Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1914-02-26
THE COPPER STRIKE REVIEWED
(Special Correspondence.0

-O
Especial Correspondence
/, Over six months ago $4,000 copper
miners in Michigan went on strike
This strike is still on.
July IA last year the UNIONS sent a
letter to the mine managers in the
Lake Superior District The letter
still remains unanswered.
The miners, in this letter, demanded
+. 1. Recognition of the Western Fed
GRAFTON of Miners.
2. An eight-hour Workday.
3. A So minimum wage for under
ground workers.
4. Two men to each drill, instead of
one.
The letter also asked for a confer
ence with the mine managers. The
companies have ignored the request
for conference till this day.
No reply having been received. the
strike was called July %, nine days
following the sending of the comm uni
cation. r. Sss
The will of the mine owners had
been law ON the Copper Range for
more than 40 years That amy one,
least of all the despised workers, most
ly foreigners. should question their
saw fit, appeared preposterous to
them. i.
Hence, they ignored the miners and
their demands.
The Lineup
There is but one company that needs
to be considered in this bitter war
That company is the Calumet & Hesla
-Nining Co. All the other operators
sink into insignificance when compar-
ed to this copper octopus. The fight,
therefore, is a fight between the West
em Federation of Miners and the
Calumet & Hesla.
The 100000 organized coal miners
of America, besides the rest Of the
ing the Western Federation of Miners
in their effort to gain a small measure
of liberty.
On the other side is a formidable
array of force Organized capital, in
the form of Employers Associations
and Citizens Alliances, the county
administration, which is but an ad-
junct to the Calumet & Hesla, the
state government, also a puppet in the
hands of the copper kings, and prob
ably large portion of the federal gov
eminent are all serving the ends OF
this corporation.
Perhaps never in the history of this
country has so much lawlessness been
committed in the name 'of Law and
Order" as has been perpetrated on the
Lake Superior Copper Range during
the last six months by the mine own
ers and their hirehngs.
We see the sheriff, on the first day
of the strike, at the behest of the Cal
umet & Hesla, ask the governor fol
the state militia. There was no VIC
lence, nor any threat of violence, as
far as the strikers were concerned
The only reason for placing the dis
'trict under what practically meant
martial law was to owerawe the min
ers or provoke them into committing
acts of violence.
The governor dod nit hesitate. He
did not investigate. He obeyed the
company's order as meekly as had
Sheriff Cruise. On July "a, the day
after the beginning of the strike, the
state troops we're sent to the scene
of battle.
The Citizens committee" which il
October made an investigation, II
its report comments ON the calling Of
the. troops. 1t is claimed that the
opening of the strike "disorganized'
the force of Sheriff Cruse's deputies
In other words, some of the deputie:
appear to have declined to shoe
down strikers for the Calumet & Hecls
Militia and Gunner
The coming of the militia brough1
in veritable reign of terror. Strik
ing miners were knocked down ant
beaten up ON the public streets. Wives
and daughters of thes trikers were as
saulted. Says Walter B. Palmer, re
preventative of the Department OF La
Dor:
MANY Michigan mihtiamen became
intoxicated and were allowed to wan
der about the streets armed"
The country was secured for strike
breakers. The Waddell-Mahon AMI
Ascher Detective Agencies of New
York acted as clearing houses TO
scabs. With the scabs came hundreds
Iof thugs and gunner, some of whom
were employed by the county as de
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