in september, 1909, the name of the triangle shirt waist company, which has since become a word of such ill omen, was known to few outside the trade. the factory had not then been wrapped in the flames and smoke of the asch fire, that was to cut short the lives of one hundred and forty-three workers, and to blight the existence and mar the happiness of many more.
but by a not altogether inexplicable coincidence, it had been among the employés of this very firm that the smoldering flames of human discontent broke out, that were to grow into the "strike of the forty thousand," a strike that proved to be but the first of a long series of revolts among the foreign garment-workers of the largest cities in the east and the middle west.
it is true that in such an extensive trade as that of making ready-made clothes, with its low wages and its speeding-up, its sweating and its uncertainty of employment, there is always a strike on somewhere. at that very time, there were in progress two strikes of quite respectable size: one in boston, under the ladies' tailors' and dressmakers' union, and the other in st. louis, where the long-drawn-out marx and haas strike involving the makers of men's ready-made clothing, was in its first stage.
but outside of labor circles, these strikes were attracting no particular attention. the public were not even aware of what was happening, and would have been entirely indifferent if they had known.
the turning out of ladies' ready-made waists is an immense business in new york. the trade, like other branches of garment-making, is largely in the hands of jewish employers. the workers are principally recently arrived foreigners, russian and other slavic jews, italians and other immigrants from eastern europe. they are in an overwhelming majority women, or, to be more accurate, girls.
during all the earlier part of the year 1909 the ladies' waist makers' union no. 25 had been showing quite undue activity and unwelcome persistence in preaching unionism and its advantages among all and sundry of these foreign girls, and with quite unusual success. the managers of the triangle shirt waist company awoke one morning to a sense of what was happening. to quote from a writer in the outlook:
one of the firm appeared before the girls and told them in kind phrases that the company was friendly to the union, and that they desired to encourage it, and that they might better give assistance, they would like to know what girls belonged to it. the girls, taken in by this speech, acknowledged their membership; only, instead of a few that the company had thought to discover and weed out, it developed that one hundred and fifty girls were members. that evening they were told, in the same kind way, that, because of a lull in the trade, due to an uncertainty as to fashions in sleeves, there was for the time being no more work. the girls took their discharge without suspicion; but the next morning they saw in the newspaper advertisements of the company asking for shirt-waist operators at once. their eyes opened by this, the girls picketed the shop, and told the girls who answered the advertisement that the shop was on strike. the company retaliated by hiring thugs to intimidate the girls, and for several weeks the picketing girls were being constantly attacked and beaten. these mêlées were followed by wholesale arrests of strikers, from a dozen to twenty girls being arrested daily.
out of ninety-eight arrested all but nineteen were fined in sums of from one to ten dollars.
with the aid of the police and a complaisant bench the triangle company had been successful in its attempt to empty the young union's treasury, and had likewise intimidated the workers till their courage and spirit were failing them. the manufacturers had accomplished their object.
at this stage the new york women's trade union league took up the battle of the girls. every morning they stationed allies in front of the factory, to act as witnesses against illegal arrest, and to prevent interference with lawful picketing. the wrath of the police was then turned upon the league. first one and then another ally was arrested, this performance culminating in the unlawful arrest of mary dreier, president of the league. the police were sadly fooled upon this occasion, and their position was not in any degree strengthened, when they angrily, and just as unreasonably freed their prisoner, as soon as they discovered her identity. "why didn't you tell me you was a rich lady? i'd never have arrested you in the world."
this was good copy for the newspapers, and the whole story of wrongful discharge, unlawful arrest and insulting treatment of the strikers by the police began to filter into the public mind through the columns of the daily press. it was shown that what had happened in the case of the triangle employés had been repeated, with variations, in the case of many other shops. respectable and conservative citizens began to wonder if there might not be two sides to the story. they learned, for instance, of the unjust "bundle" system, under which the employer gives out a bundle of work to a girl, and when she returns the completed work, gives her a ticket which she can convert into cash on pay day. if the ticket, a tiny scrap of paper, should be lost, the girl had no claim on the firm for the work she had actually done. again, some employers had insisted that they paid good wages, showing books revealing the astonishing fact that girls were receiving thirty dollars, thirty-five dollars, and even forty dollars per week. small reason to strike here, said the credulous reader, as he or she perused the morning paper. but the protest of the libelled manufacturer lost much of its force, when it was explained that these large sums were not the wage of one individual girl, but were group earnings, paid to one girl, and receipted for by her, but having to be shared with two, three or four others, who had worked with and under the girl whose name appeared on the payroll.
