STRIKES AND MURDER

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1558, 30 September 1912, Page 5

STRIKES AND MURDER

LEADERS UNDER ARRE6T. liy Tolccraph-Prcßi Aesoclotlon-CoryriEhl New York, September 27. At Lawrence, Massachusetts, where llicri" was a big strike, recently, 4000 lextilo workers lmvo again struck, at.the instance of tlie Socialistic organisation known its the Industrial Workers of the World. Twelve thousand altogether nrp idle. The trial of two men charged with implication in a .striko murder early in tlie year is pending. Great unrest prevails. RESPONSIBILITY FOR MURDER. STRIKE LEADEKS ON TRIAL. In sjiilc of the fact that the strike at Lawrence, Massachusetts, is formally over (wrote the Now York "Outlook" on, Juno 1), that wages in the locnl mills have been raised 'tram five to fifteen per cent., and that, as. a result of the conmet, nearly lour hundred thousand operatives all over New England are now drawing increased pay, the situation in tho mill town is by no means without serious aspects One of the chief irritants at present is the continued imprisonment without hail, of Joseph L'ttor .and Arturo Uiovaiiitli, on tho charge of being no-ccss-jry before the fact of murder. The case of these men involves precedents which, if it is derided against the defendants, will tend to become a powerful weapon in the hands of employers. The tacts are briefly these: On the evening of January ia Anna Lopczr.i was shot and killed in a small riot incidental to the strike. It is not certain who fired Ihe shot. Some of the .witnesses before tha investigating Magistrate said that.Officer Bcnoit, who was the centre of the disturbance, diil the shooting; others that a man unknown fired at Officer Benoit and missed him. The strike was then at ita height, and the situation was so dangerously tense that the authorities took 'advantage of the hemicide to arrest i Kttor and tliovnnilti, two leaders of the working men. No one claims that thev wore anywhere in tho vicinity of the killing. No one supposes that they desired tho death of the victim, who, indeed, was ono of (he strikers. They arc to be put on trial for life, however, .charged, as lead--crs of the strike, with using language which incited to riot tho incidental result of which was the homicide. That the present situation in Lawrence if menacing is indicated, by tlie fact that in this mill town alone there are over ton thousand bona fide members of. the Industrial Workers of the World..;