Hopedale History
November 2022
No. 409
Strike at Draper Company, Part 2
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Twenty-five years ago – November 1997 – Telecom companies WorldCom and MCI Communications announce a $37 billion merger to form MCI WorldCom, the largest merger in U.S. history.
Ramzi Yousef is found guilty of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Fifty years ago – November 1972 – Richard Nixon defeats Democratic Senator George McGovern in a landslide (the election had the lowest voter turnout since 1948, with only 55 percent of the electorate voting).
The last executions in Paris, France. Roger Bontems and Claude Buffet – the Clairvaux Mutineers – are guillotined at La Santé Prison by chief executioner André Obrecht.
Atari, Inc. kicks off the first generation of video games with the release of their seminal arcade version of Pong, the first game to achieve commercial success.
White House Press Secretary Ron Ziegler tells the press that troop levels in Vietnam are down to 27,000 and consequently there will be no more public announcements concerning United States troop withdrawals from Vietnam.
One hundred years ago – November 1922 – The Ottoman Empire is abolished after 600 years, and its last sultan, Mehmed VI, abdicates, leaves for exile in Italy on November 17.
Rebecca Felton of Georgia takes the oath of office, formally becoming the first woman United States Senator.
Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon become the first people to see inside KV62, the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, in over 3,000 years.
News items above are from Wikipedia. For Hopedale news from 25, 50 and 100 years ago from the Milford News and the Milford Gazette, obtained at the Bancroft Library and the Milford Library, see below this text box.
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IWW Strike at Draper Company – 1913
April 29 – Strike leader Coldwell was convicted in District Court today and sentenced to three months in jail for threatening and fined $5 for breaking the by-laws of Hopedale. He appealed and furnished sureties in $800 for trial in Superior Court.
April 30 – Coldwell, Howard and Albizotti, leaders of the strike, also twenty strikers, were summoned into court today to answer to the charge of violating Hopedale by-laws. Coldwell went to Hopedale today on the electric cars.
May 1 – Residences in Milford stoned. One Hopedale worker assaulted, receiving a fractured skull.
May 2 – About 150 boys and girls marched to Hopedale from Milford this morning and were sent back by the police. Leader Coldwell was again at Hopedale and less than 50 of the strikers were with him.
May 3 – Arturo Giovannitti, a leader of the Lawrence strike and strike leaders Coldwell and Howard led a crowd of 400 men and women from Milford towards Hopedale this morning. At the Hopedale line a big squad of officers blocked their way. Giovannitti, Coldwell and Howard were allowed to pass, only to be arrested on their arrival in front of the Draper works. Giovannnitti was found guilty in District court, fined $10, as were the other defendants, and appealed.
May 6 – Draper Co. to build 60 houses in Milford and Hopedale.
May 7 – Efforts of the State Board of Arbitration to settle Draper Co. strike fruitless. Pupils of Plains May school started a miniature strike. They armed themselves with clubs and forbid other children to attend school. Police were called to round up the “strikers.”
May 16 – Edgar A. Sherman of Hopedale, a special policeman, arraigned in District court before Judge C.A. Cook, charged with manslaughter in causing the death of Emilio Bacchiocchi in Hopedale, April 24. He waved the reading of the complaint and furnished sureties in $5,000 for his appearance in court.
The first break in the ranks of the strikers was today when twelve Polish-speaking former employees returned to work.
May 23 – A crowd of 200 strike pickets stood in front of an electric car at Braggville this morning, refused to move and compelled employees of Draper Co. to get out of the car. Picketing was renewed, street cars were stoned and women and children were active in the trouble. Many employees of Draper Co. were forced to return to their homes as they attempted to go to Hopedale to work. This evening rioting occurred at Depot square. Strikers stoned the police, who freely used their clubs. Three men arrested charged with rioting.
May 29 – Riot at Lincoln Square tonight when strikers refused to obey police not to parade or conduct a meeting. The riot act was read and the crowd of 2,000 soon scattered in all directions by fully 100 officers. Atty. T.G. Connolly and Morrison I Swift as well as five others arrested.
June 5 – Joseph M. Coldwell, strike leader, was today found guilty of uttering, threatening and menacing speeches in Milford, April 24. He was sentenced to three months at Worcester jail. The strikers conducted a meeting in Town Hall tonight at which 1,200 attended, a majority of the Selectmen granting them the use of it.
June 7 – The backbone of the strike is broken. Many of the men are returning to work, the police are being withdrawn and there is less activity by pickets.
June 8 – Two carloads of children of strikers were taken by the M. A. &W Street Railway Co. cars today to Providence to remain until the strike is over.
June 17 – Strike at Greene Bros. factory in force since April 12 settled amicably today and 49 girl strikers resumed work.
June 18 – Selectmen refuse use of Town Hall to strikers when in became known Carlo Tresca and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, I.W.W agitators were to speak.
June 20 – Carlo Tresca and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn of I.W.W speak in Driving Park hall to 300 strikers and others.
July 5 – Over 150 strikers applied for work at Hopedale today, and the strike now is said to be over.
For much more about the strike, see:
The Hopedale Strike of 1913: The Unmaking of an Industrial Empire.
Hopedale News – November 1997
Hopedale News – November 1972
Hopedale News – November 1922
