You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Thursday October 7, 1915
Chicago, Illinois - Ten-Year-Old Boy Killed as Police Ride Down Garment Strikers
From the Chicago Day Book of
September 30th:
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.
More from The Day Book of September 30, 1915:
UNION MEN TELL HEALEY COPS ARE BRUTAL TO WOMEN CLOTHING WORKERS
Unable to obtain an interview with Mayor Thompson until tomorrow morning regarding what they call "Cossack tactics of police department" in handling strike of clothing workers, Sidney Hillman, pres. Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, Mary MacDowell, John Fitzpatrick, Edward Nockles, Simon O'Donnell, Victor Olander of the Chicago Federation of Labor and Ellen Gates Starr of Hull House called on Chief of Police Healey today.
Healey denied that there was an understanding between the police department and the garment manufacturers, though he admitted that Isaac, attorney for the bosses, and some of the bosses had called upon him "to discuss his department."
He told Fitzpatrick that mounted coppers were justified in riding on the sidewalks to disperse crowds, regardless whether there were women in the crowd.
Sidney Hillman called the chief's attention to the fact that not a single non-union man or women had been hurt in the strike and said he would bring in union girl who had been hurt by coppers. The chief promised to "discipline" members of his department who had acted in any way disgraceful if proof were given him.
He indignantly refused to discuss insinuation of Fitzpatrick that the coppers were trying to provoke riots because not substantiated, and Fitzpatrick told him that cap't Duffy of the Shakespeare station told a representative of the federation to "get the hell out of this district or I'll get a bunch of sluggers to drive you out." Healy made no reply.
He also was in ignorance of the fact called to his attention by Mary MacDowell that 60 per cent of the strikers are women and police are making no exception in their cases.
Union officials are also indignant at the attitude of the trust press in handling the strike.
Frank Rosenblum
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[Frank Rosenblum told a Day Book reporter:]
All we asked was an even break...but the misrepresentations in the trust press are becoming so brazen that even the pessimistic of our strikers know that the papers lie.
Here is a list printed in the Tribune this morning. It gives the Royal Tailors 2,500 employes with only 500 on strike. They do not employ more than 1,000 and there are 900 out. Progress Tailoring is given 630 with 30 out. They have about 150 altogether and they are all out. Alfred Decker & Cohn are given as having 1,200 with 200 out. They have 1,000 and 900 out. Lamm is given 2,000 with 400 out. They have 1,000 and 990 out. Hirsh-Wickwire are given as 1,000 with 200 out. They have about 800 downtown, who are all out, and there are about 100 still working on the Southwest Side. Meyer they give 200 with 40 out. They have 200 and they are all out. Kling they give as having 600 with with 45 out. They [have?] 250 and are all out. B. Kuppenheimer they give with 2,500 and none out. They have 2,200 and there are about 300 who have not yet come out, but will come today.
In the matter of police brutality it is the same. They try to make the public believe this strike is marked with rioting, but they say nothing about police tactics. Men are not permitted to walk on Market st. off Van Buren. Sluggers are stationed every few feet outside of some plants. There are sluggers almost every ten feet outside of the Royal Tailors.
They also give the usual boss dope about the workers going back. That isn't true in a single instance. Our people are not considering this a holiday. It's fight to the finish. We have 90 percent of the workers out now and they are coming out constantly.
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.
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[Photograph added.]
From The Day Book of October 2, 1915:
Up until noon today there had been a total of 306 men, women and girls in the clothing strike thrown into police batons and hustled over into the notorious, stinking jails of Chicago.
Two boy strikers, Joseph Goodman and Charles P. Goldman, 16 years old, were dragged into boys' court.
Three beautiful Jewish girls were hauled before Judge La Buy in Desplaines st. Annie Weinstein of 1421 Hastings st. rolled up her sleeve.
"Look at that," she said.
There were black and blue bruises on her right arm, marking where a big brutal strong hand clutched her and arrested her.
Bessie Att of 1330 W. 13th st. had a swollen lip where the hand of a Healey copper slapped her.
Fannie Goldberg of 2615 Haddon st. had not got her hair straightened out after the way it was pulled by a cop who arrested her at Jackson and Green sts.
One cop, the girls said, tore along the sidewalk yelling:
"Get the hell out of here. We'll show you d--- fools you can't run this street."
All the girls demanded jury trial.
"We have the numbers of the cops and we are ready for jury trial now," they said.
Eleven were hauled to Desplaines st., five to Harrison and to West Chicago av. today.
[Said Wm. A. Cunnea, attorney for the Amalgamated:]
William A Cunnea
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It's the old game of the police...They know they can't prove the silly charges of disorderly conduct, conspiracy, resistance to officers.
Think of little Annie Weinstein, a good-looking young girl just out of her teens, being guilty of conspiracy and resistance to an officer.
This rough work is pulled by the police to throw a scare. They want to drive terror into the hearts of the strikers and make them lose spirit. Mary my prediction. There will not be one conviction for violation of law. The police haven't evidence. They know they haven't. Yet, unless public opinion rouses they will go ahead with this policy of slapping girls across the mouth and carrying on other atrocities.
