The strike of the 25,000 textile workers at Lawrence, Mass. came so suddenly that the Woolen Trust was overwhelmed. It started January 12, pay day at the mills. Without warning the mill owners docked the pay envelopes of their employees for two hours in time and wages as a result of the new 54-hour law which went into effect January first.

The drop averaged only 20 cents a worker and the American Woolen Company fondly imagined that their wage slaves had been sufficiently starved and cowed into docility to endure the cut, just as they had suffered a speeding up of the machines so that the output per worker in 54 hours was greater than it had been on the 56-hour basis.

But trouble started with the opening of the docked pay envelopes, and before the day was spent, Lawrence had a wholly unexpected problem on its hands. The disturbance spread quickly and within an hour 5,000 striking men and women were marching through the streets of the mill district, urging other mill workers to join them.

Their number was augmented at every step and soon "ten thousand singing, cheering men and women, boys and girls, in ragged, irregular lines, marching and counter-marching through snow and slush of a raw January afternoon—a procession of the nations of the world never equaled in the 'greatest show on earth'—surged through the streets of Lawrence. . . . You listened to the quavering notes of the Marseillaise from a trudging group of French women and you heard the strain caught up by hundreds of other marchers and melting away into the whistled chorus of ragtime from a bunch of doffer boys. Strange songs and strange shouts from strange un-at-home-looking men and women, 10,000 of them; striking because their pay envelope had been cut 'four loaves of bread.'"—The Survey.

As a matter of fact the "violence" bewailed by the mill owners consisted probably in half a dozen windows smashed on the first day of the strike, for the strikers were busy holding mass meetings under the auspices of the I. W. W. on the days following, and planning ways for carrying on and extending the fight.

But the redoubtable Mayor of Lawrence knew his duty to the mill owners and he did not flinch. When the strikers, blue and shivering in the keen 10 degrees below zero January wind, decided that the city hall was better suited for mass meetings than the commons, Mayor Scanlon burned his protestations of concern for the workers and the business men of Lawrence, behind him, and called for the militia.

Even the capitalist press, which has ever been notoriously unfair to the working class in its struggles with the employers, reported that outside of preventing the besmirchment of the precincts of the city hall by working class boots, soldier duty for the first week of the strike consisted in looking wise and parading the mill district.

Mr. Lewis E. Palmer says in the Survey, February 3:

The Boston reporters did their best to manufacture daily stories about outbreaks between soldiers and strikers and they usually managed to draw good bold face lines from the head writers. The newspaper photographers were everywhere and perhaps the best example of their art was a picture of one of their own number being 'repelled at the point of a bayonet' by a citizen soldier who was trying hard to 'see red.' By January 22 Col. E. Leroy Sweetser had a complete regiment of militia at his command, and some people wondered why.

Now everybody knows that the Woolen Trust has based its demands for a higher protective tariff on wool on the alleged necessity of paying higher wages in America than are necessary to support workers abroad. The claim has been made for the past thirty years that the protective tariff was levied primarily for the protection of American workers "against the pauper labor of Europe." But it has come about that the American workers have been reduced to pauperism under the benign influence of high tariff.

William M. Wood, president of the American Woolen Company that operates these mills, is a very particular friend of both Taft and Roosevelt, as has been made manifest by the substantial favors bestowed on him by them as chief executives of the United States.

The Woolen Trust controls more than thirty-two of the largest mills in America. Its plants cover over 650,000 acres and its stone shops contain more than 11,000,000 acres of floor space. In seven years the trust has paid out over $25,000,000 in dividends and accumulated a surplus of over $11,000,000. So much for the mill owners. Turn now to the condition of the workers. Mr. Palmer says:

In a dingy back room of an Italian house I saw over fifty empty pay envelopes which had been returned to the bank as representing average wages of men employees. The amounts written on those envelopes together with the character of the work performed are classified as follows:

