1912–1913 Little Falls textile strike

Textile workers strike in New York, US January 2023 January 2023 1912–1913 Little Falls textile strike Parade of strikers during the 1912–1913 Little Falls textile strike.png Strikers on parade shortly after the initial walkout October 9, 1912 – January 6, 1913(10 09 1912 01 06 1913) Little Falls, New York, United States * Decrease in wages following a reduction in maximum working hours for women from 60 to 54 hours per week * Picketing Protests Strike action Walkout Mills agree to pay 60-hour wages for 54-hour workweek, institute changes in piece work pay * Industrial Workers of the World Local No. 801 — the National Industrial Union of Textile Workers of Little Falls United Textile Workers of America Socialist Party of America * Phoenix Knitting Mill Gilbert Knitting Mill Matilda Robbins The 1912–1913 Little Falls textile strike was a labor strike involving workers at two textile mills in Little Falls, New York, United States. The strike began on October 9, 1912, as a spontaneous walkout of primarily immigrant mill workers at the Phoenix Knitting Mill following a reduction in pay, followed the next week by workers at the Gilbert Knitting Mill for the same reason. The strike, which grew to several hundred participants under the leadership of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), lasted until January the following year, when the mills and the strikers came to an agreement that brought the workers back to the mills on January 6. Little Falls, a city situated along the Mohawk River, saw substantial growth in its textile industry during the early 1900s. The city's textile mills were primarily operated by immigrant workers from Europe who faced poor living conditions in the city. In 1912, as part of efforts to improve workplace safety, the state government passed a law that lowered the maximum number of weekly working hours for women and children from 60 to 54. However, the law did not address pay, resulting in many workers throughout the state seeing a decrease in wages due to their reduced working hours. In many cases, brief labor disputes led to the companies altering pay rates, but in Little Falls, the Phoenix and Gilbert Knitting Mills resisted, leading to many mill workers receiving less pay than before. As a result, on October 9, 80 workers at the Phoenix Mill performed a walkout, and they were joined on October 18 by 76 workers from the Gilbert Mill. Over the next few days, the number of strikers continued to increase until over 600 workers were on strike. Shortly after the walkout, Socialist Party members from nearby Schenectady, including that city's Socialist Mayor George R. Lunn, came to Little Falls to help the strikers. Many, including Lunn, were arrested during peaceful rallies at a park near the mills, but after criticism from regional publications and state politicians, the city backed down by late October. Around that same time, the IWW, which had sent organizers to the city near the beginning of the strike, took the lead in organizing the strikers, helping them to form a strike committee, teaching them picketing techniques, and helping to draft a list of demands that included pay increases. On October 24, the strikers voted to officially organize a local union of the IWW in Little Falls. Several days later, on October 30, there was a violent confrontation between law enforcement officials and strikers outside the Phoenix Mill, and in the resulting riot, police raided the strikers' headquarters and arrested many. Following this, IWW officials Matilda Rabinowitz and Bill Haywood came to Little Falls to help continue the strike. Around the same time, the IWW faced competition from the United Textile Workers of America (UTW), which organized its own separate local union and signed a labor contract that brought some mill workers back to work on December 2. However, the IWW local, with about 400 members, stayed out. On December 24, the New York State Department of Labor initiated an investigation into the strike and helped to negotiate a contract that was approved by both the mills and the union. As a result, the IWW members returned to work on January 6, 1913, bringing the strike to a close. The terms of the contract resulted in wage increases of between 6 and 15 percent for the workers, depending on their piece work pay, and resulted in the strikers receiving their employment back without discrimination. However, over the next several months, the IWW focused a great deal of time and resources into court cases regarding several of those arrested during the strike, and ultimately, two organizers were found guilty of assault and sentenced to a year in prison. As a result of these developments, the IWW local soon fell into a state of disorder, while nationally, the IWW suffered a serious blow to its size and power following the disastrous 1913 Paterson silk strike, which also concerned mill workers. By the 1920s, the IWW had entered into a period of serious decline, while the UTW ramped up its organizing efforts among immigrants in the area. The Little Falls strike was one in a wave of textile strikes in the Northeastern United States that followed the IWW's successful 1912 Lawrence textile strike, and one of numerous IWW-led strikes throughout the Northeast and the Midwest during the 1910s. Background Industry in Little Falls, New York thumb|300x300px|Little Falls, New York, in 1894 Little Falls is a city in Herkimer County, in the Mohawk Valley region of Upstate New York,Snyder 1979 29Pearson 2005 850 near Utica.Abrams 1989 17 Situated along the banks of the Mohawk River,Snyder 1979 32 the city was one of several in the region to have a developed textile industry with multiple textile mills by the beginning of the 20th century.Pearson 2005 850 The city's first mill had been organized in 1872, and by 1912, the city was a sizeable center for the production of knitted fabrics and underwear,Foner 1979 440 home to several mills and other manufacturing facilities, earning it the nickname "the Lowell of the Empire State".Snyder 1979 32 These mills employed many immigrants from Europe, including many Austrians, Hungarians, Italians, and Poles.Snyder 1979 34 Many were not fluent in English.Snyder 