Category: Michigan Copper Country Strike of 1913-1914

Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “The Gunmen and the Miners” by Eugene Victor Debs

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote Mother Jones, Clean Up Baldwin Gunthugs, Speech Aug 4 Montgomery WV—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday September 2, 1914
Eugene Debs Advocates for Creation of a Gunmen Defense Fund

From the International Socialist Review of September 1914:

The Gunmen and the Miners

By Eugene V. Debs

Death Special, ISR p727, June 1914

The time has come for the United Mine Workers and the Western Federation of Miners to levy a special monthly assessment to create a GUNMEN DEFENSE FUND.

This fund should be sufficient to provide each member with the latest high power rifle, the same used by the corporation gunmen, and 500 rounds of cartridges.

In addition to this every district should purchase and equip and man enough Gatling and machine guns to match the equipment of Rockefeller’s private army of assassins.

This suggestion is made advisedly and I hold myself responsible for every word of it.

If the corporations have the right to recruit and maintain private armies of thieves, thugs, and ex-convicts to murder striking workingmen, sack their homes, insult their wives, and roast their babes, then labor unions not only have the right but it is their solemn duty to arm themselves to resist these lawless attacks and defend their homes and loved ones.

To the miners especially do these words apply, and to them in particular is this message addressed.

Paint Creek [West Virginia], Calumet [Michigan], and Ludlow [Colorado] are of recent occurrence.

You miners have been forced out on strike,and you have been made the victims of every conceivable method of persecution.

[For attempting to organize,] you have been robbed, insulted and treated with contempt; you have seen your wives and babes murdered in cold blood before your eyes.

You have been thrown into foul dungeons where you have lain for months for daring to voice your protest against these cruel outrages and many of you are now cold in death with the gaping bullet wounds in your bodies to bear mute testimony to the efficacy of government by gunmen as set up in the mining camps by the master class during the last few years.

Under government by gunmen you are literally shorn of the last vestige of liberty and you have absolutely no protection under the law. When you go out on strike, your master has his court issue the injunction that strips you of your power to resist his injustice, and then has his private army of gunmen invade your camp, open fire on your habitations, and harass you and your families until the strike is broken and you are starved back into the pits on your master’s terms. This has happened over and over again in all the mining states of this union.

Now the private army of gunmen which has been used to break your strikes is an absolutely lawless aggregation.

If you miners were to arm a gang of thugs and assassins with machine guns and repeating rifles and order them to march on the palatial residences of the Rockefellers, riddle them with bullets, and murder the inmates in cold blood, not sparing even the babes, if there happened to be any, how long would it be before your officials would be in jail and your unions throttled and put out of business by the law?

The Rockefellers have not one particle more lawful right to maintain a private army to murder you union men than you union men would have to maintain a private army to murder the Rockefellers.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Michigan Miners’ Bulletin: “Copper Strike Declared Off”-Men Must Surrender Their Union Cards in Order to Return to Work

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Stick Together, MI Mnrs Bltn p1, Aug 14, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday April 15, 1914
Keweenaw Copper Country of Michigan – W. F. of M. Declares Strike Off

From the Michigan Miners Bulletin of April 14, 1914:

MI Copper Strike Off, Mnrs Bltn p1, Apr 14, 1914

Copper Strike Declared Off
———-

By Referendum Vote Taken Sunday Demands of Men Granted
With But One Exception.–Strikers Return to Work
———-

At a meeting of the District Union held Wednesday April 8th in which every local of the Federation in this district was represented, it was decided that, if the strike was to be continued, the relief benefits would have to be reduced, and that accommodations would have to be furnished for several hundred families now living in company houses. After thoroughly debating the subject, it was decided to put the matter before the men on strike. Meetings were arranged for the Ahmeek and Calumet locals on Friday and the Hancock and South Range on Saturday when the strikers were informed of the proposed reduction in benefits, and of other obstacles confronting them.

Two propositions were put to the men viz: To either make further sacrifices regarding benefits, or return to work which was put to a referendum vote on Sunday with the result that the men decided on the latter. At the meetings held prior to taking a referendum of the proposition, the question was thoroughly discussed, and the men realizing that all concessions asked at the time of the calling of the strike had been granted by the Mining Companies with the exception of recognition of the union, they felt as though this demand might be waived, and that they could return to work with the feeling that the strike had been practically won.

