USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lawrence > Immigrant city: Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1845-1921 > Part 14
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14. Lawrence American, Aug. 24, 1866; Lawrence Journal, Nov. 24, 1877, Feb. 7, 1880, Aug. 27, 1881, May 27, 1882, Jan. 12, 1884, Jan. 16, 1886; The Essex Eagle, Dec. 27, 1873, Jan. 16, 1875; Al-Wafa, Mar. 18, 1910; The Evening Tribune, Centennial Edition, 1953.
147
SECURITY IN GROUPS
trymen in politics-brought additional security to the foreign- born.15
The Irish were such staunch Democrats that every effort to organize an Irish Republican Club "fizzled." Lists of campaign contributors, names of delegates, and nominees, as well as editorial comment, all reflected the well-known Irish-Democratic alliance. When John Breen was elected mayor in 1881, it marked the ascendancy of the Irish in the Democratic party. Right after the Civil War the Irish were deeply entrenched in Wards Three and Four and the Democrats won those wards in four of the five elec- tions studied. After the gerrymandering of 1875 had concentrated many of the Irish in Ward Three, it went Democratic even more decidedly than before. During the period 1884-1912 the only two precincts to go Democratic in all the fifteen elections studied were the two in and about the "plains," marked 4 or (5) and 6 or (8) on the map, where the Irish population was the greatest. The parts that were Democratic least often were those with almost no Irish population: Prospect Hill, 1 or (1), Tower Hill 9 or (14) and 10 or (15), and South Lawrence outside the "shanty" district, 12 or (16).16
15. The Essex Eagle, July 22, 1876; Lawrence Journal, Dec. 19, 1885; The Evening Tribune, April 14, 15, 1890, Oct. 27, 1900.
16. Twenty-four of thirty-six newspaper references labeled the Irish Demo- crats. For documentation see Cole, "Lawrence," p. 186, n. 5. Almost all con- tributors to the Democratic city campaign fund in 1892 had Irish names. The Evening Tribune, Dec. 29, 1892; Lawrence American, Sept. 6, 1863, Sept. 30, Nov. 10, 1865; The Lawrence Sentinel, Dec. 31, 1870; The Essex Eagle, Oct. 22, Nov. 29, 1873; Lawrence Journal, Oct. 27, Nov. 3, 1877; The Evening Tribune, Nov. 16, 1891. See the adjoining map for a presentation of the different ward and precinct lines. At first the Irish were strongest in Wards Two and Three, but by 1865 they were strongest in Wards Three and Four. In 1865 the population of Wards Three and Four was 9,666 and the number of those born in Ireland was 3,397 or about 35 per cent. Oliver Warner, Abstract of the Census of Massachusetts,-1865 ... (Boston, 1867), p. 63. The total Irish population of the city in 1865 was 6,047. Ibid. Ward Six went Democratic twice; and Wards One and Two once each in 1865 and 1875. Thus out of thirty ward results in five elections the Democrats won only twelve, eight of them in Wards Three and Four, where the Irish were most numerous. Record of Elections, I, 181, 218, 253, 305, 343. In 1880 Ward Three had over 30 per cent Irish-born and many others with Irish parents. The population of Ward Three was 5,366 and the Irish numbered 2,568. Carroll D. Wright, The Census of Massachusetts: 1880 ... (Boston, 1883), p. 50. Record of Elections, I, 392, 440; II, 2, 29. Democratic vote in Ward Three averaged 672 in 1876, 1878, 1880, and 1882; Republican, 284. See Table XXII for an analysis of the ward and precinct voting records. Record of Elections, II, passim. For the actual figures see Cole, "Lawrence," Table XXXV, p. 427-33, and Record of Elections, II, passim.
148
IMMIGRANT CITY
Map V PRECINCT BOUNDARIES
LAWRENCE, MASS.
FEET.
1000
1000
[9]
(12
[6]
(3)
4
(5
xxxxx
B
1908 Pcts (14)05) changed numbers
(15)
10
4)
2 (2)
(14)
0000
River
/ (13) '13'
Merrimack
(16)
(17)
11
Until 1887 all South Lawrence was Pct. Il
1884
1 1884 Pcts.
