USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Lancaster > Lawrence yesterday and today (1845-1918) a concise history of Lawrence Massachusetts - her industries and institutions; municipal statistics and a variety of information concerning the city > Part 7
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The last serious clash between the strikers and the authorities occurred on February 26. Before sunrise that morning there was a sharp encounter at the lower end of Common street between the police and men supposed to be strikers. There were 25 to 30 shots exchanged. One man, an Italian, was wounded in the shoulder.
During the strike relief funds were received from all over the country, approximately $65,000. More than 2,500 persons were cared for daily. A well organized relief station was maintained by the American Federation of Labor, where food, clothing and fuel were distributed to the needy.
Funds to the amount of $45,000 were received by the I. W. W. Shortly before the close of the strike, leaders of that organization were accused of mismanagement and misuse of these funds. Legal proceedings were instituted to obtain information as to the manner in which the funds were handled. The investigation dragged along with many delays, but finally the Supreme Court found that certain funds were improperly used and the defendants were ordered to make a proper accounting of the same. Up to date there is no knowl- edge of any accounting having been made.
AFTERMATH OF THE STRIKE
During the big textile strike of 1912 Lawrence was infested by a stream of free-lance investigators, sociological, cranks and so- called "sob" writers, the last mentioned doing the city much harm by the way of misrepresentation in distorted newspaper and magazine articles, which continued long after the controversy between the mill operatives and the manufacturers had been adjusted.
To offset this calumny and restore Lawrence's good reputation, a citizens organization was formed in the fall of 1912 and a campaign of publicity was started to set the city right in the eyes of the nation. The climax of this movement of rehabilitation came in the great patriotic demonstration on October 12 of that year. The motto was "For God and Country", and it was a direct rebuke of the I. W. W.'s sacrilegious slogan, "No God ; No Master".
Although March 14 saw the formal close of the strike, it was really several months later before conditions became normal. The leaders of the I. W. W., apparently not content with the concessions from the mills, managed to keep the foreign element in a fitful frame of mind and now and then there were disagreements and walk-outs, although nothing very serious occurred until September 27.
On that day a second general strike took place when about 11,000 either walked out of the mills in sympathy with Joseph J. Ettor and Arturo Giovannitti, or were compelled to quit work through fear or the enforced closing of departments. It was claimed at I. W. W. headquarters that this move was without the sanction of the organization, although after it had occurred it was approved. At a mass meeting of the sympathizers it was voted to hold what was termed "a protest strike" of 24 hours' duration on the following Monday as a demonstration in protest of the imprisonment of Ettor and Giovannitti whose trial as alleged accessories to the murder of Anna LoPezzi was scheduled to begin on that morning. Rioting marked this demonstration and operatives were assaulted by strikers on the way to the mills.
On the day preceding however, Sunday, September 29, a parade was held in direct violation of the permit issued by the police authori- ties, and the demonstration developed the most disgraceful scenes ever witnessed in Lawrence. Red flags and sacrilegious banners were carried through the city's streets and the Stars and Stripes were
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trampled on. At the head of the procession rode Carlo Tresca, an I .W. W. leader, and behind him was flaunted a large banner, bearing the inscription, "No God; No Master". . Wild scenes followed the attempt of the police to break up the parade and one pistol shot was fired on Lawrence street directly in front of the entrance to the police station. Before the demonstration was checked, Police Officer Thomas McCarlie was severely battered and Special Officer William Ludwig was stabbed twice. Both officers later recovered from their injuries.
This anarchistic outbreak was the death knell of the I. W. W. in Lawrence. Public opinion crystalized and turned with potent force on that organization. The City Council started a movement for a gigantic parade of the loyal, patriotic, law-abiding people of Lawrence, to be held on October 12, as a rebuke of the lawless demon- stration of September 29, and a citizens' committee co-operated.
A protest meeting against lawlessness was held Thursday evening, October 3, in City Hall. Men and women of all classes and creeds, all imbued alike with patriotic fervor and the desire for peace and security, cheered the speakers till the hall rang. The sentiment spread through the city and the interest in the proposed flag demonstration became feverish. The city took on a gala dress, and as the day approached Lawrence was a mass of national colors.