1 week winding room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$6.34
1 week winding room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.50
1 week winding room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.10
1 week winding room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.55
1 week winding room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.18
1 week winding room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.20
1 week winding room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.53
1 week winding room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.99
1 week winding room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.50
1 week and 1 hour winding room . . . . . . . . 5.60
1 week and 1 hour winding room . . . . . . . . 6.40
1 week and 1 hour winding room . . . . . . . . 5.29
1 week spinning room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.71
1 week spinning room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.92
1 week spinning room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.83
1 week spinning room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.55
1 week spinning room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.92
1 week spinning room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.51
1 week spinning room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.37
1 week spinning room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.90
1 week spooling room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.05
1 week drawing room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.74
1 week drawing room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.57
1 week drawing room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.50
1 week and 6 hours drawing room . . . . . . . 5.27
1 week drawing and doffing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.05
1 week bobbin setter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.18
1 week bobbin setter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.10
1 week bobbin setter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.92
1 week bobbin setter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.18
1 week carding room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.06
1 week and 5 hours carding room . . . . . . . . 7.01
1 week beaming room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.83
1 week dryer house . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.83
1 week combing room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.90
1 week combing room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.39
1 week 3 hours combing room. . . . . . . . . . . 6.60
1 week 3 hours combing room . . . . . . . . . . . 6.16
4 days winding room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.50
4 1/2 days spinning room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.33
5 1/2 days winding room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.59
3 days combing room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.06
4 days combing room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.40
3 1/2 days combing room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.51
5 days winding room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.79
5 days combing room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.79
4 1/2 days combing room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.19
4 1/2 days beaming room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.95
5 days drawing room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.03
3 days beaming room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.00
4 1/2 days winding room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.99
5 days winding room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.40
4 days winding room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.70
5 days winding room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.91

It would seem that, wrapped up in all the red tape of Schedule K, their excellencies, the two Williams, have delivered a full sized joker to the working classes of America.

The primary cause of the strike, a cut of 22 cents in the weekly wage was, after the arrival of Joseph J. Ettor, organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World, merged into a series of demands. These demands included a 15 per cent increase in wages, the abolition of the bonus and premium system and double pay for overtime work.

With the accession of Ettor a new spirit of militancy began to permeate the strikers. Too late the mill owners offer to grant the original demand. But the new spirit of solidarity among the men and women, bringing with it a sense of their own power, welded them together in a determination to secure more of their product—to improve their condition.

Detectives in the employ of the Woolen Trust appeared overnight, and, with their advent, dynamite scare-headlines began to work their way to the front pages of the metropolitan dailies, charging the strikers with attempts to blow up the mills.

The police made arrests on the slightest provocation and the fine social sense of Judge Mahoney, who has dealt out the severest sentences possible, is shown in a statement which he made in disposing of the case of Salvatore Toresse. The judge said: 'This is an epoch in our history. Never can any of us remember when such demonstrations of lawless presumption have taken place. These men, mostly foreigners, perhaps do not mean to be offenders. They do not . . . know the laws. Therefore the only way we can teach them is to deal out the severest sentences.' Toresse was fined $100 for intimidation and $10 for disturbance and given six months for rioting. (The Survey.)

Commenting on the fact that the innocent workingmen arrested on a charge of dynamiting were still being held, the Lawrence Leader, of January 28, says:

It is no longer whispered—it is being almost published from the house-tops—that a cruel. wicked conspiracy to discredit the strikers was framed-up and the dynamite "planted" where it could be "found" quickly. The object, it is said, was not so much a newspaper fake as it was to turn public sympathy abroad from the strikers and to lead the world to believe that reckless, dangerous anarchists were the ringleaders of the strike.

Members of the state police have practically admitted that the whole business was a frame-up. It's up to them to produce the vile, low-down conspirators.

The finger of suspicion points strongly, it is said, towards a well-known "captain of industry" as the instigator of the "plant" and to three or four local men as the tools in the matter.

Before many days had passed, the residents of Lawrence were so thoroughly alive to the methods employed by the private detectives, that the mere discovery of dynamite was enough to lay any one of them open to suspicion.