1899 changes
(1) 1899 =
************** 1906
[5] 1906 " changes
Minor changes at other times not indicated.
No less consistent was the English preference for the Republi- cans. Almost every newspaper article on the English in politics connected them with the Republican party. The Republican candidates in the 1890's included the Englishman Derbyshire in
(18)
12
1889 PFFS inta 9'and'
uvidéd
149
SECURITY IN GROUPS
Ward Five, the strongest English ward, and a number of men who were running for state representative. In the fifteen elec- tions studied between 1854 and 1882, Ward Five went Republi- can thirteen times, and from 1884 to 1912 the precincts in Ward Five went Republican in thirty-six out of forty-two opportunities.17
Most Germans were also Republican, but some supported radical parties. Half of the newspaper statements tied the Germans with the Republican party, a third linked small groups of them with the radical movements, and a sixth connected them with the Democrats. There was always the debate as to whether the Re- publicans owed more to the Germans or to the English. Although the Tribune felt on one occasion that "the British-Americans did more to elect the Republican . . . than ... the Germans," the party could not have agreed because after the election "the three Re- publican aldermen . . . gave the German element all it asked." Both the American, which supported the English point of view, and the Anzeiger und Post were Republican. The Republicans could not nominate Collins for mayor in 1891 after the Germans and British-Americans opposed him. Ward One, which had the greatest German population, went Republican in almost every election studied between 1858 and 1882. Then Precinct One, a German precinct in Ward One on Prospect Hill, voted Republican in thirteen of the fifteen elections analyzed between 1884 and 1912. This and the British Tower Hill sectors were the most con- sistently Republican areas in the city. When redistricting removed its German segments from Precinct Two in 1899, the Republican vote went down even though some other Republican areas had been added. When part of the German section was returned in 1906, the Republican total was restored.18
While the French Canadians occasionally strengthened the Re- publicans, they were never as reliable as the Germans or the Eng-
17. Thirteen newspaper articles out of seventeen called the English Re- publicans. For documentation see Cole, "Lawrence," p. 191, n. 12; The Evening Tribune, Nov. 24, 1891, Nov. 10, 1892, Oct. 14, 1893, Sept. 21, 1894. See Table XX. Record of Elections, I, II, passim.
18. Sixty-seven articles in all. Thirty called Germans Republicans; twenty- four, radicals; thirteen, Democrats. See Cole, "Lawrence," p. 192, n. 17; The Evening Tribune, April 18, Aug. 6, 1891, Nov. 7, 1892; Anzeiger und Post, Nov. 25, 1899. Precinct Two vote for Republican presidential candidate: 1896- 314; 1900-184; 1904-150; 1908-181. Record of Elections, I, II, passim.
150
IMMIGRANT CITY
lish. The French-Canadian press was basically Republican, but newspaper references showed that the Canadians themselves were as often Democrats as Republicans. Since the Canadians lived in wards that also had Irish or English residents, their voting record is not clear. When they were strongest in Precinct Seven, it went Republican and Democratic four times each. Le Progrès worried about the formation of both a French Republican Club and a French Democratic Club because it feared that neither party would feel obliged to give the Canadians favors or patronage. The Trib- une reported in 1901 that the French-Canadian vote was still not going solidly for either party.19
With so many immigrants voting, both parties had to nominate them and a "balanced" ticket "embracing all elements" was an absolute necessity. In 1888 the Journal urged the Democrats to nominate one German, one French Canadian, and one Englishman for the Board of Aldermen. When neither an Englishman nor a German was nominated for any office in 1891, the Tribune sooth- ingly referred to an "embarrassment of riches" that "nullified the intention" of selecting an Englishman and told the Germans unc- tuously that their candidate received "flattering support."20 A typical government had an Irish or native mayor; one English, one German, and four native aldermen; and three Irish, one English, one German, and thirteen native councilmen.21 In the years be- tween 1873, when the first German was elected, and 1908, there were thirty-nine German councilmen and thirteen German alder- men. When they had no nominees in 1882, they were "indignant at the refusal of the 'stovepipe' element of the Republican Party, to nominate one of their element. . The Anzeiger und Post al- ways had German candidates to support, though rarely as many as in 1900 when it had thirteen for eight positions.22
19. Cole, "Lawrence," p. 199, n. 25. Record of Elections, II, passim; The Evening Tribune, Nov. 11, 20, Dec. 8, 1891, Nov. 23, 1892, Dec. 2, 1901; Le Progrès, Oct. 25, Nov. 2, 9, 16, 30, 1900, April 3, 1903.
