Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1912-05-30
B anding The Friends
Of The Striking
Corset Workers

| kalamazoo, Mich, May u (Spl)
Anyone who takes sides with the
working class in it's struggle to keel
from being forced below the "bread
lin e." may expect to have their mo
tiVes questioned and their good name
discredited.
Here in Kalamazoo a loyal band OF
corset workers, mostly all girls, have
be en- fighting for living wage and
decent working conditions These
girls were new recruits to the organ
lied workers and the strike leader
Mi SIS Casey, a bright and active little
woman with her whole heart in the
cause of the workers, has used every
effort to get peacable settlement
of the difficulties.
Being a small city the leaders at
first thought that the citizens them
selves would take hand and help to
establish decent working conditions
for the seven or eight hundred girls
employed in the Kalamazoo Corset
Company factory-makers of "Amer-
lean Beauty" and Madam Grace
corsets.
The Ministerial Association has
been appealed to, and every effort
has been made to enlist the support
Of the "minently respectable" ele-
ment of the city.
While the strikers have been using
such methods, the "boss" has been
using the courts and the newspapers.
The offer to arbitrate has been ans
wered by an injunction against pick
citing.
Finally the worm has turned;
these girls have stood up for their
rights as American citizens, to walk
on their own streets and sidewalks
and to talk with their fellow citizens,
regardless of what any one man sees
fit to say about the matter. In
other words, they have taken the po-
sition that citizens have rights that
even a COURT must respect, and
that the fundamental laws of the
land are not to be set aside by any
lpse Dlxit, no matter what the
source.
The immediate result was the ar
rest OF 10 strikers, and their incar'
| .1IoAf~1 ;vo Aha nifv ioil
This move, as calculated, frighten
ed the remaining members at first
and It was undoubtedly figured out
that without their leaders the strik
ers would become disorganized and
the boss would win out. The best
laid plans of mice and men some
times go wrong.
With the arrest of the strike lead
ers a new element enters the fight
the socialists, and instead of vic
tory for the boss, the prospects looi
90 Cd now for a victory for the girls
THE trade unions of the city are raj
lying also, and it looks encouraging
OF course every effort is being
made by the master class to. dis
icre edit the active workers. Charges
Of seeking "notoriety", working fol
political effect" ETC., are freely cir
culated, and the usual methods usec
Of discrediting the active workers IL
behalf of the strikers.
The good citizens" who have qui
city stood by and watched the boss
in his effort to whip band OF work
ing girls into accepting any old condi
tion he is willing to give them in his
shop, and have never offered a wore
Of protest, are now very muct
sh ocked, some of them, because the
wife of the First Ward Alderman
mrs. G. H. Lockwood, is active IL
| this fight. THEY wouldn't do thing
like THAT-No, they would rather
see the girls forced on the streets
into white slavery than to come ou
and HELP THEM WIN A DECENT
LIVING. And they are willing X
bra and anyone who will help with
Improper motives and with improper
conduct.
Luckily, the wife Of the First Ware
Alderman don't give fig for thell
opinions, and will stay in the fight