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102-634: Joseph Ettor ; Arturo Giovannitti ; Elizabeth Gurley Flynn ; Bill Haywood ; Angelo G. Rocco William M. Wood ; Gov. Eugene Foss The Lawrence Textile Strike , also known as the Bread and Roses Strike , was a strike of immigrant workers in Lawrence , Massachusetts , in 1912 led by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Prompted by a two-hour pay cut corresponding to

204-615: A textile mill took place at a grueling pace, and the labor was repetitive and dangerous. About one third of workers in the Lawrence textile mills died before the age of 25. In addition, a number of children under 14 worked in the mills. Half of the workers in the four Lawrence mills of the American Woolen Company , the leading employer in the industry and the town, were females between 14 and 18. Falsification of birth certificates, allowing for girls younger than 14 to work,

306-402: A Congressional hearing. Teoli had been hospitalized for seven months after the cotton-twisting machine she operated had pulled her scalp off. The company paid her hospital bills, but did not provide her with sick pay. The national sympathy that children elicited changed the outcome of the strike. Children of the mill workers were brought to homes of supporters of the Lawrence textile strike. With

408-467: A common language allowed English immigrants to integrate rapidly and gave rise to a unique Anglo-American culture. An estimated 3.5 million English immigrated to the U.S. after 1776. English settlers provided a steady and substantial influx throughout the 19th century. A number of English settlers moved to the United States from Australia in the 1850s (then a British political territory ), when

510-484: A further exodus, leading to violence at the Lawrence train station. Congressional hearings followed, resulting in exposure of shocking conditions in the Lawrence mills and calls for investigation of the "wool trust." Mill owners soon decided to settle the strike, giving workers in Lawrence and throughout New England raises of up to 20 percent. Within a year, however, the IWW had largely collapsed in Lawrence. The Lawrence strike

612-480: A holiday, especially for the children." Half of children died before they were six, and 36% of the adults who worked in the mill died before they were 25. The average life expectancy was 39. The mills and the community were divided along ethnic lines: most of the skilled jobs were held by native-born workers of English , Irish , and German descent , whereas French-Canadian , Italian , Jewish , Slavic, Hungarian , Portuguese , and Syrian immigrants made up most of

714-535: A meeting in the Boston offices of Lawrence textile companies, where the plan to frame the union by planting dynamite had been made. Pitman committed suicide shortly thereafter when he was subpoenaed to testify. Wood, the American Woolen Company owner, was formally exonerated. When the trial of Ettor and Giovannitti, as well as a third defendant, Giuseppe Caruso, accused of firing the shot that killed

816-635: A move that frustrated the UTW, Oliver Christian , the national secretary of the Loomfixers Association and an AFL affiliate itself, said he believed John Golden , the Massachusetts-based UTW president, was a detriment to the cause of labor. That statement and missteps by William Madison Wood quickly shifted public sentiment to favor the strikers. A local undertaker and a member of the Lawrence school board attempted to frame

918-562: A new law shortening the workweek for women, the strike spread rapidly through the town, growing to more than twenty thousand workers and involving nearly every mill in Lawrence. On January 1, 1912, the Massachusetts government enforced a law that cut mill workers' hours in a single work week from 56 hours, to 54 hours. Ten days later, they found out that pay had been reduced along with the cut in hours. The strike united workers from more than 51 different nationalities . A large portion of

1020-444: A number of skilled craftsmen remained itinerant, returning to England after a season or two of work. Groups came to practice their religion freely. The depression of 1893 sharply decreased English emigration to the United States, and it stayed low for much of the twentieth century. This decline reversed itself in the decade of World War II when over 100,000 English (18 percent of all European immigrants) came from England. In this group

1122-429: A perennial matter of discussion and debate within the IWW. Some, like Giovannitti, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn , and Vincent St. John , took the position that while the union did not favor violence, it would not shy away from its use if necessary to accomplish the social revolution. Ettor, on the other hand, shared the orientation of "Big Bill" Haywood that the only kind of force to which the organization could lend its name

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1224-566: A striker, Anna LoPizzo , was killed by police during a protest, IWW organizers Joseph Ettor and Arturo Giovannitti were framed and arrested on charges of being accessories to the murder. IWW leaders Bill Haywood and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn came to Lawrence to run the strike. Together they masterminded its signature move, sending hundreds of the strikers' hungry children to sympathetic families in New York, New Jersey, and Vermont. The move drew widespread sympathy, especially after police stopped

1326-461: Is a reason why numbers vary drastically between self-identification and estimates. A leading specialist, Charlotte Erickson, found them to be ethnically "invisible," dismissing the occasional St. George Societies as ephemeral elite clubs that were not in touch with a larger ethnic community. In Canada, by contrast, the English organized far more ethnic activism, as the English competed sharply with