20. Lawrence Journal, Nov. 3, 1883, Nov. 17, 1888; The Evening Tribune, Nov. 13, 16, Dec. 5, 1891, Oct. 21, 1893, Nov. 23, 1894, Nov. 20, 1896, Sept. 22, Nov. 19, Dec. 2, 1897, Oct. 6, 1898; The Lawrence Sun, Nov. 13, 1905.
21. Lawrence American, Jan. 9, 1864, Jan. 7, 1865, Jan. 5, 1866, Jan. 11, 1884, supplement; The Evening Sentinel, Dec. 7, 1867, Jan. 7, 1871, Jan. 6, 1872, Jan. 3, 1874; The Essex Eagle, Jan. 10, 1874, Jan. 2, 1875; Lawrence Journal, Jan. 12, Dec. 7, 1878, Dec. 31, 1881.
22. Anzeiger und Post, Dec. 1, 1900, Nov. 29, 1902, Feb. 8, 1908; Campaign
151
SECURITY IN GROUPS
To appeal further to the immigrants a candidate would often teach himself a smattering of foreign languages so that he might speak to each group in its own particular tongue. The French Canadians were actually affronted when one poor candidate spoke to them in English. In listening to a candidate speak their own language, the immigrants found additional security in politics.
While part of the security that the immigrants derived from politics came from a sense of group solidarity and belonging, a more tangible form came from the jobs that they received. When the nativist American complained about the discharge of a native- born postman to make room for an Irishman, the Sentinel calmly replied, "Well, what of it?" and pointed out that Irish votes had elected the new mayor. Not all mayors felt that way, however, and in 1869 a Ward Five meeting of foreign-born citizens complained that they were "taxed without being represented." When the Anzeiger protested angrily at the failure of Adolph Vorholz to be made an assessor, the city government hastened to make him a clerk in the Street Department and to give editor Dick of the Anzeiger a job as registrar. Le Progrès continually complained that the Democratic donkey was kicking the Canadians by not giving them enough patronage.
In addition to appointments the immigrants wanted club liquor licenses. Feigning surprise that there was to be only "one license for ward five," the Tribune cried, "Sch-blood! The British-Ameri- can element of Water Street will certainly take sweet revenge for this outrage." In 1904 the Germans abandoned the Republicans, who had refused to give them a license, in favor of Democratic Mayor Lynch, whom they called "liberal" for not "hunting down" their clubs. When he was re-elected, the Anzeiger trumpeted: "Lynch and License." This was one of the rewards that the im- migrants won through politics.23
Only after a nationality had raised churches and clubs, founded
Budget, Dec. 4, 1882; Lawrence Journal, Dec. 3, 1881; Le Progrès, Oct. 25, Nov. 2, 9, 16, 1900, Nov. 21, 1902; The Evening Tribune, Nov. 24, Dec. 9, 1891, Oct. 6, Nov. 10, 23, 25, 1892, Jan. 5, Oct. 14, Nov. 10, 1893, Sept. 21, 1894, Nov. 18, 1895, Nov. 5, 1897.
23. Municipal Records, VI; The Lawrence Sentinel, Feb. 26, 1859, Jan. 23, 1869; The Evening Tribune, Jan. 7, 12, April 27, 1893, April 16, 1890; Le Progrès, June 29, July 6, 13, 20, Nov. 9, 1900, Jan. 11, 1901, Jan. 17, Feb. 21, 1902; Anzeiger und Post, Nov. 26, Dec. 3, 10, 1904.