Yes, we have the numbers of cops who have done this rough work. Their names will come out in court trial.
Brutal police tactics continue. Mounted officers rode on side walk at crowd of men and girls today on Jackson blvd. Motorcycle Cop 4,400 rode along the curb telling mounted men to use their club if the girls did not go fast enough.
Strikers have made affidavits to the effect that Mounted Cop 3,788 pulled gun on Harrison st. Serg't 197 kicked a girl. Sarah Lovenberg, 1448 W. 14th st., declares Mounted Officer 544 rode into a crowd and knocked down a man, who was taken away in an ambulance.
There are also reports of sluggers beating up strikers while Officers 2,652 and 8,499 looked on.
A. H. Lamm, son of the big merchant tailor at Peoria and Jackson blvd., threatened to break the cameras and the heads of some photographers who tried to take his picture while he was escorting some men to the street car this afternoon. The photographers got some dandy pictures.
Auto No. Z-6055 Ill. collided with another machine at Racine and Harrison this afternoon. It was filled with scab workers. The mounted police prevented the crowd from getting near the machine.
[~~~LOCKED IN!~~~]
The firms of Edward Strauss and the Great Western Tailoring Co. will be brought into court on charge of having doors locked so that employes could not get out. Chief Factory Inspector Nelson declares the firms have violated the law. Investigation will be made of report that Lamm & Co. also locked employes in.
Several large independent firms signed up with the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America today.
Cutters from several shops walked out, including Lamm, Daube & Rosenwald, Rosenwald & Well, Hirsh-Wickwire and Fred Kaufman shops.
Aldermen Rodriguez and Kennedy at the first fall meeting of the council, which takes place Monday night, will demand that the city council act to curb the police department in its unnecessary and brutal attacks upon the striking tailors. Many other aldermen have been out in the strike zone doing "a little investigating" and they are also reported to be in favor of censoring the police department.
Aldermen Rodriguez and Kennedy want to know just how the police stand regarding the "protection of life and property"-more especially that of the manufacturers-in the garment workers' strike.
[Ald. Rodriguez said last night:]
I have been out on the Northwest Side all day collecting evidence to be presented to the council Monday night...What I saw has convinced me that the police are taking sides in this industrial struggle.
Ald. Kennedy arrived at Jackson blvd. and Peoria st. last night shortly after a wagon load of strikers had been rushed away to the Desplaines street station. The police had arrested three boys and two girls. One of the boys had been smashed in the face by a cop. His coat was covered with blood.
I have seen the Cossacks and I have seen the Chicago police and they compare favorably.
That was the declaration of Sydney Hillman, president of the Amalgamated, in commenting on police brutality.
It is almost a miracle that there was not an appalling tragedy in Hod Carriers' hall on Friday night when police locked in the building 2,000 frightened strikers and only the level head of one man saved a panic in which people would have been trodden on and perhaps killed.
They charged on this hall, which is not in the strike zone, like Cossacks and they drove the people off the street as though they were beasts. Women were prodded with clubs and forced to push against women and men in front of them until they could stumble up the stairs to make room for those in the rear. If that is not inciting to riot, I do not know what the chief of police would call it.
Mounted cop No. 4862 apparently mistook John MacKenzie, real estate dealer, 1257 Jackson blvd., for striker. Two cops seized MacKenzie while walking on Jackson blvd. near Peoria and banged him against a building so roughly that Mackenzie said all the buttons were torn from his coat.
"You can't stop there," shouted a cop as he brandished his club at a Day Book reporter looking over at Lamm & Co.'s clothing factory, tied up by the strike. The reporter showed credentials and the cop apologized. Then he said
"But you mustn't stand there looking up at the factory. The boss will be calling and asking me what I'm letting you stand here for."
"Who do you mean by the boss?" the reporter asked.
"Lamm," answered the cop. Then he grew uneasy. "I don't take orders from Lamm, but he would tell my boss and my boss would tell me I shouldn't let you stand there."
Trimmers and tailors who went on strike in a body from the shop of the Continental Tailoring Co., 700 W. Jackson blvd., declare that the cutters are acting as strikebreakers by working in the trimming department and that a cutter named Molinaur is also being used by the bosses as a slugger.
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[Photographs added.]
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SOURCE
The Day Book
(Chicago, Illinois)
-Sept 30, 1915
http://www.newspapers.com/...
-Sept 30, 1915
(Also source for image of Abramowitz & Hillman.)
http://www.newspapers.com/...
-Oct 2, 1915
(Also source for image of headline.)
http://www.newspapers.com/...
IMAGES
We Shall Fight Until We Win,
ISR, Nov 1915, Chicago ACW Strike
https://books.google.com/...
Frank Rosenblum about 1915
https://books.google.com/...
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, emblem
https://books.google.com/...
William A Cunnea, attorney ACW
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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