In
the early part of the 20th century, Lawrence, Massachusetts, was one
of the most important textile towns in the United States. Its principal
mills were those of the American Woolen Company whose yearly output
was worth $45,000,000. The woolen and cotton mills employed over 40,000
people. Many of these were foreign-born immigrants on low-wages.
It was estimated that about 50 per cent of Lawrence's textile workers
were women and children aged under eighteen. A study by Dr. Elizabeth
Shapleigh discovered that: "A considerable number of the boys
and girls die within the first two or three years after beginning
work. Thirty-six out of every 100 of all the men and women who work
in the mill die before or by the time they are twenty-five years of
age."
In January 1912 the America Woolen Company reduced the wages of its
workers. This caused a walk-out and the Industrial
Workers of the World (IWW), who had been busy recruiting workers
into the union, took control of the dispute. The IWW formed a strike
committee with two representatives from each of the nationalities
in the industry. It was decided to demand a 15 per cent increase in
wages, double-time for overtime work and a 55 hour week.
The mayor of Lawrence called in the local militia and attempts were
made to stop the workers from picketing. Thirty-six of the workers
were arrested and most of them sentenced to a year in prison.
Money was collected throughout America to help the strikers. One of
the IWW's leading figures, Arturo Giovannitti,
arrived in Lawrence to help organize relief. A network of soup kitchens
and food distribution stations were set up and striking families received
from $2 to $5 cash a week.
Bill Haywood, Carlo
Tresca and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn of
the Industrial Workers of the World now arrived
in Lawrence and took over the running of the strike.
Dynamite was found in Lawrence and newspapers accused strikers of
being responsible. However, John Breen, a local undertaker, was charged
and arrested with planting the explosives in an attempt to discredit
the IWW. It was later discovered that William Wood, the president
of the American Woolen Company, had paid Breen $500. Another man,
Ernest Pitman, who claimed that he had been present in the company
offices in Boston when the plan was developed, committed suicide before
he could give evidence in court. Wood was unable to explain why he
had given Breen the money but charges against him were dropped.
The governor of Massachusetts ordered out the state militia and during
one demonstration, a fifteen-year old boy was killed by a militiaman's
bayonet. Soon afterwards a woman striker, Anna LoPizzo was shot dead.
The union claimed that she had been killed by a police officer, but
Joseph Caruso, a striker, was charged with her murder. Joseph
Ettor and Arturo Giovannitti,
who were three miles away speaking at a strike meeting, were arrested
and charged as "accessories to the murder".
Faced with growing bad publicity, on 12th March, 1912, the American
Woolen Company acceded to all the strikers' demands. By the end of
the month, the rest of the other textile companies in Lawrence also
agreed to pay the higher wages. However, Joseph
Ettor and Arturo Giovannitti,
remained in prison without trial. Protest meetings took place in cities
throughout America and the case eventually took place in Salem, Massachusetts.
On 26th November, 1912, both men were acquitted.
Art
Young, Industrial
Worker (21st March, 1912)
(1)
Ray Stannard Baker, Lawrence Textile Strike,
American Magazine (May, 1912)
It is not short of amazing, the power of a great idea to weld men
together. There was in it a peculiar, intense, vital spirit if you
will, that I have never felt before in any strike. At first everyone
predicted that it would be impossible to hold these divergent people
together, but aside from the skilled men, some of whom belonged to
craft unions, comparatively few went back to the mills. And as a whole,
the strike was conducted with little violence.
(2)
Louis Untermeyer, Sunday, The
Masses (April 1913)
Down the rapt and singing streets of little Lawrence
Came the stolid columns; and, behind the blue-coats,
Grinning and invisible, bearing unseen torches,
Rode red hordes of anger, sweeping all before them.
Lust and Evil joined them - Terror rode among them,
Fury fired its pistols, Madness stabbed and yelled
Down the wild and bleeding streets of shuddering Lawrence
Raged the heedless panic, hour-long and bitter;
Passion tore and trampled men more mild and peaceful,
Fought with savage hatred in the name of Law and Order.
And, below the outcry, like the sea beneath the breakers,
Mingling with the anguish rolled the solemn organ.
Eleven in the morning - people were in the church -
Prayers were in the making - God was near at hand -
It was Sunday!
(3)
Arturo Giovannitti, speech to jury
(November, 1912)
If there was any violence in Lawrence it was not Joe Ettor's fault.
It was not my fault. If you must go back to the origin of all the
trouble, gentleman of the jury, you will find that the origin and
reason was the wage system. It was the infamous rule of domination
of one man by another man. It was the same reason that fifty years
ago impelled your great martyred President, Abraham Lincoln, by an
illegal act, to issue the Proclamation of Emancipation - a thing which
was beyond his powers as the Constitution of the United States expressed
before that time.
They say you are free in this great and wonderful country. I say that
politically you are, and my best compliments and congratulations for
it. But I say you cannot be half free and half slave, and economically
all the working class in the United States are as much slaves now
as the negroes were forty and fifty years ago.
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