The wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-????, 1910-09-02

ing till late at night, in rain or snow
or sleet, in the district west of Fifth
Avenue and south of Thirty third
street, in New York, you could have
seen hundreds of thin, palefaced, i'll
and down the sidewalk in front of GER
tain doorways. And every day, had
you watched, you could have seen
scores of these half starved girls beaten
up by thugs and policemen. arrested,
fined by magistrates, and even sent to
the workhouse. These young girls, ever
marching to and fro-if they stopped
they were liable to arrest-were the
pickets of the Ladies' Waist-Makers
Union. which was a strike forty thou
sand strong-the biggest strike of wo-
men this country has known. The
contest was bitter one; the odds seem
ed all against the girls. But, despite
the menace and brutality of the police,
despite cold and hunger, you would not
have seen the number of these young
sentinels decrease. Some fell out, but
there We're volunteers in plenty to take
their places; and for a hundred days
this desperate marching to and fro
went on unbroken.
Had you stood on Fifth Avenue in
this same region on May Day. the in
ternational holiday of workers, you
would have seen a strangely different
procession. Past you there would have
tramped, as part of the May Day
Parade, an army of girls uniformed in
white shirt waists and red neckties-an
army three miles long. These were the
girls who had desperately paced this
same neighborhood half starved only
few months before; but now, as they
marched, they sang the workers Mar
seillaise,' and on thousands of faces
was the look of victory, for they had
won their striks.
This contest is an equitome of what
these girl strikers have achieved. To
show more definitely the extent and full
significance of their victory it will be
necessary to recall briefly the working
conditions that existed prior to the
strike, and also to recall the girl s
equipment for struggle. While in
many shops the conditions were good,
in the majority the girls worked amid
most pernicious sanitary surroundings
they were the victims Of a system of
fines (for being late or damaging goods)
that were vastly disproportionate to
any loss suffered by the employer; there
was in existence a subcontracting sys-
tenn which enabled the employer to pay
as low as two dollars week of sixty
hours; they worked ten, twelve, and
even more hours day; in the busy
season they did not get even one day :
rest a week; and at the best the ma
jority of these girls could count or
nothing better than four month Z
season of tense overwork, and eight
months in which they would be more
or less idle. AS to the preparedness OF
these girls for great strike, perhaps
! can suggest that by saying that whe1
| went to the office of the union a few
days before the strike was called,
found that the headquarters of thu
Ladies' Waist Makers Union of New
York was a corner, mere "deskroom, ,
in one very small office, and that tn,
general organizer, secretary, treasurer
and walking delegate were all combined
in one not very large man. This hard
working Pooh-Bah informed me that hi
union had an irregular, unenthusiasti
membership of about eight hundred
scattered throughout Greater New York
that ninety per cent were of foreigl
birth, more than half did not speal
English and that practically none O
them had any knowledge or experienc,
in union organization. Such was tn
fighting condition of the union when tn
long struggle with the four hundre,
manufacturers began.
With the struggle that followed. will
the girls sacrifice, suffering, and heroi
spirit, l have already acquainted tn
readers of The Outlook in "a previou
article. Though the union was so weak
the girls were ripe for revolt-and un
yielding revolt-and for fourteen week
amid the greatest hardships, they car
ried on the fight, and at length carrie,
it on to complete victory. At the tim
the strike was declared off, 354 employ
ers had signed the union s contract, an,
with very few exceptions all ha,
agreed to closed shop, to fifty-two
hour week, 10 raise of wages fror
twelve to fifteen per cent, to do ava,
, with the sub-contracting system an,
many other abuses, to limit night -wor
to two hours per day and not NOR
than twice a week. to nav week worker