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Newspaper Page Text
.?. -T.-' .. ii , i r Hm'w-' i i ih m irjwr i he had 108 men on duty in the county and that the Bums Detective Agency had 12 "detectives." At the time I was there the State of Michigan had about 650 militia men on duty. They were armed, of course. While Waddell was not a citizen of Michigan and Sheriff Cruse had been elected by the people, Waddell was to all intents and purposes the actual sheriff and directed the work of the gunmen. And the mine managers directed the work of Waddell. He was on their pay-rolL Waddell himself said that forty per cent of his "men" were ex-members of the New York police force, who had retired on a pension of $57.50 a month which they can do after 20 years' service. Ostensibly these armed gunmen, deputies and militiamen were there to protect property. Practically they were there to help the mine managers break the strike. The strange thing about it, when you think it over, was that all the striking miners had to protect was the lives of themselves and their fami lies and they were not permitted to be armed. Six of the gunmen fired into a miners' boarding house during the sup per hour and killed a miner and a 17-year-old boy. Not a shot was fired in return by any of the miners. Pour of the six. gunmen were Waddellvmen, imported by the mine managers to help break the strike. When these six hired' murderers were finally indicted for murder in the second degree, the mine managers gave bail for them in $10,000 each, and they are still on duty as gunmen officers of the law, representing the County of Houghton in the great State of Michigan. Since I came back from Calumet, part of the state troops have been withdrawn. Now the companies are importing more strikebreakers from Chicago and other cities. That means there will be more government by gunmen. Bear in mind that it is against the principles of a professional" strike breaker to" work. The men sent to Calumet from Chicago are not miners and won't work in the mines. They will be deputized, given guns and stars and lined up with the army of gunmen the multi-millionaire mine owners now have pn the ground. They will be used as officers of the law to help evict the striking miners from their homes, when the courts enforce the orders of eviction. They will be used against the miners as the gunmen and sluggers were used against newsboys last year in Chicago to GOVERN citizens of this coun try who are exercising their right to strike for better wages and better working cpnditions, It is a common practice now to break strikes with hired gunmen in the employ of employers. It is considered legal for employers to administer the law themselves through irresponsible thugs from the city slums. IT WOULD BE TERMED ANARCHY IP STRIKERS ANYWHERE WERE TO HIRE GUNMEN TO ENFORCE THEIR WILL UPON EM PLOYERS. Just imagine the howl that would go up from the keDt press all over the country if the staking copper miners of Michigan were to demand of the state or county the right to bear arms to protect the lives of themselves and their families from these professional gunmen. Yet ome day workingmen will demand belligerent rights, and appeal to the American sense of fair play against the injustice of an industrial war in which one army is. armed and the other is not. - - j