monday, november 22, was a memorable day. a mass meeting had been called in cooper union to consider the situation. mr. gompers was one of the speakers. at the far end of the hall rose a little jewish girl, and asked to be heard. once on the platform, she began speaking in yiddish, fast and earnestly. she concluded by saying she was tired of talking, and so would put the motion for a general strike of the whole trade. one who was present, describing the tense dramatic moment that followed, writes: "the audience unanimously endorsed it. 'do you mean faith?' said the chairman. 'will you take the old jewish oath,' and up came 2,000 jewish hands with the prayer, 'if i turn traitor to the cause i now pledge, may this hand wither and drop off at the wrist from this arm i now raise.'" the girl was clara lemlich, from the leiserson factory. she did not complain for herself, for she was a fairly well-paid worker, making up to fifteen dollars in the rush season, but for her much poorer sisters.
the response within that hall typified the response next day outside.
i quote the words of an onlooker:
from every waist-making factory in new york and brooklyn, the girls poured forth, filling the narrow streets of the east side, crowding the headquarters at clinton hall, and overflowing into twenty-four smaller halls in the vicinity. it was like a mighty army, rising in the night, and demanding to be heard. but it was an undisciplined army. without previous knowledge of organization, without means of expression, these young workers, mostly under twenty, poured into the union. for the first two weeks from 1,000 to 1,500 joined each day. the clerical work alone, involved in, registering and placing recruits was almost overwhelming. then halls had to be rented and managed, and speakers to be procured. and not for one nationality alone. each hall, and there were twenty-four, had to have speakers in yiddish, italian and english. every member of the league was pressed into service. still small halls were not enough. lipzin's theatre was offered to the strikers, and mass meetings were held there five afternoons a week.
meanwhile committees were appointed from each shop to settle upon a price list. as the quality of work differed in different shops, a uniform wage was impossible and had to be settled by each shop individually. when the hundreds of price lists were at last complete, meetings were arranged for each shop committee and their employers. again the price list was discussed, and a compromise usually effected. in almost every shop, however, an increase of from 15 to 20 per cent. was granted.
apart from wages, the contract insured significant improvements. besides calling for recognition of the union it demanded full pay for legal holidays, limited night work during the rush season to eight p.m., abolished all sunday work, did away with the inside contracting system, under which one girl took out work for several, and provided for a fair allotment of work in slack seasons.
after one hundred and ninety firms had signed up, and the majority of the strikers had returned to their shops, an attempt was made to settle with the still obdurate employers through arbitration, at the suggestion of the national civic federation.
meanwhile picketing was going on; the pickets were being punished, not only with heavy fines, thus depleting the union's treasury, but with terms in the workhouse. some of these criminals for principle were little girls in short skirts, and no attempt was made to separate them when in confinement from disorderly characters. but what was the result? the leaders saw to it that a photograph was taken of such a group, with "workhouse prisoners" pinned across the breast of each, and worn as a badge of honor, a diploma of achievement, and the newspapers were but too glad to print the picture. when that spirit of irrepressible energy and revolt once possesses men or women, punishment is converted into reward, disgrace transmuted into honor.
this it was, more even than the story of the wrongs endured, which had its effect on the public. in the rebound of feeling the illegality of the police behavior was admitted. the difficulties put in the way of the courageous little pickets led to the forming of parades, and the holding of meetings even in a class of society where no one had counted on receiving sympathy. the ladies of the rich and exclusive colony club learned from the girls themselves of the many disadvantages connected with waist-making. for instance that in the off season there was little regular work at all; and that all the time there were the fines and breakages. one girl told how she had been docked for a tucking foot, which, as she said, just wore out on her, "it wasn't really my fault," she concluded, "and i think the boss should look out for his own foots."
said another: "when a girl comes five minutes late at my shop, she is compelled to go home. she may live outside of the city, it does not matter, she must go home and lose a day.
