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 September 4, 1907
From the Duluth Labor World: News from Mesabi Miners’ Strike
The August 31st edition of The Labor World provides much news from the Mesabi Range concerning the ongoing strike of the iron ore miners led by the Western Federation of Miners.
Miners Not Allowed to March on Labor Day.
Strike Continues.
[Note: Photograph with caption added is from the Duluth News Tribune, the voice of the mine owners’ interests in Minnesota.]
The Miners’ Version of the Strike
This article is the best summary of the Mesabi Iron Strike that we have yet found. Readers of Hellraisers will remeber that, when last we reported on strike leader, Teofilo Petriella, a warrant had been issued for his arrest. The article below states that Petriella was later arrested and is now out on bail. We will be keeping a look-out for for further news regarding Organizer Petriella.
Imported Worker, Lied To, Kept Under Guard, Beaten, Arrested
STEEL TRUST VICTIM TELLS
GRAPHIC STORY
—–
He Was Hired in New York to Work
on a Railroad in Duluth.
—–
Candid Recital by Himself of His Trials,
Sufferings and Privations.
—–
Mesabi Iron Ore Miner
—–
Max Medow, a highly educated Russian, and a linguist of extraordinary ability, who was shipped from New York by agents of the Steel Trust to act as a strikebreaker at Hibbing, has had the experience of hiring out as a strikebreaker, shipped to Duluth in closed cars guarded by detectives, marched to the prison camp of the strikebreakers surrounded by armed guards, discovering that a strike existed he refused to work, and was cast on his own resources, 2,000 miles from a living friend and without a penny in his pocket.
He tells the story in his own writing to the readers of the Labor World. It requires no comment from us, for it speaks for itself. It is as follows:
I shall state the facts with the utmost brevity, and without any comments whatever of my own, that the public may be enabled to judge impartially and unbiased, and reach a conclusion respecting the miners’ strike conditions that will be absolutely true.
A Native of Russia.
I am a native of Russia, and have been in the United States 13 months, and have taken out my first citizen papers. By nature I take kindly to acquiring languages, and am able to speak fluently in Russian, German, French, Greek, Italian, Polish, Syrian and Slavish. I can understand, and make myself readily understood, in some other languages, including English. I experience no difficulty with English construction, but rely wholly upon the dictionary in the matter of spelling many of its words. Of course I speak it with what you people call a foreign accent. Lest I weary the reader with too long a dissertation about myself let me say, briefly, that I was well brought up, my parents were educated, intelligent, and law-abiding, which latter quality I have always observed and practiced to the letter.
With my foreign accent and appearance it was difficult for me, in this country, to secure a position, such as my educational qualifications would justify me in seeking, and consequently I adapted myself to the situation, and worked as a common laborer until something better would be available. Allured by the gilded stories of opportunities, about two weeks ago I engaged myself at 192 Third street, New York, with one J. Koffler, an employment agent, to work on a railroad in Duluth, Minn., at $2 per day. I was assured that work was abundant, conditions desirable, and everything was pictured in glowing colors.
Armed Guards on Train.
In company, with probably 100 men or more, I was started by rail, from New York for my Duluth destination. We discovered after starting that we were in charge of armed guards as if we were criminals, and many of our crowd expressed alarm at the apparent mystery of the situation. The problem appeared to baffle, and no satisfactory reply could be elicited from any of the guards who presumed to exercise authority over us. The food furnished us was so outrageous in quantity and quality, that its consumption was due more to insatiate hunger than to any relish for stuff that was on the eve of corruption before it reached our hands.
At length we reached Superior, and the coaches containing us were separated from the Chicago train, and coupled to an engine to take us to our destination. The mysterious actions of our guards and the general aspects of the whole affair, made us fearful and suspicious, and we were glad to reach our destination, Duluth. The guards, however, refused to let us out on reaching Duluth,—locked the doors of the coaches, and threatened serious harm to anyone not yielding implicit obedience. Many of our crowd became frantic with fear. Those unable to understand English, and who remembered the Siberian methods of the czar’s dominion, were almost certain that we were all lured, if not to destruction, at least, to some species of slavery that was no better.
Women Sound the Alarm.
On stopping at the first town after leaving Duluth, which I now know to be Proctor, women and children hurled all manner of epithets at our coaches, calling us scabs, strikebreakers, etc. For the first time the true understanding of the situation began to dawn upon our minds. Every man looked at his card and every card declared there was no strike. We still thought it was railroad work we were going to.
It was Sunday morning when we reached Hibbing. But lest I forget it, let me relate, that the guards having discovered that I spoke English well, and that the majority of my comrades did not speak it at all, I was brought into the presence of a man on the car, who said he was superintendent, and he said he would pay me $4 a day instead of $2, if I would assist in keeping my comrades in line. I inquired if there was a strike, and he said there had been one inaugurated by the Western Federation of Miners, some weeks ago, but that it had been called off. I declined his offer, and said that I exercised no control over my comrades, that I was only acquainted with a very few of them, and that, only since we left New York.
Hurdled to Prison Camp.
At Hibbing 75 of us were hurdled, under guards, into a dilapidated shanty, where there was not room enough for 20 men. When the men realized that there was a strike oh, they refused to make me the special, object of his animadversion, because I didn’t hold the men, and declared he would have his revenge upon me. This he is now having, by trumpeting up false charges against me, and getting his thugs to pound, me into [insensibility?] when I am not interfering with anyone, but strictly minding my own business.
One day I went down with a Finlander to a store where he was to distribute some bills, and was there met by a detective who forced me, under threat of using his gun upon me, to go on the company’s property and accompany him to the company’s office. When we reached the office the leading deputy, without a word of warning, and without any occasion whatsoever, struck me a violent blow on the face which felled me to the ground. Several other deputies joined in abusing me. I am only a small man physically. When they had me helpless and insensible on the ground and unable to get up, the superintendent, the one who said he would have his revenge on me, I am told by a looker-on, was about to finish me with his revolver, when a more merciful man said to be the general foreman, prevailed upon the superintendent to desist. Hardly able to walk I was marched to the jail, and a charge of trespassing on the company’s property, was preferred against me. My trial is set for September 11th, before Judge Brady at Hibbing. The wrongs perpetrated on the Mesaba Range, under the pretence of maintaining law and order, are calling to heaven to avenge them.
MAX MEDOW.
[Photograph added represents all the striking Mesabi Miners against whom Max Medow refused to scab.]
