Hellraisers Journal – Friday March 8, 1912 Children of Lawrence Strikers Appear before House Committee at Washington
From The Washington Times of March 2, 1912:
[Inset: Miss Tema Camitta, Philadelphia Sunday School Teacher.]
From the Washington Evening Star of March 2, 1912:
Child Tells Her Story.
There was Camello [Camella] Teoli, a little Italian girl, who stood up when she was told and who said she was sixteen years old, although she didn’t look it. She started to work in the spinning room of one of the American Woolen Company’s mills in Lawrence two years ago and three weeks later had her hair caught in a shafting and her scalp torn off, just as did Miss Houghton, at the census office, more than twelve months ago. But little Camello Teoli was the oldest of seven children and, with her father, the support of the family.
She earned several dollars a week when “speeded up,” and her father, when he was lucky, made seven. She is still under treatment as a result of the horrible accident of which she was a victim, but lately has been working just the same, she said, for her father has been on “slack time” and has been making $2.80 a week.
There were other children there, too, who, while they showed no scars, looked even to the untrained eye as if they had been “speeded up” beyond the limit of juvenile endurance.
Cheeks sallow, lips pinched and eyes that seemed to have looked upon all the misery of the world, the children sat unmoved throughout the hearing, presented by Mr. Berger as an exhibit of what “one of the most highly protected industries in America does to the human life by which it is served,” as he declared.
The children, with several adult strikers as guardians, and accompanied byGeorge W. Roewer, the Boston attorney, who has defended in court the strikers arrested in Lawrence, reached Washington last night several hours behind schedule time, and were met at the Union station were escorted to the accommodations that had been provided for them by a big crowd of local socialists and labor sympathizers. All of the Lawrence delegation wore little cards, bearing the inscription “Don’t be a scab,” and although weary from their journey, marched to their lower Pennsylvania avenue hotel singing and cheering.
Today they marched to the Capitol in the same way, and outside of the House building had to run the fire of a battery of cameras and moving picture machines stationed right outside of the entrance.
[Note: Camella Teoli was introduced to the Committee on March 2nd. She made her full statement before the Committee on March 4th.]
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
—–
-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.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday March 6, 1912 “The Battle for Bread at Lawrence” by Mary E. Marcy, Part III
From the International Socialist Review of March 1912
” The Battle for Bread at Lawrence” -by Mary Marcy, Part III ———-
[Wonderful Solidarity]
The wonderful solidarity displayed by the strikers has surprised everybody. There are more languages spoken in the confines of Lawrence than in any other district of its size in the world. But in spite of these barriers, the strike was an almost spontaneous one and seventeen races, differing widely in speech and custom, rose in a concerted protest. Lacking anything like a substantial organization at the outset, they have clung together in furthering a common cause without dissension. Too much credit cannot be given Comrades Joseph Ettor and Wm. D. Haywood in the splendid work of organization and education they have carried on in Lawrence.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday March 5, 1912 “The Battle for Bread at Lawrence” by Mary E. Marcy, Part II
From the International Socialist Review of March 1912 -Haywood Arrives in Lawrence, Massachusetts:
[By Mary E. Marcy] —–
Haywood Arrives.
January 24 Haywood reached Lawrence to help carry on the strike. We quote from the Evening Tribune, Lawrence:
William D. Haywood arrived in Lawrence at 11.50 o’clock from New York City Wednesday morning and over 10,000 strikers turned out together with three bands and two drum corps, to greet him at the North station with a tremendous ovation.
Long before the time when he was scheduled to arrive the strikers assembled at the depot in eager anticipation of the coming of the famous labor organizer. Even at 9 o’clock there was a large crowd awaiting his arrival. Before 10 o’clock the number of strikers at the station had been greatly increased. The sidewalks on Essex street were filled to their greatest capacities. Common street was crowded all morning also with strikers wending their way to the Boston & Maine station. About 10:30 o’clock the Franco-Belgian band arrived, having marched from the Franco-Belgian hall on Mason street. This band was followed by about 200 of the Franco-Belgian element of the strikers. The band stopped in front of the postoffice and played several selections.
