Hellraisers Journal: Big Annie of Calumet: “She faced cavalrymen with drawn sabers, infantry-men with bayonetted guns.”

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

Hellraisers Journal – Monday December 1, 1913
Annie Clemenc, Heroine of Michigan’s Copper Country Strike

From the International Socialist Review of December 1, 1913:

“BIG ANNIE”

Annie Clemenc w Flag, ISR p342, Dec 1913

IN the Calumet strike region they are calling Annie Clemenc the American Joan of Arc. Annie Clemenc is a miner’s wife. A Croatian [Slovenian], she was born in this country and educated in the school at Calumet. If she were dressed in fashion people would turn to look at her if she walked down State street or Fifth avenue. Even in her plain dress she is a striking figure. Strong, with firm but supple muscles, fearless, ready to die for a cause, this woman is the kind all red-blooded men could take off their hats to.

I suppose Annie Clemenc knows what it is to go hungry, but I don’t believe all the millions of dividends ever taken out of the Calumet & Hecla mine could buy her.

The day when the soldiers rode down the flag Annie Clemenc stood holding the staff of that big flag in front of her, horizontally. She faced cavalrymen with drawn sabers, infantry-men with bayonetted guns. They ordered her back. She didn’t move an inch. She defied the soldiers. She was struck on her right wrist with a bayonet, and over the right bosom and shoulder with a deputy’s club.

“Kill me,” she said. “Run your bayonets and sabers through this flag and kill me, but I won’t go back. If this flag will not protect me, then I will die with it.”

After the parade one morning Annie Clemenc came up to the curb where President Moyer was standing. I was there.

Looking up at him she said:

“It’s hard to keep one’s hands off the scabs.”-From the Miners’ Bulletin.

“Big Annie” has been leading the parades of the striking miners to which she walked early every morning from seven to ten miles. The women have been especially brave and class consciousness in this copper war. And the Finns, who have been educated in the principles of Socialism, are lending a militant character to the struggle that helps much to developing the staying powers of the men

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Michigan Miners Bulletin: Secretary Wilson Perturbs McNaughton; Gunmen Attack Strikers

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

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday November 19, 1913
Michigan Copper Country – Labor Secretary William B. Wilson Perturbs McNaughton

From the Miners’ Bulletin of  November 18, 1913:

Miners Bulletin Mnrs Bltn p1, McN v WBW, Gunmen Attack Striking Miners, Nov 18, 1913

An article entitled “McNaughton’s Veracity,” concerning the truthfulness, or lack of thereof, of Mr. McNaughton, takes up almost half of the front page of the current edition of the Bulletin. Suffice it to say that Mr. McNaughton is not happy with the recent speech made by the U. S. Secretary of Labor, William B. Wilson, at the annual convention of the American Federation of Labor:

McNaughton hollers “liar, liar.” McNaughton’s reputation for truth and veracity is at such a low ebb in this community that those long distance, epithets makes the average person smile, for instance, he stated at the beginning of this strike that 85 per cent of his employees were willing to return to work but were afraid although he had 2,500 militiamen and 1,000 gunmen at his disposal….

[Emphasis added.]

There then follows a list of falsehood after falsehood put forth by Mr. McNaughton. But, on the same front page is a story about the effectiveness of the gunmen, imported into the strike zone by the copper bosses:

GUNMEN ATTACK STRIKING MINERS

Yesterday morning while a large number of strikers were holding their usual morning parade, and when near the Quincy mine, they were joined by quite a number of mounted police who rode amongst them until a point opposite the Quincy was reached when the parade was met by a large force of gunmen. At this juncture, the mounted guards lined up on each side of the parade wilst the gunmen poured a volley into the ranks of the strikers. One striker was badly shot in the hip while it is believed several others were slightly injured by the firing of lead missiles. One guard was badly injured by being trampled upon by one of the frightened horses. The attack was no doubt planned beforehand as the concerted action of the mounted guards and gunmen would imply.

The parade consisted of men, women and a scattering of children, all of whom were quiet and were marching on the county road. The guards and the gunmen had not the least provocation for making this dastardly assault upon peaceable citizens who have a perfect right to parade on the public highway. After the melee, six of the paraders were arrested and taken to jail, but were later released. Assistant states attorney Nichols will make an investigation of this dastardly assault and in all probability will bring the guilty parties to justice.

[Emphasis added.]

