The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1919-08-08
SOME LIAR
LABOR PAPER QUAIL
IFIES IN THE LIARS
CLUB.

fFrom the Range Labor News
June II, 1919, official organ of the
A. F. of L. on the Mesaba Iron
Range)
The working men of this section
and the legitimate labor movement in
the state are being injured in the
worst possible way by what appears
to be campaign of pure classifying
in quarters that should be friendly.
No good purpose is being served to
either the individual workman in the
mines or any organization of work
ing men on the iron ranges by the
reports contained in the so-called la
Dor papers of the Twin Cities regard
ing conditions here. Read this:
"Then came the war. AS is
well known it changed whole
/, lot of things. The steels trust,
like all enemies if Industrial free
dom, under the cloak of patriot
ism, hurled the poor miners
back into the degrading position
they had at the price of their
blood. The miners work
from 10 to 13 hours per day.
Consequently the tortured miners
are forced to sweat them
selves to exhaustion in an effort
to maintain decent standard
of living for their dependents.
Perhaps nowhere outside of Jap
an and China does such damn
able process of exploiting labor
exist as on the Mesaba range"
How is it possible for any laboring
man or any laboring movement to
maintain any respect for himself or
his policies among the public when
things like this are published, which
every person in this or any other sec
.tion at all familiar with easily access
-ible facts knows is an absolute false
hood? 80
To carry on any sort of labor
movement it is absolutely essential
to have the force of public opinion
behind it. When labor advocate or
a labor paper makes a statement
which is not in accord with facts,
which is not only outside the realm
of fact, but which is such a complete
fabrication as the statements quoted
it is, an insult to the intelligence
of the person who reads it. Whatever
may be the opinion of the individual
or the organization of the various
employing companies, especially the
steel trust, it is not fact that wages
or hours of labor have been changed
in the least from the high pay andreg-
ular hours of the war basis. And it
is fact that the Mesaba range today
is paying the highest wages in the his
tory of the iron and steel industry
and that the basic eight-hour day is
being absolutely observed.
The statements of the national and
state banks that are published from
time to time show steady increases in
the savings deposits on the Range, de-
spite the fact that the heaviest sorts
of demands have been made on every
one for war activities, relief funds
government loans, etc. The Mesaba
range is justly proud of its record in
responding to the call of the patriotic
organizations and individuals in the
Red Cross, Salvation Army, Y. M. C.
A. and other campaigns. It is proud
of the record because it was record
"a record that surpassed other sec
tions of the state. It is one of the
things that laboring men take partic-
ular pride in because they did it,
they made it.
If the statements published in the
Minneapolis Labor Review over the
signature of John Gabriel Soltes,
which have been quoted were true
could labor have done this? If these
statements were true, would they not
indicate that any claim the laboring
man on the Mesaba range has to par
ticipation in the wonderful perform
ance of the Range in its patriotic en-
deavors is false? Everybody knows