"we work eight days in the week. this may seem strange to you who know that there are only seven days in the week. but we work from seven in the morning till very late at night, when there's a rush, and sometimes we work a week and a half in one week."
the socialist women did yeoman service, protecting the pickets, attending the trials, speaking at meetings and taking a full share of the hard work. the organized suffragists and clubwomen were drawn into the thick of the fight. they spread the girls' story far and wide, raised money, helped to find bonds, and were rewarded by increased inspiration for their own propaganda.
the enormous extent of the strike, being, as it was, by far the largest uprising of women that has ever taken place upon this continent, while adding proportionately to the difficulties of conducting it to a successful issue, yet in the end deepened and intensified the lesson it conveyed.
in the end about three hundred shops signed up, but of these at least a hundred were lost during the first year. this was due, the workers say, partly to the terrible dullness in the trade following the strike, and partly to the fact that they were not entirely closed shops.
since then, however, the organization has grown in strength. it was one of these coming under the protocol, covering the ladies' garment workers, in so many branches, which was agreed to after the strikes in the needle trades of the winter of 1913. the name was changed from ladies' waist makers, to ladies' waist and dress makers.
but the waist-makers' strike was not confined to new york. with the opening of their busy season, the new york manufacturers found themselves hard pressed to fill their orders, and they were making efforts to have the work done in other cities, not strike-bound. one of the cities in which they placed their orders was philadelphia. it was with small success, however, for the spirit of unrest was spreading, and before many weeks were over, most of the philadelphia waist-makers had followed the example of their new york sisters.
the girls were in many respects worse off in philadelphia than in new york itself. unions in the sewing trades were largely down and out there, and public opinion was opposed to organized labor.
when the disturbance did come, it was not so much the result of any clever policy deliberately thought out, as it was the sudden uprising and revolt of exasperated girls against a system of persistent cutting down extending over about four years. a cent would be taken off here, and a half-cent there, or two operations would be run into one, and the combined piece of work under one, and that a new, name would bring a lower rate of pay. the practice of paying for oil needles, cotton and silk had been introduced, a practice most irritating with its paltry deduction from a girl's weekly wage. next there was a system of fines for what was called "mussing" work. every one of these so-called improvements in discipline was deftly utilized as an excuse for taking so much off the girls' pay.
patience became exhausted and the girls just walked out. two-thirds of the waist-makers in the city walked out. of these about eighty-five per cent., it is believed, were jewish girls, the rest made up of italians with a few poles. the girls who did not go out were mostly americans. one observer estimated at the time that about forty per cent. of those in the trade were under twenty years of age, running down to children of twelve.
when the workers, with no sort of warning or explanation, or making any regular preliminary demands, just quit, it upset matters considerably. a little girl waist-maker may appear to be a very insignificant member of the community, but if you multiply her by four thousand, her absence makes an appreciable gap in the industrial machine, and its cogs fail to catch as accurately as heretofore. so that even the decent manufacturers felt pretty badly, not so much about the strike itself, as its, to them, inexplicable suddenness. such men were suffering, of course, largely for the deeds of their more unscrupulous fellow-employers.
one manufacturer, for instance, had gained quite a reputation for his donations to certain orphanages. these were to him a profitable investment, seeing that the institutions served to provide him with a supply of cheap labor. he had in his shop many orphans, who for two reasons could hardly leave his employ. they had no friends to whom to go, and they were also supposed to be under obligations of gratitude to their benefactor-employer. one of his girl employés, to whom he paid seven dollars a week, turned out for that wage twelve dollars' worth of work. this fact the employer admitted, justifying himself by saying that he was supporting her brother in an orphanage.
it was a hard winter, and the first week of the strike wore away without a sign of hope. public opinion was slow to rouse, and the newspapers were definitely adverse. the general view seemed to be that such a strike was an intolerable nuisance, if not something worse. at length the conservative ledger came out with a two-column editorial, outlining the situation, and from then on news of the various happenings, as they occurred, could be found in all the papers. but the girls were unorganized. there was no money, and they faced the first days of the new year in a mood of utter discouragement. organizers from the international of the ladies' garment workers had, however, come on from new york to take charge. the strikers were supported by the central labor union of philadelphia, under the leadership of the capable john j. murphy, and representatives of the national women's trade union league, in the persons of mrs. raymond robins and miss agnes nestor, were already on the scene.
in the struggle itself, the new york experiences were repeated. the fight went on slowly and stubbornly. arrests occurred daily and still more arrests. money was the pressing need, not only for food and rent, but to pay fines and to arrange for the constantly needed bonds to bail out arrested pickets. at length a group of prominent philadelphia women headed by mrs. george biddle, enlisted the help of some leading lawyers, and an advisory council was formed for the protection of legal rights, and even for directing a backfire on lawbreaking employers by filing suits for damages. with such interest and such help money, too, was obtained. the residents of the college settlement, especially miss anna davies, the head resident, and miss anne young, the members of the consumers' league, the suffragists and the clubwomen all gave their help.
