| ARTURO GIOVANNITTI And now Italy is oppressed, I may say, even
We have been working in
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| Bequest of SAMUEL SIG1LMAN Ettor and Giovannitti Before the Jury AT Salem, Massachusetts NOVEMBER 23, 1912 Price, 25 Cents Published by THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD, 307, 164 W. Washington St., CHJCAGO, ILL. FEBRUARY 14, 1941 Industrial Unions vs. Trustified Trusts is the line-up henceforth in the CLASS WAR Wage Workers* Organizations! Are you prepared for the fray? We are prepared to aid you in pub- lishing the aim, method and object of Industrial Unionism in your town in your organization. Speakers in Italian, German, Polish, Hungarian and other languages. Dates and terms upon application. For full information write : Industrial Union Agitation Bureau OF THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD 307, 164 West Washington St., CHICAGO, ILL. Introduction The trial of Ettor, Giovannitti and Caruso came to a close on November 26th, 1912, at Salem, Mass. This trial will go down in his- tory as one of the longest and most bitterly contested trials in the History of the Labor World. The acquittal of the three defend- ants marked another milestone in the prog- ress towards working-class emancipation. Ettor and Giovannitti were arrested at Lawrence, Mass., in January, 1912, during the great Textile Strike. They were charged with being " accessories before the fact" to murder. It was held that they had inflamed the minds of the workers with inflammatory speeches to the point, that they, the workers, had rioted and killed Anna LoPizzi, a young Italian striker. Caruso was charged with being one of the principals. The real princi- pal, the State named as Scutio, was charged with having actually fired the shot that killed the girl. Scutio has never been apprehended and it is generally claimed among the strikers that no such person ever existed. To make the charge of " accessory before the fact" one that can be legally prosecuted, it is necessary to have a principal, so Ca- ruso was hounded by detectives, discharged from four different jobs in the mills of Lawrence to make him a "fugitive from justice," and was finally arrested two months after Ettor and Giovanitti, and charged with being a principal. In this memorable case, three weeks were consumed in securing a jury. Over five hun- dred veniremen were challenged or escaped duty for one cause or another, chiefly for be- ing opposed to the death penalty. The ac- tual trial, beginning with taking of evidence, lasted over five weeks. The prosecution re- lied almost wholly on the testimony of pri- vate detectives, city police, state police, mi- litiamen and the paid tools and thugs of the capitalist class. Against this array of capitalist tools, were the workers who had nothing to gain by telling falsehoods ; who were proud of their fighting union and more so of the fact, that in the face of this legalized band of paid tools, they had wrenched from the American Woolen Co., a fifteen per cent raise of wages throughout the Textile Industry of the New England States, amounting to over fifteen million dollars a year. Not only were the defendants on trial for their lives, but the I. W. W. was on trial. Ettor and Giovannitti had been arrested charged with an offense that was unbailable, to keep them from leading the workers to victory. The I. W. W. was to be smashed if possible, because it opposed the present capitalist regime. The Preamble and Con- stitution of the I. W. W. were brought into evidence as well as many books, pamphlets and the official papers of the organization. The District Attorney appealed to every prejudice that a New England juryman might have, patriotism, religion and home. He stated that the defendants would even rob the workers of their little homes. It was only after a bitter speech by the Dis- trict Attorney teeming with falsehoods and appeals to prejudice, that the defendants, Ettor and Giovannitti, insisted (against the advice of their own counsel) on addressing the jury. Needless to say the addresses of Ettor and Giovannitti served to take the sting out of the day and a half speech of the District Attorney, and placed them above their blood-thirsty enemies, mentally and morally. The National Headquarters of the I. W. W., in order to serve a growing demand for the speeches in full, takes this opportunity of placing them before the Workers of the World, with the hope that the words of the defendants may inspire others to higher thoughts and nobler deeds and thus hasten the day when human happiness will be placed above the dollar or a yard of cloth, when the workers shall enjoy the full prod- uct of their toil. NOTE: The jury, after deliberating five hours, brought in a verdict of "NOT GUILTY" for the three defendants. JOSEPH J. ETTOR. The name of Joseph J. Ettor is now heard throughout the land. It is on the lips of workingmen and women in the remotest parts of the country. It is indissolubly con- nected with the great Lawrence strike, and the industrial revolt in New England which began there. It is a name that is destined to become famous in conjunction with the attempt of reactionary capitalism to kill revolutionary unionism by means of the in- famous legal doctrine of " accessory before the fact to murder" a doctrine from which even despotic Russia is free. Despite the widespread use and the his- toric connection of his name, despite the fame which posterity is likely to bestow upon him, little, very little is known of Jo- seph J. Ettor, the man. The question is ac- cordingly often asked: Who is Joseph J. Ettor? What is his personality like, any- how? How did he become so well known? These questions are well put. Any innocent labor leader whom it is desired to put to death in the interests of capitalism and ac- cording to its most oppressive legal perver- sions, is a man of merit and worthy of inti- mate working class acquaintance. Joseph J. Ettor is a native of the United States. His parents are Italian. He is slightly over 26 years of age, and unmarried. Though short and stocky, he walks with the quick, nimble step of a woman. His hair is black and flowing. His eyes are dark brown, his cheeks fat and rosy. His whole manner is open, candid and boyish. His attire, at best, with his big soft hat worn jauntily on one side and his big flowing Windsor tie and natty blue suit is suggestive of the prosper- ous bourgeoise or the artistic Bohemian though Ettor is neither of these, being sound and substantial in all respects. A CHILD OP THE WEST. Ettor has lived most of his life in the west. In addition to the audacious, quick-witted, enthusiastic