The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-09-11
Women Aid Strikers in
Fight Against the
Guardsmen
By Carl Reeve
Special 10 the Daily worker

tSpecial 10 the DatY worker
PROVIDENCE. R. /. Sept. 10
More than 5000 workers are nlassed
as this is written, and more are
massing around the Sales Finishing
Company mill at SalcGville. r. I.
The State troopers have set I'D ma
chine guns and wired Of the roads
leading to the mill.
I stood at o'clock on the Lans-
downe Avenue mill entrance. This
crowd Of strikers had been growing
steadily for an hour and the first
strikebreakers began to come out.
One of them as he passed the mass
plckets swung at a striker The
crowd surged around. Without
moments dslsy, the State troopers
set of tear gas grenades.
Troopers Gss Strikers
For mo-e than an hour the strik-
ers, among whom were hundreds Of
women, faced a constant berrage of
troopers tear gas gren2des, guns
and smoke pistols. Lansdowna Ave
nue. resembled a battle-ground of the
World War. The strikers, particu-
larly the younger ones, were in the
front lines, defending their ranks
with cob5lestones and bricks and
anything which came handy. Again
and again the workers retreated a
few feet, only to reform their ranks
and charge back toward the street
leading to the mill entrance. Stones
filed the air.
Strikers ReDulse Troopers
The hats Of the State troopers
were den5ed in. Some OF them we're
limping. The young strikers w9uld
pause a moment to wipe their eyes
and then return to the front line.
After the fight the strikers were
still within half a block of their
starting point, and the score Of
State troopers we're standing sullen-
ly up the bank on mill property,
their fingers on the triggers Of rifles
and riot guns.
They stood behind their machine
guns. which faced the workers on
Lansdovne Avenue. The tear gas
bombs were exploded so rapidly that
the streets were chcked. Many. in
Guiding your correspondent. were
streaming tears. But much of the
tear gas was taken by the wind back
to the faces of the Rhode Island
State troopers.
Trooper Clubs Worker
saw one worker badly injured
by a troopers club, taken of to the
rear in an automobile. The strik-
ers opened the way for their
wounded fellow workers like a well
disciplined army. Several women
were injured, and scores. perhaps
hundreds, felt the effects of the tear
gas guns End bombs. But not once
during the fighting were the work
ers routed Their retreat was O.
derby and time after time they re-
formed and charged with rocks fly
ing.
The State troopers wore tin hats.
carried bags of grensdes over their
shoulders, long clubs and a number
carried tear gas guns and rifles
ready for use.
More than 1000 workers are still
picketing around the mill and de-
clare they will fight until it is
closed. This mill is a KEY mill and
enc Ct several il Rhodo Island on
which t.,e strikers were concentrate
ing tcdsy
Main Textile Mills Stepped
A tcar Of Rhode Island textile
cen5ers which began early this
morning showed that the strikers
have achieved their objective in
keeping important textile centers in
New England closed
Ninety per cent of the New En-
gland textile workers numbering
100000 are solid on strike.
Strikers Prove Militancy
AS in the Saylesville battle the
strikers are showing the greatest
nilitsncy ard are determined to
keep ell mills closed and shut down
thcse remaining few which are try
ing to rua.
Tbs morning I visited the North
Dighton mill where the Hope Fin
ishing Company has imported more
than five thousand gunner TO guard
their plant. Here, too, we saw scenes