The strikers made an attempt
to send children to other towns so that they might be better
cared for. After several groups had thus been taken away, the
city of Lawrence interfered, claiming that many children had been
sent without their parents' consent. On the 24th of February,
when a group of forty children and their mothers gathered at the
railway station to take a train for Philadelphia, the police
after due warning refused to let them depart. It was then that
the Federal Government was called upon to take action. The strike
committee telegraphed Congress: "Twenty-five thousand striking
textile workers and citizens of Lawrence protest against the
hideous brutality with which the police handled the women and
children of Lawrence this morning. Carrying out the illegal and
original orders of the city marshal to prevent free citizens from
sending their children out of the city, striking men were knocked
down, women and mothers who were trying to protect their children
from the onslaught of the police were attacked and clubbed." So
widespread was the opinion that unnecessary brutality had taken
place that petitions for an investigation poured in upon Congress
from many States and numerous organizations.
The whole country was watching the situation. The hearings held
by a congressional committee emphasized the stupidity of the
employers in arbitrarily curtailing the wage, the inadequacy of
the town government in handling the situation, and the cupidity
of the I.
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