Hellraisers Journal: Reporting on IWW Activities in Everett, Minneapolis and the Mesabi Iron Range

3rd November 20163rd November 2016 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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

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Hellraisers Journal, Friday November 3, 1916
From Washington to the Mesabi – Fellow Workers Organize and Fight

From The Vancouver World (B. C.) of October 31, 1916:

EVERETT EXPELS I. W. W.’s.

EVERETT, Wn. [Washington]. Oct 31-When word was received last night that 45 men, said to be members of the Industrial Workers of the World, were coming by boat from Seattle last night, 200 citizens gathered under the leadership of deputy sheriffs and stood guard at the wharf. When the steamer docked and the men cam ashore the waiting citizens loaded them into automobiles and drove them through town to a point beyond the south city limits, where they were liberated and warned to return to Seattle.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mesabi Range IWW Prisoners: Orlandich Speaks Thru Interpreter; Schmidt to Visit Dying Wife

1st November 20161st November 2016 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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

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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday November 1, 1916
From the Duluth Labor World: News Regarding I. W. W. Defendants

From The Labor World of October 28, 1916:

JOHN ORLANDICH TELLS HIS
STORY FOR FIRST TIME
—–

A great big hulk of a man with innocent baby eyes stood looking out of the bars in the St. Louis county jail. The interpreter spoke rapidly to him in his own language. The baby eyes lighted up and filled with tears. Gesticulating, the big man poured forth his tale, in melodious strange sounding words.

It was the first time that John Orlandich had been able to make himself clearly understood since he was imprisoned. Orlandich, Tresca, Scarlett, Cernogorovich, Nickich and Masonovich, Iron Range miners, who went on a strike, are all in jail charged with murder. The people of Minnesota, through their government, claim that these men killed James Myron, a special deputy [deputized company gunthug], during the Range strike.

Orlandich doesn’t even know why he is in jail. He asked the interpreter if he had broken any laws by refusing to work. The trials are to start Dec. 5.

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Hellraisers Journal: Italy To Aid Tresca’s Defense in Minnesota, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Tours Mesabi Range

22nd October 201622nd October 2016 Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn

By the Gods, it shall not be!
The bloated, beastly Steel Trust pirates
shall not murder our innocent
comrades and fellow-workers!
-Eugene Victor Debs

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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday October 22, 1916
Mesabi Range, Minnesota – Italy Takes Up Case of Carlo Tresca

From the Appeal to Reason of October 21, 1916:

Italy Takes Hand to Save Tresca
From Steel Trust

The SteelTrust wants to get rid of several striking workers (including Carlo Tresca and other leaders), because of their activities in the recent strike of the iron workers on the Mesabe Range in Minnesota. Of course, the Steel Trust has plenty of money and employs a sufficient number of thugs to have the work of “disposition” done in an efficient and effective manner. But since the Colorado incident [Ludlow Massacre], it is exceedingly unwise to do too much rough stuff at first hand, so the dirty work is left to the state. In other words, the Steel Trust is using the commonwealth of Minnesota to railroad Carlo Tresca, four strikers, one woman and two union leaders, to the gallows.

The Steel Trust decided to have these defendants charged with first-degree murder, so the legal machinery was set in motion, and the victims were thrown into cells. They will be tried in a section that is highly charged with bitterness against anyone who strives to improve the conditions of the toilers. They are the victims of a great injustice and the institutions of so-called free America are being used to aid in the conspiracy, rather than to protect the liberties of the people.

One would imagine that if this were a free country, Congress would do something to shelter these workers in chains, but, so far as is known, Republican and Democratic Congressmen hardly knew that there was a great strike in Minnesota. It remained for Italy to take a hand-Italy, with its king and its court, interfering with America, the land of the free hot air!

