1912 Lawrence textile strike

They worked hard, and so they wanted some of the good things in life, too.

This sentiment had recently been summed up by a popular picket line sign that read, quote, Indeed, the Lawrence Textile Strike of 1912 would eventually come to be known as the Bread and Roses Strike.

as the writer James Oppenheim had put it in a poem a year before, "...as we come marching, marching, unnumbered women dead, go crying through our singing their ancient song of bread.

Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew.

For a time, the other wing of the political movement contented itself with spreading its venom in secret.

Since the conclusion of the Lawrence strike, the publications of the Socialist Party, with a very few exceptions, have never failed to use their columns to misrepresent and slander the organization and its active membership.

Their attacks have extended to members of their own party who happen to be active members or supporters of the IWW.

Structure of the IWW Basing its conclusions upon the experience of the past, the IWW holds that it is essential to have the form and structure of the organization conform to the development of the machinery of production and the process of concentration going on in industry in order to facilitate the growth of solidarity on class lines among the workers.

333 arrested, 320 of whom were convicted and fined from $100 down and to one year in jail.

Most of these cases, however, were settled for a nominal fine on appeal to the highest court.

For an account of the Great Lawrence Strike and of the Eder Giovannitti trial growing out of it, see Trial of a New Society by Justin Ebert.

Local 157 Textile Workers, New Bedford, Massachusetts.

For a time, the other wing of the political movement contented itself with spreading its venom in secret.

Since the conclusion of the Lawrence Strike, the publications of the Socialist Party, with a very few exceptions, have never failed to use their columns to misrepresent and slander the organization and its active membership.

Their attacks have extended to members of their own party, who happen to be active members or supporters of the IWW.

Structure of the IWW Basing its conclusions upon the experience of the past, the IWW holds that it is essential to have the form and structure of the organization conform to the development of the machinery of production and the process of concentration going on in industry in order to facilitate the growth of solidarity on class lines among the workers.

333 arrested, 320 of whom were convicted and fined from $100 down and to one year in jail.

Most of these cases, however, were settled for a nominal fine on appeal to the highest court.

For an account of the Great Lawrence Strike and of the Eder Giovannitti trial growing out of it, see Trial of a New Society by Justin Ebert.

Local 157 Textile Workers, New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Easy payments is the deceptive means by which extortionate prices are made possible of payment by the workers who are already badly fleeced in the mills.