temperament inherited from his Latin ancestors, the west has given him practical fortitude, and an indomitable spirit. There is nothing absolutely volatile and effervescent about Ettor. His is a light and gay spirit united with many sturdy 8 qualities, both of head and heart. He is an energetic, bright, courageous young man of ideals. Ettor 's birthplace is Brooklyn, N. T. Few things but churches, graveyards and bed- chambers are known of Brooklyn. But it has within its confines, some of the biggest industrial trusts and plants in the country, and now it can claim the honor of having been the city in which this modern labor leader first opened his eyes. Ettor was not allowed to enjoy the sight long. His parents left funereal and somnolent Brooklyn short- ly after he was born. They migrated west- ward. His father, a laborer, was in Chicago during the great eight-hour strikes of 1886. He was in Haymarket square on the night of the bomb throwing. He was struck in the back with a brick during one of the many melees attending this epoch-making period in the history of the American labor move- ment. The youngster, Joe, as he is fondly called by those nearest to him, often heard his father recount the foregoing incidents. "The old man," as Joe affectionately refers to him, "was proud to be a striker in those 9 stirring times. ' ' It was from his father that Joseph J. Ettor first imbibed revolutionary spirit. AN EMERGENCY MAN. We next hear of Ettor on the Pacific Coast. Miss Jane A. Roulston writes cf him: "When I first knew Ettor in San Francisco, he was hardly more than a child, a big fat boy. The Industrial Work- ers of the World brought us together. My first impressions of him are as to his capa- bility for quick action, practical expedient action, without premeditation. I remember his writing a resolution in a few minutes, which would have taken the rest of us sev- eral hours of thought, and his resolution was just right, though perhaps not perfectly grammatical. "In many cases he showed great presence of mind in sudden crises. He is essentially an emergency man. "After the earthquake of 1906, the I. W. W. men lived together in a tent; Joe was made organizer. Although other labor was well paid, the debris workers who were 10 many, worked for a mere pittance. Ettor organized them. He DISAPPEARED. We had some trouble finding him, as the prisons were shaken down and the authori- ties were using makeshifts of all kinds. At last we found him in one of them. He had been secretly arrested with one companion on the ridiculous charges of threatening some boss's life, and prevented from com- municating with his organization. We got him out. The case never came up ; there was no case, in fact. " During the early days of the earthquake season, I mean while the city was in a state of fear and excitement, though the quake was over, we used to hold large street meetings, several men tried to make trouble by starting little personal fights. Joe ' spotted' them at once and gave warning; but at last they did get up a little row and one of THEM fell through a large expensive glass window of an adjoining store. Joe at once jumped on the box, called the crowd around him, called off OUR men and so explained the trouble in such clear terse language (calling also for witnesses from outsiders) 11 , that the affair was never referred to and the glass was replaced early the next morning (Sunday, too). It was not replaced by the owners of the store, either." This youthful beginning of an eventful career is typical. Ettor has repeatedly been arrested for his resourcefulness and courage in the interest of the working class. EXPERIENCED ORGANIZER. While in Frisco, Ettor was employed as an iron worker in the shipyard of the city. He left the Golden Gate City some four years ago to travel up and down the Pacific Coast as an organizer of the I. W. W. In this capacity, Ettor visited mining, lumber and railroad construction camps and be- came acquainted at first hand with the rig- orous capitalist exploitation and oppression prevailing in them. He is familiar, from practical experience, with the company po- lice, company stores, blacklist, stockades and other methods used by the big corporations to keep their wage workers in slavery. He has been forced more than once to leave on threat of being killed and often at the point 12 of a gun. Many tales does he tell of meet- ings of miners held in secret, frustrated by spotters, of how, when employed in a mine or a lumber camp, he was often discovered and discharged unceremoniously. Ettor doesn't know the class struggle because he talks it ; he talks it because he knows it. Ettor was active in the big strike in Schwab's steel works at South Bethlehem, Pa. In company with Joseph Schmidt he called big mass meetings, inaugurated mass picketing, introduced tactics that defeated the state constabulary, the Cossacks, so- called, in their attempts to ride down and break up the ranks of the strikers, thereby turning what looked as a disastrous defeat into the promises of a victory. The A. F. of L. stepping in and organizing the industry according to crafts, Ettor and Schmidt with- drew and the strike ended in failure. The big strike at Westmoreland, Pa., was also one of the many scenes of Ettor 's ac- tivity. Here two mounted Cossacks, smart- ing under his condemnation of the brutality of the state constabulary, rode toward him in a menacing manner, when Ettor warned 13 them to keep their places. Said he to them, "I am speaking here within my constitu- tional rights. I know my rights and possess the determination and the backing of my organization to maintain them. I defy you to interfere with me." The Cossacks were cowed; they kept their hands off of Ettor. Ettor has also labored in the anthracite* regions and is well known in Scranton and vicinity. He is a danger to the coal trust when at liberty. This is an additional rea- son why he was imprisoned. Some of Ettor 's methods were employed in the Brooklyn shoe workers' strike, where he next became known. The mass meeting and the mass action were here invoked with good results. Ettor would urge all hands out on the picketing line, and like a true leader, he goes where he urges his followers to go. He was foremost on the picketing line, encouraging the men, indicating to them how best to conserve their interests, with a camera under his arm taking snap- shots of incidents, showing the lineup be- tween masters and men. At the mass meet- ings he utilized the various phases of the 14 strike to drive home their economic signifi- cance. He showed, for instance, that indus- trial development had created the leather trust, the shoe machinery trust and the Shoe Manufacturers' Association, all united by financial ties into one big organization in opposition to the interests of the shoe work- ers ; that the shoe workers must organize on similar lines; that they could no longer di- vide into crafts, but must organize as their industry is organized. To the cutter, fin- isher, turn-worker, etc., must be united the engineer, fireman and teamster employed by the firm or corporation. Ettor on one occa- sion taking up the various national, religious and other devices by which the workers are divided by the bosses, said in part : "In the shop there is no flag. "In the shop there is no religion. "In the shop there is no party. "In the shop there is no nation. "In the shop there is only work and work- ers. "In the shop the workers must get to- gether on the basis of their work and attack their exploiters. 