Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1912-12-04
ETTOR AND OTHERS
ARE NOT GUILTY
Men Charged With Murder of
Woman Are Acquitted.
WAS KILLED IN STRIKE RIOT
Jurors Return Verdict After Being
Out Five Hours-End of Big Labor
Case Which Stirred
the Country.

Salem, Mass, Nov. 26. Mot
guilty is the verdict of the jury in
the case of Joseph J. Ettor, Arturo
Giovannitti and Joseph Caruso on the
charge of murder of Anna LopizZo,
who was killed in a Lawrence textile
strike riot last winter.
When the three men had heard the
words freeing them from the charge
they embraced and kissed each 9th
er in the prisoners cage. Giovan-
nitti then sprang to his feet.
Gentlemen of the jury" he said,
his face beaming with joy, Sin the
name of justice, truth and civiliza-
ton, thank you"
Less than an hour after Judge Jo-
seph Quinn had left the courthouse
with the announcement that he
would not receive a verdict un-
til morning, the jurors filed
from their room and went to
their hotel for supper. After the
meal they retired to their rooms and
the report spread quickly that YER
dict had been reached.
Judge Quinn, it was declared, had
been informed of the report, but he
did not alter his decision not to &C.
cept the findings of the jury. When
the panel left the courthouse 1t had
been celebrating five hours. Officers
of the court, attorneys interested in
the case and anxious friends of the
accused remained about the court
house until a late hour, but their
hopes for a reception of verdict
were unrewarded. Scores of rumors
as to the nature of the finding were
circulated.
The trial of Joseph J. Ettor, member
of the executive committee Of the
Industrial Workers of the World; Ar
turo Giovannitti, Socialist writer
of Brooklyn, N. Y, and Joseph Caru-
so, mill worker, came about In con-
sequence of the strike in the textile
mills in Lawrence, Mass, suddenly
precipitated January II last and con-
tinued for two months.
Ettor and Giovannitti were accused
as accessories before the fact to the
murder of Anna Lopizzo, who was
killed in a street riot. The common
wealth maintained that they melted
the riot in which the woman met her
death by infammatory speeches to the
strikers. Caruso was accused, with
Salvatore Scuito, who never has been
apprehended, with actual participation
in the riot.
The strike, which was accompanied
by much violence, enlisting organized
and unorganized workers on one hand
and mill owners on the other, with the
police of Lawrence and militia of Mas
sachusetts on guard to avert dtsas-
trous consequences, attracted world
wide attention for many weeks. Riots
were frequent; cars in Lawrence
ere attacked; men, women and chill
dren who attempted to work were as
sailed and in some cases injured, and
there were repeated clashes between
strikers and the organized forces Of
the law until citizens of Lawrence
were alarmed at the threatening
struggle. It's climax came on January
20 a day begun with a parade OF ag1-
tated foreign workers to demonstrate
their solidarity against the mill own
ers and ended with a riot in which the
young woman was slain and Oscar Be
mott. a Lawrence policeman, stabbed.
Even congress was appealed to dur
ing the struggle following an attempt
of strike leaders to take from Law
renee to Philadelphia a hundred chill
dren of strikers families to be cared
| for by sympathizers.