The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1916-11-04
A SMALL STEEL
CELL WHERE CHILL.
WINDS WHISTLE
BY HARRISON GEORGE,

oCAAOAo AAACSS pAdOOuS Ill 4dICy az
least, in their situations. Suppose, for
instance, you chalk off a space in
your room seven feet square, lower
the ceiling to eight feet, imagine
three walls and the ceiling are solid
steel, the floor Of reinforced con-
crete, the fourth side shut off from
gloomy corridor by crossed bars OF
steel. That you were under lock and
key in this space day and night with
two or three others. Thus grit round
with metal you would, among other
things, be impressed with the i'm
portance of steel in structural work.
When you stretched out your mar
row canvas from wall to wall at night,
and sleep o'ercame you. no doubt but
your dream visions would reflect the
hope Of your waking hours: the hope
of release, to walk and work again
among your fellows, to be free to
labor, to laugh and to love.
Such is the situation this day and
hour, of seven men in the county Jail
at Duluth, Minnesota: under indict-
ment for murder as result of recent
wife of one is also indicted, but out
VII vail. AL await LIldl DcCs D.
Their Side.
If you believed as do these men,
that you were there because Of your
efforts to improve labor conditions by
functioning in great strike, guilty of
no crime but opposing organized CAPT.
tai in that strike, you would doubtless
like the world Of labor to hear your
story.
Here then in brief, is their story;
as substantiated by investigators of
the Industrial Relations Committee
and the Minnesota labor Commits
sion. revealed by hundreds of affi-
davits and endorsed by the State Fed
erations of Labor of both Michigan
and Minnesota.
The M~saba Range produces IS per
cent of the nations output of iron.
1t is controlled absolutely by the u.
S. Steel Corporation, whose hostility
to labor is Infamous. In bygone years
it imported workers from all nations
to aid in keeping labor divided. Since
the lost strike nine years ago, condi-
tions grey worse day by day. Work.
ing per diem or by contract, your pay
grew less and less; without you had a
roll of bills, a pretty daughter or a
handsome wife to turn over to the
greed and lust of foremen.
Strike Begins.
A climax came. June End last, a
strike began at Aurora, spreading
rapidly across the range. A mass of
revolving workers, speaking many
tongues, downed tools in every camp,
without organization or spokesman.
Someone among them sent for Carlo
Tresca Gtalian), Joe Schmidt (Slavic)
and Sam Scarlet, to speak and or
ganize. These came and worked night
and day instructing the miners how
to express themselves in a compact
union body. They offered to leave the
state when the operators would agree
to confer with the men; but the oper-
ators. had nothing to arbitrate."
Hundreds of gunner of the usual
type were imported by the Steel Trust
and deputized. Over six hundred
arrests were made on all sorts Of pre-
texts. John Altar, an >un-armed
striker, was killed. shot in the back.
near his humble home. Many were
beaten and wounded. All constitu-
tional rights were revoked.
The Fight.
On July 3rd, four drunken deputies
rushed into the home of Phillip Ma
sonovich at Biwabik. One struck his
wife knocking her down. Her hus-
band and three boarders, although
unarmed, sprang up to defend her.
| In the fight that followed a deputy
was killed, shot, as evidence indi.
Gates, by another in the confusion
Besides the occupants of the house.
including the woman and her tiny
baby; all the organizers on the range
were gathered up, sent by special
train to Duluth aid charged with
murder:
Despite discouragements the strike
went on till late September, when the
miners voted to resume work and de.
vote all energy to the defense of theil
wrongly accused brothers.
They have engaged Judge o. N
Hilton Of Denver, Arthur LeSueur OF
Fit. Scott, and John A. Keyes of Du.
luth to head the counsel for the de-
Tense. A most momentous legal
battle will soon begin, when these
clash with the vindictive power OF
the Steel Trust.
| And, as write, in Joe schmidt's
| "A Small Steel Cell.
! Pennsylvania home, a wasted baby
form lies in little coffin: babe that
never knew it's father. He was in one
of those small steel cells at Duluth
where the chill winds from Lake Su-
perior whistle around the prison, the
| ahode ALWAYS nrOvided NV canital for