Lawrence, 1912

Historical Photos

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Big Bill Haywood and Smilin' Joe Ettor. Ettor led the strike until he was charged with murdering a woman striker. He was jailed for the eight months.

Carlo Tresca, the swashbuckling Italian anarchist, swooped Gurley off her feet in Lawrence. (He slept with her sister as well.)

According to many observers, it was the women who won the strike. The resulting wage increases and overtime pay had a domino effect , with nearly a quarter-million textile workers affected in six states. The episode also prompted hearings in Congress and new labor laws.

The governor of Massachusetts called out the National Guard to keep the peace in Lawrence for nearly six weeks. The troops earned a dollar a day and were housed at the armory.

William Madison Wood owned most of the mills in Lawrence and was the second highest paid C.E.O. in America after J.P. Morgan. The son of a Portuguese immigrant, he knocked up the boss's wife to get into management. A decade after the great strike, he committed suicide.

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