1979 34Orth 1919 206 These immigrants were drawn to Little Falls due to the robust economic growth the city was experiencing during the early 1900s, as the economic output of the city grew by 89 percent between 1904 and 1909, with the total value of goods produced during the latter year equal to about $8.5 million.Snyder 1979 35 The laborers at these mills often faced poor working conditions, with the mills employing children as young as 5 years old in sweatshop conditions, while their squalid living conditions led to a high rate of tuberculosis among the immigrants.Snyder 1979 33, 43 The millworkers lived in tenements that an article in The New York Times compared to "rabbit warrens".Snyder 1979 53 The latter had prompted the Fortnightly Club, a local charity organization,Foner 1979 445 to hire M. Helen Schloss to serve as a visiting nurse to treat tuberculosis and other sicknesses in the city.Snyder 1979 44 Organized labor During this period of growth in Little Falls, business interests worked to prevent worker unionization, and in 1912, there were only 12 local unions in the city, representing only 6 percent of the population.Snyder 1979 35 In the mills, only about 75 jack spinners were unionized,note Jack spinners in the mill operated machinery that spun a cotton strand after it had left the carding machine.Foner 1979 441 constituting about a quarter of the entire union membership in the city.Snyder 1979 35 These spinners, who worked 60 hours per week, made about $2.60 per day, which was higher than the daily pay for spinners in other nearby cities, but the majority of mill workers were not unionized and made substantially less.Snyder 1979 35–36 In a study of the weekly pay of about 800 male workers, almost half made $9 or less, while less than a quarter made over $12.Snyder 1979 36 Out of 900 female workers' weekly wages, about half made $7.50 or less, about a fifth made more than $10, and 30 percent made $6 or less.Snyder 1979 36 Many workers complained of the low wages, saying that they were insufficient to provide for themselves and their family.Snyder 1979 36 Nationwide, union membership remained relatively low, with only about 6 percent of the country's workforce in 1905 affiliated with the American Federation of Labor (AFL), a federation of labor unions that primarily focused on organizing skilled tradesmen into craft unions.Pula 2009 144 AFL leaders were relatively unconcerned with unionizing unskilled workers and viewed immigrant laborers, such as the workers at the mills in Little Falls, as a potential danger to the craft union movement.Fones-Wolf Fones-Wolf 1983 172–173 Also in 1905, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, whose members are known as Wobblies), an anarcho-syndicalist union,Perkins 2005 712 was established and began to organize unskilled workers in the country into industrial unions.Pula 2009 144 Unionization efforts by the IWW would eventually push the AFL to reconsider their approach to unskilled labor,Pula 2009 144 and the two organizations often engaged in competition to represent workers and lead labor strikes.Pula 2009 146 During the 1910s, the IWW attempted to organize many factories in New York,Pearson 2005 850 and they were involved in several labor disputes in the state, such as the 1912 New York City waiters' strike in May of that year.Cashman 2005 773 That same year, the union led a strike against the New York Mills Corporation of New York Mills, which involved many Polish immigrants.Pula 1995 53 In the United States during the early 1900s, many Polish workers were receptive to industrial unionism with the IWW and similar militant unions, such as the United Mine Workers of America.Pula 2009 144–145 Changes to hours and wages thumb|262x262px|The Jackson bill came after the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire amidst efforts to improve workplace safety.Snyder 1979 31 In 1911, New York State Assembly member Edward D. Jackson of Buffalo proposed legislation that would reduce the maximum number of weekly hours that women and minors could work in factories from 60 to 54.Snyder 1979 30 Additionally, the bill would bar them from working between the hours of 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. and prohibit them from working more than ten hours per day.Snyder 1979 33 The Jackson bill was opposed by industry interests, who hired lobbyists to attempt to prevent the bill's passage into law.Snyder 1979 30 Mill owners argued that the bill would hurt the state's textile industry, while one company that also operated mills in Georgia stated that the law would lead to more work being performed in those locations, where the cap on hours per week that women could work was 66.Snyder 1979 30 Meanwhile, organized labor supported the bill, with textile unionist John Golden speaking in favor of its passage.Snyder 1979 30–31 Additional support came from Frances Perkins, head of the New York branch of the National Consumers League, and the New York Child Labor Committee.Snyder 1979 31 The bill was proposed amidst a greater push for workplace safety for women following the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, an industrial disaster in New York City that had killed over 100 women.Snyder 1979 31 As part of this movement, the New York State Legislature had also created the Factory Investigating Commission to investigate working conditions in the state, with the commission visiting Little Falls in August 1912.Snyder 1979 31–33 Ultimately, with support from New York Governor John Alden Dix, the bill was approved and signed into law, with an effective date of October 1, 1912.Snyder 1979 33–34 While the bill had addressed the number of hours that could be worked, the legislation did not address the impact that the change would have on wages.Snyder 1979 34 As a result, when the law came into effect, many companies reduced pay in proportion to the decrease in hours worked.Snyder 1979 34 This led to numerous and sporadic walkouts throughout the state, with workers objecting to receiving less money.Snyder 1979 34 A similar situation had occurred previously in Massachusetts when that state's government had passed a similar law that decreased working hours that similarly led to