a former secretary of the IWW local office in Bemidji, became the first person in the United States to be convicted under such a law. That same month, agents from the United States Department of Justice launched several raids on IWW offices, including those in Duluth, Minneapolis, and other cities in the Mesabi Range, to gather evidence for use against the organization. Despite this, the IWW maintained a presence in the area into 1920, but by that time, their power had all but been broken. Additionally, during World War I, the Minnesota Public Safety Commission had infiltrated the organization and succeeded in damaging it from the inside. Law enforcement agencies in the state later used similar techniques that they had applied to the IWW to target war dissenters and pacifists, as well as other left-leaning groups such as the Nonpartisan League. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, organized labor activities in northern Minnesota was primarily driven by the affiliated unions of the American Federation of Labor and the Committee for Industrial Organization. Discussing the impact of the strike in a 1971 article, historian John E. Haynes wrote that, "The resolution of that strike helped redefine the boundaries of permissible political and economic dissent in Minnesota, virtually erased the specter of strong IWW influence on the iron range, and served as a precedent for the state's treatment of dissenters during World War I". Notes References Sources Further reading 1916 in Minnesota 1916 labor disputes and strikes 1917 in Minnesota 1917 labor disputes and strikes Agriculture and forestry labor disputes in the United States Industrial Workers of the World in Minnesota International Falls, Minnesota Koochiching County, Minnesota Labor disputes in Minnesota Labor disputes led by the Industrial Workers of the World Progressive Era in the United States Events in St. Louis County, Minnesota Virginia, Minnesota