You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Wednesday January 21, 1914
From the Miners' Bulletin: Rev. Peter Dietz on the Copper Barons
The following article by Father Dietz appeared today on the front page of the
Bulletin, the voice of the Western Federation of Miners in Michigan's Copper Country. Many of the copper strikers are Catholic, and, therefore, the opinion of this prominent Catholic editor is important to them, and his support of trade unionism is welcomed by all.
ARROGANCE OF COPPER BARONS
By Rev. Peter E. Dietz, Editor "Michigan Catholic."
This strike has been on for half a year. fifteen thousand miners and their families are directly involved not to mention the general public. Millions of dollars have been lost and wasted; lives have become embittered, peace and prosperity destroyed; there has been provocation, violence and killing and the end of the conflict is not in sight.
The public has been long-suffering, but there comes a time when patience ceases to be virtue. It is a distinct teaching of Catholic philosophy that the individual welfare is subject to the common welfare. Catholic public opinion applies this axiom not only to men but also to movements. The industries of the State of Michigan must therefore be subject to the common welfare of the State of Michigan and of the United States to which it is a party. The Calumet & Hecla Co. and allied concerns of Northern Michigan can have no legitimate existence except as servants of the American people.
Catholic opinion stands between the silent but deep-going excesses of the capitalistic society and loud and oftentimes violent demonstrations of socialist democracy. It is difficult to say which of the two extremes is the greater menace to civilization, but I am inclined to think the unregulated capitalism is the greater offender.
The responsible factors of industrial capitalism must not persuade themselves that they can win against human nature and human rights and excite an oftentimes just spirit of rebellion, and in the end depended upon the conservative forces of the state and the church to prevent violence and disaster. Sound public opinion with moral and legislative influence behind it, should find ways and means to make the big industries responsible to the larger community of interests.
The point at issue.
I will not enter into the details of the grievances whether on the part of the company or on the part of the men. I have been in the Calumet strike region and made a personal investigation. I met the strike leaders, a representative of the company, clergymen, miners, the judge of the district and others; I have a multitude of facts and the literature of both sides at my disposal, and I have carefully formed a personal opinion which is in sympathy with the ultimate demand of the striking miners for the recognition of the trade union principle.
It is not necessary here to go back to the beginning of the struggle and to the strikers except to note that these demands included recognition of the Western Federation of Miners, nor is it necessary to hark back to the defiant attitudes of the company. In the course of time the company came to grant most of the demands in an effort to disorganize the strikers and to win the men back to work. To my mind the principal remaining issue is the recognition of the Western Federation of Miners.
At no time during the strike has the company shown any willingness to meet with the representatives of the strikers. Technically and legally even this attitude may be correct enough, but practically and socially it is full of dynamite.
The newspapers are obviously in the tow of the company; also the Commercial club, the so-called Citizens's Alliance is another auxiliary of the company , for the manufacture of antiunion sentiment. The court is held in contempt because it will not mark peace to the company's tune.
Over against this let us for the sake of argument admit all that is urged against the strikers in affidavits which "tell of their noise, parades, insults, threats, attacks, assaults, killings, and all their overt acts of lawlessness, disorder and violence."
I would not be understood as condoning any of these measures. I will go as far as any man in condemning them, yet I will ask only that however much these arguments are emphasized and used against the recognition of the union, they under-shoot the mark and therefore are worthless because they do not go to the heart of the problem.
This is the heart of the problem, that in the big industries, no matter how benevolent, there is an accumulation of power, wealth and brains and other resources which may at any time be as great a menace as sometimes they are a blessing, and it is to the interest of our common human nature to have a ready check upon this power.
Organization can be met only by organization, and therefore those who in the words of Pope Leo, "have had laid upon them a yoke little better than slavery" are told to organize into unions for education, betterment and defense. Philosophy, political economy, religion, see the reasonableness of the trade union principle, but it remains for rudimentary minds like those controlling the Calumet & Hecla Co., to shut out reason and to defy progress.
Nevertheless, whether the copper strike is won or lost by the company, the trade union idea will progress in the copper country. The company may defer the main issue for today or the day after by its sheer might, but its temporary ability to do this will not be accepted as final and decisive. Deep down in the heart of the modern working man is the firm and unshakable conviction that the recognition of his union is the first and most important item on his industrial program and that without it his other hopes, aspirations and demands are bound in the end to be largely illusory. It is in a similar sense too, that the Catholic Church claims organization as the vital means of spiritual salvation, and down in her innermost heart, the Catholic Church knows that the modern trade unionism is right. The Calumet & Hecla Co. cannot shut out progress by sticking its head like the ostrich in the desert sand of an antiquated and anti-social Liberalism.
While we welcome the support of Rev. Dietz, we must take exception to this part of his statement:
Over against this let us for the sake of argument admit all that is urged against the strikers in affidavits which "tell of their noise, parades, insults, threats, attacks, assaults, killings, and all their overt acts of lawlessness, disorder and violence."
