The day book. [volume], July 13, 1912, Image 3

About The day book. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1911-1917

Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

                
..Never in America has there
.been such a strike or such a
leader. When the mill owners cut
down wages without notice and
their employes started to strike,
Ettor suddenly appeared, representing-
the I. W. W., and welded
together the medley of races. Ital
ian, Syriaps, Portuguese, French,
Belgians, Poles and Russians he
soon had them all at the beck of
his finger.
They were marching through
the streets 'bne day in January,
15,000 of them. The militia had
checked them till they were rag
ing. They started toward one of
the big. factories, and things
looked bad.
Suddenly little Joe Ettor, smil
ing, his hat on one side and a big
cigar pointing up toward his left
eye, appeared from a side street
and jumped on top ofa water
plugT
Joe held up both hands and
those 15,000 rioters stopped. He
gave a curt order and they turned
silently and marched to the city
common. Then Joe made a speech
that set them cheering like a
YaleHarvard football crowd.
Nothing flustered him. Not
even the, supremely dignified
state authorities of the common
wealth of Massachusetts.
The president of the state
board of arbitration got the mill
owners and labor repcesentatives
together. At the last minute the
owners hedged.
In filed Joe Ettor and 49 men
and women with him. Joe sat
down, lighted a cigar, spat on the
rug and smiled expectantly. The
president proceeded to make a
speech on the merits of arbitra
tion. Up jumps Joe with his florid
Santa Claus smile:
"Mr. President, we didn't come
here to listen to any lecture.
We're here on business, to meet
the mill owners, at your invita
tion. Where are they?"
Such shocking manners! The
president smoothed over Joe's
faux pas, and went on. Up jumps
Joe again with his eternal smile.
"Mr. President, I represent the
allied trades of the Lawrence tex
tile mills. With me are represen
tatives of every trade and every
nationality. If you and the mill
owners want to talk business,
very well! If not, good night!"'
Joe led his followers out of the
hall, crossed the street and held a
jollification meeting. "We've got
'em going," shouted Joe in three
of four languages, and his hearers
yelled the roof off.
Well, they put Joe in jail.
Early one morning there was a
row between strikers and militia
men. A bullet killed a woman,
Annie Lapizzo. William Wood's
lawyers got their heads together,
and at midnight, Jan. 30, Ettor
was arrested on a charge of mur
der, as an "accessory before the
fact." Arturo Giovannetti, an
other leader, was taken with him.
The woman, the state argued,
might have been shot by a striker.
If so, the striker might have been
incited to it by inflammatory
speeches that Ettor and Giovan
netti might have raa'de some
where or other.
"Pretty flimsy," said many an
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