You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Sunday October 10, 1915
From the Chicago Day Book: Jane Whitaker on Price Paid for Scabbing
While the Great Garment Workers' Strike continued unabated by the clubs of the Chicago police force, Jane Whitaker took some time to reflect upon the price paid by those who betray their fellow workers by crossing the picket line. The following is from The Day Book of October 7th:
THE "SCAB" HAS TO PAY A MUCH GREATER
PRICE THAN THE WORKER HE BETRAYS
BY JANE WHITAKER
"Scab!" There is no word in the English language so fraught with hatred as this one word when it is used by strikers against strike-breakers. Girls cry it with tears of rage in their eyes and every primitive instinct aroused against the man or woman who is jeopardizing their fight for better working conditions. Men cry it with all the unleashed passion of their natures urging them to wage cave warfare.
If you ask them just what is a "scab" you always get an answer like this: "A lowdown fink who is taking our jobs!" "A gutter bum that's scabbing on the job and sucking in with the boss," or even, some unprintable definition, but always from the same angle what the "scab" does to the worker.
The thing you never get and which has always seemed to me to be of so much more importance is what the "scab" is to herself or himself.
A few years ago I had occasion to talk to the wife of a man who remained working with a few others while the the rest of his shop went on a strike for better conditions.
His two children, both of them old enough to realize the word that was being called their father, sat in the room with the mother as she talked, and while her eyes were bright with defiance, the boy looked down at the pattern of the carpet and the girl looked out of the window.
"I told my man to work," the woman said defiantly. "I told him we ain't got no time for strikes. He'd been out of work for months before he got this job and me and the children need the money. We got bills to pay."
Her voice was hard. She talked feverishly. She said too much. She realized she was the wife of a man who was 'a traitor to his class, and though she had urged him on, though she justified him then, she was tasting the bitterness of loss of self-respect. And the children were tasting it with her. They would never be proud of their father again, for he wore the brand of a traitor and they would not be able to forget it.
The loss of the respect of others is a terrible price to pay, but it is little beside the loss of one's one's self-respect. One may get away from the others; one cannot get away from oneself. Judas, who betrayed his Master, hung himself to escape his conscience. There is always the "still small voice" to taunt; there is always the sense of shame that only the traitor knows.
If the fight is lost, his is the consciousness that he helped to defeat the workers who fought, and the industrial slavery that binds itself still more tightly about the mass was caused by the treachery of the one.
If the fight is won he has no part in the victory, for he did nothing to make the fight a success.
He has not even the satisfaction of receiving the gratitude of the bosses for whom he betrayed his class. The briber has naught but contempt for the bribed. The capitalist despises the worker who will sell out his class. He wouldn't trust the traitor when his need of him has gone.
"Scabs" they start and what do they finish? You will get your answer in front of some of the shops today where men who bear on their faces the brand of failure, and, more the look of the traitor are earning a few dollars a day hired out to the bosses to slug men and women clothing strikers. Those sluggers are the flotsam and jetsam today. They are the men who began as traitors to their class and today have no class to which to return.
They haven't the respect of the bosses; they haven't even the respect of the coppers, and they have the hatred of the class to which they once belonged.
If I were asked for a definition of a "scab" I would not give the one the majority of the workers give. I would say a "scab" is a creature over whom men and angels must weep
a human being without self-respect.
-----
[Photograph added.]
Below the fold our readers can find further coverage of the Chicago Garment Workers Strike from
The Day Book.
From The Day Book of October 7, 1915:
Second Deputy Sup't of Police Schuettler this morning stated that he knew of no reason why a parade permit should not be issued to the striking garment workers. This was in reply to a request for a permit made by a committee from the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, headed by their president, Sidney Hillman, this morning.
The line of march you have there is pretty long and would take some time to traverse," said the chief. "A great many of the girls would not be able to finish. You shorten your route and come back this afternoon, and we will go over the plans together."
