Approximating Civil War in Michigan
By Editor
CURRENT news items from the neighborhood of Calumet, Michigan, would, according to the Grand Rapids Herald, indicate to most people a civil war in the effort to settle the strike that has been reigning there for the last six months. Among the headings are such as these: "Moyer shot, slugged, and deported from Calumet district," "Miners forced to surrender after an eight-hour battle," "A pitched rifle battle between deputy sheriffs and the Citizens' Alliance on one side and striking copper-miners on the other raged all day on South Range," "Deputies and citizens take many prisoners," "Three young men miners killed by a rifle attack on a boarding-house during the night." The Herald further remarks that one would hardly believe "that these descriptions are not from Mexico, instead of Michigan." Mr. Charles H. Moyer, president of the Western Federation of Miners, is under a physician's care for injuries received as indicated in the foregoing headings. He says that he intends, as soon as he is recovered, to return to the scene of battle and continue the conflict. Men are blinded to all of the lessons of history if they do not see the seriousness of the worldwide and determined struggle that is now on between the masses on the one hand and the classes on the other. We may not take sides in the conflict, but we ought to sense its meaning and its seriousness.