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Hellraisers Journal – Friday February 24, 1922
Pawtucket, Rhode Island – Police Fire on Strikers, One Killed, Several Wounded
From the New York Evening World of February 21, 1922:
PAWTUCKET, R. I.. Feb. 21.-One man was killed, two were seriously wounded, and six persons were hurt when the police used riot guns today on a crowd of 1,000 person who gathered at the plant of the Jenckes Spinning Company, where a strike is in progress. The guns were brought into play when several patrolmen had been knocked down after the arrest of three strike sympathizers.
The dead man is Juan D’Assumpcau [Joseph Assuncao, Jose D’Assunpcao] of Valley Falls. Tony Regoss and Joseph Diaz of this city were taken to hospitals in a critical condition.
Mayor Robert A. Kenyon witnessed the shooting. He had arrived at the gates of the plant early in the morning to observe the crowd that has customarily gathered to watch working operatives enter the mill. The Mayor, believing that there was danger in the crowd, read the riot act. He then told the patrolmen to be careful and calm but to do their duty and to “shoot if necessary. ”
[…..]
[Machine Guns at Natick]
NATICK, R. I., Feb. 21,-While striking textile workers and sympathizers jammed the streets of this village to-day mounted cavalry troops and police kept strict patrol, forcing the throngs to keep moving, Hundreds of children, each bearing a tiny American flag, swelled the ranks of the strike sympathizers. There was no cheering, and in spite of the size of the crowd and the tenseness of the situation there was little noise.
A machine gun detachment of the 103d Field Artillery mounted guns at the mills involved in the strike, and a company of field artillery formed the patrol.
[Machine Guns at Providence]
PROVIDENCE. Feb. 21.-The conflict at Pawtucket was followed by an increase in the militia forces called to aid the civil authorities. Two troops of cavalry, a machine gun detachment and a Coast Artillery Company, all acting as infantry, patrolled the Pawtucket valley villages of Pontiac and Natick, maintaining order where riotous outbreaks occurred last night.
While the military were trying to maintain order in the mill districts, mediators of both State and Federal jurisdictions were sitting here with representatives of the union organizations of strikes and mill managements to learn their views on a suggestion for arbitration of the differences.
Two of the mill corporations have formally announced that the issues-a wage reduction of 20 per cent, and, in some instances, an increase of working hours from forty-eight to fifty-four were not such as could be ironed out by arbitration.
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[Emphasis added.]
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote Mother Jones, Ab Chp 6, 1925
https://www.iww.org/history/library/MotherJones/autobiography/6
The Evening World
(New York, New York)
-Feb 21, 1922
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030193/1922-02-21/ed-1/seq-1/
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030193/1922-02-21/ed-1/seq-2/
See also:
Boston Evening Globe, Feb 21, 1922-Pawtucket RI Police Kill Textile Striker, Wound Others
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/96317440/boston-evening-globe-feb-21/
From Labor Age of April 1922, page 11:
“Fighting the 54-Hour Week-The Textile Revolt in New England”
-by Eugene Lyons
Note: see page 13 for “Joseph Assuncao” who was a grocery clerk, near scene of strikers’ demonstration.
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/laborage/v11n04-apr-1922-LA.pdf
From Monthly Labor Review of May 1923:
“New England Textile Strike” -by Leonard E. Tilden
Note: see page 20/908 for “Jose D’Assunpcao“-from coroners verdict.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/41828627.pdf
https://books.google.com/books?id=v-U4AAAAMAAJ
The American Labor Year Book, Volume 5
Rand School of Social Science, 1924
(search: “new england textile strike”)
https://books.google.com/books?id=Rps7AAAAMAAJ
History of the Labor Movement in the United States, Volume 9
-TUEL to End of Gompers Era
-by Philip Foner
(see Chapter 2, page 19: “New England Textile Strike, 1922”
https://books.google.com/books?id=0jHyAAAAMAAJ
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The Red Flag – Socialist Victory Choir
Lyrics by Jim Connell