—————
Hellraisers Journal – Monday October 27, 1913
“Jungles” by Agnes Thecla Fair, Girl Tramp, Author of Sour Dough’s Bible
From Miners’ Magazine of October 23, 1913:
Tag: Guy Miller
Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: The Michigan Copper Miners’ Strike by Edward J. McGurty, Part I
—————
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: John H. Walker and John Mitchell Enter the Strike Zone of Michigan’s Copper Country
—————
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……
Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones, Joseph and Laura Cannon Speak to Striking Miners and Families in Michigan Copper Country
—————
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday August 9, 1913
Michigan’s Copper Country – “Fiery” Mother Jones and the Cannons on the Scene
From the Escanaba Morning Press of August 8, 1913:
COPPERDOM IN DREAD
CRISIS IS IMPENDING
———-
Houghton, Mich., Aug 7.-The general impression in the district affected by the copper mine workers’ strike is that a crisis impending through the presence of Mother Jones and Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Cannon, three fiery orators of the Western Federation of Miners. Persons who have had an opportunity in other strikes to see these people in action say they likely to inflame the strikers and their families to such a pitch of enthusiasm as may result in a reoccurrence of the of the first week of the strike.
The leaders of the strike here, Messrs. Mahoney, Miller and Lowney, have counselled peace in all their recent speeches, have the strikers to preserve law and order and to wait with determination because they are going to win.
But the speeches made by Cannon and his wife [Laura Gregg Cannon] at the Kansankoti hall, Hancock, Tuesday night were certainly not pacific. They aroused more enthusiasm than any speakers previously heard here since the strike opened and gave a good forecast of the result of their later speeches.
The strikers are for the most part phlegmatic Huns, Croatians and Finns, members of races not given to vociferous outbursts. If the Jones and the Cannons of the strike forces can stir these people up something more exciting than has been seen in the past week may be expected.
Mother Jones and Mrs. Cannon have reputations for exciting the women of strike districts to a point of frenzy resulting in rioting. Something of this sort is feared.
An example of the dangerous potentiality in Mother Jones can be seen in the interview given out by her at Calumet Tuesday afternoon [August 5th]. She said:
I’m a socialist, Why shouldn’t I be? That is the party that stands ready to help the working man.
I can’t see the need for the militia. Take a plumber and make him a major and he swells up like a toad and seems to forget that he is a workingman. The struggle is between the employer and employee and the state ought to let them fight it out. The strikers don’t believe in damaging property or the destruction of lives and I always impress on the men that they shouldn’t do damage.
They threw me into the bull pen in West Virginia, but before then, I went with 16 representatives of the miners to see the governor. When they heard I was coming, the governor wired for the fire department and the police and the legislators crawled under their desks and cried, “Is she coming?” The firemen came running up the streets without their socks. I had the devil scared out of the whole bunch of sewer rats. An old woman like me, over 80 years old. They thought I was coming to murder them, I guess.
What do you think the charge was they arrested me on. Stealing a field gun, my dears, and the damn fools were looking for it in the hills for months.
Ah, boys this is a terrible thing to go through. I hope you don’t see the like here. I saw my brave boys, who I know would not commit a crime, taken from their homes to far-away jails while their wives and babies screamed for their husbands. I raised my hand to heaven and prayed for their safe return.
And they talk about the red flag, bless you. Why, don’t they know the red flag was the first flag hoisted at Lexington, that a farmer who didn’t have time to put his shirt on went into the ranks of the bloody Sassenachs [English persons] and waved his red shirt in the air to cheer his comrades. Don’t they know the red bar is the first on the flag, signifying that blood was shed for the union?
Hellraisers Journal: General Strike Led by Western Federation of Miners Begins in Michigan’s Copper Country
—————
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday July 24, 1913
Copper Country, Michigan – General Strike Begins, Led by W. F. of M.
From The Calumet News (Michigan) of July 23, 1913:
The first general strike in the history of the Lake Superior copper region. which has long been forecasted, become a realization today. Following a mass meeting of the miners, called by local officers of the Western Federation of Miners last evening, the strike was declared this morning, and underground operations have been suspended at practically every mine in the Lake Superior copper region.
Local officials of the Western Federation of Miners give the folowing as the principal demands of the strikers:
Recognition of the union.
Shorter hours.
Increased wages.
Two men to operate the one-man drilling machine.Three members of executive board of the Western Federation of Miners, Guy Miller, J. C. Lowney and Janco Tersich are here to direct the strike. They state the strike will be financed by the Western Federation of Miners and the American Federation of Labor, and that the men are prepared to hold out as long as necessary to gain the points for which they are contending.
Union officials claim the membership in the Western Federation of Miners is 9,000, out of a total of 11,000 men employed in underground work in the district.
Strike Is General.
The surface as well as the underground employes of some of the mines, laid down their tools this morning, declining to go to work, but this is the exception to the rule, for at most of the mines the surface work has not been interrupted so far. The strike, however, is general throughout the entire district, about the only mines now affected so far being the Hancock, Winona and Franklin. At the latter mine a few of the men remained away from work today, but operations continue as usual.
At the Mohawk. Ahmeek, Allouez and Centennial mines, underground was suspended, and at the Wolverine mine, surface as well as underground work came to a stop. No mining work was conducted at the Tamarack, Osceola or Kearsarge shafts today, and the same condition prevailed at Quincy, Isle Royale, Superior and other mines in the portage Lake territory. Work was started at two shafts, the No. 4 and 6 shafts the Isle Royale this morning as usual, but later was discontinued. The shut down at the Champion, Trimountain and Baltic Mines of the Copper Range Consolidated and the Houghton Copper company is complete, as well as all other mines except Winona, Hancock, and Franklin.
It is understood the mining companies will decline to recognize the Western Federation of Miners.
No Disturbances Reported.
The strike is being conducted in an orderly manner so far. Except for the air of suppressed excitement which prevails, it would be difficult to realize a strike is in progress in the district. At some of the shafts and mine buildings the men congregated and discussed the situation, but for the most part the men returned to their homes when they discovered the strike was on.
General Manager James MacNaughton of the C. & H. Mining company was asked for a statement today, but declined to be quoted at this time.
[Emphasis added.]
Hellraisers Journal: From The Miners Magazine: “A Logical Plea to the Copper Miners of Michigan” by Guy E. Miller
—————
Hellraisers Journal – Friday July 11, 1913
“A Logical Plea to the Copper Miners of Michigan” by Guy E. Miller
From The Miners Magazine of July 10, 1913:
Guy E. Miller:
Hellraisers Journal: Charles H. Kerr on the Socialist Party Convention of 1908, Brand’s Hall, Chicago, Illinois
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday June 9, 1908
Chicago, Illinois – Socialist Party of America Stands with Labor
In this month’s edition of the International Socialist Review, Charles H. Kerr gives a day-by-day account of the national convention of the Socialist Party of America, held in Chicago from May 10th until May 17th. The convention took a strong stand with organized labor, as a whole, while, sadly, side-stepping the issue of Industrial Unionism.
The article by Comrade Kerr was eighteen pages long, from which we offer excerpts below.
From the International Socialist Review of June 1908:
Sunday Session, May 10th:
The Convention opened at 12:30 pm at Brand’s Hall, Chicago. A complete list is given of Delegates representing forty-five states.