You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Sunday March 5, 1905
From The Labor World: Striking Cap Makers Deserve Financial Support
Rose Schneiderman
Members of the Cloth Hat and Cap Makers Union of New York City, in a brave stand against
Parryism, have been on the picket line through the bitter winter cold and are now making a request for financial aid from the unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. Samuel Gompers has endorsed this appeal stating that donations made to the union will be used to supply the necessities of life for the strikers and their families.
This union has recently elected a young woman, Miss Rose Schneiderman, to its executive board, one of the few women in the nation to be so elected. This young woman is the sole support of her widowed mother and fatherless siblings. She can now be found out on the picket line despite the bitter cold. When asked by policeman if it wasn't, perhaps, too cold to be standing out side for so long a time, Miss Schneiderman replied that she wasn't cold and that it was her job to stand there just as it was his to safeguard the peace.
From the Duluth Labor World of March 4, 1905:
GOMPERS ASKS HELP FOR BRAVE STRIKERS
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United Cloth Hat and Cap Makers
Deserving of Financial Support.
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Union is Making Gallant and Determined
Struggle Against Parryism.
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Max Zuckerman
General Secretary
Cloth Hat and Cap Makers Union
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Washington, D. C., March 2.-The executive council of the American Federation of Labor has endorsed the appeal sent out by the United Cloth Hat and Cap Makers of New York who are making a desperate struggle against the "open shop."
Mr. Gompers states that whatever money is received by the union will be used for buying the barest necessities of life for the strikers and their children. He believes that a fair response from organized labor will bring victory to the hatters, and to the great cause of labor.
M. Zuckerman, the secretary of the union, whose address is 62 East Fourth street, New York, states in the appeal:
Eighteen hundred cloth hat and cap makers, members of the United Cloth Hat and Cap Makers of North America, have been on strike for three months. We have had union shop agreements with our employers for several years, the result of our organized effort. In these struggles we have expended thousands upon thousands of dollars.
The combination of the manufacturers in and about New York City have sought the destruction of our unions, and declared for the so-called "open shop." It is against this effort our members have been contending for the past three months. Not only the Manufacturers' Association but the elements, the severe winter, has been against us. The spirit of our members is undaunted. Out of the eighteen hundred who originally went on strike, scarcely a dozen have deserted the ranks in all that time.
Besides the eighteen hundred people on strike, there are nearly five thousand-their wives and children-dependent upon them for sustenance. Victory is nearly at hand. All our heroic striking members ask is that they may be given bread, merely bread, so that the lives of themselves and their little ones may be sustained during the contest, and victory be the result.
When this contest, having been waged results in success, it will not only redound to the advantage and credit of the striking cloth hat and cap makers, but to the entire labor movement-the working people the country over.
In behalf of the strikers who are making this splendid contest for justice, for right and for principle, our organization appeals to all trade unions and trade unionists and friends, to come to our financial assistance as generously and as promptly as possible.
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[photograph added]
From The Shoe Workers' Journal of March 1905:
`
Frank Morrison and Samuel Gompers
From this month's edition of
The Shoe Workers' Journal we find the same appeal from Secretary Zuckerman dated Feb 17th which indicates that this strike has been on since about November 17th. The official response from the A. F. of L. Executive Council was also published:
Office of American Federation of Labor.
Washington, D. C, Feb. 18, 1905.
To Organized Labor of America:
The statements made In the above appeal are founded upon facts, and merit the sympathy and earnest co-operation and financial support of all trade unions, central bodies, and sympathizers with our cause. The unions are earnestly requested to promptly comply with the appeal, and to make as generous a donation as possible, but in any event to make some donation, and do so promptly, forwarding the same to M. Zuckerman, Secretary of the United Cloth Hat and Cap Makers of North America. Same will be immediately devoted to buying the barest necessities of life for the strikers and their children, and thus help to bring victory to their cause and to the great cause of labor.
By order of the Executive Council.
Fraternally yours,
SAM'L GOMPERS.
President American Federation of Labor.
Attest:
FRANK MORRISON,
Secretary.
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SOURCES
The Labor World
(Duluth, Minnesota)
-Mar 4, 1905
http://www.newspapers.com/...
All for One
-by Rose Schneiderman
-with Lucy Goldthwaite
NY, 1967
The Shoe Workers' Journal, Volume 6
Boot and Shoe Workers' Union, 1905
https://books.google.com/...
-From SWJ of March 1905:
https://books.google.com/...
IMAGES
Rose Schneiderman
http://bofarrell.net/...
Max Zuckerman
https://books.google.com/...
Morrison and Gompers
http://explorepahistory.com/...
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Rose Schneiderman Remembers the Strike
At the time that this strike began Rose Schneiderman, at the young age of 22, had only recently been elected to the General Executive board of the Cap Makers Union. She stated in her autobiography that she was the first woman in the entire trade-union movement to hold that position. She described going to work one day to find that her employers had declared the shop to be an "American Shop," that being the name given to the open shop in the U. S. Government Printing Office by President Teddy Roosevelt:
The term "American shop" was an extremely attractive slogan for those who were opposed to unions, because it made the union shop seem un-American.
The moment we entered and saw those signs, we took our belongings and left. A hall was rented at the Manhattan Lyceum and there we all gathered. The atmosphere was electric. An enthusiastic will to fight was in the air. Men embraced each other and pledged their mutual solidarity. The meeting ended with a strong and unanimous determination to return to work only when the union shop was guaranteed by the employers....
It was a terribly severe winter, I remember picketing in front of a shop on Greene Street near Washington Square. The wind was blowing fiercely and snow packed the sidewalks. A police officer came along and said, "Look, young lady, it's too cold for you to stand out here so long." I told him I wasn't cold and that it was my job to stand there just as it was his to safeguard the peace. He seemed both amused and amazed by my attitude.
A number of us spent every evening visiting union meetings to ask for help. The plasterers' union was the first we visited. They weren't used to ladies calling on them at their meetings and to our delighted surprise they stood up to greet us when we entered and again they stood up when we lift. We also visited the printers' union, the "Big Six," who held their meetings on Sunday afternoon. They were the elite of the unions and some of them were wearing silk hats when we called on them....
There was little money in our treasury and what there was was given to the married men, $6.00 a week. I, of course, had obligations at home [she was supporting her widowed mother and fatherless siblings] and did not see how I could stay out on strike for long. I told the officers that I would be glad to give my evenings to the strike but that I would have to work during the day. They were most understanding and even found me a place in the millinery industry which was not organized at that time.
After thirteen miserable weeks, the strike was settled. We won the same conditions we had had, which meant that employers could not hire non-union workers unless there were no union workers available. It was a defeat for the open shop but we had one bitter pill to swallow. That was to accept the presence of strike-breakers as co-workers in the factories.
Source
(See
One for All above.)
IMAGE
Rose Schneiderman, 1905
http://digital.cjh.org/...
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Bread and Roses-Kate Vikstrom
As we come marching, marching, unnumbered women dead
Go crying through our singing their ancient cry for bread.
Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew.
Yes, it is bread we fight for -- but we fight for roses, too!
-James Oppenheim
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