LABOUR TROUBLES IN AMERICA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15123, 14 October 1912, Page 5

LABOUR TROUBLES IN AMERICA.

MURDER AND CONSPIRACY CHARGES. Tfhom OVTI OWN correspondent.] Sax Francisco, September 18. Tnz hard-fought strike in the textile mills of Lawrence, Massachusetts, U.S.A., has loft behind it a bitter aftermath of hatred and ill-feeling which is evidenced by accusations of murder, dynamiting, conspiracy, etc., that have yet to bo disposed of in the courts. Both sides of the struggle are involved in these charges. William M. Wood, president of the American Woollen Company, the. wealthiest man engaged in this industry,, and sometimes referred to as the. head of the " wool trust," is under indictment on & charge of distributing dynamite during the strike. One strike leader (G. Ettor) is to be tried for murder. Ho was the editor cf a strikers' paper, and his inflammatory writings are alleged to have been the cause of tbo shooting of cno of the victims of tho strike- Another strike leader (William D. Haywood) has just been arrested on an indictment several months old, accusing him of conspiracy. His arrest followed his appearance upon the common of Boston, where ho delivered a. speech urging a general strike if Ettor should be kept longer in confinement. The so-called dynamite plot, in which Wood is accused of having participated, consisted in "planting" a quantity of the explosive in a cobbler's shop in order to discredit the labour unions by raising the suspicion that they were planning to destroy the mills. Two other men were indicted along with him, but the prominence of the president of the American Woollen Company lends a touch of the sensational to his arrest. The company employs 35,000 operatives, and controls 55 textile plants. At Lawrence alone about 15,C00 men, women, and children are on Iho company's payrolls. A strike throughout all the mills of New England was urged by Haywood as a protest against the imprisonment and trial of Ettor and two other unionists also accused of murder in like circumstances. "Wo will open the gaol doors or close the mill gates,'' ho said in a speech on Boston Common before an audience of 15,000 people. He was arrested as he left, the common. .