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Hellraisers Journal – Friday April 5, 1912
Lawrence Textile Strikers Win Great Victory with I. W. W., Part III of IV
From the International Socialist Review of April 1912:
ONE BIG UNION WINS
By LESLIE H. MARCY and FREDERICK SUMNER BOYD
5,000 to 20,000 Strikers Formed the Endless Chain Picket Line
Every Morning from 5 to 7:30 A. M., Rain or Shine.-Boston GlobeBrute force was not, however, the only weapon used by the bosses to try to crush the workers. They had allied with them the A. F. of L., the Catholic church and the Civic Federation a very holy trinity!
Two days after the strike was called John Golden, a member of the Militia of Christ, wired Mayor Scanlon, who had called for militia, asking whether he could be of any assistance to the authorities in suppressing the “rabble,” which he described as anarchistic. Golden and the Lawrence Central Labor Union, affiliated with the A. F. of L., joined in praising the authorities for importing soldiers, and declared that their presence was necessary for “the preservation of order.”
Neither by word nor deed did Golden or the C. L. U. condemn the authorities or their tools for the barbarities and atrocities committed. Vice President Ramsden of the C. L. U., whose two daughters were scabbing in the Arlington mill, when interviewed by the writer was loud in his praises of the militia and the authorities, referred to the I. W. W. as an anarchistic organization that fomented violence and lawlessness, and declared it should be suppressed. He asserted that there was no strike and no organization-only a rabble. When he was asked about the dynamite plot engineered by the bosses through their tool John J. Breen, he naturally refused to comment.
Golden publicly declared that the program of the I. W. W. had acted very much to the advantage of the Textile Workers Union, as it was bringing the latter in closer touch with the mill owners, who understood that it would be more to their interests to deal with the organization, he, Golden, represented rather than with the revolutionary and uncompromising I. W. W.
After having wired, proffering his assistance to the chief of police, Golden got busy in other directions. The mule spinners, numbering according to their own officials, some 180 men, were the only body organized in Lawrence that was affiliated with the A. F. of L. Golden’s union did not have a single member in the whole city. Nevertheless he, in conjunction with Joe R. Menzie, president of the C. L. U., issued circulars to all C. L. U. bodies asking for funds to aid the strike and expressly asking them not to send assistance to the I. W. W.
Then the C. L. U. opened a separate fund. So, too, did Father Melasino, and a man by the name of Shepherd appeared on the scene with some sort of free lunch counter, also appealing for funds.
These various appeals for financial assistance, all made in the name of the strikers of Lawrence, and all calculated to injure the I. W. W. succeeded in diverting large sums of money, the C. L. U. benefiting largely at the expense of the I. W. W. Several times committees from the I. W. W. went to the C. L. U. with evidence that money had been misdirected, but restitution was invariably refused.
Here it may be said that in the seventh week of the strike the C. L. U. strike relief station was practically suspended, applicants being told that the strike was off and that they should return to the mills.
Golden’s next move was to endeavor to organize rival labor unions based on the many crafts in the mills. For several days strenuous attempts were made to divide the workers in the old, old way. Meetings were called by Golden and Menzie, a great deal of money was spent on so-called organizing which had been contributed to the relief funds, and every effort was made to break the solidarity of the workers and get them to return piecemeal.
These efforts failed, the only result being that when the bosses made an offer of five per cent increase over the cut rates—equivalent to an increase of one and one-eighth per cent—a handfull of double-dyed scabs whom Golden had secured to do his work went into the mills.
Golden has shown himself in this fight in his true light, and all the world knows him for a traitor to the working class, and his craft unions are a thing of the past. What Golden did was merely in accord with the policy and doings of the official A. F. of L., and many of the rank and file of the Federation have already woke up to the game of their alleged leaders.
The Ironmolders’ Union that was affiliated with the Lawrence C. L. U. denounced in a resolution the doings of Golden and his gang and withdrew their affiliation. A motion denouncing Golden and his tactics was lost in the Boston Central Labor Union by a vote of 18 to 16. The Central Federated Union of New York City, one of the slimiest haunts of the professional labor crooks in America, even passed a resolution virtually telling Golden to keep his hands off. The Philadelphia Textile Workers’ Union, which had received the Golden appeal, reprinted the I. W. W. appeal for funds and sent several thousand dollars to the I. W. W. war chest.
