The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1913-03-22
WITH THE STRIKERS.
BY Theresa Malkiel.

Judge, your honor" pleaded Sim
covitch, a striking tailor, before city
magistrate.
Your honor, my wife she is sick.
, have a letter from a doctor. / can
not move now; I cannot pay my rent.
I am out on strike. Your honor.
give me time.' -
You must move Thursday said
the Judge CURLY, without looking at
the doctors note.
Aye, ave. muttered Simcovitch.
Twenty years in America and now
on the street. For forty years I have
handled the needle and shears, hand
led them early and late, in season
and out of season, made heaps and
heaps Of new coats, fixed greater
heaps of old coats. Black and blue
and gray coats went through my
hands until the hands grew unsteady,
my eyesight dim.
II am on strike,' he continued
mournfully, addressing nobody in par
ticular, mot because I have anything
against my boss. I am in no position
to make terms now. know my
days have gone. I cannot keep up
with the younger men. I ought to
be glad to get as much as my boss
gives me; 1 don't know If anybody
would give me even that much.
do you know what it means to
work forty years at making coats ?
What have to show for all my work ?
Where is 1t all gone to? Who bene-
fitted by it? There's nobody that can
say I did. 1 have never known what
it means to have an extra dollar in
my pocket. The money I made dur
ing the season went for food, cloth
ing and the payment of debts. When
I was idle, I had to borrow all the
time. What I would buy during the
season would go to the pawnshop in
time Of slack. Everything went there.
Fanny's ring, her suit, my coat, the
new bedspread, the curtains, the blue
and white tablecloth, the locket with
my dead child's picture in it, and
feet.
~ was a good tailor in my days. I
am a schneider fon zu house, and
now my Fanny is sick, the landlord
is dispossessing me, the needle and
shears are idle. I am a striker.
mot that I am complaining against
the strike. The tailors had to strike;
their patience came to an end; they
could not go on as they did. And who
am to go scab on them? Not that
I was better off than the rest, but I
am an elderly man.
Eyes, yes, your honor. I'm going!
But where? To take my sick wife in
to the street. It is cold; we have NO
coats. Yes, no coats after making
coats for forty years. I have not one
to put on my back.
II did not have to strike, you say
But I am only one in a hundred
thousand They were made to strike
by the landlords, the butchers, the
grocers, the bakers. Everybody
wanted more money. They did not
have it.; they could not steal it; they
had to strike for it. I have to be
satisfied with what I get. I am an
elderly man; my days are over. ]
am glad when I can get ten coats
finished a day, 9 cents a coat, 90
cents a day; pretty good for an ell
derby man. but old people, too, have
to live unless you kill them outright
starvation stares me in the face
You say. I'm almost used to starve
~
was out of work for eighteen weeks
last winter. That time it wasn't my
fault. I wanted to work. I would
like to work now, too. I'm no idler
but a man must have enough to cal
when he works; the tailors did no.
get it and they quit.
Your honor, Fanny is sick. tel
you I cannot move. I have no plac.
to move to. Give me time. Don't yol
see, We must win the strike. I wan
to work, will work, I will pay
1.-THE fellow talks too much; remove
him." ordered the Judge-From Tn,
Painter and Decorator Magazine.
/ It is to alleviate such conditions a.
described in this story that a bill il
now before the New York legislature
backed by the Committee on Conges
ton Of Population. The effect Of tn,
bill if passed will be to force holders
of unimproved land to improve, thu
increasing demand for labor and in
creasing housing accommodation. In
creased demand for labor will meal
higher wages and increased housing
accommodation, lower rents. Tn,
bill is not all that it should be. L
only provides that improvements b,
assessed for taxation at a lower rat,
than land values. Still it's enactmen
will prevent the landlord from takinf
quite so much from the workers ant
leave them more than they have nov
for necessities. Yet there are emin
emily respectable New Workers wht
out of sordid greed, oppose the meas
ure. The Allied Real Estate Interest.
is the title of one of these organized
opponents, which is devoting its eff
forts toward the perpetuation of mis-
cry and distress.