SINCLAIR LEWIS PORTRAYS LIFE OF 'MILL SLAVE'
SINCLAIR LEWIS PORTRAYS LIFE OF 'MILL SLAVE' Novel Tells of Struggle of Mill Workers For a Wage Sufficient To Live How six strikers were killed and more than 20 others wounded when deputy sheriffs...
...I have heard that the crowd of strikers were an angry and heavily armed mob, with sticks and revolvers, and I have heard that there wasn't a single gun among them...
...They point out that among the 11 deputies and the sheriff the only injury was a scratch on the cheek of one of the deputies, whereat among the worklngmen there were six killed and 20 wounded...
...These men had no money with which to pay and the local labor leader, Bill Ross, had to telegraph New York to beg money «o that the men would not be turned out...
...Someone shot him—a lame man, 68...
...and other widely selling novels an outstanding figure in American literature, is a startling revelation of the true facts surrounding the Marion riot that resulted in the death of six and the wounding of more than 20 mill workers...
...Lewis writes, the men were there as usual fifteen minutes early...
...Lewis k rite*: "Tola force of militia turned Marlon into a concentration camp...
...I have heard that Sheriff Adkins shot down two men, and I have heard that he never even had his pistol loose from its holster...
...Sheriff is Called Describing the events leading up to the rooming of Oct...
...Lewis...
...on hU hands ard kne»s, in the dust...
...The meals of these workers consist largely of lour biscuits, hominy, fat-back — the cheapest sort of salt pork — and coffee served without cream or sugar...
...They stopped every motor car that came through the main street of East Marlon...
...This packing box on atlil/s above a welter of red clay Is thfl...
...The sheriff and the mill owners say that the shooting started from the middle of the road from amidst the force of strikers, and that the sheriff and his 11 deputies, faced with a murderous mob, had to shoot in return...
...Tear gas was thrown bv Sheriff Adkins and his men...
...N. C„ when the textile strike there was in progress...
...He was in that position when he was shot...
...it seems strange that all but two of the strikers were shot in the back, as if they w:ere fleeing from trouble instead of starting it...
...To an out-alder, too...
...Lewis states that the workers in the mill operated by the Marion Mfg...
...Other of the strikers who had been shot down by the sheriff's posse were also taken to the hospital, but after receiving first emergency treatment, they were told that they could not atay there unless they paid...
...writes Mr...
...On the morning of Oct...
...fhe superintendent of the mill, hearing rumors of the strike, called in Sheriff Adkins and 11 deputies...
...His account of the tragic events of the strike and the condition of the workers there is taker, from first hand information and experience...
...What happened then is a case for the sovereign state of North Carolina to decide...
...It (s the way in w«\h we teach them In this country truly he results of honest Jahor arp a spl (dor unlike that of the hovels of the Old World...
...Then the shooting started...
...In each of the living rooms there are, normally, two double beds," writes Mr, Lewis...
...One would have thought that these two proud and powerful guardians of law and order would have been able to control the old man without killing him...
...With this cane he •truck the aheriff...
...In these double beds sleep anywhere from two to five people, depending on their ages...
...Indeed they made a good start...
...Living conditions among the Marion textile workers are almost unbelievably bad, according to Mr...
...Lewis...
...Arrowsmith," "Elmer Gantry...
...SINCLAIR LEWIS PORTRAYS LIFE OF 'MILL SLAVE' Novel Tells of Struggle of Mill Workers For a Wage Sufficient To Live How six strikers were killed and more than 20 others wounded when deputy sheriffs fired into a group of textile workers assembled outside a cotton mill in Marlon, North Carolina— How one of their number...
...1. The day force at the mill goes on at seven, and the men had been in the habit of assembling in front of the mill a few minutes early to exchange gos-»ip before '.he whistle blows...
...Prom the strikers there were cat-calls and curses...
...they searched strikers, and took away such dangerous weapons as pocket knives with blades one Inch long...
...Beside the old man Eaa a constable, Broad Robbing, aged urhaps 60 but aa powerful and mcn-:lng aa a wolf...
...The homes of the workers are flimsy shacks without sanitary devices, and In many of them as many as 12 persons are forced to live together...
...Treatment of Old Man "When the sheriff threw tear gas at the strikers, the striker nearest to him wa» an old man of 68 so lame with rheumatism that he had to walk with a cane...
...2 when the riot occurred, Mr...
...But this much is certain—the superintendent of the mills invited all the striker* who wished to work to enter the mill...
...Rumors current in Marion, says Mr...
...Adkins wrestled with him, and Broad clouted him In the back of the head...
...The old man fell to his bands and knee*, in the dtirt...
...is their reward for 10 or 12 hoiirs of toil a day...
...The court has decided that the sheriff did not shoot him...
...2, Mr...
...I have heard somewhat conflicting testimony as to just what did occur...
...Militia Activities Describing the activities of the force of militia that first took charge in Marlon following the riot, Mr...
...Dodsworth...
...had waited considerately until the return of Mr...
...refuge, the castle, Die whole home' of most of these workmen at Marion...
...After the riot, the old man, wounded fatally, was taken to the hospital with handcuffs on, was placed on the operating table, with handcuffs still on, and straightaway he died on that table—with his handcuffs on...
...The yards are adorned only with rich Carolina red mud, except where some worker has grown a flower garden,—and when you are working, and your wl.'s and the ch ldren of 16 and upward are working from 10 to 12 hours a day, you do not give a great deal of attention M gardening...
...an old man of 68, was knocked down by a deputy sheriff and shot to death as he struggled to his knees in the dust— How wounded strikers were turned •away after first emergency treatments from the Marion hospital and toid they ould not be treated there unless they said— How troops' of the state militia intim-dated the strikers, forbidding them to issembie or even go to the pose office [or mail, and searching them on every provocation— How these workers, who toil from 10 o 12 hours daily in the mills at wages ess than $13 a week, are forced to live In flimsy wooden shacks under unhealthy and insanitary conditions— ( These are some of the things that Sinclair Lewis, famous American novelet and journalist, vividly describes in fc recently published pamphlet titled '•Cheap and Contented Labor...
...Lewis personally visited the mill town of Marion...
...On the other aide the workers insist that there were no guns and very few clubs among the strikers...
...Lewis, are to the effect that the sheriff fcr.d his men indulged in too much corn "dUor on the evening of Oct...
...These box-like, four room houses are of the cheapest and flimsiest construction and are all set up on stilts with no wind breaking foundation whatever...
...Baldwin, the president of the company who had been away, before calling the strike...
...His story of the strike, written in the detailed and interesting fashion that made him as author of "Main Street...
Vol. 1 • February 1930 • No. 10
