You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
Hellraisers Journal, Thursday December 14, 1916
The Mesabi Range – Miss Flynn Fired Up; Famous Attorney Arrives
The Duluth News Tribune, which newspaper seems to approve of the black-hearted Biwabik editor who advocated Everett-style murder against the iron range strikers, nevertheless disapproves when Elizabeth Gurley Flynn wonders aloud why that same editor doesn’t go right on ahead and “start something.”
Meanwhile the famous labor attorney, Judge Orrin N. Hilton has arrived on the Range and is honored to be on the defense team of those charged with murder in connection with a lawless raid on a miner’s home in Biwabik during the miners’ strike last summer. Judge Hilton was the attorney for Joe Hill during the appeal of his murder conviction in the state of Utah. Hilton delivered the Memorial Oration at the Chicago funeral of our Martyred Rebel Songwriter, and that oration so offended the state of Utah that the Judge was formally disbarred in that state on July 1st of this year.
From The Duluth News Tribune of December 11, 1916:
GURLEY FLYNN TAKES “SLAM”
AT PUBLISHER
—–
HIBBING, Dec. 10.-Elizabeth [Gurley] Flynn, speaking here this afternoon at Workers’ hall in the interests of the I. W. W. members to be tried at Virginia for alleged murder, asked the editor of the Biwabik Times “why he doesn’t start something.” Miss Flynn directed that question from the platform to the absent editor after she had referred to his recent editorial in which he suggested that the best way to treat the I. W. W. on the range was to take an example from the vigilantes of Everett, Wash., where five members of the organization were killed and 52 wounded.
A reference also was made to the recent raid by Indian agents of the local club of the Elks. Miss Flynn declared that “after the white man had killed off the Indian with bad booze he made a treaty under the terms of which it was impossible for any one to get liquor except the Elks and a few other people like them.”
———-
[Photograph added.]
From The Labor World of December 9, 1916:
JUDGE HILTON OF DENVER HERE FOR
MESABA STRIKERS DEFENSE
———-
“THINK IT HONNOR TO BE WITH DEFENSE”
-HILTON
—–
Our defense will be an old one and please God a defense that an American citizen should always hold high.
It is the defense of a man’s constitutional right that his castle is his home and that his castle shall not be entered except by due process of law.
These are the statements made by Judge O. N. Hilton of Denver, who arrived here early this week to assist in the defense of Sam Scarlett, Carlo Tresca, Joseph Schmidt, Philip Masonovitch [Masonovich] and Mrs. Masonovitch and others, accused of murder by the Steel Trust. The defendants are accused of the murder of James Myron, a deputy sheriff, during the famous Mesaba Range iron miners strike.
[Said Judge Hilton, his eyes flashing:]
I consider it a high honor and privilege, to take even a small part in the defense of this case. I have looked over the evidence and I am astounded to find that anything of this kind could have been done in the Twentieth century.
The wife of one of the strikers was in her home with a babe in her arms. A mob of creatures of the Steel Trust, whether they were cloaked with a deputy sheriff’s authority or not, I forget just now, broke into the house. Whether they were deputy sheriffs or not, what right had they to break into the home of an American citizen or anyone else?
These creatures clubbed this woman over the head. Blood streamed down her white face.
They then dragged her by the hair and dumped her on the ground outside.
Do you blame me for feeling honored that I am to be associated with Mr. John A. Keyes for the defense?
Judge Hilton is an able lawyer and jurist. He has already gained nation-wide fame for his defense of workers in Colorado.
In appearance he is mild and looks like a student. His face is seamed and marred as if he had taken the troubles of the working class upon his shoulders and the load was too heavy to bear.
Despite his appearance of age, the Judge is quick and nervous in his movements and speech. His every action bespeaks vitality and energy. Judge Hilton is now on the iron range from whence he will return the early part of next week.
———-
SOURCES
The Duluth News Tribune
(Duluth, Minnesota)
-Dec 11, 1916, page 8
http://www.genealogybank.com/
The Labor World
(Duluth, Minnesota)
-Dec 9, 1916
https://www.newspapers.com/image/49876722/
Joe Hill
-by Gibbs M. Smith
Gibbs Smith, Sep 1, 2009
(Search with: hilton disbarred utah)
https://books.google.com/books?id=wFwsHQVuHVUC
Note: In a letter to Swedish Minister W. A. F. Ekengren, written December 13, 1915, Hilton stated: “I cannot be disgraced or humiliated by being disbarred from the practice of my profession in that State…”
IMAGES
MN Iron Range Strike, Tresca Scarlett Schmidt Button, 1916
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lbc1ic/x-lbc.0321/LBC0321.TIF
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Reno Gz-Jr, July 12, 1916
https://www.newspapers.com/image/147168974/
ON Hilton, Labor World, Dec 9, 1916
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn78000395/1916-12-09/ed-1/seq-1/
See also:
Hellraisers Journal: Biwabik Times Advocates Everett-Style Murder for the Miners of Mesabi Should They Dare to Strike Again
https://weneverforget.org/hellraisers-journal-biwabik-times-advocates-everett-style-murder-for-the-miners-of-mesabi-should-they-dare-to-strike-again/
Hellraisers Journal: Judge Orrin N. Hilton, Attorney for Joe Hill, Facing Disbarment in Utah (Scroll down for Funeral Oration of Orrin N. Hilton for Joe Hill, Part I)
http://caucus99percent.com/content/hellraisers-journal-judge-orrin-n-hilton-attorney-joe-hill-facing-disbarment-utah
Hellraisers Journal: Charges Against Joe Hill’s Attorney Enumerated in Petition for Disbarment (Scroll down for Funeral Oration of Orrin N. Hilton for Joe Hill, Part II)
http://www.caucus99percent.com/content/hellraisers-journal-charges-against-joe-hills-attorney-enumerated-petition-disbarment