The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-09-10
Impressions Of First Days Of Textile
Strike in NesO Bedford, Mass.
Pickets Tell of Low
Wages, Speed-up
in Plants
By OAKLEY JOHNSON

T ABOR" DAY in New Bedford
IL found the press excited about
the announced strike, and uncer-
tain about its local effectiveness.
Claims" of the unions were re-
ferred to with the typical combina-
ton of sensationalism and doubt
which is calculated to sell the pa
pers but cause worker readers to
wayer. The Boston Post declared
Strikes Mar Day for working
man." and reported Matthew VOLS
Labor Day speech against the wave
of Communist strikes The Boston
Evening American had already its
fourth article about how the Reds
on order from Moscow, were plot
ting revolution in New England mil
centers. The Boston erald de-
clated, Reds Threaten to start
Fights in New Bedford, Arrest Of
Ann Burlak on Slightest Provoca-
ton Is ordered"
The New Bedford Morning Mer-
curry gushed in a headline the fol-
lowing morning that working Man
Has His Day" spoke sadly Of the
strike cloud" that hung over the
poor mans horizon. and said the
administration at Washington was
thinking about "how best to give
workingmen everywhere a happier
life"
But the New Bedford leaders of
the United Textile workers had no
doubt about the effectiveness Of the
strike. They had been pushed
ahead too hard by the tremendous
mass surge Of the Bitterly discon-
tended workers to have doubt on
that score. Their chief spokesman,
William Batty, at the mass meet
ing in Hardwood Park, had AL
ready dilly-dallied too long in his
numerous conferences" at wash
ington during the past months,
holding back the strikers and try
ing to arrange a settlement that
would somehow fool the 10000
workers in New Bedford's % tex
tile factories and break the strike.
1t couldn't be done, and he knew
it. The speech he made at Hazel
wood Park at noon of Labor Day
showed his realization that If he
and his colleagues in the United
Textile Workers did not lead the
strike, someone else would. He
spoke almost as militantly as a
real militant. He called on the
workers to strike solidly against the
bosses, to picket the factories en-
masse, men and women, to win the
fight against speed-up and low
wages.
But he also warned against the
Reds (who, in the Textile Workers
Voice. and under the leadership of
Ann Burlak, had for months been
calling for strike action and set
ting the pace by formulating basic
dernands), and he put over a f1ukey
explanation Of his refusal to ac-
cept the National Textile Workers
Union proposal for united action in
the strike (such as had already
been agreed Upon in Fall River.
The Strike Starts
TUESDAY morning dawned cloud
fly; with rain threatening. The
papers carried the announcement
of Federal Relief Administrator
Hopkins to textile workers that the
administration would not under
write their strike" by giving relief
to strikers families, and they
would "fnd ojit very soon that they
are Badly mistaken" if they thought
otherwise. President Roosevelt,
our great leader in Washington, :"
as the U.T,W. leaders called him,
was still Mum on Strike"
But the workers were gathering
in the streets already before the
nights dusk cleared away nearly
two hours before the mills were
scheduled to open. More than 1000
grim men ana women were gath
cred before the gates of the Dart
mouth mill, standing on the fat
side of the street, looking across,
when the moment for the morning
shift began. Looking across at the
bleak windows of the factory, where
the electric lights showed the
bosses expectation of starting work
as usual, looking at the heavy iron
bars of the factory gates, at the
police guards stationed there.
Thin, lahky, overalled men; lean,
Arm jawed women, slim young fell
lows and girls, workers OF. all ages
from 16 to 60; stood about smiling
and now and then strolling few
steps, watching the factory gates
like hawks. They smiled in tri-
umph. Not a worker entered the
gates. They smiled in determined
satisfaction into each others eyes.
Not worker even approached the
| factory gates.