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

From the Detroit Evening Times of February 17, 1914:

From the Duluth Labor World of February 21, 1914:

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.

The following are excerpts from the testimony of Margaret Cibacca:

Mrs. MARGARET CIBACCA, a witness, sworn, on examination testified as follows:
(The witness being unable to speak the English language, Thomas Scrizich was sworn to act as interpreter, and the examination proceeded through the interpreter.)
Mr. HILTON [Attorney for the miners]. Where do you live?
The WITNESS. South Range, and before I lived at Baltic.
Mr. HILTON. Were you visited at your house by deputies in December, last year?
The WITNESS. Yes.
Mr. HILTON. What took place at that time?
The WITNESS. Some of the deputies called on my house and asked me to go to the mining office that there is a woman sick.
Mr. HILTON. Did you go?
The WITNESS. Yes.
Mr. HILTON. What took place then?
The Witness. Just as soon as I got in the office they locked the door.
Mr. HILTON. Were you alone at that time?
The Witness. Three of them.
Mr. HILTON. Who was with you, if anybody?
The Witness. Nobody; I was alone. –
Mr. HILTON. How long did you stay there in the room?
The Witness. Five hours.
Mr. HILTON. Where did you go then?
he Witness. They put me out in an automobile and took me to Houghton, and two small children with me, and three of them they left on the street there. –
Mr. HILTON. Then you had five children with you? –
The Witness. Yes; the youngest was about 3 months old, and the oldest one about 6 years.
Mr. HILTON. Which one was it that they took with you to Houghton?
The Witness. The child.
Mr. HILTON. The youngest? .
The Witness. They took two of them with me and they left three of them on the street. Mr. HILTON. What did the deputies say to you at that time?
The Witness. They told me they were going to take me to Houghton and lock me up for six months.
Mr. HILTON. What did you say to them at that time?
The Witness. I asked them why; that I never did anything, only that they called me in the office there to see that sick woman there, and they just laughed at me.
Mr. HILTON. Did you go to Houghton?
The Witness. Yes.
Mr. HILTON. How far was it?
The Witness. Oh, it takes just a couple of minutes; it did not take long for the automobile.
Mr. HILTON. Were you released?
The Witness. Yes; they released me.
Mr. HILTON. What was the result of that ride?
The Witness. They just released me.
Mr. HILTON. Was it cold that day?
The Witness. Yes; it was chilly.
Mr. HILTON. What was the result on the child, if anything?
The Witness. The child got cold, and after the ride next day got sick. We had two doctors to attend the child, but they could not help anything and the child died two weeks after that.

The CHAIRMAN. Were those deputies that took you over there?
The Witness. Yes.
The CHAIRMAN. Who were they?
The Witness. It was a deputy, and they struck me.
The CHAIRMAN. Deputy sheriff, was it?
The Witness. The chairman came with the automobile from Houghton.
Mr. HILTON. Did you say the deputies struck you?
The Witness. Yes.
The CHAIRMAN. Do you know who the were? T
he Witness. Yes; I could tell who they are if I would see them.
The CHAIRMAN. You do not know their names? The Witness. No; I do not know the names.

[There followed questioning by Mr Rees, Attorney for the copper miners, most of it repetitious and not included here.]

The CHAIRMAN [to Mr. Rees]: She doesn’t know whether the sheriff [Cruse] was in this automobile, or whether it was a bunch of deputies.
The Witness. No; but she was told that he is the sheriff.

The CHAIRMAN. Was there anybody there that talked her language? Does she not know who was interpreting for her? These deputies did not talk in her language, did they?
The Witness. Yes.
The CHAIRMAN. How did these men talk to her?
The Witness. In my language.
The CHAIRMAN. Who was talking to her in her language? Don’t she know who the man was?
The Witness. I don’t know; one fat fellow; I don’t know who he was.
The CHAIRMAN. He talked her language. What is it, the Slavish language?
The Witness. Yes, sir.

Mr. REES. I didn’t understand what she said.
The CHAIRMAN. Some man talked to her—a fat fellow—in her Slavish language—the foreign language…

CHAIRMAN. They kept her there about half an hour?
The Witness. About half an hour.
The CHAIRMAN. Did they make her sign any papers or anything?
The Witness. Nothing; they told me to go home.
The CHAIRMAN. How many children did she have? Did she have this baby there with her?
The Witness. Yes; I got the two youngest ones with me.
The CHAIRMAN. They just turned her out and told her to go home?
The Witness. That is all; yes.
The CHAIRMAN. How far was that from her home?
The Witness. I don’t know; but it is about 8 miles.
The CHAIRMAN. How did you get home?
The Witness. My husband came up for me, and he brought some blankets and wrapped up the children, and we were late for the train, and he hired an automobile to take me back home.
The CHAIRMAN. Did they say what she had done? What they had asked her about? What was the reason they gave for getting her to go to this mine pay office and then taking her over there in that manner?
The Witness. Nothing, nothing. When I asked them they just laughed at me and began to strike me. They struck me.

