There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
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Hellraisers Journal, Friday August 18, 1916
Mesabi Iron Range, Minnesota-I. W. W. Leaders Under Arrest
From Indiana’s Evansville Press of August 17, 1916:
LEADERS OF MESABI MINE STRIKE KIDNAPPED?
FORTS AND SEARCHLIGHTS PART OF WAR PLAN!Special Correspondence.
HIBBING, Minn., Aug, 17.-“Forts” are being erected by gunmen of the steel trust interest in the hills of Mesabi iron range; searchlights play by night over the mining villages, up and down the main streets of Hibbing, Virginia and Eveleth; kidnaping, the “bullpen” and wholesale intimidation are said to be an attempt to crush the growing strike of workers.
Put in Jail
On the smaller Cuyuna range, south of this district, the strike already has resulted in a miners’ victory, and this fact is spurring the Mesabi strikers on to greater effort and sacrifices in their own strike.
The county jail at Duluth, 75 to 100 miles from the scene of the strike, is filled with miners’ leaders arrested on technical charges of “murder,” the only excuse for which seems to be in the fact that in a free-for-all fight at Biwabik, responsibility for which has not been yet fixed, two men were killed!
All the miners arrested on “murder” or “riot” charges are railroaded down to Duluth, where there is a large colony in jail, including Joe Schmidt, Carlo Tresca, Frank Little, Sam Scarlett and Jos. Gilday all prominent strike leaders.
Deportation also is being used as a weapon to coerce the miners, and one man, Geo. Andrachine [Andreytchine], may be sent from the United States if the interests have their way.
Andrachine, a Bulgarian, was employed as surveyor-engineer by a large mine company till the strike broke out. If sent to Bulgaria he may be impressed into the Bulgarian army, or shot. Friends in Mesabi have appealed to Washington to prevent deportation.
Elizabeth Flynn There.
Eastern strike leaders and agitators are on the ground, including Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, who won fame at Paterson.
Charges are made by strike leaders that gunmen are planting dynamite under bridges and beside mine buildings, “discovering” the dynamite just before it explodes and blaming the crimes on strikers. Such a ruse was practiced in Lawrence, Mass., until authorities exposed it.
It is reported seamen on freighters carrying ore to Lake Erie are to strike, and the I. W. W. is trying to line up dockmen at Duluth, Superior and Two Harbors for a strike the same date.
Fortifications are being thrown up by mine guards in the Eveleth and Buhl districts, commanding the roads that approach the mines. “Cannon” on some of these forts were shown by investigation to be fakes, made of stovepipe sand scrapiron. This was the case at the large fort of the Adams mine, on the Virginia-Eveleth road.
Searchlights play about the district constantly at night. There is one at Virginia that commands practically the entire camp, and others are mounted at strategic points thruout the district where the companies say they expect armed attacks.
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SOURCE
Evansville Press
(Evansville, Indiana)
-Aug 17, 1916
https://www.newspapers.com/image/139947620
IMAGE
EGF, Tresca, MN Iron Miners Strike, Ev IN, Aug 17, 1916
https://www.newspapers.com/image/139947620
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All Hell Can’t Stop-Twin Cities Labor Chorus