United labor bulletin., 1912-03-07
STRIKE INVESTIGATION
AROUSES THE NATION
Women and Children Live on Bread and
Water---Women Have Ribs
Broken by Police.

Organized labor has been given =
sample of what labor Representatives in
the national congress can accomplish
for the workers. This has been demon
strated as never before in the investga-
tion before the rules committee of the
house of representatives into the strike
OF the textile workers at Lawrence.
Mass, and the clubbing of women and
children by the police and military In
that city. There are now many strikers
appearing before the committee, and the
tales of brutality that have been brought
out by the labor representatives in con-
eress have stunned the entire country
and done more for the cause of the work.
ers than hundreds Of strikes that would
cost millions of dollars.
Mrs. William n. Taft, wife of the pres
| ident, was one of the listeners to the
testimony of many of the strikers Tues
day, and was upon the verge Of Mysteries
when she was led from the committee
room.
| Miss Tema Camitta, a Philadelphia
vocal student and Sunday school teacher.
and a member of one of the committees
that sought to get the children out OF
Lawrence, testified that she saw the
police clubbing women in a patrol wagon.
Before Miss Camitta took the stand,
Representative Victor Berger of Wiscon-
sin. Socialist, had read into the record,
a telegram from William d. Haywood
of Denver, one of the strike leaders,
that two women witnesses sought by
Mr. Berger could not come to Washing
ton because of injuries sustained at the
hands of the police in the recent rioting
One of the women, Haywood said, was
| in the hospital in q critical condition,
while the other was confined to her
home.
| Miss Camitta related how she had en-
deavored to lead the children from the
station to the train.
| For some reason the children got out
ahead of the men, and Instantly the
women and children were hurled into q
struggling mass by the police" said she
q was squeezed against the wall of the
waiting room and was terribly fright
| ened.
THE crowd in front of me was SO
dense that l could see little. 1 called
out to the police, BE careful of the chill
dren- You're killing them,' Later when
| sought to accompany them to the po-
lice station. 1 was told that I'd better
stay away or I'd be clubbed, too.''
Miss Camitta told of detectives visit
ing the homes of parents of Lawrence
children and threatening them il they
sent their children away
In all cases where children were to
be taken to Philadelphia asked Chair
man Henry did You have the parents
consents"
In every case" she said.
Simon Knebel. who was in Lawrence
on Saturday, Feb. "a, organizer of the
Industrial Workers of the World. telling
OF what happened at the Lawrence
, depot. said:
We grouped the children in a file of
two and started to send them out of the
depot door. Then We saw two lines of
police Just as We left the door the
/. hTnoH,r
The children and their parents began
to pass through this line of police. The
police tore the children from their
mothers. They were screaming and
there were most unearthly yells. l saw
one policeman strike woman in the
, abdomen.
When | came out, l was STOPPING
, over four or five children. Immediately
three or four policemen got hold of me
and wrestled me all over the place.
They did not want to arrest me. They
, dragged me until my knees bled and
twisted my foot. When they got me
| away they went back. Then | went
, back. I couldn't see women and chill
dren hurt that way. l didn't care is|I
/ was getting murdered that day."
How many women did you see beaten
, that day." asked Mr.. Henry.
81 saw a whole wagonload of injured
| saw one young woman. not striker,
, several times in the back. Finally they
) arrested me and | was kept in the sta
ton house hours with women and chill
I dren in cells"
: In the police station where he was
locked up. Knebel said that all day chill
: dren were not given anything to eat,
, fifteen or eighteen of them.
Some of them were children at the
breasts" he continued. Some of the
! husbands whose wives were locked up
! brought children to their mothers to be
nursed.
when the case came up. some of the
. children were forcibly taken from their
mothers, to be taken to poor farm to
be cared for.
Were the children actually locked up
in the same kind Of cells where thieves
: and criminals were locked up?" asked
, Representative Pou.
They were in the same kind Of cells"
said Knebel.
a trained nurse. who was instrumental
! in taking children from Lawrence to
New York, said the condition of many
of the children was horrible.
"Out of 119 children. only four OF
them had on any underwear" said Miss
Sanger.
I was their outer clothing wool?''
asked Representative Foster.
NO: most of the clothing was rags
, Miss Sanger said the doctors exam
ined the children in New York. and that
most of them were sick and emaciated.
you ought to have seen the children
eat when we got them 10 New York.
. said Miss Sanger. "They grabbed tho
meat and ate II with their hands. they
: were so hungry"
Samuel Goldman. 1G years old. testi-
, fed he received si.G4 for three days
work and never made more than 1910
in week He said children paid s
cents week for drinking water.
whether they drank or not. and were
docked an hours pay II they were late.