Abridged Honors Thesis of:
Kerri Harney
State University of New York at Binghamton
Spring 1999

The idea of bread and roses is part of a historical tradition that many believe began with the Lawrence textile strike of 1912. Historians, and other scholars, have remembered the Lawrence strike as the "Bread and Roses Strike." The strike eventually came to serve as the model of the "Fight for Bread and Roses." "Bread and Roses" has served as a slogan for many labor struggles in the United States in the twentieth century, representing different things at different historical moments. For the most part, "bread" has represented a living wage. "Roses," in turn, referred to workers' desire for dignity of life and respectful treatment.

Many historians treat the Lawrence strike as the beginning of the bread and roses tradition. In 1912, approximately twenty-thousand mill operatives and family members protested the actions of their employers in response to a Massachusetts law that went into effect on 1 January 1912. This law limited the number of hours women and children could work to fifty-four per week. Management of the American Woolen Company decided to apply the law to men as well as women and to reduce the weekly pay of all workers to reflect the two-hour reduction in the number of hours worked. Workers' previous wages were barely enough to pay for the basic necessities of life. Many of the workers were immigrants who came to America to find a better life for themselves and their families. Instead, they found themselves confined to the lowest-paying jobs and tenements in the worst parts of the city. Striking workers rejected the wage cut; in fact, they asked for a general fifteen percent increase in wages for all mill operatives. Their other demands included the termination of a premium system under which foremen received bonuses for driving their workers to greater production. The mill owners' position during the strike was that they could not afford to pay their workers for fifty-six hours when they only worked for fifty-four. The workers believed that they could not support themselves with lower wages and argued that they were producing as much cloth in fifty-four hours as they had done in fifty-six due to the speeding up of the machinery.

The strike lasted for three months during a harsh New England winter. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) organized the strikers across ethnic lines. The workers succeeded in their efforts for a variety of reasons. The cooperation of the different ethnic groups in Lawrence distinguished this strike from earlier efforts. The differences between the nationalities did not prevent the strikers from overcoming the barriers of language and occupations. Tactics included continuous picket lines that halted would-be scabs from entering the factories. Lastly, the children's exodus was a very effective tactic. Strikers sent their children to sympathizers in other cities so that they would not be forced back into the factories because of the cries of hungry children. The mill owners thought that time would force the strikers back to work. The owners believed that the strikers would not have enough money or support to strike for a long enough period to be effective. Because of tactics like the children's exodus, the strikers were able to outlast the mill owners and eventually win concessions.

Many historians argue that these strikers won the Fight for Bread and Roses. One even claims that the strikers carried signs stating "We want bread and roses."[1] But this perspective has been contested and there have been arguments that the strike should not named the Bread and Roses strike. A recent issue of the Radical History Review discussed this issue at length. Gerald Sider began the debate with an article entitled "Cleansing History: Lawrence, Massachusetts, the Strike for Four Loaves and No Roses."[2]

Sider questions the slogan's accuracy as a reflection of the events of the strike. He claims that the scholarship of Herbet Gutman is largely responsible for the institutionalization of the term "bread and roses" in reference to the strike. Gutman taught seminars during the summers to students and labor activists where he used the phrase in reference to the Lawrence strike. Sider disagrees with Gutman, however, stating that the term misrepresents the strike.

Sider argues that the word "roses" never appeared during the strike, either in the strikers' slogans or the documentation by the media. He goes on to show that James Oppenheim first used the slogan long after the strike was over. Sider explains how the creation of a myth based on the slogan fails to capture the harsh reality of the strike.

Paul Buhle, in his "Bread and Roses: A Response," disagrees with Sider as to the origin of the bread and roses slogan. Buhle states that the slogan had been used for many years, especially in Italian periodicals like Il Proletario. Buhle also states that the slogan was chosen as a conscious re-gendering of the strike to illustrate women's participation and leadership. According to Buhle, the slogan does not misrepresent the image of the strike in working-class consciousness. He states that artists in all times have been prone to oversimplification and sentimentalization and believes that bread and roses is an acceptable interpretation of the strike.

Ardis Cameron in "Comments on Cleansing History" takes a different approach to the issues discussed by Sider. Cameron places the debate over the slogan of the strike within a historical context, by stating that the debate came into public view in the late 1980s. Cameron attributes the slogan to Arturo Giovannitti, one of the strike leaders, rather than Oppenheim. During the strike, she claims he read in public a poem he had written entitled Pan e Rose.

In Cameron's view, even though the term was not used during the strike it still helps people today think about the strike. The "bread and roses" tradition emphasizes the important ideals of the strikers. Many were fighting for the right to be human. They were fighting for the right to have enough to eat, to have enough clothes, to feed their children and to have adequate housing. The strikers wanted to be treated as human beings and not as easily replaceable extensions of the machinery. When the slogan "bread and roses" came into public usage, it emphasized were very similar to those of the strike. The slogan "bread and roses" places the strike into a certain context within United States history. The strike became part of a broader tradition. This is a successful tradition that aided the rights of immigrant workers and woman's suffrage. Furthermore, it negates the image of the strike as a strike of radical immigrant laborers fighting for anarchism. The bread and roses slogan creates a positive connotation for the Lawrence 1912 strike within working-class consciousness.