On October 12, Flag Day, as it came to be called, Lawrence had a new breath of life and patriotism. With no flag but the Stars and Stripes to be seen anywhere along the line of march and every parader carrying the national emblem, 32,000 people from all walks of life, men, women and children marched through the streets amidst patriotic airs from countless bands and the cheers from the thous- ands of spectators who lined the route of procession. The parade ended in the common where, it has been estimated, 60,000 persons congregated and participated in flag-raising exercises.
The men who flaunted red flags in their parade of anarchy a week or so before did a thing for Lawrence which the citizens of the city had not been able to do for months. It aroused them to a sense of their dignity. It stirred the civic pride in them and, as a result, the community was thrilled anew with patriotism and the anarchistic spirit which had stifled it was stamped out. This was the end of the detrimental influence of the I. W. W. It was crushed so completely that it never again became manifest.
The committee on parade for the Flag Day demonstration comprised :- Mayor Michael A. Scanlon, Aldermen Cornelius F. Lynch, Paul Hannagan, Robert S. Maloney and Michael S. O'Brien ; Gen. W. H. Donovan (chief marshal of parade), Charles E. Bradley, Leonard E. Bennink, Michael J. Sullivan, Capt. Louis S. Cox of Battery C, Field Artillery, Capt. Daniel C. Smith of Company L,
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8th Regt., Capt. Martin Foley of Company F, 9th Regt., Major Frank L. Donovan, Major Charles F. Sargent.
The work of rehabilitation began with the organization of the Citizens Association. Approximately 5,000 citizens enrolled them- selves as members. A comprehensive campaign of publicity was launched, and the true facts about Lawrence and the strike were placed in the hands of every newspaper editor in the country. The result was that Lawrence's good reputation was to a great extent restored.
The committee on publicity which had direct charge of this work comprised :- A. X. Dooley, chairman ; E. J. Wade, secretary ; Mayor M. A. Scanlon, Rev. James T. O'Reilly, C. J. Corcoran, L. E. Bennink, A. B. Sutherland, R. H. Sugatt, F. N. Chandler, K. G. Colby, A. H. Rogers, W. S. Jewett, the last three mentioned being publishers of the city's daily newspapers.
These were the officers of the Citizens Association :-
President, Charles E. Bradley; secretary, Edward J. Wade ; treasurer, Cornelius J. Corcoran.
Vice Presidents : - Michael J. Sullivan, Thorndike D. Howe, Emil C. Stiegler, Robert F. Pickels, James L. Rolley, Richard Carden, Narcisse E. Miville, Simeon Viger, John F. Hogan, William T. Kimball.
Executive Committee :- Frederic N. Chandler, A. X. Dooley, Alvin Hofmann, James H. Bride, Harry B. Musk, Otto Mueller, R. H. Sugatt, L. E. Bennink, James R. Menzie, Maynard W. Steven- son, John P. Kane, James Martin, Rev. James T. O'Reilly, Peter Carr, Rudolph Bernard, John Hart, William S. Jewett, Arthur O'Mahoney, Frank L. Donovan, Joseph White, Dr. J. J. Bartley, George Hey, Thomas E. Andrew, Maurice Cooper, Alexander H. Rogers, Andrew B. Sutherland, John Daley, James A. Dineen, Samuel Lemay, Joseph McCarthy, Fred F. Flynn, Michael P. Fleming, William Greenwood.
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT AND DEPARTMENTS
Lawrence is under a commission form of government, so called, The general management and control of all the affairs of the city, except the public schools, is vested in a city council, consisting of a mayor and four aldermen, known as commissioners or directors. The general management and control of the public schools and prop- erty pertaining thereto is vested in a school committee of five, the mayor being a member ex-officio. All of these officers are elected at large, by the registered voters of the city, for terms of two years.
