Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: One Big Union Wins Great Victory at Lawrence, Massachusetts, Part II

4th April 20225th April 2022 Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912

Quote Lawrence Strike Committee, Drunk Cup to Dregs, Bst Dly Glb Eve p5, Jan 17, 1912 —————

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.

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Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: One Big Union Wins Great Victory at Lawrence, Massachusetts, Part I

3rd April 20225th April 2022 Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912

Quote Lawrence Strike Committee, Drunk Cup to Dregs, Bst Dly Glb Eve p5, Jan 17, 1912 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday April 3, 1912
Lawrence Textile Strikers Win Great Victory with I. W. W., Part I of IV

From the International Socialist Review of April 1912:

THE greatest victory in American labor history has been won by the Industrial Workers of the World in Lawrence, Mass., in a pitched battle of nine weeks’ duration against the most powerful cotton and woolen corporations in the world.

For fifty years the great textile corporations had reigned in New England practically unchallenged, save when ten years ago Tom Powers of Providence, R. I.. led a fierce battle against the American Woolen Company.

During the nine weeks of the fight in Lawrence every barbarity known to modern civilization had been perpetrated by police, military, courts and detectives, the willing tools of the bosses. Pregnant women were clubbed and their children delivered prematurely. Children were beaten in the streets and jails. Men were shot and bayonetted, the jail cells were filled, three year sentences were imposed for comparatively trivial offences, and machine guns were brought into the city.

And despite the abrogation without a shadow of legality of every constitutional right, including those of free speech and free assemblage, and despite the provocation offered by the presence of the bosses tools, twenty-two thousand strikers preserved, under the leadership of the Industrial Workers of the World, a self possession and a self-restraint that was little short of marvelous. Not one overt act was committed by the strikers. Not one desperate deed of an infuriated individual was proved against a striker.

For the first time in America’s labor history it has been demonstrated that a bitterly-fought battle between capitalists and workers can he conducted without the workers resorting to any form of violence. If any triumph is to be claimed for the I. W. W. this is one of the foremost of many.

The strike took its rise in hunger and was fought against hunger in the first place, and against excessive exploitation in the second. Sixty years ago, when Lawrence was little more than a village, and the mills were few and small, the daughters of New England farmers came from the farm to the mill to earn pin money. But as the years passed and the mills grew larger and more powerful there came into the city around the mills a class of people who depended entirely upon the mill for a living. They were first English, Irish and Scotch.

Later Germans and French Canadians began to enter and take their place in the mills. and for years these were the only nationalities to be found. Because the labor market was comparatively restricted and the mill owners were greedy for profits they sent lying emissaries through Europe, particularly to Italy, telling of the wealth of America. These men scattered literature broadcast, and showed pictures of the pleasant homes to be gained in the new land. One picture in particular showed a mill worker leaving the mill and on the way to a bank opposite.

Thus the Italian workers were lured to New England, and after them came in quick succession representatives of almost every nationality in Europe and Asia Minor, until today among others there are Syrians, Armenians, Russians, Portugese, Poles, Greeks, Franco-Belgians, Lithuanians, Letts [Latvians], Jews, Turks and Bohemians.

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Hellraisers Journal: Children of Lawrence Textile Strikers Back in Arms of Parents, Welcomed Home with Monster Parade

1st April 20222nd April 2022 Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912

Quote Lawrence Children Home, Ptt Prs p2, Mar 31, 1912 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 1, 1912
Lawrence, Massachusetts – Strikers’ Children Welcomed Home

From The Boston Sunday Globe of March 31, 1912:

BY FRANK P. SIBLEY.

LAWRENCE. March 30-Into the swarming hundreds round the railroad station the train moved slowly, its bell ringing constantly. With shouts the police forced open a passage across the platform from the station door to the train steps. Women fought to get through that line of police. And then the children passed between train and station and were loaded into the waiting wagons.

If one shut his eyes and disregarded the temperature and forgot that the cries which shivered the air into raucousness were of joy and not of rage, he could imagine that the scene of the morning of Feb. 24 was being enacted again.

But no man could shut his eyes, and nobody could mistake the shouts of delight and the laughter and the excited chatter in a dozen tongues, and nobody could mistake the wine of Spring in the air for the bitter cold of a Winter morning, and if he could, the half-dozen enthusiastic bands which were tooting joyously in the background would tell him that this was the return of the children of the textile operatives to the battle ground where their fathers [and mothers] have won.

—————

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Hellraisers Journal: Children Working in the Textile Mills of Lawrence, Mass., Must Pay the Bosses for a Drink of Water

31st March 20221st April 2022 Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912

Mother Jones Quote ed, Suffer Little Children, CIR p10641, May 14, 1915 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 31, 1912
Lawrence, Massachusetts – Child Workers Must Pay Boss for Drink of Water

From The Coming Nation of March 30, 1912:

“Do you have to pay for drinking water in the mills?”
“Yes. Every two weeks I pay ten cents.”
(Excerpt from the statement of a child worker in the mills at Lawrence before the House Committee on Rules in Washington.) – Kansas City Post.

