Article snippet: As prepared for delivery. _______________________________________________ I want to tell you a story. A little over 100 years ago, textile mills in Lawrence like the ones behind us today employed tens of thousands of people, and immigrants flocked here from more than 50 countries for a chance to work at the looms. Lawrence was one of the centers of American industry. Business was booming. The guys at the top were doing great, but workers made so little money that families were forced to crowd together in dangerous tenements and live on beans and scraps of bread. Inside the mills, working conditions were horrible. Children were forced to operate dangerous equipment. Workers lost hands, arms and legs in the gears of machines. One out of every three adult mill workers died by the time they were 25. Then, on January 11, 1912, a group of women who worked right here at the Everett Mill discovered that the bosses had cut their pay. And that was it — the women said “enough is enough.” They shut down their looms and walked out. Soon workers walked out at another mill in town. Then another. Then another — until 20,000 textile workers across Lawrence were on strike. These workers — led by women– didn’t have much. Not even a common language. Nevertheless… they persisted! They organized. They embraced common goals. They translated the minutes of their meetings into 25 different languages, so that the English and Irish workers who had been here for years and the Slavic and ... Link to the full article to read more