Tag: Aurora MN

Hellraisers Journal: From The Industrial Union Bulletin: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Speaks for I. W. W. in Philadelphia

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Friday February 28, 1908
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Speaks

From The Industrial Union Bulletin of February 22, 1908:

Propaganda in Philadelphia

EGF, Girl Socialist, DEN, Sept 21, 1907

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was the speaker at the regular Sunday night meeting of the I. W. W., February 9th, in Philadelphia. Every seat in the large hall was taken and extra seats had to be arranged to accommodate those who were anxious to hear the eloquent advocate of industrial unionism.

Miss Flynn’s subject was “Socialism from a Woman’s Standpoint.” She began by stating that there is no difference between the man’s standpoint and the woman’s, as industrial development had forced the woman into the same position as the man-wage slavery. In the course of her address she rapped the craft unions and the pure and simple political Socialists impartially, and pointed to industrial unionism as the salvation of the workers, the highest and most enlightened expression of Socialism as embodied in the I. W. W. Her points were generously applauded throughout the address.

The progress made in Philadelphia is most encouraging. There are now eight locals in that city, the latest acquisition being the Independent Union of French Textile Workers, who by unanimous vote, have joined the I. W. W.

———-

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Hellraisers Journal: Honeymoon of Elizabeth Flynn & Jack Jones Halted, Will Rejoin Comrade Husband in Spring

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Friday February 14, 1908
New York, New York – Young Socialist Returns to Parent’s Home

For the past few weeks, the news of the arrest of the husband of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn has been published in newspapers across the nation. For example, we have this item from Alabama’s Centreville Press of February 13th:

Socialist’s Husband Arrested.

John A. Jones, husband of Elizabeth Flynn, the girl Socialist agitator, was arrested at Aurora, Minn., on a charge of incendiarism.

—–

At this time Elizabeth Gurley Flynn is in New York City and her husband, Jack Jones, is out of jail and has recently been interviewed by a reporter for the Duluth News Tribune.

From Mississippi’s Vicksburg Evening Post of February 3, 1908:

PRISON HALTS HONEYMOON OF GIRL
—–

EGF, DEN (ca) p 21, crpd, Sept 21, 1907

New York, Feb. 3.-With a romance written in suffering, a lifetime crowded into a few months, through which the divine fire of a cause gleams like a beacon light, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, the girl Socialist agitator whose words have at seventeen made her known across a continent, has returned ill and exhausted to her father’s home in New York City.

It is just two years ago since Miss Flynn, then a student in the Morris Heights High School, became affiliated with the Socialist movement. Gifted with a quick brain and a facile oratory, she seized upon the dramatic possibilities of the great struggle of labor and capital and spoke as one inspired.

The Flynns are New England folk, the father of a Bowdoin College man and civil engineer, whose difficulties with a company which refused him the money he had earned first aroused the thoughtful Elizabeth, eldest of a brood of four, to interest in the situation. When the Flynns left their Connecticut home to come to New York the girl, already deep in socialist literature, became associated with the leaders in this city. But she was a child, too young to become a member of the association, therefore she was permitted to speak from their platform only as an affiliated agitator.

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Hellraisers Journal: Honeymoon of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Cut Short by Arrest of Husband on Mesabi Iron Range

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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It’s great to fight for freedom
With a Rebel Girl.
-Joe Hill

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Sunday January 26, 1908
Mesabi Iron Range, Minnesota – Jack Jones Arrested

The honeymoon of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was cut short when her husband of less than three weeks, Jack Jones, was arrested on the Mesabi Iron Range. Jones is an iron miner and a union organizer.

From The Minneapolis Tribune of January 24, 1908:

Socialist Held as Suspect
at Biwabik
—–

D. A. Jonas and Two Austrians Are
Arrested by Village Marshal.
—–
Believes Men Know Something About
Dynamiting of Nicholas Home.
—–

EGF, DEN (ca) p 21, crpd, Sept 21, 1907

BIWABIK. Minn., Jan. 24.-(Special.)-D. A. Jonas [J. A. Jones], one of the most noted Socialistic agitators on the range, occupies a cell in the village at Aurora, formally charged with being implicated in the dynamiting of the dwelling of Captain Thomas J. Nicholas early Tuesday morning. John Oflin and Anton Mariovic, two Austrians, are keeping him company.

To add to the already intense interest in the case, Jonas proclaimed publicly yesterday that he is the husband of Elizabeth Garley [Gurley] Flynn, one of the most noted Socialistic lecturers in the country. He avers most solemnly that he was wedded to the young woman some three weeks ago in Duluth [they were married January 7th at Two Harbors], and that she will now come to his assistance.

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Hellraisers Journal: FW Joe Ettor and Attorney S. M. Slonim Speak Out on Labor Conditions in Northern Minnesota

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Monday February 5, 1917
The Labor World – Reports on Labor Hearings

Joseph Ettor, Smiling Joe, text added

In this weeks edition of the Duluth Labor World we find coverage of the hearings which took place on January 30th before the Labor Committee of the Minnesota House of Representatives. Joe Ettor, I. W. W. organizer, testified, as did Virginia Mayor, Michael Boylan, and Duluth Attorney, S. M. Slonim.

Working conditions in the lumber camps were scored by Joe Ettor who stated:

Go into the lumber camps of Northern Minnesota; live the lives of the lumberjacks and then see if you wonder at conditions of unrest.

From The Labor World of February 3, 1917:

The Labor World, Feb 3, 1917

INVESTIGATE CONDITIONS
—–

House Labor Committee Conducts Hearing
on I. W. W. Situation.
—–
MANY WITNESSES TESTIFY
—–
Labor Conditions in Northern Minnesota
Said to Be Abominable.
—–

ST. PAUL, Minn., Feb. 1.—The house committee on labor is determined to ascertain the facts, with regard to the situation in the lumber camps in Northern Minnesota.