strikes,Snyder 1979 34 including the 1912 Lawrence textile strike.Golin 1988 67 The Lawrence strike, led by the IWW and involving many immigrant workers,Goldberg 2009 331–332 such as Poles,Pula 2009 146 had occurred just a few months before the labor disputes in New York.Eliassen 2021 153 In many cases, the companies were able to quickly resolve these disputes by adjusting wages.Snyder 1979 34 In Little Falls, the Phoenix Knitting Mill and the Gilbert Knitting Mill also lowered wages according to the reduced hours, leading to a labor strike at these two mills.Snyder 1979 34Pula 2009 146 Course of the strike Early strike actions On October 9,Snyder 1979 29Dunn 2012 80 workers at the Phoenix Knitting Mill performed a walkout due to the reduced pay they had received.Snyder 1979 34Rogers Downey McManus 1913 27 The walkout was a spontaneous action among the workers,Abrams 1989 17 who were primarily immigrants such as Italians and Poles.Pula 2009 146Snyder 1979 29 On October 18,Rogers Downey McManus 1913 27 76 workers at the Gilbert Knitting Mill also performed a walkout to protest their reduced wages.Snyder 1979 34 Over the next several days, more workers began to honor the picket line, until the number of workers on strike was roughly equal to the number of workers who remained working,Snyder 1979 34 with about 664 workers involved in strike action and a further 659 workers indirectly affected by the strike.Snyder 1979 29note Sources vary on the exact number of workers involved in the strike. In a 1979 article published in the journal New York History, historian Robert E. Snyder stated, "664 workers braved inclement weather and entrenched local interests to strike against the Phoenix and Gilbert Knitting Mills, and another 659 workers were indirectly affected by work stoppages".Snyder 1979 29 Snyder goes on to state that the number of workers who went on strike was roughly equal to the number who did not.Snyder 1979 34 However, in a 1995 book, later partially republished in a 2009 entry for The Encyclopedia of Strikes in American History, historian James S. Pula said of the strike, "more than 1,300 workers" went on strike.Pula 1995 52Pula 2009 146 Additionally, in a December 1912 issue of the International Socialist Review, Phillips Russell stated that, on October 10, "more than 1,500 workers" from both mills performed a walkout.Russell 1912 456 Meanwhile, a 2012 article in the Industrial Worker stated that 1,000 workers from each mill (2,000 total) went on strike.Dunn 2012 However, a 1913 report by the New York State Department of Labor contradicts some of these larger estimates. The report states that, at the time of the strike, the Phoenix Mill employed 1,100 workers and the Gilbert Mill, 495.Rogers Downey McManus 1913 27 While the report does not state the total number of strikers, it does state that about 800 workers were idled as a result of the strike and that the IWW local union, established during the strike, had a membership of about 400.Rogers Downey McManus 1913 28 Around two-thirds of the strikers were women.Snyder 1979 29, 34 However, throughout the strike, many skilled workers and native-born Americans resisted in joining.Snyder 1979 51 This was partially due to the fact that, in the past, the mill owners had hired immigrant workers to act as strikebreakers during labor disputes, such as in one that had occurred just two years prior.Snyder 1979 51 On October 17, Schloss, who had been involved in organized labor and socialist causes during her career prior to Little Falls while working as a nurse in New York City's Lower East Side, resigned from her position as nurse and became a fervent supporter of the strikers, helping to organize and lead many parades and rallies and opening a soup kitchen to feed the strikers.Snyder 1979 47 Socialist activists arrive in Little Falls thumb|300x300px|Schenectady Mayor George R. Lunn (left) with Little Falls Police Chief James Long (right) moments before his arrest Soon after the strike began, organized labor advocates and socialists from the surrounding area began to come to Little Falls to help the strikers.Snyder 1979 36–37 In Schenectady, located about 55 mi km down the Mohawk River from Little Falls, Mayor George R. Lunn, a member of the Socialist Party of America, recruited many to come with him to Little Falls to help organize the strikers and recruit more textile workers to join in picketing.Snyder 1979 36–37 While Mayor Lunn wished to hold a rally at Clinton Park (an area located directly across the street from the Phoenix Mill),Rogers Downey McManus 1913 27 city authorities took advantage of local ordinances to bar the socialists from holding the meeting, with one ordinance requiring permits from city officials to hold a rally and another forbidding gatherings of over 20 people in public.Snyder 1979 37 These ordinances were often enforced inconsistently, as previous political rallies by Democratic politicians William Sulzer and Martin H. Glynn had been allowed, but were invoked to prevent socialists who attempted to speak at the park.Snyder 1979 38 Local law enforcement officials were highly sympathetic to the mill owners,Pula 1995 52Pula 2009 146 and both Herkimer County Sheriff James W. Moon and Little Falls Police Chief James "Dusty" Long stated that speeches by the socialists could possibly provoke a riot and further civil unrest.Snyder 1979 37–38 Many activists who attempted to speak in favor of the strike were arrested on charges of disturbing the peace or blocking traffic,Snyder 1979 38 including Mayor Lunn himself on October 15.Foner 1979 442Russell 1912 456Snyder 1979 36 Lunn refused to pay a $50 fine and was sentenced to a 50-day jail sentence.Russell 1912 460 Regarding the strike and involvement of the socialists, Police Chief Long stated, "We have a strike on our hands and a foreign element to deal with. We have in the past kept them in subjugation and we mean to continue to hold them where they belong".Pula 1995 52Pula 2009 146 In addition to law enforcement, local media institutions were also critical of the strike, with the Little Falls Journal and Courier expressing disapproval of the workers' decision to strike, saying, "The question of whether the wages paid were starvation or