"Bread and roses," according to Cameron, illustrates how the memory of the Lawrence strike has changed over time. The description of the Lawrence strike as the Fight for Bread and Roses is an example of a "wrong" story which communicates a "right" message. The misrepresentation of the strike allows the American labor movement to claim the strike as part of its memory. The strike is given a significant place in history as the beginning of the "bread and roses" tradition. This position elevates the efforts of the strikers of Lawrence. These strikers have not been dismissed by history as radical immigrants bent on destroying American capitalism. They serve as an example for future generations that immigrants can achieve American ideals through hard work and unified struggle. This strike is evidence of the immigrant succeeding in the United States-a theme that has become very significant in historical texts.

The authors of the Radical History Review articles briefly examined the usefulness of the slogan "bread and roses" in reference to the Lawrence strike of 1912. Is the term useful even though it reflects unproven stories and a constructed memory? This honors thesis explores in detail the question of the origin of the term "bread and roses" in relation to the Lawrence Strike. In addition, it examines the evolution of the term as it has been used by subsequent historians and activists writing about the strike. In the end I show that although the expression "bread and roses" was first used in connection with working-class activities in support of women's suffrage, the use of the term in relation to the Lawrence Strike illustrates how subsequent political, social and economic forces shaped memory and how the constructed memory in turn shaped history.

Many historians credit Arturo Giovannitti with naming the Lawrence textile strike of 1912 as the Fight for Bread and Roses. Some claim that Giovannitti used the slogan "pan e rose" in his speeches and poems during the strike. This Italian for the words "bread and roses" is believed to stem from Italian and Italian-American labor traditions. Paul Buhle suggests that his interviews with Italian-Americans, who were children during the Lawrence strike, indicate that the slogan was Italian in origin: "they wanted to insist that 'bread and roses' was a direct translation from the Italian."[3] Giovannitti portrayed himself primarily as an Italian worker in Lawrence in order to create bonds with the workers who were divided along ethnic lines. Some historians claim that he used the term "pan e rose" during these speeches to encourage the workers to continue the strike. "Pan e rose" symbolizes the ideals of the strikers as defined by the Industrial Workers of the World, or the IWW. The simple Italian phrase represented the strikers' noble cause of destroying starvation wages and long hours in the mill.

Arturo Giovannitti was a member of the Industrial Workers of the World who, with Joseph Ettor, traveled to Lawrence to organize the striking workers. Giovannitti was a twenty-nine year old Italian immigrant who had only been in the country for twelve years. He grew up in Abruzzi, Italy in a household composed of professionals. His father was "a physician and a chemist." One of his brothers was a physician and the other brother was a lawyer. Giovannitti received his education through the public school system in Italy. When he was eighteen, he immigrated to Canada and became familiar with the life of a laborer when he found work in a coal mine. A contemporary journalist stated that "it was there probably that the seeds of his resentment against the industrialism of to-day were planted." While in Canada, Giovannitti became involved with a Presbyterian mission.[4]

His mission work led Giovannitti to New York City. There he took charge of a mission in Brooklyn and began to attend Columbia University. During this time, he was not an ordained minister but preached to parishioners on Sundays and "taught them during the week."[5] His experiences in New York and other cities led him down a path very different from his original route of becoming a Presbyterian minister:

Although he never graduated [from Union Theological Seminary], Giovannitti saw actual service in conducting Presbyterian missions in more than one city, until socialism came to impersonate religion in his life and led him through the vanishing stages of unbelief into atheism.[6]

His association with socialism resulted in his becoming editor of the Italian language newspaper Il Proletario. Through this association, Giovannitti became acquainted with Joseph Ettor, a young Italian-American organizer for the IWW. Ettor was already established in the IWW and recruited Giovannitti into its ranks. When Ettor was called to help the strikers in Lawrence, Giovannitti joined him.

Giovannitti officially went to Lawrence to "organize work relief for the strikers' families."[7] He quickly became a well-recognized leader due to his passionate speeches often delivered on the Common in front of thousands of strikers. His articulate and emotional speeches in Italian led him to be called by Kenneth MacGowan the "Poet of the Wop."[8] The Atlantic Monthly states that Giovannitti "preached with missionary intensity the doctrine of Syndicalism."[9] He became a symbol for the striking workers and a challenge to the established order. He threatened the power hierarchy that existed in mill towns like Lawrence and provided a model for the immigrant workers who hoped to achieve social change:

For it is surely an ominous thing that a young man of good family, well educated, markedly religious by nature, coming to this land in search of freedom and opportunity, actively associated with the church in its missionary work among the poor, should in a few years be transformed by his experiences into an extreme revolutionary, bitter against authority of all kinds, flouting the Constitution and denying God. If there is such a thing as a social portent, Arturo Giovannitti is one.[10]

Giovannitti's fame as a social agitator became widespread when he was arrested late at night on 31 January 1912. He was charged as an accessory to the murder of Anna Lopizzo. Authorities claimed that speeches Ettor and Giovannitti made that day had incited the riot that led to the fatal shooting of the striking woman. Both Ettor and Giovannitti were over a mile away when the shooting took place, but based on the testimony of two private detectives they were arrested and placed in jail. Ettor and Giovannitti spent almost a year in jail before they were acquitted.[11]

During his time in jail, Arturo Giovannitti wrote about his experiences in Lawrence. His Italian and religious backgrounds are evident in the style and construction of his poetry during this time. MacGowan refers to his poetry as "the song of the people as he learned it in the Lawrence strike and hummed it over in the jails of Salem."[12] The Walker and The Cage are his two most renowned works of this time, although David Montgomery claims that Giovannitti also wrote "a song in Italian bearing the title in question [Pan e Rose, or Bread and Roses]." However, he also states that "I lack the evidence to press this point." Montgomery continues the historical tradition that argues that Giovannitti was the first to name the Lawrence strike of 1912 as the Fight for Bread and Roses.[13]