lawrence is also the scene of much experimenting in cooperative enterprises several of which have been successful where wages are low as in belgium and england the economies and thrift made possible by cooperative buying and selling becomes imperative especially is this true in view of the increasing cost of living lawrence is by no means exempt from the latter for instance anthracite coal was ten dollars and fifty cents a ton in lawrence during the winter of nineteen eleven to nineteen twelve the cost of living is higher in lawrence than elsewhere congestion is worse in lawrence than in any other city in new england boston excepted frame houses and rear houses are more numerous than in the congested districts of manchester new hampshire lowell salem fall river and new bedford massachusetts a terrible conflagration is always possible that construction being regarded as extra-hazardous in addition the rear houses are entered by alleyways and long narrow passages leading from them which make deadly flues and fire-traps these alleyways and passages are also dirty and dark mouldy and foul-smelling they are the playgrounds of the children who inhabit them juvenile offenders are numerous in lawrence the cause is evident our valuation did not increase with our population said commissioner of public safety c f lynch addressing the burgier congressional investigation of the lawrence strike and consequently we were faced with a serious financial problem as a reflex of lawrence's poverty and squalor this needs no comment malnutrition and premature death are common in lawrence the textile industry is a family industry its subdivision makes possible the employment of all the members of the family it also makes possible consequently the destruction of the textile family of the twenty two thousand textile workers investigated by commissioner neale twelve thousand one hundred and fifty or fifty four per cent are males and nine thousand seven hundred and seventy two or forty four point six per cent are females eleven point five per cent of all of them being under eighteen years of age the mill workers claim that over fifty per cent of lawrence's operatives are women and children as there are over thirteen thousand to be accounted for by the commissioner and as his figures verge very closely on the claim made the latter may be taken for granted without discussion it is plain that under the above circumstances family life outside of the mills must suffer women who arise at five thirty a m in order to be enabled to do housework and labour in a dusty noisy mill until five thirty p m at starvation wages are bound to bear and rear offspring who are underfed and badly cared for every one of the one hundred and nineteen children sent to new york in february nineteen twelve was found on physical examination to be suffering from malnutrition in some form as william d heywood most eloquently puts it those children had been starving from birth they had been starved in their mothers wombs and their mothers had been starving before the children were conceived malnutrition brings about a disease called rachitis or rickets the writer has seen so many children with crooked and distorted limbs and bones in lawrence as to be impressed with the fact likewise has he observed the anaemic and weazened expression not only of infants but also of adults underfeeding is common in lawrence the infant death-rate in lawrence is very high for every thousand births there are one hundred and seventy-two deaths under one year of age this is greater than twenty-eight other cities with which lawrence has been compared the same is practically true of lawrence's general death-rate which is seventeen point seven per one thousand population a rate which surpasses that of twenty-six other cities and is above the average for the united states in the matter of longevity according to lawrence's mortuary records its lawyers and clergymen lead with an average length of life of sixty five point four years manufacturers come next with fifty eight point five years farmers follow with fifty seven years mill operatives have the shortest life span from the mortality records of one thousand and ten operatives the average length of life was found to be thirty nine point six years the average longevity for spinners is three and two fifths a year less or thirty six years on an average the spinner's life is twenty nine years less than that of the lawyer's or clergyman's and twenty two and a half years shorter than that of the manufacturer says dr shapleigh a lawrence practitioner who made a special study of the subject thirty-six out of every one hundred of all the men and women who work in the mill die before or by the time they are twenty-five years of age this means that out of the long line which enters the mill you may strike out every third person as dying before reaching maturity every fourth person in the line as dying from tuberculosis and further every second person that is one alternating with a healthy person will die of some form of respiratory trouble the same authority states that a considerable number of the boys and girls die within the first two or three years after beginning work so poorly are they nourished and developed that they have not the stamina to withstand the strain here then is the lot of the textile workers of lawrence steadily declining and low wages intensified and unsteady employment bad housing underfeeding no real family life and premature death the benefits of industrial evolution and national legislation go not to them but to the woods turners et al who live in wasteful extravagance upon their merciless exploitation regardless of common decency and in defiance of the social spirit of the times This was the condition of affairs in Lawrence, Massachusetts, on January 12, 1912, when something extraordinary happened in the big mills there.

About 9 a.m. on that date, the employees in one of the departments of the Everett Mill swept through its long floors, wildly excited, carrying an American flag which they waved amid shouts of, Strike! Strike! Strike! All out! Come on! All out! Strike! Strike!

