New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-02-14

they have only the plainest food. They
can only afford TO buy -four and po-
tatoe,. and the cheapest cuts OF meat.
! certainly would like to see them win
out. But we have all about reached
the end Of our row. They are all liv-
ing on Just as little as they possibly
can, and know some Of the women
60 hungry to give their share to the
lids. But the thing will have TO come
to an end very soon now. We can't
carry them along much longer"
/ ate luncheon with the boarding
house keeper of Carteret. An emf
rently respectable woman she was. IAN
American" and therefore having moth
Ing in common with "the foreigners"
/ had met. Her boarders were office
men, all Of them, and also respectable
and American"
"Why, don't know much about those
foreign women" she said to me in her
we'll bred way. Really, you know I
see very little Of them. Yes, under
stand they have been having quite
time. But | never meet them, so
don't know much about them. They
are all foreigners, you know" and the
boarding house lady trailed out of the
room in great dignity.
Then il occurred to me that the
Mayors wife might have something to
say about this issue that confronted
the majority of the people in the Bor-
ough Of Roosevelt. | called at Mayor
Hermann's home, "a nice brick house,
next to the schoolhouse in Chrome"
they had said. The Mayor was out,
and he had no wife, the middle-aged
woman who came to the door informed
me. She was his sister, she added.
mo, don't think any of the women
OF the town have done anything for
the strikers wives and their families
she replied In answer to my question.
Il don't know that there has been any
need. The strike Is over now, under
stand. Some Of the strikers went back
to work this morning, and | suppose
that Is an end Of it. You know there
have been three strikes in the last two
years. They are all foreigners, you
know" this, curiously, in the same tone
the boarding house lady used.
Yes, | heard some one say that the
women had taken a hand in it yester-
day morning." she smiled. "But sup
pose II Is all over with now. Everybody
has been very good to them, you know.
We feel that they ought to go back
now"
talked to one other American"
woman before left Chrome. She was
Mrs. Nevill, the wife Of the postmaster.
"A good deal of this sympathy for
the strikers is misplaced" said Mrs.
Nevill, who is a sweet-faced, placid
woman. owe who live here among the
foreigners know them best, and we
know they are just as much to blame
as the company. OF course, it was q
rather high price to pay, those two
lives that were lost, but still they must
learn to respect the laws of the coun-
try. The papers say those men were
unarmed. They may have been, but 1t
is pretty safe to say some of them
weren't. Why, at one OF their own
parties, some time ago, the Sheriff
lined the men up and found 40 per cent
of them carried weapons of some kind.
"But that is just the trouble in an
affair like this. The public gets only
one side. But we know these people
for what they are. Por instance, that
man DdDlh, anu the NOHldH anu Nhit
dren who went with him TO New York
to testify. Well, that woman wasn't
his wife. He has wife over in the old
country. You see, these people are
very immoral outfit. They just take ND
with each other. even if they have left
a husband or wife and children in the
cid country.
"And they are a very undesirable
class for citizens" she continued. We
sat in her front room, with a row of
enlarged crayon portraits staring down
at us. "They give town rather bad
name. And they never do anything to
build a town up. Their standards of
living are so bad, you know. Five or
six children, the mother and father and
half dozen men boarders all living to-
gether in two or three rooms. II is
awful the way they live. The kitchen
Is the dining room and living room,
too, and the other two rooms are full
of hunks or beds.
"Tney don't need any sympathy" she
went on; "they have plenty. They own
their own houses, most of them, and
they have money in the bank They
pretend to be in desperate straits. and
ell the time they have money in the
bank and won't touch it. That is Just
the way they are, you know. They beg
and steal rather than touch their own.
And then, too, they send lots of money
back to the old country. Yes, that IS
the worst part about 1t. They are al
ways taking money from the country