On November 7. 1911, at the state election, the present city charter was adopted, and it went into effect at 10 o'clock on the morning of January 1, 1912, when the government under the old charter was abolished and the newly elected city council and school board took office. The adoption of the new charter was the result of a vigorous movement for a change in the form of government. When the questions pertaining to the project were submitted to the voters by the legislature public sentiment was strongly in favor of a reform. On the question as to whether the old charter should be repealed the vote was :- Yes, 6,027; no, 2,214; blanks, 840. The vote on the question as to the new form was as decisive. Two plans were presented: plan 1, which was to establish a city govern- ment of a mayor and a council of nine members ; and plan 2, which was to establish a government by commission. The latter was adopted by a vote of 6,077, as against 1,358 for plan I, with 1,646 blanks.
The old charter had been in vogue since the incorporation of the city in 1853, and in the nearly three score years of its existence it had been but slightly modified and amended. It had provided for what is familiarly known as a two-branch government, consisting of mayor and board of aldermen, and a common council. Subordinate officers and boards were either appointed by the mayor or elected by the city council. The board of aldermen comprised six members, one from each ward though elected at large, and the common council was composed of eighteen members, three being elected in each ward. The school committee had, besides the mayor, twelve members, two being elected in each ward.
No provision being made in the new charter for a board of fire
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engineers and a water board, both these boards were abolished, upon the adoption of the commission form of government, their powers and duties being put under control of the director of public safety and the director of engineering, respectively.
Under the present charter the administrative affairs of the city are divided into five departments, namely :- Department of finance and public affairs, department of engineering, department of public safety, department of public property and parks, and department of public health and charities. The department of finance and public affairs includes all the sub-departments, boards and offices connected with it, such as the treasury, auditing, purchasing, assessing, sinking funds, tax collection, claims, registration of voters, city clerk and legal. The department of engineering includes the highways and other ways, street watering, sewers and drains, water and water works, bridges and engineering. The department of public safety includes the police and fire departments, lighting, wiring, weights and measures and conduits. The department of public property and parks includes buildings, parks and public grounds. The department of public health and charities includes the health and poor departments, city physician and public hospitals.
The following are known as administrative officers :- City clerk, city treasurer, collector of taxes, city auditor, purchasing agent, board of overseers of the poor, consisting of five persons, city engineer, city physician, board of health, consisting of three persons, of whom the city physician is one, city solicitor, board of park commissioners, board of sinking fund commissioners, board of assessors, board of trustees of the public library and a board of cemetery directors.
Prominent features of the present charter are the recall, ini- tiative and referendum. These provisions are intended to bring the government and the people into closer relationship, and they provide an immediate and direct means of adjusting serious difficulties that may arise in the administration of government affairs. Provision is also made for publicity in all municipal matters, and there are restrictions tending to prevent hasty action on matters involving the expenditure of large sums of money. An outstanding feature is the concentration of responsibility.
Party or political designations or marks are abolished, and elective officers are chosen solely on the ground of personal quali- fication or fitness. When the new charter was adopted provision was made whereby the city council designated by majority vote the head of each department, except in the case of the mayor who acts as director of the department of finance and public affairs. In 1914 the charter was amended to provide that the office of each director be designated on the ballot at the time of his election by the voters of the city.
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The powers of the city council are broad. The mayor has no veto, and no measure which the city council makes or passes is presented to him for, or requires his approval to become effective. The council determines the policy to be pursued and the work to be undertaken in each department, but each member has the full power to carry out the policy or have the work performed in his department, as directed by the city council. The council has full supervision of the erection, alteration and repair of all public buildings, including school buildings.
The public library of the city is under the management and control of a board of trustees, consisting of the mayor, three trustees of the White Fund, these four being members ex-officio, and five citizens elected by the city council.
The annual budget is made up by the mayor, after he has received estimates, from the department heads, of the appropriations required, and it is adopted by a majority vote of the city council. A four-fifths vote is necessary to change any item in the budget as submitted by the mayor, and then only to reduce the amount.