these women were moved to action by stories such as those of the little girl, whom her late employer had been begging to return to his deserted factory. "the boss, he say to me, 'you can't live if you not work.' and i say to the boss, 'i live not much on forty-nine cents a day.'"
as in new york, the police here overreached themselves in their zeal, and arrested a well-known society girl, whom they caught walking arm-in-arm with a striking waist-maker. result, the utter discomfiture of the director of public safety, and triumph for the fortunate reporters who got the good story.
an investigation into the price of food, made just then by one of the evening newspapers came in quite opportunely, forcing the public to wonder whether, after all, the girls were asking for any really higher wage, or whether they were not merely struggling to hold on to such a wage as would keep pace with the increasing prices of all sorts of food, fuel, lighting, the commonest clothing and the humblest shelter.
the strike had gone on for some weeks, when an effort was made to obtain an injunction forbidding the picketing of the haber factory. this was finally to crush the strike and down the strikers. but in pressing for an injunction the manufacturers came up against a difficulty of their own making. the plea that had all along been urged upon the union had been the futility of trying to continue a strike that was not injuring the employers. "for," they had many times said, "we have plenty of workers, our factories are going full blast." whereas the haber witnesses in the injunction suit were bringing proof of how seriously the business was being injured through the success of the girl pickets in maintaining the strike, and, the money loss, they assured the court was to be reckoned up in thousands of dollars. this inconsistency impressed the judge, and the strikers had the chance of telling their story in open court. "strikers' day" was a public hearing of the whole story of the strike.
that night both sides got together, and began to discuss a working agreement. after twenty-five hours of conference between representatives of the shirt waist makers' union and of the manufacturers' association, an agreement was arrived at, giving the workers substantial gains; employment of all union workers in the shops without discrimination; a fifty-two-and-a-half-hour week and no work on saturday afternoon; no charges for water, oil, needles or ordinary wear and tear on machinery; wages to be decided with the union for each particular shop, and all future grievances to be settled by a permanent board of arbitration; the agreement to run till may 1, 1911.
the workers' success was, unfortunately, not lasting. owing to the want of efficient local leadership, the organization soon dropped to pieces. that gone, there was nothing left to stand between the toilers and the old relentless pressure of the competitive struggle, ever driving the employers to ask more, and ever compelling the wage-earners to yield more. the philadelphia shirt-waist strike of 1910 furnishes a sad and convincing proof of how little is gained by the mere winning of a strike, however bravely fought, unless the strikers are able to keep a live organization together, the members co?perating patiently and steadily, so as to handle the fresh shop difficulties which every week brings, in the spirit of mutual help as well as self-help.
these first eastern strikes in the garment trades, although local in their incidence, were national in their effects. there had been so much that was dramatic and unusual in the rebellion of the workers, and it had been so effectively played up in the press of the entire country that by the time spring arrived and the strikes were really ended, and ended in both cities with very tangible benefits for the workers, there was hardly anyone who had not heard something about the great strikes, and who had not had their most deeply rooted opinions modified. it was an educational lesson on the grand scale. but the effects did not stop here. the impression upon the workers themselves everywhere was wholly unexpected. they had been encouraged and heartened to combine and thus help one another to obtain some measure of control over workshop and wages.
the echoes of the shirt-waist strikes had hardly died away, when there arose from another group of dissatisfied workers, the self-same cry for industrial justice.
there is no doubt that the chicago strike which began among the makers of ready-made men's clothing in september, 1910, was the direct outcome of the strikes in new york and philadelphia. while the western uprising had many features in common with these, yet it presented difficulties all its own, and in its outcome won a unique success. not only was the number of workers taking part greater than in the previous struggles, but, owing to the fact of a large number of the strikers being men, and a big proportion of these heads of families, the poverty and intense suffering resulting from months of unemployment extended over a far larger area. also the variety of nationalities among the strikers added to the difficulties of conducting negotiations. every bit of literature put out had to be printed in nine languages. and lastly, the want of harmony between certain of the national leaders of the union involved, and the deep distrust felt by some of the local workers and the strikers for a section of them provided a situation which for complexity it would be hard to match. that the long-continued struggle ended with so large a measure of success for the workers was in part owing to the extraordinary skill and unwearied patience displayed in its handling, and in part to the close and intimate co?peration between the local strike leaders, both men and women, the chicago federation of labor and the chicago women's trade union league. much also had been learned from recent experience in the strikes immediately preceding.