15 "In capitalism, all over the world, there are only two nations, the workers and the capitalists. Your place is with the workers and in the Industrial Workers of the World." On another occasion he said: "You can- not make shoes without shoemakers. Your shoe factories may be ever so well built and stocked. Your machinery may be of the very latest kind. You may have the best brains in the world directing your plant. Still you cannot make shoes. To make shoes requires shoe workers. It is the shoe- makers who make your plant productive; who give value to your stock and who make your executive ability profitable. The shoe workers are the shoe industry, and to thein should the whole industry belong. We want not only more wages, but industrial control." These are samples of Ettor 's "incendiary speeches." DOGGED BY PINKERTONS. Ettor is an object of Pinkertonian perse- cution. They dog his steps day and night, yet Ettor is not bitten by the Pinkerton 16 maggot. He does not see a Pinkerton in everybody who disagrees with him or acts in a manner detrimental to the interests of the working class. This is well reflected in an incident that occurred in the Brooklyn shoe workers ' strike. A Jewish fitter was accused of having betrayed his fellow employes to the boss, and on his appearance at one of the meetings, there were cries of " Throw him out of the window. He 's a Pinkerton. ' ' Et- tor refused to allow such a thing to occur. He said, "Boys, let's hear what the lad has to sav for himself. Give him a show to be heard. And if he makes good, we'll forget what he has done." Accordingly the man was heard, and though his confession was damaging and he expressed contrition, he was permitted to attend the meetings and take his place in the ranks. Though often dogmatic, even a boss, as the circumstances may require, Ettor is none the less a tolerant and broadminded leader of men. Ettor 's next appearance in the class strug- gle was at Lawrence. Lawrence is too recent to need much re-telling. Even the capitalist press admit that Ettor was a factor for the 17 preservation of peace on his appearance on the scene. The Brooklyn " Tablet," a Cath- olic paper, says of Ettor, describing his ac- tivities at the time referred to: "He had a personality that was winning in its way. He spoke English and Italian fluently. He soon had all the active spirits in the strike believ- ing in him, absolutely and ready to do his slightest bidding." Such is the man who helped to defeat the woolen trust and to in- augurate an industrial revolt in New Eng- land, resulting in wage increase amounting, according to various estimates, from five to fifteen million dollars annually, not to men- tion the improved conditions also introduced. 18 JOSEPH J. ETTOR ADDRESS OF THE DEFENDANT ETTOR TO THE JURY. Mr. Foreman and Gentlemen of the Jury: I realize full well that there has been a good deal of talk and that the suggestion in your mind is, as the District Attorney has intimated, and with which I will agree, that my defense has been able to procure the best minds as far as law is concerned that this county can offer. For my part, I have not been tried on my acts. I have been tried here because of my social ideals. Gentlemen, I make no threats. But history does, and history re- cords things, with little variation here and there, but nothing can efface the fact that because of my political and social views I am brought here to the bar. I am impelled to speak because of that fact, and nothing else. My attorneys have done well in pre- senting to you the case as far as the evi- dence is concerned on a matter of law. I want to reply to the Distirct Attorney and say that if his conception of wealth is what he has explained this morning, then 20 all the political economists, all the thinkers, all the men and women who have racked their brains to study the social question, have absolutely no effect. They have cre- ated no impression. Think of it ! Social wealth is that which is left over! My social views are that the working class produces everything that there is. In order to produce wealth, ma- chinery nowadays and the implements of production are not used by one individual. They are used by a class. They are not owned by that class but they are owned by a class that is unable to operate them, but has workers to operate them on a wage basis. Mr. Attwill has been somewhat worried that when we do away with the wage sys- tem people won't be able to get along be- cause they might have clamshells. I want to state frankly to you twelve gentlemen, my views have been brought into this case, and the arguments and the evidence have been all along because of the relation to my views. The District Attorney has argued that you were to draw certain inference 21 from what I said, not because I said it, but because I held certain views. In other words, because I hold the views that all wealth is the product of labor and therefore should belong to labor, it follows, according to his argument, that I am in fa- vor of destroying property. I stated on the stand that I believe all property is social property. I haven't in mind, gentlemen of the jury, a tooth brush or pipes or anything of that kind. I have in mind machines. I have in mind railroads. I have in mind the things that are necessary to the world and what the world of labor produces and uses should belong to the world of labor. I stated on the stand that if the working class with a policy of violence destroys any of those machines or any of that property, when it comes into possession of its own it will have that much less. The District Attorney would have you be- lieve that I had no right to come here to Massachusetts. He will not infer that I was a foreigner. He knows different. But my comrade, Giovannitti here is a foreigner, 22 and you didn't want