Talk:1912–1913 Little Falls textile strike

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:1912–1913 Little Falls textile strike/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Apocheir (talk · contribs) 00:17, 25 March 2023 (UTC)

GA review (see here for what the criteria are, and here for what they are not)

1. It is reasonably well written.

   a. (prose, spelling, and grammar):

   b. (MoS for lead, layout, word choice, fiction, and lists):

2. It is factually accurate and verifiable.

   a. (reference section):

   b. (citations to reliable sources):

   c. (OR):

   d. (copyvio and plagiarism):

3. It is broad in its coverage.

   a. (major aspects):

   b. (focused):

4. It follows the neutral point of view policy.

   Fair representation without bias:

5. It is stable.

   No edit wars, etc.:

6. It is illustrated by images and other media, where possible and appropriate.

   a. (images are tagged and non-free content have non-free use rationales):

   b. (appropriate use with suitable captions):

7. Overall:

   Pass/fail:

(Criteria marked are unassessed)

Comments

• The article refers to Little Falls as a "major center" for textiles twice. This might be supported by the Foner and Snyder citations (which I haven't read yet), but I'm not yet convinced that Little Falls compared well enough to, say, New York or Lowell (or even Utica) to be called "major".
  • Replaced "major" with more apt descriptor.
• Can we get rid of the periods on "per cent."? I know it's faithful to the quoted original documents but it's hard to read.
  • Removed periods after "cent".
• The Fortnightly Club of Little Falls brought Schloss in, not the Fortnightly Club of New York City.
  • Changed accordingly.
• Snyder and Foner both say immigrants "from Italy, Poland, Hungary, and Austria, while the article currently says "many Austrians, Hungarians, Italians, and Poles." "Austria" at the time included Czech, Slovak, and Polish citizens, who probably made up the bulk of the immigrants rather than ethnic Austrians, especially considering that Slovak Hall played a role in the strike. Easily fixed by referring to the region instead of the ethnicity.
  • Rephrased to avoid confusion.
• Sentence starting "Cases of liquor and beer were confiscated": the police did the destruction, so say that instead of using the passive voice.
  • Rephrased sentence to avoid passive voice.
• I feel like the voice of the strike opponents is missing from this article. I'd add a couple quotes from the businesses, local authorities, and/or local papers.
  • Added quote from the Little Falls Journal and Courier, cited in Snyder 1979, which voices opposition to the strike.
    • I'd add the quote from the police chief too: We have a strike on our hands and a foreign element to deal with. We have in the past kept them in subjugation and we mean to continue to hold them where they belong. Occurs on both Pula 1995 page 52 and Pula 2009 page 146.
      • Added and cited the police chief quote.
• Probably don't need the Foner quote about the Paterson strike in the last paragraph, although it would be a good addition to 1913 Paterson silk strike. However, it'd be worth expanding on the New York Mills strikes a bit: Pula says there was one there in 1912 too?
  • I'll attempt to do more research on IWW labor activities with New York Mills, though almost none of the sources I could find on the Little Falls strike discussed New York Mills aside from Pula. If enough coverage of the labor disputes with that company exists, I may look into creating a dedicated article for it. Also, I feel that including the brief discussion on the Paterson strike is important for this article, as several sources I found that discussed the Little Falls strike did so in the broader context of IWW textile activity in the northeast that took place between the Lawrence strike and the Paterson strike.
    • If this was an article specifically on the rise and fall of the IWW it might be OK, but here the quote seems to belabor the point. Regardless of what happens to that quote, the paragraph's too long. I'd recommend splitting the paragraph starting "Following the strike, the IWW" in two, probably with a line break before "Following the IWW's decline", unless you'd prefer something else.
      • Divided the paragraph into two.
• Pula says the mills in Little Falls went back on their promises; is this contradicted by any of the other sources?
  • No, I could only find a few sources that discussed the aftermath of the strike in detail, but none that I found contradicted Pula's statement.
    • Disregard, I was confused: the first paragraph on Pula 1995 page 53 is about the New York Mills 1912 strike, not the Little Falls one.
• What's the relationship between the New York Mills Company and the village of New York Mills, New York, anyways?
  • I'm unsure, though I feel that would be outside the scope of this article anyways. As stated above, I'm planning to look more into IWW labor activity with New York Mills.
    • I should have been clearer: I was just wondering if the New York Mills Company was the company that operated the mills in present-day New York Mills, or was just a company that operated mills elsewhere in New York state. I have confirmed the former with a quick google search (which I should have just done in the first place): apparently the village is named for the company. Maybe it should say the "New York Mills Company of New York Mills" then, although it's repetitive.
      • Rephrased sentence to specify both the company and the location.

