Panel Discussion - Local Finns in Illinois

Finnish North American labor contributions and involvement in strikes such as the 1913-14 Michigan Copper Strike are being restored to the historical record and even commemorated; yet some Finnish American communities’ labor history still goes untold. We contend that in the case of DeKalb, Illinois, the Finnish American labor and strike history has been, in part, overshadowed in contemporary remembrance by the city’s promotion of traditional history and commemoration focused on the barbed wire barons. Local Finnish American labor involvement and participation in strikes appears to have been marginalized in favor of a subsequent historical narrative surrounding the capitalist entrepreneurship of elites. However, counter memories of labor struggles may be lost for a variety of reasons. External and internal forces make it difficult for marginalized groups to offer alternatives to the construction of collective memories that exclude them. These forces include, but are not limited to gradual assimilation into dominant culture, internal conflict within social movements, and fear of, or experience with, governmental repression. In our archival research, surveys and interviews with 2nd and 3rd generation Finnish American residents reveal the many forces of “forgetting” that can influence the counter memory of Finnish American labor history in certain communities.

The Copper Country Strike of 1913-1914 in Finnish Newspapers

The purpose of this study is to take a closer look at media response in Finland concerning the 1913-14 Michigan Copper Strike and depict how the strike was presented in the Old Country and its main newspapers. I shall take a closer look at the 1913-14 issues of Työmies (social democrat), Helsingin Sanomat (liberal), and Uusi Suometar (conservative) for ideological views of the strike. Furthermore, and in terms of close reading and cross-referencing, how did these newspapers in Finland see the strike and the strike’s outcome? Editorial notes and letters from the public shall both be included. Special attention will be given to the notions of transnational solidarity between Finnish-American and Finnish labor activists.

Unions to Die For

The Copper County Strike of 1913 was heroic, tragic, and large in meaning, both for those who lived in it and for those haunted by it in the years that followed. Carl Ross was born in Hancock only hours before the strike erupted. His father was a printer for Työmies. I had the good fortune to meet Carl and work with him for some twenty years. Carl spoke often of the strike—of what it meant for him, his family, and the radical Finnish community in Superior, Wisconsin, where he grew up. I had never heard of the Copper Country strike before I met Carl, but what I heard about that strike resonated with some of my own experiences. I grew up in New Castle, Indiana, a town that left-wing journalist I.F. Stone called a “labor citadel” in the midst of hostile territory. I want to use these two recollections, Carl’s 1913 Strike reminiscences and my memories of New Castle, to talk about how some strikes carry a moral vision of enormous importance. The presentation will have three parts. In the first part I will relate a little of what Carl had to say about the Copper Country Strike. In the second part I will talk about strikes of my own experience. In the final part, I will talk about the differences in the structures of labor movements and the ethical implications of those differences.

Federal Authority and the Development of Corporate Mining, 1807-1847

While the 1913-1914 copper country miners’ strike undoubtedly plays an important role in the identity of the Keweenaw Peninsula, it is worth noting that the model of mining corporations employing large numbers of laborers was not a foregone conclusion in the history of American mining. Between 1807 and 1847, public mineral lands in Missouri, in the Upper Mississippi Valley, and along the southern shore of Lake Superior were reserved from sale and subject to administration by the nation’s executive branch. By decree of the federal government, miners in these regions were lessees, not landowners. Yet, in the Wisconsin lead region especially, federal authorities reserved for independent “diggers” the right to prospect virtually unencumbered. In doing so, they preserved a comparatively egalitarian system in which the ability to operate was determined as much by luck as by financial resources. A series of revolts against federal authority in the early nineteenth century gradually encouraged officers in Washington to build a system in the copper country in which only wealthy investors could marshal the resources to both obtain permits and actually commence mining operations. This paper will therefore explore the role of the federal government in establishing a leasing system for public mineral lands in the years previous to the California Gold Rush, highlighting the development of corporate mining which ultimately set a stage for the wave of miners’ strikes in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Finnish Fighting Words: Printing the Työmies Translation Project

The Työmies translation project involves the translation of that newspaper’s accounts of significant events from Michigan’s 1913-1914 Copper Strike. Työmies was a Finnish-language newspaper, published in Hancock, Michigan, whose socialist-unionist perspective on the strike differed markedly from that of the local English-language newspapers. This project is the first time significant portions of Työmies have been translated into English. In June of 2013, the presenter printed the translation of the Työmies account of the strike’s first day on a hand-operated Chandler & Price platen press. Thus, the presentation describes this unique project: the translation itself, the presenter’s search for necessary type and equipment, and the printing of the broadsides. The presentation will include a history of Työmies and the Strike, with an emphasis on ways in which human culture and language is reflected in the material culture of printing.