You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Sunday October 2, 1904
From The Labor World: Fall River Strikers Refuse to Accept 12% Wage Reduction
In this week's
Labor World we find that the Fall River Textile Strike now continues into its eighth week and that the strikers remain firm in their refusal to accept a 12 per cent reduction in their already meager wage:
END NOT YET IN SIGHT IN BIG TEXTILE STRIKE
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Many Skilled Workmen Seeking Other Fields for Their Labor.
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Millowners Claim Resumption is Impossible Without Cut in Wages.
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FALL RIVER, Mass., Sept. 29.-The peaceful but determined contest between $37,000,000 of invested mill capital, and 26,000 mill laborers, which began in this city eight weeks ago, is apparently no nearer a settlement than at its outset last July. Both sides remain firm, the mill owners claiming that it is impossible to resume operations unless the 12 percent reduction is made in wages.
With winter near, the unions have already begun to husband their resources. The exodus of foreign operatives has naturally been large, and lately many of the skilled workmen have joined the outgoing army, seeking other fields for their labor.
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Fall River, Mass., Sept. 29.-The first intimation of a settlement of the strike in the cotton mills in this city, which began July 25, came today when it became known that one of the manufacturers had bought a large quantity of material to be delivered the latter part of October, and that other manufacturers were trying to place similar orders.
It is the general belief that any settlement of the strike within the next two or three weeks will be in favor of the operatives.
The strikers still express their determination not to return to work under the wage reduction of 12 per cent which was the cause of the strike.
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The Labor World further informs
that the strikers have gained a powerful ally:
FALL RIVER STRIKERS GET GOMPERS' SUPPORT
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President of A. F. of L. Asks for Financial Aid for Mill Workers.
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Appeals to All Organized Labor to Support Textile Workers' Strike.
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WASHINGTON, D. C. Sept. 29.-President Gompers of the American Federation of Labor issued an appeal last night to all organized labor, pleading for financial aid for the 25,000 textile operators in Fall River who have been on strike for eight weeks against "a proposed reduction of 12 [&] 1/2 per cent, in their already scant wages."
It is declared that the contest has been fully investigated by the executive council of the order and the strikers given its full support. In conclusion President Gompers says:
No more worthy cause can appeal to you than this. The textile operatives need your financial, as well as moral, support. All members of organized labor are especially appealed to to contribute financially to the limit of their ability.
Let us make a determined effort to help our brothers and sisters of Fall River win a glorious victory and there-by protect our own interests and receive the reward and gratitude of the present as well as the future.
[photograph added]
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SOURCE
The Labor World
(Duluth, Minnesota & Superior, Wisconsin)
-of Oct 1, 1904
http://www.newspapers.com/...
IMAGES
Lewis Hine: French Girl in Massachusetts Mill
(used here to represent a Fall River Textile Striker)
http://www.teenagefilm.com/...
Samuel Gompers
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
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Thursday October 2, 2014
More on the Fall River Textile Strike of 1904
The Labor Bulletin from the Massachusetts Department of Labor and Industries gives a summary of the 1904 Fall River Textile Strike:
1904-July-Textile Operatives-Fall River.
The Fall River Textile Strike, inaugurated on July 25, 1904, was one of the largest and most disastrous strikes that the Commonwealth has known....
[List of statistics, see link below to view.]
Conferences between committees of manufacturers and operatives on Nov. 7 proved fruitless, and mills were reopened on Nov. 14. At first little success attended the reopening, but practically all the mills are now running, four of them being reported as running nearly full. On Nov. 18, the American Federation of Labor, in convention, voted pecuniary assistance. Action taken by the five textile unions on Dec. 30, regarding prolongation of strike, resulted in vote of 1,401 for continuance and 420 against.
The controversy was finally terminated by the efforts of Ex-Governor William L. Douglas to have the operatives return to work in the mills in which they were employed when they struck as soon as possible, and that no discrimination should be shown on account of the part which they took in the textile strike.
After the resumption of work the Governor investigated the matter relating to the margin between the raw material and manufactured goods required by the manufacturers and submitted his conclusion as to what average margin should prevail. At the time the men returned to work it was agreed that should the margin prove to be what the Governor believed should prevail, the manufacturers were to pay a dividend of five per cent on wages earned from January 20 until April 1, 1905.
The decision of the Governor was given out on May 17, 1905, and was to the effect that the margin required would be 74.38 cents between the price of 45 yards of cloth and 85 of cotton and pay a dividend of five per cent on the wages earned during the time specified. Upon the receipt of the Governor‘s decision on May 17 the Executive Committee of the Textile Council acted upon the matter and on June 5 the matter was considered closed. Later in the month the Textile Council voted to ask the manufacturers for a conference to consider the industrial situation, but this was refused on the ground that no good could result therefrom.
[paragraph breaks added]
SOURCE
Labor Bulletin, Issues 39-44
Massachusetts. Dept. of Labor and Industries.
Division of Statistics, 1906
http://books.google.com/...
(Search with "Fall River Textile Strike" and choose p.191.)
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Working Girl Blues - Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerard
Well, I’m tired of workin’ my life away
And givin’ somebody else all of my pay
While they get rich on the profits that I lose
And leavin’ me here with those workin’ girl blues
I-dee-o-lady, workin’ girl blues
And I can’t even afford a new pair of shoes
While they can live in any old penthouse they choose
And all that I’ve got is the workin’ girl blues
-Hazel Dickens
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