And like I mentioned in the first round of comments, I'd also mention the 1912 NYM strike: although it came before the Little Falls strike, it still involved unionized Polish immigrants.

I added a reference to this strike in the section "Organized labor".

In general nothing about this article needs too much work. The biggest issue for me is that final paragraph, which is too long and covers too large a time frame. Apocheir (talk) 01:16, 26 March 2023 (UTC)

Apocheir, just wanted to ping you to let you know that I have made some edits to the article to address the points you made in this review. Thank you for starting this review process, and if you have any further questions, comments, or concerns, please let me know. -JJonahJackalope (talk) 19:02, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

Few more:

• The lede is within the guidelines set in MOS:LEADLENGTH but still feels long to me. Can you try to slim it down a little? There seem to be some details in there that aren't necessary for understanding the topic and get mentioned later on, such as what was produced at the textile mills.
• As per MOS:LEADCITE, the Snyder quote in the lede should have a citation. Also, do we really need this same quote twice in the article, once in the lede and once in the aftermath?
• I added some other centennial commemorations to the Utica one and split it into its own paragraph. A bit involved for a reviewer, but I knew the local newspapers to look for. Feel free to edit the additions.

Apocheir (talk) 01:59, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

Apocheir, I made some slight edits to the lede for brevity and removed the quotation from the lede. Additionally, I incorporated the references you added into the overall formatting for the rest of the references present on the page. Additionally, I wanted to know if you had any sort of URL, either to the website or to a clipping on Newspapers.com or something to that effect, for the articles from The Evening Times, as it would be beneficial to be able to access those. Thanks again for the review, and if you have any further questions, comments, or concerns, please reach out. -JJonahJackalope (talk) 13:41, 30 March 2023 (UTC)

I added links to the paper's paywalled archives, which is less than ideal but is the only place I've found it online so far. I've also added some more responses to your responses above. Apocheir (talk) 01:12, 31 March 2023 (UTC)

Apocheir, I have made several more edits to the article to address the points you raised in this review. Please reach out if you have any further questions, comments, or concerns regarding the article. -JJonahJackalope (talk) 16:18, 1 April 2023 (UTC)

I think we're good now, but this is my first GA review, so as recommended at WP:GAN/I#R3 I have asked for a review of my review. If that doesn't happen in a reasonable time period I'll move ahead without it. Apocheir (talk) 17:48, 2 April 2023 (UTC)

One point that the review-reviewers wanted me to state explicitly: there is no non-quote copying or close paraphrasing from the non-web sources I reviewed, which were Pula 1995, Pula 2005, Snyder 1975, and Rogers 1913 (the state investigation). When I ran Earwig for the web sources it came up negative. So stick a fork in it, it's done. Apocheir (talk) 21:01, 3 April 2023 (UTC)

Furthermore, thank you for the work you put into this article. This part of New York is underrepresented on Wikipedia, aside from Revolutionary War history. I'm always happy to see new pages about the area, especially if I don't have to rescue them from immediate deletion :) If you ever write an article on the New York Mills strikes or the 1919 Utica strike, and remember to let me know, I'll appreciate it. Apocheir (talk) 21:17, 3 April 2023 (UTC)