The historian Paul Buhle also believes that Giovannitti might have used the term "pan e rose" due to Giovannitti's association with Italian labor communities in the United States. Buhle states that his Italian-American sources from Lawrence claim that:

...the slogan had come to Lawrence by way of Brooklyn (home of Il Proletario, edited by some of the heroes of the strike), Lynn, Massachusetts (home base of Cronica Sovversiva, Luigi Galleani, the most romantic of the anarcho-communists in all the American Left), or even from the Old Country and the Italian papers that circulated in the Italian-American coal towns and factory communities.[14]

But Buhle, like Montgomery, did not cite any specific evidence to support this claim. Yet the circumstances surrounding the strike lend support to the theory that Giovannitti was familiar with the themes represented by the term "pan e rose". For example, The Atlantic Monthly's interpretation of The Cage in June 1913 finds that "the philosophy of the poem sounds harshly materialistic, yet we must not forget that to the very poor, bread, bed, and sunshine may suggest something very different from materialism. They are helps--almost essential helps--to spiritual freedom."[15] The themes encompassed by the term "bread and roses" are exhibited in Giovannitti's poetry. This fact was recognized by contemporary journalists: "And that [the big thing accomplished by the IWW] is the individual awakening of 'illiterates' and 'scum' to an original, personal conception of society and the realization of the dignity and the rights of their part in it."[16] The IWW was able to accomplish this feat through the popularization of Giovannitti's poetry and the messages included within his work by frequently printing his poetry in IWW publications.

Arturo Giovannitti did not specifically use the slogan "bread and roses" in any of his works written during or after the strike. His work may have been based on the virtues represented by the slogan but he did not use that slogan. In The Cage, which The Atlantic Monthly claims was written in the "Salem Jail, Sunday, October 20, 1912,"[17] Giovannitti wrote:

And all the good odors of the earth and of the sea and of the sky, and the

fragrance of fresh bread, sweetest aroma of the world, and the smell

of human sweat, most holy incense to the divine nostrils of the gods,

and all the olympian perfumes of the heart and the brain and the

passions of men, were outside of the great greenish room. [original

indentation][18]

Giovannitti wrote this poem while he was in jail awaiting trial. He refers to "the fragrance of fresh bread, the sweetest aroma of the world," but roses are not used to enhance his imagery. However, Giovannitti also uses romantic terminology to describe the events of Lawrence. Montgomery states that:

Whatever their weaknesses on other scores, historians influenced by E.P. Thompson have been absolutely right to reject the notion that working people engaged only in "rebellions of the belly" while thoughts "of love and life and flowers and song and beauty and the ideal," about which Arturo Giovannitti wrote from his prison cell during the Lawrence strike, were meaningful only to the people with incomes and education sufficient to encourage such flights of fancy.[19]

Giovannitti discusses the injustice done to him and labor in general in flowery, romantic terms. He does not specifically use the phrase "bread and roses" when referring to issues in his poetry.

The Walker, also written during Giovannitti's time in jail in 1912, uses powerful imagery to portray the plight of Giovannitti and the workers of Lawrence. He uses the confines of the prison walls to establish comparisons with prisoners and man, more specifically, the mill workers. Consider the following stanza:

A thought of madness, frenzy, agony and despair, a hell-brewed

thought, for it is a natural thought. All things natural are things

impossible while there are jails in the world - bread, work,

happiness, peace, love. [original indentation]

Giovannitti cites bread as a natural necessity of life, but a necessity that jails prohibit. The term "jails" refers not only to prisons but to anything that limits a person and denies the necessities of life. Using this interpretation, factories could be considered the jails for working men and women. Giovannitti goes on in the poem The Walker to describe his circumstances in the jail:

I think, reason, wish, hope, doubt, wait like the hired assassin, the

embezzler, the forger, the counterfeiter, the incestuous, the raper,

the drunkard, the prostitute, the pimp, I, I who used to think of

love and life and flowers and song and beauty and the ideal.

[original indentation]

In this stanza, Giovannitti does refer to flowers, but not to roses in particular. It is possible to claim, then, that the images of bread and flowers were prevalent in the works of Arturo Giovannitti but the term "bread and roses" specifically was not present. He was not the first to name the Lawrence strike the Fight for Bread and Roses.[20]

Some historians claim that James Oppenheim based his poem Bread and Roses on the Lawrence 1912 strike and that he was the first to name Lawrence the Fight for Bread and Roses. Joyce Kornbluh in Rebel Voices states that the images of bread and roses represent "the spirit of the striking mill girls who carried picket signs which read: WE WANT BREAD AND ROSES TOO."[21] There is no citation to support Kornbluh's claim that the mill workers used this phrase and no photographs showing picket signs with the slogan. However the lines in the poem deal with conditions that many of the Lawrence strikers might have experienced. Oppenheim uses this phrase to present the point of view of mill workers in this poem by describing their working conditions and their cause. He uses poetry to demand attention to the plight of overworked and underpaid mill workers. Oppenheim's background in social work and his talent for poetry support the theory that he was the first to use the slogan bread and roses in reference to the Lawrence textile strike of 1912. Oppenheim's lack of direct references to Lawrence and the absence of the slogan in his other works and papers, however, contradict this theory. The amount of time between the textile strike and the publishing of the poem, or even the length of time between Oppenheim's death and the poem's publication also undercut the claim that Oppenheim identified the 1912 textile strike's goals as "bread and roses." There is no credible evidence that the 1912 strike directly inspired Oppenheim to write his poem Bread and Roses.