Somehow, we suspect, that the last sentence is meant as a bit of sarcasm.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Labor World: Eighteen Strike Sympathizers, Women and Girls, Arrested in Calumet, Michigan

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

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday November 18, 1913
Calumet, Michigan – Eighteen Women and Girls Arrested

From the Duluth Labor World of November 15, 1913

WOMEN AND GIRLS ARRESTED AT MINE
———-

Eighteen Charged With Violation of Injunction
at the Mohawk Property.
———-

CALUMET, Mich., Nov. 13.-—Eighteen women and girls, strike sympathizers, were arrested at the Mohawk mine today, charged with violation of the injunction prohibiting abuse or intimidation of workers. They were cited to appear before Circuit Judge O’Brien on Nov. 24.

William Teddy, prominent strike leader, was arrested on suspicion of being connected with the dynamiting of a house in which mine guards boarded at Centennial Heights, Tuesday morning. The investigation of attacks on mail trains carrying imported workmen, is progressing quietly. Eleven arrests of strikers have already been made. The gunmen are losing no opportunity to harass the strikers.

MI Strikers Parade, Annie w Flag, ed, Survey p127, Nov 1, 1913

[Emphasis and photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Poetry from the Michigan Miners’ Bulletin: “The Little Children of the Poor” by Ellis B. Harris

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Quote Ellis B Harris Children of the Poor, MI MB p2, Nov 11, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday November 15, 1913
“Little Children of the Poor” by Ellis B. Harris

From the Michigan Miners’ Bulletin of November 11, 1913:

Miners' Bulletin, MI, Nov 11, 1913

Little Children of the Poor
by Ellis B. Harris

Little children of the poor,
My heart goes out to you.
Little lives that must endure
Where miseries accrue;
In the factories and mills
There robbed of play and hearth
Suffering a world of ills
For parasites of wealth.

Little children of the poor,
You, tender, precious flowers,
Blooms for gardens sweet and pure,
Yet robbed of playtime hours.
Is it strange that blood runs wild
And hands are clenched in wrath
When we contemplate a child
Upon the thorn strewn path?

Little children of the poor,
Brave hearts shall place the blame
For the lives that you endure,
And point the nations’s shame.
Boasting here of Freedom’s reign
And scorning royal commands,
Forging them a master’s chain
To shackle baby hands.

Little children of the poor,
Pearls for trampling swine,
Cast and mired that they secure
The wealth from mill and mine.
There are those who hear the call
From far off Galilee,
Heeding, until Mammon fall
And you, His Jewels, are free.

Little children of the poor,
A future day shall break,
When no one can e’er secure
Your lives for profit sake;
When the people’s rule shall fill
The world with melody,
And childhood’s joys and laughter thrill
The world with ecstasy.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Miners’ Bulletin (W. F. M.) of Michigan Copper Country: “Government by Gunmen”

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Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday November 14, 1913
Michigan Copper Country – Striking Copper Miners Governed by Gunmen

From the Miners’ Bulletin of November 11, 1913:

The Miners’ Bulletin is the official newspaper of the Western Federation of Miners in the strike zone of Michigan’s Copper Country. The latest issue contains a scathing indictment of the community’s indifference to the terror being spread through-out the strike zone by the Waddell-Mahon Company gunthugs, known as “Waddies.” The strikers maintain that these imported gunthugs have been deputized by Sheriff James Cruse of Houghton County, in defiance of state law, although the Sheriff continues to deny that the imported gunmen have actually been formally deputized. The article stated in part:

WFM Miners Bulletin MI 1913

When the citizens of a community show such indifference as to permit any corporation of greed to import gunmen for the purpose of intimidating the working-class of said community in their peaceful demands for simple justice, it certainly is a sad commentary on the stability and integrity of the community. It seems the people of the copper region of this state would have profited by the experience of Idaho, Colorado, and South Dakota camps in the fight for justice by the working-class. There are thousands of good, loyal citizens who could have been deputized to keep the peace, and who would have done their duty without fear or favor, but the mine companies did not want this kind of policing: they wanted the thug, the crook, and the gunman in order to create as much trouble as possible: then comes the National Guard, and the trick is done. The mining officials can then sit home in their easy chairs while the troops guard their property and scabs imported by their agents from all the largest cities in the country. Regarding Government by Gunmen, the Omaha Daily News has the following to say: “The police power is supposed to be the arm of the government to uphold law and order and justice. In theory, policemen are public servants. YOUR employees, hired to execute YOUR will.”