The committee expressed their astonishment at the cordiality of the chief. They lay it to these' three reasons:
The panning the police force received from Aldermen Kennedy, Utpatel and Rodriguez at the council meeting last Monday night;
The coming investigation by Ald. Lynch and his committee and his committee;
And the report which is being formulated by the Chicago Woman's club and other woman's organizations who are about to make public their reports on the actions of the police during the strike.
The strikers had planned to march from Green and Harrison to Division and Milwaukee and then back through the loop.
Before the aldermanic committee which is investigating the garment workers' strike, Sidney Hillman, international president of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, stated that John J. Sonsteby, attorney for the United Garment Workers' union, was present solely for the purpose of raising technical questions to befog the issue.
In a very nice way Hillman told Sonsteby that he knew very little about the issues at stake. The attorney drew a card of the United Garment Workers from his pocket and told how he worked in the trade years ago.
"That it it - you worked in the trade years ago," Hillman stated. "We are not here to fight out the differences between our two organizations, but to endeavor' to come to an understanding with the employers' associations. Since you have raised the question I would suggest that this committee call in Pres. John J. Fitzpatrick and Sec'y Edward N. Nockles of the Chicago Federation of Labor to state the present status of our organization in the labor world."
Chairman Utpatel state he would have those two gentlemen present at the next meeting of the committee.
"You will find it very difficult to get in touch with the employer's association," Hillman continued. "I would suggest you call in Martin Isaacs who is attorney for the two associations and obtain the employers' view of this situation. Isaacs also runs an employing agency which supplies labor to the members of this organization. This agency has always discriminated against union men and women."
"I have experienced some difficulty in getting' in touch with, the employers," Alderman Utpatel told the committee. "I have kept after them for the last three days and this afternoon I expect to meet them. I will report on their views at the next meeting."
The meetings was adjourned to meet again at the call of the chair.
"The differences between the United Garment Workers and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers will be settled at the next executive meeting of the American Federation of Labor," Hillman told a Day Book reporter. "We have some very serious charges to make against that organization. Our union has 100,000 people who formerly belonged to theirs. They have only 5,000 left. What the charges are will be made public when the time comes."
[Photograph added.]
From The Day Book of October 7, 1915:
WOMEN ON THE JOB TO WATCH TACTICS OF COPPERS
Police tactics toward strikers underwent great change yesterday as a result of the number of clubwomen acting as watchers at the different clothing shops in their investigation of police brutality. At the chief trouble zone on the West Side, Jackson and Peoria, Ellen Gates Starr was stationed. Mrs. F. N. Lille watched in front of the Royal Tailors and Mrs. James W. Morrison was on duty in front of the International Tailoring Co.
One hundred members of the Political Equality league will be on duty in the strike zones today as a result of the report of their committee who interviewed pickets and investigated their stories and who declared the police had used rough tactics.
The United Hebrew Trades delegates will endeavor to raise $25,000 to finance the strike.
5,000 strikers have returned to work in independent houses that have signed up with the union.
From The Day Book of October 8, 1915:
GIRL MAY TELL COUNCIL POLICE BODY ABOUT
POLICEMEN CRUSHING HER RIBS
Rose Goldstein may be able to come before the council police committee and tell her story.
If she don't testify it's because she is staying home with a rib mashed in by policemen handling strikers according to orders of Charles Clarence Healey, superintendent of police appointed by Mayor Thompson.
Maud Cain Taylor, secretary of the Chicago Political Equality league, gives this statement on it:
"I saw the doctor employed by the garment workers' union working over Miss Goldstein on a table in a room at strike headquarters in Hod Carriers' hall. I saw Miss Goldstein twist in pain over the slightest pressure of the doctor's fingers on her diaphragm.
"I know Miss Goldstein was one of the last girls to be thrown by the police into an overloaded patrol wagon. She struck the floor with considerable force as the result of a terrific shove given her by two policemen.
