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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday April 6, 1912
Lawrence Textile Strikers Win Great Victory with I. W. W., Part IV of IV
From the International Socialist Review of April 1912:
ONE BIG UNION WINS
By LESLIE H. MARCY and FREDERICK SUMNER BOYD
In the eighth week of the strike the bosses made an offer of five per cent wage increase. The A. F. of L. scabs accepted it and went back. The I.W. W. strikers turned it down flat. The offer was made on a Thursday, and it was hoped that thousands of strikers would break ranks and stampede to the mills on the following Monday. When the mills opened they had actually fewer scabs, and looked out on a picket line numbering upwards of twenty thousand.
At the end of the following week the bosses discovered they meant an average increase of seven, and later seven and a half per cent, and that they would amend the premium system, paying fortnightly instead of by the month as had been the practice, resulting in the loss to a large part of the workers of the entire premium. Again on the following Monday the mills had still fewer scabs, and the picket line was stronger than ever.
When the Committee of Ten left for Boston on March 11th, for the fourth and final round with the bosses, every one realized that the crisis had been reached. Led by the indomitable Riley the Committee forced the mill owners to yield point by point until the final surrender was signed by the American Woolen Company.
The Committee reported at ten o’clock at Franco-Belgian Hall the next day. The headquarters were packed and hundreds stood on the outside. Words are weak when it comes to describing the scenes which took place when the full significance of the report became known. For the workers, united in battle for the first time in the history of Lawrence, had won. The mill owners had surrendered—completely surrendered.
A great silence fell upon the gathering when Haywood arose and announced that he would make the report for the sub-committee in the temporary absence of Chairman Riley. He began by stating that tomorrow each individual striker would have a voice in deciding whether the offers made should be accepted. He said:
Report of Committee.
The committee of 10 reported in brief that the workers will receive a 5 per cent increase for the higher paid departments and 25 per cent for the lower paid departments. There will be time and a quarter overtime and the premium system has been modified so that its worst features are eliminated.
Your strike committee has indorsed this report and has selected a committee to see all the other mill owners who will be asked to meet the wage schedule offered by the American Woolen Company. In the event that the other mills do not accede to the demands, the strike on those mills will be enforced.
You have won a victory for over 250,000 other textile workers, which means an aggregate of many millions of dollars each year for the working class in New England. Now if you hope to hold what you have gained you must maintain and uphold the Industrial Workers of the World, which means yourselves.
Continuing, Haywood said:
These are the terms submitted by the American Woolen Company through the sub—committee to the strike committee. Your strike committee has endorsed this report and the terms. Your committee has selected a committee from all of the other mills to work in conjunction with the subcommittee and proceed at once to demand the same terms as the American Woolen Company has granted.
In the event of the other mills not conceding these the strike in these mills will be continued. I believe, however, that they will agree as some of the mills have signified their intention of meeting any raise that was offered. You understand that these mills want their old employes back, and were so anxious to get you that they wanted you to go into the mills this morning. This strike is not yet settled. The delegates will report to their different nationalities in separate mass meetings between now and tomorrow.
A committee has been appointed to arrange a mass meeting on the Common to be held tomorrow morning at the earliest possible hour (cheers) when the entire matter will be submitted to the vote of all the strikers.
This is the first time in the history of the labor movement in America that a strike has been conducted as you have carried on this one. This strike since its very inception has been in the hands of the strikers. To expedite business you have reduced yourselves to a committee of 56. Conferences have been held by a subcommittee of 10, which could settle nothing, but must report back to the full committee.
I want to say further to you, that the strikers of Lawrence have won the most signal victory of any organized body of workers in the world. (Cheers) You have demonstrated, as has been shown nowhere else, the common interest of the working class in bringing all nationalities together.
You have won a small increase for yourselves and you have gained an advance in wages for more than 250,000 operatives. This victory you have won means in the aggregate the distribution of many millions of dollars among the working class. If you hope to hold what you have gained it is necessary for you to maintain your organization. You must uphold the Industrial Workers of the World, which means yourselves. You are the heart and soul of the working class. No one can do things for you. You must do these things for yourselves.
Everything for your uplift rests in your hands. Single handed you are helpless, but united you can win everything. You have won the concessions over the united powers of the municipal, county, State and National administrations. You have won against the combined forces of the capitalists. You have won in face of the armed force. Detectives and secret service men have not been able to whip you back into the mills. You have won in face of a partial court and in the face of that new form of government known as injunction. You have won by massing your brain and muscle and withholding your labor from the bosses.
No one can point to any striker and say that he committed any violence. Your hearts and your hands have been clean and your consciences must be clear of any indictment. This is not the last fight that you will be called upon to engage in; this is the first step in the march of progress.
