The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1916-09-23
BLAMES PRIVATE POLICE FOR r. L.
VIOLENCE in MINERS STRIKE
Lenora Austin Hamlin Gives First Pen Picture Of
Actual Conditions on Mesaba Range From Disin--
terested Standpoint Makes Telling Report
to Woman's Welfare League Of st. Paul.

didn't need a gun. I think he spoke
the truth.
My feeling is that most Of this gun
toting" on the part of officers of the
law is a totally unnecessary piece of
business;, that it provokes violence in
stead Of abating it and that it brutal
ICES the men who carry the guns.
AS for the women on the picket
lines. they are not playing 1.-THE baby
act" They're good soldiers They
picket because they are likely to be
less roughly handled than the men,
because they can't be blacklisted and
because they want to help their men.
They're thoroughly game" those
women and we should be immensely
proud of them.
Then there is Alice Arcola, who bit
the patrOlman, and is out on bail. She
was picketing and a big policeman
grabbed her and left the black and
blue mark Of his five fingers on her
breast Alice bent her head and bit
his hand and he let go. What woman
wouldn't? Mrs. Worse told us that
story you remember and said she saw
the marks. I met plump, sparkling
Alice Arcola in her home one night
and she confirmed the story. She said
she was going on the picket line the
next morning at five.
The Finnish cooperative movement
is one of the surprises of the Range
In most of the towns there is Fin
nish hall owned comparatively, and
in many of them Finnish co-operat-
i've store. The halls have been open
to the strikers for their meetings, free
Of charge, and except for them it
would have been exceedingly difficult
for the strikers to find a place in
which to meet.
These Finnish people on the Range
are a remarkably interesting racial
group which will richly repay study
and further acquaintance. For one
thing they stand for equality between
men and women. They bring that
idea with them from Finland where
men and women enjoy equal political
rights. They are all equal suffragists.
The mine operators may break this
strike, they probably will, butt they
might as we'll make up their minds
that organization is coming. Capital
is organized and labor must organize
in self protection, and the public will
support labor in: it's efforts to organ
ize. No amount of welfare work or
philanthropy will take the place of
self-respecting, self directing organiz-
alton of the workers by themselves
for themselves. ~~:,' -:
AS to housing conditions on the
Range, they could be improved no
doubt, but there are much worse
housing conditions in st, Paul and
Minneapolis than any I saw on the
Range. There should be state hous-
ing code with officers to enforce suit
able housing regulations in both" city
and county districts. :
Life in the mining Locations" could
be made much less colorless and
lonely if the school buildings in the
locations were opened for Social
Center purposes at night. People who
work hard need recreation near their
homes, and the public school is the
only building in the location large
enough for recreation purposes. Be-
sides it belongs to the people and they
have right to use it.
A Social settlement on the Range
directed by trained and. social minded
men and women might do much to
bring the people of all classes to-
gether and help them to understand
each other. The point OF. view of the
rich is often more limited and pro-
vincia1 than that Of the poor.
But one thing above all we must
stand for shoulder to shoulder over
all this great country of ours and that
is the right of free assemblage and
free speech. We must strike swift and
hard at every attempt to deprive us of
that fundamental democratic privi-
lege without which free institutions
cannot endure. In defense Of the
right of free assemblage and free
speech we must be prepared to take
cracked heads and bloody noses, If
necessary, women as we'll as men. for
without it we are a nation Of slaves.