On this day in labor history the year was 1942.
The Labor Movement lost one of its prolific voices.
T Bone Slim was born Matti Valentinpoika Huhta in Ashtabula Ohio.
His parents were Finnish immigrants. The exact year of his birth is uncertain, as is much of his early life.
He eventually joined the Industrial Workers of the World, or the Wobblies.
He wrote regularly for the IWW’s weekly newspaper and magazines.
He traveled the country working odd jobs.
One of his acquaintances called T-Bone Slim a “dyed-in-the-wool hobo.”
Everywhere he went he wrote. Those who knew him remembered he always had a pad of paper in his pocket.
He wrote columns, and poems and song lyrics with humor and poignancy.
Eventually T-bone Slim made his way to New York City.
He got a job as a river barge captain. And it was on this day in labor history that his body was found floating in the East River.
The circumstances of his death are as uncertain as those of his birth.
No one claimed his body, and he was buried in a potter’s field.
Despite the anonymity of his death, his words live on as an inspiration for workers.
Some of the writings of T-Bone Slim have been gathered into a book called “Juice is Stranger Than Fiction.”
His popular songs are included in the IWW’s “Little Red Song” book.
Among them, “A Worker’s Plea,” “The Mysteries of a Hobo’s Life,” and “A Lumberjacks’s Prayer.”
Here is the late great Utah Philips singing one of T-Bone Slim’s most well-loved songs, “The Most Popular Wobbly.”
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Labor History in 2:00 brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and The Rick Smith Show