The number of strikers was being continually augmented and the crowd seemed to be growing restless. About 11 o’clock a parade of about a thousand strikers came up Essex street. In this parade were the Umberto and the Bellini bands and St. Joseph’s drum corps.When this contingent arrived there was great cheering. The bands played almost continuously and there was a great deal of noise. Every time that the cab train came in sight the crowd would commence cheering and the bands would play with renewed vigor.
Shortly after 11:30 o’clock a large parade came up Common street and joined forces with the strikers already at the station. At the head of this parade there was a sign painted on cardboard in large black letters,
“All in One.”
There were many American flags carried by the strikers.
Finally the time for the arrival of Mr. Haywood came and when the train came in sight there was a great demonstration. When the train was approaching the crowd kept pushing up near the tracks and it looked as if someone would be run over.
When the strikers caught sight of Haywood they went almost insane with delight and cheered incessantly while the bands and drum corps boomed out stirring selections.The scene was certainly a wild one. As Mr. Haywood came out of the car he took off his hat and waved it to the crowd. The strikers surrounded Haywood and then the parade started down Common street. Haywood was near the head of the parade and was surrounded by thousands of howling and cheering strikers.The parade was over 10,000 strong. The bands played and excitement of the highest pitch prevailed.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday March 4, 1912 “The Battle for Bread at Lawrence” by Mary E. Marcy, Part I
From the International Socialist Review of March 1912:
THE strike of the 25,000 textile workers at Lawrence, Mass, came so suddenly that the Woolen Trust was overwhelmed. It started January 12, pay day at the mills. Without warning the mill owners docked the pay envelopes of their employes for two hours in time and wages as a result of the new 54-hour law which went into effect January first.
The drop averaged only 20 cents a worker and the American Woolen Company fondly imagined that their wage slaves had been sufficiently starved and cowed into docility to endure the cut, just as they had suffered a speeding up of the machines so that the output per worker in 54 hours was greater than it had been on the 56-hour basis.
But trouble started with the opening of the docked pay envelopes, and before the day was spent, Lawrence had a wholly unexpected problem on its hands. The disturbance spread quickly and within an hour 5,000 striking men and women were marching through the streets of the mill district, urging other mill workers to join them.
Their number was augmented at every step and soon
Ten thousand singing. cheering men and women, boys and girls, in ragged, irregular lines, marching and counter-marching through snow and slush of a raw January afternoon—a procession of the nations of the world never equaled in the “greatest show on earth”—surged through the streets of Lawrence…..You listened to the quavering notes of the Marseillaise from a trudging group of French women and you heard the strain caught up by hundreds of other marchers and melting away into the whistled chorus of ragtime from a bunch of doffer boys. Strange songs and strange shouts from strange un-at-home-looking men and women, 10,000 of them; striking because their pay envelope had been cut “four loaves of bread.”
Hellraisers Journal – Friday March 1, 1912 Lawrence, Massachusetts – Prominent Magazine Writers Visit Strike Zone
From Boston Evening Transcript of February 29, 1912:
MUCKRAKERS ON THE SCENT
———-
Party Including Russell, White, Baker, and Others
Spends Day Gathering Material at Lawrence
———-
Industrial Worker February 29, 1912
A group of prominent magazine writers visited Lawrence yesterday for the purpose of gathering material. Among those in the party were Charles Edward Russell and Mrs. Russell, William Allen White, Ray Stannard Baker, Mary Heaton Vorse, Mrs. Freemont [Cora] Older, wife of the San Francisco publisher, and Miss Frances Jolliffe, also of San Francisco. The party came in on the midnight train from New York and left last night after spending a busy day going over the city. They first visited the county jail, where Ettor and Giovannitti are confined, and though they tried hard to see the two men they were unsuccessful. They were however allowed to talk to the Polish women pickets who refused to pay their fines and are serving out their sentence.
The members of the party were held up by the military guard in their attempt to go to the mills through Canal street, as they were wearing the strikers card, “Don’t be a scab.” Then they visited some of tho homes of the strikers, and later dined at a Syrian restaurant as the guests of William D. Haywood. There were also present other strike leaders, several newspaper reporters, Miss Emma Goulain and two more Franco-Belgians.
