WE NEVER FORGET
Leo Schroeder-10
Samuel Kapper-35
Who lost their lives in Freedom's Cause during
The Great Chicago Garment Workers Strike of 1915.
Wednesday Evening, September 29, 1915-
Leo Schroeder, age 10.
Sadly, I have not been able to learn much about this young boy. The following account of his death is from the Chicago
Day Book of September 30, 1915.
BOY DEAD AFTER COPS' RUSH IN MONSTER STRIKE
One fatality resulted from the riot which occurred late yesterday afternoon in the clothing workers' strike. When a striker was shot and police charged the crowd, Leo Schroeder, 10, fled into a small shack, which collapsed shortly afterward from press of the mob. The boy's body was found in the ruins today.
Police Ride Down Strikers:
A group of strikers, singing and cheering, walked past the tailoring shop of John Sokolowsky at 1634 W. North av. last night. Sokolowsky kept looking anxiously at his group of employes who have not yet walked out. When some of them became restless he asked the police to get rid of the strikers. The police detailed at his shops went out on the sidewalks and used their clubs to scatter the crowd. Several mounted men rode out of a side street and up on the sidewalk.
The crowd laughed as it ran. Sokolowsky became mad. He took his gun and went out on the street and fired into the crowd.
Before the police could take the gun away from him he had shot Sam Lerner, a striking presser of Kuppenheimer's vest shop, in the right leg. Lerner was taken to the hospital and Sokolowsky was arrested.
~~~~~~~~~~
Tuesday Evening October 26, 1915
Samuel Kapper-35
Samuel Kapper was a 35-year-old striking tailor who was shot and killed by a scab near the local headquarters of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers on the corner of Halsted and Harrison streets. As far as we know, he was survived by his mother and by a sister, Miss Fannie Kapper. The scab who shot him in the back of the head was never charged with murder.
Samuel Kapper's funeral was held on October 28th and attended by thousands of striking garment workers. The Chicago Daily Tribune of October 29th described the oration given by Rabbi A. D. Goldenson in which the Rabbi said in part:
He was an honest workman..and afflicted though he was by being deaf and dumb, he was a hero. His life was a tragedy, his death was a glorification...Kapper was doing his duty. He was living up to his principles.
From the Chicago Daily Tribune of October 29, 1915:
SLAIN STRIKER PRAISED AS HERO
IN FUNERAL TALK
-----
Rabbi Tells Thousands Samuel Kapper
Died for His Principles.
-----
Ten thousand and more striking garment workers and their friends heard Samuel Kapper, the deaf and dumb striker who was slain in a labor riot Tuesday night, praised as a hero in the funeral oration over his body by Rabbi A. B. Goldenson in B'nai Reuben temple yesterday afternoon.
The synagogue obsequies followed a procession of thousands from the undertaking establishment of L. Waldman at 2116 West Division street, where, throughout the earlier part of the day, a continuous crowd filed in and out viewing the body.
The crowds were orderly, and seldom was a remark above an undertone heard. A detail of twenty police found nothing to do.
A "Blood Sacrifice."
In beginning his sermon Rabbi Goldenson asserted Kapper's was a "blood sacrifice" because he had died doing something for the good of the people. The law of "vicarious atonement," he said, had freed him from the prohibition of the old Jewish faith, which forbids any but the bodies of those who were holy to enter a synagogue.
[Said the rabbi:]
He was an honest workman..and afflicted though he was by being deaf and dumb, he was a hero. His life was a tragedy, his death was a glorification. I have in mind one similar case where I made the same exception according to the old Jewish law, and that was for the funeral of Samuel Meisenbarg, a soldier of the United States, who died for his flag at Vera Cruz while doing his duty. Kapper was doing his duty. He was living up to his principles.
~~~~~~~~~~
SOURCES
The Day Book
(Chicago, Illinois)
-Sept 30, 1915
http://www.newspapers.com/...
http://www.newspapers.com/...
-Oct 27, 1915
https://www.newspapers.com/...
-Nov 19, 1915
https://www.newspapers.com/...
Chicago Daily Tribune
(Chicago, Illinois)
-Oct 27, 1915
https://www.newspapers.com/...
https://www.newspapers.com/...
-Oct 29, 1915
http://www.newspapers.com/...
-Nov 12, 1915
https://www.newspapers.com/...
IMAGES
Chicago Garment Strikers attacked by
mounted policemen, ISR, Nov 1915
https://books.google.com/...
Samuel Kapper,
Martyr Chicago Garment Workers Strike of 1915
https://books.google.com/...
Samuel Kapper Funeral,
Chicago Daily Tribune, Oct 29, 1915
http://www.newspapers.com/...
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, emblem
https://books.google.com/...
See also:
https://books.google.com/...
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Dortn iz mayn rue plats - Aquabella
Nit zukh mikh vu di feygl zingen.
Gefinst mikh dortn nit, mayn shats.
A shklaf bin ikh vu keytn klingen,
Dortn iz mayn rue plats.
-Morris Rosenfeld
English translation:
Don't look for me where birds sing.
You will not find me there, my beloved.
I am a slave where chains ring,
There is my resting place.
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