Johnny Madeiros, six year-old child of a picket captain during the Fall River/New Bedford textile strike threw a stone at a cop on a horse, who ran him into the river where he drowned, then cynically declared the child was swimming. To add to the insult, the local priest (many of the strikers were Portuguese-born) closed the church doors to strikers and the police charged the funeral. Below are several articles dealing with those events and of children in the strike.

Charge Troopers Drove Striker’s Child to Drown. August 10, 1928.

BULLETIN. FALL RIVER, Mass., Aug. 9. Charges that the six-year-old Johnny Madeiros, son of one pf the strikers, who was drowned here last night, died because he had rushed in terror thru a gap in a waterfront fence in order to escape a charging mounted trooper, were substantiated by testimony in the court hearing held here today.

Eye-witnesses declared that a mounted policeman had chased the child down the street till he disappeared into the water.

Fanning the flames of bitter mass resentment manifested by the population here, was the cynical police testimony that the officer thought the six-year-old child “was swimming.”

Fellow strikers are planning the holding of a mass funeral.

Strikers Aroused at Boy’s Death. August 11, 1928.

Pioneers Condemn Fall River Police

FALL RIVER, Mass. Aug. 10. Further substantiation of charges against police in the drowning of Johnny Madieros, six year old strikers child, were made by witnesses in the hearing yesterday.

Testimony brought out the information that the mounted policeman who ran the terrified boy into the water, did so because he thought the young six year old had thrown a stone at his mount when he was breaking up the picket demonstration last Tuesday.

Thousands thruout the country are sending messages of condolence to the parents of the boy expressing horrified condemnation of Fall River police brutality.

The father, a Textile Mill Committee picket captain, made a public declaration announcing that his loss: will not deter him from continuing the fight against the mill bosses.

Thousands of workers here are out on a strike against a ten per cent wage cut. Strikers’ childrens’ organizations are planning mass memorial meetings. There will also be a children’s division of marchers in the mass funeral being planned.

The Young Pioneers of America, a Communist childrens’ organization issued the following statement on the death of the boy.

“Six year-old Johnny Madeiros has been murdered! Brave little Johnny, fighting side by side with his father on the picket line, so that the textile workers’ may build, their Union, so that they all may have a little more to eat and may live a little better! Murdered by the textile barons and their agents, the police, in their desperate attempt to break the strike!

“Workers and their children were picketing the American Printing Co. plant. The police, loyal to their masters, ordered the line to disperse. But Johnny clung to his father and picketed on. A mounted policeman charged into him, chasing him to the waterfront. Infuriated like a wild beast, the “brave” defender of American law and justice drove Johnny into a swamp. Our little fighter was drowned in mud!

“We, the Young Pioneers, raise our voice in protest against this brutal murder, this unspeakable crime. You textile masters, you can murder children but you can never break the fighting spirit of the workers’ children. We will never forget and never forgive. Our comrades in Fall River and New Bedford will close their ranks and will strengthen the lines and will fight on even more bravely.

“We, the Young Pioneers of America, salute you, brave little fighter! We will carry on the fight thruout the country. We will organize the workers’ children, teach them the truth about the struggle of the textile workers in which you were so brutally murdered. We will organize the workers’ children thruout the country to raise relief for all the children in New Bedford and Fall River who are in need of bread and milk. We will stand by the textile workers and their children until victory.

We will fight on until the workers’ children together with the whole working class shall have gotten rid of all bosses and of this whole rotten system of society.

“Before your dead, little body, we take our solemn pledge:

“IN THE CAUSE OF THE WORKING CLASS, WE STAND ALWAYS READY!

Johnny Madeiros Goes ‘Swimming’. August 11, 1928.

A Massachusetts “cossack” is an important fellow. He can prance around the street on a fine horse, paid for by the State, and anyone who gets in his way does so at his own peril.

It’s fun—to a cossack—to see all these miserable strikers duck and run to keep out from under the iron (hoofs. Big and little. Men, women and children—they all have to run. No chance against a horse. Makes a man feel powerful, to sit up high on a saddle in a fine uniform, a gun on his hip, and make ’em scuttle to cover.

The little ones are funny. Wednesday at Fall River a striker’s kid—six years old—got in the road. An officer had a little fun—rode at the kid…Had to laugh, the way that kid took fright and ducked through a hole in the fence! He splashed into the water on the other side of the fence. Ha, ha! Didn’t know the river was right there.