Just as they reached the restaurant the guide happened to catch sight of patrolman Michael Moore, the Syrian policeman who was prominent in the Saturday morning incident at the station [see Hellraisers Journal of Feb. 26th]. He was pointed out to the visitors as the policeman who clubbed a woman. He was still nearby when the party cams out from the restaurant and stood for a moment on the sidewalk before starting downtown. They stopped, and Moore came up and ordered them to move.
“All right, well go,” said one man, but the women were not so complacent. Mrs. Older said to the patrolman: “So you’re the man who clubbed a woman, are you?”
“Now don’t stand talking to me,” replied the patrolman. “You’ve got to go along.”
Some of the men tried to argue that they were under no compulsion to move, and in the end the policeman all but arrested one of the young Franco-Belgians who was in the party.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday February 26, 1912 Lawrence, Massachusetts – Mothers and Children Attacked by Militia
From The Kansas City Star of February 24, 1912:
Lawrence, Mass., Feb. 24.-Heads were broken today in a riot which resulted from an attempt to send thirty children of striking textile workers to Philadelphia, contrary to orders from the authorities. Police and military took the children into custody and arrested several persons.
Anticipating a possible attempt to rescue the children four companies of infantry and a squad of cavalry surrounded the railroad station when they were taken into custody.
The action was taken as a result of the order issued last Saturday by Colonel Sweetser, commander of the militia doing patrol duty here, forbidding the exportation by the strike committee of the Industrial Workers of the World of additional parties of children to other cities in an endeavor to create sympathy in the cause of the strikers without permission of the parents.
When they learned that their children had been taken into custody the parents rushed to the police station to rescue them, but a big squad of special policemen was thrown about the building and the parents were arrested when they entered the station.
—————
DASTARDLY, UNION MEN SAY. [United Mine Workers of America, District 12] ———- Resolutions Adopted Regarding the Actions Of Soldiers at Lawrence
SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Feb. 24.–Announcement of the action of the Lawrence, Mass., authorities in preventing children of the textile strikers from leaving the city brought a storm of protest from the convention of the Illinois mine workers here today.Resolutions were adopted denouncing the authorities for what the resolutions termed “a most dastardly outrage.”
“By such acts as these are the McNamara outrages prompted, and those in charge of the affairs, as well as the mill owners, should be charged with the most contemptible of crimes, which will hasten the day of the torch and the bomb, if an enlightened people do not at once rise up in their might and once and for all put an end to these Russianized methods.” the resolution says.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday February 25, 1912 Lawrence, Massachusetts – Strikers Prepare to Send Children to Philadelphia
From The New York Call of February 24, 1912:
(Special to The Call.)
PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 23.-Great enthusiasm prevailed today at the headquarters of the Socialist party, [on] Arch street, when a telegram was received from Lawrence, Mass., announcing that in response to the request of the local Socialists and unionists, 100 children of the textile strikers were to be sent to this city and would arrive at the Broad street station at 6:30 o’clock tomorrow evening, where they will be received by an enthusiastic crowd and be distributed among the workers who are eager to give them good homes until their parents win the battle at Lawrence.
[Women Pickets Hard to Handle]
LAWRENCE, Mass., Feb. 23.-Josephine Liss, the pretty Polish strikers who was arrested on Wednesday on a charge of assault upon a militiaman, was convicted in police court today and fined $10. At first she refused to pay the fine or to appeal, declaring that she might as well be in jail if she could not have her freedom outside. She finally entered an appeal on advice of her counsel and was held in $100 bonds.
The soldier asserted that the girl had struck him in the face several times. The defendant said that the soldier had sworn at her and insulted her. Acting Judge Advocate Douglas Campbell, who conducted the prosecution, protested to the court that in his opinion it was “cowardly” of the Strike Committee to send out women pickets, because they were hard to handle.
“Let them send out men,” he said “and we will deal with them.”