the immediate cause of the first striker going out was a cut in the price of making pockets, of a quarter of a cent. that was on september 22 in shop 21, in the hart, schaffner and marx factories. three weeks later the strike had assumed such proportions that the officers of the united garment workers' district council no. 6 were asking the women's trade union league for speakers. the league organized its own strike committee to collect money, assist the pickets and secure publicity. at the instance of the league also an independent citizens' committee was formed.
in time of sorest need was found efficient leadership. the garment-workers of chicago, in their earlier struggles with the manufacturers, had had no such powerful combination to assist them as came to their aid now, when a joint strike conference controlled the situation, with representatives upon it from the united garment workers of america international executive board, from the chicago district council of the same organization, from the special order garment workers, the ready made garment workers, the chicago federation of labor and the women's trade union league. the american federation of labor sent their organizer, emmett flood, the untiringly courageous and the ever hopeful.
the first step to be taken was to place before the public in clear and simple form the heterogeneous mass of grievances complained of. the women's trade union league invited about a dozen of the girls to tell their story over a simple little breakfast. within a week the story told to a handful was printed and distributed broadcast, prefaced, as it was, by an admirable introduction by the late miss katharine coman, of wellesley college, who happened to be in chicago, and who was acting as chairman of the grievance committee. the citizens' committee, headed by professor george mead, followed with a statement, admitting the grievances and justifying the strike.
from then on the story lived on the front page of all the newspapers, and speakers to address unions, meetings of strikers, women's clubs and churches were in constant demand. here again, the suffragist and the socialist women showed where their sympathies lay and of what mettle they were made. visiting speakers, such as miss margaret bondfield and mrs. philip snowden, took their turn also. the socialist women of chicago issued a special strike edition of the daily socialist. with the help of the striking girls as "newsies" they gathered in the city on one saturday the handsome sum of $3,345. another group of very poor poles sent in regularly about two hundred dollars per week, sometimes the bulk of it in nickels and dimes. a sewing gathering composed of old ladies in one of the suburbs sewed industriously for weeks on quilts and coverings for the strikers. some small children in a wisconsin village were to have had a goose for their christmas dinner, but hearing of little children who might have no dinner, sent the price of the bird, one dollar and sixty-five cents, into the strikers' treasury.
at first strike pay was handed out every friday from out of the funds of the united garment workers. but on friday, november 11, the number of applicants for strike pay was far beyond what it was possible to handle in the cramped office quarters. through some misunderstanding, which has to this day never been explained, the crowd, many thousands of men, women and children, were denied admittance to the large wheat pit of the open board of trade, which, it was understood, had been reserved for their use. it was a heart-rending sight, as from early morning till late afternoon they waited in the halls and corridors and outside in the streets. at first in dumb patience and afterwards in bewilderment, but all along with unexampled gentleness and quietness.
at this point, mr. john fitzpatrick, president of the chicago federation of labor, took hold of a situation already difficult, and which might soon have become dangerous. he explained to the crowd that everyone would be attended to in their various district halls, and that all vouchers already out would be redeemed. this relieved the tension, but the joint strike committee were driven to take over at once the question of relief, so that none should be reduced to accept that hunger bargain, which, as mrs. robins put it, meant the surrender of civilization.
with such an immense number of strike-bound families to support, the utmost economy of resources was necessary, and it was resolved hereafter to give out as little cash as possible, but to follow the example of the united mine workers and others and open commissary stations. this plan was carried out, and more than any other one plan, saved the day. benefits were handed over, in the form of groceries on a fixed ration scale. as far as we know, such a plan had never before been adapted to the needs of women and children, nor carried out by organized labor for the benefit of a large unorganized group. of the economy of the system there is no question, seeing that a well-organized committee can always purchase supplies in quantities at wholesale price, sometimes at cost price, and frequently can, as was done in this instance, draw upon the good feeling of merchants and dealers, and receive large contributions of bread, flour, coal and other commodities. commissary stations were established in different localities. here is a sample ration as furnished at one of the stores, although, thanks to the kindness of friends, the allowance actually supplied was of a much more varied character:
bread 18 loaves
coffee 1 lb.