If the refusal of the Mining Companies to recognize the Western Federation of Miners does in any measure prove balm to their wounded feelings, and give them a sense of having retained their dignity to the end, well may it be cherished in their bosoms. Their only demand is that all union men returning to work must surrender of his union membership card, but whether the fires of unionism which finds a home in his breast can be quenched by forcing a man to renounce his organisation remains to be seen. The turning of the pages of time will only tell. The need of organization among the working classes is forcing itself upon us more day by day, and it it does not devolve on the Calumet & Hecla, the Homestake, nor any corporation to stay the wheels of progress….

The strike with its attendant privations, suffering and sacrifice, the determination and valor displayed by the men and women in the ranks has been a stimulus to organized labor throughout the nation, and instead of a defeat, it is one of the most glorious victories ever achieved by the workers. You have gained ground that will never be retaken. The Western Federation of Miners and organized labor everywhere yet consider you striking copper miners as a part of the great army fighting for the liberty of the working class.

Your sacrifices and indomitable courage in this fight, your privations during the past nine months is proof positive of your agreement and pledge to the principles of united action which you are now called upon to repudiate. God knows it was barely possible for a man with a family to subsist on the meager benefits furnished by your brother worker, but he who so freely gave his small wage made almost as much sacrifice as you have made. He furnished subsistence while you fought at the front. You are comrades, brothers, and an injury to one is the concern of all….

All the beatings, insults,and bloodshed, all the lives crushed out in the Italian hall disaster where some half hungered innocent little children were trampled and smothered to death cannot be laid at the door of the striking miners. The victory you have wrested from the hands of organized greed is bathed in the blood of those of your class whose lives were needlessly sacrificed upon the gory altar of capitalism. This fight for industrial freedom is no child’s play, and requires men of nerve and courage as well as brawn, intelligence, and a determination born of desperation. Can you fill these requirements? Can you measure up to the full stature of the independent manhood? Cast bigotry, hatred, prejudice, nationality and religious bondage to the Four winds and stand out a clean cut workingman, class conscious, and with every drop of your blood, fight the battle of your class. Herein lies your only hope, and the hope of the world.

———-

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Hellraisers Journal: Annie Clemenc, on Fund Raising Tour with Ella Reeve Bloor, Tells of Her Fights for Labor’s Cause

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Carlo Tresca re Annie Clemenc, Daring Woman, Freedoms Banner Iola KS, Feb 7, 1914—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday March 14, 1914
March 4th at Milwaukee Federated Trades Council
-Annie Clemenc Speaks on Michigan Copper Strike, Beaten, Slashed, Shot At

From The Milwaukee Leader of March 5, 1914:

Annie Clemenc Tells of Her Fight MI Copper Strike, Mlk Ldr p1, Mar 5, 1914

From The Dayton Herald of March 13, 1914:

Annie Clemenc w Mother Bloor on Tour, Dayton Hld p15, Mar 13, 1914Annie Clemenc w Mother Bloor on Tour 2, Dayton Hld p15, Mar 13, 1914

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Hellraisers Journal: “Calumet Witnesses Repeat Charges That Man Wearing Alliance Button Started Christmas Eve Death Rush.”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Stick Together, MI Mnrs Bltn p1, Aug 14, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday March 12, 1914
Calumet, Michigan – House Committee Hears Testimony on Italian Hall Disaster

From The Indianapolis Sunday Star of March 8, 1914:

SWEAR STRANGER STIRRED UP PANIC
———-
Calumet Witnesses Repeat Charges That
Man Wearing Alliance Button Started
Christmas Eve Death Rush.
———-

STORIES OF WITNESSES VARY
———-
Prosecutor Conducts Inquiry to Determine
Truth of Story That Children Died
as Result of Premeditated Plot.
———-
Citizens Alliance Button, MI Cpr Strike 1913-1914, Copper Country Historical Page

CALUMET, Mich., March 7.-Persons who testified before the coroner’s inquest last January that a man wearing a “Citizens’ Alliance” button started the Christmas eve panic, here in Italian Hall today, repeated their assertions before Representatives Taylor of Arkansas and Casey of Pennsylvania, congressional investigators.

Description of the man varied as greatly as it did before the coroner’s jury, which body disregarded this line of testimony in reaching an open verdict.

O. N. Hilton was present to represent the Western Federation of Miners, but he was not allowed to question the witnesses as the full committee at Houghton had agreed that Anthony Lucas, prosecutor of Houghton County, and the committee members should do all the questioning.