152
IMMIGRANT CITY
schools and newspapers, and organized politically could it make Lawrence a center for its state-wide affairs. Not until the 1890's, for example, did the Irish hold a county meeting of the Hibernians in Lawrence. At about the same time the British-American Asso- ciation, Daughters of Saint George, and the Scottish clans also held state conventions in Lawrence. When the Germans entertained the New England Turnfest in 1892 and a three-state Sangerfest in 1894, it was their first experience of this kind after more than four decades in the city. The Anzeiger stimulated the Germans' interest in state-wide matters by carrying news columns on a dozen communities with German population. Only the French Canadians were able to hold state meetings early in their stay in Lawrence. In 1881 they were hosts to French Canadians from all over New England. Since only the Armenians and Portuguese of the later immigrants held comparable gatherings before 1912, it appears that even the southeastern Europeans needed time before entering state activities.24
The formation of hyphenate associations followed the state conventions. Although the Irish set up an Irish-American Club in 1880, it disbanded and they had to reorganize at the end of the decade. The British formed the British-American Society at about the same time as the second Irish endeavor, but the French Canadians and Germans did not have hyphenate groups until the twentieth century.25
With the rise of hyphenate clubs the various phases of immi- grant group activity came to a close. Although there were devia- tions, the nationalities in general formed their clubs according to a definite chronological order. This pattern provided the frame- work for the evolution of an immigrant society that was essentially the society of the whole city, and it provided the immigrants with varying types of security that changed as their needs changed. When immigrants were first in Lawrence and needed religious and financial help, they built churches and organized benefit societies.
24. Lawrence Daily Eagle, Oct. 1, 1902; The Evening Tribune, Feb. 9, 1891, June 11, 1892, June 20, Aug. 31, 1894, Feb. 22, 1899, April 30, 1900, Aug. 26, 1902; Lawrence Journal, Aug. 27, 1881.
25. Ibid., Oct. 2, 1880, Jan. 28, July 14, 1888; Sunday Sun, Dec. 6, 1908; The Lawrence Sun, April 8, 1907.
153
SECURITY IN GROUPS
Later when they had matured and felt the need of belonging, in- tellectual and political groups came into being.
All immigrants preferred group activity to the individualism that some have attributed to nineteenth-century America. They also preferred to remain with their own people. There was no melting pot at work in Lawrence mixing the various nationalities. Group activity in Lawrence was part of the search for security. One found it first in his own church and later in a multitude of societies and less formal organizations. Since almost everyone in Lawrence was an immigrant, either a first-, second-, or third- generation American, and since Lawrence had no previous social structure, the immigrant organizations formed the society of the city. The close tie that all immigrants felt with the old country accounts for the large number of activities devoted to the affairs of Canada and Europe. From the very beginning when men and women gathered in boarding houses through the formation of churches and clubs and on to the strike of 1912, when men finally joined labor unions, the group dominated Lawrence.