sugar 5 lbs.
beans 5 lbs.
oatmeal 2 pkgs. (large)
ham 10 lbs.
for italians, oatmeal was replaced by spaghetti, and kosher food for those of the orthodox jewish faith was arranged for through orders upon local grocery stores and kosher butchers in the jewish quarter. the tickets entitling to supplies were issued through the shop chairman at the local halls to those strikers known to be in greatest need.
the commissary plan, however, still left untouched such matters as rent, fuel, gas, and likewise the necessities of the single young men and girls. also the little babies and the nursing mothers, who needed fresh milk, had to be thought of and provided for. there were certain strictly brought up, self-respecting little foreign girls who explained with tears that they could not take an order on a restaurant where there were strange people about, because "it would not be decent," a terrible criticism on so many of our public eating places. so a small separate fund was collected which gave two dollars a week per head, to tide over the time of trouble for some of these sorely pressed ones. there was a committee on milk for babies, and another on rent, and the league handled the question of coal.
with these necessities provided for, the strikers settled down to a test of slow endurance. picketing went on as before, and although arrests were numerous, and fines followed in the train of arrests, the police and the court situation was at no time so acute as it had been in either new york or philadelphia.
the heroism shown by many of the strikers and their families it would be hard to overestimate. small inconveniences were made light of. families on strike themselves, or the friends of strikers would crush into yet tighter quarters so that a couple of boys or two or three girls out of work might crowd into the vacated room, and so have a shelter over their heads "till the strike was over." a league member found her way one bitter afternoon in december to one home where lay an italian woman in bed with a new-born baby and three other children, aged three, four and five years respectively, surrounding her. there was neither food nor fuel in the house. on the bed were three letters from the husband's employer, offering to raise his old pay from fifteen to thirty dollars per week, if he would go back to work and so help to break the strike. the wife spoke with pride of the husband's refusal to be a traitor. "it is not only bread we give the children. we live not by bread alone. we live by freedom, and i will fight for it though i die to give it to my children." and this woman's baby was one of 1,250 babies born into strikers' homes that winter.
to me those long months were like nothing so much as like living in a besieged city. there was the same planning for the obtaining of food, and making it last as long as possible, the same pinched, wan faces, the same hunger illnesses, the same laying of little ones into baby graves. and again, besides the home problems, there was the same difficulty of getting at the real news, knowing the meaning of what was going on, the same heart-wearing alternations of hope and dread.
through it all, moreover, persisted the sense that this was something more than an industrial rising, although it was mainly so. it was likewise the uprising of a foreign people, oppressed and despised. it was the tragedy of the immigrant, his high hopes of liberty and prosperity in the new land blighted, finding himself in america, but not of america.
by the end of november the manufacturers were beginning to tire of watching their idle machinery, and the tale of unfilled orders grew monotonous. there began to be grumbles from the public against the disastrous effects upon business of the long-continued struggle. alderman merriam succeeded in having the city council bring about a conference of the parties to the strike "to the end that a just and lasting settlement of the points in controversy may be made."
messrs hart, schaffner and marx, a firm employing in forty-eight shops between eight and nine thousand workers, agreed to meet with the committee and the labor leaders. after long hours of conferring a tentative agreement was at length arrived at, signed by the representatives of all parties, approved by the chicago federation of labor, and, when referred to the army of strikers for their confirmation, was by them rejected. indeed the great majority refused even to vote upon it at all. this was indeed a body blow to the hopes of peace. for the unfavorable attitude of the strikers there were, however, several reasons. the agreement, such as it was, did not affect quite a fourth of the whole number of workers who were out, and a regular stampede back to work of the rest, with no guarantee at all, was greatly to be dreaded. again, a clause discriminating against all who it should be decided had been guilty of violence during the strike, gave deep offense. it was felt to be adding insult to injury, to allude to violence during a struggle conducted so quietly and with such dignity and self-restraint. but a further explanation lay in the attitude of mind of the strikers themselves. the idea of compromise was new to them, and the acceptance of any compromise was a way out of the difficulty, that was not for one moment to be considered. thus it came about that a settlement that many an old experienced organization would have accepted was ruled quite out of court by these new and ardent converts to trade unionism, who were prepared to go on, facing destitution, rather than yield a jot of what seemed to them an essential principle.
organized labor, indeed, realized fully the seriousness of the situation. the leaders had used their utmost influence to have the agreement accepted, and their advice had been set aside.
