Hellraisers Journal: Dozens Killed as False Alarm of Fire Causes Panic at Christmas Party for Michigan Strikers’ Children

From The New York Times of December 25, 1913:

XMAS-TREE PANIC
COSTS 80 LIVES
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False cry of Fire Stampedes Throng
at Calumet, Mich., and Scores Die in an Instant.
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56 VICTIMS ARE CHILDREN
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Dead Choke the Stairway When 700
Terror-Stricken Persons Dash for Single Exit
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MAUDLIN MAN GIVES ALARM
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Horror Occurs in Italian Hall as
Children of Miners Line Up to
Receive Gifts from Santa.
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Special to The New York Times.

Calumet, Mich., Dec. 24-Eighty persons-fifty-six of whom were children-were trampled to death in a panic at a Christmas tree gathering in the Italian Hall here this afternoon, when an intoxicated man staggered to the door of the little hall and shouted “Fire!”

The children were standing in the aisles waiting for a signal to move forward and receive their gifts when the fatal cry was uttered. In a fraction of a minute nearly all of the 700 persons in the hall made a dash for the single exit. The stairway was choked with dead and dying, while the building was fairly rocking with the rush of the throng and the shrieks of the terror-stricken people…..

The principal exit was a narrow stairway at the back of the hall. When this had been cleared of the bodies that filled it to the top, and a quick accounting had been made it was found that seventy-four bodies had been piled up beside the building. It is thought that a dozen others were carried away by friends.

The dead that were piled up beside the hall included thirty-seven girls, nineteen boys, thirteen women and five men. Excited men and women stood about the building, some dazed by sudden change from holiday festivities to tragedy, others calling hysterically for missing children, and a few even threatening violence to the rescuers for keeping them back from the long row of bodies…..

For many days the children of the copper mine strikers had waited expectantly for the Christmas tree exercises that had been arranged by the Woman’ Auxiliary of the Western Federation of Miners. The entertainment was set for the early evening, and the hall, which is on the second floor was soon filled to its capacity. The children selected to give Christmas recitations and sing carols had finished their part of the programme, and the man selected to play the part of Santa Claus had appeared to distribute the presents that were piled around the large illuminated tree.

The children were told to march up the aisles to the tree, so that the presents could be handed to them. The aisles were filled with the boys and girls when a large man thrust his head in the door of the main hallway and shouted “Fire!”…..

The word was shouted in several languages as parents sprang to their feet and rushed forward to get their children. Scores were trample to death in the twinkling of an eye…..

Mrs. Annie Clemens, President of the Women’s Auxiliary in charge of the entertainment, said that she was on the stage directing the distribution of gifts when the panic started. She and other women had been intent on keeping the children in line and orderly.

Mrs. Clemens said that the boys and girls had been very patient, notwithstanding a tiresome wait, and that the women of the committee had just remarked to each other how well the youngsters behaved when the cry of fire spread through the house. She said the women in charge tried to stem the on-rush and quiet the people, but their shouts had no effect on the crowd…..

Veiled Charges by Moyer.
President Moyer of the Western Federation of Miners said to-night:“I have wired President Wilson, Gov. Ferris, Secretary [of Labor] Wilson, and Secretary Morrison of the American Federation of Labor, acquainting them with the details of tonight’s disaster, and urging immediate national and state investigations into the cause. My information is that no striker or any one in sympathy with the strike brought about this catastrophe. There are many who testify that a man from the outside came up the stairs and yelled ‘Fire!’“A public meeting of citizens has been called for to-morrow to take relief measures, but the Western Federation of Miners will bury its own dead and the American labor movement will take care of the relatives of the decease. No aid will be accepted form any of those citizens who a short time ago pronounce these people undesirable citizens.”

A leader of the Citizens’ Alliance, taking notice of the statement of President Moyer of the charges made by strikers during the removal of bodies said:

“It is preposterous to suppose that any member of the Citizens’ Alliance would have attempted to disturb a Christmas celebration by the children of strikers in such a manner. The Alliance is made up of business and professional men, and its only object is to procure a strict enforcement of the law in the copper field during the continuance of the strike. Many members of the alliance have contributed liberally to the unfortunate in the copper field.”…..

[Emphasis added.]

This representative of the Citizens’ Alliance leaves out an important part of the story: the “strict enforcement of the law,” as practiced by the vigilante mobs of the Citizens’ Alliance, has led to the ransacking of union halls and union relief stores, and the invasion of the homes of union men. They proudly wear their Citizens Alliance buttons as they commit their acts of “law enforcement,” which “law” is enforced only upon the strikers and their families, while the armed mobs of the Citizens Alliance run free, unmolested by The Law, spreading terror among the strikers and their families.

Furthermore, the gunthugs deputized by Sheriff Cruse as well as the private gunthugs of the Waddell-Mahon strikebreaking agency also wear the unmistakable white button with its tall red lettering.

Witnesses are coming forward who state that they saw the man who shouted, “fire,” and that that man was wearing the well-known button of the Citizens’ Alliance.

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