NUMBER OF YEARS FROM THE TIME NATIONALITIES CAME TO LAWRENCE UNTIL THEY ESTABLISHED CERTAIN TYPES OF ORGANIZATIONS
Early Immigrants
Later Immigrants
Irish
English
Scots
Ger- mans
French Canad- ians
Italians
Portu- guese
Jews
Syrians
Date at which 100 were in Lawrence
1847
1850
1855
1855
1855
1895
1895
1895
1895
Churches
6
17
14
5
11
6
11
Social Clubs
16
13
12
11
15
4
7
2
11
Benefit Associations or Cooperatives
16
16
25
19
15
0
0
16
Old Country Activities
0
24
26
17
16
7
Old Country Celebrations
17
37
17
14
36
5
Intellectual Groups
19
23
29
26
12
15
Newspapers
30
22
27
19
9
Political Organizations
35
21
35
State Conventions
47
40
44
35
26
7
Hyphenate Groups
33
38
53
52
CHAPTER IX
Security in Americanism
At the end of the nineteenth century Lawrence was an "ardently American city," one in which native and immigrant shared a com- mon faith in the United States. The members of the School Committee, mostly natives, showed it by adding another course in history to the curriculum, which it believed would kindle a "gen- uine patriotism" by "demonstrating the . . . superiority of our insti- tutions." The immigrant clubs meanwhile were demonstrating their loyalty by a series of flag-raisings. The Irish started it when a division of the Hibernians raised a giant American flag, twelve feet by twenty-one feet. The Ladies Auxiliary of the German Freiheit Lodge soon after presented its men with a flag costing $300. During the Spanish-American War flag-raising became a mania with ceremonies at Turn Hall, the Saint Jean de Baptiste Society, and the Union Saint Joseph. Captain Joubert led ninety- one volunteers off to war and John Breen made a patriotic address as the Oakdale Club raised its flag. In this way immigrants, who gloried in retaining their own ethnic identity through a maze of societies, showed that they were just as American as the native- born. And just as the identification with the old country gave them security, so did this expression of Americanism.1
Nowhere did the immigrants demonstrate their Americanism more forcefully than in their newspapers. A comparison of the immigrant press with the native newspapers revealed great simi-
1. Public Schools of Lawrence, Mass., Syllabus of Work in Geography (Lawrence, 1895), p. 4; The Evening Tribune, June 6, 1890, Sept. 5, 1891, April 30, May 19-21, June 3, 7, 17, 1898, Mar. 6, April 20, 1899; Sunday Sun, Feb. 24, 1907. The Christopher Columbus Society and the English Social Club also dedicated flags.
155
SECURITY IN AMERICANISM
larities, particularly in their devotion to certain American ideals. Like most Americans the native newspaper editors were proud of their country and, while they wanted some reforms, did not want to go too far. The Essex Eagle, for example, saw no reason for a capital-labor struggle just because the one was "given the wealth of vast riches" and "brain" and the other "the wealth of muscle and sinew." It blamed the fight on men who were "never satisfied" and who had "a disposition to overreach." The American, how- ever, urged capital to be more generous because it was so much stronger than labor. The Tribune, which credited the workers instead of the entrepreneur for the success of Lawrence, attacked Cleveland for sending troops in the Pullman strike and criticized society for forcing women and children to work in mills.
But this was not radicalism. The Essex Eagle "deprecated" strikes and implied that good Americans would go west when wages were not adequate instead of striking. The American at- tributed the 1889 Fall River strike to professional agitators. When Mckinley was assassinated, the newspapers were filled with "fierce denunciations of the deed" and vigorous attacks on anarchism. That same year the Tribune condemned Emma Goldman and her "anarchistic friends," and a month before the great strike of 1912 the Sunday Sun called for the elimination of the "anarchistic ele- ment." Consistent with this conservatism was the devotion of the press to the Horatio Alger ideal, and a fragment of this literature appeared in the Essex Eagle in 1868 when that paper enlarged on the glories of poverty. A more complete expression, however, awaited the death of President Grant, who, according to a Law- rence eulogy, represented the "American idea that the humblest in origin may, under the fostering spirit of our institutions, become the most honored and noble." Phrases such as "how to get rich," "boy to owner," and "successful business man" were common.2
The same phrases and the same beliefs appeared in the immi- grant's newspapers. The Irish Journal was never revolutionary even though it occasionally supported ideas then considered radical.
2. The Essex Eagle, July 18, 1868, Oct. 17, 1874, Feb. 20, 1875; Lawrence American, Feb. 19, 1886, Mar. 22, 1889; The Evening Tribune, Dec. 4, 1890, Feb. 3, 1891, July 7, 10, 1894, Sept. 16, 1895, May 13, 1897, April 26, Sept. 7, 14, 1901; Sunday Sun, July 30, 1905, Dec. 3, 1911; Memorial Services, General U. S. Grant, Lawrence, Mass., August 8, 1885 (Lawrence, 1885).