what view, then, was taken of this development of these central bodies and by the affiliated trades of the city, who were all taxing themselves severely both in time and money for the support of the strike?
the democracy of labor was on this occasion indeed justified of its children, and the supreme right of the strikers to make the final decision on their own affairs and abide by the consequences was maintained. plans were laid for continuing the commissary stores, and just at this stage there was received from the united garment workers the sum of $4,000 for the support of the stores. the strikers were also encouraged to hold out when on january 9 the firm of sturm-mayer signed up and took back about five hundred workers. also, a committee of the state senate began an inquiry into the strike, thus further educating the public into an understanding of the causes lying back of all the discontent, and accounting for much of the determination not to give in.
all the same, the prospects seemed very dark, and the strikers and their leaders had settled down to a steady, dogged resistance. it was like nothing in the world so much as holding a besieged city, and the outcome was as uncertain, and depended upon the possibility of obtaining for the beleaguered ones supplies of the primitive necessaries of life, food and fuel. and the fort was held until about the middle of january came the news that hart, schaffner and marx had opened up negotiations, and presently an agreement was signed, and their thousands of employés were back at work.
they were back at work under an agreement, which, while it did not, strictly speaking, recognize the union, did not discriminate against members of the union. nay, as the workers had to have representation and representatives, it was soon found that in practice it was only through their organization that the workers could express themselves at all.
this is not the place in which to enlarge upon the remarkable success which has attended the working out of this memorable agreement. it is enough to say that ever since all dealings between the firm and their employés have been conducted upon the principle of collective bargaining.
the agreement with messrs. hart, schaffner and marx was signed on january 14, 1911, and the joint conference board then bent all its efforts towards some settlement with houses of the wholesale clothiers' association and the national tailors' association for the twenty or thirty thousand strikers still out.
suddenly, without any warning the strike was terminated. how and why it has never been explained, even to those most interested in its support. all that is known is that on february 3 the strike was called off at a meeting of the strikers' executive committee, at which mr. t.a. rickert, president of the united garment workers of america, and his organizers, were present. this was done, without consulting the joint conference board, which for fourteen weeks had had charge of the strike, and which was composed of representatives from the united garment workers of america, the garment workers' local district council, the strikers' own executive committee, the chicago federation of labor, and the women's trade union league.
this meant the close of the struggle. three out of the four commissary stations were closed the following day, and the fourth a week later.
as regards the great mass of strikers then left, it was but a hunger bargain. they had to return to work without any guarantee for fair treatment, without any agency through which grievances could be dealt with, or even brought before the employers. and hundreds of the workers had not even the poor comfort that they could go back. business was disorganized, work was slack, and the association houses would not even try to make room for their rebellious employés. the refusal of work would be made more bitter by the manner of its refusal. several were met with the gibe, "you're a good speaker, go down to your halls, they want you there." one employer actually invited a returned striker into his private office, shook hands with him as if in welcome, and then told him it was his last visit, he might go!
the beginning of the present stage of the industrial rebellion among working-women in the united states may be said to have been made with the immense garment-workers' strikes. all have been strikes of the unorganized, the common theory that strikes must have their origin in the mischief-breeding activities of the walking delegate finding no confirmation here. they were strikes of people who knew not what a union was, making protest in the only way known to them against intolerable conditions, and the strikers were mostly very young women. one most significant fact was that they had the support of a national body of trade-union women, banded together in a federation, working on the one hand with organized labor, and on the other bringing in as helpers large groups of outside women. such measure of success as came to the strikers, and the indirect strengthening of the woman's cause, which has since borne such fruit, was in great part due to the splendid reinforcement of organized labor, through the efforts of this league of women's unions.
i need touch but lightly on the strikes in other branches of the sewing trades, where the history of the uprising was very similar.
in july, 1910, 70,000 cloak-makers of new york were out on strike for nine weeks asking shorter hours, increase of wages; and sanitary conditions in their workshops. all these and some minor demands were in the end granted by the manufacturers' association, who controlled the trade, but the settlement nearly went to pieces on the rock of union recognition. an arrangement was eventually arrived at, on the suggestion of mr. louis brandeis, that the principle of preference to unionists, first enforced in australia, should be embodied in the agreement. under this plan, union standards as to hours of labor, rates of wages and working conditions prevail, and, when hiring help, union men of the necessary qualifications and degree of skill must have precedence over non-union men. with the signing of the agreement the strike ended.
