Hellraisers Journal – Sunday June 2, 1912 The Plot Against Ettor and Giovannitti, Leaders of the Lawrence Strike
From the International Socialist Review of June 1912:
EDITORIAL
A Plot to Murder Wage-Workers.Our readers already know that Ettor and Giovannitti, the I. W. W. organizers who directed the Lawrence strike in its earlier stages, were thrown into jail on charge of conspiracy to murder. At the time this seemed merely a move to cripple the strike, and it was expected that when work was resumed at the mills they would be released. Now, however, it seems that a desperate effort will be made to pack a jury with tools of the mill owners and send our comrades to the electric chair. No one claims that they had any part in the actual killing of any one. The victim was a woman striker [Anna LoPizzo], and the shot was fired by a policeman, as is fully explained in the New York Call of May 10. The real question is whether the prisoners were inciting the strikers to violence, and on this point there is an overwhelming array of testimony in the negative. The REVIEW had a representative on the scene all through the closing days of the strike, and from his personal knowledge we can say that the capitalists and police were eager to have the strikers resort to force, and in many ways did all they could to provoke violence. The strike committee on the other hand realized that any resort to force would give the police and the soldiers the pretext they were looking for to slaughter hundreds of strikers. Consequently they maintained such discipline and restraint among the strikers that the pretext never came, and finally the strike was won. Now in revenge, the jackals of the mill owners are seeking to murder Ettor and Giovannitti. Their trial has been postponed to the August term of court. Money for their defense is urgently needed. Send it direct to William Yates, Treas., 430 Bay State Building, Lawrence, Mass.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday May 2, 1912 Big Bill Haywood Tells the Story of the Joyful Return of Lawrence Children
From the International Socialist Review of May 1912:
When the Kiddies Came Home
WILLIAM D. HAYWOOD
Monster Parade Welcomes Lawrence Children Home
After two months’ vacation in their temporary homes in New York, Philadelphia, Barre, Vt., and Manchester, N. H., the children of the Lawrence strikers, who had been involved for ten weeks in an industrial war with the master class of the woollen and cotton industries, returned to receive the greatest reception ever held at Lawrence. Most of the children were too young to appreciate what the wonderful demonstration of solidarity meant or the reason of their departure and their return under such changed circumstances. There were among their number, however, some who were strikers themselves and knew their home leaving was to lessen the burden of their parents. The strikers understood it was not a matter of sentiment, but that this rigorous action was adopted as a war measure.
It was for the purpose of calling the attention of the world to the conditions existing at Lawrence, to the conditions of the thousands of children in the textile industry of the New England states that were slowly starving to death because their parents were unable to make a living wage, likewise for the purpose of relieving the Strike Committee of the burden incident to caring for so many little ones and to remove their emaciated and wan faces from the vision of their parents who were on strike.
Although this measure had never been adopted before in America, its significance was soon realized and the spirit of class consciousness became aroused in the working class everywhere. The children found excellent homes and the letters they wrote back to their parents were a comfort and an inspiration. At the same time it enabled those who cared for the children to take an active part in the struggle that was on at Lawrence. Ordinarily they would have contributed their quota to the strike fund, but in caring for the little ones of the striking textile workers, they not only gave many times what their contributions would have amounted to, but they took a big part in the real battle.
The strikers of Lawrence hold a feeling of deepest appreciation for those who have cared for their children. They know that their little ones were treated better than they could have been at home. From all reports, they were received as little guests, and when the time came for them to leave: their “Strike Parents” there was many a tug at their little heartstrings. They had learned to love their new homes. They left Lawrence physically destitute, often ill-clad and without underclothes and wearing garments made of shoddy.
These were the children of parents who weave the cotton, linen and woollen fabric that helps to clothe the world.
They went to other cities to be clothed and returned to their homes well dressed, with roses in their cheeks and laden with toys and other gifts.
Their arrival was made the occasion of a great demonstration in celebration of the millworkers’ notable industrial victory. More than 40,000 people thronged the streets, over half of them taking part in the monster parade.
While the mass of workers were waiting for the arrival of the train, the Syrians, headed by their drum corps, marched around the county jail playing their inspiring Oriental music and carrying to the cells of Ettor and Giovannitti the glad tidings of the coming children.
Long before the special train with the children arrived from Boston, the region in the vicinity was black with people, while along the side streets leading into Broadway, the different divisions of the Industrial Workers of the World were drawn up in line according to nationality, there being fourteen divisions in all. The Italians and Syrians were accorded the place of honor. The heads of their divisions were made prominent by the beautiful floral decorations, the Italians carrying a massive piece on a litter held up by four men. It was these two nationalities that furnished the martyrs for the strike, Anna Lapizzio, the Italian woman who was killed in a fusilade of bullets fired by policemen, andJohn Rami, the sixteen-year-old Syrian boy who was stabbed in the back with a bayonet in the hands of a militiaman. His lung was pierced and he died shortly after being taken to the hospital. The floral pieces were in remembrance of the dead.
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.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday April 4, 1912 Lawrence Textile Strikers Win Great Victory with I. W. W., Part II of IV
From the International Socialist Review of April 1912:
ONE BIG UNION WINS
By LESLIE H. MARCY and FREDERICK SUMNER BOYD
On January 11, anticipating some difficulty on pay day, the Secretary of Local 20, I. W. W. wired to Joseph J. Ettor, member of the National Executive Board, who was then in New York City, to go to Lawrence. He left the next afternoon, and arrived on the night of January 12.