The latest development in Philadelphia is that 2,000 textile workers have requested I. W. W. organizers to go there and organize a local. All over the country local A. F. of L. unions have denounced Golden and his official friends, and the rank and file of the A. F. of L. has gone on record solidly in favor of their class and against their officials.
Before the strike few of the so-called skilled workers in Lawrence were organized, there being only, in addition to the mule spinners, small independent unions of the loom fixers, wool sorters and warp dressers. None of the mechanical crafts were organized, but within a week after the strike started the bosses called for the officials of various unions, had their employes organized and advanced wages five per cent. Among the gallant band of labor leaders who rushed to the aid of the bosses was Tim Healy, who organized the Stationary Engineers. All the mechanical crafts, including engineers, firemen, electrical workers, machinists and railroaders were “organized” and remained at work, scabbing on their fellows with the full sanction and express approval of their officials.
Allied with the official A. F. of L. was the Civic Federation, which seized the opportunity to pass resolutions endorsing and approving of their good friends and allies the American Federation of Labor.
And there was the Catholic Church. The moving spirit in Lawrence is Father O’Reilly, and he preached from the pulpit against Socialism, Industrial Unionism, and the I. W. W. He went further, and informed his congregation, all of them mill workers, that there was no need for them to go into the mills at 6:45. The bosses, he explained, would be just as pleased to see them at 9 o’clock, and by that means they need not pass the pickets. City Marshal Sullivan, before he stopped the children from leaving the city, consulted three priests, of whom O’Reilly was one.
But the Church, after all, was able to do very little, for the strikers realized that it was not a matter of religion but of bread. The Syrians demanded that their priest allow them the use of the church for their strike meetings, and were at first turned down. When the priest was given to understand that if the request was not granted support would be withheld from him, he had a change of heart, and the Syrians met thereafter in the church, speakers with their backs to the altar telling of the class war.
The same thing happened with the Lithuanians, the Jews and the Polish. There are two synagogues in Lawrence, and when the request was refused at one synagogue the strikers threatened to withdraw and go to the other temple, their request being immediately granted.
Despite all these efforts to weaken the strikers and undermine their solidarity, they have stood shoulder to shoulder, all races and all religions, presenting a spectacle that has inspired the workers of the world with new hope and given the world a new ideal. And it is this solidarity, that has been the keynote of the strike, and has been rendered possible solely by the method of organization pursued by the Industrial Workers of the World, that has maddened the mill bosses and priests and politicians throughout the country.
This solidarity found its most dramatic and highest expression in the sending of the children of Lawrence to other cities to be cared for there by members of the working class. It was because the bosses of America feared the effect of this demonstration that every constitutional and human right was outraged in Lawrence when children who were going to Philadelphia were seized by the police, supported by the militia, and together with their mothers, clubbed and beaten, thrown into patrol wagons and put into prison.
Two of the women who were thus seized at the station were pregnant, and the brutal treatment they experienced has caused both to suffer miscarriages. One little girl was beaten in the face, and her nervous system so shattered that she could get no sleep and cried out at the slightest sound day and night. She has had to be sent to relatives in Wakefield to be nursed back to health if that is possible.
This monstrous outrage occurred twice, and it was in this connection that the women entered the ranks of the strikers and fought shoulder to shoulder with the men. They were called into action by a little Italian woman, an exquisitely beautiful woman, with a face like a Madonna. She had come to a Polish meeting with three companies, and Haywood, who was to address the meeting, lifted her on to a table and she spoke in broken English, saying:
Men, woman: I come speak to you. I been speaking to others. Just now to morrow morning all women come see me half past four at Syrian church. Tonight no sleep. You meet me at half past four, not sleep tonight.
You all come with me. We go tell folks no go to work. Men all stay home, all men and boys stay home. Just now all woman and girl come with me. Soldier he hurt men. Soldier he no hurt woman. He no hurt me. Me got big belly. She too (pointing to one of her friends) she got big belly too. Soldier no hurt me.
Soldier he got mother. We tell all people no go work, no go work till we get more money. Just now stay on strike. Everybody half past four tomorrow morning come Syrian church. All right. Good bye.