1428-593: Is often referred to as the " Bread and Roses " strike. It has also been called the "strike for three loaves". The phrase "bread and roses" actually preceded the strike, appearing in a poem by James Oppenheim published in The American Magazine in December 1911. A 1915 labor anthology, The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest by Upton Sinclair , attributed the phrase to

1530-486: Is to deal out the severest sentences." Governor Eugene Foss then ordered out the state militia and state police. Mass arrests followed. At the same time, the United Textile Workers (UTW) attempted to break the strike by claiming to speak for the workers of Lawrence. The striking operatives ignored the UTW, as the IWW had successfully united the operatives behind ethnic-based leaders, who were members of

1632-475: The de facto official language, the language in which government business is carried out. According to the 1990 census, 94% of the U.S. population speak only English. Adding those who speak English "well" or "very well" brings this figure to 96%. Only 0.8% speak no English at all as compared with 3.6% in 1890. American English differs from British English in a number of ways, the most striking being in terms of pronunciation (for example, American English retains

1734-525: The 1909 McKees Rocks Strike and another lesser-known steel strike later that year in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania , a strike of Pennsylvania coal miners in 1909–10, and a Brooklyn shoe factory strike in 1910–11. In 1908, Ettor was named to the governing General Executive Board of the IWW, remaining in that capacity until 1914. On January 1, 1912, in accordance with a new state law, the textile mills of Lawrence, Massachusetts , posted new rules limiting

1836-504: The 2020 United States census , English Americans were the largest group in the United States with 46.5 million Americans self-identifying as having some English origins (many combined with another heritage) representing (19.8%) of the White American population. This includes 25,536,410 (12.5%) who were "English alone". Despite them being the largest self-identified ancestral origin in the United States, demographers still regard

1938-500: The American Community Survey enumerated Americans reporting English ancestry at 27.4 million, 9.0% of the U.S. population; in 2015, 24.8 million, 7.8% of the population. A decade thereafter, in 2020, the U.S. Census Bureau recorded 25.2 million Americans reporting full or partial English ancestry, about 7.7% of the U.S. population. Results for the 2020 United States census showed that English Americans were

2040-621: The American Council of Learned Societies , in time to be adopted as basis for legal immigration quotas in 1929, and later published in the journal of the American Historical Association , reproduced in the table below. Note: as in the original CPG report, the "English" category encompassed England and Wales , grouping together all names classified as either " Anglican " (from England ) or " Cambrian " (from Wales ). Estimated English American population in

2142-502: The British government was rarely transferred to English settlers who came to America in the first decades of the nineteenth century. Throughout American history, English immigrants and their descendants have been prominent in every level of government and in every aspect of American life. Known informally as "WASPS" (see White Anglo-Saxon Protestants ), their dominance has slipped since 1945, but remains high in many fields. Eight out of

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2244-488: The California Gold Rush boomed; these included the so-called " Sydney Ducks " ( see Australian Americans ). In prior eras there were English-centered cultural events such as Morris dance events and Saint George's Day . There had been conflicts between English immigrant groups and Irish immigrant groups. A magazine article from The Republic in 1852 had criticized English immigrants for remaining loyal to

2346-477: The Continental United States as of 1790, 82.1% were English, followed by 7.0% Scotch, 5.6% German, 2.5% Dutch, 1.9% Irish, and 0.6% French. The 1909 Century of Population Growth report came under intense scrutiny in the 1920s; its methodology was subject to criticism over fundamental flaws that cast doubt on the accuracy of its conclusions. The catalyst for controversy had been passage of

2448-941: The Continental United States as of the 1790 Census . Another source by Thomas L. Purvis in 1984 estimated that people of English ancestry made up about 47.5% of the total population or 60.9% of the European American or white population (his figures can also be found, and as divided by region, in Colin Bonwick, The American Revolution, 1991 p. 2540-839-1346-2). The study which gives similar results can be found in The American Revolution, Colin Bonwick in percentages for 1790: 47.9 English, 3.5 Welsh, 8.5 Scotch Irish (Ulster), 4.3 Scottish, 4.7 Irish (South), 7.2 German, 2.7 Dutch, 1.7 French, 0.2 Swedish, 19.3 Black, 103.4 British. The difference between

2550-668: The Dutch colony of New Netherland (including the New Amsterdam settlement), renaming it the Province of New York in 1664. With New Netherland, the English came to control the former New Sweden (in what is now Delaware ), which the Dutch had conquered from Sweden earlier. This became part of Pennsylvania . Many planters, slave traders and slave owners who owned Black slaves were of English ancestry. Cultural similarities and

