The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1910-08-23
Continued From Page One.
men, women and children whose
bread winners make women's suits
ond o1noJc

men, women and children whose
bread winners make women's suits
and cloaks.
Six weeks ago the bread winners
struck, just at the opening Of the
busy season. Seventy-five thousand
cutters, finishers and pressers am
swered the s'red call" to industrial
battle In desperate struggle for a
living wage.
From an unorganized mass of
toilers they have developed in that
six weeks into q compact, we'll or
ganized body. fighting shoulder to
shoulder with courage and loyalty,
helping each other stave off starva-
tion--the more fortunate and better
paid throwing in his lot with I'M
fortunates who face the wolf pack.
What does this mean to you?
Simply that every woman In the
United States will pay more for her
fall suit this year-and probably
more for her spring suit next year
-ashq Awo or five dollars more, de-
pending on the sort Of suit she buys.
It means that New York, as a
manufacturing center for women's
garments, has been hit another seri-
GUS blow. like that which came with
the strike Of 1893, developing this
industry in Chicago, Boston, Cleve-
land and st. Louis. Manufacturers
from all these cities are reaping a
harvest of orders.
It means that another vivid les
son of the conditions caused by Nc
observation-disclosures tariffs is be-
fJNpainted on the canvas for all
Who care to look.
It's a big strike to the quarter
million just now shaking hands
with starvation.
And it's still bigger, in the broad
sense, to the 90,000.000 all over the
United States indirectly affected.
It's more than 1ocal-it's sympto-
matte of a national condition.
Annie Lezwietz. striker on
picket duty arrested for assault"
doesn't know about the tariff. She
never heard of Mr.. Payne or Mr..
Oildrich. Schedule X" would sound
to her like an Esperanto password.
But she's out of work and suffering
Just now because Of Mr.. Payne's
neat and nifty all inclusive meas
ure. She can't live on what she
earned in her trade under old con-
ditions. While the cost of living
goes up. her pay has been coming
down. The other 1899 tell the
same story. srs
In the crowded, smoky strike
headquarters at Beethoven hall, in
East Fifth street, you'll meet most
of the $4,000 sooner or later. You'll
see hundreds of men whose rent is
overdue. whose families are threat.
ened with ejectment, who haven't
five cents in their pockets to buy
bread-BUT YOU WON'T FIND
ONE WHO is SORRY HE STRUCK
OR WANTS TO GO BACK-EX-
CEPT ON THE TERMS DE-
MANDED-THAT IS, A LIVING
WAGE.
Secretary J. L. Zimmerman, the
executive OF the strike committee.
tried to tell about the strike amid
that talking, jabbering, gesticulat-
ing mass of humanity in Beethoven
hall. Every half minute some one
pushed his way through the crowd,
past the sentinels at the end of the
tables and into the space where
clerks and volunteer workers were
solving the problems of the strikers
A few words to this man sent him
away happy, with the newsthat his
shop had settled. A short, crisp
'no" to this delegation answered
their excited plea to strike again,
over some trivial trouble in some
shop already settled.
"They don't know: they don't un-
derstand," he almost shouted above
the din. They want to quit again
because Of discrimination against
one man-something we can iron
out with the employer in five min
utes. We've got to hold them down,
to prove to the employer that we
mean to be fair"
Then more Interruptions, until
finally this quick, decisive man
waved back the scores still unan-
swered. grabbed his hat and made
for the door--to gobble little
lunch at $50 p. M, the first food
since breakfast. Over the sand
wiches and coffee he outlined the
strike.
six months ago we didn't have
5000 members in the unions now on
strike" he said. when the strike
was called July z, we didn't have
$4,000. but the day after we had
practically every man and woman
working in the industry-75,000 of
them. THEY STRUCK BECAUSE
THEY HAD TO, OR STARVE.
They were just a mass of morgan