———-

[Detail:]

“Drop a nickel in the slot for a drink water.”

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Hellraisers Journal: Big Bill Haywood with Child Strikers of Lawrence, Mass: Joseph Stefanck, James George and James Marzur

30th March 202230th March 2022 Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912

Quote BBH Dream of One Big Union, Bst Glb p4, Jan 24, 1912 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday March 30, 1912
Child Strikers of Lawrence, Massachusetts, with Big Bill Haywood

From the Waxahachie Daily Light (Texas) of March 23, 1912:

—–

In furtherance of the plans by which money is raised for the benefit of the striking textile workers of Lawrence, Mass, mass meetings are being held in various cities. These gatherings are addressed by representatives of the strikers, and delegations of the younger operatives also participate. The figure at the right in the illustration is William D. Haywood, who is acting in an advisory capacity to the strikers. The boys, mill workers who appeared before the congressional investigatory at Washington as well as at New York and other mass meetings, are, from left to right Joseph Stefanck, James George and James Marzur.

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Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, of New York City, Who Stood with Lawrence Strikers Against the Soldiers’ Bayonets

25th March 202226th March 2022 Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912

Quote EGF, Heaven n Hell, ISR p617, Jan 1910 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday March 25, 1912
Lawrence, Massachusetts – Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Not Afraid of Bayonets

From the Arkansas Gazette of March 24, 1912:

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Who Stood with the Strikers of Lawrence

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, the New York Girl Who Went to Jail
in Spokane for Writing I. W. W. Articles

—–

Soldiers Forcing Back the I. W. W. Strikers and Sympathizers
in Lawrence, Mass.

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Hellraisers Journal: Child Strikers at Washington, D. C.; Harvard University Sends Bayonets to Crush Lawrence Strike

24th March 202225th March 2022 Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912

quote BBH Weave Cloth Bayonets, ISR p538 —————

Hellraisers Journals – Sunday March 24, 1912
Lawrence Child Strikers at Washington; Harvard Bayonets at Lawrence

From The Coming Nation of March 23, 1912:

—–

“Higher Education” by Ryan Walker

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Hellraisers Journal: Harper’s Weekly: “The Trouble at Lawrence” by Mary Heaton Vorse-Men, Women, Children v Bayonets

17th March 202217th March 2022 Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912

quote BBH Weave Cloth Bayonets, ISR p538 —————

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.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Labor Journal: Children of Lawrence Strikers Appear before Congressional Committee

16th March 202216th March 2022 Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912

quote BBH Weave Cloth Bayonets, ISR p538 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday March 16, 1912
Washington, D. C. – Lawrence Children Appear Before House Committee

From the Everett Labor Journal of March 15, 1912:

———-

(Republished from Los Angeles Citizen.)

“The chill hand of charity” got a severe slap a few days ago when Congressman Victor Berger grabbed a bill from a hat that was being passed for the benefit of the child textile strikers from Lawrence, Mass., who appeared before the house committee on rules, and hurled it into the face of its donor, J. H. Cox, a mill owner of Lawrence.

“We don’t want your money; it’s blood money,” cried Berger, indignantly. “We’ll take care of our own without your help.”

If it were possible to Bergerize the public conscience and cast the frown of public disapproval on the Cox kind of charity—the bribe of industrial bandits to satisfy society—Lawrence episodes would become less frequent.

In the same room in which only a month or so ago Andrew Carnegie complained bitterly because he had been paid only $320,000,000 for his properties by the steel corporation; where Judge Gary confided to a committee from congress that the steel trust had $75,000,000 in cash always ready to meet an emergency, child strikers in the mills at Lawrence laid bare their scars to pitying congressmen.

Presented by Representative Berger as an exhibit of what “one of the most highly protected industries in America does to human life by which it is served,” thirteen sallow-cheeked, thin-lipped, hollow-eyed, poorly-clad children, and six adults marched up Pennsylvania avenue and filed solmenly into the capitol.

In the room where attendants hurried to wait upon the smallest wish of Carnegie, Gary and Schwab, nobody had arranged for the comfort of these “exhibits” and they stood along the wall until Representative Henry, accompanied by his own little son, of eight, took pity on their plight.

“Get chairs for these children,” commanded Judge Henry. “Arrange them any way you want and take your time,” he added to Mr. Berger.

Before the witnesses began Chairman Wilson of the committee on labor pleaded for a federal investigation on the ground that in refusing to permit children to leave Lawrence several days ago the state authorities had violated the federal law.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The New York Call: “Lawrence Strike Ends in Victory” -Workers’ Committee Accepts Offer

15th March 202215th March 2022 Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912

Quote re Lawrence Strike Victory NY Cl p1, Mar 14, 1912 —————

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.

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