You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
Friday July 28, 1916
From Mesabi Strike Zone: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Fights for Miners
From the Duluth News Tribune of July 23, 1916:
Miss Flynn in City.Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, I. W. W. agent, returned to Duluth last night, after a week spent among the strikers on the range. She said she would rest here today and return to the strike zone the first of the week.
“i delivered speeches in nearly all the range towns last week,” she said at the Holland hotel. “Sometimes I spoke in two or three towns in one day. The situation is quiet with both strikers and operators playing a ‘watchful, waiting’ game. It seems to have developed into a test of endurance-a test to see which faction can stand it the longest.”
Miss Flynn in Biwabik:
MISS FLYNN SAYS STRIKE IS NOT OVER
—–BIWABIK, July 22.-Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, who has been keeping the authorities guessing as to her whereabouts for the past week, gave an address before a crowd of I. W. W. in the hall here last night. She assured her audience that the strike is by no means over and that more funds would be collected in all parts of the country to keep the strike going.
Miss Flynn also visited with strikers at Gilbert and spoke at Virginia, Thursday night, when the warning-“If there is anyone connected with the city police department, the Oliver police force or the sheriff’s office in this hall, they had better get out”-was given by one of the speakers.
—–
Miss Flynn Calls for Strikers’ Unity:
MISS FLYNN BESEECHES I. W. W. MEMBERS TO
STICK TOGETHER OR THEY’LL LOSE STRIKE
AND LEADERS ‘WILL GO TO PENITENTIARY’
—–
Strikers of Hibbing, Chisholm and Keewatin Have
Parade and Then Gather at I. W. W. Headquarters
to Hear Speaker Promise She Will Raise
“A Large Sum” for Them in Minneapolis Today.
—–HIBBING, July 22.-Acting on the advice of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn to give a demonstration today, striking miners in Hibbing, Chisholm and Keewatin mustered their full strength to not more than 400 in a parade two blocks long this afternoon.
Headed by the American flag and 25 women the strikers proceeded through the business section of the village carrying signs with mottoes of their cause.
After the parade the miners gathered in Workers hall, the I. W. W. headquarters, to listen to speeches by local agitators. The ranks of the strikers are thinning fast and the few loyal ones remaining were urged to stick together for the assured victory.
When a News Tribune representative went to Workers hall an I. W. W. member shook him warmly by the hand and greeted him with: “You are our brother from the Mesaba Ore?”
“Remain firm in standing by the I. W. W. and your leaders in jail,” Miss Flynn urged the striking miners.
If you win, Tresca, Scarlet [Scarlett], Little and other fellow workers now in the Duluth jail will be released, but if you lose, they will be sent to the penitentiary.
Sunday, I will address a big gathering of I. W. W. and other fellow workers at Minneapolis and will collect a large sum to aid you in your struggle. Stick together and remain true to the I. W. W.
Miss Flynn Describes the Meeting in Hibbing:
MISS FLYNN DECLARES CHILDREN WILL MARCH
—–
Agitator Says Parades Will Be Modeled After
Those of Copper Country Strike.
—–Miss Flynn arrived in Duluth last night and in discussing her meeting at Hibbing said:
This afternoon I spoke of the beauty and spotlessness of Hibbing as a city and said I thought it was a shame the working people could not earn money enough to enable them to live in a manner becoming the place.
If this strike never accomplishes anything more, it will have served a noble purpose in bringing home to the steel corporation the fact that there is a human side to the digging of iron ore; the welfare of the miners and their families must be considered as well as the acquisition of the rich minerals.
Miss Flynn said that several days ago the strikers’ committee received a “fat” check from I. W. W. headquarters in Chicago and consequently “the strikers would not have to worry about funds for the present.”
At a meeting of the strikers’ committee, plans were laid for a series of children’s parades in all the towns on the range, Miss Flynn said. The parades she declared will be patterned after those which featured the copper strike in Michigan.
—–
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SOURCE
Duluth News Tribune
(Duluth, Minnesota)
-July 23, 1916, pages 5 & 6
http://www.genealogybank.com/
The Industrial Workers of the World, 1905-1917
-by Philip Sheldon Foner
International Publishers, 1965
https://books.google.com/books?id=e-KlAAAAMAAJ
IMAGE
EGF, MN Iron Miners Strike, Tacoma Tx, July 26, 1916
https://www.newspapers.com/image/84725772/
Fire in the Hole – Hazel Dickens