Haywood Arrives.

January 24 Haywood reached Lawrence to help carry on the strike. We quote from the Evening Tribune, Lawrence:

William D. Haywood arrived in Lawrence at 11:50 o'clock from New York City Wednesday morning, and over 10,000 strikers turned out together with three bands and two drum corps to greet him at the North station with a tremendous ovation.

Long before the time when he was scheduled to arrive the strikers assembled at the depot in eager anticipation of the coming of the famous labor organizer. Even at 9 o'clock there was a large crowd awaiting his arrival. Before 10 o'clock the number of strikers at the station had been greatly increased. The sidewalks on Essex street were filled to their greatest capacities. Common street was crowded all morning also with strikers wending their way to the Boston & Maine station. About 10:30 o'clock the Franco-Belgian band arrived, having marched from the Franco-Belgian hall on Mason street. This band was followed by about 200 of the Franco-Belgian element of the strikers. The band stopped in front of the post office and played several selections.

The number of strikers was being continually augmented and the crowd seemed to be growing restless. About 11 o'clock a parade of about a thousand strikers came up Essex street. In this parade were the Umberto and the Bellini bands and St. Joseph's drum corps. When this contingent arrived there was great cheering. The bands played almost continuously and there was a great deal of noise. Every time that the cab train came in sight the crowd would commence cheering and the bands would play with renewed vigor.

Shortly after 11:30 o'clock a large parade came up Common street and joined forces with the strikers already at the station. At the head of this parade there was a sign painted on cardboard in large black letters, "All in One." There were many American flags carried by the strikers.

Finally the time for the arrival of Mr. Haywood came and when the train came in sight there was a great demonstration. When the train was approaching the crowd kept pushing up near the tracks and it looked as if someone would be run over.

When the strikers caught sight of Haywood they went almost insane with delight and cheered incessantly while the bands and drum corps boomed out stirring selections. The scene was certainly a wild one. As Mr. Haywood came out of the car he took off his hat and waved it to the crowd. The strikers surrounded Haywood and then the parade started down Common street. Haywood was near the head of the parade and was surrounded by thousands of howling and cheering strikers. The parade was over 10,000 strong. The bands played and excitement of the highest pitch prevailed.

In the afternoon a monster mass meeting was held on the commons. Arturo Giovannitti, editor of a New York Italian Socialist paper and Adam Olszewski, editor of the Polish Daily People, addressed the crowd in Italian and Polish. John Mullen and S. J. Pothier of the Shoe Workers' Protective Union of Haverhill, presented $800 to the strikers on behalf of their organization, promising more to come. Ettor also spoke.

When Haywood was introduced there was such an enthusiastic demonstration that it was many moments before he could make himself heard. He said in part:

Sister and Brother workers: There are times in every man's life when he feels that words cannot express his feelings. That is the way that I feel now when I look out into this sea of faces. The ovation that was given to me this morning was certainly marvelous and I deeply appreciate it. Mr. Ettor has told you of my history with the I. W. W. My dream in life is to see all workers united in one big union. You should carry this idea into effect because without it you will be forced back into the mills and have even worse conditions, not only in the textile works, but all workers. It behooves you to stick together and fight this present strike to a finish. You will win out if you are loyal to yourself. I saw in one of the papers that Lawrence was afraid of my coming. It is not Lawrence that fears my coming, it is the bosses and the superintendents and the owners of the mills that fear me. This is a familiar scene to me, to see soldiers guarding mills, as I have often been in just such strikes before, but I have never, in all my experience, seen a strike defeated by soldiers. It is necessary to keep a tight rein on yourselves. If we can prevail on other workers who handle your goods to help you out by going on strike we will tie up the rail roads, put the city in darkness and starve the soldiers out. The only way to make such a condition possible is to have one big union. In London once when there was a strike everything was stopped and it became necessary for the officers of the soldiers to ask permission to carry food to the horses who were starving. In France they stopped the rail roads and won a strike in three days. Soon I hope to see the workers so organized that when the mills in Lawrence go on strike, for instance, the mills in every city will go on strike. In this way you will lock the bosses out for once and for all. You have been ground down terribly in these mills. I can see that by your faces. Let me urge you on in this strike. I came here to say that the working class all over the country will help you out. In a few days I am going to the west and in every city that I go to I will say to the unions: "Help the strikers in Lawrence by sending provisions and money." Don't let the bosses fool you. This international question will never be solved unless you solve it yourselves. Stand heart to heart, mind to mind, and hand to hand with all your fellow workers and you will win out.