2652-687: The Immigration Act of 1924 , which imposed numerical quotas on each country of Europe limiting the number of immigrants to be admitted out of a finite total annual pool. The size of each national quota was determined by the National Origins Formula , in part computed by estimating the origins of the colonial stock population descended from White Americans enumerated in the 1790 Census . The undercount of other colonial stocks like German Americans and Irish Americans would thus have contemporary policy consequences. When CPG

2754-669: The Mayflower , 41 men signed the " Mayflower Compact " aboard ship on November 11, 1620, while anchored in Provincetown Harbor . Signers included Carver , Alden , Standish , Howland , Bradford , Allerton , and Fuller . This story has become a central theme in the United States cultural identity. A number of English colonies were established under a system of proprietary governors , who were appointed under mercantile charters to English joint stock companies to found and run settlements. England also took control over

2856-578: The Northeast , South and West . The following are the top 20 highest percentages of people of English ancestry, in U.S. communities (total list of the 101 communities, see source): According to the 2020 U.S. census, the 10 states with the largest populations of self-reported English Americans are: English settlement in America began with Jamestown in the Virginia Colony in 1607. With

2958-750: The Pilgrims . Fleeing religious persecution in the East Midlands in England, they first went to Holland , but feared losing their English identity. Because of this, they chose to relocate to the New World , with their voyage being financed by English investors. In September 1620, 102 passengers set sail aboard the Mayflower , eventually settling at Plymouth Colony in November. Of the passengers on

3060-467: The United Kingdom such as Scottish , Scotch-Irish (descendants of Ulster Scots from Ulster and Northern Ireland ), Welsh , Cornish , Manx Americans and Channel Islanders . In 1980 , 49.6 million Americans claimed English ancestry. At 26.34%, this was the largest group amongst the 188 million people who reported at least one ancestry. The population was 226 million which would have made

3162-566: The United Kingdom . In 1927, proposed immigration quotas based on CPG figures were rejected by the President's Committee chaired by the Secretaries of State , Commerce , and Labor , with the President reporting to Congress "the statistical and historical information available raises grave doubts as to the whole value of these computations as the basis for the purposes intended." Among the criticisms of A Century of Population Growth : At

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3264-409: The 1990 census, they retain such a pervasive representation at every level of national and state government that, on any list of American senators, Supreme Court judges, governors, or legislators, they would constitute a plurality if not an outright majority. In 2011, Lucy Tobin of The Guardian wrote that, as of that year, it was not common to see English cultural heritage expression nor events in

3366-435: The 19th century. Some states, like California , have amended their constitutions to make English the only official language, but in practice, this only means that official government documents must at least be in English, and does not mean that they should be exclusively available only in English. For example, the standard California Class C driver's license examination is available in 32 different languages. "In for

3468-685: The 2.5 million population of the 13 colonies. Some 80.7% of the total United States population was of European origin. Using the first model above, in 1900, an estimated 28,375,000 or 37.8% of the population of the United States was wholly or partly of English ancestry from colonial roots. The estimate was based on the Census Bureaus Estimate that approximately thirty five million white Americans were descended from colonial forebears. In 1980, 23,748,772 Americans claimed only English ancestry and another 25,849,263 claimed English along with another ethnic ancestry. 13.3 million or 5.9% of

3570-495: The British Crown. During the last years of the 1860s, annual English immigration grew to over 60,000 and continued to rise to over 75,000 per year in 1872, before experiencing a decline. The final and most sustained wave of immigration began in 1879 and lasted until the depression of 1893. During this period English annual immigration averaged more than 82,000, with peaks in 1882 and 1888 and did not drop significantly until

3672-506: The Colonial period, typically ranging between 17 and 29%. English immigrants in the 19th century, as with other groups, sought economic prosperity. They began migrating in large numbers, without state support, in the 1840s and continued into the 1890s. English American elites, known as "WASPs" ( White Anglo-Saxon Protestants ), have dominated American society, culture, and politics for most of American history. The majority of presidents of

3774-641: The District Attorney: Does Mr. Ateill believe for a moment that... the cross or the gallows or the guillotine, the hangman's noose, ever settled an idea? It never did. If an idea can live, it lives because history adjudges it right. And what has been considered an idea constituting a social crime in one age has in the next age become the religion of humanity. Whatever my social views are, they are what they are. They cannot be tried in this courtroom. All three defendants were acquitted on November 26, 1912. The strikers, however, lost nearly all of

3876-688: The Eastern Republican establishment helped undermine the WASP dominance. Goldwater himself had solid WASP credentials through his mother, of a prominent old Yankee family, but was instead mistakenly seen as part of the Jewish community (which he had never associated with). By the 1980s, the liberal Rockefeller Republican wing of the party was marginalized, overwhelmed by the dominance of the Southern and Western conservative Republicans. Asking "Is