him to come from Italy and give us any lessons. And this boy here, who neither reads nor writes, is sup- posed to be from Italy one of the inflam- mable one of the material that I applied the match to and the magazine went off. He has appealed to you about Massachu- setts and her history and her traditions, and he has told you in his opening that he was born in New England and that throughout he has become imbued with the New Eng- land ideals. May I not refresh his mind concerning New England, and particularly Massachusetts, in relation to the foreigners ? Away back in the days of the Revolutionary War two foreigners came to this country among many others Pulaski and Koscius- ko, two Polocks. And those two foreigners, among the many that came to Massachusetts, offered their lives and gave freely of their blood. We have heard here from the District Attorney and from the various testimony offered here by policemen: "Who was in the crowd?" "Foreigners." "How could you tell they were foreigners?" Well, they 23 sized them up. In two minutes they counted six and seven hundred, and a thousand, and two thousand. The District Attorney here has argued that probably there is a desire on the part of somebody to take down the Stars and Stripes and place on the municipal build- ings and everywhere the flag of anarchy and Socialism. The New England bard, Long- fellow, sang and pleaded that the two for- eigners who gave their blood and who of- fered their energy and who offered their life to the freedom of this country should have the flag that floated over Bunker Hill wrapped around their bodies. The District Attorney believed, or rather, is dubious that I do not know the traditions of Massachusetts or of this country. He has intimated that whether I do or not is of little or no consequence. But in my exer^ cise of a constitutional right to speak freely I didn't speak to chosen people. I didn't speak probably to the District Attorney or I didn't speak probably to people to whom he would have me speak. But in the exercise 24 of my constitutional right I spoke to for- eigners. Now, as I understand my rights, as far as free speech is concerned, I have the right to speak freely and to air my views. I have a right to cry out in the night, as I did in Lawrence, and point out that human beings were outraged; that human life had been reduced down to the point where it was an impossibility for it to work any longer and expect to live. I didn't understand when I read the con- stitution I never understood when I went to school in all of my experience I never yet have understood, and it is a novelty to me to understand from the District Attor- ney that I somehow become guilty of a crime and what? I become guilty of mur- dering my sister because I spoke to strikers who were not born in this country. That is one of the counts. Now, gentlemen, I am accused of murder, and it is said that I become guilty of that murder by a series of circumstances by my action, says the District Attorney, by my speeches and by insinuations and innuen- 25 does ; that when I smiled that was a sugges- tion for somebody to go out and get a shot- gun or do some work of that nature. I want to leave this matter to you. 1 came to the city of Lawrence, as I told you on the stand. I knew the conditions of the laboring people of Lawrence, and I knew the condi- tion of the laboring people of this Common- wealth. And I say it is not a question of the Commonwealth in this matter. The shame and the blotch does not fall upon the Com- monwealth. It is not a matter of the Com- monwealth's defending itself at all. It is simply a question that the capitalists of Mas- sachusetts have taken human beings and re- duced them to so many appendages of ma- chines. I came here knowing the conditions of those men and women. It is true I had no relative. It is true I had no property here. But I had interests here that are dearer to me than all blood relations, than all prop- erty. I had brothers and sisters here who called for me to come and give what aid I was able to give, and I came. 26 As I told you on the stand, I came with a definite purpose. I came with a determina- tion that I would give all that I could, that I would offer all of my energy and that I would offer all of my enthusiasm and that I would give all of my love, that I would sing to those workers that they may be able to obtain more bread. And I told them in that meeting that I knew what the situation was and that I knew from past experience how they had been outraged, and I knew further in the past troubles between labor and capital how each side behaved. I said then that what- ever blood is spilled in this strike it will be on the heads of the mill owners. It will be they who have provoked this strike, be- cause they refused to live up to the spirit of the law because thev schemed and con- nived and conspired in order that the law may have the very opposite effect from the intention of those who advocated, agitated, and went forward in the hearing and in the Legislature that it might pass. What is the result? That the strike was to be discredited, and dynamite is planted 27 in the city of Lawrence planted not by strikers. I was the one man and I do not say this in a boasting spirit that exposed the entire plan. I knew what it meant, and subsequent events proved beyond a doubt that as far as the strikers were concerned it was merely a plan to provoke the citizens, of that city, as the citizens elsewhere, to a spirit of opposition against the strikers. We next have the evidence gone through here, more or less. Sometimes they differ on the date one way or the other, but the facts stand there as so many rocks, and all the words of the District Attorney cannot shove them away or have any effect upon them. A parade is organized. The District At- torney says that you have a right to infer that we did not have a lawful object, that it was not a lawful parade. But all the evi- dence here is that it was a lawful parade, and that we had the best objects in the world. But street cars were smashed, and the District Attorney says that they were smashed all about one time and it covered an area of about a mile and a half. There 28 is no evidence here of any such contention. The street cars were smashed and I made the statement on that morning that my in- formation was that the street cars had been smashed and it was a plant in the same way that the dynamite hoax was a plant ; that it was a put-up job in order to discredit the strikers, in order that the strikers might have public feeling arrayed against them. I don't know whether the honorable justice will allow me to make this statement. The Court : You may