White Pine news weekly mining review. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1910-1920, 1914-05-10
CHANGES
IN LAKE DISTRICT
SENTIMENT IN
COPPER COUNTRY SAID TO
RESULT FROM PAST ENVIRON
MENT AND FALSE TEACHING.

In the Lake Superior region there
Is a general, though not by any means
a concerted, movement for the elm
nation of certain classes of labor.
II may be said to have begun after
the strike on Mesabi range in 1907.
It received additional impetus last
summer. when a strike occurred on
the ore docks of the Great Northern
road. II spread to the copper region
lately. as the result of the recent dis
turbance on Keweenaw Peninsula,
writes a special correspondent in the
Engineering and Mining Journal.
While the supply of labor avail
able for mine operation will have its
bearing on the rapidity with which
this elimination can take place. it Is
likely to continue until the result
desired has been accomplished. that
Is. until those men who, by race and
old world sympathies and education.
are anarchistic. shall be in such mi
nority as Il make their presence
negligible.
Although two of the strikes men
toned were conceived in the minds
of leaders of the Western Federation
OF Miners, they could not have been
SO serious, nor have left so terrible
a heritage of hate and distrust as
they have in the copper country, for
example, had Ii not been for the fer
tile soil into which the utterances of
these leaders were dropped. A man
who for years has been beaten down
by his tyrannical government, who
has known authority only as some
thing to dread and hate and whose
forefatners have lived under the same
influence, Is easily worked upon BY
such arguments as Meyer and his as
sociates know how to present.
Such a ma cannot be blamed too
severely If he responds readily to the
discords played upon his neartstrings.
Liberty and the rights of man, as we
know them, were beyond his con-
ception at home. and he has not been
long enough In America TO reverse
his point of view. He reads such
journals as the Finnish daily. Tyo-
mics. enc of the agencies which help
ed to engender hatred at Calumet.
and he reads nothing else. 1t is I'M
fortunate that the conservative
reasonable and decent Finnish news
papers published on Lake Superior
are net ,ead by the aEaronistic els-
ment. But the line of division is
sharp. the fair newspapers are read
by the conservatives. the infiamma-
tory by the radical, and clannishness
is extreme. An experiment is about to
begin, looking toward a breakup of
this class distinction. but its early
ueces is questionable.
Criticism of the anarchistie ele-
ment among these people must not
be too harsh. they scarcely can be
blamed for their feelings, induced by
years OF oppression. of civil and
military outrage of all sorts, and of
broken promises. solemnly made and
repeatedly reiterated by highest au-
thorities, from the Car down. Criti-
cism should be directed toward the
Meyers. the Petronellis, the editors.
and the others who circulate false
statements.
Ii will be interesting to observe
how far this proposed elimination OF
an undesirable element will be car
ried and what effect a sharper de-
mand for labor may have on mine
homogeneous. Just now, conditions
are somewhat favorable to the move
ment. 1t will also be interesting to
watch for the next development along
lies of Western Federation activities
in the Lake Superior region.