THE CITY HALL :- ITS HISTORY AND TRADITIONS
The City Hall stands substantially as it stood in 1850, a building of bold and impressive outlines, architecturally a triumph of its day. This public hall has probably served more varied uses than any other building in New England. On its stage platform have appeared many of the world's famous lecturers, orators, authors, actors, musicians and politicians. The county courts were held in this hall prior to the time of building the court house. Many of the first local churches worshiped there before becoming established in their own edifices. It was a drill room for departing volunteers and in it, wrapped in the American flag, lay the remains of Needham, the first martyr of the Rebellion. There was a week, many years ago, when the hall, on Monday night was used for a brilliant ball; on Tuesday evening, for religious revival services : on Wednesday night, for a political caucus : on Thursday, for a Sabbath school convention ; on Friday, for a dog show ; on Saturday, for a Fenian mass meet- ing, and on Sunday, for regular worship by an unhoused church,- and that week was not altogether exceptional. It was a morgue at the time of the Pemberton disaster, a house of mourning when Presidents Taylor, Lincoln and Garfield died and memorial services were held, and the funerals of a number of prominent soldiers and citizens have been held from it.
Prior to the building of the Town or City Hall, town meetings were held in Merrimack hall during the year 1847. but at the March meeting in 1848 the townsmen gathered in the Free Will Baptist meeting house, a one-story wooden structure, standing on the north- easterly corner of White and Haverhill streets. In the warrant presented at that meeting was an article which read :- "To see if the town will choose a committee to obtain a plan of a Town House, and to appoint an agent to superintend the building of the same."
On April 17 following, it was voted that a Town House be erected for the use of the town, "to include a town hall and such offices as may be judged necessary for the present and future needs of the town government". Discussions immediately started as to its location, and several sites were proposed. Finally, it was decided to erect the building in its present location, on Common street between Appleton and Pemberton streets.
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The lot at the time of its purchase from the Essex Company had a frontage of 150 feet on Common street, but in 1855 eleven feet and six inches were taken for the laying out of Pemberton street, in which year also the iron steps that formed the original approach to the westerly entrance to the hall were constructed. The town paid $8,000 or fifty cents a foot for the land.
The contract for the construction of the building was let August 25, 1848, to Eli Cook, William I. Stetson and Alexander Mair of Boston, the plan of construction being prepared by Melvin & Young of Boston, classed with noted architects of the time in this section. The contract price was $27,568, and out of this amount were reserved $1,000 for a clock and beli, $700 for heating and $100 for ventilating apparatus.
The building is 120 feet 8 inches long, and 68 feet 8 inches wide, exclusive of the granite base which projects three inches all around the brickwork, with a tower 23 by 24 feet in size on the front side. The contract price, besides the above amounts men- tioned as reserved for special purposes, included the cellar masonry, the ashlar or granite base, the brickwork of the walls, all wood- work, slating and painting, also a sidewalk of brick with hammered granite edgestones, and a fence along the Common street side, "equal in cost and quality to that in front of the house of Capt. Bigelow". This house stood at the corner of Lawrence and Haver- hill streets, and was removed to make room for the Pacific mansion now standing there. Charles Bean was chosen by the selectmen to superintend the construction. No building of its kind was ever more economically erected.
The Town House was accepted by the architect and building com- mittee from the contractors, and it was delivered to the selectmen on December 5, 1849. On the following day the town clerk, E. W. Morse, moved into the office prepared for him and became the first occupant of the building. It was dedicated with appropriate cere- monies on the evening of December 10, 1849.
At the close of the financial year, March 1, 1850, the value of the building and land was reported to be $37,292 and the furniture $2,166, which included the furniture for the Court of Common Pleas (now called the Superior Court) that sat for a while in the large audience hall on the second floor, and also that for the Police Court which occupied the present City Council chamber. According to the town report for the year ending in March, 1851, however, the value of the property should be stated as $41,119, there being an account of additional claims paid, which had possibly been disputed.
The two brick safes between the city clerk's and the mayor's offices were the only ones built when the building was constructed. The brick safe in the treasurer's office was not constructed until 1855,
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that under the city engineer's office in 1874, and the one in the auditor's office in the fall of 1901. To heat the building, upon its completion, there were furnaces and at least one stove, and other furnaces and stoves were added in after years. There was a stove in the city clerk's office, to supplement the furnace heat, as late as 1875, when the steam apparatus was put in.
