You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Wednesday September 29, 1915
Chicago, Illinois - Cops on Horseback Charge into Ranks of Garment Strikers
The bosses claim only 2,000 garment workers have answered the strike call of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers; the Union insists that thousands are now on strike and thousands more will walk out as the strike goes general.
Meanwhile, Chicago's police force has joined the strike on the side of the bosses, clubbing and beating strikes and riding their horses onto the sidewalks and into a group of girls.
The Chicago Day Book reports:
Police brutality is already marking strike of the clothing workers that really only got under swing yesterday and is not yet a complete tie-up. Responding to the calls of the bosses for assistance in their attempt to break the nerve of the strikers, mounted cops rode up on the sidewalk into a crowd of girls; cops on foot charged with their clubs and fists into a crowd in front of Hirsch Wickwire & Co.; and cops on motorcycles rode on the sidewalk at strikers in front of Lamm & Co., Jackson and Peoria sts.
At Kuppenheimer's factory, 22, and Richmond sts., a boy of about 11 laughed his sympathy with the strikers. He was badly shaken up by the officers on duty there...
Lena Rosin and her sister Hilda, 1823 W. North av., were walking on the street opposite Kuppenheimer's when two motorcycle cops rode into them from behind. Lena's leg is bruised and Hilda's back is sprained. Tillie Katz, 1814 W. North av., claims she was poked in the back by Officers 3839 and 3598 as she walked along.
From today's Chicago Daily Tribune:
Below the fold our readers can find further reporting on the strike from
The Day Book.
From The Day Book of September 28, 1915:
30,000 WORKERS SHOW
THEIR DISCONTENT
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Claim of Bosses That Only Few Workers Were
Dissatisfied Gets Setback-Complete Tieup
of the Clothing Industry Threatened.
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Bessie Abramowitz
`````
Thirty thousand clothing workers out on strike was the answer the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, through their president, Sidney Hillman, made at 1 o'clock today to the claims of the organized clothing house bosses that only a few of the workers were discontented, and it is expected that a further strike order completely tying up the industry will be issued before night to take effect tomorrow morning.
Harrison street in front of Hod Carriers' hall was a black mass of men, women and girls. In the hall short meetings were being carried on in different rooms, where strikers were cheering speakers in enthusiastic outbursts and in the halls men and women pledged to each other a "fight to the finish."
On the Northwest Side Miss Bessie Abramovitz, chairman of the Northwest Garment Workers, issued strike orders for 10,000 to be out at 3 o'clock this afternoon. the northwest branch of Kuppenheimer will be called out at 2 o'clock.
She declared that 100 per cent of workers in the firms of Rosenwald & Weil, Ederheimer & Stein, Dande & Rosenthal, Continental clothiers, and Kuh, Nathan & Fischer had come out on call. Employes of Mayer Bros. walked out to find the police had responded to a call sent in, it is declared by the firm, and a wagonload of bluecoats with two mounted police dispersed 1,500 people.
Sidney Hillman
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[Sidney Hillman told a Day Book reporter:]
The claim of the manufacturers that the workers are not striking is ridiculous...They are deceiving themselves in trying to deceive the public. The manufacturers know by this time that we control the workers in the shops, in fact control everything in the clothing industry, with the exception of the statements of Martin P. Isaacs, attorney for the Manufacturers' ass'n, and they are made out of whole cloth. The situation looks better than we anticipated. It took five weeks to get the garment workers out in the strike of 1910. It took one hour each time we have issued strike orders to empty the shops selected this time.
A number of the independent clothing manufacturers have signed up with the Amalgamated, giving increased wages, shorter hours and other conditions for which the workers are striking. Levin-Maier Co. 318 W. Washington st., and Alschuler-Dryer, 307 W. Van Buren st., signed up this morning for their 500 employes.
All through the clothing factory districts the police were lined up strong to prevent distribution of handbills, parades or meetings. The usual police activity in making arrests has already marked the strike.
Morris Fagin, 20, 2204 Le Moyne, and Wm. Wast, 1736 W. Division st., were arrested at the order of Manager Casperowitz of Ederheimer, Stein & co, who accused them of blowing a whistle as a signal to the clothing workers to quit work.
Four striking tailors were arrested near W. Jackson blvd. and S. Clinton & Canal sts., charged with distributing handbills.
Watchman on duty in front of J. L. Taylor & co., 535 S. Franklin st., sent in police riot call when clothing workers left the factory. Before the Harrison st. cops got on the job the strikers had left the neighborhood.
Union officials explain the fact that strike orders are being issued at different times by the statement that they haven't had hall space to accommodate shop meetings of all workers.
On appeals from several manufacturers, police reserves were sent to factories in West Division st. and in West Jackson blvd. Six picketers arrested charged with loitering.
