. F. of M. President, Charles Moyer kept his remarks brief. He, nevertheless, received a long enthusiastic ovation.
The Bulletin reported:
When he arose to walk to the front of the stage the cheering and waving of hats and handkerchiefs began and did not subside for fully fifteen minutes.
So much for the “coercion” of “outside agitators.”
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From the Miners’ Bulletin of January 14, 1914:
Whole Responsibility on Mine Owners
By CHARLES EDWARD RUSSELL
Member of the Socialist Party
Investigating CommitteeNext to the impression of wide spread misery and distress caused by this strike, the strongest impression one gets from an investigation of it is that all of the suffering, all the bloodshed, all the loss of life, all the fierce hatred engendered, were absolutely unnecessary. From this conclusion I can see no escape after reviewing the situation as it really is.
There was not one thing in the demands of the men that was not perfectly reasonable, nothing that was not just, nothing that was extravagant, nothing that the companies could not well afford to grant.
The employing companies include some of the richest mining concerns in the world. The increased expense that would be caused by granting the demands would have been but a trifle compared with their enormous profits. It is admitted that the cost of living in the copper country is very high; it is also admitted that this cost is and has been increasing steadily. Unless the miners were to be definitely condemned to greater privations, a worse standard of living, and still narrower prospects than they had previously endured an increase in their earnings was unquestionably necessary…
The real reason why the companies rejected the demands of the men was the bitter hatred the mine mangers felt toward organized labor. There was no consideration of any question whether the men were right or wrong. There was no consideration of the justice and necessity of the men’s demands. The only thing considered was that these men were members of a labor organization and any demand coming from organized labor was to be suppressed no matter what its nature or its justice.
That is the sole thing that precipitated the strike, and that is why I say the strike was absolutely unnecessary, and sole blame for it and its consequences rests upon the employers. For this is not a case in which one can say that there was wrong on both sides. The mere fact that the employers would not treat with their employees in itself puts all the blame upon one side, and that the side of the employers.
[…..]
[Emphasis added.]
From The Cincinnati Enquirer of January 16, 1914
-Houghton Grand Jury Indicts 39 Union Men:
Houghton, Mich., January 15-The Houghton grand jury this morning returned thirty-nine indictments against the labor leaders who have been in charge of the striking miners since July 23, when the strike order was issued in response to a referendum vote from the miners.
The grand jury, which has in its membership five mine superintendents and the chauffeur of James McNaughton, [sic] superintendent of the big Calumet and Hecla interests, charged President Cha. H. Moyer, of the Western Federation of Miners; Vice President C. E. Mahoney, Guy E. Miller, Janco Trzich [sic], J. C. Lowney and W. P. Davidson, members of the executive board of the Western Federation, with riotous conspiracy. Thirty other men, leaders and members of the district and local unions of the Western Federation of Miners, are also under indictment.
Several Names Suppressed.
Conspiracy, as charged in the indictment, constitutes a misdemeanor under the Michigan law, which also declared that misdemeanor indictments can be read before the capias has been served, while felony warrants must be suppressed until after the indicted men are under arrest. Four felony indictments were returned by the grand jury and warrant for one of the indictments was prepared. No arrests had been made at a late hour to-night, and the names of the men in the felony charges are therefore unavailable….
[Emphasis added]
Perhaps we will find that these four felony indictments were issued for members of the Citizens’ Alliance mob who, within the county of Houghton, did beat, shoot, kidnap, and then deport Charles Moyer, President of the Western Federation of Miners. But, somehow, we doubt that anyone will ever be indicted, much less punished for that cowardly crime against a union man.
Or, perhaps, a John Doe warrant might have been issued for the man who, while wearing a Citizens’ Alliance button, cried fire at the Children’s Christmas Party thereby causing the deaths of 72 men, women, and children. Somehow, we doubt that any attempt will ever be made to find and/or punish that murderer, seeing as how the victims were striking miners, their wives, and little children.
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III
https://www.iww.org/history/library/MotherJones/autobiography/3
Miners Magazine
(Denver, Colorado)
-Jan 15, 1914, Cv+3-4
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112043506416&seq=563
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/miners-magazine/v14-n551-jan-15-1914-Miners-Magazine-goog-hathi.pdf
Note: this is the last issue of Miners Magazine that can be found online thus far.
Miners’ Bulletin
(Copper Country, Michigan)
“Published by authority of
Western Federation of Miners
to tell the truth regarding
the strike of the copper miners.”
-Jan 9, 1914, p1
-Jan 14, 1914, p1
Copies in possession of Janet Raye.
Death’s Door
The Truth Behind Michigan’s Largest Mass Murder
-by Steve Lehto
MI, 2013
https://books.google.com/books?id=CdQ-nQEACAAJ
See also:
Hellraisers Journal – Friday January 9, 1914
From Miners Magazine: “Human Rights Shall Not Be Murdered in America-
President Moyer [in Chicago] After Operation”
Jan 15, 1914, The Calumet News p1+6
-38 WFM Leaders and Members Indicted
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86086633/1914-01-15/ed-1/seq-1/
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86086633/1914-01-15/ed-1/seq-6/
“Report of Victor L. Berger, Charles Edward Russell, and Seymour Stedman, Appointed by the Socialist Party of America to Investigate the Michigan Strike. Report of Michigan Strike-Complete Statement of Facts-Miners’ Claims Indorsed”
https://books.google.com/books?id=xUhJAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA699&dq=report+%22socialist+party+of+america%22+russell+michigan+copper+strike&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjtj8br8eKDAxUQO0QIHaR0Ce0Q6AF6BAgLEAI#v=onepage&q=report%20%22socialist%20party%20of%20america%22%20russell%20michigan%20copper%20strike&f=false
From:
Conditions in the Copper Mines of Michigan, p699
-U. S. House of Representatives Subcommittee, 1914
https://books.google.com/books?id=xUhJAAAAYAAJ
Tag: Charles Moyer
https://weneverforget.org/tag/charles-moyer/
Tag: Italian Hall Massacre
https://weneverforget.org/tag/italian-hall-massacre/
Tag: Michigan Copper Country Strike of 1913-1914
https://weneverforget.org/tag/michigan-copper-country-strike-of-1913-1914/
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Tom Morello, The Nightwatchman – “The Road I Must Travel”