New-York tribune., 1912-03-11
70 restrain the excesses Of the huge moi
and its leaders
How Sympathy Shifted.

20 restrain the excesses Of the huge MOB
and its leaders.
How Sympathy Shifted.
TN to this time the sympathy of the
Lawrence public was mainly with 'he
strikers. though the Lawrence pubic oio
not believe I'm the imported leaders Oh
their revolutionary doctrines The puoilc
of Lawrence. however, like the public oil
most industrial cities, is made up iarge'S
of working people. II is good na'ureu'
tolerant public. Most Of the residents ol
Lawrence are only generation or TWO
away from being immigrants themselves
Most of them had worked in the mills a'
one time or another, or their parel''
had. They had simply risen IN 'ne "'
cending scale like the public III every
American city, leaving the harder more
laborious kind of work IN the hi'i'
the latest corners. .,
They expected that in the naturai
course the latest comers Would ei'iei So
,,so from the harder forms Of WORK lh
the mills and get the more respoliS'D'
better paving positions, or leave the Nuns
altogether and enter calllngs ou''io'
srcn as storekeeping, holding municipal
roeitions becoming the professional ana
banking men of the community, Ihat Is
what the English. Scotch. Canadlan' nlSi,
and German settlers, of Lawrence "au
dome or were doing. II was the oruellS
o,ro,,od American fashion of develop-
ment. .,o
,rbo,e WAS no antagonism between the
English speaking population OF La"
renee the members of 1t which hao co'i'7
here during the last twenty-five vi eiA,'
,.oore or who had been born IN this
countrv and the Italians, Poles Llthu-
or,ors Portuguese. Armenians. etc. be
&c tho big strike. But when the de-
structive riot showed how seriou9iS
those non English speaking people "e,e
taking the revolutionary and ahar
,,reocbments of Ettor. Giovannitu ana
tho, or,-of- town leaders and how some
30 than, were ready to translate INTO
aoeds AZ once the sanguinary preach-
,,erts Of the leaders. ready 10 preclpi'dte
. social revolution by the approNeu
methods Of European revolutionis's o'
tho Russian and Spanish type. they ne
cana alarmed and sympathy changed
They still, thought the strikers deserved
- nav hut they were unwilling to DO
ANYTHING toward encouraging 'he pene
chat the fifty thousand English speah'ns
,nbo bitants of Lawrence would tolera'e
any anarchistic outbreaks.
aw and Order Came First.
The English speaking people OF La"
rerce including their leaders clefi ''
,a ,av wanted very much to have 'he
atr,Lers get more pay, but they wanted
,,,ora 70 UNFOLD American law and oroer'
Co when the serious rioting began 'h'S
set themselves solidly against the an
erchistic socialists and demanoeu tnd'
the city and state authorities upholo Ia"
and order at any cost.
The police and militia then did upholo
the law in a patient. brave and praise
worthy manner, for in spite or many anu
serious proyecations TO fire on the moos
that gathered many times, even alter
Colonel Sweetzer had extended his mill
tary lines well around the city, taunllhs
the soldiers, calling them all Sorts OF
names. refusing to move when ordereu'
only one person was fatally injured pY
the soldiers. This is the record 1or
seven weeks occupation Of the CITY,
time and where 1900 strikers ignorant
Of American customs and the English
language. were being goaded to madness
nv a ong-drawn-out strike and the con-
stant indictments to violence by many
speak kers.
If IL were not for the soldiers and po-
lice there would have been an exceeding
ly long list Of asssssinations and assaults
to record before the Lawrence strike was
brought to an end. For the nine thou
sand non English speaking strikers,
urged, not led, by the cunning leaders
from outside Lawrence, were convinced
that the one way to win their rights
was TO prevent the fifteen thousand Eng
nsh speaking operatives from remaining
at work.
At night and in the dark Of the early
winter mornings when the operatives
were on their way 10 work innumerable
assaults were committed. Houses
where operatives who would not join
the Industrial Workers OF the Worl
lived we're marked with red paint az
night, pictures Of black hands drawn or
them, the word "scab" painted over
them, threatening letters sent the dwell
ers therein and groups OF swarthy men
detailed TO visit the little homes Of the
working operatives while only the
women folks or children were at home
and the wife and mother told that If she
did not prevent the father and bread
winner from going TO work that he