All you people come from other nations and you all come to America with the expectation of improving your conditions. You expected to find a land of the free, but you found we of America were but economic slaves as you were in your own home. I come to extend to you tonight the hand of brotherhood with no thought of nationality. There is no foreigner here except the capitalist and he will not be a foreigner long for we will make a worker of him. Do not let them divide you by sex, color, creed or nationality, for as you stand today you are invincible. If the Poles, Italians and Greeks stand together they are invincible. The I. W. W. is composed of different nationalities and with such a fighting committee you can lick "Billy" Wood. "Billy" Wood can lick one Pole, in fact he can lick all the Poles, but he can not lick all the nationalities put together. We have got "Billy" Wood licked now. He never did anything but make trouble.

You can't weave cloth with bayonets. The blue cloth that you have woven has gone to clothe those soldiers, but it will wear out. United in this organization we will never weave any more for them; let them go naked.

Don't let this be a single-handed struggle. Join hands with the others. Let us build up a new organization in which every man contributes his part toward the welfare of others. Let us enforce a regime in which no man can make anything for profit.

The only way to win is to unite with all other textile workers. No one branch can get along without the other. The woolsorter is necessary, no matter how stinking his job may be. You are textile workers but you don't seem to realize what an important factor you as textile workers are to society. You are the men and women who clothe the world. You make the clothes for the working class and the robes for the rich. The continuance of civilization is in many cases due to your efforts. You are more important to society than any judge on the supreme bench, than any judge, lawyer, politician or capitalist or any man who does not work for an honest living. Those who do nothing are always looked up to as the prominent citizens of a city.

It is an inspiration to see you all together in one great cause. I hope to see the boundary line between all nations broken down and one great nation of the working class. There are only two nations in the world today; the working class on one side and the capitalists on the other. We of the working class must stand together.

The wonderful solidarity displayed by the strikers has surprised everybody. There are more languages spoken in the confines of Lawrence than in any other district of its size in the world. But in spite of these barriers, the strike was an almost spontaneous one and seventeen races, differing widely in speech and custom, rose in a concerted protest. Lacking anything like a substantial organization at the outset, they have clung together in furthering a common cause without dissension. Too much credit cannot be given Comrades Joseph Ettor and William D. Haywood in the splendid work of organization and education they have carried on in Lawrence. Says the Outlook for February 10:

Haywood does not want unions of weavers, unions of spinners, unions of loom-fixers, unions of wool-sorters, but he wants one comprehensive union of all textile workers, which in time will take over the textile factories, as the steel workers will take over the steel mills and the railway workers the railways. Haywood interprets the class conflict literally as a war which is always on, which becomes daily more bitter and uncompromising, which can end only with the conquest of a capitalistic society by proletarians or wage-workers, organized industry by industry.

Haywood places no trust in trade agreements, which, according to his theory, lead merely to social peace and "put the workers to sleep." Let the employer lock out his men when he pleases, and let the workmen strike when they please. He is opposed to arbitration, conciliation, compromise; to sliding scales, profit-sharing, welfare work; to everything, in short, which may weaken the revolutionary force of the workers. He does not ask for the closed shop or the official recognition of the union, for he has no intention of recognizing the employer. What he desires is not a treaty of industrial peace between the two high contracting parties, but merely the creation of a proletarian impulse which will eventually revolutionize society. Haywood is a man who believes in men, not as you and I believe in them, but fervently, uncompromisingly, with an obstinate faith in the universal good-will and constancy of the workers, worthy of a great religious leader. That is what makes him supremely dangerous.