Great applause lasting several minutes, followed the close of Haywood’s speech. Then, amid shouts and cheers for victory, labor songs were sung.
Not one of the 20,000 persons present will ever forget the wonderful mass meeting held on the Commons on March 14th when the strikers voted to accept the surrender of the bosses. As each nationality reported a volley of cheers arose as hundreds of hands were lifted high.
Then came the vote on the time for return to work. The Committee proposed Friday morning but this was voted down and when Chairman Bill Haywood put the question “Shall all go back to work on Monday morning?” thousands of hands arose in a unanimous vote which settled the question.
The Red Flag was waved from the speaker’s stand and thousands of voices broke into:
Then raise the scarlet standard high,
Within its shade we’ll live and die.
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We’ll keep the red flag flying here!The committee received authoritative assurance of the early release of Ettor and Giovannitti otherwise not a man, woman or child would have voted to go back to work.
Following are the notices to be posted in each room of the American Woolen Company’s mills, and to be printed in all the languages of the workers:
To the Employes of the Mill.
On Friday next, March 15, wages will be paid under a notice posted March 1, and the advance in wages will be in accordance with the following schedule:
All employes formerly receiving 9% cents per hour, an increase of 2 cents per hour (25 per cent raise).
Those receiving more than 9% and less than 10 cents, 1% cents advance (21 per cent raise).
More than 10 and less than 11, 1% cents (15 per cent raise).
More than 11 and less than 12 cents, 1¼ cents advance (11 per cent raise).
More than 12 cents and less than 20, 1 cent (8.3 to 5.5 per cent raise).
Those receiving 20 cents or more, 1 cent (5 per cent raise).
All job work to receive an advance of 5 per cent flat.
American Woolen Company,
Mill Agent.NOTICE.
The premium being already adjusted to a 54-hour basis, it will be readily seen that the increase of 5 per cent in the wage list is that much to the advantage of the weaver in more easily acquiring the premium.
Premiums will be given out every two weeks instead of as heretofore, every four weeks.
Time and one-quarter will be paid for overtime.
No discrimination against any one.
The strike in Lawrence has had far-reaching effects. As a direct result of the fight wages in practically every mill in New England have been increased. In Lowell, when the I. W. W. sent organizers into the city, the bosses rushed to give their workers an increase of five per cent.
Already substantial increases in their wages have been accorded to workers in
And many other cities.
The increase in wages in no case falls below 5 per cent. For the lowest class of workers, it will range from 15 to 25 per cent.
To Cost Mills $5,000,000.
When business is in first-class condition there are about 300,000 textile operatives in New England. It is estimated that the general advance of from 5 to 7 per cent, will cost the 1,500 textile manufacturers $5,000,000 a year.
As Comrade Haywood says:
“The place to stab the boss is in his pocket book.”
As a result of the strike inaugurated by the Industrial Workers of the World. and the wonderful solidarity of the workers of Lawrence, a quarter of a million workers have received wage increases. A million men, women and children are better off and have more of the comforts of life due directly to the work of the I. W. W.
And an even more important thing, about which little or nothing has found its way in the capitalist press, is the fact that a new chapter has opened in the history of New England and the United States. For the first time in history the cotton and woolen kings have been defeated in pitched battle, and they have been defeated by the despised “unskilled worker”—the “foreigner.” For the first time in America a method of organizing men and women of twenty different nationalities and leading them to victory has been found.
When Big Bill Haywood declared that the workers are going to make this a world worth living in, a tremendous cheer went up from twenty thousand workers in Lawrence who understood his meaning and realized their power. The battle of Lawrence is the death knell of craft union organization, and the herald of the formation of the workers into One Big Union.
But the fight is not over, and will not terminate until the other mills come to terms and the 63 men and 20 women now in jail are set free.
While the strikers have won the fight they are not going to forget the outrages that have been perpetrated upon them. The cases are going to be prosecuted, and the officials will be sent to jail if that is possible. Civil and criminal actions will be brought by the injured strikers. Damages will be sued for and claims made against the state for every outrage or injury perpetrated by the minions of the law.
The Battle of Lawrence is but one engagement. The Big Fight has just begun.
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[Emphasis added.}
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote Lawrence Strike Committee, Drunk Cup to Dregs, Bst Dly Glb Eve p5, Jan 17, 1912
https://www.newspapers.com/image/430627498/
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:
-re Committee of Ten, see:
Report on Strike of Textile Workers in Lawrence, Mass. in 1912
-Charles Patrick Neill
(search: riley, bedard, holliday)
U.S. Government Printing Office, 1912
https://books.google.com/books?id=AzouAAAAYAAJ
Tag: Lawrence Textile Strike of 1912
https://weneverforget.org/tag/lawrence-textile-strike-of-1912/
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