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WE NEVER FORGET: The Martyrs of the Mesabi Iron Range Strike of 1916

5th October 2016 Janet RayeWe Never Forget

Pray for the dead and
fight like hell for the living.
-Mother Jones

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WE NEVER FORGET, Alar, Ladvalla, Mesabi 1916

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Hellraisers Journal: Mesabi Defendants Must Face Trial; Cronaca Sovversiva Sends Aid

4th October 201614th October 2016 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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, Wednesday October 4, 1916
Virginia, Minnesota – I. W. W. Defendants Must Stand Trial

From The Duluth News Tribune of September 19, 1916:

I. W. W.’S DENY MURDER CHARGE
—–
Must Stand Trial in Myron Case, as
Court Overrules Quash Motion.
—–

Overruling all motions to quash indictments against Carlo Tresca, Sam Scarlett, Philip Masonovich and other I. W. W.’s charged with the murder of Deputy Sheriff James Myron at Biwabik, July 2, Judge Bert Fesler in district court yesterday ruled that all defendants would have in face trial. Formal pleas of not guilty were then entered by all.

Attorney John Keyes at the conclusion of the hearing announced that on Wednesday morning before Judge Martin Hughes at Virginia that he would make a motion for continuance, Assistant County Attorney I. L. Boyle then stated that every effort would be made by the state to force trial immediately and that riot cases would be moved for trial next Monday.

In making the argument for the freedom of Tresca, Scarlett and Schmidt, Attorney Keyes pointed out that these men were miles away from the scene of the crime at the time of happening and argued that if they were held it should be on a charge of conspiracy and not of murder.
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Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn on Tour on Behalf of Mesabi Defendants

3rd October 20163rd October 2016 Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn

Your welfare ain’t on that rich man’s mind.
-Hazel Dickens

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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday October 3, 1916
Miss Flynn to Hold Meetings in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas

IWW Metal Mine Workers IU No. 490, Hibbing MN, June 19, 1916

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn is currently on tour on behalf of Mesabi I. W. W. defendants who are charged with first degree murder-we refer our readers to the recent article by Eugene Debs in the International Socialist Review.

Before leaving northern Minnesota, Miss Flynn spoke with Joe Ettor at a meeting in Virginia, Minnesota, where she said:

Tresca, Scarlett, Smith and the others are in jail for your sake, remember them.

She also spoke to the Ministerial association at the Duluth Y. M. C. A. where she declared:

A very large majority of the workers on the iron range are foreigners, and they have no friends except among their kinsmen and fellow-workers. If the American-born people would only co-operate, and enlighten the lives of these poor unfortunates, all these disturbances and misfortunes would be done away with.

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Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs Protests Frame-Up of Organizers & Strikers on Mesabi Range

2nd October 20162nd October 2016 Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs

By the Gods, it shall not be!
The bloated, beastly Steel Trust pirates
shall not murder our innocent
comrades and fellow-workers!
-Eugene Victor Debs

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Hellraisers Journal, Monday October 2, 1916
From the International Socialist Review: Support Mesabi Range Rebels!

From the current edition of the Review, Comrade and Fellow Worker Eugene Debs calls upon unionists and socialists everywhere to support the Minnesota iron ore strikers and I. W. W. organizers who are now under indictment for first-degree murder:

Murder in the First Degree

By EUGENE V. DEBS

TRUE bills against four strikers and one woman and against Carlo Tresca and two other leaders of the striking iron workers on the Mesabe Range in Minnesota charging them with murder in the first degree, have been returned by a Steel Trust grand jury.

Not one of the accused is guilty. On the contrary, they are all absolutely innocent of the crime charged against them.

It is another case of punishing the workers for the crimes committed against them by their masters. Let us briefly review the facts in this extraordinary strike on the Mesabe Range.
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Hellraisers Journal: Mrs. Hamlin Blames Private Police for Violence in Mesabi Range Strike

26th September 2016 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

As for the women on the picket lines,
they are not playing “the baby act.”
They’re good soldiers.
They’re thoroughly “game,” those women and
we should be immensely proud of them.
-Lenora Austin Hamlin

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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday September 26, 1916
Mesabi Iron Range, Minnesota – Mrs. Hamlin Describes Conditions

From the Duluth Labor World of September 23, 1916:

BLAMES PRIVATE POLICE FOR VIOLENCE
IN MINERS’ STRIKE
—–
Lenora Austin Hamlin Gives First Pen Picture of
Actual Conditions on Mesaba Range From
Disinterested Standpoint—Makes Telling
Report to Woman’s Welfare League
of St. Paul.
—–

Lenora Austin Hamlin of St. Paul was sent by the Woman’s Welfare league to get first hand information about the treatment accorded to men and women during the miners’ strike on the Mesaba range, following a speech made before the league by Mary Heaton Vorse and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn.