continue. Defendant Ettor : I also made the state- ment after the shooting of the woman that I was satisfied that that was a job and that in time we would prove it. And I say, gen- tlemen, as I proved to every man in the city of Lawrence, as I proved to every man in Massachusetts, that the mill interests planted dynamite in order to discredit the strikers. They planted dynamite that was dangerous to life. They didn't hesitate. So I would have proved that the street cars were smashed by the thugs and agents provocateurs of the mill owners. And I would have proved that my sister, Anna Lo 29 Pizzi, the sister of Caruso and the sister of Giovannitti and the sister of every striker in the city of Lawrence, was murdered by the agents of the mill owners. It has been stated here that we had riots. Gentlemen, I am also accused of making speeches. The District Attorney said that he didn't want to worry you about too many witnesses. Yet he did not hesitate to bring thirty witnesses here, starters, conductors and motormen, or those in relation to the street cars. But how many newspaper men did he bring? He brought three or four. He brought one here who was a personal enemy of mine. He brought another who was under my suspicion. My speech had, so to speak, made a shoe that fitted his feet, and he came to me and said, "Mr. Ettor, in connection with the dynamite do you sus- picion me and my paper?" They brought him here. They brought Toye here, who admits that he cannot remember what I said before a certain sentence nor afterwards, but he does remember that sentence. Why didn't they bring every newspaper man that was on station in the city of 30 Lawrence? Mr. Peters has stated the rea- son: They had to be relegated to the rear. They might make statements here that would not prove the contention of the Dis- trict Attorney and the rest of the gentlemen who have been here at his back. I did make speeches, but, gentlemen, I am responsible fully for what I said and not partially for what I said. And for every speech, if they were presented to you in full, I would raise my hand only as a figure of speech, because the District Attorney may say that I didn't raise my hand, as it were but I will give you my word that I will take my pledge that if the District Attor- ney had offered here my complete speeches I would have said, "Yes, sir, I did make those speeches." But the District Attorney he could have furnished my speeches. Gentlemen, there were plenty of detectives in the city of Law- rence. There were plenty of them around with pencil and paper to take down my speeches. But here is the District Attor- ney, who wants to know, Did I say such and such a sentence, or to that effect. I said be- 31 fore, and I repeat it, I am willing to stand fully responsible for every word I said in full, but not for parts. No man who speaks in public, no man who makes speeches, can be held responsible for parts of his speeches. If you were to adopt that policy, gentlemen, there is not a politi- cian, there is not a public man today that would be out of jail, because if you take their speeches apart every one of you can find something or another that you don't like or that you think would mean harm or had done harm or something of that nature. I call your attention again to the state- ment that I was the one who incited people there. The Mayor of the city of Lawrence, a law-abiding citizen, made a public state- ment that "We will either break this strike or break the strikers' heads." Is it possible that only the strikers understand inciting speeches? Isn't that an inciting speech? Is it not reasonable for me to argue that the po- lice who went on the corner of Garden and Union Street on that night went with the thought expressed by Mayor Scanlon, "Break this strike or break the strikers' 32 heads ' ' ? These police went there with a full knowledge in their minds that they were safe, that they were armed with the author- ity of the law, they could do those things and they did not stop at any little niceties. But, just as they expressed themselves or as Mr. Spranger expressed it, they knocked a head wherever it bobbed up. I have only one or two more statements. The Bencordo boys followed me along, ac- cording to their own admission. They were looking for something. What do they find % What do they find? They found "wild ani- mals'' on my comrade, Giovannitti. They followed me in the parade. They followed me everywhere. They were looking for an- archists. They were looking for bad men. They were looking for gunmen. They were looking for everything and anything that they thought was against the law. Think of it! Young Bencordo and the elder Bencordo, the saviours of the tradi- tions of Massachusetts, the upholders of law, the upholders of order! They were the Agents of the mill owners in the city of Law- rence to provoke trouble. And I say, gen- 33 tlemen, is it not reasonable for me to argue that, if the mill owners of the city of Law- rence, when a law for the benefit of the workers was passed, conspired that its ef- fect might not be for the benefit of the work- ers and afterward had dynamite planted in the city of Lawrence to discredit the strik- ers, and hired detectives to work and move among the strikers, that these detectives cer- tainly could not hope to keep their job or to keep on the pay-roll of the mill owners or make reports unless there was trouble? I ask you, is it not reasonable that they should make all the trouble possible in or- der to stay on the pay-roll and make the nec- essary impression on the mill owners that there was a necessity for them to be on the job? And if they did hire these men and these men did move among the strikers, is it not reasonable to argue, gentlemen, that these men would not hesitate for a moment to break car windows and create riots? Do you believe for a moment that it is unreasonable to argue that, if they did these things, if they brought workers from Po- land and if they brought workers from Italy 34 and then put them in the mills and exploited them and then violated the spirit of the law, and when the workers went out on strike planted dynamite in their homes and then sent around agents provocateurs in their ranks, these mill owners would not hesitate at all or would not have any scruples if their agents provoked a riot and then shot into the crowd in order to lay the blame upon the shoulders that under the conditions it would reasonably fall ? In a riot when a strike is on, as far as the public is concerned, the blame naturally falls, it inevitably falls on the shoulders of the strikers. And in Lawrence it has been only one of the cases where we have been able to prove