The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-10-09
STRIKE TALK
HEARD AGAIN
IN LAWRENCE
Multiple-Loom System
Recruits Jobless Army
BY ESTHER LOWELL
Federated Press star Correspondent }

LAWRENCE, Mass, Oct. g.
Weavers employed by the Pa
cific Mills, largest cotton mills
in the city, are debating whether
or not to strike against the in
PRODUCTION of the muItipIe-Ioom
system, which is hanging ever
their heads ready to shove three
out of every four of them into
the ranks of unskiIIed workers.
All summer long the weavers
in Dover, N. H., fought against
the destruction of the weavers'
craft and their lack of success
makes the Lawrence weayers
hesitate.
Already the Pacific mills have had
a picked weaver trying out the new
plan by which the weaver acts as net.
ty boss tending 70 looms instead of
his accustomed is. Three unskilled
workers are allotted to each weaver
under the multiple-loom system.
VIII Scrap Veterans.
An old German weaver who has
worked in the mills more than 30
years predicts that the new system
will throw him and his fellow skilled
craftsmen who have grown old in
service into the class of boys. He
says: THE younger men will be the
petty boss weavers and we will be
left to compete with unskilled work.
ers and accept their wages in order to
work at ALL"
Strike sentiment is weakened by the
long slack period of the past year
during which the mills, excepting the
American Wooden company's great
factories, have been running only six
to sixteen days month. Workers
who had jobs at all found that there
was work on only three or four DAYS
every two weeks. The cotton mill
workers have been hardest hit. altho
work is increasing slightly now. Wool.
en- workers in the Selden, Information.
al, United States wool and worsted.
and other Lawrence wooden mills have
had work four days a week every
week most of time.
Accept Low Wages.
Normally there are $4,000 textile
workers in Lawrence. Less than
third Of that number are now employ.
ed, workers estimate. Few of the Job.
less have succeeded in getting any
other kind Of work. After ID months
of part-time work all the workers
whom | asked agreed that there was
no possibility of general strike in
Lawrence, not until all the mills are
working full time Even the low
wages-the weaver who tends ~
looms gets paltry $50 week for As
hours work-are accepted for the
present.
Lawrence has had three big strikes
in IL years and each time been well
organized during the fight. Today
there is only trace of any organiza-
ton functioning among the textile
workers. The same fate of neglect
befell the One Big Union which con-
trolled the city during the 1922 strike
as befell the |. w. w. and the Anal
gamated Textile Workers after 1912
and 1919 respectively. Pacific mills
workers are in the American Fedora.
ton OF Textile Operatives il they are
in any union. The o. B. U. has closed
its office and the United Textile Work.
ers has practically no organization in
the city, except among the loomfxers.
The Amalgamated still claims a few
members, but there is actually no ac-
lively functioning union of textile
workers left in Lawrence, judging
from the statements of the many
workers who talked to me and told
of their former activities.
Seeks Cheap Labor.
William M. Wood, of the American
Wooden company, secured Europe for
cheap labor. AS one supply was ex
hausted he tried another; Turks
Greeks, Syrians, Arabs, ETC., until il
is a babel here and in time of wage
cut anyone can come in and organize
the workers The United Textile
Workers is a conservative craft or
ganization, originally built of the
Irish British and French workers who
were first in the mills. The u. T. w.
resented the influx of other aliens and
did not attempt to organize them.
Whenever anyone comes in during
crisis and appeals to these unorgan.
ized workers, by blackening all Off.
cials who have gone before, he gets
the response OF these workers who