It took all Tuesday afternoon to examine two witnesses, members of the Industrial Workers of the World, and Attorney S. M. Slonim, of Duluth, the third witness, did not furnish his testimony until late in the night.

Several persons who have been national figures in labor wars were on hand, in addition to a score of witnesses from the range country, including C. M. Atkinson, editor of The Mesaba Ore, and Michael Boylan, mayor of Virginia.

Ettor Scores Conditions.

[He asserted:]

Ignorance alone is responsible for the unfair attitude shown toward the I. W. W. It is an organization of the working man, the working woman and the working child.

Go into the lumber camps of Northern Minnesota; live the lives of the lumberjacks and then see if you wonder at conditions of unrest. Fancy 50 men, all with wet feet and legs, retiring at night in a small shack, unventilated. To prevent putting on wet clothing the next morning they must hang their socks over the only stove. This merely is one of the many unpleasant conditions to which the lumberjack and mine employes are subjected.

It is not so much the wages paid. Give our men fair living conditions. Feed them fairly and permit them to organize. Then you have picked up the key to the entire situation.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mary Heaton Vorse on the Mesabi Iron Miners’ Strike in Minnesota, Part I

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday August 30, 1916
Mesabi Range, Minnesota – “A Fierce and Important Struggle”

From The Outlook: Report of Mary Heaton Vorse, Part I:

THE MINING STRIKE IN MINNESOTA
-FROM THE MINERS’ POINT OF VIEW

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE OF THE OUTLOOK

March, Mesabi, Marcy, ISR Aug 1916

ONE of the most sinister aspects of life in this country is the failure of the serious and thinking people to obtain prompt information about the various industrial struggles and to get at the causes which are at the root of our industrial unrest.

Since June 3 a strike has been waged on the Mesaba Range, Minnesota, whose largest single owner is the Oliver Iron Mining Company, an arm of the Steel Trust. This strike has affected the life, not only of the twelve thousand miners employed on the Range, but of ten towns and villages from Aurora to Hibbing, a distance of sixty miles. The strike has been characterized by the prompt deputizing of a large force of gunmen, numbering, according to Sheriff J. R. Meining, of Duluth, over a thousand; more, according to residents of the Range towns.
Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mary Heaton Vorse on the Mesabi Iron Miners’ Strike in Minnesota, Part I” →

Hellraisers Journal: On the Mesabi, “When Strike-Breakers Strike” by Marion B Cothren, Part I

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Sunday August 27, 1916
Mesabi Range, Minnesota-“To Hell With Such Wages!”

From The Survey of August 26, 1916:

When Strike-Breakers Strike
The Demands of the Miners on the Mesaba Range
By Marion B. Cothren
[Part I]

MN Iron Miners Strike, Location, Cothren, Survey Aug 26, 1916

THE strike-breakers of 1907 have become the strikers of 1916 in the iron mines of Minnesota. Coming over in boatloads from south eastern Europe nine years ago and hired by the United States Steel Corporation to break the iron strike called at that time by the Western Federation of Miners, these polyglot nationalities speaking thirty-six different tongues have become Americanized in the melting pot of the Mesaba mines. Today Finns, Slavs, Croats, Bulgars, Italians, Rumanians, have laid down picks and shovels and are demanding an 8-hour day, a minimum wage of $3 for dry work and $3.50 for wet work in underground mines and $2.73 in open pit mines, abolition of the contract labor system, pay-day twice a month.

The last of May, so the story goes, Joe Greeni, an Italian employed underground in the Alpena mine at Virginia, Minn., opened his pay envelope to find a sum much less than he had under stood his contract called for. “To hell with such wages”, cried he, throwing his pick in the corner, whereupon he vowed never to mine another foot of ore. Second thought, however, convinced Greeni, that action was deadlier than inaction. For three days he stayed at his post, going from stope to stope, saying, “We’ve been robbed long enough, it’s time to strike!” Then he left for Aurora to begin agitation at the extreme eastern end of the range in the little St. James’ mine with its force of 40 miners.
Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: On the Mesabi, “When Strike-Breakers Strike” by Marion B Cothren, Part I” →

Hellraisers Journal: Attorney Keyes Speaks Out on Behalf of Mesabi Range Strikers and I. W. W. Leaders, Scores Company Police

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tuesday July 25, 1916
From The Labor World: “Facts Regarding Strike,” Part I


FACTS REGARDING STRIKE BECLOUDED
—–


Duluth Attorney Scores Mining Company Police,
Courts and Daily Press.
—–
LEADERS ARRESTED WITHOUT GOOD CAUSE
—–
Fate of Republic Hangs Upon Settlement
of Trouble on Range, He Says.
—–

John Arnold Keyes, Labor World, Sep 12, 1896

The real facts concerning the strike of the miners on the Mesaba range have been beclouded by misrepresentation and much prejudice aroused against the miners according to Attorney John A. Keyes of Duluth, who is acting as counsel for some of the leaders who have been placed under arrest. Mr. Keyes denounces the mining corporation police, the “gunmen” as termed by the miners, and the courts and daily press in part. Stories from the range have been highly colored Mr. Keyes declares, and so for the sake of justice, he has made the following statement regarding the cause and development of the strike and conditions up to the present time [Part I of statement by Attorney Keyes]:

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Attorney Keyes Speaks Out on Behalf of Mesabi Range Strikers and I. W. W. Leaders, Scores Company Police” →