Ripsaw
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- This article is about the newspaper. There is also a style of music called ripsaw music and the tool called the rip saw.
Ripsaw (sometimes Rip-saw, Rip-Saw or RipSaw) is a defunct Duluth, Minnesota newspaper published from 1917 to 1926 and again from 1999 to 2005. In its original incarnation, the paper was a scandal sheet with a reputation for muckraking, sensationalism and criminal libel. It returned after a 73-year hiatus with a somewhat similar style, but made several stark transformations before folding a second time.
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[edit] The Great Family Journal
The original Duluth Ripsaw was founded by John L. Morrison, a puritanical Christian who abhorred alcohol, gambling and prostitution. The paper debuted on March 24, 1917. Issues were published every other Saturday, with copies sold at newsstands for five cents. Offices were originally in the downtown Duluth’s Fargusson Building, and later moved to the Phoenix Building.
Morrison produced the Ripsaw almost entirely by himself. Two known helpers were a cartoonist who signed his work “Webster,” and Isadore Cohen, a pre-teenaged newsboy who hawked papers in front of the old St. Louis County State Bank. Other writers were also periodically featured, but the vast majority of the work was always done by Morrison, who called himself the “head sawyer” of the “Great Family Journal.”
The birth of the Ripsaw came shortly after St. Louis County outlawed the sale of alcohol. When the city of Superior, Wisconsin, followed a few months later with its own voter-instituted prohibition, the Twin Ports were supposed to be dry. But alcohol continued to flow at bootleg outlets and in townships nearby. Local politicians and police did little to enforce the prohibition, and Morrison mercilessly ridiculed them for it in the Ripsaw. He also editorialized in favor of streetcars, public toilets and higher pay for policemen.
During the Ripsaw’s first year, Duluth Chief of Police Robert McKercher and City Auditor “King” Odin Halden were both ousted from their positions after being labeled crooked in the Ripsaw.
[edit] Morrison’s Demise
The downfall of the Ripsaw began with the Oct. 25, 1924 issue. Morrison accused State Sen. Mike Boylan of threatening him with mayhem and death, Cass County Probate Judge Bert Jamison of having acquired syphilis at a brothel and Victor L. Power, a former mayor of Hibbing, of corrupt legal practices and a weakness for women and whiskey. All three retaliated.
Morrison was quickly arrested by a sheriff from Walker, Minnesota (the county seat of Cass County) on charges of criminal libel brought by Jamison. He was sentenced to 90 days in the Cass County jail, but raised bail and returned to Duluth pending appeal.
At the same time Morrison was seeking to raise the bond in Cass County, Power was bringing forth criminal and civil libel actions, claiming the Oct. 25 Ripsaw article was written for the sole purpose of injuring him politically. A warrant for Morrison’s arrest was in the hands of Duluth police awaiting his release from the Cass County jail. A jury in Hibbing, Minnesota, found him guilty, and he was sentenced to 90 days in the county workhouse. He immediately appealed. Later, Morrison was ordered to make a public apology to Power. The charges against him were dropped and his sentence rescinded.
Later that month, Morrison pleaded guilty to the charges of criminal libel brought by Jamison.
The most powerful blow to the “Great Family Journal” came in the summer of 1925. Sen. Boylan, who, according to the Oct. 25, 1924 Ripsaw, had threatened to kill Morrison, was trying to have the paper shut down. He worked with Rep. George Lommen to draft several bills that would allow the suppression of scandalous newspapers. Sen. Freyling Stevens, a powerful lawyer, introduced the senate version of what would become known as the “Minnesota gag law,” which he is officially credited as author of.
The Public Nuisance Bill of 1925 was soon-after approved by the Minnesota State Senate and House. It allowed a single judge, without jury, to stop a newspaper or magazine from publishing, forever.
Governor Theodore Christianson quietly signed the Public Nuisance Law, but Morrison was oblivious. On April 6, 1926, the Ripsaw attacked Minneapolis Mayor George Emerson Leach: “Minnesotans do not want loose-love governor.” In the next issue, Duluth Commissioner of Public Utilities W. Harlow Tischer was the target: “Tischer and his gang fail to establish graft plan.”
