The first Finnish workers' newspaper appeared in January 1900, when Tanner put out the first issue of the Amerikan Työmies, which proved an abortive undertaking but had a successor in July of that same year when the first number of the Amerikan Suomalainen Työmies (The Finnish-American Worker) appeared. In its early years this newspaper, which abbreviated its name to Työmies, had as its writers Victor Hall, Austin McKela (Mäkelä), John Kiva, Matti Kurikka, S. Laitinen, Hanna Lehtinen, S. E. Luoma, Urho Mäkinen, Veli Nyberg, O. Reini and Tahvo Tohmolainen (John Hakola). It attracted contributions from various writers in Finland: author Arvid Järnefelt, teacher J. K. Karin, peoples' institute director R. Koljonen, professor J. Mikkola, V. Palomaa, A. B. Sarlin, Maila Talvio, Dr. N. R. of Ursin, among others.

In 1903 representatives of eastern Finnish temperance societies held their annual midsummer festival in Gardner, Massachusetts, and at this festival there was discussion of the Finnish workers' needs and recognition that the temperance societies could not support the Finnish immigrants effectively in this matter. It was decided, then, to establish a Finnish workers' league, which was soon called the Imatra League. The beginning proved auspicious, for by September 1904 the league already had 24 active local chapters, and it was at this time that another league, Finnish-American Workers' League, was formed at Ironwool, Michigan, and which was to establish one of its headquarters in Duluth. It was this second league which, in a meeting of 13 delegates at Cleveland, Ohio, in October 1904, decided that "only by joining the American Socialist Party can our own workers' movement gain any significance and influence in the development of socialism in this country." The Imatra League, on the other hand, was firmly against taking any such step, giving as is reasons the strong Finnish feeling of nationalism, the fact that the American program would be culturally much more restricted and offer less to the Finnish immigrants than they needed in their new environment, the fact that the American party itself was filled with dissension, and finally the fact that to create an organization by states would be a huge undertaking and that the dues collected would not benefit the Finns directly. However, local chapters of the Imatra League were divided on the issue, and in the end only seven local chapters, including the Brooklyn Imatra, remained faithful to their own league in opposing the merger. The Finnish-American Workers' League, from where the proposal had come, approved the merger, with only three

225