James Oppenheim's background was very different from that of Arturo Giovannitti. Oppenheim was born to a well-established family from the Midwest. Oppenheim's father was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives and served as President of the St. Paul Board of Education. The family moved to New York City in 1884 and Oppenheim's father died two years later, leaving Oppenheim's mother to raise her six children. Oppenheim published short poems in the New York Sun at the young age of sixteen. Social justice was a prevalent theme in his poems and articles. This theme was most likely strengthened by Oppenheim's experiences as a social worker in the poverty-stricken Lower East Side. He became the assistant director of the Hudson Guild Settlement and headed the Hebrew Technical School. In 1907, the administration of the school asked Oppenheim to resign, citing his radical policies and speeches as the reason for his termination.[22]

After losing his position, Oppenheim focused on his literary career. His success began with the publication of the serial short story Dr. Rast and he later published seven volumes of poetry. Oppenheim also wrote about psychoanalysis, especially basing his work on the theories of Jung. In 1916, Oppenheim became involved in The Seven Arts, a critical literary journal. Oppenheim's participation in this journal helped him become very successful in the radical literary world. As editor of the magazine, however, Oppenheim's anti-war sentiments and policies contributed to the withdrawal of financial support from the journal's main sponsor, Annette Kitteridge Rankine, in 1917. After the failure of The Seven Arts, Oppenheim's career declined significantly. He later published several collections of poetry, but his work appeared primarily in periodicals. His writing continued to reflect his dual interests in social justice and psychoanalysis.[23]

Many of Oppenheim's poems centered on the plight of the worker. He created powerful images of working-class life. The poem, Bread and Roses, is an excellent example of this genre:

As we come marching, marching in the beauty of the day,
A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray,
Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses,
For the people hear us singing: "Bread and roses! Bread and roses!"[24]

As we come marching, marching, we battle too for men,
For they are women's children, and we mother them again.
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses!

As we come marching, marching, unnumbered women dead,
Go crying through our singing their ancient cry for bread.
Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew.
Yes, it is for bread we fight for--but we fight for roses, too!

As we come marching, marching, we bring the greater days.
The rising of women means the rising of the race.
No more the drudge and idler--ten that toil where one reposes,
But a sharing of life's glories: Bread and roses! Bread and roses!

Although there are no direct references to Lawrence in the poem, there are several lines that may be interpreted to describe the Lawrence strike. A possible reference to the Lawrence strike is "A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray."[25] The "darkened kitchens" could refer to the unique aspect of women's participation in the Lawrence strike. Ardis Cameron argues in Radicals of the Worst Sort that the authorities in Lawrence effectively silenced men. Women were forced to take a leadership role in the strike to organize the picket line and parades, and to maintain the high morale of the strikers. Women organized supervision for their children and left the kitchens to campaign for better wages. The "thousand mill lofts gray" is a possible reference to the several mills in Lawrence, including the mills of the American Woolen Company, that were closed during the strike.

The third stanza emphasizes a popular aspect of the Lawrence strike. Strikers often raised their voices in song in order to unite across ethnic boundaries. During the parades, the strikers would sing many songs, like the Marseillaise and the Internationale. Many different immigrant groups worked together during the Lawrence strike of 1912, even though they were organized along ethnic lines. Many strikers did not speak English, or did not speak English well. Song was one way that all the voices of the strikers could be heard in unison, even though many different languages were being spoken. "As we come marching, marching, unnumbered women dead,/Go crying through our singing their ancient cry for bread" refers to the power of song during the Lawrence strike. These songs not only gave the strikers their voice but gave the strikers hope as well. Hope was a very important aspect of the Lawrence strike. The mill owners used time to their advantage, hoping that eventually the strikers would be driven back to work either by hunger or the cold. Hope was instrumental to the strikers who walked a picket line for sixteen hours a day and to those who sent their children to supporters in other states. The songs the strikers sang praised labor's noble cause in every language.

The poem Bread and Roses was first published in the 27 April 1946 issue of the IWW newspaper Industrial Solidarity.[26] This was fourteen years after James Oppenheim died of tuberculosis.[27] Between the Lawrence strike and his death, James Oppenheim published seven collections of poetry, three novels, and two psychoanalytical works. The most critically a cclaimed of his works was a collection of poetry entitled Songs for the New Age, which appeared in 1914. There are several references to labor in this collection, yet the theme "bread and roses" does not appear in any of the poems. In Oppenheim's papers there were several poems dealing more directly with the topic of labor. The poem entitled One Who Dared is possibly an ode to Frank Little, a member of the IWW who was lynched by a group of vigilantes in Butte, Montana in August 1917.[28] The first line of Chant of Labor, which was also among Oppenheim's papers, proclaims "We are the bread of freedom, and we know we are the bread." There is no date attached to this poem, although it does not appear in Songs for the New Age or War and Laughter, which were published in 1916. Like the poem Bread and Roses, Chant of Labor repeats the idea of marching in every stanza. Yet that is where the similarity ends. There are no references to the textile industry or indirect references to Lawrence. Oppenheim does not use romantic images to portray the plight of the workers in Chant of Labor. He employs many themes that are present in IWW works such as the nobility of the workers and forging a "newer age to pale the ages dead." This new age is inspired to represent "the glory on [sic] the common things of life" and the "freedom and equality of man." Although these ideas are evident in the poem Bread and Roses, the slogan "bread and roses" is not used to represent the same themes in Chant of Labor.[29] There is another poem that is very similar to Bread and Roses in the Oppenheim Papers. The poem is untitled but it bears a striking similarity to Bread and Roses:

