Location
Fisher 138
Start Date
12-4-2014 9:30 AM
End Date
12-4-2014 9:50 AM
Description
Labor Historian Marc Karson has singled out “labor priest” Peter E. Dietz as one of the strongest proponents for the active implementation of the Catholic Church’s 1890’s labor encyclical Rerum Novarum in the daily practice of American Catholics. Biographer Sister Mary Harrita Fox pointed out that in his work, Dietz “was particularly concerned over the role of the church in the copper strike in Upper Michigan.” This “particular concern” should be noted since the 1913 strike was one of the only disputes where Dietz went out of his way to visit and become actively involved. Why the keen interest?
This presentation will review the impetus for the huge effort which brought Peter E. Dietz to the Copper Country and solely to that dispute alone, the resulting visit and report that he made concerning the strike, the important role he believed this visit and stance in the Copper Strike had in the future of the Church’s relationship to the US labor movement. The presentation will look at both what Dietz thought would occur as a result of his 1913 trip to the Keweenaw and what actually happened in this pivotal pre-World War One era event. The paper will put Father Peter E. Dietz and the Catholic Church into the larger frame of how religion has been viewed within the history of the Strike.
Presenter Bio
John P. Beck is a symposium travel grant recipient, funded by The Friends of the Van Pelt Library.
Beck is an Associate Professor in the School of Human Resources and Labor Relations at Michigan State University. He co-directs, as a MSU Museum adjunct curator, the "Our Daily Work, Our Daily Lives" program (with Kurt Dewhurst of the MSU Museum) which explores, presents and preserves the culture of workers and the workplace. Beck has presented and published on various aspects of Michigan’s labor history focusing on iron miners, copper miners and dockworkers. He is recently served as State Scholar for the Smithsonian Institution’s traveling exhibit, “The Way We Worked” which toured six Michigan communities between September 2012 and June 2013 under the leadership of the Michigan Humanities Council.
Father Dietz, the Catholic Church and the 1913 Michigan Copper Strike
Fisher 138
Labor Historian Marc Karson has singled out “labor priest” Peter E. Dietz as one of the strongest proponents for the active implementation of the Catholic Church’s 1890’s labor encyclical Rerum Novarum in the daily practice of American Catholics. Biographer Sister Mary Harrita Fox pointed out that in his work, Dietz “was particularly concerned over the role of the church in the copper strike in Upper Michigan.” This “particular concern” should be noted since the 1913 strike was one of the only disputes where Dietz went out of his way to visit and become actively involved. Why the keen interest?
This presentation will review the impetus for the huge effort which brought Peter E. Dietz to the Copper Country and solely to that dispute alone, the resulting visit and report that he made concerning the strike, the important role he believed this visit and stance in the Copper Strike had in the future of the Church’s relationship to the US labor movement. The presentation will look at both what Dietz thought would occur as a result of his 1913 trip to the Keweenaw and what actually happened in this pivotal pre-World War One era event. The paper will put Father Peter E. Dietz and the Catholic Church into the larger frame of how religion has been viewed within the history of the Strike.
