members; before the 1907 strike began there were 64 members, and before the strike was finished there were 174. "This unusual rise in membership," even the Päivälehti was forced to admit, "was due to the strike, so that it may be said that if there were no other benefits from the strike at least it created hordes of socialists." In the beginning there were difficulties in finding a meeting place, for neither temperance society rented their hall to the socialists. They were forced finally to build a meeting place of their own. A plot of land was purchased on Washington Street, and there a small hall was built, a room 15 x 20 feet in size, seating about 30 persons. It was ready for use in 1902 and as such was the first Finnish workers' hall in America. Of course, the hall very soon proved inadequate, and although it was enlarged, even this proved insufficient. In 1906, therefore, land was purchased on Lincoln Street, directly across the street from where the Lincoln School was to be built later.

The Hibbing Workers Hall built in 1909 was considerably larger than the first: this one was 46 x 120 feet. It became one of the most important centers of activity among the Finnish workers' groups in Minnesota, with numerous flourishing auxiliaries. In 1914, following the schism within the Socialist Party, the Hibbing society joined the IWW faction and supported the cause of industrial unionism and the Industrialisti in the decades which followed. However, activity diminished here, too, just as it did elsewhere,

Hibbing Finnish Workers' Club hall.

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