The bobbins go all day.
And romance is dead to us,
All our hair is getting gray,
It is toil to slave away,
In the stifling factory,
At a pittance the merest pittance we slave in
Labor in the factory
No one will ever be wed to us.[30]

This poem focuses on the role of women in the workplace, a theme previously not mentioned in the discussion of Bread and Roses. One theme in both poems is the idea that women's lives are wasted by work in the factory. The "we" used in Bread and Roses refers to women mill workers. This idea is supported by two phrases in the poem Bread and Roses. The first instance is "As we come marching, marching, we battle too for men." Women, in this poem, are joining labor's struggle in order to improve their conditions but also those of men. It is evident that the narrator in the poem believes "The rising of women means the rising of the race."[31] Both Bread and Roses and the untitled poem illustrate women's problems in the workplace. Bread and Roses, however, is more optimistic than the untitled poem. The poems seem to be a series of events leading to the strike portrayed in Bread and Roses. The untitled poem would be the first if placed in a hypothetical chronological order. This poem describes the dreary conditions of working women's lives. It describes their lives both in and out of the factory. The second poem, Bread and Roses, could be a depiction of how women try to change the conditions of the working class. The images of "bread and roses" do not appear in any of James Oppenheim's published writings except the poem Bread and Roses. Researching in the papers of James Oppenheim reveals only two brief uses of the phrase and one indirect reference. Unlike Giovannitti, Oppenheim does not use the romantic images of bread and roses when discussing labor in most of his pieces. The powerful images his poetry evokes are accomplished by graphic descriptions of life in the factories and mills. Oppenheim uses a contrast between the evils inflicted upon labor and the nobility and beauty of labor's cause. For the most part, however, the Lawrence textile strike of 1912 does not appear to have been an inspiration for Oppenheim's Bread and Roses.

The strongest surviving evidence suggests that the poem Bread and Roses, was inspired by a speech of Rose Schneiderman in June 1912. The papers of Rose Schneiderman and James Oppenheim provide evidence that support this claim. The unclear origin of the term bread and roses is potentially resolved based on this evidence. The phrase was used during a campaign of the Women's Trade Union League (WTUL) to gain support for woman's suffrage. This campaign sent lecturers like Rose Schneiderman around the country to develop support for woman's suffrage. Schneiderman used her background as an immigrant worker who lived in the slums of New York City to give a realistic aspect to her descriptions of working class life. She, in turn, called this struggle the Fight for Bread and Roses.

The Women's Trade Union League contributed to the suffrage movement by raising awareness of women's status in society and giving working-class women a voice. Rose Schneiderman was involved in this process as a lecturer. In the September 1912 issue of Life and Labor, organ of the National Women's Trade Union League, a flier advertises Schneiderman's talents to the public: "The National Women's Trade Union League of America offers the services of Miss Rose Schneiderman as a lecturer on the subject of The Working Woman in America."[32]  Miss Schneiderman's background as an immigrant from Russia who worked as a hat and cap maker provided her with first-hand knowledge of the lives of working-class women. She used this knowledge to support better conditions in factories for laborers and women's right to vote. Schneiderman traveled around the country giving speeches agitating for woman's suffrage for the purpose of helping women's living and working conditions by gaining the ballot. Rose Schneiderman was a very effective speaker during the WTUL campaigns for woman's suffrage:

Miss Schneiderman has spoken before many clubs, associations, colleges and churches. She has not only been an inspiration to her fellow workers but has the rare power of making other women understand the great modern industrial situation and of bringing them a sense of the sisterhood which knows no class.[33]

Schneiderman tried to unite women across class boundaries in order to better their situation in society.

In 1912, Miss Rose Schneiderman served "as one of the speakers in the Ohio campaign for Woman's Suffrage, especially to present to industrial woman's view."[34] The woman's suffrage movement and the WTUL combined their efforts because they believed women's standing in society and in the workplace would improve if women received the ballot. The Columbus Citizen reported: "'It's inspiring to speak to workingmen,' said Miss Schneiderman, 'for they take things seriously and are interested in whatever tends to better their conditions. I tell them that with the ballot they can at least express their opinion in legislation and are independent of their employers, and that the working girl, who labors beside and often in competition with them, should be equally independent." Schneiderman, and the WTUL, argued that with the ballot "the working girl would get a living wage."[35]

Schneiderman campaigned in Ohio to raise support for the suffrage amendment to the Ohio Constitution that would be voted on later that year. One of her speeches in Ohio also asked for something else: bread and roses. In a speech she made in Cleveland, Rose Schneiderman stated:

What the woman who labors wants is the right to live, not simply exist-the right to life as the rich woman has the right to life, and the sun and music and art. You have nothing that the humblest worker has not a right to have also. The worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too. Help, you women of privilege, give her the ballot to fight with.[36]

Schneiderman's speech was made to a gathering of wealthy women, where "the truth had been said, the fundamental word had been spoken." Schneiderman used the term "bread and roses" to represent two important aspects of life. Bread referred to a living wage for women workers. A living wage meant enough money to pay for food, fuel, clothing and shelter for the worker and her family. Roses refer to "life's glories." Roses represent the finer qualities of life that Schneiderman mentioned in her speech. It is the right to dignity and the recognition that a worker has a significant role in society. Roses symbolize the idea that the worker should partake in some of the finer things, such as art and music.[37] Working women were fighting against the contradiction created between the wealth their labor was producing in the world and the fact that they were unable to participate in any leisure-time activities. Schneiderman's speech in Cleveland not only explicitly uses the slogan "bread and roses," but also defines this term.

