By Charlie at Pasty Central (Chopper) on Sunday, February 17, 2008 - 04:27 pm:
In the course of making today's Pasty Cameo about Atlas Powder, I stumbled across the newspaper clippings in the Wesley Williams collection from the 1913 strike, kept at the Calumet School library. On the same page as the strike-related dynamite incident, I found the note about Annie Clemenc, the wife of a Croatian miner who helped organize the Woman's Alliance in support of the miners' cause. Interesting to note that the dynamite incident and Annie's march occurred in the same week. Those certainly were explosive days, in more ways than one.
Just a side - while reading the daily newspaper clippings which Mr. Williams so diligently preserved, I was struck by the polarization of the pro and anti-union forces, again from articles which appeared the same week as the 2 above:
In supportIn opposition
Seeing the danger posed by the growing violence, gives a whole different perspective of the struggle. The old photos of marchers with signs or flags, surrounded by troops, barely begins to express the depth of the conflict, and the risk of injury or death - by folks on either side of the issue (or often the ones caught in the middle).
The timing of Atlas Powder's opening was not the most favorable. Just when the plant was up and running, all of the inventory was hustled on back to Senter, so as to avoid another Bumbletown incident.
Our thanks to Calumet Public School Library, Bill Haller, Michigan Tech Archives, and (for the box of dynamite) Mary Drew - our weekday co-host who returns to these pages tomorrow.
