Hellraisers Journal – Thursday March 6, 1913 Paterson, New Jersey – Giovannitti Speaks to Silk Strikers at Turn Hall
From the Passaic Daily News of March 5, 1913:
The first move toward a settlement of the silk strike in Paterson came last night, when, at a meeting of delegates from dyers and broad silk weavers, demands were formulated for presentation to manufacturers today. These demands, in brief, are:
Abolition of the four-loom system and and eight-hour day at the same price now paid per week for the dyers…..
Arturo Giovannitti, I. W. W. leader, who was recently tried and acquitted in Lawrence, Mass., on a charge of murder in connection with the strike riots in that city, arrived in Paterson this morning shortly after 11 o’clock. He went at once to Turn Hall where he addressed nearly 5,000 strikers, speaking first in Italian and then repeating his speech in English.
Giovannitti urged the strikers to stand by their action in walking out, saying that they were bound to receive their rights and that their demands would be granted. He was received as a hero of the “cause,” with much applause. He was introduced by Carlo Tresca, the I. W. W. leader who was arrested last week with Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and Patrick Quinlan. He did not advocate violence.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday February 23, 1913 Paterson, New Jersey – Silk Workers Vote with Great Enthusiasm for General Strike
From the Paterson Morning Call of February 20, 1913:
GENERAL STRIKE DUE NEXT WEEK? ———- Labor Committee Will Decide on Date at Tonight’s Meeting. ———-
Newark Evening Star February 20, 1913
Two meeting rooms were necessary in Turn hall last night to accommodate all the silk workers that attended to take action on a proposed general strike throughout the industry in this city. When more than a thousand had crowded into one hall and the police prohibited any additional people there, the committee from local 152, Industrial Workers of the World, under whose auspices the mass meeting was conducted, opened a smaller hall, where between two and three hundred stood while they listened to urgent appeals on the part of the labor leaders to join the walkout, which they claimed to be inevitable now. Men and women continued going and coming during the entire evening, so that it is safe to assume there were more than two thousand who heard all or part of the speeches at least.
After all the speakers had concluded, the chairman of the meeting asked what decision the people had arrived at and what they considered doing in the matter of the movement to do away with the three and four-loom system in Paterson. One man to the rear of the hall yelled “strike” in no uncertain tones, and the hundreds applauded.
“How many vote to have this striker?” asked the chairman, and then requested that all in favor of going out raise their right hands. The people had been worked to a white heat of enthusiasm by the addresses and many of them raised both hands and then jumped on chairs to make their approval the more pronounced. After joining in huzzas for the period of a minute or more the people filed out.
Whether this spirit is a lasting one will remain to be seen when the executive committee of the local 152 call upon the workers to strike. It was evident last night that the men were more than interested in the matter, but even sanguine labor leaders would not vouch for their support. Such action by the people was expected after the oratorical fireworks that had been presented, but there was no indication that the same line of action would be adhered to when the privations consequent to the loss of work and wages are met with.
Between 500 and 600 of the workers that crowded the two halls last night did not wait until the vote was taken, and their presence might be accounted for by assigning curiosity as the cause. They made no expression of their opinion one way or another, and while their support is banked upon, there is no positive assurance that the support will be there when wanted.
A Polish speaker named Lauer, an Italian speaker, Organizer Kaplen, who spoke in Yiddish, and Miss Elizabeth Flynn made up the list of talkers that had been brought into the city for the meeting. When it became necessary to open the second hall, several of the local leaders jumped into the breach and made addresses on the situation as they sized it up.
One thing is certain, a general strike will be called.The executive committee of local 152, I. W. W., will hold a closed meeting this evening in Turn Hall, where manifestos will be brought up and translated into several languages. As soon as they are taken from the press they will be distributed directly to the silk workers.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday February 12, 1903 Children of Pennsylvania’s Anthracite “Coal Shadow” -Part III of article by Francis H. Nichols, with illustrations by Frank E. Schoonover
From McClure’s Magazine of February 1903:
CHILDREN OF THE COAL SHADOW
BY FRANCIS H. NICHOLS
Illustrated by Frank E. Schoonover
[Part III of III]
Where the Daughters Work
While the miner’s son is working in the breaker or mine it is probable that his daughter is employed in a mill or factory. Sometimes in a mining town, sometimes in a remote part of the coal fields, one comes upon a large, substantial building of wood or brick. When the six o’clock whistle blows, its front door is opened, and out streams a procession of girls. Some of them are apparently seventeen or eighteen years old, the majority are from thirteen to sixteen, but quite a number would seem to be considerably less than thirteen. Such a building is one of the knitting mills or silk factories that during the last ten years have come into Anthracite…..
Through a district organizer I was enabled to interview under union auspices a number of little girls who were employed in a knitting mill.One girl of fifteen said that she was the oldest of seven children. She had worked in the mill since she was nine years old. Her father was a miner. As pay for “raveling” she received an amount between $2.50 and $3 every two weeks. Another thirteen-year-old raveler had worked since the death of her father, two years before, from miner’s asthma; her brother had been killed in the mine. The $3 she received every two weeks in her pay envelope supported her mother and her ten-year-old sister…..
The breaker boss finds at the mill or factory a counterpart in the “forelady.” This personage holds a prominent place in the civilization of Anthracite. It is taken for granted that the forelady must be habitually hateful, and in all controversies side with the proprietor against the rest of the girls. It is her duty to crush incipient strikes, and to do all in her power to “break” the union. She enjoys being hated by every one, and leads an isolated life of conscious rectitude for about $5 a week…..
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. ———-
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.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday November 18, 1911 Mother Jones News Round-Up for September 1911 Telegram from Shamokin, Pennsylania, Requests Her Assistance
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday November 13, 1901 Mother Jones News Round-Up for October 1901, Part II Found in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia
From the New York Evening World of October 28, 1901:
“MOTHER” JONES TO SPEAK TO THRONGS ———————-
GREAT TURNOUT EXPECTED IN PATERSON TO-NIGHT. ——- Unionists of All Trades Are Invited to Hear the Famous Labor Agitator. ——-
A great gathering of silk weavers and other factory workers is expected to-night at Apollo Hall in Paterson, where “Mother” Jones, the famous Pennsylvania labor agitator, will deliver an address on the advantages of unionism.
Although she comes here at the special invitation of the silk workers, the members of all other trades are invited to attend the meeting, and a great turnout of factory hands is looked for.
Daniel Teevan, the labor leader, has returned to Paterson, after having accompanied “Mother” Jones in her tour through the upper part of New Jersey.
He reports she was well received every where, and at Phillipsburg, Summit and Sterling she addressed large and enthusiastic meetings.
After leaving Paterson “Mother” Jones will go to Hazleton, where she will speak on Tuesday.
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