that, althought at first it fell on the shoulders of the strikers, it was really the work of the mill owners. Gentlemen, since my views in my organi- zation have been brought into this argu- ment, I want to state this : that my organi- zation has made it a practice to allow men in the past to express their views as they understood them. Now, what are my social views ? I have stated some of them. I do 35 believe I may be wrong, but, gentlemen, only history can pass judgment upon them. All wealth is the product of labor, and all wealth being the product of labor belongs to labor and to no one else. I know the District Attorney is weary and worried about what is going to happen to the little home or to the little savings of the working man who has saved and scraped around and managed somehow or another to put aside a few dollars. He knows full well that my social ideas have little or no relation to the working man who worked in the shoe shop or to the working man who worked on a building, or to the operative in a mill who was able to put a hundred dollars aside and then fifty dollars aside, and so on, and get a shanty in some place. He knows that my social ideas are bigger than the proposition to take away the home of the operative who has saved fifty cents here and a dollar there and seventy-five cents somewhere else. He knows that my social views have no re- lation to the little property owner, but my social views have a relation so far as society is concerned. A railroad is operated by the 36 workers. It is made possible only because there are people living in this country, and according to that argument we insist that the railroad should belong to the people of this country and not to the railroad owners, who are mere coupon clippers. And that principle applies to the textile industry, to the shoe industry and to every industry. It does not apply to the tooth brush or to the pipe nor to the little shanty the working man is able to erect by scraping and gouging somehow or other. I want to state further, gentlemen, that whatever my social views are, as I stated before, they are what they are. They can- not be tried in this courtroom. With all re- spect to you, gentlemen, and with all respect to everyone here, they cannot be tried in this courtroom. It has been tried before. Away back thousands of years the trick was tried that man's views could be brought into a courtroom or brought before the king or brought before somebody in authority and that judgment could be passed. And in those days they said, "The only way we can settle these new ideas is, first, send them to the 37 cross;" then, "Send them to the gallows," then to the guillotine, and to the rope. And I want to know, does Mr. Attwill be- lieve for a moment that, beginning with Spartacus, whose men were crucified for miles along the Appian Way, and following with Christ, who was adjudged an enemy of the Roman social order, and put on the cross does he believe for a moment that the cross or the gallows or the guillotine, the hang- man's noose, ever settled an idea? It never did. If the idea can live it lives, because his- tory adjudges it right. And what has been considered an idea constituting a social crime in one age, has in the next age be- come the very religion of humanity. The social criminals of one age Tiave become the saints of the next. The District Attorney talks to you about Massachusetts. Sixty years ago, gentlemen seventy years ago the respectable mob not the mob in the mills, but the respectable mob, the well-dressed mob dragged the propagandists and the agents of a new so- cial order and a new idea through the streets 38 of Boston, and the members of that same respectable mob now now that the ideas of Wendell Phillips have been materialized into something, now that the ideas of Garri- son and the rest have been proven of value, the offspring of that social mob rises up and says, "The traditions of Massachusetts. " Gentlemen, the traditions of Massachu- setts have been made by those who made it and not those who speak of it. John Brown was hanged and the cry went up, "A social criminal" not even that dignity to him just a criminal. Within two years the youngest and the noblest, the strongest that this nation could offer, were marching through the fields of this country singing: " John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave, But his soul goes marching on." My ideas are what they are, gentlemen. They might be indicted and you might be- lieve, as the District Attorney has suggested, that you can pass judgment and that you can choke them; but you can't. Ideas can't be choked. 39 I want to leave this matter to you with a few words. I came to the city of Lawrence feeling that I could be of some aid, that I could offer all the aid that was possible in me to secure more bread for twenty-five or thirty thousand textile workers. I did what I could. I did what I could, that is all. If I didn't do any more it was because I couldn't do any more. I did the best I could. If you believe and you adopt the suggestion of Mr. Attwill I should not have come to Massachusetts, not because, as he intimated with regard to my comrade, Giovannitti, I am a foreigner, but because I came from New York. If for a moment, gentlemen, you believe that I am responsible for the death of Anna Lo Pizzi, you only can conjure it by the in- sinuations that have been offered here by Mr. Attwill. But I want to say this : Since I was a boy and I could lift my voice for the cause that I thought right, I did. I not only dared to raise my voice, but I knew full well as I went along that raising my voice for my class meant the baring of my breast against the shafts of the opposition of the 40 monopolists and the capitalists of this coun- try. And as I have gone along I have raised my voice on behalf of men, women and child- ren who work in the mines, who work in the mills and who work in the factories of this country; who daily offer their labor and their blood and even their lives in order to make possible the prosperity of this coun- try. I have carried the flag along. I have given cheer and hope and sang the workers on to be brave and go forward as men and women by demanding their rights. It may be pos- sible, gentlemen, that because of the various outside things that have been introduced here, my social views, and so forth, you gen- tlemen believe that I am guilty of murder. If you do, of course I will pay the penalty. Don't worry about that. I say to you, gentlemen, if you believe that I had any interest, that I had any desire, that I had any motive or knowledge in this death, then I offer no apology, I ask for no mercy, I offer no extenuations