Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1912-03-07
FOR -FOUR
LOAVES OF BREAD
Fifty Four Hour Law Wakes
Up Unorganized Foreign
Workers.
BY LEWIS E. PALMER.


len tlOuSdIu SIISlllS, cheering men anu
women. boys and girls marching and
counter marching through snow and
slush for two hours-a procession of the
nations of the world never equalled in
the greatest show on earth"-surged
through the streets of Lawrence, Mass,
on Thursday, January 10. There you saw
native born Americans. Russians and
Syrians. Germans and Armenians. Eng
lish and Belgians, Irish and Poles. Portu-
gueSe and Austrians and Scotch. You lis
tened to the quavering notes of the Mar
seillaise from a trudging group OF French
women and you heard the strain caught
up by hundreds of other marchers. Strange
songs and strange shouts and strange un-
at-home men and women. 10000 OF them:
striking because their pay envelopes had
been cut -four loaves Of bread"
The trouble came among the unskilled
non-English speaking men and women
"out of the clear sky" the manufacture
ers say, after a two-hour cut In the time
and wages accompanying the new 54-hour
law" which went into effect on January
l. The strike leaders say that the opera
tors made an attempt. several days be-
fore the law went into operation, to learn
il their wages were to be cut along with
their hours; but the mill owners We're
not inclined. apparently. to divulge the Sc
cret to all their employees until Friday,
January IL, when the trouble started with
the opening of the locked pay envelopes.
The disturbance quickly spread until 1000
striking men and women We're marching
through the streets Of the mill district
which spreads for q mile along the Merri-
mac river. Strikes We're new to Law
renee. The police We're unable to cope
with the difficulties. AS a matter of fact
the actual violence on the first day and
throughout the following week could be
controlled by an efficient police force half
the size of that in Lawrence.
The Boston reporters did their best to
manufacture daily stories about out
breaks. The newspaper photographers
were everywhere and perhaps the best
example of their art. was a picture of one
of their own number being repealed at
the point of a bayonet" by a citizen SOL
der who was trying hard to "see red"
Textile workers Of Lawrence, aside from
a comparatively few English speaking
operators, are largely unorganized. Up tic
January 90. the strikers were leaderless
but in the afternoon 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 in
the weekly pay envelopes. was shortly
after Ettor assumed command, merged
/ tiNO a 9N1 tSo vi IttoIV OpOIl lHc klItII
owners. These included a Is per cent in
crease In wages. the abolition of the
premium and bonus systems and double
pay for overtime. In less than a week
1000 men, women and working girls had
become actively identified with the strike.
The police made arrests on the slightest
| provocation and the severest sentence pos
sible were dealt out. Judge Mahoney said
these men. mostly foreigners, 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"
AS to what the city itself has been doing
through public or private organizations,
/ learned social settlements were unknown
in Lawrence and that the only expert
ment of the kind was made a year ago
by a group of Andover school boys who
| opened club rooms for a few of the for
eign workers. The new Y. M. C. A. is
doing considerable educational work but
1t is said that only one mill has contribut-
ed to the fund for a new building. All
the mills are heavy supporters of the hos
pital. Fairgrounds are few and UNI
equipped with apparatus. The Lawrence
Industrial school. which under the state
law Is half supported by the
wealth, has demonstrated its usefulness.
The Lawrence City Mission society which
serves as a charity organization is hand
somely supported by tht mills. Ii the
statement made by the strikers that the
average wage Of unskilled labor is only
about IS 1t would seem that the Lawrence
City Mission would ave its hands full.
In a dingy back room of an Italian
house l saw over so empty pay envelopes
which had been returned to the bank as
representing the average wage of meE
employees. OF these the highest which
was for one week Of drawing and doffng,
was $7.6. The mill owners have said that
the pay envelopes produced for the strik-
ers were selected for the good of the
cause" that the average wage Of the
operators is over 50. The statement issued
from the Pacific mills is to the effect that
out of 5000 hands only IS received less
than Is and six OF the IS were children.
At first the mill owners refused to co.
operate with any committee of strikers.
Then the employers agreed to meet com.
mittees In each mill but nothing came
from the proposal as Ettor said that the
demands OF the strikers must be con-
sidered collectively. Through the action
OF Mayor Scanlon, Colonel Swetzer,
Chairman Barney. the Citizens committee
and the state board of arbitration. a joint
conference was later arranged. but the
manufacturers refused to go into 1t on
the grounds that Ettor and William b.
Haywood appeared among the representa-
tfves of the strikers and they would deal
only with their own men.
In the interval since the first outbreak
on January %. public opinion has a SYM
pathetic turn toward the strikers. Even
the most conservative Boston newspapers
now believe that the story about quanti-
ties OF dynamite discovered In Lawrence,
was . plant" N Ettor has won the