The officer pranced his horse on down the street.

* * *

Johnny Madeiros was drowned.

Well, what of it. The judge is O.K. This is a mill town, this is Fall River. A Bosses’ town. No Bolshevism here. Law and order. No strikes here, if the troopers can help it. Johnny Madeiros was not a boss’s son. Just a mill worker’s brat. Any story will do.

“Just thought he was swimming,” says the officer. All O.K.

* * *

But the picket line grows stronger, and every working man and woman from the mills is more determined to beat the beastly bosses and their troopers, and their judges. Hold the picket line!

MASS FUNERAL OF STRIKER’S CHILD ATTACKED BY STATE THUGS AND MOUNTED POLICE. August 13, 1928.

Priest Bars Mourning Thousands From Church Despite Protest of Victim’s Father

FALL RIVER, Mass., Aug 12. Openly declaring his intention to smash the growing strike of textile workers here, and to drive out union organizers, Judge Hannify in the Second Bristol Court yesterday sentenced James Ried, head of the Fall River Textile Mill Committees, S. Weismann, Jack Rubinstein and Bill Sireka, organizers to six months prison sentences each. The particular charge upon which they were tried for was, “disturbing the peace” while addressing a large gathering of textile workers from a tenement rented by the union. The workers at this meeting had defied an order of Police Chief Feeney forbidding congregations of strikers near the mills.

Judge in Cold Sweat.

The labor hating judge also imposed an unparalleled demand for bail of $1000 from each of his victims as a guarantee that they “keep the peace.” This bond is to be forfeited in the event of another arrest being registered against the sentenced while they are free on the appeal bond.

Scarcely able to hide his fury, the tool of the mill barons said, “I have sat on many cases in the past few days. Fall River has always been a peaceful community and it should be hastily restored to that condition. Therefore to that end I will impose jail sentences that tend to restore that peaceful situation.”

Peter Hegelias, T.M.C. organizer was fined $20 for requesting information regarding his arrested comrades.

Sentences equally savage are expected to be imposed upon Hegelias and about 80 other strikers who are to come up for trial from Monday to Wednesday. Defense forces of the strikers, led by the International Labor Defense, are being rapidly mobilized to fight against the barbarous court terror of the Massachusetts ruling class.

Attack Funeral.

Admission was made here today by the police that they planned holding under arrest the strike leader while the funeral of six-year-old Johnny Madieros was underway.

The child was drowned after being chased into the water by a mounted policeman last week, it is charged. Parents and friends of the boy had planned a mass funeral.

Over one hundred charging police and troopers broke up the mass funeral as the people were congregating near the steps of Santo Cristo Church. Thruout the entire attack, the police received the fullest cooperation of the priest, Manuel Silvia. Police barricaded the approaches to the church with slow moving motor vans and other cars in order to prevent the mourners from getting near the church, this maneuver proved unavailing, however.

Mounted troopers kept riding thru the massed workers trying to follow the hearse that started out from the church to the home of Madieros. At the church the priest came out and closed the church doors, permitting only the body and the dead boy’s family to enter thru a small basement door. The father, a striker, requested that his fellow strikers be permitted to accompany the funeral, but was ignored by the priest and police. The religious services were then rushed thru in five minutes. Red flowers, sent in by the Textile Mill Committees members, covered the white casket. Workers then took up a collection to help the striking father defray the funeral expenses.

The city’s working population seethes with a tremendous wave of indignation against the police and their allies, the church. Condemnation by a Portuguese speaker of the close cooperation between the church, police and the mill bosses at a strikers’ meeting later was received with enthusiastic approval.

Gitlow Speaks.

Ben Gitlow, candidate for vice- president on the ticket of the Workers (Communist) Party was the main speaker at this meeting which was held on Liberty Lot in the evening.

After reviewing the bitter persecution of the workers that day, Gitlow spoke of the larger implications of the struggle of the working class. He pointed out the workers’ weakness in the fight with the bosses if they do not act as an organized mass.

Gitlow flayed the mill bosses for their hypocritical statements that the outside radicals were fomenting trouble in the peaceful community. He showed that the strikes now in progress were caused not by “outsiders” by the unbearable conditions forced upon the textile workers.

JOHNNY MADEIROS MURDERED! From Young Comrade. September, 1928.

Johnny Madeiros was drowned.