As Haywood lifted her from the table a scene of the wildest enthusiasm ensued in the packed hall, containing over 1,500 strikers. Men and women were in tears. Tears were streaming down the woman’s face, down Haywood’s face, down the face of everybody in the room, woman kissed Haywood’s hands while Haywood kissed hers, and had to leave the hall without giving his speech.
“Soldier no hurt me. Soldier he got mother,” the woman had said. But the soldiers did hurt women and little children, too. They and the police clubbed and punched, and women and children were outraged in Lawrence as they would be in no other country but Russia. The evidence given before the Congressional Committee that Socialist Representative Victor L. Berger had appointed showed that literally Russian methods had been used in Lawrence.
The strike has thrown a glaring light upon Schedule K. It has astonished millions of people, who until it came had had no idea that hundreds of thousands of workers in America were earning starvation wages. It broke into legislatures, and forced District Attorneys, Governors and even President Taft to take ponderous action. It was the cause of investigations by the Department of Justice, by the Interstate Commerce Commission, and by the Department of Labor and Commerce, which has five men still at work under Commissioner Charles P. Neill.
During the Congressional investigation at Washington, Commissioner of Safety Lynch of Lawrence admitted that he did not know the laws of the State of Massachusetts, and could cite no authority under which he had acted in preventing children leaving for other cities where they would be cared for until the strike was ended.
Police Chief Sullivan, who himself struck women at the station, deliberately lied before the committee, declaring that no woman was clubbed by the police. Every city official who testified gave false witness, and one after the other they were excused and laughed at by all America.
The fact that seemed most to impress the committeemen during the investigation was that the children who had been taken to New York City from Lawrence had no underclothing. Representative Stanley expressed amazement as this fact was brought out by Margaret Sanger, who had gone to Lawrence to bring the children to New York, and asked whether it could be a fact that textile workers had not enough clothes to keep them warm in winter. Then he wanted to know whether their outer garments were woolen, and learned that though they worked in the woolen mills they did not wear woolen clothes.
During the investigation John Golden and Samuel Gompers both testified and both attacked the I. W. W. and the men in control of the strike. Both men left the witness stand discredited and disgraced.
Speaking of the part Berger took, Haywood said in the course of his report to the general strike committee on his return from Washington:
Berger worked night and day on the strike situation, and, while he is a member of the American Federation of Labor, his castigation of Golden and Gompers was quite as strong as any delivered by any member of the I. W. W. Though in the past there has been bitter acrimony between the industrial Socialists and those whose leanings were strongly political, both factions—if they may so be referred to—have worked shoulder to shoulder in presenting the facts to the world and in assisting the Lawrence textile workers to win their fight.
And the Massachusetts State Legislature was also stirred. Socialist Representative Morrill tried in vain to force an official investigation. Other attempts were made, but the power of the mill owners in the legislature was too great. All that was done was that an informal committee went to Lawrence, made some inquiries, and reported that the most feasible plan for the mill owners to do was to recognize and negotiate with the Industrial Workers of the World.
Instantly John Golden, in company with his friends Judge J. J. Mahoney, who had conducted one of the most biased courts against the strikers on record in America juridicial history, and J. R. Menzie, president of the Lawrence C. L. U., entered a formal protest against such respectable citizens as the mill bosses having anything to do with anarchistic law breakers.
But the economic power of the workers organized by the I. W. W. was too great for all combinations that were pitted against them.
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[Emphasis added.}
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote BBH Weave Cloth Bayonets, ISR p538, Mar 1912
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/isr/v12n09-mar-1912-ISR-gog-Corn.pdf
International Socialist Review
(Chicago, Illinois)
-April 1912, pages 613-30
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/isr/v12n10-apr-1912-ISR-gog-Corn.pdf
See also:
Mar 12, 1912, Boston Globe-Long Unbroken Picket Line of Lawrence Strikers on Essex St by Sturges
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99223749/mar-12-1912-boston-globe-long/
Artist is likely Dwight C. Sturges, 1875-1974
https://www.si.edu/object/AAADCD_coll_210879
Tag: Lawrence Textile Strike of 1912
https://weneverforget.org/tag/lawrence-textile-strike-of-1912/
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JOHN GOLDEN AND THE LAWRENCE STRIKE
Lyrics by Joe Hill
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Songs_of_the_Workers_(15th_edition)/John_Golden_and_the_Lawrence_Strike