"Mother" Jones, angel of the miners, addressed the meeting in Hod Carriers' hall and promised she would tour the country and make every union empty its pockets to finance the fight.
The strike is said to be the largest in the history of the country, with the exception of the walkout of garment workers in New York city, and is the result of intolerable conditions that the bosses are declared to have imposed upon the workers in the past five years.
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[Photographs added.]
From The Day Book of September 29, 1915:
COPS AID THE BOSSES IN MONSTER STRIKE-
CHARGE GIRLS WITH THEIR HORSES
Police brutality is already marking strike of the clothing workers that really only got under swing yesterday and is not yet a complete tie-up. Responding to the calls of the bosses for assistance in their attempt to break the nerve of the strikers, mounted cops rode up on the sidewalk into a crowd of girls; cops on foot charged with their clubs and fists into a crowd in front of Hirsch Wickwire & Co.; and cops on motorcycles rode on the sidewalk at strikers in front of Lamm & Co., Jackson and Peoria sts.
At Kuppenheimer's factory, 22, and Richmond sts., a boy of about 11 laughed his sympathy with the strikers. He was badly shaken up by the officers on duty there.
At the corner of Van Buren and Peoria st. Joseph Novak, reporter Daily Spravedlnost, stood. There were two or three people around, but no crowd. Officer 1117 came up behind him and hit him with the club on the arm. Novak told the copper he was connected with the press and received an apology.
Lena Rosin and her sister Hilda, 1823 W. North av., were walking on the street opposite Kuppenheimer's when two motorcycle cops rode into them from behind. Lena's leg is bruised and Hilda's back is sprained. Tillie Katz, 1814 W. North av., claims she was poked in the back by Officers 3839 and 3598 as she walked along.
Sam Cohen, 1509 Laflin st., was clubbed over the head by an officer in front of Levi Bros., Winchester av.
In addition to the assistance being rendered by the Chicago police force in the battle of the bosses to intimidate the strikers, sluggers are being picked up in poolrooms by the strike breaking detective agencies.
A garment worker who wished his name withheld said he was approached in a poolroom and taken around to the different clothing plants, including E. V. Price, where the sluggers are stationed. He was offered from $3 to $4 a day and "easy work."
[Declared Sidney Hillman, president of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers:]
Police activity on behalf of the manufacturers is at high tide...Mounted cops are riding on the sidewalk at the girls, which shows they are getting their orders from headquarters. We expect police to preserve law and order but they are going beyond that and trying by brute force to help break the strike. We know the manufacturers have had a conference with the chief of police and this is evidently the answer.
Still maintaining that there are not more than 2,000 clothing workers out on strike, despite the thousands that poured out of 29 factories yesterday, the manufacturers are holding firm in their refusal to give workers the increase in wages, shorter hours and better working conditions they demand, or to arbitrate the situation with the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America.
John Fitzpatrick
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President John Fitzpatrick of the Chicago Federation of Labor put a soft pedal on the clamor of the bosses that the Amalgamated was not recognized by the federation and they therefore could not treat with that union. In a statement issued yesterday Fitzpatrick said:
Our men are in the strike now and we will be with the workers to the last ditch.
Workers in the New York branches of the Royal Tailors, Continental Tailoring Co., International Tailoring Co. and J. L. Taylor Co. were sent telegraphic orders for walk-out today by President Hillman of the Amalgamated to protect the striking garment workers here.
Mr. Hillman will see Chief of Police Healey today to arrange for permit for parade of strikers to pass through the wholesale clothing district and loop to show number of strikers actually out.
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[Photographs added.]
~~~~~~~~~~
SOURCE
The Day Book
(Chicago, Illinois)
-Sept 28, 1915
http://www.newspapers.com/...
-Sept 29, 1915
http://www.newspapers.com/...
IMAGES
Chicago Garment Strikers attacked
by police on horses, ISR, Nov 1915 (X2)
https://books.google.com/...
Garment Workers Make Strike,
Chicago Daily Tribune, Sept 29, 1915
http://www.newspapers.com/...
Bessie Abramowitz, ab 1910
http://jwa.org/...
Sidney Hillman
http://darrow.law.umn.edu/...
Mother Jones, Boston Glob, Jan 30, 1915
http://www.newspapers.com/...
John Fitzpatrick of Chicago Federation of Labor
http://www.gutenberg.org/...
See also:
The Clothing Workers of Chicago
1910-1922
-The Chicago Joint Board
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America
Chicago, 1922
https://books.google.com/...
Chapter V: The Strike of 1915
https://books.google.com/...
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Union Maid -
Billy Bragg, Mike & Ruthy Merenda,
Dar Williams, New York City Labor Chorus
Oh, you can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union,
I'm sticking to the union, I'm sticking to the union.
Oh, you can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union,
I'm sticking to the union 'til the day I die.
-Woody Guthrie
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