In the only instance where strikers are accused of killing non-strikers, the ammo found at the scene was the type used in the rifles carried by the Waddell guards. Waddell men were also near the scene immediately after the killings. Against this one terrible instance of murder, we take note of: the Seeberville Murders, where the murders admit they did the killing; the death of the Cibacca baby who was dumped out into the cold by mine guards along with her mother and siblings, came down ill that night and died soon after; and the murders of 73 men, women, and children by a man wearing a Citizens' Alliance button who thought it a good idea to disrupt a children's party by making a false cry of "fire" in the crowded hall. We also remember the 14-year-old girl who was chased down the street and shot in the the back of the head, yet, miraculously survived.
We also take issue with the good Reverend when he states that one extreme is unregulated Capitalism and the other extreme, although less offensively so, is socialist democracy. Yet we do agree with Rev. Dietz in this way: one extreme is unfettered greed and exploitation while the other extreme is social and economic justice. The two could not be further apart, and we make no apology for standing, not between the two, but firmly on one side of that divide.
Nevertheless, we thank Reverend Dietz for his support of the trade unionism, and for being willing to say so to the powerful Michigan Copper Barons, and to the Calumet & Hecla Mining Company in particular. Yet we have not forgotten that it was the C & H manager, James MacNaughton, who said he would teach the strikers and their families to eat potato parings. And for that reason, we somehow doubt that any moral or religious appeal to such a man could ever prove effective.
SOURCE
Miners' Bulletin
"Published by authority of
Western Federation of Miners
to tell the truth regarding
the strike of copper miners."
-of Jan 21, 1914
Death's Door
The Truth Behind Michigan's Largest Mass Murder
-by Steve Lehto
MI, 2006
Photo: Children's Parade, Michigan Copper Strike of 1913-14
http://www.flickr.com/...
Note: as a backwoods farm girl, let me explain something about potato parings. As potatoes are peeled, the peelings are dumped into a scrape bowl. These are the potato parings. The scrap bowl is eventually dumped into the pig trough. MacNaughton was essentially telling the miners and their families that, before the strike ended, he would teach them to eat food fit only for the pigs. People in that time and place would have understood that.
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Tuesday January 21, 2014
Miner's Magazine on Rev. Peter E. Dietz
Dietz was a controversial figure within the labor movement. The following is from the May 22, 1913 issue of the Miner's Magazine, which was the official voice of the Western Federation of Miners. The article appears to be an editorial, and was most likely written by the editor, John M. O'Neill:
REV. PETER E. DEITZ, who has been one of the boosters and promoters of the Militia of Christ, has sent out a circular letter in which he appeals to the membership of organized labor to become imbued with the spirit of Christianity. Rev. Dietz in his circular bewails the conflicts that arise between employer and employee and feels that if only men would lift their eyes towards the blue-vaulted dome and think of the many “mansions in the skies” that are being prepared for the holy and righteous, they would forget the material things of life which precipitate so many conflicts between Brother Labor and Brother Capital.
Rev. Dietz, through the “Militia of Christ,” is going to disarm Labor and Capital and the slave permeated with the joy of eternal happiness in the realms of everlasting glory for his contentment on earth is going to hug his boss in the deathless embrace of fraternity.
Strange that so many centuries have elapsed since Christianity dawned upon the world and yet it remained for Rev. Peter Dietz to launch an organization whose principles are presumed to bridge the broad and deep chasm that lies between exploiter and exploited.
Peter, thou art a rock!
But the wise and cunning Peter in his circular is merely trying to throw dust in the eyes of the working class, knowing full well that economic tyrants who hold labor in the fetters of wage slavery are not foolish enough to gulp down the drivel that flows from the shackled pen of a man who is up in arms against Socialism.
Dietz, by statements only, endeavors to impress upon Labor that Socialism is not only a menace to society, but an enemy to the real interests of labor.
Statements from Dietz must be followed by proof and argument.
The Catholic church, of which Dietz is a minister, has been the great and potent church of Belgium, and yet, what did the church in Belgium do for the working class.
Did the church demand manhood suffrage for the workers? No. The church was a partner of capital in denying labor an equal voice with capital at the ballot box, and Socialism, which Rev. Dietz denounces and condemns, solidified the workers of Belgium and won a strike that placed in the hand of labor a weapon that enables the worker to wage a bloodless revolution for the industrial emancipation of humanity. Rev. Dietz will discover in due time that the labor movement of the country is no longer in its swaddling clothes, and, furthermore this clerical slanderer of Socialism will yet realize that the mentality of labor can no longer be drugged by verbal opiates administered by a spiritual physician.
SOURCE
Miner's Magazine
Western Federation of Miners, 1913
page xiv of 470 using scroll bar at bottom of document
http://books.google.com/...
note: by searching with Dietz it is possible to see that a spirited debate was carried on between Dietz and O'Neill within the Miner's Magazine.
(Search also with Deitz as name is spelled both ways within the magazine.)
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Which Side Are You On-Natalie Merchant
Don't scab for the bosses
Don't listen to their lies
Us poor folks ain't got a chance
Unless we organize
Which side are you on boys?
Which side are you on?
-Florence Reese