3978-495: The English ancestry group 22% of the total. Scotch-Irish Americans are for the most part descendants of Lowland Scots and Northern English (specifically County Durham , Cumberland , Northumberland and Yorkshire ) settlers who migrated to Ireland during the Plantation of Ulster in the 17th century. Additionally, African Americans tend to have a significant degree of English and Lowland Scots ancestry tracing back to

4080-559: The English cultural pattern as predominant for the American version. According to studies and estimates, the ethnic populations in the British American Colonies from 1700 onwards were: (* Georgia not included) The ancestries of the population in 1790 (the first national population census) has been estimated by various sources, first in 1909, then again in 1932, 1980 and 1984 by sampling distinctive surnames in

4182-471: The English showed a considerable decrease from the previous census. Responses for "American" slightly decreased both numerically and as a percentage from 5.9% to 5.2% in 1990 with most being from the South . In the 2000 census, 24.5 million or 8.7% of Americans reported English ancestry, a decline of some eight million people. At the national level, the response rate for the ancestry question fell to 80.1% of

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4284-834: The English were 83.5%, 6.7% Scottish, 1.6% Irish, 2.0% Dutch, 0.5% French, 5.6% German and 0.1% all others of the white population for the 12 enumerated states. "Hebrews" (Jews) were less than one-tenth of 1 percent. When the Scotch and Irish are added, British origins would be more than 90% of the European ancestry. The same 1909 data for each state (of the total European population only) of English ancestry were Connecticut 96.2%, Rhode Island 96.0%, Vermont 95.4%, Massachusetts 95.0%, New Hampshire 94.1%, Maine 93.1%, Virginia 85.0%, Maryland 84.0%, North Carolina 83.1%, South Carolina 82.4%, New York 78.2% and Pennsylvania 59.0%. CPG estimated that, of all European Americans in

4386-548: The House and the Senate set out to investigate the strike. In the early days of March, a special House Committee heard testimony from some of the strikers' children, as well as various city, state and union officials. In the end, both chambers published reports detailing the conditions at Lawrence. The children involved in the police riot were not only the children of striking workers, they were also striking workers themselves. Most of

4488-486: The IWW had turned its attention to supporting the silk industry workers in Paterson, New Jersey . The Paterson Silk Strike of 1913 was defeated. The strike had at least three casualties: After the strike concluded, workers received a few of the demands established between mill workers and owners. Some workers went back to work at the mills and "others came and went, trying to find other jobs, failing, returning again to

4590-490: The Lawrence strike, and the association stuck. A popular rallying cry from the poem was interwoven with the memory of the strike: "Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses!" Founded in 1845, Lawrence was a flourishing but deeply-troubled textile city. By 1900, mechanization and the deskilling of labor in the textile industry enabled factory owners to eliminate skilled workers and to employ large numbers of unskilled immigrant workers, mostly women. Work in

4692-546: The United States, as well as the majority of sitting U.S. congressmen and congresswomen, were born into families of English ancestry. The majority of the Founding Fathers of the United States were also of English ancestry. Ivy League universities such as Harvard University , Yale University , and Princeton University were established by and have been mostly composed of WASPs. Americans of English heritage are often seen, and identify, as simply "American" due to

4794-543: The United States. As early colonists of the United States, settlers from England and their descendants often held positions of power and made and enforced laws, often because many had been involved in government back in England. In the original Thirteen Colonies , most laws contained elements found in the English common law system. The majority of the Founding Fathers of the United States were of English extraction. A minority were of high social status and can be classified as White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP). Many of

4896-543: The WASP leader a dying breed?" journalist Nina Strochlic in 2012 pointed to eleven WASP top politicians—typically scions of upper class English families. She ended with Republicans George H. W. Bush elected in 1988, his son George W. Bush elected in 2000 and 2004, and John McCain, who was nominated but defeated in 2008. English is the most commonly spoken language in the U.S., where it is estimated that two thirds of all native speakers of English live. The American English dialect developed from English colonization . It serves as

4998-622: The Washington Mill of the American Woolen Company also found that their wages had been cut. Prepared for the events by weeks of discussion, they walked out, calling "short pay, all out." Joseph Ettor of the IWW had been organizing in Lawrence for some time before the strike; he and Arturo Giovannitti of the Italian Socialist Federation of the Socialist Party of America quickly assumed leadership of

5100-409: The aid of Haywood and Flynn, these two individuals organized a way for donations for the children of strikers. In addition, the children began to form strike rallies to demonstrate the hardship and struggle occurring in the Lawrence mill factories. Strikes happened from Vermont all the way to New York City; those children fought to be seen and heard where they went. The national attention had an effect:

5202-416: The blood that is spilled in a strike is your blood," he told strikers. Denouncing the mill owners, sympathizing with the toil of textile workers, Ettor called for an even larger walkout. "Monday morning you have got to close the mills that you have caused to shut down, tighter than you have them now." Ettor then set up fourteen strike committees based on nationality, and began meeting daily with everyone from

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5304-724: The census and assigning them a country of origin. There is debate over the accuracy between the studies with individual scholars and the Federal Government using different techniques and conclusion for the ethnic composition. A study published in 1909 titled A Century of Population Growth. From the First to the Twelfth census of the United States: 1790–1900 by the Government Census Bureau estimated

5406-445: The children from boarding the train and as mothers tried to force their children on board, police intervened with clubs and arrested parents and children, the latter being ferried out of the town to an orphanage. The next role that children played in the result of the strike was the testimony they gave about the working conditions in the factories. Most notable was that of Carmela Teoli , a 14-year-old mill worker who testified in front of

5508-593: The cry "Open the jail gates or we will close the mill gates." The IWW raised $ 60,000 for their defense and held demonstrations and mass meetings throughout the country in their support; the Boston authorities arrested all of the members of the Ettor and Giovannitti Defense Committee. On March 10, 1912, an estimated 10,000 protestors gathered in Lawrence demanding the release of Ettor and Giovannitti. Then, 15,000 Lawrence workers went on strike for one day on September 30 to demand

5610-484: The death of striker Anna LoPizzo , who was likely shot by the police. Ettor and Giovannitti had been 3 mi (4.8 km) away, where they spoke to another group of workers. They and a third defendant, who had not even heard of either Ettor or Giovannitti at the time of his arrest, were held in jail for the duration of the strike and several months thereafter. The authorities declared martial law, banned all public meetings, and called out 22 more militia companies to patrol

5712-402: The duration of the strike. When city authorities tried to prevent another 100 children from going to Philadelphia on February 24 by sending police and the militia to the station to detain the children and arrest their parents, the police began clubbing both the children and their mothers and dragged them off to be taken away by truck; one pregnant mother miscarried. The press, there to photograph

5814-487: The event, reported extensively on the attack. Moreover, when the women and children were taken to the Police Court, most of them refused to pay the fines levied and opted for a jail cell, some with babies in arms. The police action against the mothers and children of Lawrence attracted the attention of the nation, in particular that of first lady Helen Herron Taft , wife of President William Howard Taft . Soon, both

5916-446: The financial panic of 1893. The building of America's transcontinental railroads, the settlement of the great plains, and industrialization attracted skilled and professional emigrants from England. Also, cheaper steamship fares enabled unskilled urban workers to come to America, and unskilled and semiskilled laborers, miners, and building trades workers made up the majority of these new English immigrants. While most settled in America,

6018-400: The first ten American presidents and more than that proportion of the 46 presidents, as well as the majority of sitting congressmen and congresswomen, are descended from English ancestors. The descendants of English expatriates are so numerous and so well integrated in American life that it is impossible to identify all of them. While they are the third-largest ethnic nationality self-reported in

6120-420: The gains they had won in the next few years. The IWW, disdaining written contracts as encouraging workers to abandon the daily class struggle, thus left the mill owners to chisel away at the improvements in wages and working conditions, to fire union activists, and to install labor spies to keep an eye on workers. The more persistent owners laid off further employees during a depression in the industry. By then,

6222-480: The hours of workers to 54 a week, down from a standard of 56 previously in effect. It soon became clear that the employers had no intention of adjusting wage rates upwards to compensate for the lost work time, and a strike ensued. On January 12, 1912, the Italian language branch of IWW Local 20 decided to send to New York City for Joe Ettor, the organization's top Italian language leader, to come to Lawrence and lead

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6324-478: The largest group in the United States where 25,536,410 (12.5%) identified as "English alone" with a further 21 million choosing English combined with another ethnic origin. The total is 46,550,968 Americans self-identifying as being of English origin representing (19.8%) of the White American alone or in any combination population. In the 1980 United States census , English ancestry was reported to be at around 49.6 million. This number had dramatically declined by

6426-485: The manufacturers followed by the end of the month; other textile companies throughout New England , anxious to avoid a similar confrontation, then followed suit. The children who had been taken in by supporters in New York City came home on March 30. Ettor and Giovanniti, both members of IWW, remained in prison for months after the strike was over. Haywood threatened a general strike to demand their freedom, with

6528-574: The many historic cultural ties between England and the U.S. and their influence on the country's population. Relative to ethnic groups of other European origins, this may be due to the early establishment of English settlements; as well as to non-English groups having emigrated in order to establish significant communities. Since 1776, English Americans have been less likely to proclaim their heritage, unlike other British Americans , Latino Americans , African Americans , Italian Americans , Irish Americans , Native Americans or other ethnic groups. This

