The Lake Superior copper district strike of 1913-14 had created some attitude changes throughout the Copper Country due in part, perhaps, to the economic hardships the eight-month strike had caused. While a variety of industries existed in the district, each was dependent on mining in some way or other, and if the economy interfered with mining somehow, it had a direct impact on the region as a whole. The Calumet News, in its July 29, 1914 edition, inadvertently published that reminder when it wrote: “Mohawk gives concrete evidence of its recovery from the effects of the strike by the declaration of a $1 dividend, the first paid since a year ago.”

In spite of the strike, the Mohawk produced slightly less than four million pounds of copper in the first six months of 1914. A $1 dividend was in itself nothing to brag about, particularly from the Mohawk mine, but it was that company’s statement to the area’s still active Socialists that their attack on capitalism had been a failure.

Although the strike did drive the radical Socialist Western Federation of Miners from the mining district, it did not succeed in driving all of the Socialists who had supported the strike from the Copper Country. Led primarily by later arriving Finnish immigrants, the Socialist movement in the Lake Superior district had connections to other organizations throughout the region, including Detroit, eastern Minnesota, and Wisconsin, Colorado, and Montana, and some eastern states.

Resolutions condemning Socialism “in every phase of its propaganda” were adopted by the Catholic Order of Foresters in Ironwood in June, 1914. Socialists, according to author Armus Holmio, in his book “History of the Finns in Michigan,” clashed with churches from their native country. When criticized by pastors for Socialist doctrines and messages being preached at funerals, the local organization responded by banning pastors from officiating at funerals or weddings, and many radicals refused to have their children baptized.

The Mohawk mine, nor the radical Socialists, amounted to very little in 1914, however, and the Copper Country was about to be reminded yet again the price it paid for clinging to a one industry economy.

On June 28, 1914, a Serb national named Gavrilo Princip shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, along with his wife, European disputes to boil over into war. The global economic impact was immediate as every major European exchange closed. The price of copper declined, forcing mines to slash wages, cut hours, and in some instances, close down.

The Copper Country Commercial Club, which had sided with the mining companies during the strike, took no such position of loyalty now. In July, the club launched a campaign, which it decried “would result beneficially for everyone who is interested in the future of the district.” The campaign called for anyone who could afford to, to invest in attracting new industries to the Copper Country.

“We need more industries; we need a greater diversity of industries,” the club’s public announcement stated. “We need industries which will appeal to our growing boys and girls; we need industries which will divide the burden of providing employment to our people.”

Such a campaign was, of course, at cross purposes with the mining companies which had always wanted a single industry economy from which to draw a large labor pool. In spite of that, the companies had suffered labor shortages for decades.

The club had been organized for its members to “make a concerted effort to promote the commercial welfare of the community.”

The mining companies, on the other hand, concerned themselves with relying on cheap, immigrant labor to provide profits to shareholders, very few of whom were local. At a time when the copper mines needed to attract workers the most, low wages and dangerous conditions were driving tem away. In spite of corporate paternalism, wages were too low to sustain families. In an era before pensions and Social Security, Copper Country jobs left little money to spare for old age. Some 2,500 workers had left the copper district during the strike, and the exodus continued as many left for Detroit or Flint to work in the growing auto industry, or left the state entirely.

The mining companies had stood united in their position on the one-man drill. The drill was absolutely essential to profitability. But while the drill did increase production while reducing the workforce, it could not increase diminishing copper content in the rock as the mines went deeper. The copper mines were old now, and were now in decline.

The mine managers knew it, the Copper Country Commercial Club knew it, and unless other industries were brought to the region while there were still enough workers to accommodate them, the entire district would fail. The mining companies were quickly losing their influence.