‘Providence Is Pushing To The Front’ by Francis Miller from Industrial Worker (Spokane). Vol. 4. No. 31. October 24, 1912.

Providence, R. I.—The agitation and work in this section is mainly centered on the Ettor and Glovannittl case. A number of meetings have been held, all of thorn successful from the point of attendance and interest displayed. Collections have ranged from $5.00 collected at a street meeting under unfavorable circumstances, to $143.00 collected at the monster mass meetings held in the largest hall in the city, after the parade of September 16. The committee sent $220.00 to Lawrence in one contribution, the result of the big meeting and of collections made that week. There is some $150.00 more ready to send. Over 1,000 Ettor-Giovannltti buttons have been sold.

The big parade of Sunday, 15th, was an eyeopener to the good people of Providence. Over 10,000 in line. The fourth division, composed of I.W.W., was over 2,000 strong. A brass band headed each of the four divisions.

The capitalist press, which gave full page accounts of the “riot” caused by Police Captain Merrill and his officious cops in trying to take one of the two red flags carried in the fourth division, away from the paraders, gave the number of paraders as 2,000. The cops failed in their attempt and got a good healthy trimming to boot. A few members of the committee got together after the meeting and drew up a straight-from-the-shoulder statement of facts showing that the police alone were to blame. The same evening the writer and the Secretary of the Conference took type-written copies to the three dailies here and got the assurance that the statement would be published. The local Socialists took a firm stand also. The lambasting Merrill got put the police commission on the defensive; and rumor has it that the doughty captain is to be transferred.

A strike is on in one of the small textile mills in Providence. The strikers are holding their meetings in the I.W.W. headquarters and have signified their intention of joining local No. 530. They are out for an increase in wages that would amount to 15 per cent, and from the present outlook they will win.

The membership here is following closely the march of events in Lawrence, and when the Italian fellow workers got a message from Carlo Tresca stating that the conditions in Lawrence were critical, a large number of them got ready to proceed to Lawrence. Upon telephoning to Lawrence it was found that the excitement had calmed down a little, and there was no actual need of reinforcements. A committee of two was sent on to investigate and report.

There will be a strong reaction against the patriotism and flag craze that was started against the I.W.W. by some of the slimy politicians and other capitalist tools of Lawrence. Editorials in local and Boston papers foreshadow the coming tide. The Boston Herald of October 9, in an editorial headed “Patriotism Run Mad,” among other good things says that Haywood’s quotation of Samuel Johnson’s famous indictment that “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel,” came to everybody’s mind “whenever a municipal grafter appears peculiarly conspicuous within the folds of the stars and stripes.” This seems to be a quiet “slam” at a Lawrence alderman who paraded the main streets there with a large American flag draped around him. Some knocking! Well, it’s safe to say that when it’s all over, the Red Flag will still be flying there.

The Industrial Union Bulletin, and the Industrial Worker were newspapers published by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) from 1907 until 1913. First printed in Joliet, Illinois, IUB incorporated The Voice of Labor, the newspaper of the American Labor Union which had joined the IWW, and another IWW affiliate, International Metal Worker.The Trautmann-DeLeon faction issued its weekly from March 1907. Soon after, De Leon would be expelled and Trautmann would continue IUB until March 1909. It was edited by A. S. Edwards. 1909, production moved to Spokane, Washington and became The Industrial Worker, “the voice of revolutionary industrial unionism.”

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/industrialworker/iw/v4n31-w187-oct-24-1912-IW.pdf