6630-412: The mayor of Lawrence to the various strikers in committee. Mill owners instantly recognized Ettor's power and tried to discredit him by planting dynamite in a store where he picked up his mail. But the plot was quickly detected and Ettor continued organizing the strike. During the walkout, which came to be known as the Bread and Roses Strike , IWW striker Anna LoPizzo was shot and killed. Joseph Caruso

6732-528: The militant Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) as a turning point. He wrote, "Wary of [a war with the anti-capitalist IWW], some mill owners swallowed their hatred of unions and actually invited the AFL to organize their workers. On February 9, 2019, Senator Elizabeth Warren officially announced her candidacy for President of the United States at the site of the strike. Joseph Ettor Joseph James Ettor, known to his friends as "Joe" or "Smiling Joe,"

6834-474: The music of the power loom". Even after the strike was finished, there were many other strikes that occurred in other states involving various mill factories. "On January 12, 1913, the IWW held anniversary celebration in Lawrence" which was one of the last celebrations for a couple of years. Eugene Debs said of the strike, "The Victory at Lawrence was the most decisive and far-reaching ever won by organized labor." Author Peter Carlson saw this strike conducted by

6936-615: The next decade. An outstanding and inspirational public speaker who was fluent in Italian and English, Ettor's earliest organizing work on behalf of the IWW took place in the Western United States, where he had worked unionizing miners and migrant laborers. He also had cut his teeth organizing foreign-born workers in the steel mills and shoe factories of the East. Ettor was active in the 1907 lumber strike in Portland, Oregon ,

7038-450: The number of English Americans as an undercount. As most English Americans are the descendants of settlers who first arrived during the colonial period which began over 400 years ago, many Americans are either unaware of this heritage or choose to elect a more recent known ancestral group even if English is their primary ancestry. The term is distinct from British Americans , which includes not only English Americans but also others from

7140-508: The owners offered a 5% pay raise on March 1, but the workers rejected it. American Woolen Company agreed to most of the strikers' demands on March 12, 1912. The strikers had demanded an end to the Premium System in which a portion of their earnings were subject to month-long production and attendance standards. The mill owners' concession was to change the award of the premium from once every four weeks to once every two weeks. The rest of

7242-582: The permission of James I , three ships (the Susan Constant , The Discovery , and The God Speed ) sailed from England and landed at Cape Henry in April, under the captainship of Christopher Newport , who had been hired by the London Company to lead expeditions to what is now America. The second successful colony was Plymouth Colony , founded in 1620 by people who later became known as

7344-557: The picketer, began in September 1912 in Salem before Judge Joseph F. Quinn , the three defendants were kept in steel cages in the courtroom. All witnesses testified that Ettor and Giovannitti were miles away and that Caruso, the third defendant, was at home and eating supper at the time of the killing. Ettor and Giovannitti both delivered closing statements at the end of the two-month trial. In Ettor's closing statement, he turned and faced

7446-465: The previously mentioned 2000 census, where 24.5 million people reported English ancestry. One main reason for this is because once the American ancestry category was introduced for self-reporting ancestry, many people who previously reported having English origins reported as having "American" ancestry instead. English Americans are found in large numbers throughout the United States, particularly in

7548-550: The prewar WASP elite were Loyalists who left the new nation. While WASPs have been major players in every major American political party, an exceptionally strong association has existed between WASPs and the Republican Party , before the 1980s. A few top Democrats qualified, such as Franklin D. Roosevelt. Northeastern Republican leaders such as Leverett Saltonstall of Massachusetts, Prescott Bush of Connecticut and especially Nelson Rockefeller of New York exemplified

7650-421: The pro-business liberal Republicanism of their social stratum, espousing internationalist views on foreign policy, supporting social programs, and holding liberal views on issues like racial integration . A famous confrontation was the 1952 Senate election in Massachusetts where John F. Kennedy , a Catholic of Irish descent, defeated WASP Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. However the challenge by Barry Goldwater in 1964 to

7752-1114: The pronunciation of the letter "R" after vowels, unlike standard British English, though it still can be heard in several regional dialects in England) and spelling (one example is the "u" in words such as color , favor (US) vs colour , favour (UK)). Less obvious differences are present in grammar and vocabulary. The differences are rarely a barrier to effective communication between American English and British English speakers, but there are certainly enough differences to cause occasional misunderstandings, usually surrounding slang or dialect differences. Conversely, some lexical items often thought to be Americanisms actually have their origin in England, either falling out of use there or being restricted to specific dialects in England. Such items include all out ("entirely"), cattail ("bullrush"), crib ("child's bed"), daddy long legs ("cranefly"), homecoming ("return"), rumpus ("tumult"), which are recorded in Northern and Midland English dialects as late as

