Hellraisers Journal – Sunday October 5, 1913 Annie Clemenc, Wife of Striking Miner, Arrested Yet Again
From the Michigan Miners’ Bulletin of October 2, 1913
A Woman’s Story
At Seventh Street Tuesday morning a party of strikers met a man with a dinner bucket. I asked him: “Where are you going, partner?” He replied: “To work.” “Not in the mine are you?” “You bet I am.” after talking with him a while his wife came and took him down the street. She seemed very much afraid.
He had just gone when a couple of Austrians came along with their buckets. I stepped up to one I knew: “O! George, you are not going to work, are you? Come, stay with us. Don’t allow that bad woman to drive you to work. Stick to us and we will stick to you.” He stepped back, willing to comply with my request.
Then the deputies came, caught him by the shoulder and pushed him along, saying: “You coward, are you going back because a woman told you not to go to work?” The deputies, some eight or ten of them, pulled him along with them.
A militia officer, I think it was General Abbey, said: “Annie, you have to get away from here.” “No, I am not going. I have a right to stand here and quietly ask the scabs not to go to work.”
I was standing to one side of the crowd and he said: “You will have to get in the auto.” “I won’t go until you tell me the reason.” Then he made me get in the auto. I kept pounding the automobile with my feet and asking what I was being taken to jail for. The officer said: “Why don’t you stay at home?” “I won’t stay at home, my work is here, nobody can stop me. I am going to keep at it until this strike is won.” I was kept in jail from six-thirty until twelve, then released under bond.
[Newsclip added. Emphasis added.]
Note that Annie was arrested by the military only for talking quietly to the scabs. The deputies who man-handled the scab and forced him to go to work against his will were not in any way molested by the military.
This same issue of the Miners’ Bulletin (page 2) contains an affidavit sworn to and signed by 24 strikebreakers. They tell of being shipped into the Copper Country under false pretenses, of being beaten when they refused to work after they realized that a strike was on, of then being kept prisoner in a boarding house for refusing to work, and of not being paid for the work that they did do. These men were finally released, and then made their way to the Union Hall. They swore out their affidavit on Sept. 29 in Houghton County.
And thus, not only do the soldiers not prevent the deputies from making prisoners of imported workers who refuse to be turned into scabs, but the soldiers actively assists these deputies. In fact, many of the soldiers have been made deputies once their term of service ends.
On Wednesday, October 1, Annie, known as the Joan of Arc of the striking copper miners, was arrested yet again, this time by a Major Harry Britton. Annie was marching at the head of 400 strikers, carrying her huge American flag as usual. They were on their way to perform picket duty at the mines when they were stopped by deputies and cavalrymen with Major Britton in command.
Major Britton attempted to arrest Annie, claiming she spit at a scab. When the Major used his sword to beat back a striker who came to Annie’s aid, other strikers joined in the fray. Cavalrymen then charged into the midst of the strikers. Major Britton bragged:
Excited horses prancing about are the best weapons.
He describe the results with satisfaction:
..a striker with his head bleeding, blood flowing down over his shirt, [was] half-staggering along the road.
Annie was arrested along with nine others. Annie was released and an the very next day lead another strikers’ march with her immense American flag.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday September 17, 1913
Calumet, Michigan – American Flag Knocked to the Ground by Guardsmen
From the Chicago Day Book of September 16, 1913:
Saturday Morning September 13, 1913
Calumet, Michigan – Big Annie and Her American Flag Attacked by Guardsmen
Just days after her arrest Big Annie is back in the thick of the fight. This morning she led a march of 1,000 strikers and the women who support them through the streets of Calumet as is her usual routine. At the corner of Eighth and Elm, they were confronted by the militia and armed deputies. A soldier on horseback used his saber to knock her flag from her grasp. A striker came to her aid and was pushed to the ground by another soldier who ripped the silk fabric of the flag as he slashed about with his sword.
Annie was also knocked to the ground. The flag was stomped into the mud by the horses of the guardsmen. Big Annie hung on to the flag as soldiers tried to take it from her, shouting:
Kill me! Run your bayonets and sabers through this flag and kill me, but I won’t move. If this flag will not protect me, then I will die with it.