Governor Foss, himself one of the mill owners, and Mayor Scanlon have never before met "strike leaders" like Ettor and Haywood. This is probably their first experience with representatives of labor who cannot be "reached" in some way. More than one attempt was made to come to an "understanding" with Ettor. It was even shown how he could persuade the strikers to accept a few of their demands, call off the strike and make himself the most popular labor leader in the country with the mill companies, but in preference, the Boston Herald says:

He is to be found at almost any hour in some long low-ceiled hall talking earnestly to row upon row of set faces which strangely contrast the racial peculiarities of many quarters of the earth.

Talking, talking, always talking on One Big Union. It was agreed by the mill owners long before Haywood's arrival that he was the worst possible man they could have opposing them.

Haywood and some of the strikers conferred with the Investigating Committee when it came to Lawrence.

Speaker Cushing opened the meeting by saying that the legislators came informally, being there on their own responsibility, without any particular authority, for the purpose of finding out conditions, preparatory to acting on various bills, which had been introduced relative to the industrial struggle in Lawrence.

One of the bills was introduced in the house by a Socialist, Representative Morrell of Haverhill, while Senator Barlow of Lowell introduced a bill in the senate.

Unfortunately none of the investigators themselves were Socialists. In reporting the investigation, the Outlook correspondent, February 10, says:

I have rarely seen anything more sensational and dramatic than a certain quiet intellectual collision which I witnessed in the Mayor's office at Lawrence between Haywood and a few strikers and an investigating committee of the State Legislature. It was a war of philosophies à outrance, compared to which a bloody affray between militia and strikers would have seemed puerile and insignificant. The committee, composed of men of exceptional intellectual attainments, were thrown upon the defensive. "What can your state do?" asked the strikers, almost in so many words. "If you find one party wrong, can your state force it to do right? Can you legislators be impartial as arbitrators, when you have not lived the bitter life of the workers? Would you arbitrate a question of life and death, and are the worst wages paid in these mills anything short of death? Do you investigate because conditions are bad, or because the workers broke loose and struck? Why did you not come before the strike? Can you weave cloth with the bayonets of your militia, or spin with the clubs of your policemen? What can your State of Massachusetts do to make wrong right for the workingmen who form the bulk of your citizens?"

Haywood quoted some pay envelopes received by spinners at the Wood mill, $6.99, $6.74, $5.45, $6.30 and $8.25, the latter being for extra work. He also called attention to the fact that on the envelope of the one marked $5.45, there was a little advice about the benefits of saving money and the name of a local bank was given advertising. He thought that this was heaping on abuse.

Mr. Haywood was asked what his idea was relative to a committee coming to Lawrence to investigate conditions here, and later to investigate conditions throughout the state.

Haywood replied:

I have no hope in a legislative investigation, as I think it will result in nothing. The workers here have broken loose and other cities are soon going to break loose, too. It is immaterial to me, however, whether or not there is a legislative investigation.

We have no hope in the two political parties which you represent, but I have no doubt that if the legislative committee comes here the strikers will give them all the information they want, and will furnish guides to bring you through the homes of the workers.

If you gentlemen desire to improve conditions here, you could do well by withdrawing the militia and urge upon the legislature favorable action on the bill for $10,000 for the Lawrence strikers, or double that amount.

I have no question that the strikers here could improve conditions in the mills themselves, because they have the labor power.

It is a vital matter, however, and I am glad to see that it has aroused the politicians, and it is high time that they saw it was someone else other than the "upper ten" who were responsible for the prosperity of good old Massachusetts. Good will result if you go about the investigation honestly.

Representative Bothfell asked Mr. Haywood what impression in his opinion the state board of arbitration had made upon the strikers, and Haywood replied:

The state board of arbitration made a bad showing here. They could not deliver the goods. They could not get the operators into the conference.