The St. Paul women wanted a colorless story of actual conditions. Mrs. Hamlin, well trained for this sort of investigations, was requested to do the work. She visited all the important points in the strike zone, and her story confirms the claims made during the strike by the miners.

Minnesota is closely following in the footsteps of Colorado and West Virginia, as is shown by the report. It reads in full as follows:

Members of the Woman’s Welfare league will recall that on Tuesday, Aug. 15, we were addressed by Mary Heaton Vorse and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn on the subject of strike conditions on the range and that great interest was aroused by their descriptions of the part women were taking in the strike and the hardships they were enduring in consequence.
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Hellraisers Journal: Strike on Mesabi Iron Range Called Off by Central Committee

26th September 2016 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

This is always a sad and bitter time
in the class struggle, to see brave workers
who had suffered and sacrificed
compelled to accept defeat.
-Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

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Hellraisers Journal, Monday September 25, 1916
Virginia, Minnesota – Central Strike Committee Calls Off Strike

Solidarity, Mesabi, Get Out of the Way, by R Chaplin (Bingo), Aug 19, 1916

The Central Strike Committee, consisting of fifteen striking miners representing the strikers from the various towns along the Mesabi Range and of the Italian, Finnish, and Slavic nationalities, met in Virginia on September 17th and made the difficult decision to call off the strike of the iron ore miners. The striking miners and their families are facing the long, bitter, Minnesota winter with relief funds too meager to meet the needs of the hungry families.

The Strikers News, “Official Strike Bulletin of the Striking Iron Ore Miners of the Mesaba Range,” of September 22nd published the proclamation ending the strike which reads in part:
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Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Greets Carlo Tresca and Other Defendants in Minnesota Courtroom

15th September 201615th September 2016 Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn

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

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

Hellraisers Journal, Friday September 15, 1916
Duluth, Minnesota – I. W. W. Defendants in Court

From The Duluth News Tribune of September 14, 1916:

NINE I. W. W.’S AWAIT, DECISION
—–
Attorneys for Prisoners Argue Motion
to Quash Indictments for Murder.
—–
COURT TO DECIDE TODAY
—–
Other Prisoners Indicted for Offenses
on Range Plead Guilty.
—–

Whether or not the nine prisoners indicted for murder in the first degree for the alleged killing of James Myron, deputy sheriff, at Biwabik, will go free or whether they will have to face trial will be known this morning at 9:00 o’clock when Judge Bert Fesler will give his decision in the district court on a motion made by attorneys for the defense to quash indictments on the grounds of illegal search and seizure of certain property of the defendants by Sheriff John Meining.

Arguments lasted all day and were concluded late yesterday afternoon. Assistant County Attorney Boyle of Virginia represented the state while Attorney John A. Keyes of Duluth assisted by Attorneys Arthur Le Seur of Fort Scott, Kansas and L. O. Whitsell of Denver, Colo., appeared for the defendants.

Prisoners Greet Friends.

The prisoners sitting in the front row of chairs just inside the railing waved greetings to scores of friends, who attended the hearing. Miss Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, noted I. W. W. speaker was an interested spectator. Carlo Tresco sat with Sam Scarlet [Scarlett] and Joseph Schmidt, all indicted I. W. W. agitators, listened intently to the proceedings. Tresco has raised a luxuriant goatee since his imprisonment, giving him a rather distinguished look. He appeared to be unable to keep his hands away from it. Mrs. Marsonovitch [Masonovich] sat with her husband and from time to time talked excitedly with much gesticulation.

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