In her papers, Schneiderman has a copy of the poem Bread and Roses written by James Oppenheim. The poem also uses the term "bread and roses," but does not obviously define the term. The images of the poem are dependent upon the assumption that many will understand the term because it has been popularized earlier. Many believed the slogan became public knowledge through Italian labor traditions and the poetry of Arturo Giovannitti. Based on the evidence present in the Rose Schneiderman papers, it was Schneiderman herself who popularized the slogan and its definition. Schneiderman used the phrase in Cleveland during her Ohio campaign for Woman's Suffrage and across the top of her copy of Oppenheim's Bread and Roses, she wrote: "Written by J.O. from a speech I made at a public luncheon during suffrage campaign in Cleveland Ohio."[38]

Schneiderman evidently believed that Oppenheim was inspired by one of her woman's suffrage speeches. The claim that Oppenheim based his poem on a suffrage speech made by Schneiderman is supported by the fact that it was Schneiderman who named and help lead the Fight for Bread and Roses, the fight for woman's suffrage. This fight, however, was not against the mill owners of Lawrence but those who enslaved women by denying them the ballot. It was a war to better the living and working conditions of women by presenting them with the ballot as a weapon.

Schneiderman's use of the term three months after the settlement of the strike in a context focused on woman's suffrage presents a challenge to the view that the slogan "bread and roses" evolved from the Lawrence textile strike of 1912. There is little evidence that supports the idea that Schneiderman became familiar with the slogan during the Lawrence textile strike. The WTUL did not have much contact with the Lawrence strikers. As an ally of the American Federation of Labor, the WTUL's official stand on the strike was non-involvement. Later in the strike, the WTUL helped organize soup kitchens and fundraising drives, but they never became active in the leadership of the strike. IWW members like Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and non-labor reformers like Margaret Sanger organized the children's exodus without any help from the either the National or Boston chapter of the WTUL. Socialists played a large role in publicizing the strike, raising funds, and creating a sympathetic image for the strikers. The WTUL did not play a leading role in the strike. No members of the WTUL are recorded as delivering speeches to the workers, organizing the picket lines, or keeping up the morale of the strikers.

Rose Schneiderman used the slogan when she lectured in Ohio in June and also in October when she was campaigning in Wisconsin.[39] In October, she traveled around the city of Milwaukee, lecturing on woman's suffrage to different groups. A flier announced the series of meetings and advertised Schneiderman as saying, "The woman worker must have bread, but she must have roses too."[40] The Milwaukee Leader stated that "Miss Rose Schneiderman, who organized and led to victory the 30,000 shirt waist strikers of New York...is at present in this city stumping for the political emancipation of the women of this state."[41] Her presence in Milwaukee was a continuation of the woman's suffrage campaigns in various cities.

Schneiderman used the term "bread and roses" in reference to the goals of working-class women. The WTUL campaigns of 1912 began a historical tradition that has shaped recollections of the past. The slogan became a way of interpreting historical events. Lawrence gained a new significance in American history when it viewed as a strike for "bread and roses." Even though the slogan originated in a different historical context, the Lawrence textile strike became over time the Fight for Bread and Roses and that is how many labor historians now view the event. Technically speaking the Lawrence Strike was not the Bread and Roses Strike, but over time it has become as much.

Historians have debated the naming of the Lawrence strike. As a strike some think the slogan sentimental. Gerald Sider's article, "Cleansing History," argues that the word "roses" never appeared during the strike, either in the strikers' slogans or the documentation of the strike by the media. He believes that historical understanding of the strike has been damaged by the mythic naming of the strike "the fight for bread and roses" Sider realizes the importance of naming a strike. A name has the power to invoke certain memories and values.

By attaching the slogan "bread and roses" to the Lawrence strike, the American labor movement was able to claim it as an American event. Even Sider recognizes that Lawrence was "the largest successful industrial strike in America, and the first major textile strike."[42] Headlines in contemporary journals however, called the strike an "industrial revolt" and the "Lawrence revolution."[43] The strike was led by radical IWW activists who wanted to destroy American capitalism. The population of strikers was composed largely of immigrants, many of whom were not U.S. citizens. Because so many of the strikers were foreign-born, many Americans viewed them as anarchists who wanted to topple American democracy. Many of the immigrants were familiar with radical labor traditions and utilized these traditions during the Lawrence strike. These reasons led many contemporary Americans to believe that the strike was un-American.

When historians, and American labor in general, wished to claim this strike as a great American labor victory, they had to overcome the foreign identity of the strikers, which had aroused so much fear and contempt in 1912. Bread and roses was not used in reference to the Lawrence strike until the mid-1960s. Before then it represented the aims of working-class supporters of the woman's suffrage movement. Seen from the perspective of the 1960's, the suffrage movement was a successful story in United States history that evoked feelings of pride and victory. By transferring this slogan and its connotations to the 1912 Lawrence strike, labor activists and historians were able to create a positive image of this formerly radical, un-American strike. They were able to Americanize the strike.

