The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-03-03
By MOE BRAGIN.
CCONCLUSION.l

lLONCLOSAON.I
BY this time the boss had fished
Mary out as the worst ringleader.
The girls heard he was going to
fire her and her partner. He
changed his mind the last moment.
He fired another girl. He said she
was slow, that the boy working
with her had left, and so he didn't
need her plant operating. What
the boss was up to now was get
ting rid of all Il , militant workers
one by one.
That night the shop nucleus took
up the question of the firing and
the raise. First thing in the morn
ing they asked why the girl was
being fired now, when all the SIX
months she had been working he
had never said a word against her
work. Just then Mary walked in
from the street with her hat and
coat on. The girls turned to her.
The boss turned purple. He
shrieked, $50, that's your dele
gate?" He yelled for the button
hole maker and machinist, his
chief henchman and stoolpigeon.
He tried to slap Mary.
Mary says softly, Il came closer
to him daring him to slap me.
You got to show that spirit. L
took off my hat and coat and made
open agitation. The boss jumped
on me like a rooster. He grabbed
me by the shoulder. He slapped
me. L went for the hunchback's
neck"
The designer, another henchman,
kept saying, Shame, shame, fight
ing with an old man."
Little Mary, who does not weigh
more than a 100 pounds, became
hysterical If she could only have
gotten hold of his thick neck she
wouldn't have become SO hysterical.
A boss to strike her! ''You slave
driver, you'll" The girls screamed
and rushed forward to help her.
Suddenly the designer whispered,
Ssh, sit down, sit down"
There stood the riot squad.
The boss's son, the junior part
ner, flung bundle at her. Finish
this. Then CO."
The girls cried, ''No, We'll all go
now" They threw their stuff into
the box.
Mary walked up to the cops.
What do you want? You have no
business here. This is between us
and the boss. He slapped me-"
The cops looked at each other as
if to go. But they had been cal
led by the boss for their special
dirty business. They were the lead
in the boss club. Mary got her hat
and coat. A plainclothes man fol-
lowed her. He began showing her.
She showed back. Then cop and
a plainclothes man got hold of her
bodily. The girls flew to help her.
One cop grabbed Mary's sister by
the throat She tainted. Another
cop threw a girl over a machine.
Mary struggled to keep her feet on
the ground.
'The important thing was TO keep
my feet on the ground" Mary
says. II held on to the door as long
as I could. / kept fighting to
arouse the girls. The cops threw
me downstairs. Fly hand was
bleeding. 1 phonad the union right
away. We held q quick meeting
downstairs in front of the shop.
Workers from the street came
round to listen. A cop tried to ar
rest us. l yelled. We're fighting
for our bread He was afraid and
didn't stop us.
Lunch hour the operators, finish
ers, cutters and other crafts went
out on strike. The boss said to
the girls it wasn't his fault the po-
lice had come to arrest me. He
would bail me out. But they were
not fooled. Immediately we began
picketing. The young element,
girls never in q strike before, pick
eted side by side with the older
element, many of whom have been
working II years and were never
in similar struggle before"