to you gentle- men. I talk to you as one man talks to 41 twelve others. If you believe that, then I hope that you won't come back here and say in words that will mean, "Mr. Ettor may be responsible, but Mr. Ettor has done so many things that are of worth and are noble and therefore we won't let him go, but we will shut him up so that it will be impossible for him to advance his social views any more." Gentlemen, I know not what the instruc- tions of this Court will be on that point, but whatever your feelings may be I plead with you I have told you my views; they are the same as my comrade, Giovannitti, the same in general. We may disagree on a word here and there, but both of us, we state plain- ly, will give all that there is in us that this present society may be changed, that the present rule of wage labor on one side, pro- ducing all things and receiving only a part, and idle capitalists on the other, producing nothing and receiving most, may be abol- ished. We say that in the past we have given the best that was in us that the workers may rally to their own standard and that they may organize and through their solidarity, 42 through their united efforts, they may from time to time, step to step, get close together and' finally emancipate themselves through their own efforts that the mills and work- shops of America may become the property of the workers of America and that the wealth produced in those workshops may be for the benefit of the workers of America. Those have been our views. If we are set at liberty those will still be our views and those will be our actions. If you believe that we should not go out with those views, then, gentlemen, I ask you only one favor, and that is this that you will place the re- sponsibility full on us and say to the world that Joseph J. Ettor and Arturo Giovan- nitti, because of their social ideas, became murderers and murdered one of their own sister strikers, and you will by your verdict say plainly that we should die for it. As I stated before, I have carried the flag. I carry it here today, gentlemen ; the flag of liberty is here. I am willing to carry it just as long as it is necessary. But if you believe and if the District Attorney has been able to insinuate and argue you into the frame 43 of mind that I killed Anna Lo Pizzi or that I wanted anybody to kill Anna Lo Piz- zi, or that I turned a finger that Anna Lo Pizzi or any other human being should be killed, then I will stand up with head erect, gentlemen, no apology to offer, no excuse to ask, I will accept your verdict and expect that you will say, " You have done what you did and now we have spoken." I expect that if I have carried the flag along, if I have raised my voice, if I have bared my breast against the opposition, that I have done it long enough, and I want to plead with you that if I am guilty I want to pay the full price full price; no half-way measure; the full price. If twelve men in Essex County, chosen among the prominent citizens, among the ones who are available and can be en- rolled on the list as jurors if twelve men believe that I am guilty of murder and Com- rade Giovannitti is guilty of murder, speak- ing for myself, I say to you that I would stand erect and my comrade here just whispered to me, "Say it for both" we will stand here and accept whatever your verdict may be. 44 I hope that whatever your views are you will decide clean cut one way or the other. If I am guilty I tell you I am not a senti- mentalist on those points; I believe in the death chair. Very well; if I am guilty I and my comrade Giovannitti will go there, with heads erect and the same song that we have lisped to our fellow workers in the field we will sing with cheer and gladness on our lips, and the flag that we have carried along and are carrying along if we have to drop it in the ditch we will drop it. Gentlemen, I make no threat, but on the moment that we drop the flag because we have been loyal to our calls, hundreds of thousands of wage workers will pick up the flag of labor and carry it forward and cheer it on and sing its song until the flag of the working class shall wave freely and un- furled to the wind over the workshops of the world where free men and women will work and enjoy fully and without trammel the full products of their labor. Gentlemen, those are my views, those are my feelings. If it is the last words I shall ever speak in life, I believe that I have been 45 true. Only history can decide as to whether they are right or wrong. I consider that I could not go out and stand with head erect and have people say to me, " Joe, Mr. Attwill attacked the principle that you hold dear and you did not defend it." If these are the last words that I shall ever speak and I shall go if you say death with the happy thought that on the eve of it I did willingly announce to the world that my life is dedicated to my ideals and that the ideals that I have expressed to you on the stand do not mean danger to human life or the world's happiness. I shall go out, whichever way it comes whether it is a case of death or a case of liberty I shall go forward with that one thought in my mind and one satisfaction in my heart, that at the last moment I did pronounce to the world my views, and that I did announce that my idea is to work for the principles that I hold dear, and if I am allowed to work for them I will, and you gentlemen will be thankful. If not no idea was ever choked, it can't be choked, and this idea will not be choked. 46 On the day that I go to my death there will be more men and women who will know and ask questions. Millions of men and women will know and they will have a right to ar- gue that my social ideals had as much the effect of determining your verdict as the facts, and more so in this case. Gentlemen, as I stated before, I neither offer apology nor excuse. I ask for no fa- vors. I ask for nothing but justice in this matter. That is all, nothing else. I ask for justice. And I believe that in asking I am not asking anything against what the Dis- trict Attorney has called the ideals and the traditions of Massachusetts. Massachusetts refused to give the apostles of abolition to the rule and to the lust of the cotton kings of the South. It refused to allow their blood to act as so much balm to the cuts and to the wounds of the cotton planters of the South. And I ask you now. are twelve men in this county in Massachu- setts going to offer blood now in order thai the wounds, in order that the cuts and the smarts that the mill owners of Lawrence suffered because of the strike may be as- suaged in balm? 47 Gentlemen, it is up to you, and as I stated before, I have no fear of the