Morrison was served with a warrant for his arrest based on a complaint from Leach under an obscene-literature ordinance recently rushed through the Minneapolis City Council. The next day, a temporary restraining order was placed on the Ripsaw by State District Judge H. J. Grannis of Duluth. Tischer claimed that the charges of graft were untrue and he demanded that the Ripsaw be stopped. The Finnish Publishing Company, which printed the Ripsaw, was also named in the injunction, and news dealers and newsboys were barred from distributing the paper.
Morrison’s trial was set for May 15, 1926. When that day came, however, Morrison did not appear in court. He was strangely ill.
On May 18, 1926, Morrison was rushed to St. Francis Hospital in Superior at around 1 a.m. Nine hours later, he was pronounced dead. The cause was reported in the Duluth Herald to be an embolism, a blood clot on the brain. The Herald reported that Morrison “had been ill for 10 days, suffering from pleurisy following an attack of influenza, a general breakdown and attacks of syncope.”
Although there were brief efforts to revive the Ripsaw, it would be 73 years before the paper’s return.
Tischer continued to insist the injunction against the Ripsaw be maintained, even after Morrison’s death. Judge E. J. Kenney, however, allowed a continuation of the Ripsaw “without the articles objected to by Commissioner Tischer.”
On June 1, 1931, the “gag law” was found to be unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court, in what is considered to be the first and most important Freedom of the Press decision in U.S. history.
[edit] Rebirth
It was in January of 1999 that the Ripsaw returned. Brad Nelson and Cord R. Dada published a monthly scandal sheet similar to Morrison’s original Ripsaw. Its first lead story, “Dotygate,” accused Duluth Mayor Gary Doty and his administration of various crimes associated with the demolition of buildings on East First Street to make way for construction of the Duluth Technology Village.
The Ripsaw became a weekly publication on April 5, 2000. Paul Lundgren was hired as managing editor and the paper was transformed into an alternative news, arts and entertainment source. One year later, it was accepted into the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies.
While Morrison’s original Ripsaw fought against “ol’ John Barleycorn,” the personification of demon alcohol, the new Ripsaw reveled in the exploits of Slim Goodbuzz. The slender and sarcastic Duluthian traveled the region in search of inebriated adventure for his celebrated “Barfly on the Wall” column.
Another favorite of Ripsaw readers was the comic strip “Violet Days,” by Chris Monroe, which is now featured in the Minneapolis Star Tribune and Duluth News Tribune.
Co-publisher Cord R. Dada sold the majority of his ownership in the paper to Brad Nelson’s brother Tim Nelson in April of 2001, relieving himself of all duties at the Ripsaw and leaving Brad Nelson as the majority owner and sole publisher of the paper. Within a few months, Lundgren was dismissed and Nelson became editor/publisher.
The last weekly issue was published on Dec. 31, 2003. Three months later, the Ripsaw returned to monthly status, this time as a full-color magazine edited by Tony Dierckins. It lasted 10 issues before reverting back to newsprint for its final three issues, which were published every other month, ending in September 2005.
Some of the Ripsaw’s archives are still online at http://old.ripsawnews.com.
[edit] References
“AAN’s smallest paper publishes in rock ‘n’ roll time,” by Whitney Joiner. Oct. 30, 2003 AAN News.
“Boylan threatens murder.” Oct. 25, 1924 Ripsaw.
Friendly, Fred W. “Minnesota Rag: The Dramatic Story of the Landmark Supreme Court Case That Gave New Meaning to Freedom of the Press,” May 1981. Random House (ISBN 0-394-50752-5). Reprinted May 2003. University of Minnesota Press (ISBN 0-8166-4161-7)
“The Great Family Journal grows like a Green Bay tree.” Feb. 21, 1920 Ripsaw.
“Presenting John Morrison’s Duluth,” by John Ramos. Spring 2005 Cheerleader.
“The Ripsaw’s Phenomenal Record,” Oct. 4, 1919 Ripsaw.
“Ripsaw to suspend publication and retool as a monthly,” by Don Jacobson. Dec. 19, 2003 Business North.
“Ripsaw turns 85,” by Paul Lundgren. March 13, 2002 Ripsaw.
“R.I.P. Ripsaw,” by Julia Durst. Jan. 26, 2006 MNArtists.org.
“Tabloid attacks draw fire from city officials,” by Jason Skog. Feb. 14, 1999 Duluth News Tribune.