not, did not, and cannot enter into the merits of the case. The employer fixed the wages that he was willing to pay, and the men were at liberty to accept the employment or not. ... There were no extraordinary conditions, no disturbances, no suffering, no distress, so far as anyone here knew".Snyder 1979 36 Organizers from Schenectady continued to push for the ability to hold rallies and employed strategies such as overcrowding the local jail and clogging the court system.Snyder 1979 39 Mayor Lunn called for 5,000 protestors to come to Little Falls, and following this, hundreds of labor activists, Wobblies, and socialists came to the city to aid the strikers.Snyder 1979 39 The action worked, as city officials began releasing many protestors on bail due to the small size of the city jail.Snyder 1979 39 Multiple newspapers in the area, such as The Post-Standard in Syracuse, criticized the double standard of preventing socialists from exercising their freedom of speech while allowing other groups,Snyder 1979 38–39 and in a letter to Little Falls Mayor Frank Shall and Sheriff Moon, Governor Dix cautioned them about suppressing New Yorkers' rights, saying:Pula 2009 146Snyder 1979 39 "Your attention is invited to the fact that the Constitution of the State of New York guarantees the right of free speech and the right of people peacefully to assemble and discuss public questions. The people of the State of New York wish to see that these rights are not unnecessarily curtailed, but are respected in spirit as well as in letter, within your jurisdiction." thumb|300x300px|Free speech meeting held by socialists at Clinton Park, with the Phoenix Mill on the right Facing this pressure, on October 21, Socialist candidates in the 1912 New York state election helped organize a pro-strike rally at Clinton Park that ran without interference from law enforcement.Snyder 1979 39–40 During the speech, Mayor Lunn told the strikers, "Let your enemies use violence if they will—which I hope will never be the case—but do not ever use violence yourselves. You have right on your side. You can unite as one mighty army of workers and thus secure the wages to enable you to live peaceably".Snyder 1979 40 The IWW becomes involved Following the free speech protests, IWW officials began to take the lead in organizing the strike activities.Snyder 1979 40 Wobblies had been involved since the early days of the strike, with organizers Fillippo Bochino of Rochester and Fred Hirsh of Schenectady arriving in Little Falls shortly after the initial walkouts.Russell 1912 456 Other prominent IWW organizers who came to Little Falls included Benjamin Legere and George Lehney.Snyder 1979 40 Following the advice of the IWW, the strikers formed a strike committee that included representatives from both plants and from each nationality of the strikers.Snyder 1979 40–41 The strike committee organized subcommittees to handle other aspects of the strike, such as finances, and organized daily parades and picketing.Snyder 1979 41 Legere, who had spent the past few months working for the defense of Joseph James Ettor and Arturo Giovannitti in a court case related to their actions in the Lawrence strike, was the primary organizer, teaching the strikers different picketing techniques and helping to assemble the subcommittees.Russell 1912 456 Additionally, the committee formulated some demands that they submitted to the mill owners on October 23:Rogers Downey McManus 1913 27 "Same weekly wages for 54 hours' work as had been received for 60 hours. Additional increase of 10 per cent for all workers on day shift. Additional increase of 15 per cent for all workers on night shift. No discrimination against workers for activity in strike." On October 24, the strikers held a meeting where they voted to officially unionize with the IWW, with IWW General Secretary Vincent Saint John giving them a charter as Local No. 801 — the National Industrial Union of Textile Workers of Little Falls.Snyder 1979 41Foner 1979 443 On October 27, the strikers held a parade through Little Falls that involved over 1,000 people.Foner 1979 443 Confrontation between police and strikers thumb|300x300px|Strikers outside Slovak Hall following the raid, with Matilda Rabinowitz in the front row, fourth from the left On October 30, a violent confrontation occurred between picketers and law enforcement officials.Pula 2009 146Snyder 1979 41Pula 1995 52 That morning, Chief Long had several men stationed near the entrance of the Phoenix Mill, where strikers were picketing.Russell 1912 457 Tensions rose as the picketers refused to clear away to allow workers to enter the mill.Pula 2009 146Snyder 1979 41Pula 1995 52 As a result, a physical confrontation unfolded between the strikers and the officers.Pula 2009 146Snyder 1979 41Pula 1995 52note Sources vary on the exact cause of the confrontation. In a report given by Chief Long to investigators from the New York State Department of Labor in December 1912, he stated that the strikers had initiated the violence after charging his officers.Rogers Downey McManus 1913 30 However, according to a contemporary report in the International Socialist Review, the instigating action that led to violence was when "Chief Long prodded a young girl in the breasts with his club".Russell 1912 457 Historian Philip S. Foner, in a 1979 book, stated that the confrontation was instigated by a policeman who beat a female striker.Foner 1979 443 Mounted police officers began to attack strikers with their clubs, with several beaten unconscious.Pula 2009 146Snyder 1979 41Pula 1995 52 The strikers by comparison were almost all unarmed.Snyder 1979 41 During the resulting riot, one officer was shot, while a private police officer from the Humphrey Detective Agency of Albany was stabbed.Snyder 1979 41 Shortly after this, the strike committee met with strikers at the Slovak Hall, a building located across the Mohawk River from the mills in the immigrant part of town that was used as the headquarters for the strike.Russell 1912 457 Police chased picketers across the river and to the hall, where they beat the doors down and assaulted the building and its occupants.Pula 2009 146Snyder 1979 41Pula 1995 52 Cases of liquor and beer were confiscated