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Disasters, Strikes and Spies
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"Deep
in the mines I fare,
Only a candle's glow,
Shows with a fitful flare,
What is the path I go.
Drilling the holes I blast, Getting the copper ore, Tapping the riches vast,
Nature has kept in store."
Berton Braley |
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| Almost two
year after Henry J. had been in America and two months after the
United States joined World War I, one of the
deadliest disasters in mining history occurred. With the war industries
clamoring for copper, every mine in Butte was working at full capacity. Demand
for copper was at its peak as every rifle cartridge contained an ounce
of pure copper. Among the mines aiding the war effort was the big
Speculator, with close to 2,000 miners employed on two shifts. On that
fateful June night, a group of men descended in the Spectator Mine to inspect an
electrical cable that had fallen loose. When the assistant foreman
accidentally touched his carbide lamp to the frayed paraffin paper that
wrapped the cable, it caught fire. The fire and deadly smoke quickly
fanned through the stopes and shafts of the well-ventilated mine to
connecting mines. Over four hundred men were trapped underground as
flame and smoke filled the shafts. Within an hour, an estimated 163
perished by suffocation or burning and miraculously 247 men escaped, 25
due to the heroic act of Manus Duggan who gave his life for his fellow
workers. The North Butte
Mining Company estimated damage to the mine at a million dollars. |
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Memorial to Manus Duggan a miner who risked his
life to try and rescue his colleagues during the big Speculator
Mine disaster. |
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| The facts
surrounding the fire and the possibility that it may have been started
deliberately, even an accurate account of the casualties continues to be
debated. One undisputable fact was the
shock felt by Butte and the world. With almost 38 countries
now represented in Butte, it is perhaps not surprising that
ethnic fighting erupted as men tried to grapple with their anger and
grief. The Irish, who had previously ruled supreme,
were infuriated by the arrival of the Finns, Slavs and Turks who were
prepared to work for lower wages. Suspicion was directly towards the
Finns that they had been in some way responsible for the fire at the
Spectacular mine. |
| Following the
disaster a new union arose, literally, a phoenix from the ashes.
Disgruntled miners, metal workers and smelter workers formed a Metal
Mine Workers’ Union to lobby the Company for improved working
conditions, better wages and abolition of the ‘rustling card’ and
“blacklisting” – the firing of workers for union membership. To
its cost, the Company totally ignored the efforts of these desperate
men. While funerals for the miners were still taking place, almost
20,000 men walked out of the copper mines of Montana. |
| The war effort
brought work to Butte, but with it other fearsome
consequences. Stories of German spies were common, and there was much
talk about a possible attack from German aircraft. There were all kinds
of sightings of the airborne Hun, and the newspapers ran stories that
the hills of Montana were crawling with the Kaiser’s
legions. The immigrant miners were caught up in this hysteria, much of
it based on ethnicity, the Irish came under particular scrutiny, on
account of alleged pro-German sympathies. Fueled by the general strike
and the spreading frenzy of world war, a palpable atmosphere of anarchy
swept over Butte. |
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