Wore Button on Coat.
Mrs. Josephine Leskela [Leskella] testified that she was near the middle of the hall when a man who stood alongside her yelled “fire, fire” and then started for the door. She said he was a large man with a long overcoat and that he wore the button of the Citizens’ Alliance on his coat.

John Burogr, 18 years old [John Burcar, age 13], said the cry of “fire” was given by a short stout man.

“He wore a long overcoat with the fur collar turned up and had a Citizens’ Alliance button on his breast pocket,” said this witness.

Could Not See Lettering.
Mrs. Mary Koskolos [Koskela] said a large stout man cried “fire, rush,” and the panic started. She said he wore a button, but she could not distinguish the lettering on it.

Mrs. Elisha Lesh [Elin Lesh] heard a male voice cry “fire” twice in English, and then its Slavonic equivalent, “watra.”

Mrs. Anna Lustig, who lost a little boy in the rush, was positive that the man who cried “fire” wore the insignia of the Citizens’ Alliance.

Another 12-year-old boy, Frank Shaltz [Schaltz], said he heard a man, wearing a “white button, with a red inscription,” cry “fire.” He said the man had a dark mustache and he recognized  him as one he had seen on the street several weeks before, carrying a club.

This One Saw Two Men.
Eric Ericcson [Erick Erickson] testified that he heard some one behind him yell “fire.” He turned to see who had uttered the cry and saw two well-dressed men moving toward the door. Both wore Citizens’ Alliance buttons, he said. He could not swear that either of these men raised the cry.

Charles Olsen said he was standing on a chair when he heard a cry of “fire” in English, and no other language. He saw the man, he said, and he described him as being 5 feet 8 inches in height and wearing a dark gray overcoat and gray cap. The witness thought the button the man wore on his coat was the badge of the Citizens’ Alliance, although he was not close enough to say positively.

Paul Jakkola said he was standing in the vestibule when a man wearing the alliance button came up the stairway and shouted “fire” twice. Witness said he was a good-sized man, wearing a coat with a corduroy collar and a fur cap pulled over his forehead. He had a dark mustache.

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Annie Clemenc Stands with Striking Waitresses at Henrici’s, Girls Under Attack by Chicago Police

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Annie Clemenc, Die Behind Flag, Mnrs Bltn, Sept 16, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday March 2, 1914
Chicago, Illinois – Annie Clemenc Stands with Striking Henrici’s Waitresses

From The Day Book of February 28, 1914:

THE JOAN OF ARC OF THE CALUMET COUNTRY
SIZES UP THE WAITRESSES’ STRIKE

BY JANE WHITAKER

Annie Clemenc with Flag, Day Book p7, Feb 28, 1914

Do people go in that restaurant and eat? Oh, that cannot be possible when they know these girls are picketing outside in a battle for their rights?

I smiled as the question was asked by Annie Clemenc, the Joan of Arc of the Calumet country, the girl who has led so many parades of the striking copper miners and their wives, the girl who has been arrested so many times as she silently or verbally protested against the injustice of the conditions that surround the working class.

“They do patronize that restaurant, some people,” I answered, “but I always try to excuse them by believing they are representatives of the Restaurant Keepers’ Association and the Brewers’ Association, who are backing Henrici’s fight against labor. And even those people have a look of half shame and half bravado on their faces as they come out.”

But the girls inside! The girls who have taken the places of these girls on strike.

Annie’s arm trembled under my fingers, and I knew she was thinking bitterly of the word she uses when she speaks of the miners who have taken the places of the strikers in Calumet.

Aren’t they ashamed to go on serving the people who patronize this restaurant when they know that outside these girls are fighting not only for themselves but for all working women?

She did not wait for me to answer. [She murmured:]

How I pity these girls. They go up and down so quietly with no protest. You can only tell the battle they are fighting by the flag that they carry. Six slim girls and almost an army of police. I could not obey as they obey. I would cry out, “There is a strike here, don’t you go in.”

“When they have done that, they have been arrested and sometimes man-handled,” I explained gently.

“I know what that is,” she answered, and her soft brown eyes grew hard with bitterness. I knew she was thinking of that parade not so many months ago when she led a band of strikers and their sympathizers. When one of the large American flags was cut to shreds by the militia and she snatched the other, and waved it aloft in her strong arms, as she cried:

“Come on. Follow me!”