What are the facts?

Throughout the 1,019 square miles of Houghton county, Michigan in the copper country the policing has been subjet to  imported gunmen, recruited from the slums of the great cities by a corporation of strikebreakers under the pay of the mining companies: and this Michigan instance is not unique, but typical….

Be that as it may [the abdication of popular government in the Michigan copper country], this hiring out of the police power to disreputables in the interest of greed and oppression WILL HAVE TO BE STOPPED. The alternative is slavery.

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Michigan Miners’ Bulletin: “A Woman’s Story” by Annie Clemenc of Calumet

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

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

Annie Clemenc w Flag, Dtt Tx p2, Sept 25, 1913

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.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Michigan Copper Miners’ Bulletin: The Story of a Strike Heroine, in Her Own Words

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

Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 8, 1913
Heroine of the Michigan Copper Strike Tells a Story of Fighting Scabs

From the Miners’ Bulletin of September 6, 1913:

WFM Miners Bulletin MI 1913Annie Clamenc MI Strike Heroine, Mnrs Bltn p1, Sept 6, 1913

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Miners Magazine: Appeal to the Labor Movement from Michigan Copper District Union No. 16

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

Hellraisers Journal – Friday September 5, 1913
Hancock, Michigan – W. F. of M. District Union No. 16 Appeals to Labor Movement

From the Miners Magazine of September 4, 1913
-Dan Sullivan, C. E. Hietala, and John H. Walker Sign Appeal to Labor Movement:

WFM Miners Magazine p3, Sept 4, 1913Appeal fr MI WFM 16, Mnrs Mag p7, Sept 4, 1913

…..Now, we turn to you, the organized workers of this country, in our hour of need. We stand united, determined to win. We are fighting one of the richest mining corporations in the world. It is as heartless as it is rich.

We have nothing but empty hands, our wives and children. They are urging us on, helping in the struggle. A northern winter will soon be here. We must have food and fuel. We are fighting this battle for all. We are willing to endure any sacrifice. The copper barons hope to drive us back to the mines through the hunger of our wives and children That is the only thing that can defeat us. Bayonets do not scare us, and thugs won’t mine copper. 

If the mine managers of this district knew that the American labor movement was behingd us, that you would not see us defeated for the lack of bread, the fight would be won now.

Speak so that the copper kings and the world will know that you are behind us in this strike with your dollars as well as sympathies…..

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Miner’s Bulletin: “In Memory of Our Murdered Brothers, Louis Tijan and Steve Putrich”

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Quote Mother Jones, Pray for dead, ed, Ab Chp 6, 1925—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday August 21, 1913
Michigan’s Copper Country – “They never fail who die in a great cause.”

From the Miner’s Bulletin of August 19, 1913:

In Memory of Tijan and Putrich, Mnrs Bltn p1, Aug 19, 1913

IN MEMORY of our murdered Brothers
LOUIS TIJAN  and STEVE PUTRICH

They never fail who die in a great cause,
The block may soak their gore,
Their heads may sodden in the sun,
Their limbs be strung to city gates and castle walls,
But still their spirits walks abroad and overwhelm
All others in advancing freedom.

No fitter words have been spoken, my dear, brave brothers. Your folded hands strike at the citadels of oppression with greater power than life could ever give. Your silent lips have the gift of eloquence beyond the power of speech. Though dead, you yet speak to us, and live in our heart of hearts.

None can doubt the sincerity of your sacrifice. None can put a greater gift on humanity’s altar than you have done. You fell, my brave young brothers, in life’s morning, ere the heat of the day had begun, while the air was filled with fragrance and song, and you held life’s sweetest dreams.

We pick up those dreams at your graveside; we will carry them on, a sacred trust, and strive to realize them in the lives of all. And when the day is hot, our hearts weary, when faith falters, we will come to your grave to gain new courage, to learn of a devotion that falters not, eternal through the years and across the centuries.

Then we will go forth to battle until victory comes.

You shall not have died in vain. Yours shall be an inspiration in all of freedom’s battles. You shall live in all of freedom’s sons, your grave a shrine for all her lovers.

On your tombs, we will write the words: “They died for us.” In our hearts, we shall carry the high resolve to be worthy of your sacrifice

[Emphasis added.]

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