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Saturday October 9, 1915
From the Chicago Day Book: Chicago Police Work with Hired Sluggers
CHICAGO POLICE AND SLUGGERS WORK HAND
IN HAND AGAINST STRIKERS
By what right are orders being issued by the "man higher up" in the police department that no picketing shall be permitted in front of the Royal Tailors since there is no legal
injunction prohibiting it?
In a scene that beggared description, young girl strikers sobbed out protests and even tried to beat their way through with their slender fists while seven policemen shut off Sherman street and Fifth avenue to prevent picketing of the shops of the Royal Tailors last night.
And lined up against the curbstone, yellow taxicabs received girl strikebreakers through a narrow lane made by six husky sluggers and pulled away, giving the bribe of a few hours of luxury to the workers as a price of their disloyalty to their class.
Miss Elizabeth Tyler, who was with the twenty strikers making an investigation of alleged police brutality, begged of the police that the girls might be allowed to picket and policemen begged of her that she would take the girls off the street because "they didn't want to arrest them, but they had orders from 'higher up' that the girls were not to be permitted to pass the shop."
"We are fighting for our bread and butter. Don't you know what it means to us?" one slender girl of less than 20 screamed, while the tears stood in her glittering brown eyes. "Arrest me; throw me in jail; I don't care; I am going to picket. It is our bread and butter, I tell you. It is our duty. The scabs are taking our bread and butter from us. We ask only that we get a chance to fight for our bread and butter."
"Leave your hands off of me," another girl cried, as a husky, dissipated-looking slugger took her roughly by the arm and pushed her away. For a moment he tightened his grip And the tears brought by pain came into her eyes as she jerked loose. A few moments later she was crying hysterically as they stood around, a solid wall of fat, and told her to "get off the street or they would lock her up and she had a taste of what they would do the night before."
When Miss Tyler and the twenty girls came in pairs on Fifth avenue from Polk street they were permitted to walk around the block, but as they came through Sherman street to turn on Fifth avenue one mounted officer and six on foot, including a burly negro officer and a sergeant of police, stood lined up and informed the girls that they would not be permitted to walk back again.
The girls protested, but turned back. At Harrison and Sherman the same seven lined up to prevent the pickets walking again, on Sherman street.
"You cannot come through here," the sergeant said, and after the girls had been forced to go on he stated to a Day Book reporter that if they came two at a time it would be different, but a "crowd" couldn't be permitted.
The reporter passed this information to Miss Tyler and she started the girls out in pairs. At Fifth avenue, with The Day Book reporter trailing the first pair and a second pair several yards behind, the first passed the mounted policeman with the reporter, but the pair in the rear were stopped.
As though it had been prearranged, the Royal Tailor was disgorging its strikebreaking employes into the yellow taxicabs. The lane was surrounded by husky sluggers and the two girls in front were pushed to one side.
The girl who was hurt by the slugger protested. The police declared the pickets must leave the street. Girls cried out pleas that they be let alone to fight their own battle. Miss Tyler, representative of Chicago's club women, pleaded also. There was no more picketing.
Seven well-known clubwomen will watch picketing today as a result of the meeting of representatives of prominent women's clubs yesterday.
Several arrests were made of strikers yesterday.
Apparently finding hiring of taxis to send home strikebreakers too expensive, some of the clothing bosses have installed cots and commissary departments, turning the shops into lodging houses for their employes, who, in a few cases, have also been locked in the shops.
Committee of citizens appointed at meeting of strikers last night, met today to investigate charges of strikers that police were employing brutal methods to prevent the picketing.
More than fifty independent firms have signed up with the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, President Hillman stated, and others are negotiating. A mass meeting of the strikers will be held next Monday.
Hillman will see First Deputy Schuettler today in an endeavor to secure a license for a monster parade of the strikers next Monday, and on the same day a mass meeting will be held by the women's clubs to protest against police brutality.
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