IDENTIFYING THE ENEMY The tale of Herman Elmer
As a German-born coal miner, Herman Elmer was an exceptional member of local union 2334 United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) at Michel, British Columbia. In a community populated by British, Canadian, American, Italian, Austro-Hungarian, and Russian immigrants, his German national origin was remarkable because it was so rarely encountered in the years just before the First World War. He stood for vice-president of District 18 UMWA in July 1913 and polled impressively; in August he became secretary of the Michel local union and won immediate praise; in February 1914, he worked successfully for a dramatic change to the constitution of District 18. Yet in the autumn of 1914, Elmer was arrested for sedition and imprisoned without trial. In both his arrest and his imprisonment, he was also exceptional. Throughout the remarkably turbulent war years to follow, the treatment of Herman Elmer would remain unique.
Elmer was born in the small seaside village of Kessin in northern Germany, circa 1877. Apart from that fact, details pertaining to his arrival in Canada, his marital status, and his employment history are not available. Nor is it known how he found his way to Michel, a small coal company town located by the Alberta border in the Crowsnest Pass.1 Employer and provincial government records indicate Elmer was first hired by the Crow’s Nest Pass Coal Company at Michel in the spring of 1912, suffered a fairly serious injury at work in August, and returned to work in May 1913.2 His name first appears distinctly in connection with union politics at the regular weekly meeting of local union 2334 the first Sunday of July 1913, when he was nominated as a candidate for vice-president of District 18 UMWA. Although he had then been in Michel for just over a year, it was long enough for him to become popular with his fellow workers. Unsuccessful in his bid for District office, Elmer nevertheless received as many votes from miners at Michel as did the other five candidates combined. Just a few weeks later, when the secretary-treasurer of the local union moved to Spokane, Elmer stepped forward to replace him. At the age of thirty-six, he was soon receiving applause for the new energy he brought to union affairs.3
He immediately let it be known where he stood on the most important political issue facing the miners of District 18 during the summer of 1913. The British Columbia Federation of Labour was polling affiliates on a 48-hour strike to protest the recent use of militia to break the Vancouver Island coal strike. On September 14, the Michel local union voted in favour of that proposal. In a lengthy and strongly worded letter to the the weekly newspaper owned and operated by District 18, Elmer urged other local unions to do the same. He insisted that failure to support the miners of Vancouver Island “would stamp us as cowards who don’t deserve a better fate than to remain slaves.” He was undoubtedly disappointed when the proposed protest strike did not find sufficient support across the