Historians' initial treatments of the strike did not use the term "bread and roses." Bill Cahn (1954) described the events of the strike and its immediate aftermath. Cahn discussed the poverty of the workers, the harshness of the working and living conditions, and the brutality of the police. He also included powerful images of children working at the mills. Donald Cole's Immigrant City (1963) also did not use the term "bread and roses." Cole emphasized to the differences in ethnicity of the strikers and examined the issue of whether the strikers were un-American. Cole argued that the sriking immigrants' embodied more of the American ideal than the "real" Americans of Lawrence. He said "they were good Americans, but the rest of the United States did not realize it."[44] Cole began a trend that culminated in the depiction of the strike as the part of the bread and roses tradition. In this view immigrants improved the American workplace by trying to better their own working conditions. Their goal was to find security for themselves, their children and those who would follow them. Cole removed the un-American stigma that was placed on the strike by contemporary journalists.

Lawrence 1912: The Bread and Roses Strike (1977) is a revision of Bill Cahn's original book Mill Town. Paul Cowan edited and refocused Cahn's original work. Cowan also reformated the original work around the theme of bread and roses. Cowan was not the first scholar to use the slogan "bread and roses" in reference to the Lawrence textile strike. In the mid-1960's both Philip Foner and Joyce Kornbluh refer to Lawrence as the Bread and Roses Strike. These scholars changed the memory of the Lawrence strike in order to claim it as part of the history of the United States. They shaped their treatment of the events of the Lawrence strike to fit into the newly-minted bread and roses historical tradition. Cowan attempts to do the same thing with Cahn's Mill Town. Cowan names the strike "Bread and Roses," but he does not comment on the importance of this of renaming, only mentioning briefly that the Lawrence strike "spawned the lovely slogan 'Bread and Roses', Too."[45] Sole Stetin, executive vice president of the AFL-CIO, wrote in the preface that bread and roses meant "not just better roses, but a return of their [the workers'] human dignity."[46] The slogan "bread and roses," however, was never repeated within Cahn's work.

Many later historians remember the strike in a way that is sympathetic to the strikers. Philip Foner summarizes the conditions in Lawrence:

What was the real state of affairs these foreign-born workers found awaiting them in Lawrence? They can be summed up succinctly: Inadequate wages, difficult working conditions, sub-human housing facilities, and a community unsympathetic, when not hostile, to their needs.[47]

Foner, writing in 1965, portrayed the strikers as victims of the abuse of the mill owners and as people who were fighting to make America a better place. This changing image of the strike Americanized it. Immigrants became victims of the strike instead of the enemies of America. One means by which this was accomplished was to describe the horrible working and living conditions of the workers:

For years the employers have forced conditions upon us that gradually and surely broke up our homes. They have taken away our wives from the homes, our children have been driven from the playground, stolen out of schools and driven into the mills, where they were strapped to the machines, not only to force the fathers to compete, but that their young lives may be coined into dollars for a parasite class, that their very nerves, their laughter and joy denied, may be woven into cloth...We hold that as useful members of society, and as producers we have the right to lead decent and honorable lives; that we are to have homes and not shacks; that we ought to have clean food and not adultered food at high prices; that we ought to have clothes suited to the weather.[48]

Unlike the earlier descriptions of the strike, this type of portrayal supports the plight of the strikers and creates a situation in which the reader understands the goals and aims of the strikers. The author does not mention the nationalities of the strikers, allowing the strike to be remembered as a strike of American workers banding together across nationalities in order to defeat the tyranny of the mill owners. Americans, with the aid of this new memory, can identify with the first successful labor strike in the textile industry.

Many scholars realize that the slogan "bread and roses" does not accurately reflect the events of the Lawrence strike nor was it used during the strike. This "wrong" memory of the 1912 strike came to represent something more than the strike itself. Bread and roses helped the past be remembered in a good way. Through the reconstruction of memory, the strikers became sympathetic characters and bonds could be forged between the workers of the past and the workers of the present. Andis Cameron stated in her 1993 book, Radicals of the Worst Sort, that "far from idle fictions, stories of the past take on importance as both structures of meaning and as structures of power."[49] Bread and roses was a way of giving pride to those Americans who descended from the immigrant mill operatives and to give hope to immigrants elsewhere who were working in the mills under harsh conditions. In this way the Lawrence fight for decent wages and conditions became a part of a larger fight for Bread and Roses.

Every time a person examines the Lawrence strike, he or she interprets the strike in a different way. Each time someone names the strike, that person creates a different memory. The memory is not ahistorical. Every memory is influenced by events in the present and past, and by the structure of the power hierarchy. The slogan bread and roses shapes the way scholars, and the general public, remember, analyze, and interpret the Lawrence strike. Although the Lawrence strike did not set the parameters for the slogan "bread and roses" or create the historical tradition this slogan embodies, the Lawrence strike did become part of that tradition.

Conclusion

The 1912 Lawrence strike was the most successful strike in the textile industry to that date. It deserves to be recognized as a great moment in the labor history of the United States. There are several themes present in the analysis of the Lawrence strike that are major themes in American history. The strike is an excellent example for underprivileged groups who were trying to achieve the American dream. Through the manipulation of the memory of the strike, its moral has become that anyone can achieve what he or she wants through hard work, dedication, and standing up for his or her beliefs.

To reconcile the un-American anarchists of the real strike and the American dream of the strike required a new image of the strike. This image had to portray the strike in a way that was acceptable as part of United States history. A successful anarchist strike does not conform to the prevalent ideas that shape American history. The memory of the strike had to lose its perceived threat to American society and democracy. It had to be reconstructed into the vision of a strike that was completely American. The Lawrence strike had to represent ideals that are viewed as shaping the history of the United States in order to claim its place as the model struggle to achieve the American dream.