by the police, who also destroyed musical instruments and the framed IWW charter that the union had displayed in the hall.Pula 2009 146Pula 1995 52 Many people who resisted were beaten, and the police arrested the entire strike committee, as well as several other strikers and sympathizers,Pula 1995 52Pula 2009 146 including Schloss.Snyder 1979 48 Legere had managed to escape arrest and went to Utica, where he sent off several letters before he returned to Little Falls the following day and was promptly arrested.Russell 1912 458 The night after the raid, strikers gathered at the hall and cleaned it before singing "La Marseillaise" and "The Internationale".Russell 1912 459 Following the attack, the IWW sent more organizers to help with the strike effort, including Bill Haywood, Matilda Rabinowitz, and several people from Schenectady to help with relief efforts.Russell 1912 459–460 Following the arrests, Rabinowitz helped to reorganize the strike committee with new members, while Mayor Lunn and other socialists from Schenectady operated the soup kitchen.Haywood 1913 522–523 Rabinowitz would serve as the IWW's primary organizer for the remainder of the strike, as Haywood was suffering from diabetes-related illness.Foner 1979 444 Additionally, the IWW brought attorney Jessie Ashley to Little Falls to help prepare for the legal matters that those arrested would be facing.Haywood 1913 522 The following day, the strikers published a handbill condemning the action as a police riot, stating, "It was the most brutal, cold blooded act ever done in these parts. Nothing under heaven can ever justify it, and the soul of the degenerate brute who started it will shrivel in hell long, long before the workers will ever forget this day".Snyder 1979 42 In response, members of Little Falls' clergy, politicians, and businessmen held a town meeting where they voiced their approval of the actions taken by the police.Snyder 1979 42 By November 16, the strike had idled about 800 workers who remained at the mills.Rogers Downey McManus 1913 28 On November 19, activist Helen Keller sent a letter to the strikers commending them for their determination and expressing her support for their cause and included about $87 to help with the strike fund.Haywood 1913 519note Sources vary on the exact amount she donated, with ranges of between $87Snyder 1979 50 and $87.50.Eliassen 2021 153–154 Keller was an advocate for socialist causes and had joined the IWW after their work in Lawrence earlier that year.Snyder 1979 49–50 Donations were also sent by many supporters of the strike, including the IWW local union in Columbus, Ohio, which raised $40 for the strike.Kerr 1913a 599–600 During this time, Rabinowitz and Schloss traveled throughout the Northeastern United States to gather additional support for the strike.Snyder 1979 48 Mediation and the United Textile Workers thumb|300x300px|IWW members in jail in Little Falls Almost as soon as the strike began, the New York State Department of Labor's Bureau of Mediation and Arbitration arrive in Little Falls to attempt to broker an agreement between the strikers and the mills.Rogers Downey McManus 1913 28 Before the strike had spread to the Gilbert Mill, the bureau interviewed the owner of the Phoenix Mill, who said he would not negotiate any change in pay with the strikers until they returned to work.Rogers Downey McManus 1913 28 Meanwhile, after the strike had spread to the Gilbert Mill, representatives of that enterprise agreed to meet with strikers, but refused to have an IWW interpreter present, causing the negotiations to falter.Rogers Downey McManus 1913 28 For several weeks thereafter, neither mill would agree to negotiate in any way with IWW representatives.Rogers Downey McManus 1913 28 Around this time, the United Textile Workers of America (UTW), an AFL-affiliated union, began to organize some of the strikers into their union and negotiated with the mills on their behalf.Rogers Downey McManus 1913 28 The UTW presence in Little Falls, led by AFL organizer Charles A. Miles of Auburn,Pula 1995 52Snyder 1979 51 had arrived after the IWW had established its role in the strike and began to directly compete with the IWW to control the strike.Snyder 1979 51Pula 2009 146 According to reporting from the International Socialist Review, which was sympathetic to the IWW over the UTW, some members of the private police that had been involved in the October 30 confrontation had been members of the UTW.Russell 1912 459 Miles partnered with business interests, clergy members, and law enforcement to portray the IWW as a violent anarchist group that was not able to effectively negotiate on the behalf of their members.Snyder 1979 51–52 Miles and the UTW succeeded in recruiting some strikers to the organization, claiming an initial membership of 52 mill workers, and while the mill owners refused to negotiate with the IWW, Miles managed to negotiate a settlement for his group with the millworkers, announcing an end to the strike on December 2.Snyder 1979 52Rogers Downey McManus 1913 28 The settlement included an increase in day wages and piece work pay to make up for the loss of hours.Rogers Downey McManus 1913 30–31 However, the IWW local at this time claimed a membership of 400 workers who remained on strike.Rogers Downey McManus 1913 28 Concerning the competition between the two unions during the strike, historian James S. Pula has said, "In the end, the IWW proved more influential, possibly because of the egregious actions of local officials that called forth a stronger response from the workers".Pula 2009 146 Later strike action thumb|300x300px|Soup kitchen operated by the Industrial Workers of the World during the strike On December 17, in a move similar to what the IWW had done in Lawrence, the strikers began to send their children to temporarily live in the homes of strike sympathizers in cities such as Amsterdam, Schenectady, and Pittsfield, Massachusetts,Snyder 1979 52 with 18 of a planned 50 leaving that day.Foner 1979 447 Strikers were harassed by law enforcement officials during an accompanying march held to the train station, garnering significant media attention and public sympathy for the strike.Snyder 1979 52Foner 1979 447 On December 