The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-08-17
Ten Days in Workhouse

| rule IS, that prisoners must be count
ed morning, noon and night, and a
dozen other times. We knew no end
of counting. When we awoke, when
we went to sleep, and during the
night; before breakfast, lunch, sup
per; when the matrons changed shifts,
three times a day, etc., etc. In our
sleep we dreamt of counting.
One matron especially had great
trouble. She could not count US. Some
times there were more than there
should have been, sometimes less. It
was easy counting up to thirty. After
that-confusion. And so, for Is or 20
minutes, we'd be counted over and
over again. That was the chief COM
edy feature of the workhouse.
The Appeal.
So the days passed, more quickly
than we had ever thought they would.
We who were to serve 10 days had not
thought of an appeal in our case. We
were therefore gladly surprised when,
on Friday, days after our arrival,
all of u.s.. with the exception of the
two comrades sentenced to six months,
were released, and bid farewell to our
prison quarters.
1t was over, now. We had gone in,
full of spirit and enthusiasm: we
came out with our spirit undampened,
though lack Of air and nourishment
may have weakened us a little physi-
cally. If the police and the Judge had
thought to weaken our morale, they
succeeded only in strengthening it and
making us more class conscious po-
litically. If the dark and sinister
forces of the right wing had hoped
to break US away from our allegiance
to the New York Joint Board, to the
militant fighting leadership of the
left wing, they succeeded only in for
tjfying us in our convictions.
We had turned our prison quarters
into class room where we reviewed
again the meaning of the fight being
Waged in the needle trades; where
we lt%ined once rove tho n;eaning of
the alliance between the government
aGcrta in New YORK, the bosses, the
trade union bureaucracy; where I'VE
tried to drill ourselves in preparation
for further struggle.
We had not been overtaken by am
calamity. The workhouse is not
a home, and Imprisonment is not free
aoln; but to spend there , days, or
10 days, or Is days, if need be- is not
a fearful evil. On the contrary we had
been enriched by this experience, and
not one of us regretted that we had
stuck"
To Continue Fight.
On the night of our release, when
we came together at Unity House,
where a welcome had been arranged
for US, we felt there was only one
thing further to say Our comrades
must go on, must continue the fight.
In the ranks of the militant, class
conscious workers there must be nc
weakening. Ours is the vital task of
maintaining the militancy, the class
character of our union, preventing its
degeneration into a company union;
Of maintaining the rights of workers
to strike and picket, against the COM
bined forces of police, courts, gang
sters, socialist betrayers, the reac-
! tionary officialdom of the A. F. of l..
It is not battle of a day, nor is
it conferred only in the fur market.
1t is part of the fight being waged
throughout the entire labor move
ment. And we must look beyond it.
We must enter the broader struggle
OIL the industrial and political field
against capitalism as a whole, and
"stick" in unity and solidarity until
the entire system of capitalist OPP
preston and exploitation is destroyed.
Tho End