One effective way of manipulating the memory of the strike is by linking the strike with another successful movement. The naming of the strike as the Fight for Bread and Roses creates a context for the strike. The bread and roses struggle was originally the fight for woman's suffrage. This movement has a positive connotation in American history. When the Lawrence strike is also named as a fight for bread and roses, it borrows some of the suffrage movement's reputation as a fight for the American dream. The memory of the strike began to incorporate some of the major themes of the suffrage movement. The Suffrage movement is remembered as a noble cause. It was a fight to permit a group full participation in American life. As the Fight for Bread and Roses, the Lawrence strike came to embody these qualities. Poverty-stricken working class groups fought to improve living and working conditions in a way that benefited all of American labor. The strike became a historical event that transcended the boundaries of time and became relevant to all groups in all eras.

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Notes

1. Joyce Kornbluh, Rebel Voices: An IWW Anthology (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1964), 196.

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2. Gerald Sider, "Cleansing History: Lawrence, Massachusetts, the Strike for Four Loaves of Bread and No Roses, and the Anthropology of Working-Class Consciousness," Radical History Review, 65 (1996): 48.

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3. Buhle, "Bread and Roses," 84.

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4. "The Social Significance of Arturo Giovannitti," Current Opinion (January 1913): 24; "The Poetry of Syndicalism," The Forum (October 1914): 853.

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5. "Social Significance," 24

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6. "Poetry," 853.

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7. "Social Significance," 24.

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8. Kenneth MacGowan, "Giovannitti: Poet of the Wop," The Forum (October 1914): 609.

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9. "Poetry," 853.

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10. "Social Significance," 26.

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11. "Social Significance," 24.

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12. MacGowan, "Giovannitti," 609.

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13. David Montgomery, "Bread and Carnations Maybe?" Radical History Review 65 (1996): 99.

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14. Buhle, "Bread and Roses," 84.

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15. "Poetry," 854.

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16. MacGowan, "Giovannitti," 611.

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17. Arturo Giovannitti, "The Cage," The Atlantic Monthly (June 1913): 751.

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18. Giovannitti, "Cage," 753.

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19. Montgomery, "Carnations," 98.

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20. Francesco Cordasco, ed., The Collected Poems of Arturo Giovannitti (New York: Arno Press, 1975), 151.

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21. Kornbluh, Rebel Voices, 164.

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22. Ted Kuzen, "James Oppenheim Papers Inventory--Biographical Sketch," James Oppenheim Papers, New York Public Library, New York, 1; Prologue, The Nine-Tenths, by James Oppenheim (Upper Saddle River: The Gregg Press, 1968), not paginated.

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23. Kuzen, "Biographical Sketch," 1, 2.

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24. James Oppenheim, "Bread and Roses," Rebel Voices: An IWW Anthology, ed. Joyce Kornbluh (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1964), 196.

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25. Kornbluh, Rebel Voices, 196.

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26. Kornbluh, Rebel Voices, 195.

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27. Kuzen, "Biographical Sketch," 2.

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28. Melvin Dubofsky, We Shall Be All: A History of the Industrial Workers of the World (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1969), following p. 270.

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29. James Oppenheim Papers, New York Public Library, New York.

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30. James Oppenheim Papers, Box 3, Folder 6.

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31. Kornbluh, Rebel Voices.

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32. "The National Women's Trade Union League of America Offers the Services of Miss Rose Schneiderman as a Lecturer on the Subject of The Working Woman in America," Life and Labor (September 1912), 290.

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33. "National Women's Trade Union League," 290.

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34. "National Women's Trade Union League," 290.

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35. "Factory Girl Urges Shopmen to Give Women the Ballot," The Columbus Citizen, Papers of the WTUL and its Principal Leaders, Collections VI: Rose Schneiderman Papers (Microfilm, Reel 2, #200).

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36. Minerva Brooks, "Rose Schneiderman in Ohio" Life and Labor, (September 1912): 288.

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37. Brooks, "Schneiderman" 288; Kornbluh, Rebel Voices 195.

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38. James Oppenheim, "Bread and Roses," Papers of the WTUL and its Principal Leaders, Collection VI: Rose Schneiderman Papers (Microfilm, Reel 2, #88).

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39. "Miss Rose Schneiderman Presents the Woman's Question from the Industrial Point of View [flier]," Papers of the WTUL and its Principal Leaders, Collection VI: Rose Schneiderman Papers (Microfilm, Reel 2, #194).

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40. "Miss Rose Schneiderman [flier]," (Microfilm, Reel 2, #194).

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41. "It's a Fight for Bread, says Zabel, Common to All Races," The Milwaukee Leader, 7 Oct. 1912, 2.

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42. Sider, "Cleansing History," 49.

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43. John Martin, "The Industrial Revolt at Lawrence," The Independent (March 1912): 491; William Pratt, "The Lawrence Revolution," New England Magazine (March 1912): 6.

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44. Donald Cole, Immigrant City (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1963), 194.

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45. Paul Cowan, "A City Comes Alive," The Village Voice, 28 (July 1980): 9.

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46. Cowan, "A City Comes Alive," preface.

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47. Philip Foner, History of the Labor Movement in the United States, vol. 4 (New York: International, 1965), 308.

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48. Foner, History of Labor Movement, 4: 313.

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49. Ardis Cameron, Radicals of the Worst Sort (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993), 7.

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