The 1922-1935 Amoskeag Mills Labor Wars in Manchester
Manchester, New Hampshire once boomed with the hum of 25,000 looms at Amoskeag Mills, the world’s largest textile factory. After World War I, mill owners slashed wages twice and stretched work weeks from 48 to 54 hours.
Fed up, 15,000 workers walked out in February 1922, joining 85,000 strikers across New England. The nine-month strike failed, but tensions simmered until violent clashes erupted in 1933 and 1934.
Then came the final blow: on Christmas Eve 1935, Amoskeag shut down for good, leaving 10,000 jobless. The Currier Museum of Art now stands in this same city where workers once fought for their livelihoods.
Post-War Problems Hit Workers’ Wallets
Money troubles came quickly after World War I ended. Southern factories with newer machines and cheaper workers started taking Amoskeag’s business.
Bosses cut wages by 22. 5% in 1921, saying they needed to stay competitive.
Things got worse in February 1922 when the company announced another 20% pay cut while increasing the work week from 48 to 54 hours. Workers now faced longer hours for much less money.
Union Leaders Rally the Troops
James Starr from United Textile Workers came to Manchester to help workers fight back.
Thousands packed union halls and the Palace Theatre to hear Starr argue the company hadn’t proven it needed such deep cuts.
The strike vote was clear – more than 99% of the union’s 12,000 members chose to walk out rather than accept the cuts. This unity shocked company leaders who weren’t used to workers standing up to them.
Workers Walk Out Across New England
On February 13, 1922, over 15,000 Amoskeag workers left their jobs, joining a huge textile strike across New England.
Another 3,000 workers in nearby Nashua joined in, along with mill workers in Dover, Newmarket, Somersworth, and Suncook.
The walkout spread to Rhode Island and Massachusetts, with 85,000 textile workers eventually joining. Manchester’s economy froze as its main employer shut down.
Thousands March Through Downtown
Spring brought big protests to Manchester’s streets.
On April 10, 1922, ten thousand strikers marched through downtown, demanding their 48-hour work week back. Picket lines formed daily at mill entrances, with evening rallies keeping spirits up.
Large crowds gathered in Jutras Square on the West Side, confronting company men trying to leave the mills. Even Catholic Bishop George Guertin tried to help with a 51-hour compromise, but company leaders refused.
Arrests and Intimidation Tactics
The company fought back hard through summer. Police arrested nine strikers in one week, including five women charged with scaring replacement workers.
Courts banned out-of-town union speakers and stopped picket lines near factory gates to protect strikebreakers. By June 1922, the company hired enough new workers to restart some weaving operations.
Tension grew as desperate strikers watched replacement workers cross their lines.
Workers Return Defeated
Nine months of striking ended in failure by November 1922. Workers returned to their jobs without getting what they wanted – no better wages, no 48-hour week.
The company refused to rehire strike leaders, weakening the union’s power.
Workers still faced 54-hour weeks, though the company eventually gave back the most recent 20% wage cut. Amoskeag lost major customers during the strike as Southern competitors took over.
Great Depression Brings More Pain
The 1929 stock market crash hit Amoskeag hard. The company tried running three daily shifts while cutting pay again, especially for women workers.
Smart company executives had created a separate holding company in 1925, protecting their money from the struggling mill operations.
Old machines and heavy inventory taxes made it harder for Amoskeag to compete with modern Southern factories. The company started closing buildings one by one, laying off workers when no other jobs existed in town.
Violence Erupts as Desperation Grows
Angry workers took to the streets again in 1933 and 1934. These strikes turned so violent that the New Hampshire State Militia had to step in to keep order.
When picketing ended and workers returned, some took revenge by sabotaging machines and ruining cloth products. The relationship between workers and management completely fell apart during these years.
The old system where the company took care of its workers was dead, replaced by bitter conflict during America’s worst economic crisis.
Christmas Eve Brings the Final Blow
The end came suddenly on December 24, 1935. Amoskeag Manufacturing Company closed its doors and filed for bankruptcy, ignoring federal orders to produce 21 million yards of cloth.
More than 10,000 workers lost their jobs permanently, joining 13,000 others who had already spent a year waiting for the mills to reopen. A devastating flood in 1936 destroyed any hope of revival.
The judge ordered everything sold off, marking the end of what had once been the world’s largest textile company.
Manchester Loses Its Industrial Heart
People started leaving Manchester in droves by 1936.
They looked for work elsewhere in New England or returned to Quebec where many had originally come from.
Local businessmen formed Amoskeag Industries in 1936 and opened smaller factories like Waumbec and Chicopee in the old millyard. These new operations never came close to employing as many people as Amoskeag once did.
The city that had been built around textile production never regained its industrial power, forever changed by the collapse of its manufacturing giant.
Visiting Currier Museum of Art, New Hampshire
The Currier Museum of Art at 150 Ash Street in Manchester gives you a chance to learn about the city’s industrial past through the lens of its founder, Governor Moody Currier, who ran the Amoskeag National Bank during the textile mill era.
The museum is open Wednesday through Sunday 10am to 5pm. Admission costs $15 for adults, but kids 17 and under get in free.
New Hampshire residents can visit free on Saturday mornings.
This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.
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