"She fainted. Other girls in the wagon were frightened over the white face on the floor. They lifted her up on their knees and held her there.
"Then two or three other girls jammed their fists against the glass windows and broke open holes to let in fresh air for the sick girl to breathe. Since then a serious condition has developed in Miss Goldstein's chest and diaphragm and her friends are worried over the outcome."
For the complete facts of eye-witnesses and other who know what happened to Rose Goldstein, Miss Taylor refers to these members of the Chicago Political Equality league who have been on picket line with strikers: Mrs. Charles G. Nagley, 4417 Champlain av.; Mrs. Kenneth McClennan, Miss Elizabeth Taylor.
"Rose Goldstein was a sleeve baster getting $16 a week," said Miss Taylor. "She joined the union because she wanted to help the low-paid girls get a living wage. Hundreds of girls now on the streets driven here and there by the police got wages of $5 and $6 a week. One girl I know paid $4 a week for board and room. This left her $2 a week for lunches, carfare, clothes and amusements. know one case of a girl working 30 hours to earn $1.20. I know still others who earned only 18 cents a day.
"We recognize this as a woman's fight more important than the fight to get the ballot. Our women are going on the street with these girl strikers to battle for industrial equality.
"I believe it more than a mere rumor that white slavers are at work among the strikers. A woman who mixed with the girls yesterday was told by the officers to leave because she did not have proper-credentials. In many aspects the whole situation is barbarous and ought to command immediate attention from thoughtful people who want to see something like civilization here in the second largest city of the nation."
-----
[Photograph added.]
From The Day Book of October 8, 1915:
COP SHOOTS STRIKER AFTER RIOT CALL IS SENT IN
While leading clubwomen accompanied groups of pickets to West Side and loop clothing shops, Patrolman W. F. Odenwald of Town Hall police station drew a gun on strikers in front of a tailoring establishment on the North Side and shot Morris Wishner, 1301 North Artesian av., in the ankle.
A riot call had been sent into the station by a tailoring establishment at 1331 Moorman st and a wagon full of cops rushed to the scene. They used the usual cop tactics of beating back the crowd with clubs. It is alleged that a striker attempted to take Odenwald's club from him and that he then pulled his gun and fired.
Members of the Chicago Political league attended a meeting of striking girl clothing workers at Hod Carriers' hall yesterday, held to organize pickets to operate under supervision of clubwomen. Four clubwomen were assigned to each group of pickets.
They patrolled the shops of Lamm & Co., Royal Tailors, Scotch Woolen Mills, Continental Tailoring Co., Edward E. Strauss & Co. and International Tailoring Co.
First Deputy Schuettler is expected to give an answer to the union committee today whether a permit will be issued for a peaceful parade of the strikers on Monday. He told the committee yesterday he saw no reason why such permit should not be issued as the last union parade of clothing workers was orderly.
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STRIKERS CANT GET WARRANT FOR SLUGGER'S ARREST
Slugger Steele, in front of Royal Tailors, ordered striking youth to beat it.
The youth did not get under way quickly enough to please Steele. The strongarmer slugged the boy till the lad's coat was soggy with blood from his nose.
When Steele hit the boy a crowd gathered around the police sergeant in charge of the block. "Arrest that ruffian," they said. "You've arrested our girls for simply blowing whistles. Play square!"
"Gwan," said the sergeant "Get a warrant if you want him arrested."
The strikers went to Harrison street station to swear out a warrant for Steele's arrest.
"You strikers get no warrant," they were told at the station house. "Keep away from the factories and you won't get slugged."
Motor Cop Eisenberg, working in front of Lamm's, Peoria and Jackson, today boasted that his name had been in the papers four times for brutal work.
Work Bros Co., Hennig-Paul and Cohn-Rissman Co. are today arbitrating. The union announced today that 5,000 had returned to work under satisfactory agreements and 5,000 more had walked out from small shops.
