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Chronicling America
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Newspaper The Duluth Rip-Saw (Duluth, Minn.) 1917-19??

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About The Duluth Rip-Saw (Duluth, Minn.) 1917-19??

John Loyal Morrison published the first issue of his notorious muckraking scandal sheet the Duluth Rip-saw, in Duluth, Minnesota on March 24, 1917. Morrison, a devout Christian, used the Rip-saw in his one-man crusade against what he viewed as the evils of alcohol, gambling, violence, and prostitution, and the local politicians and law men who participated in or turned a blind eye to this vice.

Morrison declared the Rip-saw to be “Duluth’s leading independent paper.” Issues were generally four-pages with seven columns and published every other Saturday. As a “conservative reformer,” Morrison used the newspaper to “saw” and “rip” into “city moneyed ‘autocrats.'” The “Sawdust and Shavings” column included fiery statements against his targets of the week. In the July 7, 1917 issue, the Rip-saw reported that “flunkies” of Saint Louis County Auditor “King” Odin Halden were trying to “show their teeth” to Morrison after he charged Halden with committing “petty graft” by making courthouse employees work at his private home without pay. In the same issue, Morrison claimed Duluth Police Chief Robert McKercher was “going blind” for not acknowledging illegal bars and prostitution in the city. With striking headlines and sensational reporting, public interest and sales in the newspaper increased, allowing Morrison to continue publishing without advertisers. The March 8, 1918 issue claimed 23,000 subscribers, a large jump from the 5,000 subscribers claimed in September 1917.

As the committee chairman of a group of residents of South First Avenue in Duluth working to quash distinctly African American prostitution, Morrison’s reporting of the problem in the Rip-saw was racially charged. One headline in the September 9, 1919, read “Dark girls woo white men.” Bubbling racial tensions in Duluth boiled over in June 1920 when three black circus workers falsely accused of rape were seized from the city jail without police intervention and publicly lynched by a large mob. In the June 26, 1920, issue of the Rip-saw, Morrison called the accused “moral degenerates” and the mob “hoodlums.”

The Rip-saw‘s attacks eventually led Morrison into court. In the 1924 general elections, Morrison targeted a few candidates including Hibbing Mayor Victor L. Power, State Senator Michael Boylan, and Cass County Probate Judge Bert Jamison. In the October 25, 1924 issue, Morrison gave Boylan what he termed a “good editorial spanking” after Morrison claimed Boylan threatened by wire to kill him and end the Rip-saw. Morrison saw Jamison as unfit to serve due to gambling and other grotesque improprieties, while he viewed Power as a “corporate candidate.” In response to Jamison and Power filing charges against him for criminal libel and obscenity, Morrison published a threatening letter he received from Boylan in the November 1, 1924 issue. On April 7, 1925, the Minnesota State Legislature passed the Minnesota Public Nuisance or “Gag” Law, sponsored by Boylan with the express purpose of shutting down the Rip-saw. With this statute, a judge could order the stoppage of a publication seen as “obscene, lewd, and lascivious,” without a jury. Undeterred, Morrison charged Minneapolis Mayor George Emerson Leach with adultery in 1926, leading to a warrant for Morrison’s arrest and a restraining order placed on the Rip-saw. Morrison went to Superior, Wisconsin to escape authorities, but became ill and died of a “brain clot” on May 18, 1926, ending his newspaper. The gag law was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1931, in the case of Near v. Minnesota, a landmark decision protecting the freedom of the press.

Provided By: Minnesota Historical Society; Saint Paul, MN

About this Newspaper

Title

  • The Duluth Rip-Saw (Duluth, Minn.) 1917-19??

Dates of Publication

  • 1917-19??

Created / Published

  • Duluth, Minn. : John L. Morrison, 1917-

Headings

  • -  Duluth (Minn.)--Newspapers
  • -  Saint Louis County (Minn.)--Newspapers
  • -  Minnesota--Saint Louis County
  • -  Minnesota--Duluth
  • -  United States--Minnesota--Saint Louis--Duluth

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Biweekly
  • -  Vol. 1, no. 1 (Mar. 24, 1917)-
  • -  Available on microfilm from the Minnesota Historical Society.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.

Medium

  • volumes

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn90059142

OCLC Number

  • 1567064

ISSN Number

  • 2694-3859

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

The Duluth Rip-Saw Duluth, Minn. -19??. (Duluth, MN), Jan. 1 1917. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn90059142/.

APA citation style:

(1917, January 1) The Duluth Rip-Saw Duluth, Minn. -19??. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn90059142/.

MLA citation style:

The Duluth Rip-Saw Duluth, Minn. -19??. (Duluth, MN) 1 Jan. 1917. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, aj.sunback.homes/item/sn90059142/.