Plans were then laid for the conduct of the strike. A general strike committee was formed that met daily, each nationality on strike being represented on it by three delegates.In addition there were three representatives each from the perchers, menders and burlers, the warp dressers, Kunhardt’s mill, the Oswoco mill, the paper mill, the workers in which had struck in sympathy with the textile workers and presented similar demands, and from time to time other sections were represented that were gradually merged as occasion demanded. The general strike committee thus numbered 56 men and women, all of them mill workers.
The first work of the committee was to devise means for carrying on the fight and caring for the strikers. There were no funds when the strike was declared, but in a week or ten days money began to dribble in from surrounding New England towns, and as the strike continued contributions came in from every State in the Union, from all parts of Canada and even from England.
The money in the shape of strike pay would not have lasted a week, but this battle was conducted on a different basis from former fights. Each nationality opened relief stations and soup kitchens, and was responsible for the care of its own people. The Franco-Belgians had had a co-operative in operation long before the strike, and food purchases were made through its machinery. Money was paid over to the various national committees as it became necessary by the general finance committee, with Joseph Bedard as Financial Secretary. With this money the purchasing committee bought goods, and the national committees took their portion.
Meals were provided twice a day at the various stations for the strikers who needed them, and in this manner the Franco-Belgian station at the Mason street headquarters provided 1,850 meals twice daily, the Italians 3,500, the Syrians 1,200, Lithuanians 1,200, the Poles 1,000, and soon, the Germans took care of 150 families and several hundred single workers.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 17, 1912 “The Trouble at Lawrence” by Mary Heaton Vorse
From Harper’s Weekly of March 16, 1912:
A few weeks ago a company of about forty children of the Lawrence strikers, bound for Philadelphia, were forcibly prevented from leaving Lawrence by the order of City Marshal John J. Sullivan. He was led to this act by the belief that some of those children were leaving town without the consent of their parents. Before this, several groups of children, to the total of nearly three hundred, had been sent out of town to the strike sympathizers in various cities, and public opinion against the departure of the children had been aroused. As Congressman Ames said: “The people here feel that the sending away of these children has hurt the fair name of Lawrence since it is a rich town and capable of caring for all its needy children without the help of outsiders.”
The forcible detention of these children had an extraordinary response throughout the country. It was one of those things that cannot be done in America without stirring up public opinion from north to south and east to west. There had been earlier aggressive moves on the part of the authorities:Joseph J. Ettor, one of the first to take charge of the strike on behalf of the Industrial Workers of the World, and Arturo Giovannitti, his chief lieutenant, were arrested and committed to jail without bail, as accessories to the murder of a woman [Anna LoPizzo], shot by a deflected bullet during a clash between the strikers and the police. Both men were two miles away during the conflict. Their imprisonment caused comment in the press, as did other episodes of the strike- for instance, the railroading of twenty-three men to prison for one year each, during a single morning’s police-court session, on the charge of inciting to riot; but in the minds of the country at large these things have been simply incidents. The abridgment of the right of people to move from one place to another freely was at once a matter of national importance. It had for its immediate sequel the sending of that touching little band of thirteen children of various nationalities to Washington to state their grievances and to testify as to what occurred at the railway station on that Saturday morning.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday March 15, 1912 Lawrence, Massachusetts – Stirring Scenes as Strike Committee Agrees to End Strike
From The New York Call of March 14, 1912:
(By United Press.)
LAWRENCE, Mass., March 13.-The great textile strike practically came to an end at 11:30 today when the subcommittee of the strikers accepted a schedule of increased wages offered by William H. Wood, president of the American Woolen Company.
Immediately after indorsng the schedule, the subcommittee submitted it to the Strike Committee of the whole, which enthusiastically adopted it after less than a half hour’s consideration.
The strikers announced that they had gained virtually every concession asked when the strike was declared nine weeks ago.
The terms of settlement here will probably be applied to the entire textile industry throughout New England and New York State, and the increases in that event will affect over 300,000 workers.
Stirring scenes marked the meeting, which probably will mark the close of the conflict that, because of the savage resistance of the mill owners and the aggressive tactics of the strikers, will be celebrated in American strike history.
Chant the Internationale.
The dingy hall in the basement of which more than 2,000 men, women and children have been fed by the union for two months, resounded with the jubilant cries of the strikers. One man rushed to the platform and led in singing of “L’Internationale,” which was chorused by the audience.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday March 7, 1912 “The Lawrence Strike” by John Sloan & Photographs from Scene of Revolt
From The Coming Nation of March 2, 1912:
-page 4: “The Lawrence Strike” by John Sloan
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-pages 5-6, 12: Rock Fenn on Unity, Class Solidarity and Revolt
Revolt of the Textile Workers
How the Working People of all Nationalities in Lawrence Have United in Class Solidarity and Revolt Against Exploitation
By Rock Fenn
FROM the home of the striker at Lawrence to the office beyond the canal is a long step. On the one side are tenements reeking with the effluvia of families jammed into dispiriting rooms; on the other side a few well-fed bosses in great brick buildings a hundred yards long, with wide windows one above the other, three, four, five or six stories high.
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