The herald., 1898-01-18
Causes a Strike of Cotton
Operatives
VIEW BEDFORD MILLS CLOSED
MEN AT WORK WILL SUPPORT
THE STRIKERS
The Ten Thousand Workers in New
England Mills Unite to Resist
Starvation Wages
Associated Press Special Wire

Associated Press Special Wire
NEW BEDFORD. Mass, Jan. ia
shutdown, the most complete in the
history of the cotton mills of New Bed
ford, began this morning. Not spindle
was turning nor loom in motion in the
factories of the cloth corporations an
hour after the usual time of beginning
work. Between forty and fifty operat-
ives went into Bristol Mill and rs or 80
into the Whitman, but aside from these.
no mill made any show of running, and
these two soon shut down. Nine cor
porations. operating eighteen mills, in
which upwards of nine thousand hands
are employed, are involved in the strike.
The cut Is uniform all over the city, 10
per cent. The total payroll of those cor
porations Is estimated at $4,000 weekly.
THE BATTLE BEGINS
BOSTON, Mass, Jan. 17.-Eighty
thousand skilled operatives, employed
In about seventy of the chief cotton mills
of the New England States, will, today,
come under the sweeping order of a
new wage-schedule, which entails re-
duction Of ten per cent or more. This
reduction brings on, in New Bedford,
Mass, Lewiston and Biddeford, Me-.
labor strikes, which may prove the be-
ginning of an Industrial battle, greater
in extent and more disastrous in effects,
than any in the previous history of cot
ton manufacturing in the United States
The battle against the corporations
undoubtedly would have been fought
everywhere had not the voice of men
and women who are i'll prepared at this
time of the year to go into idleness, been
needed by the conservatives.
AS 1t is, the great majority of persons
employed in nine corporation mills, in
New Bedford, and one corporation mill
each in the two Maine cities, will take
upon themselves the task of forcible re-
sistance to the reduction.
In New Bedford nearly 10000 operat-
ives are employed,
The strikers will be directed by the
labor unions, the lead being taken by
the Spinners' Union, the national ex-
ecutive committee of which organiza-
tion has sanctioned the strike of opposi-
ton and promised financial aid. The
spinners and weavers are practically
the only branches of operatives which
have maintained organization. One
striking feature of the preliminary agi-
tation against the cut-down, and the
strike talk, was the plea of the national
labor bodies interested, that no strikes
be begun except at New Bedford and
Lowell. and asking that all strength be
concentrated on the former place.
Lowell operatives held in allegiance a
Io4 tot 20 .k,tIr
port to the other city. The strikes in the
other places mentioned have yet to be
officially sanctioned by the governing
labor body.
One feature of the labor troubles
which may manifest itself is the return
to their Canadian homes, by hundreds
of families who speak French and who
flock to the States in the winter to Sc
cure employment.
Following is an estimate of the num-
ber of operatives affected by the cut
down, but the actual result will scarce
ly be seen until the new schedule of
wages is tried
Knight, Goddards and Chase Mills. in
Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Con-
necticut, 10000; Lewiston, 1000; Fall
River, 1000; Biddeford, and Saco. 1000:
Lowell. $4,000; Nashua, 5000; New
Hampshire Mills, other than Manches-
ter and Nashua. 5000; Worcester County,
5000; Holyoke. 10000; Vermont, 10000;
miscellaneous, 10000.
A FITCHBURG MILL
FITCHBuRG, Mass. Jan. 1.-THE 225
hands In the Nookeje cotton print mills
are out of work today as the result of
cut of per cent which went into ef
feet this morning. 1t was not satisfac-
tory and the so weavers struck, closing
the whole mill.
AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE
BOSTON, Jan. 1.-THE fight between
employers and employees in the New
England cotton mills is on and what it
will lead up to cannot be foretold. The
great corporations in New Bedford are
silent and thousands of operatives are
idle, while here and there discomfort has
cropped out all day, the most serious
being at Biddeford, Me-, where 5000 per-
sons refused to work, thus closing two