MESABA RANGE MINES CLOSED BY I.W.W. MEN. - Hibbing Daily Tribune

Oliver Gunmen Fail Attempts To Trigger Riots.

The strike by iron ore miners spread from the eastern portion of the Mesaba to the Hibbing district and shut down the mines.

The head of the Oliver Iron Mining Company expressed regret that the community leaders hadn’t kept the I.W.W. out of their towns, and The Mesaba Ore opined that the Oliver had pretty much brought the situation down on itself.

The following article appeared Sat., June 24, 1916, in The Mesaba Ore which is reprinted below:

Leaders of the Industrial Workers of the World have induced the miners and laborers employed in and about the mines of the Hibbing district to go out on strike, and as a result mining is practically at a stand-still, not only in the district but all along the eastern end of the range.

The demand of the strikers is for shorter hours, increase in pay, abolishment of the contract system, going and coming on company time, and several other things of minor importance. The demand was refused by the mining companies.

From the talk of the leaders it is gathered that the strike is directed more particularly against the United States Steel corporation (Oliver Iron Mining company), but it has spread to every other company in the district, effecting ten or more independent concerns.

The strike was started on the eastern end of the range about two weeks ago, reaching here on Monday, though preparation had been going on for some time. It is reported that it will be carried on until every mine on the range is tied up, and the effort will be extended to the Cuyuna range.

The usual threats of the mining companies to “board up” is heard, and other things are promised if the miners persist in remaining out, but it is not having the desired effect — the strike leaders declare they will be able to hold out, and the people of the village are showing no inclination to create sentiment for the mining companies, and there is no telling what the outcome will be.

President Olcott, of the Oliver company, has expressed regret that the paid agitators of the Industrial Workers of the World were not kept out of the district by the people of the several towns, which he intimates, might have been done by the “active interpolation of the business interests in the district.” The self-same business interests are as full of regrets as the Oliver president is, but it is to the credit of their good sense that they are refraining from the impossible undertaking of heading off a thing that the Oliver Iron Mining company has brought upon itself — and which it can cure if it wants to.

The strikers have been orderly and no trouble is feared from them if they are properly treated. Two attempts have been made by Oliver gunmen to start a riot in Hibbing, but they were unsuccessful.

On Wednesday afternoon, the strikers attempted to march, bearing an American flag at the head of the column and three other flags. There was one red flag in evidence and when an Oliver gunman attempted to take it away from the marchers there was trouble, but the cooler heads amongst the strikers prevented a riot. The strikers returned to their headquarters.

Later a committee called on Village President Power and asked for permission to march on the streets. The village president stated that the strikers have a perfect right to march so long as they violate no law or commit any act calculated to incite trouble, and assured them they would be given ample protection. Accordingly, the strikers paraded the streets, to the number of possibly a thousand, on Thursday morning. The American flag was carried at the head of the column, but no red flag was in sight, and there was nothing in the performance that anyone of the right mind could take exception to. They will be allowed to march so long as they are orderly, and it is the general belief that they are not seeking trouble.

The Oliver Iron Mining company’s private police force has been particularly active at other points along the range in the “protection of mining company property.” This mining company police force is a large body of men, some of them pretty tough characters, who are deputy sheriffs buth who draw their salaries from the Oliver Iron Mining company, and who serve with marked loyalty. Can you imagine anything more unAmerican than the people’s police officers being in the hire and under the direction and control of a private company? A bill to abolish that sort of thing was killed at the last session of the state legislature by Steel Corporation activity.

These deputy sheriffs, wearing Oliver Iron Mining company uniforms, have made two attempts to start something in Hibbing,but both were abortive. A riot with the killing of a few miners would look mighty bad for the strikers, and insomuch as the strikers do not seem disposed to start anything of that kind, there is only one way open — and the Oliver gunmen seem anxious to start the show at any time.

It seems to be the general opinion that the Industrial Workers of the World are in no position to enforce its demands against the mining companies, and that the strike will have a run of a short time, when the men will return to work, sadder but wiser, and poorer.

Many of the strikers are feeling safe in their position because they are led to believe they will receive “strike benefits” from the treasury of the workers, but the history of that organisation seems to be a positive guarantee that disappointment is in store for them. The leaders of the outfit seem to be abundantly able to take care of all of the surplus coin that comes in.

The mining companies claim that the pay of three dollars and fifty cents a day for the miners and two dollars and sixty cents for laborers is ample and fully in keeping with the times, and that the strike in Hibbing is only a “sympathy” movement to aid the strikers at the other end of the range.That may be an admission, then, that the east end strikers are not without cause.

The miners and laborers, in view of the steadily advancing cost of living, do not agree with the mining company view, and there are few that do.

While the business people of the community deplore the disturbance this time, they do not seem to be taking sides — rather they will endeavor to prevent the mining companies and the strikers in coming together in a clash that will spill blood and destroy property.