24, due to the protractedness of the strike, the State Department of Labor ordered an official inquiry into the causes and nature of the strike.Snyder 1979 52Rogers Downey McManus 1913 29 The department held hearings in the city on December 27, 28, and 30, in total interviewing 47 witnesses, including numerous strikers and the mill owners.Rogers Downey McManus 1913 29 The investigators determined conclusively that the decrease in wages was the primary cause of and continued reason for the strike,Rogers Downey McManus 1913 29Snyder 1979 52 though mill owners also contended that the intervention of the IWW had prolonged the strike.Snyder 1979 53 Following the hearings, the investigators created a multi-point plan that they submitted to the mill owners, who agreed to it.Rogers Downey McManus 1913 31 The terms, as written by the investigators, stated:Rogers Downey McManus 1913 31 "There will be no discrimination against individual strikers. The companies to reinstate all former employees as soon as possible. All men and women working 54 hours to receive pay formerly received for 60 hours. Piece work rates to be adjusted to compensate for reduction of time caused by fifty-four hour law. Night lunch to be adjusted by the workers directly involved. Winding schedules: Cop yarn in most sizes is raised 5 cents per 100 pounds. Mule spun yarn is increased from 9 per cent on the largest size to 16 per cent on the smallest size. 10 per cent additional is paid on latch needle knitting. Other piece work prices affected by the fifty-four hour law to be adjusted on the same plan." On January 2, Rabinowitz called a mass meeting of the strikers where the terms of the proposal were read with the help of interpreters, including Carlo Tresca.Snyder 1979 54 The state mediator was also present to answer questions or provide clarifications for the strikers.Snyder 1979 54 Also during the meeting, attorney Fred Moore spoke to the crowd, calling on them to continue to fight for better conditions if they approved of the proposal.Snyder 1979 54 Ultimately, the strikers unanimously agreed to accept the terms of the contract, with the meeting ending with a playing of "La Marseillaise".Snyder 1979 54 The strikers agreed to return to work that Monday, January 6, thus ending the strike.Snyder 1979 54Rogers Downey McManus 1913 31note January 6 is the date given by the New York State Department of Labor as the end of the strike.Rogers Downey McManus 1913 31 Other sources give conflicting dates of January 3Dunn 2012 and January 4.Snyder 1979 29 The IWW viewed the settlement as a success.Snyder 1979 56 Aftermath Concerning the strike, Pula stated in a 1995 book that the "dispute [was] characterized by physical and emotional bitterness that more than matched the inclement weather of a brutal winter".Pula 1995 52Pula 2009 146 The strike was the longest to occur as a result of the Jackson bill,Snyder 1979 34 and the employees involved lost a cumulative 68,379 work days.Snyder 1979 29 It was the largest strike led by the IWW in the state of New York and represented one of several instances during this time of cooperation on the local level between Wobblies and members of the Socialist Party, despite disputes among higher-ups in both organizations.Perkins 2005 712Golin 1988 222–223 It was one of many in a wave of strikes in the northeastern United States that followed the Lawrence strike,Foner 1979 440 with other textile labor disputes occurring around the same time in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and Passaic, New Jersey,Goldberg 2009 331–332 as well as part of a wave of labor disputes led by the IWW in the northeast and Midwest.Nelson 1996 133Shippee 1924 296 As a result of the strike, mill workers saw wage increases of between 6 and 15 percent, and the state government launched an investigation into the state of living conditions among the immigrant laborers in Little Falls.Snyder 1979 56 Additionally, the city government launched a "clean-up week" in an attempt to improve living conditions in the immigrant part of town, the Phoenix Mill constructed a few new houses for workers, and a loan company was established to aid immigrants.Snyder 1979 56 thumb|right|upright=0.8|IWW organizer Benjamin Legere was found guilty of assault during the strike and sentenced to one year at Auburn Prison.Snyder 1979 56 Following the strike, the IWW focused on the legal issues concerning 14 strikers who remained arrested.Biscay 1913b 822Kerr 1913c 41Russell 1913 598 Moore served as the attorney for those involved,Biscay 1913a 751 with trials taking place from March to May 1913.Foner 1979 448 In the end, many were found not guilty or received fines, but Bochino and Legere were found guilty of assault.Foner 1979 448 The two Wobblies were sentenced to a year in Auburn Prison,Snyder 1979 56 where they were interred until July 1914.Foner 1979 448 According to historian Robert E. Snyder in a 1979 article in the journal New York History, the court cases drained money and resources from the local union, and with two of the union's organizers in prison, the local struggled and eventually fell into a state of disorder.Snyder 1979 56–57 This time period also coincided with the IWW's 1913 Paterson silk strike,Snyder 1979 29 which ended in disaster for the union.Foner 1979 448 According to historian Philip S. Foner, after the Paterson strike, "the bright hopes of the IWW in the textile industry lay shattered",Foner 1979 448 further stating, "The IWW suffered a setback in Paterson from which it never completely recovered. Its prestige in the East, which had been at a high point following the victory at Lawrence, underwent a tremendous decline, and there was no longer talk about the IWW's infallibility in strikes".Foner 1979 452 Coming as it did between the Lawrence and Paterson strike, Snyder states that the Little Falls strike "has been neglected by labor historians".Snyder 1979 29 Following the IWW's decline, the more conservative AFL remained and recruited workers in the area,Snyder 1979 57 and over the next few years the labor organization recruited heavily from immigrant laborers in the region.Fones-Wolf Fones-Wolf 1983 172–173 The AFL and IWW would continue to compete to recruit workers for the next