Congressman HOWELL. What?
The Witness. They began to lick me.
The CHAIRMAN. Struck her?
The Witness. Struck me.
Congressman CASEY. Where were you when they struck you?
The Witness. I was by the steps there, when I was asking them to let me go home so that I feed my children; they began to laugh at me and struck me on the side and on the back with their clubs, and at the same time I had one of the children on my arm.

Congressman CASEY. Was this in the pay office or where?
The Witness. Yes; in office.
Congressman CASEY. How many deputies were in the pay office?
The Witness. There were two around me, and there was some more on the road there.

Mr. REES. Can not you tell me what day of the week that was?
The Witness. I think it was on a Friday….
Mr. REES. Your husband is on strike, is he?
The Witness. Yes, sir.

Congressman CASEY. How old was the child that died?
The Witness. Not yet 4 months.
Congressman Switzer. Ask her if her husband ever made any inquiry of these officials over at Houghton—the sheriff, the justice, or the prosecuting attorney—as to why his wife was brought over there.
The Witness. He inquired once of the prosecuting attorney and he told him he couldn’t do nothing. He told him if he could get the names of the police that he is going to call them. We don’t know if they have got them or not. We never had any notice after that.
Congressman SWITZER. As I understand it, she does not know why she was brought over there?
The Witness. I don’t know nothing. I never did anything.
Congressman SWITZER. Ask her if she ever requested her husband or anybody else to inquire of these officials as to why she was taken over there. Did she go to see the prosecuting attorney subsequent to this time that she was taken over; she or her husband, either; it does not matter?
The Witness. No; my husband was up there.
Congressman SWITZER.. She doesn’t know the names of these deputies.
The Witness. No, sir.
Congressman SWITZER. But she would know them if she saw them?
The Witness. Yes, sir; I would recognize them.
Congressman SWITZER. Did you attempt to locate them afterwards; point them out to somebody?
The Witness. Yes; I was trying to locate them, but I could not; after that I know one of them left the Baltic, a few days after that, and I don’t know where he went to.
Congressman SWITZER. Did you ever go to a justice of the peace in this county or in that county, wherever you are at, and make an affidavit that deputies, names unknown, had assaulted you or clubbed and beat you?
The Witness. Yes.
Congressman SWITZER. Did she get out a warrant?
The Witness. Yes; they told me that they are going to call me when they need me. But I never had any notice after that.
Congressman SWITZER. That isn’t the question. I want to know whether she attempted to have these men arrested. That is what I want to know.
The Witness. Yes; I was trying to, and they asked me what they looked like and everything, and they put down what they looked like and everything.
Congressman SWITZER. Did you see these men after that time around that company’s property and office there?
The Witness. No….
Congressman SWITZER Were you hurt so severely that you thought you needed the services of a physician or anything of that kind?
The Witness. Yes; I was blue on the back, and I felt it two weeks after that—14 days after.
Congressman SWITZER. Where were you struck; was it while you were locked in the office or on the outside of the office—before or after?
The Witness. In the office.
Congressman SWITZER. Can you give any reason why they struck  you?
The Witness. I was asking them to let me go home because I had a child on each arm.
Congressman SWITZER. Who were in the office?
The Witness. Two policemen, and on the outside there was more of them.
Congressman SWITZER. Now, as I understood you to say, you informed the deputies or sheriffs that brought you over in the machine, and informed the justice what had taken place?
The Witness. Yes; I told them. And the sheriff, he did not want to listen to me at all.
Congressman SWITZER. It was the sheriff that brought you over ?
The Witness. I thought so; that he was the sheriff.
Congressman SWITZER. And you did not know yourself that you could make an affidavit there charging those men with assault and battery, or assault with intent to kill, or something of that kind?
The Witness. No; nothing.

Mr. REES. How did you talk with the sheriff?
The Witness. well, I was telling him what I could.
Mr. REES. Did you talk to him in your own language?
The Witness. Well, I was talking what I could in English, and I told him in my own language.
Mr. REES. Was there any other woman brought in with you?
The Witness. Yes; one other women; she brought my children to me and then they put her in, too. She brought them to me and they put her in there, too…

[Emphasis added.]