Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1916-08-10

Is. 900 Men In Minnesota Being Crushed By
Corporation Owned City County-State Officials

Washington, Aug. 10-(Special)-
The following report on the strike OF
| iron miners now in progress on the
Mesaba range of northern Minnesota
has been submitted to the Committee
on Industrial Relations by George +.
West, author of the report OF the
United States Commission on Indus
trial Relations on the Colorado strike.
It is based on a field investigation.
| The City of Duluth, the County OF
st. Louis, and the State of Minnesota,
as represented by Governor Burnqulst
and other public officials, have Joined
hands in a relentless effort to crush
out the. strike of $1,000 iron miners
now in progress on the Mesaba range,
70 miles north of Duluth.
With the support and good will of
the United States Steel Corporation
and affiliated interests as the stake,
Governor Burnquist, Sheriff John R.
Meining of Duluth, County Prosecutor
Greene, and the Duluth Chief Of Po-
lice are playing at ducks and brakes
with the most sacred rights of the
foreign Workmen who mine the ore
that goes down to the ships at Duluth
for shipment to the Pittsburgh mills.
More than one thousand men. &C
cording to the Sheriff's own state
ment, have been deputized, and arm
ed with carbines, revolvers, and riot
sticks. Clothed by the Sheriff with
the state authority, they have been
placed in brutal and tyrannical con-
troll of district comprising at least
q
ton. The slums of Duluth and other
cities have been combed to recruit this
army of gun men, and Sheriff John
R. Meining, like JEFF Farr of Colorado,
/ admitted to the writer that he had
deputized the company guards with
out investigation of their records or
character. In fact, he specifically
stated that some of the men employed
by the companies in this capacity, and
deputized by him, might possibly be-
men of the character suggested when
the writer told Sheriff Meining that
they looked like thugs.
In what should be one of the hap
piest, most prosperous communities in
the world, the Steel Corporation has
precipitated one of the most bitter
as it was one of the most spontaneous
unorganized, Industrial revolts, of re-
cent history. It has done this by its
policy of treating the men like serfs,
! denying them any voice, herding them
with the aid of a permanent force OF
private police, and driving them at
| top speed by vicious piece rate sys-
tenn of payment that leaves the door
wide open for favoritism, injustice
and the extortfon of brides by the
! tom f1r h 6T
= unfavorable working places.
. The strike started without Organi
cation of any sort, and spread almost
instantaneously through the iron
range before any outside labor organ
3 ization had participated. The mer
were unorganized and out of touch
with the labor movement. By chance
: an appeal reached the l. w. W. anC
5 organizers for that organization madt
a tardy response. 1t is not an /. W.
wv strike in the sense that it was
fomented by agents of that organiza
! ton. No 1. W. W. agent or organizer
/ was on the range prior to the begin
ming of the strike. I. W.. W. agents
q have offered to withdraw from the
district if their elimination would
lead to settlement, and the strikers
, have specifically agreed in writing il
communication to the companies
that they would not ask for the recog
milton of any union. Yet the com
panies refused a conference.
The Miners Demands.
Thousands of the best miners have
e left the iron range never to return
|. The vast majority of those remaining
are resisting all urgings to return tt
work, and if funds can be procured
). there is likelihood that grievances
will be adjusted.
; These are the miners demands:
1. An eight hour day.
} g. minimum wage of $500 in the
underground mines, and $3.50 in the
same but in wet places, and $2.75 on
the surface for eight hours labor
8. Adjustment of the contract la
Dor system.
4. Pay day twice month.
Laborers in the open pit surface
+. workings are now paid $3.50 for 9
ten hour day.. In the underground
workings, where the majority of min
: ers are employed, the miners work an
eight hour day and are paid on piece
/, rate basis, designed to speed the men
up. Rates per car of ore mined are
changed every week, resulting in driv
:. ing the men at top speed and placing
! them in competition with each other
Miner after miner swears that pit
bosses and foremen exact brides fol
awarding favorable ground" to the
men, and that no miner can obtain a
working place where So or more can
be earned unless he has first won the
good will of the shift boss or foreman
by whatever means appeals to that in
dividual. Inasmuch as petty com
mon bribery is in plants where this
system prevails. and employers often
admit the necessity of fighting it
these complaints undoubtedly are
based on. widespread abuses.
At a conference called at Virginia
by opcials of the municipalities in the
range and presided over by Mayor
Michael Boyian of Virginia, testimony
was given by many miners from which
1.-THE following are extracts:
NJ. Shusterich: sThose fellows who
; are making s. and 81. what do they
do? can bring proof from fellows