Among the chief contributors to a charitable institution are two
gentlemen manufacturers. One a Mr. W., the other a Mr. M. D.
In the clothing factory of Mr. W. about four hundred workers, men, women
and children, are employed. There the lowest wages are paid and a task
system, combined with subcontracting and piece work, compels the workers
to start at five in the morning, and if you pass at midnight you will
still see the lights burning and hear the heavy rolling of the machines.
In the Summer of 1913 the manufacturer took a trip to Europe, and when
he returned in September he found a considerable financial depression.
His men were employed only part of the time; many were discharged
altogether. The average pay of the men was three dollars to four dollars
per week, the women and girls one dollar and one dollar and fifty cents.
The Jewish holy days approached and as all the workingmen, as well as
their employers, were Jews, they were naturally very much worried how
the holy days were to be kept. Two weeks before the Day of Atonement
Mr. W. called into his office a few of his men and delivered himself of
the following:
"Boys, the holy days are coming. I am a Jew, a good Jew, and thought
that you all must be very anxious to get some more money in your pay
envelopes so that you may buy clothes for your women and children, and I
have decided to see that you all have plenty of work during the
following weeks."
The men cheered Mr. W.
"But," he continued, "on one condition, by reducing your prices fifteen
per cent. Times are hard. I have had enormous expenses. The holy days
are approaching. I have no doubt that all of you are good Jews and would
not want to shame your faith, so I hope that all is agreeable to you and
you can start to-morrow under the new condition."
Naturally the men refused and assembled in the halls of their union. The
leaders of that organisation could not believe that Mr. W. had said what
the men reported, though they knew the gentleman very well, and they
went to the manufacturer to get an explanation. I was then the Secretary
of a Tailor's Union. The result of the conference was that Mr. W.
repeated what he had said to his men and added that he saw that this was
the best opportunity to cut wages.
"They are all Jews--they will need money for the holy days, so they
have to submit. It's my best chance."
It so happened that the men kept well together and did not return to
work. They struck. Winter set in very early that cursed year, but the
men and women stood hunger and cold rather than submit to such
conditions. Weeks and weeks passed and Mr. W. made no effort to settle
with his men. We knew he had plenty of work. We knew he was sending work
to be done in the country places at ridiculously low prices. Still we
knew that there was work he could not send out. None of the men returned
to work; none of the other tailors worked there. We watched, and one day
we got hold of a newly arrived immigrant with a letter in his hand.
"Where are you going?" one of the pickets asked him, and innocently the
man showed his letter. A letter from the charity organisation to the
manufacturer in which he was told that the man had just come over, "and
will, let us hope, prove to be of the right kind."
The original is in the safe of Local 209 of the United Garment Workers
of America.
And then we learned that daily the institution sent men to break the
strike, to help the manufacturer who contributed a certain sum yearly to
charity because it costs less to do this than to use a strike-breakers'
agency. With the help of these institutions the men were beaten. For
thirty weeks through the cruel winter of 1913 they remained on strike.
When the temperature descended to thirty below zero men, women and
children stood naked and hungry. Illness killed them by the dozen. Some
of the young girls went on the streets, and the charity institution sent
the incoming and ignorant immigrants to the manufacturer, who worked
them SIXTEEN hours a day for five dollars or six dollars a week.
"Men, what are you doing?" I asked the managers of the institution. "You
are supposed to _help the poor_, the suffering, and not the
manufacturers."
"Yes," I was answered, "but this institution exists through the bounty
of the _rich_ and they are the first to be considered."
"Then this is a strike-breaking agency?"
"Call it what you will."
Then we went to the manufacturer.
"Have you no heart? You know that the cost of living is going up. How
can you reduce wages?"
The answer was: "First I am a business man, and as such I must try to
reduce the cost of production. I saw my opportunity. As to the high cost
of living, I am convinced that the chief reason for this is the high
cost of production, and in reducing the wages of the men I lower the
cost of production." Of course with such brutes discussion is useless.
But his parting words are interesting:
"Believe me, sir, I suffer to see my men in misery. You know I am a
heavy contributor to charity."
It was too much for me.
One more point in regard to the outcome of the strike. A certain
influential man of the city succeeded in bringing about a settlement
through arbitration. The workers selected two men, the manufacturer
another two and the editor of a Jewish newspaper presided. Mr. W. as
well as the workers agreed to submit to whatever the arbitration
committee should decide. On the third day a settlement was reached and
the men sent back to work, but when they arrived at the shops hired
toughs and detectives cruelly assaulted the starved tailors. Many were
carried to hospitals and others were arrested. The manufacturer himself
denied that he had ever agreed to submit to an arbitration committee,
though he had given his signature to a typewritten agreement.
Mr. M. D., the other gentleman manufacturer mentioned, is one of the
richest men in the country. He is a cigar manufacturer. For a long time
he was the president of a charitable organisation and is a heavy
contributor to every form of charity.
In the teeth of winter, 1914, he reduced the wages of his workingmen
twenty-five per cent. None of the English papers said a word, not a word
in the Jewish one, because the gentleman took the precaution to be a
shareholder in the publication. The result? A few more dead; a few more
on the street; a few more in the hospital; a few more dollars to
charity.
And that splendid gentleman, Mr. G., who put eight dollars in Amy's pay
envelope, a girl seventeen years old, and when Amy returned the money,
saying that only three dollars and sixty cents was due her he said:
"Well, well, for the rest of the money I want a kiss," and he took it,
and Amy is on the street now.
And Mr. G.? Ye poor of the land don't forget him in your daily prayers.
He helps the widow and the orphan.
In a controversy about white slavery I maintained that the chief reason
was the low wages paid to the girls, and this gentleman had the audacity
to state publicly that the real reason was the _high wage_ ($3) paid to
them; that they get used to luxury. A week after his statement a girl
found in a house of ill fame and brought before the Judge frankly stated
that she could not live on $3 per week and that this was the chief
reason for her downfall. Did Mr. G. not himself pay $4.40 (the
difference between $3.60 and $8.00) for a kiss? But that's why they give
money to charities. To be shielded, to be helped in case of a strike, to
procure a talisman.