january, 1913, saw another group of garment-workers on strike in new york. this time there were included men and women in the men's garment trades, also the white-goods-workers, the wrapper and kimono-makers, and the ladies' waist-and dress-makers. there is no means of knowing how many workers were out at any one time, but the number was estimated at over 100,000. the white-goods-workers embraced the very youngest girls, raw immigrants from italy and russia, whom the manufacturers set to work as soon as they were able to put plain seams through the machine, and this was all the skill they ever attained. these children from their extreme youth and inexperience were peculiarly exposed to danger from the approaches of cadets of the underworld, and an appeal went out for a large number of women to patrol the streets, and see that the girls at least had the protection of their presence.
the employers belonging to the dress and waist manufacturers' association made terms with their people, after a struggle, under an agreement very similar to that described above in connection with the cloak-makers.
one of the most satisfactory results of the strikes among the garment-workers has been the standardizing of the trade wherever an agreement has been procured and steadily adhered to. it is not only that hours are shorter and wages improved, and the health and safety of the worker guarded, and work spread more evenly over the entire year, but the harassing dread of the cut without notice, and of wholesale, uncalled-for dismissals is removed. thus is an element of certainty and a sense of method and order introduced. above all, home-work is abolished.
in an unstandardized trade there can be no certainty as to wages and hours, while there is a constant tendency to level down under the pressure of unchecked competition from both above and below. there is too frequent breaking of factory laws and ignoring of the city's fire and health ordinances, because the unorganized workers dare not, on peril of losing their jobs, insist that laws and ordinances were made to be kept and not broken. also, in any trade where a profit can be made by giving out work, as in the sewing trades, we find, unless this is prevented by organization or legislation, an enormous amount of home-work, ill-paid and injurious to all, cutting down the wages of the factory hands, and involving the wholesale exploitation of children.
home-work the unions will have none of, and therefore, wherever the collective bargain has been struck and kept, there we find the giving out of work from the factory absolutely forbidden, the home guarded from the entrance of the contractor, motherhood respected, babyhood defended from the outrage of child labor, and a higher standard of living secured for the family by the higher and securer earnings of the normal breadwinners.
everywhere on the continent the results of these strikes have been felt, women's strikes as they have been for the most part. the trade unionists of this generation have been encouraged in realizing how much fight there was in these young girls. all labor has been inspired. in trade after trade unorganized workers have learned the meaning of the words "the solidarity of labor," and it has become to them an article of faith. whether it has been button-workers in muscatine, or corset-workers in kalamazoo, shoe-workers in st. louis, or textile-workers in lawrence, whether the struggle has been crowned with success or crushed into the dust of failure, the workers have been heartened to fight the more bravely because of the thrilling example set them by the garment-workers, and have thus brought the day of deliverance for all a little nearer hand.
again, from the atlantic to the pacific, the public has been taught many lessons. the immense newspaper publicity, which could never have been obtained except for a struggle on a stupendous scale, has proved a campaign of education for young and old, for business man and farmer, for lawyer and politician, for housewife and for student. it has left the manufacturer less cocksure of the soundness of his individualist philosophy. more often is he found explaining and even apologizing for industrial conditions, which of yore he would have ignored as non-existent. he can no longer claim from the public his aforetime undisputed privilege of running his own business as he pleases, without concern for either the wishes or the welfare of employés and community.
the results are also seen in the fact that it is now so much easier to get the workers' story across the footlights in smaller local struggles, such as those of the porcelain-workers in trenton and! the waitresses in chicago; in the increasing success in putting through legislation for the limitation of hours and the regulation of wages for the poorest paid in state after state. by state or by nation one body after another is set the task of doing something towards accounting for the unceasing industrial unrest, towards solving the general industrial problem. even if to some of us the remedial plans outlined seem to fall far short of the mark, they still are a beginning and are a foretaste of better things ahead.
the conferences and discussions on unemployment are an admission, however belated, that a society which has, in the interests of the privileged classes, permitted the exploitation of the worker, must face the consequences, bear some of the burden, and do its share towards preventing the continuance of the evil. we do not cure smallpox by punishing the patient, nor do we thus prevent its recurrence among others. we handle the disease both by treating the sick person himself, and by finding the causes that lead to its spread, and arresting these. industrial eruptive diseases have to be dealt with in like fashion, the cause sought for, and the social remedy applied fearlessly.