The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-01-13
President of Michigan Min
ing Company Takes Issue
With Commission
NO STRIKE BREAKERS
ARE BEING IMPORTED
Official Charges Misstatements in
Report of Investigators and Says
Ii Was Biased in the
Strikers Favor

Boston, January 1a.-President quincy
A. Shaw. of the Calumet and Hecla Min
ing company in Il statement issued to-
night, takes issue with the report Of the
government commission. made public last
saturday, on the strike in Michigan in
which the Calumet and other mining COM
panies are involved. lie imputes the mo-
tives OF the investigators in making pub
lie the report at this time and lntimates
that It was eolored in favor of the strik-
ers Mr. shaw's statement follows:
after Secretary Wilson's speech In
Seattle it was to be expected that his
subordnates would make report which
would be highly eolored In favor of the
strikers. The publication of the report IS
also well times to assist strike leaders
In arousing false sympathy through mis-
representations. So far as It contains
information given by the companies Tho
report could have been published months
ago, if there was any genuine desire to
have the public know .he conditions
under which the men worked
Extracts from the report which appear
in the papers, if accurately quoted, con-
tain many misstatements.
Eight-Hour Law in Effect
Since December /. an eisht-hour day has
been in effect underground anG In an
places where work is continuously con-
Quoted for "A hours. All other employees
have a nine hour day. The companies in
which | am interested did not post a no
tice that the hours of labor were SSi
Directly after mentioning the Calumet
and Hecla Mining eompanys name, 1t
is said that two men made affidavit that
at the point of a gun they We're CONF
PEELED to go from superior to Calumet
and then to work at some other camp.
These affidaVlts are false II they relate
to any action on the part Of either the
Superior o. the Calumet companies. Ws
have evidence of false affidavts secured
by the federation.
THE report states "a number OF strikers
| have been Killed. and athsrs injured Ia
the use of arms Il. The prssessioa.of Wac
dclI inen srlfis eoayiets the Waddell men
before their trial Tile record of thosn
Killed TO date is as follows;
Two strikers. who are said to nave
resisted deputies; one striker who was
connected with the brutal murder Of
Deputy Pollock. ON the other nand three
ncnunion men were shot To death While
lying in bed. and hundreds of men, whose
only offense was desire to So 60 work.
have been attacked and 50 cruelty beaten
they required medical attention at our
hospitals
Would Deceive Germans
'The quincy Mining company Is tc-
cuscd Of evidently intending 20 deceive
Germans who could nnt reao snrlsh
because they complied with the laws Of
New York and printed the word strike
in the English language. Not only eii
Parsons Todd has told~ine on two ocea
sions, that he went with Interpreters
and personally interviewed the men who
were engaged to work. so that there
could be no misunderstanding Of the sit
uaton.
'"rhe report states that the calur- ct
and Tlecla Mining company employs up-
ward OF 50 per cent of the total number
of mine workers engaged in that region,
This Is untrue The Calumet and Hecla
Just previous 10 the strike employed
considerably less than ,one-thnd OF the
mine employees.
"rhe report states that the profits
have been extremely large, namely,
S12l 0Ou,0O in dividends. 1t would probably
be equally interesting had the report
stated that i'm addition to the dividends
the company has paid for lapor, sup
plies lands and taxes, roughly an addi-
tional $220000,000.
Says Report Unfair
"The report is grossly unfair, when
il states that so-cailed 'strikebreake. !,
have been or are being imported. There
was a serious shortage of labor in al.
the mines for a year previous to the
strike and to make up this shortage ans
to take the places of the men who have.
left the district, we have employment
for hundreds of men who will fe1%ive
wages and work under conditions Ns
good as, IL not better than In any miniifA
district in this country. We hope that
the men now coming into the district
come there TO stay and IL they prove ef-
iicient workmen and law-abiding clti-
zens. can give them assurance of their
Jobs during the life of the mines witr
plenty of chance for advancement Ori
general manager began working for the
company in the seventies when he was
less than 90 years old. Just previous 40
the strike the company had In its EN-
ploy 1900 men. who had worked for the
company between 10 and 40 years, and
it had also in its employ 400 men who
were the sons of these 1900 men. These
are the kind of men the company wants
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