And I knew she was thinking of the cowardly soldier who had, under a uniform that pledged him to serve his country and protect the rights of her people, a heart filled with love of gold and hatred of the toilers a soldier who struck at Annie with a saber and cut a gash across her wrist, from which the blood poured over her hand.

Annie Clemenc n Ben Goggia Center, Bandaged Hand, Sept 13, 1913, Calumet MI
Annie Clemenc and Ben Goggia, Center
Calumet, Michigan, September 13, 1913

And I knew she was thinking of how she had held that flag until its red, white and blue clothed her like a gown, and had cried:

“Kill me, go on and kill me. I don’t care what you do, but you got to kill me through the flag of my country. I respect my country’s flag, if you do not.” 

But the cowardly soldier contented himself by striking at her, and several of the strikers dragged her away.

I knew she was thinking of all these things, as I pointed out to her Officer No. 813, the big, brawny man who had belittled himself and his manhood, according to the story told by Miss Meyers, by insulting defenseless girls.

And I pointed out to her Police-woman Mrs. Boyd, who was smiling and chatting with some men, but whose eyes glittered and whose jaw set firmly as the pickets approached and passed.

“You will see things here that will strike you as very strange,” I said. “This is what is termed, a highly civilized city, and in highly civilized cities where labor is trying to come into its rights and capital is fighting to keep labor suppressed, you see brute force matched against woman’s frailty and never against equal strength of men. Only today mounted police rode down a band of unemployed, hungry men, weak and almost hopeless, but the police rode on their horses and used their clubs. They never fight with equal odds in labor wars.”

[Photograph of Sept. 13th added. Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Annie Clemenc, the Miners’ Joan of Arc, Departs from Calumet on Speaking Tour with Ella Reeve Bloor

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Carlo Tresca re Annie Clemenc, Daring Woman, Freedoms Banner Iola KS, Feb 7, 1914—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday February 28, 1914
Calumet, Michigan – Annie Clemenc Leaves on Speaking Tour

From The Calumet News of February 27, 1914:

Annie Clemenc Leaves on Speaking Tour w Bloor, CNs p8, Feb 27, 1914

Annie Clemenc to Tour with Mother Bloor

Annie Clemenc, Mother Bloor , Dog Picket,

Annie Clemenc, known as the Joan of Arc of Calumet, left the strike zone February 26th to go on tour with Ella Reeve Bloor, a well-known member of the Socialist Party of America, and a hard-working union organizer. Annie was given a rousing send-off at the train station by members of the Women’s Auxiliary of Western Federation of Miners. The Women’s Lodge of the Slovene National Benefit Society was also well represented. Annie holds the office of Local President in both organizations.

Annie was dressed in a new black suit and a handmade hat, both given to her especially for the tour. Dog Picket joined them for the send-off, and a photograph was taken of Annie and Mother Bloor with Picket standing on a table between them. Annie can be seen standing tall in her new suit and hat.

The speaking tour will include Milwaukee and Chicago and these states: Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. They will also visit Washington, D.C.

—————

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Hellraisers Journal: Margaret Fazekas, Age 14, Holds Her Own as Witness Before House Subcommittee at Hancock, Michigan

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Poem Ellis B Harris re Annie Clemenc n Women of Calumet, Mnrs Mag p14, Nov 27, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday February 25, 1914
Margaret Fazekas Testifies Before House Subcommittee

Tuesday February 24, 1914 – Hancock, Michigan

Although only 14 years old, Margaret Fazekas appeared before the Congressional Investigating Committee this morning and held her own throughout the long interrogation. Margaret is the young girl who was shot in the back of the head last September as she performed her picket duty:

