Pray for the dead
And fight like hell for the living.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WE NEVER FORGET
Mamie Fasig-13
Member: Industrial Workers of the World
Lancaster Silk Strike
November 19, 1907
From The Industrial Union Bulletin of December 7, 1907:
The Striking Silk Workers
…In Lancaster the recently chartered local of the I. W. W. is fighting bravely against one of the most bitter enemies of organized labor. Mr. J. E. Stehli, a man who with his two sons and a brother (a general in the Swiss army), owns several large mills in Switzerland, France and Italy, besides the one owned by that family in Lancaster.
The strike is now in progress four weeks and the girls and men and children are standing out firmly, although it is their first strike, their first battle. And it is a battle, indeed.
On Friday they all marched out to give the last escort to one of the little comrades who died, a victim of the cruel conduct of the firm.
In order to humiliate the strikers the firm’s representative superintendent, Mr. Schnabeli (whom the firm imported from Switzerland), had issued the order that the strikers would not be paid off at the mill, but at a small store on Grand street. Upon arriving there the strikers were not permitted to enter the store but were paid off through the window. Here all the men as well as girls had to stand in a drenching rain for a long time.
Mamie Farig [Fasig], one of the youngest I. W. W. members, 15 [13] years old, caught cold and died several days after, a victim of capitalist brutality. A wreath of red carnations bearing the I. W. W. emblem was laid on her grave.
The local papers refused to say anything relative to this affair. When the strike was started some of the papers opened their columns to us, but soon changed their tune when they saw that they could not make political capital out of the I. W. W. They denied the publication of anything about the causes that led to the untimely death of Mamie Fasig, but gave great prominence to a report that masked men had attacked and badly beaten some strike-breakers. The facts in this case were that a few boys who had been playing Hallowe’en so scared the scabs that they imagined they were being beaten half to death. In order to intimidate the workers warrants were sworn out; one of the strikers against whom a warrant is sworn out is a young and delicate woman, Mrs. Gallagher, and she, like the rest, is charged with assault and battery, while it is she who was assaulted by a ruffian strike-breaker…
Rudolph Katz.
———-
[Emphasis added.]
SOURCE
The Industrial Union Bulletin
(Chicago, Illinois)
-December 7, 1907, page 1
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/industrialworker/iub/v1n41-dec-07-1907-iub.pdf
NOTE: Sadly the IUB article uses both Farig and Fasig for Mamie’s last name. Her name was Mamie Fasig and she was 13 years 10 months old.
See FindaGrave Memorial for photo of grave stone.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/102855658/mamie-fasig
Mamie Fasig
BIRTH 3 Jan 1894
DEATH 19 Nov 1907
BURIAL Greenwood Cemetery
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
See also:
IWW History Project
IWW Strikes 1905-1920
(Scroll down to Nov 1907)
http://depts.washington.edu/iww/strikes.shtml
Silk Workers’ Strike Begins
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
“Four hundred IWW silk workers went on strike for shorter work days and increased wages.”
See: Industrial Union Bulletin
Nov 16, 1907, page 1
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/industrialworker/iub/v1n38-nov-16-1907-iub.pdf
Silk Workers’ Strike Ends
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
“Silk workers called off their strike.”
See: Industrial Union Bulletin
Dec 14, 1907, page 2
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/industrialworker/iub/v1n42-dec-14-1907-iub.pdf
The IWW
Its History, Structure and Methods
By Vincent St. John
Edited, with Forward and Epilogue, by Mark Damron, 2001
Originally Published by IWW PUBLISHING BUREAU in CHICAGO, 1917
https://www.iww.org/about/official/StJohn
(10) Struggles of the I.W.W.
https://www.iww.org/about/official/StJohn/10
In the same year [1907] 800 silk mill workers engaged in a strike at Lancaster, Pennsylvania. This strike was lost on account of a shutdown due to the panic of 1907 that occurred shortly after the strike started.
Tag: Panic of 1907
https://weneverforget.org/tag/panic-of-1907/