7854-584: The release of Ettor and Giovannitti. Swedish and French workers proposed a boycott of woolen goods from the US and a refusal to load ships going there, and Italian supporters of the Giovannitti men rallied in front of the US consulate in Rome . In the meantime, Ernest Pitman, a Lawrence building contractor who had done extensive work for the American Woolen Company, confessed to a district attorney that he had attended

7956-404: The streets. Harvard students were even given exemptions from their final exams if they agreed to go and try to break up the strike. The IWW responded by sending Bill Haywood , Elizabeth Gurley Flynn , and a number of other organizers to Lawrence. Haywood participated little in the daily affairs of the strike. Instead, he set out for other New England textile towns in an effort to raise funds for

8058-451: The strike by forming a strike committee of 56 people, four representatives of fourteen nationalities, which took responsibility for all major decisions. The committee, which arranged for its strike meetings to be translated into 25 different languages, put forward a set of demands: a 15% increase in wages for a 54-hour work week, double pay for overtime work, and no discrimination against workers for their strike activity. The city responded to

8160-430: The strike by ringing the city's alarm bell for the first time in its history; the mayor ordered a company of the local militia to patrol the streets. When mill owners turned fire hoses on the picketers gathered in front of the mills, they responded by throwing ice at the plants, breaking a number of windows. The court sentenced 24 workers to a year in jail for throwing ice; as the judge stated, "The only way we can teach them

8262-465: The strike committee and able to communicate Ettor's message to avoid violence at demonstrations. Ettor did not consider intimidating operatives who were trying to enter the mills as breaking the peace. The IWW was successful, even with AFL-affiliated operatives, as it defended the grievances of all operatives from all the mills. Conversely, the AFL and the mill owners preferred to keep negotiations between separate mills and their own operatives. However, in

8364-415: The strike leadership by planting dynamite in several locations in town a week after the strike began. He was fined $ 500 and released without jail time. Later, William M. Wood, the president of the American Woolen Company , was shown to have made an unexplained large payment to the defendant shortly before the dynamite was found. The authorities later charged Ettor and Giovannitti as accomplices to murder for

8466-609: The strike. Ettor arrived with Arturo Giovannitti , secretary of the Italian Socialist Federation , a language federation of the Socialist Party of America and editor of the socialist newspaper Il Proletario [The Proletarian], who was not himself at the time a member of the IWW. Ettor instantly called on all his skills, including his ability to speak five languages, to rally the strikers. On his first afternoon in Lawrence, he addressed thousands of strikers, fostering solidarity and discouraging violence. "All

8568-492: The strikers in Lawrence, which proved very successful. Other tactics established were an efficient system of relief committees, soup kitchens, and food distribution stations, and volunteer doctors provided medical care. The IWW raised funds on a nationwide basis to provide weekly benefits for strikers and dramatized the strikers' needs by arranging for several hundred children to go to supporters' homes in New York City for

8670-462: The striking families. The children were welcomed in NY by cheering crowds that drew national attention. When another group of children were sent to NY, they were paraded down 5th Avenue, drawing even more attention. Embarrassed by the bad publicity, the city marshal tried to deter the next group of children that were being sent to Philadelphia on February 24, with disastrous results. Police attempted to stop

8772-483: The striking workers, including many of the leaders of the strike, were Italian immigrants . Carried on throughout a brutally cold winter, the strike lasted more than two months, from January to March, defying the assumptions of conservative trade unions within the American Federation of Labor (AFL) that immigrant, largely female and ethnically divided workers could not be organized. In late January, when

8874-596: The time of the first census in 1790, English was the majority ancestry in all U.S. states, ranging from a high of 96.2% in Connecticut to a low of 58.0% in New Jersey. Concluding that CPG "had not been accepted by scholars as better than a first approximation of the truth", the Census Bureau commissioned a study to produce new scientific estimates of the colonial American population, in collaboration with

8976-506: The total U.S. population chose to identify as "American" (counted under "not specified") as also seen in censuses that followed. Below shows the persons who reported at least one specific ancestry are as follows. In 1990, the national level response rate for the question was high with 90.4% of the total United States population choosing at least one specific ancestry and 9.6% ignored the question completely. Of those who chose English, 66.9% of people chose it as their first response. Totals for

9078-498: The total U.S. population, while 19.9% were unclassified or ignored the question completely. It was the fourth largest ancestral group. Some Cornish Americans may not identify as English American or British American, even though Cornwall had been part of England since long before their ancestors arrived in North America. Responses were: In 2010, the official census did not include a question on origins or ancestry. However,