156
IMMIGRANT CITY
It attacked monopolies because they interfered with a man's right to work as he pleased and because they gave the capitalists all the profit coming from the tariff. These same capitalists, it said, had bribed Republican senators into opposing reforms. The tariff, however, was perfectly legitimate because American business men, who paid twice as much for loans as the British, needed some compensation.
In supporting labor, the Journal came the closest to radicalism. Since it realized that lower wages meant less purchasing capacity and that reducing wages would kill "the goose that lays the golden eggs," it urged the Democratic party to support labor candidates. In 1887 the Journal dismissed the Socialist party as a "German product" with an "un-American" remedy and the Union Labor party as nothing but a group of old Greenbackers. But it praised the United Labor party for adopting the ideas of Henry George and repudiating socialism. This was as far as the Sweeneys would go. They ridiculed "Herr Most" when the German anarchist was pulled from under a bed after the Haymarket Riot. Fearing that the riot would harm the labor movement, they denied that the Knights of Labor were involved and blamed "misguided socialists and anarchists" instead. When asked by a member of the Knights whether or not to strike for higher wages, the Journal said no. Workers should be content to collect statistics and arouse public opinion. Meanwhile, "practice temperance and industry, and these reforms will come as fast as the people are ready to receive them, and in the meantime let us thank our stars that the American workingman is better clothed, better fed, better housed, and better paid than in any other country in the universe. Never strike. .. . Reason has replaced brute force in the world." Here was the perfect nineteenth-century faith in laissez faire, reason, and the inevitability of moderate reform. The Journal added: "The march of progress is ever upward and onward. . The natives would not have disagreed.3
While the Journal was rarely self-conscious about its Irish origin, the French-Canadian Progrès was pathetically eager to show that its people were good Americans. It complained that natives
3. Lawrence Journal, Mar. 12, 1881, Feb. 10, 1883, Oct. 11, 1884, May 15, Sept. 18, 1886, Aug. 20, Oct. 29, Dec. 24, 1887, April 7, Aug. 18, Oct. 20, 1888.
157
SECURITY IN AMERICANISM
laughed at them because they wrote and spoke wretched English. It found French Canadians apathetic and disloyal everywhere: they would not become naturalized; they did not join unions; they patronized the shops of other immigrants instead of their own; and in church they submitted to the "persecution of the Anglo-Irish language."
To remedy the church problem and to gain respect for the Canadians, Le Progrès led a fight to preserve the French language. The "elegant" French language, said the editors, was superior to the English, which was a brutal language of battle, and the German, which was too complicated. Unfortunately the Canadian children, ashamed of using French, grew up speaking English, which their parents could not understand. And worse, many of the second generation changed their names to English equivalents. Boulanger became Baker and Leblanc, White. The French newspapers dis- dained also the "pidgin English-French" commonly used in the city. Such mixtures as "avez-vous été au 'show'?" "hallo, Baptiste! comment ça feel?" "le rubber tire est busté" enfuriated Le Progrès and Le Courrier. They implored French newspaper writers to avoid the use of English clichés in their articles, particularly such trite expressions as "high life," "last but not least," "the right man in the right place," and "leader."
Frightened and disillusioned by the unhappiness that had ac- companied Canadian immigration to the United States, the French newspapers adopted a puritanical air in observing the changes. Drinking men and gum-chewing women, cigarette-smoking youths and blaspheming children were all anathema to Le Progrès, whose editors believed the younger generation wanted nothing but pleas- ure, was too blasé and uncontrolled. Quite naturally it applauded the work of the Watch and Ward Society in suppressing books and slot machines and urged the society to investigate nudity in fine art.
To stop the assimilation of the French Canadians, Le Progrès put its hopes on the home, the church, and the school. After parents had given their children a love of the old Canadian tradi- tions, the French church and school would keep them good French- men and good Catholics. When a French Canadian married, he must marry a Catholic. The French press looked scornfully upon the Irish, the Portuguese, and the Belgians, who willingly let them-
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