The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-06-13
BY DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES
Times Special Writer

BY DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES
Times Special Writer
The twentieth century dawned
with black background of indus
trial warfare behind it. There was
little change during the first decade
of the new century.
The struggle between the miners
and the reaetionary employers con-
tinued undated in Idaho, Colorado
and other western mining centers.
In 1902 a strike in the anthracite
area of Pennsylvania threatened the
east with a fuelless winter. PreSi-
dent Roosevelt forced the coal oper-
atorS to accept arbitration but not
the principles of labor union.
From 1905 to 1910 the American
Federation of Labor placed less re-
lance upon strikes than upon the
union label and the boycott in its
fight for collective bargaining. This
worked fairly we'll until the supreme
court decision in the Danbury hat
ters' case interpreted the secondary
boycott as a conspiracy in restraint
of trade, punishable under the
Sherman act.
Newspaper Plant Bombed
In 1910 there occurred an ominous
incident in labor warfare, the dyna-
hitting of the Los Angeles Times,
owned by Harrison Gray Otis, the
chief labor batter on the Pacific
coast. The explosion on Oct. l, 1910,
cost twenty lives.
william j. Burns was called in
and evidence he gathered led to
the arrest of the Mcnamara broth
ers and Ortie McManigal. During
the course of a sensational trial
the McNamaras confessed guilt in
return for promise of mercy,
which the state only partially car
ried out.
While Gompers had no RESPONSE
bility for the dynamiting, he at first
sympathized with the McNamaras,
whom he sincerely believed to be
innocent. Their confession helped
to put serious crimp in any re-
naming militancy on the part of
Me American Federation of Labor.
Mill Strikers Win
The next sensational strife be-
tween labor and capital was waged
under the leadership of the I. w. w.
at the textile town of Lawrence,
Mass, in 1912.
The strike leaders, Joe Ettor and
Arturo Giovannitti, from the first
made every effort to prevent vio-
lence and succeeded in doing So
Only the police and the troops shed
blood. The peaceful tactics of the
strikers were indicated, since the
strike was won after tremendous
feats Of endurance.
Our entry into the World war
helped to lessen strikes and indus
trial warfare. Soon after the war
industrial strife broke out again.
The I. w. w. had, indeed, been re-
lentleSsly attacked during the World
war. On Armistice day, 1919, the
American Legion, melted by the
lumber barons of the northwest,
attacked the I. w. W. headquarters
at Centralia, Wash. Four veterans
were killed and several I. w. w.
leaders were later sentenced to
long terms of imprisonment. A gen.
eral strike in Seattle, in 1919, tied
up the whole city for a week.
GfooI CfriIyo -, 1O1n
In the autumn of 1919 came the
great steel strike, precipitated as
the result of an effort to unionize
the plants of the United States
Steel Corporation. The federal gov
eminent quickly came to the aid
of the steel corporation through in
functions and the calling out of the
federal army under General Leon
ard Wood. The Boston police strike
OF 1919 was cleverly exploited by
employers to discredit all strikes.
The strikes at PaSsaic, N. j., in
1925, and at New Bedford, Mass, in
1928, were the most colorful flare
ups until the spring of 1929. Serious
and extended industrial warfare
broke out in 1929 in the textile
towns of North Carolina, partic-
ularly in the district around Gas
tonia and Marion. There was some
bloodshed, but most of the mortal
tiles occurred among strikers, who
were wantonly fired on by deputy
sheriffs controlled by the textile
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