Early years Joseph James Ettor, known to his friends as "Joe" or "Smiling Joe," was born on October 6, 1885, in
New York City, the son of a laborer who had
emigrated to America from
Italy. Ettor went to work at the age of 12 selling newspapers. He later worked as a waterboy on a railroad, as a saw-filer in a lumber mill, as a barrel-maker, as a shipyard worker, and in a cigar factory. He also had cut his teeth organizing foreign-born workers in the steel mills and shoe factories of the East. It soon became clear that the employers had no intention of adjusting wage rates upwards to compensate for the lost work time, and a strike ensued. Denouncing the mill owners, sympathizing with the toil of textile workers, Ettor called for an even larger walkout. "Monday morning you have got to close the mills that you have caused to shut down, tighter than you have them now." Ettor, on the other hand, shared the orientation of
"Big Bill" Haywood that the only kind of force to which the organization could lend its name was the use of the
general strike for the overthrow of
capitalism. Ettor became a member of the executive council of the IWW. In 1916, he left the IWW along with Flynn after a dispute over the
Mesabi range strike.
Death and legacy In later years, Ettor ran a fruit orchard in
San Clemente, California, where he died in 1948. ==Footnotes==