Italian Hall disaster
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Italian Hall disaster (sometimes referred to as the 1913 massacre) refers to the tragedy in which seventy-three men, women and children were crushed to death on December 24, 1913 in Calumet, Michigan.
This event is considered the legal source for the often-cited First Amendment limitation, "You cannot shout 'Fire' in a crowded theater."[citation needed]
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[edit] Background
The C&H Company was formed from the consolidation of both Calumet and Hecla companies in 1871. The major focus of this company was the mining of copper. One of the longest and most disastrous strikes took place in this company. The major cause for the strike was the replacement of the two-man drill by the one-man drill. The drilling of copper was usually done by hand where one person was holding the drill and the other two were strikers. The type of drill used was changed as a result of the cost-cutting program. Other causes of the strike included working hours and the amount of wages paid to each worker. The amount of wages paid to each worker was based on the inch of penetration into the mines. Miners were usually paid 2.75$ (USD) a day for ten hours of work but a select few earned $4. Work days were usually 12 hours long; boys 12 years of age were employed deep in mines to carry drill rods to the drilling teams who were found 600ft deep in the mine shafts. The strike went on for about 5 months and around the Christmas season; the union was preparing for a Christmas feast for striking workers and their families.[1]
[edit] Christmas Party
On Christmas Eve many of the striking miners and their families had gathered for a Christmas party. According to some estimates, there were over five hundred people in all. The party was being held in the second floor of the town's Italian Hall. A steep stairway was the only way to the second floor, although there was a fire escape on one side of the building that was not well-marked and ladders down the back of the building which could only be reached by climbing out windows. Most of the guests ran for the doors by which they entered.
[edit] Event process
The tragedy occurred when someone yelled "Fire". People panicked and rushed for the stairs. In the ensuing melee seventy-three people (including fifty-nine children) were killed. When the dust settled it was found that there had been no fire. To date it has not been established who had cried "Fire" and why. It has often been suggested, however, that like the famous Woody Guthrie song, "Fire" was called out by the anti-union company management to disrupt the party.
The ongoing controversy regarding whether the doors at the bottom of the stairs opened outward or inward should never have come into being. In fact, the controversy did not exist until the 1960s, indicating that it was a later invention. All photos of the doors suggest a double set of doors with both sets opening outward. Further, the issue of the doors is irrelevant. The pileup occurred on the stairs; the victims never made it as far as the doors. Clearly, the doors played no part in the tragedy.[citation needed]
[edit] Aftermath
After the first wave of grief had passed following the tragedy, it looked as if there was bitterness against the company but particularly against an organization known as Citizens Alliance. This group was against the union and the strike. Knowing quite well in what poor situation the strikers were in, the alliance set out to help the families. The alliance offered money to the union and told them to spend it as the will, but they didn’t accept it. The alliance was further accused by Charles Moyer, the president of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM), that they were responsible for the catastrophe and that they set a man to yell the word “fire”.[2] The Citizens Alliance assaulted Moyer in nearby Hancock, shot and kidnapped him. They placed him on a train with instructions to leave the state and never return. After getting medical attention in Chicago (and holding a press conference where he displayed his gunshot wound) he returned to Michigan to continue the work of the WFM.
The Italian Hall has since been demolished, and only the archway remains in the original plot of land. A sign explaining the event and some memorials also mark the place although the historical marker contains factual errors.
The event was immortalized by Woody Guthrie in a song titled "1913 Massacure".
A book was published in 2006 that detailed the events leading up to the tragedy, and described the author's belief that the most probable culprit was mine management. The author, a Michigan attorney with ties to the area, does not answer the question of who called "Fire" but instead examines news reports, transcripts of interviews with the survivors, the coroner's reports and other documentation in an attempt to answer the question of whether this was a calculated act by the mine management or a tragic error. See: "Death's Door: The Truth Behind Michigan's Largest Mass Murder," from Momentum Books LLC.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] Further reading
- Lehto, Steve Death's Door: The Truth Behind Michigan's Largest Mass Murder (Momentum Books, 2006) ISBN 978-1-879094-77-2
