Your welfare ain’t on that rich man’s mind.
-Hazel Dickens
Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday October 3, 1916
Miss Flynn to Hold Meetings in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn is currently on tour on behalf of Mesabi I. W. W. defendants who are charged with first degree murder-we refer our readers to the recent article by Eugene Debs in the International Socialist Review.
Before leaving northern Minnesota, Miss Flynn spoke with Joe Ettor at a meeting in Virginia, Minnesota, where she said:
Tresca, Scarlett, Smith and the others are in jail for your sake, remember them.
She also spoke to the Ministerial association at the Duluth Y. M. C. A. where she declared:
A very large majority of the workers on the iron range are foreigners, and they have no friends except among their kinsmen and fellow-workers. If the American-born people would only co-operate, and enlighten the lives of these poor unfortunates, all these disturbances and misfortunes would be done away with.
From The Duluth News Tribune of September 23, 1916:
FLYNN AND ETTOR IN ORDERLY GATHERING
—–
VIRGINIA. Sept. 22.-Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and Joseph Ettor conducted one of the most orderly meetings held on the range tonight, no violent methods being suggested and no reference made to the killings which have occurred on the range.
“The Lesson the Strike Has Taught” was the subject and the agitators laid stress on the fact that the strike has shown the leaders what men can be depended on in emergency.
“Tresca, Scarlett, Smith and the others are in jail for your sake, remember them,” said Miss Flynn.
[Photograph added.]
From The Duluth News Tribune of September 26, 1916:
ELIZABETH FLYNN TALKS TO MINISTERS
—–
Had the mining companies been considerate in their dealings with their employes, the present strike and all the unnecessary bloodshed would have been avoided, was the declaration made by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn before the Duluth Ministerial association at the Y. M. C. A. yesterday morning.
Miss Flynn declared, although the matters over which the controversy arose appeared insignificant to the ore magnates, it meant bread and life to the miners and their families, and therefore a strike resulted.
[Miss Flynn pointed out:]
This controversy could have been settled easily by arbitration, but it was the natural tendency of the mining companies to be stubborn, and treat the poor miners in the way which they say fit.
[Miss Flynn further declared:]
A very large majority of the workers on the iron range are foreigners, and they have no friends except among their kinsmen and fellow-workers. If the American-born people would only co-operate, and enlighten the lives of these poor unfortunates, all these disturbances and misfortunes would be done away with.
I have made a life study of the laborer, and find that hardly without an exception, they always get the worst of the deal. Their employer takes advantage of them because of their ignorance of the American language and customs, and will not forward any employe who shows exceptional ability in his line of work.
—–
[Photograph added.]
SOURCES
IWW Timeline from IWW Yearbook of 1916
Compiled by Morgan Cottle and Arianne Hermida
http://depts.washington.edu/iww/yearbook1916.shtml
The Rebel Girl: An Autobiography, My First Life 1906-1926
-by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
International Publishers, 1973
Blood on the Range, page 212
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/214105.The_Rebel_Girl
The Duluth News Tribune
(Duluth, Minnesota)
September 23, 1916, page 3
September 26, 1916, page 12
http://www.genealogybank.com
IMAGES
IWW Metal Mine Workers IU No. 490, Hibbing MN, June 19, 1916
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015079021849;view=image;size=150;page=root;seq=3;num=1
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Reno Gz-Jr, July 12, 1916
https://www.newspapers.com/image/147168974/
Joe Ettor Speaks in Boston for Joe Hill, Globe, Nov 8, 1915
http://newspaperarchive.com
EGF, MN Iron Miners Strike, Tacoma Tx, July 26, 1916
https://www.newspapers.com/image/84725772/
See also:
Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs Protests Frame-Up of Organizers & Strikers on Mesabi Range
https://weneverforget.org/hellraisers-journal-eugene-debs-protests-frame-up-of-organizers-strikers-on-mesabi-range/
Notes:
The dates of the tour given in the IWW Timeline above were taken from Solidarity (possibly the Sept 23rd edition.)
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn on tour:
9-24: Minneapolis, MN
9-26: Sioux City, IA
9-27: Albert Lea, MN
9-28: Des Moines, IA
9-29: Ames, IA
10-01: Omaha, NE
10-02: Fort Scott, KS
10-04: Pittsburg, KS
Whether or not this schedule was followed as published is not known, more research needed.The Appeal to Reason of October 21, 1916, page 3, states that Miss Flynn was in Girard, Kansas, “a few days ago,” but, sadly, the article gives no exact date for her visit.
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
-Oct 21, 1916
https://www.newspapers.com/image/67312384/
In The Rebel Girl, EGF stated that she “made a quite long trip among the midwestern cities to raise funds” for the struggle up on the Mesabi. She described speaking at the local IWW hall at Des Moines, Iowa, where she encountered Kate Richards O’Hare who was on tour speaking on behalf of the Socialist Party.
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