On February 2, Ettor was arrested on a charge of complicity in the murder of Anna La Pizza, an Italian woman who was shot during a street meeting in Lawrence, January 30. Several business men in Lawrence proved that Ettor was not present at the time of the shooting but he was refused bail. Every one recognized this as another move on the part of the mill owners to cripple the strike.

The strikers were denied the privilege of congregating to hold meetings. Col. Sweetser is reported as saying:

I will allow no mass meetings. I will allow no parades. We are going to look for trouble—legitimate trouble from now on. We are not looking for peace now.

On January 30 John Rami, an 18-year-old Syrian striker, was bayoneted by a member of a squad of Massachusetts militia. The boy was stuck through the back like a pig as he ran with seven companions before an unprovoked charge of the state soldiers. He died a few hours afterward in the Lawrence hospital. Many other strikers were injured by the soldiers.

But in spite of these disasters and the threat of Col. Sweetser, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn gathered together 12,000 strikers and marched with them down to hold a meeting on the commons. The soldiers faced them with bayonets, but yielded before the determined crowd of men and women.

At present a reign of terror has the entire city of Lawrence in its grip. Fourteen hundred soldiers have converted the streets into an armed camp. The classic doors of one of our oldest colleges have been thrown open to permit the youth of "our best families" to join the militia and "insolent, well-fed Harvard men parade up and down, their rifles loaded with ball cartridge, their bayonets glittering, keen and hungry for the blood of the strikers who are fighting the resources of the entire state to secure a wage that will enable them to live in comparative sufficiency and decency." (New York Call.)

William E. Trautmann and James P. Thompson, organizers for the I. W. W., have joined Haywood in Lawrence to help in the work of organization. Telegrams have been sent to the Switchmens' Unions and other railroad organizations asking them to refuse to handle the goods of the woolen companies, and Haywood has been called to Fall River and New Bedford where the workers are taking up plans for a state-wide strike in the textile mills.

Plans were laid for sending the children of the strikers to New York to be cared for during the fight and in response to the enthusiastic appeal of the New York Call, over 1,000 men and women offered to care for children until the strike was over.

The Lawrence strike is one of the most inspiring struggles the American workers have ever known. Separated by many different languages, customs and religions, the men and women, the boys and girls of Lawrence have joined hands to fight as one man against the common enemy—the woolen companies.

The strikers are accustomed to hunger and cold; hardships for themselves they can hope to endure, now that comrades in other cities have offered to feed and care for the children so that they may struggle on unhindered by the cries of the little ones for bread.

The American Woolen Company, supported by the officials of the state and the nation, by the militia, the police and the courts, upheld by a lying press, is in a panic of fear. This is the busy season of the year in the mills. Cloth is needed. Orders are waiting to be filled and the woolen company must continue to exploit its wage slaves or become unable to pay dividends upon its stock. It is a case of dividends against more bread for the striking workers in Lawrence.

In response to a motion by Comrade Haywood, the members of the National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party have issued a call for funds to aid the strikers. The Socialists at Lawrence have set the wheels revolving by a movement to recall Mayor Scanlon. Socialist locals in Massachusetts and in every state in the union are holding meetings and selling literature and collecting donations to send to Lawrence.

On Sunday, Feb. 11th, at the Grand Central Station, New York City, 5,000 comrades met a carload of little strikers from Lawrence. The police, delegated to "preserve order" were swept aside and the children were caught up and swung shoulder high by strong working-class arms. At the Labor Temple warm food and clothes awaited them after which the comrades who were to care for them took the children home. Philadelphia has offered to care for 250 children. The tocsin of class solidarity has sounded throughout the land. Now is the time to show your colors.

This is your fight and my fight. An injury to one worker is an injury to all workers. We cannot save ourselves without freeing the whole working class. Now is the time to show the men and women at Lawrence that Socialism means something today as well as the abolition of wage slavery tomorrow.

Send donations to the Review or to Joseph Bedard, secretary, 9 Mason street, Lawrence, Mass.

Text taken from the International Socialist Review, Vol. 12 No. 9, March 1912. Spelling and punctuation have been slightly modified.