9180-585: The two estimates are found by comparing the ratios of the groups (adding and subtracting) to accommodate and adding the Welsh. The category 'Irish' in the Bonwick study represents immigrants from Ireland outside the province of Ulster, the overwhelming majority of whom were Protestant and not ethnically Irish, though from Ireland. They were not Irish Catholics. By the time the American War for Independence started in 1776, Catholics were 1.6%, or 40,000 persons of

9282-496: The two hours per week they were cut, even though the company had made a profit of $ 3,000,000 (~$ 71.4 million in 2023) in 1911. The workers in Lawrence lived in crowded and dangerous apartment buildings, often with many families sharing each apartment. Many families survived on bread, molasses, and beans; as one worker testified before the March 1912 congressional investigation of the Lawrence strike, "When we eat meat it seems like

9384-450: The two-loom system in the woolen mills led to a dramatic increase in the pace of work. The greater production enabled the factory owners to lay off large numbers of workers. Those who kept their jobs earned, on average, $ 8.76 for 56 hours of work and $ 9.00 for 60 hours of work. Some of the mills, worker housing and part of the town was owned by American Woolen Company president William Wood, who said he could not afford to pay his workers for

9486-494: The unskilled workforce. Several thousand skilled workers belonged, in theory at least, to the American Federation of Labor -affiliated United Textile Workers , but only a few hundred paid dues. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) had also been organizing for five years among workers in Lawrence but also had only a few hundred actual members. On January 1, 1912, a new labor law took effect in Massachusetts reducing

9588-558: The well-organized French and Irish elements. In the United States, the Scottish immigrants were much better organized than the English in the 19th century, as were their descendants in the late 20th century. The original 17th century settlers were overwhelmingly English. From the time of the first permanent English presence in the New World until the 1900s, these migrants and their descendants outnumbered all others firmly establishing

9690-401: The workers at the mill were women and children. Families were suffering not only from the lost income of adult workers, but also the lost wages of children. Children were used several times during the strike to attract attention to the cause. On February 10, 119 children were sent to Manhattan to live with relatives, or strangers, who were able to feed them to alleviate the financial strain on

9792-519: The working week of 56 hours to 54 hours for women and children. Workers opposed the reduction if it reduced their weekly take-home pay. The first two weeks of 1912, the unions tried to learn how the owners of the mills would deal with the new law. On January 11, a group of Polish women textile workers in Lawrence discovered that their employer at the Everett Mill had reduced about $ 0.32 from their total wages and walked out. On January 12, workers in

9894-408: Was a large contingent of war brides who came between 1945 and 1948. In these years four women emigrated from England for every man. In the 1950s, English immigration increased to over 150,000 and rose to 170,000 in the 1960s. While differences developed, it is not surprising that English immigrants had little difficulty in assimilating to American life. The American resentment against the policies of

9996-445: Was born on October 6, 1885, in New York City , the son of a laborer who had emigrated to America from Italy . Ettor went to work at the age of 12 selling newspapers. He later worked as a waterboy on a railroad, as a saw-filer in a lumber mill, as a barrel-maker, as a shipyard worker, and in a cigar factory. Joe Ettor went to work for the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in 1906 as an organizer, continuing in that capacity for

10098-510: Was charged with the murder and Ettor and Giovannitti, both of whom were giving speeches several miles away from the crime scene, were arrested as accomplices. The three were eventually acquitted in a trial before Salem judge Joseph F. Quinn . Ettor was one of the leaders of the Waiters strike of 1912 in New York City , and the Brooklyn barbers strike of 1913. The question of violence was

10200-404: Was common practice at the time. Lawrence had the 5th highest child mortality rate of any city in the country at the time, behind four other mill towns in Massachusetts (Lowell, Fall River, Worcester, and Holyoke). [1] By 1912, the Lawrence mills at maximum capacity employed about 32,000 men, women, and children. Conditions had worsened even more in the decade before the strike. The introduction of

10302-488: Was produced in 1909, the concept of independent Ireland did not even exist. CPG made no attempt to further classify its estimated 1.9% Irish population to distinguish Celtic Irish Catholics of Gaelic Ireland , who in 1922 formed the independent Irish Free State , from the Scotch-Irish descendants of Ulster Scots and Anglo-Irish of the Plantation of Ulster , which became Northern Ireland and remained part of

10404-657: Was the use of the general strike for the overthrow of capitalism . Ettor became a member of the executive council of the IWW. In 1916, he left the IWW along with Flynn after a dispute over the Mesabi range strike. In later years, Ettor ran a fruit orchard in San Clemente, California , where he died in 1948. English Americans English Americans (historically known as Anglo-Americans ) are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in England . In

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