Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-01-29

two cities. The women over here who
know how to sew have taken warning
and are putting in their best ticks on the
personally conducted manufacture of their
summer shirt waists right now. Sewing
classes are filled up and the sewing ma
chine folks look happy.
In the meantime the shirt waist strike
dragS along. no nearer settlement now,
apparently. than 1T ever was. There is no
doubt on earth that the women shirt
waist operatives are miserably underpaid
but the manufacturers produce figures to
prove that the competition in their indus
try is SO great that they couldn't make a
living If they paid any higher wages to
their employees. Sympathy generally is
on the side OF the strikers over here; yet
a good many stories Of the carryings-on
of the striking girls don't get into the
papers at ALL Some of the >papers here
seek to make the world believe that the
dlsorderly strikers are being clapped into
is not the case. They are being sentenced
to terms on the island for down
right brutality in many instances.
Girls who want to work for what wages
they can get try to reach the places
where they have secured work. and they
are incontinently grabbed by the striking
women and have their hair tugged and
their faces scratched and their clothes
virtually torn from their bodies. 1t is
impossible for the police not to take cog
are many such cases every day.
There are some amazingly clever spell
binders among these striking shirt waist
making women. Mostly they are of the
Jewish race. and they have compelling,
stirring gift of eloquence. I have lis
tened to many of them as they ad-
dressed their fellowworkers in the strike.
and / could mention at least a dozen of
them who. if women ever do get the
vote. ought to be fitted for political dis
finnfinn nf fhof nSf.
lively superb eloquence.
l have always maintained that the
greatest orator ] ever listened to was a
Jewish striker, who held the attention
of this town about fifteen years ago. His
name was Joseph Barondess, and he was
the top man of the big strike at that
time of the New York cloakmakers,
nearly all of them of the tribe Of Israel.
Barondess was an absolute Demosthenes.
His eloquence was startling for its YER
satility, it's fervor. its meltingness, its
utter range of all of the tricks of the art
of oratory. He was able to move to
frenzy men who had no interest whatever
in the cause he was fighting for. He had
sort of prophet-like inspiration, beau
tiful voice, a plastic countenance that
was more Greek than Jewish, and every
other aid to perfect oratory.
1t Is notable at the meetings of these
shirt waist strikers TO see how immensely
the strikers themselves surpass In the
power of convincing speech the American
women of wealth and social station who
have interested themselves in their cause
For example, i have heard Inez Milhol-
land and Mrs. Belmont address the
strikers These women were earnest
enough, but there was little that was
pithy or convincing In their method OF
presenting the strikers cause. Directly
following them on the platform came
poorly dressed and no doubt underfed
girls, some Of them as young as sixteen
or seventeen years: and the amount of
actual power and passion and beseech-
ment and genuine moving eloquence they
showed made the mild talks of the other
women, their patronesses. as it were,
sound very vapid indeed by comparison.
CLARENCE L. CULLEN.