The conflicting attitudes are well illustrated by two placards carried along Lawrence streets during the strike. The I. W. W. paraded first with, among others, a placard reading:
XX Century civilization.... For the progress of the human race we have jails, gallows, guillotines, ... and electric chairs for the people who pay to keep the "soldiers" to kill them when they revolt against Wood and other czars of capitalism.
Arise!!! Slaves of the World!!! No God! No Master! One for all and all for one!
The citizens (no reference here to the textile operatives) of Lawrence paraded their righteous indignation as follows:
"For God and Country,
The Stars and Stripes forever,
The Red Flag never.
A Protest against the I. W. W.,
Its principles and methods."
Perhaps there is no better illustration of the reaction of the great bulk of the progressive citizenship of the country to the I. W. W. strike-drama than the following editorial paragraph published during the strike:
On all sides people are asking: Is this a new thing in the industrial world?... Are we to see another serious, perhaps successful, attempt to organize labor by whole industrial groups instead of by trades? Are we to expect that instead of playing the game respectably, or else frankly breaking out into lawless riot which we know well enough how to deal with, the laborers are to listen to a subtle anarchistic philosophy which challenges the fundamental idea of law and order, inculcating such strange doctrines as those of "direct action," "sabotage," "syndicalism," "the general strike," and "violence"?... We think that our whole current morality as to the sacredness of property and even of life is involved in it.[587]
At the seventh convention held in Chicago in September, 1912, there were present forty-five industrialists; twenty-nine of these being delegates from as many regular local unions; one delegate each represented the two National Industrial Unions which were component parts of the I. W. W., viz., the Textile Workers and the Forest and Lumber Workers; seven were General Executive Board members, and seven "fraternal delegates" from the Brotherhood of Timber Workers. Locals in eight states and in British Columbia were represented.[588] During the time the convention was in session, Joseph J. Ettor, a member of the General Executive Board, was awaiting trial in the Essex County jail in Salem, Mass. He wrote to the delegates that
all of the past term's progress is mainly due to the policies adopted, particularly by the sixth annual convention, and ... I feel it an urgent duty on my part to advise that as much as conditions will allow, the lines laid down by the last convention be ratified....[589]