A prominent decorative feature of the City Hall is the large eagle on the tower. The eagle, with the ball and pedestal on which it stands, was designed and carved by John M. Smith, a member of the Board of Selectmen in 1848, who had charge of the wood- work construction at the Essex Company machine shop. It cost $500. Perched, as the bird is, about 156 feet above the ground, one does not realize that it is nine feet and six inches from the tip of the bill to the tip of the tail, with other dimensions in proportion, and that the ball on which it stands is three feet in diameter. The eagle is in a position of preparing to spread its wings to fly, and in a description printed at the time it was regarded as a fit emblem for Lawrence, and the wish was expressed that the young community, so full of promise, might ever be actuated with the noble inspiration "to spread and bear learning, virtue and wisdom to all parts of the world".
The building is acknowledged to have no superior in construc- tion in Lawrence, and it is admired by critics of good work even today. There are no better plain brick walls in the world than the walls of this old structure. Though age has toned its colors and mellowed somewhat its outlines, and far more costly and elaborate structures have since become common, the historic building still retains its charm.
The face brickwork was laid plumb bond, that is, all the joints are exactly over those of the second course below, which was the prevailing style of the best construction in those days. On the Appleton street side of the building at the corner of the alleyway in the fifth course above the granite base, is a brick bearing the names, "S. Lawrence. A. Lawrence". When the central mill of the Bay State Company, now the Washington Mills, was built, Samuel Lawrence, the treasurer of the company, having had some bricks made bearing the above inscription, had one of them built into the corner of the central doorway of the mill a little above the sill. Another was the one built into the corner of the Town House or City Hall where it still is. The S. was the initial for Samuel, and the A. for Alison, his wife. The placing of the brick in the wall of the Town House was another mark of respect for the family which so greatly assisted in the founding of the community.
The two shot displayed on either side of the doorway in the tower of the City Hall came from Fort Sumpter. They were picked
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up there after the evacuation of the fort by the Southern forces following the surrender of Charleston February 17, 1865. As a token of regard, they were presented to the City of Lawrence by G. V. Fox, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and a former citizen of Lawrence and at one time agent of the Bay State Mills. These fifteen-inch shot, with many others, were found among the ruins of Sumpter, having been fired from the Federal fleet of monitors during the bombardment of the fort on April 7, 1863. No gun of a bore greater than ten inches had been used on any other vessel or by the army during the war. In the week ending December 25, i865, the shot, each weighing 350 pounds, were placed in position on the tower of the hall. The mountings were designed by Alder- man Payne, and they consist of an iron wall plate in the shape of a shield embroidered by moulding in the form of a rope. On the shield is illustrated a monitor in relief, and from it projects a forearm and hand in which the shot rests. The arm is clothed with a naval sleeve, bearing the cuff of a rear admiral, ornamented in proper form with two bands of gold and a five-pointed star. The identification inscription was provided by Ericson, the inventor of the monitor.
On December 18, 1849, soon after the town took possession of the building, the Court of Common Pleas opened a term of court in the audience hall with Judge Perkins on the bench. This court continued to sit here until October, 1854, when an order was adopted by the City Council providing that arrangements be made for it in Lawrence hall, which was located on the southeasterly corner of Amesbury and Common streets, known now as Music hall.
In 1850 the town sold the old lock-up which had been located in the rear of the post office near the corner of Broadway and Common street and fitted up cells for prisoners in the basement of the Town House, in the brick arches which support the safes con- nected with the office of the city clerk. These cells soon fell into disrepute. The Lawrence Courier of March 15, 1851, described them as "narrow, dark, unventilated, reeking with moisture, loath- some places, a disgrace to the town, and a dangerous piece of prop- erty". Accommodations for the purpose were sought elsewhere. The police court was then located in the present City Council cham- ber, and the small room at the westerly end was partitioned off for the judge. In June 1854, a committee of the City Council recom- mended that the police court be removed to the Empire building, formerly the Empire Hotel, located on the northwesterly corner of Essex and Appleton streets. It sat in what was for many years Needham hall, the old Grand Army headquarters, which is said to have been the dining room of the hotel; and here the court remained until the original police station building was completed and opened June 24, 1867.
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