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from room to room they rushed an enraged indignant mass arming themselves with the picker sticks used in the mills they went from loom to loom persuading and driving away operatives and stopping looms tearing weaves and smashing machines where repeated attempts were made to run them despite their entreaties which seldom failed of instant response as they swept on their numbers grew and with them grew the contagion the uproar and the tumult out of the everett mill they rushed these hundreds of peaceful workers now aroused passionate and tense on the street outside of the mill gates they were met by excited crowds that were congregated there all of them coalesced into one big mass and as such moved over the union street bridge on to the wood washington and ayer mills where the same scenes were enacted once more men women and children italians poles syrians all races all creeds already aroused to action before the coming of the crowd outside some of whom rushed the gates and entered ran through the thousands of feet of floor space shouting strike strike strike all out strike strike strike sweeping everything before them and rendering operation in many departments so impossible as to cause their complete shutdown these thousands also poured out into the streets and with their fellow workers already assembled there choked up the highway blocking cars and suspending traffic generally while at the same time hooting and howling raising speakers and leaders on their shoulders throwing ice and snow and bombarding the windows in the adjoining cunhart and duck mills smashing every pane of glass there a destructive menacing mob where peace had reigned before disorder and violence now seemed rampant the something extraordinary that had happened in lawrence massachusetts on january twelfth nineteen twelve was an industrial revolt the mill workers had risen in their rising they sounded not only a riot call but also the keynote to the revolution of all the workers in industry to the industrial democracy peaceful lawrence like every american city had a submerged lawrence a working-class lawrence that had erupted and in so doing sprung all the social layers above it that held it down into the air so the riot call was sounded and the police tried to force the submerged down to where they formerly had been so did the militia so did the state so did all the repressive agencies of modern that is capitalist society but they failed a new force had arisen the workers democratically and industrially organized the workers thus united are invincible it is labor alone that defeats labor but this is running ahead of the story to return the cause of the lawrence industrial revolt was a common thing to wit a wage reduction a beneficent state law had been passed reducing hours of labour for women and children from fifty six to fifty four per week when this law went into effect the mill corporations reduced wages proportionately without any previous notice whatever at the same time they speeded up the machines and so got in fifty four hours at fifty four hours pay the same output that had been secured in fifty-six hours at fifty-six hours pay the operatives only notice of the reduction was the short pay in their envelopes short pay short pay was the cry that had preceded the uprising the more the workers reflected on that short pay the more resentful and unrestrainable they became in many thousands of cases the reduction only amounted to thirty cents a week yet this apparently insignificant amount the price of a good havana cigar to a wood or a turner was enough to turn lawrence topsy-turvy and to alter the subsequent political history of the country for the lawrence strike destroyed the presidential prospects of governor foss and hastened the formation of the progressive party with its program of industrial and social reform though the wage reduction was small in amount the textile workers of lawrence realized from abundant experience that the wages they would receive under the fifty-four hours law would not be sufficient to live on their position as already shown was near enough to absolute starvation as to leave no doubt on that point so rather than suffer the further weekly loss of six loaves of bread so badly needed a great part rose en masse in spontaneous revolt blind instinctive but primal and therefore fundamental and far-reaching was the uprising of these miserable workers none had expected such a violent outbreak true according to commissioner neale a far-sighted mill official in boston had warned against the prospect of one but his was a lone voice crying out in the wilderness on january second nineteen twelve some of the workers organised in the industrial workers of the world tried to confer on the fifty four hour law with the mill owners but were snubbed for their pains the weaving department of the everett mill and the spinning department of the arlington mill had struck on the afternoon of january eleventh a meeting of one thousand italians and poles held in ford's hall on the evening of january tenth decided to walk out other outbursts had taken place notwithstanding all this the mill corporations went right on as if nothing of importance was happening or could happen they were supreme and able to crush out all discontent as before they recked not of the terrible resentment the general rage long smouldering and now irrepressible that filled the workers on beholding their robbed envelopes and lives and they knew not that where labour is most suffering and most oppressed there it is also most terrible when aroused hence the revolt was a complete surprise that caused unprecedented alarm and for the first time in a labor dispute in the history of massachusetts later on necessitated the calling out of the militia the lawrence textile revolt reverberated throughout the industrial world large numbers in distant parts instinctively realized at once that something extraordinary had happened in new england's hotbeds of labor submission and exploitation the textile mills the textile wage slaves had openly and actually rebelled lawrence with its exploitation and luxury for the benefit of a few capitalists on one side and its slavery and starvation for the many workers on the other was now enacting the world-wide drama of the class struggle of the irrepressible conflict between the interests of capital and labour it was this profound fact that sounded the riot call turned lawrence topsy-turvy and enabled the industrial democracy to arrive chapter one chapter two of the trial of a new society by justice ebert this librivox recording is in the public domain chapter two the industrial democracy gets into action on the evening of january eleventh nineteen twelve joseph j etter sat on the platform of historic cooper union new york from this rostrum made famous by lincoln henry george and other notable americans the subject of industrial unionism was being debated maurice hilquit