The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1910-11-26
Out of Victims Mouths Are
Chicago Bosses Convicted


the character OF the work but upon
how much grinding down the worker
will stand. r used to work in many
shops COT one company and used to
Ffind the prices they paid, and I
learned that in one shop they paid,
more than in another--in one four
cents for scanning, in another three
and three-quarters. When I asked,
Why do you take less than in other
shops? they said: What can we do
One fellow said I don't work for
this The foreman said Get out! I
don't want you in the shop!' The rest
of the fellows said, we cannot do
anything. We want to make a living
That's the reason why they work for
three and three-quarters. I know
shop that pays s225 hundred for
certain kind of work and another
shop $1.75. The girls that took $225
couldn't make more than ten or eleven
dollars week even in the busy sea-
son. In Shop 20 they used to make
$1.75 a hundred. They make only
eight or nine dollars in the busy
season and in the slack season, three
or four dollars"
Another girl said: ~'As a pocket
maker was the only one on the
machine. He said I got too much
fifty cents a. hundred. At other
places he said they paid forty cents,
and it is a lie. He said, Listen what
l will do. You learn out somebody
else on the machine and don't tell
her you used to get fifty. cents, and
tell her you got forty cents I said:
No, she is just the same as me. I
will tell her the TRUTH Evidently
this girl recognized her kinship with
her fellow workers and it's obligations
and opportunities.
There Is q system of most unjust
fines. One girl, tiny miss of six
teen who led the strike of the canvas
basters in spite Of threats Of arrest,
said: 1--WE used to take five stitches
at time and afterward the man
ager told US. We should take only one
stitch at time and the girls did not
want to do that and when a girl took
two stitches she got no pay no mat
ter how much she had sewed"
1.-THE Smart Will Teach the FOOLISH
But why go on through all the list?
Send to the Women's Trade Union
league Of Chicago for it's little book
let which gives the stories of the
girls as they were taken down by a
court stenographer. Read the rec
ords' of overwork without extra pay
In the rush season, of starvation
wages in the slack season, of evasions
of the ten-hour law, of the brutality
OF foremen ana the fines for careless
ness out of all proportion to the en-
ployer's loss.
But more impressive than the re-
c1tal of abuses and more significant
than the revelation of the need of
organization was the spirit of help
fulness among the girls themselves.
This was shown by the manner in
which one would give way to another
even In the middle of a. thrilling re-
c1tal II the continuity of the story
demanded 1t; by the way i'm which
the listeners supplied missing words
In the vocabularies Of the speakers,
all Of whom spoke English with great
difficulty, but chiefly. I: thought, in
the speech of beautiful Italian wo-
man who, in telling of her brief ex-
perience as forewoman, preached a
real sermon. At the time she was
promoted from the ranks of the work.
ers, the boss said to her, "You fix up
the prices and make 1t as cheap as
you can. These people Che was en-
ploying chiefly Russian Jews at the
tfme) get pretty good wages. After
wards we will get italian people who
have just come from the old country
and don't know much. Try to get
them as cheap as you can. These
are greenhorns. If they make three
or four dollars week they will be
satisfied. The foolish. people (by
which he meant the helpless and the
inexperienced) pays the smart" As
the girl came to this part of her story
she drew herself up to her full height
and her eyes shone as she said, II
told him. The smart people will
teach the FOOLISH"
Will it not be better for us all
when this wonderful spirit OF CO.
operation finds expression in organiza-
ton instead of wearing itself out in
endless controversies with foremen
and bosses? -.~..::..'.