Hellraisers Journal: Haywood and Tresca Now on Scene of Minnesota Iron Miners’ Strike

Monday June 19, 1916
Virginia, Minnesota – I. W. W. to Support Iron Miners’ Strike

The strike up on Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range began on June 2nd when Italian miner, Joe Greeni, employed at an underground mine near Aurora took a look at his paycheck and saw that it was short of what his contract called for. He cried out:

To hell with such wages!

Throwing down his pick, he made plain his intention to walk off the job. In a show of spontaneous support the entire shift in that mine left the job with him. Greeni and his fellow miners went from mine mine in the town of Aurora calling out:

We’ve been robbed long enough; it’s time to strike.

Every mine in Aurora was shut down by June 4th. The strikers then selected a committee to request a meeting with the mine owners in order to present their grievances. That request has not been answered.

Finnish Socialists began to spread news of the Aurora Strike, and the striking Aurora miners marched from town to town accompanied by their wives and children. Miners across the Mesabi were encouraged to join the strike. The strike spread until, within a week, many more mines were closed and iron miners were out on strike in towns across the Mesabi Iron Range

In the Chicago Headquarters of the Industrial Workers of the World, letters were received from the Iron Range strikers requesting assistance from that organization, and thus we now find Big Bill Haywood on the scene in Virginia, Minnesota.

From The Indianapolis Star of June 16, 1916:

IRON MINERS ON STRIKE THREATEN
GENERAL TIEUP
—–

VIRGINIA, Minn., June 15.-Striking iron miners and their sympathizers to the number of 350 or 400 held a demonstration here today. Carl Resler, Industrial Worker of the World leader, prominent in strikes at Lawrence, Mass., and Paterson, N. J., and others addressed a mass meeting and announced that a strike vote of all miners and mill employes would be taken. Strike leaders declare every mine in the Virginia district will be closed tomorrow.

Resler said that William D. Haywood, secretary-treasurer of the I. W. W., was on his way here. He also declared a general strike in the iron mines of the Mesaba range would follow. The miners demand higher wages, an 8-hour day and semi-monthly pay days among other things.

From the New York Sun of June 16, 1916:

HAYWOOD BUSY WITH MINERS.
—–

Trying to Induce Minnesota Iron-workers
to Go on Strike.

DULUTH. Minn., June 15.-William D Haywood and Carlos Tresca, who figured in the Industrial Workers of the World strike trouble at Paterson, N. J., are in Virginia, Minn., trying to induce miners employed by the United States Steel Corporation and independents to strike.

Saloons have been ordered closed and Sheriff Meming and his deputies are following the strikers and agitators over the Mesaba range prepared to make arrests if property is destroyed. Agitators predict that all mines will be closed unless concessions are granted.

—–

From Portland’s Oregon Daily Journal of June 16, 1916:

Iron Miners on Strike;
Are Defiant
—–

Bloodshed May Follow Trouble at Virginia, Minn.,
Where Police and Strikers
May Have Differences.

Virginia, Minn., June 16.-(U. P.)-Bloodshed was expected following the formal declaration of striking iron ore miners concentrated here that they would not pay any attention to a police order to leave the city. Police threaten to put them out by force. The miners have organized and armed 100 men, whom they call their own “police” force. William D. Haywood, Chicago union organizer, is reported to be on the range. W. D. Scarlitt [Sam Scarlett], organizer is authority for the statement that three deputies will be shot for every miner shot, if the authorities start trouble.

—–

SOURCES

History of the Labor Movement in the US, Vol 4
The Industrial Workers of the World, 1905-1917
-by Philip Sheldon Foner
International Publishers, 1965
https://books.google.com/books?id=e-KlAAAAMAAJ

The Indianapolis Star
(Indianapolis, Indiana)
-June 16, 1916
https://www.newspapers.com/image/119663168/

The Sun
(New York, New York)
-June 16, 1916
https://www.newspapers.com/image/78204962/

The Oregon Daily Journal
(Portland, Orgon)
-June 16, 1916
https://www.newspapers.com/image/78314412/

IMAGE
Iron Miners at Fayal Mine, Eveleth, Minnesota, 1915
http://www.mnopedia.org/multimedia/fayal-underground-mine-eveleth

See also:

“We’ve Been Robbed Long Enough. It’s Time to Strike”: Remember the 1916 Strike on Minnesota’s Iron Range
-by Jeff Pilacinski of Twin Cities GMB (IWW)
http://www.iww.org/node/2556

“The 1916 Minnesota miners’ strike against U.S. Steel”
-by Robert M. Eleff
pdf! https://libcom.org/files/v51i02p063-074.pdf

Mesabi Iron Range Strike, 1916
http://www.mnopedia.org/event/mesabi-iron-range-strike-1916