-----
From The Day Book of October 9, 1915:
Ellen Gates Starr under arrest during
Henrici waitresses' strike, March 5, 1914
`````
POLICE KEEP HANDS OFF OF ELLEN GATES STARR
Miss Ellen Gates Starr, investigating strike conditions, was standing in front of Lamm's Peoria and Jackson blvd.
Police are afraid to arrest her, for they dare not. Miss Starr's connections are too high. But they try to heckle her.
"Why do you spend so much time on the street here," a rough policeman asked her.
"So far as I can see, it is none of your business," retorted Miss Starr. Miss Starr remained on the street while police roughly chased working girls away.
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[Photograph added.]
From The Day Book of October 9, 1915:
CLOTHING BOSSES' WORDS AND ACTIONS DON'T AGREE
Sidney Hillman
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Despite the claims of the bosses that only a few of the workers are out and shops are running almost at full capacity, Alfred Decker & Cohn, a large association house, is sending letters to the strikers asking them to come back to work and pledging the 48-hour week and wage increase demand, but refusing recognition of the union, according to Sidney Hillman, president of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America.
Hillman, addressing a mass meeting of girls yesterday, told them to expect to receive some of these letters since men strikers had already received them.
[Hillman stated:]
They are the promissory note's given by the bosses when they find they need labor, but whenever labor takes these promissory notes without the union in back of them to force payment they find the notes are worthless.
It took them a long while to find out that the people are dissatisfied. But it will take them only a few days to find out that the people will not return to work.
I know how many of you did not make sufficient in the shops to keep you through this week and many of you didn't make enough to keep you while you, were in the shops. But this fight is a fight to the finish. So far everything is on our side and we are bound to win.
Ass't Chief of Police Schuettler told me the police have spies among our girls, so have the manufacturers spies, but spies cannot make clothes. They may try to create" a feeling of depression; they may tell you that you are going to lose, but the only thing that can make us lose will be from within the ranks.
They can make statements in the papers and get sufficient advertising, so that the papers will not take in our statements, but they cannot fill the tailor shops.
No matter how many arrests they make we will picket the line. No matter what the police, who are no longer run by the city but by the manufacturers, may do we will fight until we win.
Ellen Gates Starr of Hull House swore out a warrant yesterday for a slugger who beat up Harry Woxman, 1302 N. Hastings st, opposite Lamm & Co.
Miss Elizabeth Tyler reported that Officer No. 2018, stationed before the Royal Tailors, told one, of the girl strikers that he would get her a man who would pay her better for the night than it paid her to walk the streets. The striker reported to Mrs. Merriam, wife of the alderman, who protested to the officer.
An assessment of 10 per cent on each member for as long as the strike lasts was voted unanimously by cutters in Cutters Local No. 61, who are working in shops that have signed up with the union.
A mass meeting of the Italian workers will be held in Hod Carriers' hall Monday morning at 4 o'clock.
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[Photograph added.]
~~~~~~~~~~
SOURCE
The Day Book
(Chicago, Illinois)
(Also source for image of headline.)
-Oct 7, 1915
http://www.newspapers.com/...
http://www.newspapers.com/...
http://www.newspapers.com/...
-Oct 8, 1915
http://www.newspapers.com/...
http://www.newspapers.com/...
-Oct 9, 1915
http://www.newspapers.com/...
http://www.newspapers.com/...
IMAGES
Chicago Garment Workers Strike,
Stay With Us, ISR, Nov 1915
https://books.google.com/...
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, emblem
https://books.google.com/...
We Shall Fight Until We Win, ISR,
Nov 1915, Chicago ACW Strike
https://books.google.com/...
Ellen Gates Starr under arrest during
Henrici waitresses strike, March 5, 1914
http://blog.chicagohistory.org/...
Sidney Hillman
http://darrow.law.umn.edu/...
See also:
Search: Henrici + JayRaye
http://www.dailykos.com/...
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Never Cross A Picket Line-Billy Bragg
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