several years, such as in the Bayonne refinery strikes of 1915–1916, which also involved many Polish immigrants.Pula 2009 145–146 However, by the 1920s, the IWW had declined significantly in size and power.Cashman 2005 773 Unionization amongst Polish immigrants in the northeast continued to increase over the next several years and is highlighted by a number of strikes, such as a 1916 labor dispute with the New York Mills Corporation in New York Mills.Pula 2009 147 Later labor disputes in Herkimer County include the Remington Rand strike of 1936–1937 and several disputes led by dairy farmers in the 1930s.Perkins 2005 712 The city of Little Falls held events to commemorate the centennial of the strike in 2012.The Evening Times 2012aThe Evening Times 2012b Events were also held elsewhere in the Mohawk Valley: in Ilion, home to Remington Rand, a dramatic play based on the strike was performed,DiCocco 2012 and in Utica the Unitarian Universalist church had a Wobbly give a speech about the strike on Labor Day.Dunn 2012 Notes note References Sources 30em yes Abrams Irving S. http://archive.org/details/scan0616-mergedHaymarketHeritage Haymarket Heritage: The Memoirs of Irving S. Abrams Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company Illinois Labor History Society; With an introduction from Joseph M. Jacobs 1989 Roediger Dave David Roediger Chicago Boanes Phyllis Biscay J. S. April 1913a Kerr Charles H. Charles H. Kerr Liberty or the Penitentiary? https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/isr/v13n10-apr-1913-ISR-riaz-ocr.pdf International Socialist Review Charles H. Kerr & Co. Chicago XIII 10 750–754 Marxists Internet Archive Biscay J. S. May 1913b Kerr Charles H. Charles H. Kerr Two Jurors Disappeared https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/isr/v13n11-may-1913-ISR-riaz-ocr.pdf International Socialist Review Charles H. Kerr & Co. Chicago XIII 11 822 Marxists Internet Archive Cashman John https://books.google.com/books?id=tmHEm5ohoCUC The Encyclopedia of New York State Syracuse University Press Foreword by Carole F. Huxley 2005 978-0-8156-0808-0 Eisenstadt Peter Syracuse, New York 773 en Industrial Workers of the World Moss Laura-Eve DiCocco Beth November 3, 2012 Review: 'Strike Story' both entertains and educates audience https://www.uticaod.com/story/business/transportation/2012/11/03/review-strike-story-both-entertains/45068750007/ March 29, 2023 Observer-Dispatch Dunn Brendan Maslauskas November 2012 In November We Remember: The Centennial of the 1912 Little Falls Textile Strike https://libcom.org/article/november-we-remember-centennial-1912-little-falls-textile-strike-brendan-maslauskas-dunn live Industrial Worker Industrial Workers of the World 109 9 https://web.archive.org/web/20221129190023/https://libcom.org/article/november-we-remember-centennial-1912-little-falls-textile-strike-brendan-maslauskas-dunn November 29, 2022 January 28, 2023 libcom.org Eliassen Meredith https://books.google.com/books?id=eF89EAAAQBAJ Helen Keller: A Life in American History ABC-Clio 2021 978-1-4408-7464-2 Women Making History Santa Barbara, California City preparing to commemorate 100th anniversary of textile strike June 26, 2012a The Evening Times Little Falls, New York https://timestelegram.newsbank.com/doc/news/13FA7F6C06347488 subscription The Evening Times 2012a 1912 Textile Strike Commemoration Continues September 27, 2012b The Evening Times Little Falls, New York https://timestelegram.newsbank.com/doc/news/141996C622A9BFB0 subscription The Evening Times 2012b Foner Philip S. http://archive.org/details/womenamericanla00fone Women and the American Labor Movement: From Colonial Times to the Eve of World War I Free Press 1979 978-0-02-910370-8 New York City 440–458 Little Falls, Paterson, and Other Struggles Philip S. Foner Fones-Wolf Elizabeth https://books.google.com/books?id=tDhcU6N11XMC Working-Class America: Essays on Labor, Community, and American Society Fones-Wolf Kenneth University of Illinois Press 1983 978-0-252-00954-9 Frisch Michael H. Illini Books Urbana, Illinois 153–184 Trade-Union Evangelism: Religion and the AFL in the Labor Forward Movement, 1912–16 Walkowitz Daniel J. Daniel Walkowitz Goldberg David J. http://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofst0000unse_z1v4 The Encyclopedia of Strikes in American History M. E. Sharpe 2009 978-0-7656-1330-1 Brenner Aaron Armonk, New York 330–341 Twentieth-Century Textile Strikes Day Benjamin Ness Immanuel Immanuel Ness Golin Steve https://books.google.com/books?id=GMwfv9NDBI4C The Fragile Bridge: Paterson Silk Strike, 1913 Temple University Press 1988 978-1-56639-005-7 Philadelphia Haywood William D. Bill Haywood January 1913 Kerr Charles H. Charles H. Kerr On the Picket Line at Little Falls, New York https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/isr/v13n07-jan-1913-ISR-go-ocr.pdf International Socialist Review Charles H. Kerr & Co. Chicago XIII 7 519–523 Marxists Internet Archive February 1913a Kerr Charles H. Charles H. Kerr A Red Brigade https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/isr/v13n08-feb-1913-ISR-gog-ocr.pdf International Socialist Review Charles H. Kerr & Co. Chicago XIII 8 599–600 Marxists Internet Archive March 1913b Kerr Charles H. Charles H. Kerr Will Prosecute Mill Owners https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/isr/v13n09-mar-1913-ISR-riaz-ocr.pdf International Socialist Review Charles H. Kerr & Co. Chicago XIII 9 670 Marxists Internet Archive July 1913c Kerr Charles H. Charles H. Kerr Legere Sentenced to One Year https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/isr/v14n01-jul-1913-ISR-riaz-ocr.pdf International Socialist Review Charles H. Kerr & Co. Chicago XIV 1 41 Marxists Internet Archive Nelson Daniel https://books.google.com/books?id=g9QJsOHuJ4UC Managers and Workers: Origins of the Twentieth-Century Factory System in the United States, 1880–1920 University of Wisconsin Press 1996 978-0-299-14883-6 2nd Madison, Wisconsin Orth Samuel P. https://books.google.com/books?id=0846AQAAIAAJ The Armies of Labor: A Chronicle of the Organized Wage-Earners Yale University Press 1919 Johnson Allen Allen Johnson (historian) Textbook The Chronicles of America New Haven, Connecticut