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday February 20, 1912 Lawrence, Massachusetts – Big Bill Haywood Replies to Order of Col. Sweetser
From The Boston Daily Glob of February 19, 1912:
HAYWOOD IN DEFIANCE ———- Hurls His Shafts at Col Sweetser. ———- Defends Lawrence Strikers Who Sent Children Away. ———- Criticizes Militia for Its Severity. ———-
LAWRENCE, Feb. 19.-William D. Haywood issued a statement today in reply to the criticism relative to sending strikers’ children to distant cities and to the notice given by Col E. Leroy Sweetser, in charge of the troops here, that he would prevent more leaving the city unless it was’shown the parents had given their consent. The statement follows:
The fact that some of the striking textile workers of Lawrence, Mass., have seen fit to send their children away to be taken care of in New York and elsewhere has raised a mighty howl among the “plutes” of cultured Back Bay.
No language has been too strong to condemn the action of the strikers who have accepted the invitation of the working people to care for their dependent children until the conclusion of the industrial war in Lawrence.
It was not until the first consignment of children had been sent away that the aristocrats of Boston, many of whom roll in wealth at the expense of the luckless parents of these little ones, found their voice. Back Bay’s polite society and the daily papers that cater to their ilk have been deaf, dumb and blind as to the conditions under which children are brought into the world, and drag out their miserable existence in the textile towns of Massachusetts.
Afraid of losing their little slaves, in whom they have only a material interest, our smug Boston exploiters and their ladies now sound the alarm.
The yellow journals are busy. Representative Hayes of the Massachusetts Assembly has introduced a bill intending to prevent children being transported from their homes, making certain such actions as felony, punishable by fine and imprisonment. Then, in boots and spurs, comes Brig Col E. Leroy Sweetser, a vest pocket edition of the now forgotten Gen Sherman Bell of Colorado fame. Sweetser is the commanding officer in the war zone of the Bay State.
With mighty proclamation, a most formidable document, the said Brig Col E. Leroy Sweetser announces to the wide world that he will permit no further shipments of children from Lawrence.
And he lets himself down with the significant words, “without the consent of their parents.” The colonel, in maudlin mockery, says that it is inhuman to take the children from their happy homes, but well not discuss the question of inhumanity with the colonel, as he really doesn’t know the definition of the word, or he would apply it to the militiamen under him, who, with wheel spokes and loaded rifles, with fixed saber bayonets, are prepared to carry out all orders.
This omnipotent officer has already issued orders to shoot to kill, and the militia have killed innocent workers and committed many grievous wrongs against the strikers in their firm desire to serve the mighty textile trust. The armed forces of the State, furnished by a Democratic administration to break the spirit and subdue the strikers, are not the only support of the kings of wool and cotton. They also enjoy the comfort of the sheltering wing of the Republican party at Washington, where they bask in the benign influence of schedule K.
With the Democratic administration ready to shoot down the slaves of the mill at Lawrence and a Republican administration holding up the tariff at Washington. The trusts have reason to feel secure, and would if it were not for the fact that their “hand” had found their heads and organized in “one big union,” and nothing but empty stomachs can drive them back into the mills.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday February 19, 1912 Duluth, Minnesota – Trade Unionists of the North Remember Visit of Miss Flynn
From the Duluth Labor World of February 17, 1912
ELIZABETH FLYNN HELPING THE STRIKERS
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn The Boston Globe February 13, 1912
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, well known in Duluth, is at present hard at work lecturing in New York for the benefit of the strikers at Lawrence, Mass.
Miss Flynn, clad in her flaming red cloak and hood, visited Duluth several years ago and appeared before the public many times, giving her Socialistic talks. She made many friends here and Duluth people who met or heard her are watching her progress in New York with interest.
Recently people were turned away from the theater at which she was giving a course of lectures. All the money thus earned she turns over to the striker for help in their cause.
—————
—————
—————
—————
LAWRENCE, Feb. 19.-William D. Haywood issued a statement today in reply to the criticism relative to sending strikers’ children to distant cities and to the notice given by Col E. Leroy Sweetser, in charge of the troops here, that he would prevent more leaving the city unless it was’shown the parents had given their consent. The statement follows: 