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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 30, 1913
Paterson, New Jersey – Silk Weavers Revolt Against Four Loom System

From The Paterson Evening News of January 29, 1913:

Where Three and Four Loom Systems Are Being Operated
-Big Mass Meeting Arranged for Tomorrow.
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Yesterday afternoon about five hundred striking weavers, who have quit their work in the Henry Doherty mill at Lakeview, proceeded to the Samuel Aronsohn mill at Tenth avenue and East Eighteenth street, in an effort to get the weavers at this place to go out on strike against the four loom system. In order to spread their fight in mills where four looms are operated, the striking Doherty weavers propose to try and get all other weavers who operated four looms to go out on strike with them. When the five hundred strikers made their appearance in the vicinity of the Aronsohn mill, police headquarters was notified, and Sergeant John Ricker dispatched the automobile patrol with reserves to the scene.

Aronsohn brothers complained that the strikers who gathered on the outside were trying to attract the attention of their workmen and in this way their business was interfered with. When Sergeant Sautter and the police reserves arrived the strikers made their way to a nearby hall with the intentions of holding a mass meeting, but the great crowd which had marched from Lakeview to Tenth avenue were too tired to hold any meeting. In order to prevent all other weavers of the city from running four looms the Doherty strikers hope to carry their fight into every mill where this system is carried out, for they are opposed to the four loom system.

Tomorrow night at Helvetia Hall the Doherty strikers will hold a large mass meeting. It has been decided by the officials of the I. W. W. that any weaver who runs four looms shall be considered a strike breaker. In order to accomplish this, however, it will be necessary to conduct their strike along peaceful and orderly lines.

It is to expected that Miss Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, who took such an active part in the waiters’ strike in York city, will come to this city and make her headquarters here so that she may take an active interest in the fight against four looms. Miss Flynn is just twenty-two years, and her success in holding together for almost a month 4,000 striking waiters, whom nobody has ever been able to handle in a harmonious manner, has amazed labor agitators with far more experience. They haven’t been able to understand how this young woman could dominate the situation for nearly a month.

With her assistance the Doherty weavers hope to secure the sympathy of other weavers who are now operating four looms in a number of mills in the city. Organizer Edward Keettegen [Ewald Koettgen], the I. W. W. organizer who is conducting the strike at the Doherty mill, will preside at the mass meeting tomorrow evening.

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Paterson Silk Weavers on Strike against Four Loom System, Expect Arrival of Miss Elizabeth Gurley Flynn” →