This Day in Norwood History-March 30, 1938-WINDOWS SHATTERED BY NORWOOD STRIKERS

Another Attack on a Home of Tannery Worker Who Failed to Join C.I.O. Union’s Action

NORWOOD. March 30 Striking leather workers who yesterday afternoon stoned girl office clerks of the Winslow Brothers & Smith tannery, early this morning shattered with a barrage of stones the windows of the home of Dennis Higgins, 29 Munroe st. but fled before police could arrive.

Higgins. employed at the Railroad av. plant of the tannery, had not joined the members of Local No. 26, National Leather Workers’ Union. C. I. O. affiliate, in the strike called six days ago.

Chief William H. Sullivan stationed full details of police at both the Railroad av. and Endicott st. plants of the tannery this morning, but only a handful of pickets appeared. Two men faced charges in District Court this morning as a result of the disorder at the gates of the tannery late yesterday afternoon when cars of workers and company officers were stoned. They were Thomas Donahue, Railroad av and Walter Sandell, Fisher st.

Shortly after dark last night John Hauck, a non-striker, of Winslow av., reported to the police that a number of strikers drove up in front of his home and bombarded it with rocks, shattering nearly every window in the house. At 3 o’clock yesterday afternoon at a mass meeting of the strikers in Lithuanian Hall, the strike committee reported, following a five-hour conference with General Manager Henry Crosby, that no agreement had been reached. The strikers were told to go on the picket line to make a mass showing at the closing of the plant for the day. About 600 men, augmented by several hundred women, lined Endicott st.

Chief of Police William H. Sullivan, when informed of the massing of strikers, sent three sergeants and 15 officers to the scene. About 15 cars began to leave the plant. The first few were greeted with jeers and boos from the crowd. Then a hail of stones shattered windows and windshields of the cars that followed. The drivers increased their speed to escape the barrage.

On Walpole st, opposite the home of Ex-Gov. Frank G. Allen, who is chairman of the board of directors of the company, a group of strikers gathered to await the cars coming up the hill. There was no police protection at this spot and those gathered there shattered all the remaining glass in the cars passing by, several occupants being cut by the flying glass and bruised by the stones. The police patrol wagon, while taking the two arrested men to the police station, was also stoned by the strikers, although it was loaded with police officers.

At the second plant of the company on Railroad av., another group of strikers, armed with rotten oranges, pelted four executives they left the building. As Police Chief Sullivan said last night there are no “scabs” or strike, breakers in the plant as the entire working force has gone out on strike except for the help necessary to keep steam up. The occupants of the cars, he said, were executives and office workers who had to go to work to keep the business going pending settlement of the strike.

The issue at stake in the strike is the termination of the existing contract between the plant and the workers and the refusal of the company to renew the contract on the same terms. The workers are members of the National Leather Workers Union, Local 26, affiliated with the C. I. O. In normal times 700 are employed at the two plants.