Margaret Fazekas, ab 1914

MARGARET FAZEKAS, a witness, sworn, testified on examination as follows:
Mr. HILTON [Attorney for the Miners]. How old are you?
The Witness. I was 14 in August.
Mr. HILTON. Where do you live?
The Witness. Wolverine.
Mr. HILTON. Do you remember the 1st day of September last and what happened on that day?
The Witness. Yes, sir. _ ,
Mr. HILTON. Tell what happened on the 1st day of September.
The Witness. September 1 I went out on picket duty with the other women. We were marching back and forth on the streets, and there was about 13 deputies, and there was some more deputies on the other side to those that were close to us. There were about 13, and they were telling us—we weren’t doing any harm at all—they told us to go home for breakfast, and we said we had just as much— we can stay there just as well as they can. We weren’t doing any thing at all. Some of the ladies told them to go for breakfast, and then they turned back, and we thought they were going home for breakfast. But when they turned back toward us they had the revolvers in their hands, and they started shooting, and as soon as I saw the revolvers I turned back and started to run, and so I don’t know anything afterwards.
Mr. HILTON. Were you shot?
The Witness. Yes, sir.
Mr. HILTON. Show the committee where you were shot. (The witness removed her hat and indicated to the committee the location of the wound on the side of her head.)
The Witness. My hair is on top so it doesn’t show.
The CHAIRMAN [Congressman Taylor]. Is it in the back of the head, just behind the left ear?
The Witness. Yes, sir.
The CHAIRMAN. Did the bullet enter your brain?
The Witness. I don’t know. Dr. Roach said some of my brain came out, but he put it back in again, and he took a bone out of it—a small bone.
Mr. HILTON. How long were you in the hospital?
The Witness. Four weeks and a half.
Mr. HILTON. Not expected to live? The
Witness. No, sir; nobody expected it.

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Hellraisers Journal: Women of Michigan Copper Country Tell of Brutal Treatment from Company Guards; Berger Testifies

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Poem Ellis B Harris re Annie Clemenc n Women of Calumet, Mnrs Mag p14, Nov 27, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday February 24, 1914
Hancock, Michigan – Deputized Company Gunthugs Brutalize Women

From the Detroit Evening Times of February 17, 1914:

MI Testimony bf House Com re Thugs v Women, Cibacca Baby's Death, Dtt Eve Tx p9, Feb 17, 1914

From the Duluth Labor World of February 21, 1914:

BERGER TESTIFIES AT STRIKE INQUIRY
———-
Says Socialist Party Had Nothing to Do With Strike
Simply Contributed Money
———-

Victor Berger appeared before the congressional committee at Hancock [Michigan] Tuesday to tell what he knew about the copper strike. Mr. Berger appeared as a committee witness. He was not called by the Western Federation of Miners. He declared the Socialist party had nothing to do with calling the strike and nothing to do with fomenting it. “When the strikers got hard up” he said, “the Socialists gave them financial aid up to $25,000 in money and a greater quantity of clothing.”

Mr. Berger said the national flag of the Socialists was the Star Spangled Banner, but “the red flag is our international flag-the red flag of brotherhood.”

Women Were Assaulted.

The committee listened to a large number of women witnesses during the week. One woman said she was hit in the back by a rock thrown by a gunman. She was afterwards arrested and was taken to jail in an automobile carrying her 4-months-old baby with her. The baby died from exposure from the cold a few days later. She has not been able to find out why she was arrested…..

The woman whose baby died was Margaret Cibacca. Her testimony, describing how she was taken into custody along with her children and then dumped out into the cold, is disturbing. Mrs. Cibacca the wife of a striking copper miner, was at home with her five children, ages 3 months to six years, when the deputies came pounding at her door. They told her that they wanted her to come to the mining office to visit a sick woman.

She gathered up her five children and went with them in their automobile to the mining office of the Baltic Mine. They forced her to leave the three older children outside in the cold with only the six-year-old to watch them. The two littlest ones, they allowed her to take inside. Once they had her in the office, they locked the door. She was alone in there with three deputies. There was no sick woman.

She asked why she was there, what she had done, and they laughed at her and beat her, even as she held her little children. She begged them to let her go home and feed her children, and they laughed at her again and began to beat her with a club on her side and on her back as she attempted to ward off the blows and protect her tiny children. The bruises can still be seen on her back.

Finally, they forced her with her children into the automobile for the drive to Houghton to see Justice Little. On the way they told her that she would be locked up for six months. Justice Little questioned her for about a half hour and then told her she was free to go, but go where? There was no ride back to Baltic, eight miles away, the deputies were gone, and she had no money.

At last, her husband was able to come for her. He brought blankets for the children who were cold to the bone, especially the three-month-old baby, from waiting outside for their father. They were too late for the train back to Baltic, and the striking miner was forced to spend his meager strike benefit on a rented automobile to take his tired, hungry, and terrified family home.

The baby came down deathly ill the next day, and died shortly thereafter.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Women of Michigan Copper Country Tell of Brutal Treatment from Company Guards; Berger Testifies” →