Pearson Chad https://books.google.com/books?id=tmHEm5ohoCUC The Encyclopedia of New York State Syracuse University Press Foreword by Carole F. Huxley 2005 978-0-8156-0808-0 Eisenstadt Peter Syracuse, New York 848–852 en Labor Moss Laura-Eve Perkins Susan R. https://books.google.com/books?id=tmHEm5ohoCUC The Encyclopedia of New York State Syracuse University Press Foreword by Carole F. Huxley 2005 978-0-8156-0808-0 Eisenstadt Peter Syracuse, New York 709–712 en Herkimer County Moss Laura-Eve Pula James S. https://books.google.com/books?id=rXzHHZN4mmcC Polish Americans: An Ethnic Community Twayne Publishers 1995 978-0-8057-8427-5 New York City James S. Pula Pula James S. http://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofst0000unse_z1v4 The Encyclopedia of Strikes in American History M. E. Sharpe 2009 978-0-7656-1330-1 Brenner Aaron Armonk, New York 138–153 Polish Workers and Strikes, 1900–1937 James S. Pula Day Benjamin Ness Immanuel Immanuel Ness Rogers William C. Downey P. J. McManus James March 1913 The Little Falls Textile Workers' Dispute https://books.google.com/books?id=U04cAQAAIAAJ State of New York Department of Labor Bulletin XV 54 27–31 Russell Phillips December 1912 Kerr Charles H. Charles H. Kerr The Strike at Little Falls https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/isr/v13n06-dec-1912-ISR-gog-ocr.pdf International Socialist Review Charles H. Kerr & Co. Chicago XIII 6 455–460 Marxists Internet Archive Russell Phillips February 1913 Kerr Charles H. Charles H. Kerr The Fourteen in Jail https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/isr/v13n08-feb-1913-ISR-gog-ocr.pdf International Socialist Review Charles H. Kerr & Co. Chicago XIII 8 598–599 Marxists Internet Archive Shippee Lester Burrell https://books.google.com/books?id=XJ-ZAAAAIAAJ Recent American History Macmillan Company 1924 315984 New York City Snyder Robert E. January 1979 Women, Wobblies, and Workers' Rights: The 1912 Textile Strike in Little Falls, New York New York History Cornell University Press 60 1 29–57 0146-437X 23169970 Further reading November 2, 1912 Riot Leaders are Held.; Legere, Who Led Little Falls Strikers, Sent to Herkimer Jail 22 The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/1912/11/02/archives/riot-leaders-are-held-legere-who-led-little-falls-strikers-sent-to.html live subscription January 29, 2023 https://web.archive.org/web/20230129184828/https://www.nytimes.com/1912/11/02/archives/riot-leaders-are-held-legere-who-led-little-falls-strikers-sent-to.html January 29, 2023 0362-4331 December 27, 1912 Arbitrators to Air Little Falls Evils; State Board Arrives in Disturbed City to Investigate the Strike Troubles. 6 The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/1912/12/27/archives/arbitrators-to-air-little-falls-evils-state-board-arrives-in.html live subscription January 29, 2023 https://web.archive.org/web/20230129184828/https://www.nytimes.com/1912/12/27/archives/arbitrators-to-air-little-falls-evils-state-board-arrives-in.html January 29, 2023 0362-4331 December 31, 1912 Call Mill Wages High.; Employer's Blame Agitators for the Little Falls Strike 9 The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/1912/12/31/archives/call-mill-wages-high-employers-blame-agitators-for-the-little-falls.html live subscription January 29, 2023 https://web.archive.org/web/20230129184829/https://www.nytimes.com/1912/12/31/archives/call-mill-wages-high-employers-blame-agitators-for-the-little-falls.html January 29, 2023 0362-4331 January 2, 1913 End Little Falls Strike.; Terms Proposed by State Mediators Are Practically Accepted. 3 The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/1913/01/02/archives/end-little-falls-strike-terms-proposed-by-state-mediators-are.html live subscription January 29, 2023 https://web.archive.org/web/20230129184826/https://www.nytimes.com/1913/01/02/archives/end-little-falls-strike-terms-proposed-by-state-mediators-are.html January 29, 2023 0362-4331 Kennaday Paul January 2, 1913 Commissioner of Labor Williams Can Force Them Out.; Facts of the Strike 10 The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/1913/01/02/archives/commissioner-of-labor-williams-can-force-them-out-facts-of-the.html live subscription January 29, 2023 https://web.archive.org/web/20230129184830/https://www.nytimes.com/1913/01/02/archives/commissioner-of-labor-williams-can-force-them-out-facts-of-the.html January 29, 2023 0362-4331 January 14, 1913 Demurrer Filed for Lunn.; In Answer to Little Falls Strike Indictment -- Hearing Monday. 2 The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/1913/01/14/archives/demurrer-filed-for-lunn-in-answer-to-little-falls-strike-indictment.html live subscription January 29, 2023 https://web.archive.org/web/20230129184832/https://www.nytimes.com/1913/01/14/archives/demurrer-filed-for-lunn-in-answer-to-little-falls-strike-indictment.html January 29, 2023 0362-4331 May 20, 1913 I.W.W. Leader Guilty.; B.J. Legere Convicted of Rioting in Little Falls Strike 2 The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/1913/05/20/archives/iww-leader-guilty-bj-legere-convicted-of-rioting-in-little-falls.html live subscription January 29, 2023 https://web.archive.org/web/20230129184827/https://www.nytimes.com/1913/05/20/archives/iww-leader-guilty-bj-legere-convicted-of-rioting-in-little-falls.html January 29, 2023 0362-4331 External links https://littlefallshistoricalsociety.org/museum-exhibit/1912-little-falls-textile-strike/ 1912 Little Falls Textile Strike Little Falls Historical Society Museum Category:1910s strikes in the United States Category:1912 in New York (state) Category:1912 labor disputes and strikes Category:1913 in New York (state) Category:1913 labor disputes and strikes Category:Herkimer County, New York Category:History of the Socialist Party of America Category:Industrial Workers of the World in New York (state) Category:Labor disputes in New York (state) Category:Labor disputes led by the Industrial Workers of the World Category:Progressive Era in the United States Category:Riots and civil disorder in New York (state) Category:Textile and clothing labor disputes in the United States Category:United Textile Workers of America Category:Socialism in New York (state)