The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-07-23
TESTING NEW WEAPON
Article -ETToR, CARUso, GIovANNITTI.

vocateurs were shooting at the strik-
ers and near the police. Lo Pizzo
was with a few of the strikers, and
group of police and detectives were
standing near. The shot came from
the direction of one police officer,
Oscar Benoit, but he insisted that il
was fired from behind him, by an
enemy of his, and at him.
Ettor, Giovannitti jailed.
No arrest was made at the time,
but Immediately afterwards, Ettol
and Arturo Giovannitti were jailed
and charged with completely in the
murder of Annie Lo Pizzo. Giovan-
nitti had arrived in Lawrence on Jan.
20. He was the editor of II Probe
tario, official organ of the Italian
Socialist Federation, and had much
influence among the strikers. He
was turning the |. S. F. into one
great relief society, and was an elo-
quent speaker at strike meetings. To
the bosses, it seemed as though Ettor
and Giovannitti were the leaders,
without whom the strike would col
lapse. So they were arrested.
The bosses didn't realize that this
really spontaneous strike had or
gained itself, that its strike commit
tee would function without any par
ticular leader, and that many new
organizers were in action, chief
among whom was the former textile
worker, and then labor member of
the Rhode Island legislature, James
P. Reid. Reid is now president of
the National Textile Workers Union
which is leading the strike in Gas
tonia. If the bosses had known
what he was going to be doing in
years to come, he surely would have
been charged with murder along
with Ettor and Giovannitti.
Big Bill"
About the time Ettor and Giovan-
nitti were arrested, Big Bill Hay
wood hit town, and was placed in
command. Haywood was pobably
the most able strike tactician that
the American working class has ever
produced, dynamic personality, a
fine speaker, and a mass leader who
couldn't be beat. He furnished
enough inspiration alone to have
overcome the effect of arresting the
leaders, and the strike went right
on to victory. Haywood man of
The workers, became a Communist as
soon as the Communist movement
took form. But this article cannot
! be an adequate story of Haywood,
Tor of many spectacular and interest
ing features of the Lawrence strike,
such as the sending of the children
cut of the city to work in other
cities; we must get back to the
fTameup aspects.
Developing the Frame Up.
The prosecution at first proceeded
I on the same theory as in the Hay
market case, that the defendants
had by speech and writing melted
their followers to violence, in the
course of which some striker had
shot Annie Lo Pizzo.
The incongruity of one striker
shooting another bothered them, and
they attempted to cure this by ar
resting some striker whom they
hoped to prove had shot at police
man Benoit, the bullet missing him,
could have killed Annie. For this
purpose, during a period from March
IL to April II, the head Of the Cal
lahan Detective Agency of Boston,
in American Wooden Co. pay,
bounded Joseph Caruso from job to
job, getting him fired as fast as he
got work. The intention was plainly
to make him leave town, and ''by
flight give evidence of a sense of
guilt" Howver, Caruso stayed in
Lawrence, and was arrested there,
April II, for firing the shot.
The trial started Sept. 90, before
Judge Quinn, in Salem. There had
been a change of venue. The jury
had good many workers on it. The
evidence was joke. Even prosecu-
ton witnesses testified to the pro-
vocation, to the violence of the police,
and more the testimony showed
Caruso could have had nothing to
do with the shooting, and more and
more it pointed to Policeman Benoit
himself as the shooter.
Advancing From Haymarket.
| Whereupon the pros ecu t n
evolved the theory, an advance on
the Haymarket precedent, that the
strike led to condition during which
violence and murder could take place
therefore the death of any person
in the strike, by whomever killed, is
correctly charged against the strike
leaders: viciously useful interpre-
tation of law to any boss in any
strike, since he would merely have
to hire some detective to kill some
striker, and then arrest all the strike
leaders and hang them. 1t was,
moreover, no more essentially illogl-
cal theory than the original Hay
market precedent, which will surely
be used in the approaching Gastonia
case.
This wonderful murder scheme