The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-11-07
Big Strike in Copper Country

ers walked out on strike in Houghton, Hancock.
and Calumet, Michigan. This is the first serious
labor disturbance in fifty years in the copper
districts of the Michigan peninsula.
All told, these mines, which spread over
three counties, produce annually 220000,000
pounds of copper, or about 20 per cent Of total
produced in the nation. Of this the famous
Calumet and Hecla shaft furnishes about
rs, 100000 pounds per annum.
Normally, $4,000 men work in this district,
half of whom employed by the Calumet and
Hecla company. Of these almost one half are
Films, who, with few exceptions, are Socialists.
All told, no less than thirty-eight nationalities
are represented, the majority being Cornishmen,
Irish, Swedes, Firms, Croatians, Italians, Hun
garians, and other peoples from southeastern
Europe.
For years the Western Federation of Miners
sought to organize locals in the copper district,
but with little success. The miners were reason
ably we'll satisfied, conditions were not unusually
severe, and the babel of tongues spoken made
ganization difficult. But in 190S-1O five unions
were at last effected and it is these which have
led the present strike.
The miners chief demand is for an eight hour
day and minimum wage of three dollars for all
men working underground. At present only
about IS per cent of miners and 25 per cent of
"trammers" (who do the heaviest work and are
seldom able to stand the strain longer than
en- years. receive three dollars or more. And all
work ten hour schedules which means, after time
is taken going to and from work and ascending
and descending the levels about eleven hours
a day.
Another source of discomfort is the single
man drill which has lately been introduced. This
machine weighs about $50 pounds, is cumber
some difficult to operate and must be carried by
hand up slippery balconies and adjusted firmly
before use, a process which requires usually
about one and half hours. Because of the hard
labor required for operation and the loneliness of
working all day mile below daylight without a
companion the miners have bitterly complained
AS soon as the strike was declared, prominent
union leaders, among them being John MITCHELL
hurried to Calumet to take personal charge. At
the same time the mine owners began process
to have an injunction issued forbidding picket
ing and marching In three four days Gov
ernor Ferris hurried 27OO militia to the scene
and declared the strike district under martial
law. But there little or no disturbance
Union officials repeatedly urged their men to go
about unarmed remain quiet, and avoid violence
in any form. But the employers were in such
fear of violence they secured gang of Waddell-
Mahon "detectives'' from Chicago. Most of
these are Chicago discharged policemen and car
! ~ bad records.
! Within a day two six or eight of them fol-
lowed an Austrian miner home, fired through his
boarding house windows and killed two men, one
n youth, and wounded two others AS there was
no visible prOVOcatiOn for this WantOn murder
| the men were jailed pending trial for manslaugh-
ter Since these men are hired to quell disturb
ances they will find many ways of continuing
disorder because the longer disorders continue
the longer their Job holds out. But in spite of
every effort so far made to ncite the men to
violence in order to arouse public prejudice
against them a months striking has brought
almost no trouble at all.
Governor Ferris has endeavored to arbi-
/ trate and restore normal conditions but the
owners refuse to listen. The Federal Depart
ment of Labor has made every possible effort to
adjust the differences, but with equal futility
During the past ten years every S25 share has
been paying $4,000 dividends; of course the good
stockholders who probably live in New England
and Europe loathe to share any part of this
neat with dirty foreigners like Firms and
Croatians
Arbitration seems out of the question. The
strike has settled down to a long. dreary endur-
ance test. The mine owners are trying to starve
| the strikers out and so compel a settlement on
| the companys basis.
! We wonder how long the nation is to endure
this industrial anarchy which eats like cancer
at the social fabric of the land! Every mothers