COPPER STRIKE FAILS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 97, 30 May 1914, Page 4

COPPER STRIKE FAILS.

The copper miners' strike at Calumet, Michigan, which has been in progress for nearly a year, lias collapsed, and the miners, numbering 18,000, are seeking re-employment, having waived all their demands.

The strike, which was organised by the Western Miners' Federation, has been responsible for rioting, bloodshed, and damage to property, but throughout the mineowners have steadfastly refused the union's demands for recognition and higher wages.

' Strike-breakers were imported, including three hundred Cornishinen, two of whom were murdered by the strikers last year. The great majority of the men will find their positions filled up, and the owners show no disposition to discharge the imported miners, who have now settled down to local conditions.

It was at Calumet that, the fatal panic on Christmas Eve occurred, owing, it was alleged, to a drunken non-union-ist shouting "Fire! " in a hall wliere a miners' entertainment was being given. Eighty-three men, women and children lost their lives, but a couple of days afterwards Mr Moyer, the miners' leader, was expelled from the town on account of the violence of his language and the wildness of his accusations.