Driven into the river, running away from the mounted policeman.

Johnny Madeiros was not a boss’s son. Just a mill worker’s brat. His life doesn’t count, for all the bosses care.

Bet the workers do care. They organized a mass funeral–and thousands of workers and workers’ children came. The priest helped the police drive them away from the church where his body lay. That shows what the church and religion are for–just to help the bosses out.

Workers’ children also care. All over the country, memorial meetings are being held by the Pioneers for Johnny Madeiros. In Wingdale, N.Y., at the Workers’ International Relief Camp, the Pioneers called a mass meeting of all the children. And more than two hundred workers and children campers were present. And they protested against the brutal murder of Johnny Madeiros. And they raised $15.00 for the relief of the textile workers and their children. And they raised $4.50 for the Young Comrade so the Young Comrade can go out among more workers’ children and tell them the truth about the struggles of the workers.

In Fall River and New Bedford, the picket line grows stronger. Every working man, woman and child grows more determined to beat the beastly bosses and their troopers, and their judges. Hold the picket line!

Children in the Strike. From Young Comrade. September, 1928.

THE strike of the textile workers in New Bedford is 17 weeks old. Three weeks ago two thousand workers of Fall River also came out on strike against the wage cut, for more pay, for a Union.

With Whom Does the Government Stand? Hundreds of workers arrested, thrown into jails, placed under heavy bail. Mass picket lines. broken up and in one day alone 250 workers thrown into jail! Many workers have gotten as much as 6 months to one year sentences for each time they are arrested on the picket line. The very first week of the strike in Fall River, over one hundred strikers were arrested.

Is it necessary to ask further: “How does the government stand?”–with the textile barons, against the workers!

The Workers Stand Solid With the Union

In New Bedford the workers have to fight not only against the bosses but against the labor fakers as well, the Battys’ and Binns’ that are working hand in hand with the bosses, trying to break the strike. But the workers stand solid with the Union. Batty and Binns cannot fool the workers. And no amount of persecution by the police can break the fighting spirit of the textile strikers.

Arrest Children.

The children are not spared by the bosses. They suffer most in the strike. They have not enough to eat, have no shoes not enough clothing, the bosses try to keep the children from singing strikers’ songs on the play. grounds. They try to keep the children off the picket line. A dozen children have been arrested by the police and are now under “probation” waiting for trial in October.

The Workers’ Children Organize

But, nevertheless, everywhere,–collecting relief on the picket lines, in the thick of the fight you can find the workers’ children. Hundreds of children have joined Strikers Children’s Clubs in New Bedford. Already 150 children have joined a strikers’ children’s club in Fall River.

The Young Pioneers

The most active the best fighters, the leaders of the children are the Pioneers of New Bedford and Fall River–300 of them!

Schools Open Soon

In a few weeks the schools will open. In the past term the schools which are under control of the bosses, were used to poison the minds of the children against the strike.

Strikers’ Children!

Prepare yourselves to meet the attacks of the schools. We must not let the schools be used against the Union and the workers. We must fight against any anti-labor propaganda that the schools will try to spread.

Keep up the Fight

Thruout the country, workers are organizing relief. Stand firm! Fight on until victory!

Chased From The Playgrounds

IN Fall River too, our comrades were chased off the playgrounds when they sang Union songs. The police told them that they could only sing patriotic songs like “My Country ‘Tis of Thee, Sweet Land of Liberty”. Well if there’s liberty in this country why do the police stop us from singing workers’ songs and Union songs?

The city government hired some more teachers all of a sudden for the playgrounds. The reason is not that they want to take care of the children better, but they want to take the children away from the strike and fill their minds with lies about the Union.

A PIONEER WRITES

The police have no right to break our picket lines, because we walk along peacefully. They even called out the National Guards to break up our picket lines. They are arresting our strikers, but we get more and more new members into our Union.

We are Pioneers and we know that we should help the strike. We can help by going on the picket line like brave young soldiers, fighting for the workers.

Lots of children were on the picket line the day they arrested 250 workers. And we weren’t afraid to go to jail along with them. I was on the line that day, and I go every day, because the Pioneers should be the first to lead the children.

Mabel Vincent – New Bedford.

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The New Bedford Pioneers were discussing about the schools. A comrade asked: “Why are the principals and most of the teachers against the strikers? Another comrade piped up: “Guess they get their bellies filled by the textile bosses”.