result. I ask for no favor. I ask only for justice, and that is all my comrade Giovannitti asks, and that is all my comrade Caruso asks. I thank you. The Court : Do the other defendants wish to address the jury? 48 AKTURO GIOVANNITTI. Interlocked in the great Lawrence strike with the name of Joseph J. Ettor is that of Arturo Giovannitti. Ettor was the chief leader at the memorable and victorious tex- tile struggle; Giovannitti the orator. To him fell the task of arousing enthusiasm, aiding and cementing the ranks and driving home the lessons and tactics of the hour among the Italians who were a prominent factor in the strike. And well adapted was Giovannitti for the task. Tall, robust, with a powerful voice, intense, earnest, incisive of speech, and a leonine manner, he made a forceful, rousing impression on his hearers. Nor was the knowledge derived from work- ing class experience lacking; for Giovan- nitti 's career in America has been typical of the proletarian struggle for existence under advanced capitalism, such as prevails here. Giovannitti was a miner, bookkeeper and teacher before he became the editor of II Proletario, and the Italian orator of the Lawrence strike. In the bowels of the earth, he wielded a pick in the coal mines of Can- ada ; and he has slept and starved as an un- 49 employed worker in winter, on the benches of the parks of the city of New York. Gio- vannitti has traveled far, physically and mentally, only to learn those facts about capitalism that bring conviction and elo- quence to the men in the movement destined to bring about its overthrow the movement towards socialism, towards industrial de- mocracy, and for the workers as against the shirkers. Arturo Giovannitti is an American by ex- perience, but an Italian by birth. Compo- basso, a city of 40,000 inhabitants in the province of Abruzzi, Italy, is now better known for his having been born there. Gio- vannitti has put it on the map. He is now 28 years of age. His family are liberals and socially well connected in the city of his birth. His father and elder brother are physicians ; his younger brother a lawyer. Together with his mother, they are very much interested in his case. His father de- sired to come to this country to aid, in his son^s defense, but filial regard caused Gio- vannitti to dissuade him from doing so, as he 50 wished to spare his aged parent the travel and pain attending such an event. Giovannitti was educated in the univer- sity of his native city, and left there when 16 years of age to seek his fortune in this land of golden promises and brutal realities. It was his profound sociological tendency that caused Giovannitti to drift to America 12 years ago. After knocking about at va- rious jobs, he obtained employment in a coal mine in Canada nine years ago. It was in the Dominion that he got his first taste of modern industrialism on an advanced scale. Giovannitti, two years afterwards, secured a clerical position in Springfield, Mass. There he became a socialist. He was also very much interested in the protestant re- ligion and preparing to enter the ministry, he took the degree of Bachelor of Arts in a seminary. Shortly after, Giovannitti came to New York. Here he joined the Italian Socialist Federation. He was a member of the La Lotta Club r (The " Struggle" Club). Dur- ing the discussion between La Lotta Club and Circolo Socilista di Bassa Citta (Down- 51 town Socialist Club), Giovannitti became a convert to syndicalism and revolutionary ac- tion. While a member in La Lotta, he was engaged by the uptown branch of the Y. M. C. A., West 58th St., to deliver a religious talk. This led to a misunderstanding. He was regarded with distrust, though he was at this time without a home, without employ- ment and was compelled to sleep in the parks in winter. Giovannitti did not live by sell- ing his ideas. He is a man of conviction and willing to suffer for them. This incident in his own life was the cause of a poem by him entitled "The Blind Man," which has been very much admired. It was at this time that Giovannitti be- came a bookkeeper in the city. Such was his interest in all matters of progress and science that his room on West 28th St. be- came the nightly meeting place of men of various nationalities interested in literary, artistic, political , economic and other ques- tions. These nightly discussions broadened the intellectual horizon of Giovannitti. Like many another I. W. W. speaker and organizer, Giovannitti is a polyglot. The I. 52 W. W. is a polyglot organization, that is, an organization in which all languages are rep- resented. Giovannitti speaks English, Ital- ian, French and Latin fluently, and has taught them all, the latter especially. Three years ago Giovannitti became the editor of II Proletario. He made it an organ of industrial unionism, and under his direc- tion, it became a power among the Italian working class, and a means of bringing him into greater demand as a speaker and agi- tator. Among the Italians Giovannitti is re- garded as a proletarian thinker, writer, poet and orator of no mean ability. Giovannitti is not only highly regarded among the Italians in this country, but also in Italy. The May number of the Alma- nacco de L 'Internationale" (The Almanac of the International), published at Parma, Italy, contains one of his poems in Italian entitled "II Boccale. " The poem is prefaced by a note commendatory of Giovannitti 's poetical powers and his devotion to the work- ing class, especially at Lawrence. ==================================================================================== 53 ARTURO GIOVANNITTI ADDRESS OF THE DEFENDANT GIOVANNITTI TO THE JURY. Me. Foreman and Gentlemen of the Jury: It is the first time in my life that I speak publicly in your wonderful language, and it is the most solemn moment in my life. I know not if I will go to the end of my re- marks. The District Attorney and the other gentlemen here who are used to measure all human emotions with the yardstick may not understand the tumult that is going on in my soul in this moment. But my friends and my comrades before me, these gentlemen here who have been with me for the last seven or eight months, know exactly. If my words will fail before I reach the end of this short statement to you, it will be because of the superabundance of sentiments that are flooding my heart. I speak to you not because I want to re- view this evidence at all. I feel that I have had, as the learned District Attorney said, one of the most prominent if not the most prominent attorney in this state to plead for my liberty and for my life. I shall not enter
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