New-York tribune., 1905-08-12
STRIKERS WIFE TALKS.
Says Conditions for Bakers Here
Worse than IN England or Russia.

Worse than an England or Russia.
81 vert % carry my husband his sumner one
,,p- He standing the bench kneadins
- with his eyes shut. He was so tired he
- balf asleep. ! saw big black cockroach run
= ne dough and he kneaded him right in saw
y -...s look what yUn knead in the bread He
- his ewes and pick the coczroach. and say
- 40 ] know what goes in the bread? I am
,-sfr. sleeDin
,t-s Rachel Cohen was the speaker, Up three
e~s+s a No 10 Norfolk-st- Mrs. Cohen is the
80 Of one ~ the striking East Side bakers She
:. prefty Lttle woman. and nice little woman
: orr one could tell from the neatness and cleanli-
IS Of her TWO little rooms OF which only one
81 outside windows. Mrs. Cohen was telling
something about the strike from the standpoint
of The bakers wife
Ny husband goes 70 work at z o'clock noon"
sad she. he gets back home at s O'Clock the
next morning For eighteen hours steady he is
AZ work While batch is baking re is
mixing another 10 go in the oven when the first
cones out He works half asleep. Lime ana dirt
and black beetles and cockroaches can drop down
from the ceiling in the dough. He is too sleepy
to know. ! have seen bakers come out of the
hakeshops with their eyes shut I've seen them
walkir' or the streets a-sleepn'.-
When ! took him his supper, he never Gated"
said Mrs. Cohen. pathetscally.
'Ee tired II was TOO hot. He cannot
stop work 10 eat He sets the pail beside him and
snatches bite or gulps down q swallow while
he IS kuea6ing the dough II a beetle fell in his
ovu coffee he would not know II, he is so tired
and the place is 50 dark The shop rs Underground.
L has no windows. no light. air; only that
awful heat from the furnaces. II is Ike hell
For SIX months he has worked there. and - place
has not been cleaned IN all that time Sle floor
has no, been swept Nothing has been washed
TIE -aan work without shirts. The shirt is q wet
-ar IN ten minutes. The sweat d-ips of their
fsres and bodies in the bread. But this place is
not SO bad as the one where he worked last win
Ter. There, when Il rained. he stood in water 10
his knees, and The water dripped from the san
i-arv pipes overhead I have seen il.
Nearly all me men have consumption Have
vol been 90 the strikers meeting al Grand Central
Palacee yese Did you see how they were all
young men, al those hundreds? No Fast Side
baker can work IN The bakeshops after he is thir-
r--fve wears old He has such a consumption
,ber thar he must quit or die What does he do
-hsr2 WAY, he peddles something. or his wife and
children 90 20 work, or he goes the charities
DO -he charities wish 70 support ali these con-
sun-ptire bakers? Why amt il cheaper for them
% force better condition for the bakers? No
bakeshoD can be underground in London The in
specIor comes every week there. II he found such
condition he would close that bakeshop that
minute Why should London take better cara OF
lis bread man New-York? In six wears in Amer
ics ne never saw an Inspector
Ny husband has worked in q bakeshop seven
sx N Russia and six IL England And yet no
where n Russia or England are the conditions
oac tor bakers As here II free Arnerica-nowhere
seven days II the week he worEs-no Sabbath OF
I thought America had free religion. Does the
Arne-lcaI public know that the East Side bakers
cannot make e SABBATH And on Yon Kippur the
day when every Jew the world over remembers
HE God and ms religion. the East Side baker is
working sun Has the public any idea OF that?
IN lie morning To- SIX hours. ne cannot eat. he
cannot sleep de is too tired. never can 20
szld poor Mrs c6hen. as II TINS were ne last
straw. We never can 90 out together for any
amusement, not even 10 see friend or take ride
or the streetcsr- he has no time. No friend can
ever come here. He must sleep.
The CDlsuuprlve bakers spit in the shops all
the time The heat Of the furnace dries the sputa
ng Tor the poJr bakers and their families. does
Il care nothing for itself Does Il want the East
lean public care nothing Tor justice or mercy
Does i care nothing T two thousand East Side
bakers have family life, no Sabbath. no hon
dsvs. eighteen hours. work q DAY ana consumption
WIN lie children op~such men make? How they
rusr love the country that gives their fathers
'Did I help the striker" said Mrs Cohen.
Not r-u-- only went two uUlS riots very
ron Tuesday I went with two hundred other
women bakers Orchard-st. We called
70 treu that they should sell Us bread. They
brought Us bread. out II Gao no uIll5n az 30
-her We called Scab bread, S2ab bread. We eat
scab breac, Give Us union bread 50 then
they called the police and the police clubheo rs
been any more bosses shops. you
cann0r scab bread IN America The police
ViI club sou i you Go.
ful ~ bread into the East SIDE TO sell dear
We women sent The boys. and they TOOK al MS
bread and threw il away. he was only an i Ita!ian
r-slcarf man The police would not pay aLtentlon
Il him vas sorrS for him for he was a poor
man. bur r. must learn not 70 scab.'
AroS- ~ ne East SIDE IS eating matZos, the Jew
- ,,-1es.-c-.5 F,ee5 v,hfch Is sold in the gro
ce-es Women VINO have time. knowledge and
good ovens are baking their own kosher bread