lawyer and acknowledged intellectual leader of the socialist party was trying to prove it an impossibility and a dream william d heywood was attempting the contrary to all appearance heywood had failed skilful dialectics had prevailed against a great tendency imperfectly defended joseph j etter as he sat there listening to that debate had in his pocket a telegram requesting him to come to lawrence it was sent by angelo rocco the italian chairman of the ford hall meeting already referred to in the previous chapter neither etter nor rocco realized the significance of that telegram in deciding the respective merits of the cooper union debate not in theory but in fact joseph j etter is a native of brooklyn new york of italian parentage and an organizer and general executive board member of the industrial workers of the world this is the only organization that strictly adheres to the principles of industrial unionism it was in its behalf that heywood debated while etter listened an interested spectator the industrial workers of the world was launched at chicago in nineteen o five it is an outgrowth of industrial development in this country it points out that trades are absorbed into industries and the industries are interwoven into trusts and that the machine process which makes this possible tends at the same time to displace skilled with unskilled labor accordingly it organizes labor not according to trades but industries into one big labor trust with a due regard for the growing importance of unskilled as compared to skilled labor the object of this labor trust is to improve labor's wages and conditions while at the same time striving for the democratic control of industry by labor and for labor instead of private capitalists as at present the philosophy and object to the i w w are expressed as follows preamble of the i w w the working class and the employing class have nothing in common there can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of working people and the few who make up the employing class have all the good things of life between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class take possession of the earth and the machinery of production and abolish the wage system we find that the centering of the management of industries into fewer and fewer hands makes the trade unions unable to cope with the ever-growing power of the employing class the trade unions foster a state of affairs which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry thereby helping to defeat one another in wage wars moreover the trade unions aid the employing class to mislead the workers into the belief that the working class has interests in common with their employers these conditions can be changed and the interests of the working class upheld only by an organization formed in such a way that all its members in any one industry or in all industries if necessary cease work whenever a strike or lock-out is on in any department thereof thus making an injury to one an injury to all instead of the conservative motto a fair day's wages for a fair day's work we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword abolition of the wage system it is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism the army of production must be organized not only for the everyday struggle with capitalists but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown by organising industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old etter arrived in lawrence on the midnight train on the twelfth of january after a brief rest he took an early morning walk in the affected mill district to get an idea of the actual situation saturday for it was saturday january thirteenth is a half-holiday in the mills so everything was quiet the crucial day is always monday etter consulted with the revolters they had already met at the franco belgian hall nine mason street on the afternoon before there they had formed a tentative strike committee composed of representatives from each of the races that had come out they also had decided to call a mass meeting at the city hall on saturday afternoon as a result of his tour and conferences etter and his associates decided on a policy this was to shut down all the mills and thus avoid the disorder and disaster which had attended all the previous trades-union strikes this was to be an industrial union strike the dream and the impossibility made a reality etter and his associates had a big job before them despite its spontaneous and extensive nature the revolt was practically an unorganized and incomplete one the textile workers had some ten independent and a f of l unions in lawrence john golden's united textile workers union had two hundred and eight members divided small as they were into no less than three different craft locals all told these unions had about two thousand five hundred members mostly on paper none of them had initiated the revolt the industrial workers of the world was the largest single organisation in lawrence with about one thousand three hundred members only five hundred of whom were in good standing at the time it was instrumental in forming a textile alliance in lawrence composed of all the non a f of l organizations but this was inoperative at the time such was the state of disorganization that the active i w w men had opposed a strike against the fifty four hour reduction they had to learn from experience what they knew from theory that it is conditions and not majorities that make revolutions Etter began his work that afternoon at the public mass meeting in the city hall, the same city hall from which the riot call had gone forth.

He developed the plan of a strike committee, composed of delegates representing all the races and crafts involved, and urged a complete tie-up of all the mills.

For a time, the other wing of the political movement contented itself with spreading its venom in secret.

Since the conclusion of the Lawrence Strike, the publications of the Socialist Party, with a very few exceptions, have never failed to use their columns to misrepresent and slander the organization and its active membership.

Their attacks have extended to members of their own party who happen to be active members or supporters of the IWW.

Structure of the IWW Basing its conclusions upon the experience of the past, the IWW holds that it is essential to have the form and structure of the organization conform to the development of the machinery of production and the process of concentration going on in industry in order to facilitate the growth of solidarity on class lines among the workers.

Five strikes involving 29,000 workers, 333 arrested, 320 of whom were convicted and fined from $100 down and to one year in jail.

Most of these cases, however, were settled for a nominal fine on appeal to the highest court.

For an account of the great Lawrence strike, and of the Eder Giovannitti trial growing out of it.

See Trial of a New Society by Justin Ebert.