Annie was rescued by other marchers and escaped with only a bayonet blow to the right wrist. The strikers’ march was driven back by soldiers on horseback and by the rifle butts of infantrymen. Deputies joined in on the attack swinging their clubs. The strikers and their supporters retreated to the Italian Hall with Big Annie and her flag, now muddied and slashed.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 15, 1913 Calumet District, Michigan – Annie Clemenc, Maggie Aggarto and Four Other Women Arrested on the Picket Line
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday September 2, 1913 “Copper Country” of Michigan – Striking Copper Miners Standing Firm
From the International Socialist Review of September 1913:
The Copper Miners’ Strike By Edward J. McGurty
[Part II of II]
So far [the mine operators] have been unable to intimidate the miners. The men are standing firmly.Parades are held every day along the 28 miles which comprise the range. Meetings of from three to six thousand are held every day in Calumet, Hancock, South Range and Mass City. There is no sign of weakening on the part of the men. They are determined upon a victory. They will refuse to submit to the slavery of the Copper Kings any longer. Thirty years of it has been enough.
The principal bone of contention at present is the recognition of the union. The men have made up their minds on this point. The mine-ownes have also apparently done so. The struggle is on in earnest. The miners are up against tremendous odds. They have absolute solidarity in their ranks, however, and that means a great deal. They are going to win! The copper barons are already desperate!
August 5th. The enclosed affidavit was sent to Ferris on the 29th of July and Ferris has absolutely refused to take the troops from this county. They are still in Keweenaw county at this writing.
Hon. W. N. Ferris, Governor, Lansing, Michigan.
I, John H. Hefting, sheriff of Keweenaw county, Michigan, hereby certify, that I was requested and urged by certain mining officials to call troops, and I refused as I did not see any necessity, inasmuch as there had been perfect peace and order and not a single infraction of the law committed since the strike commenced. The said mining officials urged me to get your permission to call upon General Abbey for troops, in case I needed them and not otherwise. My intention was not to call troops into this county. On July 29, 1913, several troops appeared at the boundary line, and I protested against troops being brought into this county as conditions did not require it. Whereupon one of the officers of the army stated to me that if I did not permit the troops to enter Keweenaw county at that time, that no matter how bad conditions became even though the location would burn down, they would not give any assistance thereafter. The telegram was made out by the attorney for the company and my attention was called to sign it. I requested them to give me time to consider the case at least one day, but their answer was that I must decide at once. Therefore I request you to withdraw all troops from this county.
Respectfully yours, JOHN HEFTING, Keweenaw County Sheriff.
Subscribed and sworn to before me this day, the 29th of July, 1913. My commission expires March 4, 1917.
]. A. HAMILTON, Notary Public.
The newspapers here carried on a three-day campaign to form a “back-to-work” movement and yesterday got one of the company tools to act as chairman, surrounded on the platform by shift and trammer bosses, at a meeting called by the Calumet & Hecla Co., to appoint a committee from the workers to meet with the bosses, and as the chairman put it, find out on what terms the C. & H. would allow its employes to go back to work. The miners saw through the game immediately and refused to “fall” for the game. They started the cry of “scab” and left the hall for union headquarters.
Mother Jones arrived today [morning of August 5th] and was met at the depot by the strikers. They stood bare-headed in two lines two miles long, while she went through to the union hall. She refused to ride in an automobile which had been brought for her. Ten thousand strikers will pack the Palestra and neighboring halls tomorrow to hear her. She will then go over the range, addressing meetings in the various “locations.”
Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 1, 1913
“Copper Country” of Michigan – Western Federation of Miners Issues Strike Call
From the International Socialist Review of September 1913:
The Copper Miners’ Strike
By Edward J. McGurty
[Part I of II]
THE territory known as the “Copper Country” of Michigan is a peaked peninsula lying to the north of the Upper Peninsula. It is washed on three sides by the waters of Lake Superior, embracing the counties of Keweenaw, Houghton and Ontonagon.
The country is rich in copper and has one of the deepest incline shafts in the world, the Calumet & Hecla No. 7, at Calumet, which goes down about 8,000 feet. The Calumet & Hecla Company, with its subsidiaries, owns and controls practically all the property up here. For the past thirty years there has been no labor trouble here of any consequence. In that time the C. & H. has paid out $125,000,000 in dividends on an original capitalization of $1,200,000. The employes, many of them Cornish miners, have not revolted for years. They have submitted to every injustice and to tremendous exploitation.
