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 – 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 – Sunday January 14, 1912 Lawrence Textile Workers Stage Walk-Out Due to Short Pay
From the Boston Evening Transcript of January 12, 1912:
Special to the Transcript:
Lawrence, Jan. 12-The mill district of this city was thrown into a state of great excitement today by a riotous outbreak on the part of about five hundred Italians, who left their work at the Wood, Ayer and Washington mills of the American Woolen Company because they objected to a reduction of two hours pay a week under the workings of the new 54-hour law. Before the trouble ended several persons had been injured, none seriously, a number of girl operatives had fainted and six arrests had been made by the police. The mill agents hastily looked things over and found that so many operatives had quit work through fear of the angry Italians that it was decided to close down the Wood and Ayer mills at once. The Washington mills and those of the Lawrence Duck Company, to which the disturbance extended, were kept in operation, although 800 operatives at the Washington mills and 400 at the duck mills stopped work after the riot. As the Wood mill employs 6000 hands and the Ayer mill 3500, nearly 11,000 operatives were idle this afternoon.
Just what effect today’s rioting will have on the general situation is problematical. Some of the mill agents expressed the opinion that it might make the more responsible operatives realize the dangers which would accompany a general strike and thus might make it easier to reach an amicable agreement. The union leaders were not prepared this afternoon to make any statements as to their probable attitude, but it was evident that the disturbances today had produced a sobering effect. No formal meeting of union workers had been called early this afternoon, but it was generally expected that such meetings would be held very soon to discuss the situation and decide what action would be taken. The mill agents intimated that they would open all the mills tomorrow as usual, including the Wood and Ayer mills. How many of their operatives will be on hand to go to work cannot yet be foretold. The six men arrested will appear in court tomorrow.
Two hundred operatives at the Pacific Mills quit work this afternoon, the majority of whom were employed in the examining room. At the Farwell bleachery, School Committeeman John Breen addressed a band of Syrians, this afternoon, and succeeded in inducing them to disband. About fifty Farwell bleachery employees quit work this afternoon on account of the wage reduction.
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Amazing Mixture of Races in Mills ———-
Forty-Five Languages Spoken Within a Mile Radius–Only Chicago and Fall River Have as Large a Per Cent Foreign-Born–Foreign Labor Mostly Unskilled
Within a mile radius of the mills are spoken forty-five languages, including their sub-divisions, and there are people living within this area representing fifty-one different countries of Europe, Asia and Africa. It is safe to say that there are more languages spoken within the Wood or Washington mills than in any one spot of equal size in the world. Whereas Lawrence covers an area of seven and a quarter square miles, the races represented live within two square miles of area, the congested district being close to the mills. And Lawrence presents unique conditions in that all the different nationalities live close together, as many as six and seven distinct races often living in one tenement block. While in the larger cities, as in New York and Chicago, there are more races represented, they are also more widely scattered, being grouped in sections. In Lawrence they all live together even as they work together. Only Chicago and Fall River has as large a percentage of foreign-born citizens to their population as has Lawrence.
One is also impressed by the number of women in excess of men passing along the streets. The foreign-born element of women in Lawrence is thirty per cent greater than that of the men,making the town a force in the dubbing of New England a weary girl-congested land, whereas, in other countries where there are large foreign-born percentages to the population, it often happens that the men are in excess of the women of their races in the ratio of four to one.
As in Pittsburgh and the Pennsylvania mining districts, Lawrence is again exceptional in that the women of the Slavic and Finnish races and those speaking the Romance languages often come here and obtain work in the mills, leaving their husbands at home with the young children. Many Italian and Syrian women are at work, aiming to bring their husbands and families later, such economic conditions being made possible by the fact that seventy per cent more woman are employed in the mills than men.
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