There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.
Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: War on the Mesabi, Forts and Searchlights Part of Plan Against Striking Iron Miners”