For a number of years it was impossible for the Western Federation to make any headway in the Upper Peninsula. Attempts at organization have been met by the sacking and firing of men. Little could be accomplished. Gradually the Federation formed organizations at various points along the range. The Finns were very zealous in keeping activity alive. This last year especial efforts have been made to organize the men of the various nationalities. Those working in the mines are Cornish, Finnish, Croatian, Italian and Austrian. Up to May first, about 7,000 men were taken into the union.
The companies have worked a pseudo-contract system and cheated the men outright. They have paid low wages, many of the men getting as low as a $1.00 a day and some even less. The shifts have been long, running as high as twelve and thirteen hours. Last year the companies installed what is known as a “one-man” drill which is a man-killer.
It was the straw that broke the camel’s back in the copper zone. On the night of July 22, men went from one end of the range to the other, on foot and in rigs rousing the miners and making known the strike order. The next day there were 15,000 mine-workers who had laid down their tools. Smelter-men, surface-men, under-ground-men, all were out and the copper mines were tied up as tight as a drum. Then the men who had not already joined the union began to make their way to the offices and in a few days 90 per cent of the miners were organized.
Directly the men went out the sheriff of Houghton county deputized about 500 men and sent them about to create trouble. They provoked the strikers to the breaking point and there were 500 deputies without stars or guns in a short time. There were also a few of them went to the hospitals.
The papers here, under the control of the companies, have, as usual, lied about the strike, slandered the strikers, burned the “locations” up in their columns; killed law-officers, etc. The second day of the strike the sheriff acting under orders from McNaughton, $85,000-a-year-manager of the Calumet & Hecla, requested troops from Governor Ferris. Without any investigation of the situation Ferris ordered the entire state militia dispatched here. Protest after protest has been made by the people here, because the presence of the troops is for the purpose of creating trouble. But Ferris stalwartly keeps them here.
The commander of the troops is a real, dyed-in-the-wool conservative. He says that the refusal of the union men to work the pumps and keep water from flowing into the mines amounts to the DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY. Even in times of industrial war, the mine-owners are accustomed to meek wage slaves that pump the water out of the mines.
The troops have ridden up the streets of Calumet and Red Jacket at night on horse-back and have ruthlessly clubbed innocent men and women conversing on the side-walks. They knocked down an old man of 70, and threw a baby out of a buggy onto the pavement. They have shot at strikers all over the range when the strikers were doing picket duty.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday August 27, 1913 Michigan Copper Country – John Walker and John Mitchell Speak to Strikers
From The Calumet News of August 23, 1913:
Note: John Walker reported that the military presence in Michigan’s Copper Country is brutal, and that General Abbey’s troops are acting as:
scab herders, strike-breakers, and black-leg protectors..[who] have shot people in the back, browbeaten men and women, insulted women and girls, and after filling up on beer and whisky sent them by the mine owners, swaggered up and down the streets with their big guns and sabers, a disgrace to the rottenest government on earth, let alone ours……
Alois Tijan-18 and Steve Putrich-40 Who Lost Their Lives in Freedom’s Cause August 14, 1913, Seeberville, Michigan
Funeral for Steve Putrich and Alois Tijan, Calumet, Michigan, Sunday August 17, 1913
The Seeberville Murders
Boarding House of Joseph and Antonia Putrich Site of Seeberville Murders of Aug 14, 1913
On August 14, 1913, deputies and Waddell Detectives, some of whom had also been sworn in as deputies, came to the Croatian boarding house, operated by Joseph and Antonia Putrich, in Seeberville, Michigan. They came to arrest two striking miners who had used a well-worn path, part of which crossed company property. They came without warrants, and on the orders of a company supervisor who wanted the men brought to him. When the two men resisted this unlawful arrest these gunthugs surrounded the little boarding house and fired through the windows until their guns were empty.
Inside the house, men, women, and little children took cover as best they could. When the shooting ended, four men and a baby (daughter of Antonia) were found wounded. Stanko Septic and John Stimac survived their wounds. The baby was burned on the face while held in her mother’s arms and soon recovered. Alois Tijan and Steven Putrich did not.
The Death of Alois Tijan Alois Tijan was shot in his left side. He was taken to an upstairs bedroom where he died in the arms of his brother, Albert. He was 18 years old, and a striking miner.
The Death of Steven Putrich Steven Putrich was also a striking miner. He lived at the boarding house with his brother and his brother’s wife and their four little children, ages 7 months to 4 years. His brother and sister-in-law, Joseph and Antonia, ran the boarding house.
