The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1910-10-16
POUND OF BACON
WEEKS RAT|0NS
AND DEATH FOR FATHER If HE
RETURNS TO WORk-oNE OF
TIE EVIL RESULTS OF TUE
cIGARMAKERS' STRIKE SIZE
FERlNG MOTHER MAKES A
STATEMENT.

put to the task of feeding ten nersons
from a strip of fat white bacon
weighing not more than twenty ounces
said strip being the entire rations
allotted the ten persons for a full
seven days, says the Tampa Times.
And how would you feel if, with
eight little ones and a wife calling
upon you for bread, and work were
offered you, and when you went to the
factory to go to work so that bread
might be provided you were met in
the street and told that if you entered
the portals of the factory you would
be killed-shot in the back?
A beautiful picture, isn't it? Enough
to make an average man run amuck.
Well, there's at least one case of the
kind right in this city today. Manv
cases, no doubt, but one of the suf-
ferers has the backbone to make an
open declaration. This person is Mrs.
Agnes M. Katz of 1923 Gray street,
West Tampa. Mrs. Katz came to The
Times Office this afternoon and pro.
duced the evidence-one strip of
greasy white bacon of a kind that
would make a lumberjack shudder
and drive INFO the sea any self-re-
specting H.EuT.
Mrs. katz's tsory.
THAT" said Mrs. katz, lis what /
was given at union headquarters to-
day as weekly rations for my family,
which consists of my husband, eight
children and myself. One of our fam
lily is an infant eight months old. II
is supposed to feed us for an entire
week. Now, my husband did not 20
on strike. He is not member of the
union, but he was swept out of his
employment by the recent strike and
lockout, and he is not allowed to re-
TIA, to work, being threatened with
death If he does so. He is not a cow
ard, but he dares not go to work. This
morning he determined to return to
work, hearing that the Val Antuono
would employ him, and he went to
Antuono's factory. He was met on
the sidewalk by a delegation. Are
you going to work in there?' one man
asked. Yes replied my husband. If
you do you will be shot down when
you come out he was told. Well,
can stay inside he said. Yes, you
may for a while, but when you do
swer given him.
so my husband concluded he had
better not take the chance, because
he feared 1t would leave me a widow
with large family to look after and
no work. l. was employed in one OF
the factories as stripper, prior to the
strike, and If l could get work now
there would be some chance. AS it
is, we are on the verge of starvation
Are the citizens of Tampa going
to put up with this condition any long
er." she went on excitedly. Are ther~
no men here to stop this awful state
of affairs? Have we got to starve be-
cause Of the headstrong atcion of these
foreigners? We are willing to work
and we don't ask the manufacturers
to let us run their business. But my
husband will be killed If he attempts
to earn bread for his little ones"
Mrs. Katz said they had not sought
any aid from the union relief organ
ization while they could do without
it. She said there had been times
when the relief was a little more
plentiful and varied, but today it was
bacon-fat bacon, and mighty little
of that.
Much SuffedIng In the City.
It does not need a trained observer
to find much poignant suffering in the
homes of the workmen who were en-
ployed in the cigar industry before
the strike. There are hundreds Of
cases similar to that Of Mrs. Katz. The
charitably inclined and the charity or
ganizations are overtaxed and still are
unable to afford the relief necessary
to stave off gaunt want AS the
strike period grows In length and the
small savings Of the more thrifty have
dwindled and faded away and credit
has been reduced to a thread which
snapped when the small grocer and
butcher and baker found his own
slender resources exhausted, the
gaunt figure of privation has looted
u pand the shadow Of starvation draws
closer to those who cannot hedp them
selves. And these conditions must en-
dure until the strike is over, amelio-
rated only by the all too feeble hand
of charity.