Butte Vs Anaconda
The sound of ore train, the throb of constant labor, and the rolling smoke coming from the seven smokestacks of the Neversweat, would always be a constant reminder of what Butte, represented. In Work Song, by Ivan Doig, Doig created a real life image for his readers of what the people of Butte went through with the powerful Anaconda Mining Company. One of the ways Doig accomplished this was by dramatizing the main character "Morrie Morgan." Morrie reluctantly gets caught up in the fight against Anaconda Mining Company by befriending two old Welsh miners, a crabby librarian, a half starved boy, and a young widowed landlady, Grace. Through them you will see how Butte suffered from the turmoil and violence of Anaconda Mining Company.
In the beginning of this novel, I felt Doig captured the opinions towards Anaconda really well, by educating Morrie about the mining company, and how the local folks felt about the profound power they held over Butte. At Morries first dinner at the Faraday's boarding house. Hoop and Griff, former miners of Butte, and Grace the owner of the boarding house become furious over the discovery that Morrie was to be employed with the Anaconda Mining Company.
"You're one of those," Grace flamed. Yanking my rent money from her apron
pocket, she hurled it to the table... "Leave this house at once, Whoever-You-
Are Morgan. I'll not have under my roof a man who wears the copper collar...
"Anaconda is the right name for the company men," Griff growled.
"They're snakes.".... "Lowest form of life," Hoop averred...Anaconda men sit around up there in the Hennessy Building on their polished rumps...figuring out a new way to rob the working man. They bust the union, and we build a new one (9, 10).
Griff one of the retired Welsh miners went on to explain about the cat's-cradle of conflicts among the mineworkers union, the Wobblies... and the Wall Street-run company (11). According to Griff, there had already been strikes, lockouts, riots, and even dynamiting. The Anaconda Mining Company was also known for bringing in good squads, and even lynching, when the Wobblies (another union) tried to raise trouble for them, and that is not the worst of the story (11). This example showed the reader how powerful Anaconda was in the 1900's by lynching a union organizer Frank Little for helping the minors of Butte (Jim Lane). "Anaconda's squads of bullies in our streets. You'd think we weren't Americans (107).I felt Doig showed us what it was like for not only the minors, but also the towns people by putting the Anaconda goons after Morrie to show how the citizens of Butte feared the Anaconda Mining Company's goons.
Anaconda Mining Company was also known for getting what they wanted from the townsfolk. For example, Anaconda put Grace through fear day after day, first by losing her husband in the mines Speculator fire resulting from dangerous working conditions, but also by bullying her to sell out to them, and move from her boarding house. "The mining company wants to get its hands on this." She confided. "Buy the
boarding house, and tear it down. They send someone around every so often, and I throw hot water on them." Anaconda also used more dangerous methods by dynamiting under her boarding house on a daily basis. "Anaconda wants to turn this into a glory hole" she flamed (16). Anaconda only cared of reducing their costs, while ruining the lively hood of the people. They wanted to mine with big holes, called Berkley pits so they would not have to pay upkeep on the tunnels. This change devastated the surrounding environment, stripping away Butte's hillsides and destroying homes.
Doig painted a picture of Anaconda Mining Company as greedy and stingy by taking away from the minors a dollar in pay. Anaconda didn't care about the well-being of their workers, nor were they ever concerned with increasing the workers wages. All of their decisions were meant only to advance the one goal that they had "increasing profits." They paid unwillingly good wages to the miners, but the minute copper prices dipped they cut their wages (11).This is how the strike began to formulate during this time period. Anaconda held all the minors' fate in the late 1800's early 1900's, by their ledgers, cheating the minors on the price of copper. Until, Jared Evans entrusted Morrie with the duty of figuring out the numbers that Anaconda Company was feeding to them. "The Anaconda Company had an army of bookkeepers on its side, so the union deserves at least one" Morrie replied (138). Doig is slowly leading Morrie, more and more into being somewhat like leader for the people of Butte, by helping the union fight back against Anaconda. Anaconda Mining Company, a lot of the time had their goons do the dirty work, by stirring up the miners of Butte. In the novel, Anaconda Mining Company had their goons blow up the pay office for reasons such as, "To blame it on the union" (117) replied Jared Evans. They want people to fear them, and believe they were in control of the town's fate.
Doig also showed the reader of the controls Anaconda held over the town of Butte, through the children and the families. The community of people who lived and worked in Butte, not only the miners, but their families especially the women, so many who became widows, because their husbands were killed in the mines. They were left to raise lots of children, with no job skills or insurance. "Most of the boys will be in the mines in just a few years, and most of the girls will be hatching up children, up on the Hill (98). Russian Famine, one of my favorite characters, was an ideal example of the poverty Anaconda ruled on the children of these families. Gaunt as an unfed Greyhound, the hollow- cheeked boy did resemble a living ghost from starvation times on some distant steppe. Russian Famine lost both of his parents to the flu, due to poverty and no insurance. "What they live on is anybody's guess" (98,100). This is an ideal example, of the children would barely reach sixth grade, before they were whisked off to work with their fathers in the mine learning the ways of the hard life for them to come. The daughters were also made to go out with gunny sacks by the railroad tracks, and pick up coal preparing their family for the worst.
Doig, also included the crabby librarian, that all of town feared. Even the goons feared him. Doig created an image of Sandison, which would intrigue you one moment, and would leave you wondering if there was more to his story. Sandison was a tough cattle rancher, who had an unimaginable love for books. Morrie worked in the library practically as a servant to Sandison, until one day he told Morrie they were going on a trip. Morrie, thought Sandison had figured out his troubled past and was going to lynch him, but events took Morrie for an unimaginable ride. Sandison used to own the Triple S ranch until he was forced out by Anaconda Mining Company. I felt Doig, did an exceptional job in showing his reader the effects that big companies, such as Anaconda Mining Company had on the little businesses. It showed me how Anaconda made it hard for the smaller companies to compete with, no matter how hard they tried to hold on. Sandison kept on a neutral side with the people's troubles of Butte. Until one day, Anaconda picked him out of the crowd by a newspaper title. "The Montana Necktie, You only wear it once, Wobs and other Troublemakers, leave town before this fits you" (234). This showed that Anaconda feared no one, and if anyone got in their way they destroyed them. Sandison showed Morrie, his old cattle ranch in the actual town of Anaconda. Morgan, I owned it all." Sandison who would not cower to the mining company wish to sell, had also felt the effect, like many others. Their smelting furnaces released arsenic into the ground, killing all of Sandison cattle. "We sued the mining company everyway there is. The Anaconda bunch had the big money, for eastern lawyers, so they beat us." Sandison lost thousands of cattle to Anaconda's grueling ways. It was before copper was on everyone's minds (249,252). "I let the money men call the tune on me and did more than any man should, to hold onto the best ranch in Montana. And then the poison came out of the air and I lost the Triple S anyway" (252). This shows even more of what Anaconda's was able to do, with their lack of caring for the people who made Butte, what it was before they ever came to rule over it.
I felt Ivan Doig, truly cared about the history of Butte, it showed through the main characters .He captured the actual town's history, culture, and struggles. Doig wanted the reader to have a sense of the heart of Butte, Montana. The people, the miners and their families, and the normal working class people such as Sandison. Doig told of an unremarkable story of survival and will to get through unspeakable destruction caused by Anaconda Mining Company.