Before he was taken to the hospital, Steven said:
I am shot and if anything happens to me send my money to my children.
Joseph later testified that the doctor told him:
If I operate on your brother and he gets well he will just go out and fight again. You go and tell your Croatian people to go back to work, and I will treat your brother.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday August 18, 1913
Seeberville, Michigan – Deputies and Waddell Gunthugs Kill Two at Boarding House
From the Miner’s Bulletin of August 16, 1913:
Strikers Murdered by Deputies in Cold Blood
Will they be Punished?
Two men were murdered at a mine location near Painesdale known as Seeberville, Thursday afternoon August 14. Two others were shot, one of whom may die.
Louie Tijan was shot and instantly killed at his boarding house, by secret service men last night. Steve Putrich shot through the breast, died from his wounds in the hospital about noon Friday. Stanko Stepic in hospital shot through left wrist and wounded in body, may die.
John Stimac, shot in the stomach while sitting at table. The above outrages came as the crimes to the reign of organized thuggery under the direction of James Waddell. These killings are among the fruits harvested in this district from the importation of man-killers. The morning lyer [liar?] of the operator [the Mining Gazette?] stated that the killing was the result of resisting arrest.
Here are the facts.
John Kalem and J. Stimac came from South Range yesterday afternoon, to their home in Seeberville following the railroad track till near the bridge when they took a by-path leading to a mine shack, and on the property of the mining company, although in general use. While near the shaft, a secret service man ordered them back. They replied: “We always go this way, it’s closer,” and went on. They had scarcely reached the house, when Deputy Sheriff, Henry James, trammer boss, and six secret service men arrived. The trammer boss pointed out Kalem as the man. The leader of the secret service man says: “come with me.” He replied: “I guess not.” At that the leader sprang upon him and began clubbing him. All the men ran into the boarding house. Upon command from the leader, the secrete service man, two at each window, began firing into the little home, and James shot one of the party, shooting from the doorway, with the results indicated above.
The tragedy occurred in an Austrian boarding house. The wife of the proprietor has four children, the oldest four years old, the youngest a baby of six months, in her arms, was burned by powder smoke from the shots of the secret service men shooting into the room where she and her children were. Almost at once after the shooting, deputies and soldiers arrived. They searched the house, even going through the trunks of the men. They found no weapons of any kind. There was no resistance to the officers. There was no call upon the men to surrender. The secret service men [Waddell men, many of them sworn in as deputies] came to murder, and they accomplished their infamous purpose.
Then, as if to afford some justification for their murder, they went around the houses of the location picking up all old broken bottles, the product of years and gathered them up, claiming they had been thrown at them. It was too late to manufacture evidence. There were too many witnesses to the crime, who knew what the thugs were doing.
It is reported that the Prosecuting Attorney twice requested that the Sheriff serve warrants upon the murders. He has not done so yet. He divides honors(?) with other accessories before the facts.
Let the reader put down these facts as against the statements of the Mining Gazette, the advocate of deportation, and constantly inviting to assassination.
Seeberville Murders of August 14, 1913:
Two men were gunned down Thursday August 14th in a small hamlet just south of Calumet when deputies and Waddell gunthugs opened fire on a boarding house. Inside the house were men, women and children. Several other men were seriously injured and a baby was burned on the face by gunpowder.
The trouble started when two strikers took a well worn shortcut across mine property. This had long been their route home, and little did they think it would be cause for arrest, much less a murderous barrage of bullets upon their home.
The dead are Steve Putrich and Alois Tijan.
Funeral for Brothers Tijan and Putrich, August 17, 1913:
Mourners arrived in Calumet by train from all over the Keweenaw August 17th for the funerals of Alois Tijan and Steve Putrich. Services were held at the Croatian Catholic Church, St. John the Baptist, with Father Medin presiding. The mourners than marched two miles to Lake View Cemetery lead by the Finnish Humu Band.
After the funeral, 5,000 gathered for a demonstration of solidarity. Joseph Cannon spoke. He blamed the “sultans of industry” for murdering these two men. He named Governor Ferris “as an accessory before the fact of this lamentable double murder.” He pointed out Sheriff Cruse whose “hands dripped with blood.” And to the mine owners, he said:
Boston coppers, long have you boasted of your mines of wealth untold. Long have you grown fat by keeping us lean.
He honored the Martyrs:
Their lips are sealed in death, but they spoke in a thousand tongues the victory which is coming and for which they have not worked in vain.
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