The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-02-10
A Strike For Four
 Leaves Of Bread
Unexpected Result of 54
 Hour Law
Question of Wages at Fore in Lawrence Strike Waking Up of Unorganiz- ed Foreign Workers.
LEWIS D. PALMER

CExclus1Ve Service The Survey Press
 Bureau)
 Ten thousand singing, cheering men and women, boys and girls marching and counted marching through snow and slush for two hours-a procession of the nations of the world never eqGaI,ed in the greatest show on earth'-surged through the streets of Lawrence, Mass, on Thursday, Jan uary 19. There you saw native-born Americans, Russians and SyrianS, Germans and Armenians, English and Belgians, Irish and Poles. Portuguese and Austrians and Scotch. You lis tened to the quavering notes of the MarSellaise from a trudging group of French women and you heard the CT marchers. Strange songs and strange shouts and strange un-at- home men and women, ten thousand of them; striking because their pay of bread.'
 The trouble came among the unskill- ed non-English speaking men and wo- men ''out of the clear sky, the man ufa cturers say, after a two hour cut in the time and wages accompanying the new ''fifty-four hour law" which went into effect on January 1. The strike leaders say that the operators made an attempt, several days before tke law went into operation, to learn if their wages were to be cut along with their hours; but the mill owners were not inclined, apparently, to di- vulge the secret to all their employees until Friday, January F, when the troub e started with the opening of the docked pay envelopes. The dis turbance quickly spread until four thousand striking men and women were marching through the streets of the~min district which spreads for Strikes were new to Lawrence. The police were unable to cope with the difficulties. As a matter of fact the actual violence on the first day and throughout the following weeks could be controlled by an efficient police force half the size of that in Law fence.
 The Boston reporters did their best outbreaks. The newspaper photo graphers were everywhere and perhaps the best example of their art was a picture of one of their own number being ''repelled at the point of a bay onet'' by a citizen soldier who was trying hard to 'see red.''
 Textile workers of Lawrence, aside from a comparatively few English speaking operators, are largely unor- ganized Up to January 20, the strik- CTS were leaderless, but in the after noon of that day, Joseph B. Ettor, a member of the executive council of the Industrial Workers of the World, took the leadership The primary cause of the strike, the two hour cut
 
 shortly after Ettor assumed command, merged into a series of demands up on the mill owners. These included a 15 per cent increase in wages, the abolition of the premium and bonus systems and double pay for overtime. Tn less than a week ten thousand men, women and working girls had become actively identified with the strike. The police made arrests on the slight est provocation and the severest sen tences possible were dealt out. Judge Mahoney said these men, mostly for eigners, perhaps do not mean to be offenders. They do not realize the gravity of their offenses and do not know the laws. Therefore the only way we can teach them Is to deal out the severeSt sentence
 If these foreigners do not know the laws, who is responsible? What have the mill owners been doing to Ameri- canize twenty-five thousand employees whom they have drawn from all quar- terS of Europe to run their plants? The responsibility which the mill own CTS manifest for the welfare of these employees is summed up in clean, light and airy rooms. It stops there with one exception-a day nursery where the children of the women oper- ators are kept while their mothers work.
 As to what the city itse'f has been doing through public or private organ izations, I learned social settlements were unknown in Lawrence and that the only experiment of the kind was made a year ago by a group of An dover school boys who opened club rooms for a few of the foreign work CTS. The new Y. M. C. A is doing considerable educational work but 1t is said that only one mill has contrib uted to the fund for a new building. All the mills are heavy supporters of the hospital. Fairgrounds are few and unemployed with apparatus. The Lawrence Industrial School which un- der the State law is half supported by the commonwealth, has demon strated its usefulness. The Lawrence City Mission which serves as a Charity Organization Society is handsomely supported by the mills If the state ment made by the strikers that the average wage of unskil ed labor is only about $6 it would seem that the Lawrence City Mission would have its hands full.
 In dingy back room of an Italian velopes which had been returned to the bank as representing the average wage of men emp oyeS. Of these the highest which was for one week of drawing and doffing, was $7O5- The mill owners have said that the pay envelopes produced for the strikers were selected for the good of the cause and that the average wage of the operators is over $9. The state to the effect that out of six thousand hands only eighteen received less than S6 and six of the eighteen were chil- dren.
 At first the mill owners refused to cooperate with any committee of strikers. Then the employers agreed