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disillusioned but silent, reluctant to speak of their experiences, while a great many others remained there, left to a fate unknown. To all appearances the Communist Party lost support significantly among all Finnish-Americans as a result of this drive : many had played with communism as with a toy which had enlivened their dances and entertainments, had spoken out as if they were communists though their minds were socialist, had been unaware of communism's real character, its iron discipline and the demands it made on the individual.' 10
A New Newspaper: The Socialist: The leading members of the Finnish socialist movement, (with the exception of the majority of the faculty of the Workers' Institute,) and all the socialist newspapers set about to oppose the IWW, which they branded as a syndicalistic and anarchistic-syndicalist organization, but which nevertheless gained a foothold in the West, the mountain states and the Middle West, particularly among the Finnish socialists in Minnesota. These people demanded that the newspapers they supported and read should publicize the IWW and the industrial unionism it advocated, and this demand brought a conflict climaxed in a special annual meeting of the Työmies Publishing Company in Hancock in 1914. When it was revealed in the course of the meeting that $20,000 worth of shares in the Työmies had been given, without payment, to the Raivaaja Publishing Company, the supporters of industrial unionism and the more radical socialists realized the impossibility of exerting any influence in the operations of the Työmies. They walked out of the meeting, determined to start their own newspaper, which soon materialized as the Sosialisti.
A. F. Heiskanen from Virginia, Väinö Wesman from Hibbing, Axel Ohrn from Angora, J. A. Viinikainen from Eveleth, Ivar Ruohomäki from Chisholm, and Martin Hendrickson and J. G. Helin from Duluth were the first board members of the Socialist Publishing Company, which also counted among its founders Leo Laukki and Otto Lahtinen. Axel Ohrn was elected editor-inchief of the new paper, to be assisted by Matti Kangas, Leo Mattson and Edi Sulo (Elis Sulkanen) who had all resigned from the Työmies. One Frank Westerlund was also appointed to the staff, but when he became the paper's advertising director he was replaced on the editorial staff by William Risto who, however, had to resign and was replaced by Onni Saari. Business manager was Victor Watia.
10. Lehtipaja. Työmiehen Neljännesvuosisata Julkaisu. Superior, Wisconsin, 1928.
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