This is the time for the workers of Passaic to consider the company union hokum as dished out by Mr. Reinhold of the Forstmann and Huffmann Co. For several years before the strike began the “representative assembly” applesauce had been swallowed by some of the workers of F and H. It had been so well disguised that the average worker simply did not know what he was getting.

When first introduced with fine phrases and lovely declarations of welfare and good faith some workers were inclined to take the bunk union and its face value. But latter when it produced nothing tangible for the workers, when the “representatives” turned into nothing but company succors, most of the workers began to see through it. They have been seeing it more clearly ever since—especially since the days when its dupes addressed a letter to Mr. Forstmann asking that he kindly permit them to slave for him and give them the necessary protection to scab! Little Tsar Nemo of Riot Act fame was Mr. Forstmanns answer to his faithful company union scabs. The veil was stripped completely off the “industrial democracy” professions of the F and H. Since then real meaning of the “representative assembly” has been as clear as daylight.

It is interesting to note what certain impartial economists and students who have studied the company unions say about them.

In his book “Economics for Citizenship” W. D. Moriarity, professor of Economics and Business Administration at the University of Washington, writes that “many employers want to isolate their men from the American Federation of Labor” and to keep them out of the labor movement. How do they do it? Let the professor tell us:  “They instituted in one form or another shop committees.”

Just like Forstmann’s “representative assembly".

What is the result? Prof. Moriarity tells us the result: “It gets rid of outside representatives of the national union and isolates the men in each shop from organized consultation or at least from representation at the conferences of each outside forces.”

What in plain English means that where the company union committees get started the real union committees are prevented from entering the factory.

Prof. Moriarity goes farther and explains that the company run shop committees have been used by the bosses “to get more and more control over labor.”

What are the functions of the dummy type of company unions such as they have at F. and H.? Let the professor explain again: “The shop committee is often made into a ‘rubber stamp’ committee to meet and listen to suggestions of a smooth welfare worker or some efficiency expert who must get the …….. cooperation of the men to put through planes that have been determined on (by the bosses). Sometimes too, its just a rubber stamp to satisfy the men that they are having something to say about things.”

A RUBBER STAMP—not a real workers union committee—is what millionaire Forstmann wants in his mills. His “representative assembly” is the ideal RUBBER STAMP.

We workers must decide whether we want to have rubber stamp committees or labor union committees. The first kind will serve Mr. Hoffman the second kind will serve us.

There are lots of other well-known economic writers who have discovered the tricks in the company union. Let us quote just one more. Mr. Earl J. Miller of the University of Illinois: “Many of the councils (company unions) are organized either to avoid dealing with existing unions or to prevent the union organization getting a foothold among the men.”

Which means that Mr. Forstmann and Mr. Reinhold have one end in view when they introduced the succor’s union—to head off and prevent REAL ORGANIZATION IN REAL UNIONS.

The vitality of the textile strike which is now in its eighteenth week was shown by the monster demonstration held in support of the strikers Sunday afternoon by the associated societies and Perishes of Passaic and vicinity that have come out openly for the workers in which over 20,000 took active part and another 30,000 lined the walks and crowded roofs and windows along the line of march.

It was the greatest demonstration ever held in Passaic and it was a demonstration that could never have been held without the tremendous power of the textile workers under the leadership of the united front committee in its organizer Albert Weisbord.

The march started at 2:30 in the afternoon and it took over two hours for line to pass. Several brass bands gave their services and a mile of automobiles gave evidence of the far reaching sympathy the strikers have created.

the Parade passed by the forest amend and Huffman mills and marched by the mansions of Julius Forstmann and Col. Johnson, the two bitterest enemies of the workers in the present conflict. It wild up in the first Ward Park where an estimated mass of people of over 35,000 cheered a dozen speakers mostly priests, who drew tremendous enthusiasm when they told the vast gathering that the workers must never go back to work until they can grow as a union

Among the speakers was Rev. John Wroblewsky, who has spoken often before the strikers and who has always urged them to stand by the united front committee and their leader Weisbord. He gave the same advice on Sunday and was loudly applauded and cheered.

Following are sentences by different speakers: “We don’t want a company union"; “Don’t go back till you have your own union"; “The mill owners drive the workers to organize"; “We must teach you not only the English language here in America but we must teach you that you must have a union"; "We have no time to live after the men work days and the women work nights in the mills"; “The bosses have everything while we have nothing’; “If you get your union you get your mills swept and kept clean if you do not get your union you will be in the same bad way as before"; “Do not listen to anybody except the LEADERS OF YOUR UNION"; “We want to work but we also want something for our work so we can live like decent Americans; when we get together we can win; the union must be permanent and all must belong to the union and it must always be the union of the workers; that a union be as strong as this Parade; and so on. These are sentences uttered by the priests.

G. K……… editor of Catholic ………. told the crowd that “you could not go to Sen. Edge or Edwards with your troubles. They are with the mill owners. You must have a political party of your own and elect workers, not lackeys of the bosses. Your ……….. will be helpless unless you have political power to back it.”

And the vast masses went wild with enthusiasm. The strikers…………………….

The bosses say that “common decency precludes any compromise with those who are responsible for the flood of civic and oral poison that has been poured into this community from ‘strike headquarters.’”

If the bosses have any sense of decency they would avoid the word as they would avoid fire.

For when it comes to decency, the mill barons have little to boast of.

Is it decent to pay your workers as low as $10 and $12 a week?

Is it decent to put women to work nights, to put pregnant women to work nights, because their necessity compels them to slave for you at lower wages than other workers?

Is it decent to discharge your workers when they come to you and ask for the abolition of the wage cuts?

Is it decent of you bosses to create such poverty that you are afraid to let congress investigate the conditions in the mills and in the city?

Is it decent of you to have such filthy conditions in the mills that workers faint from the smell of it?

Is it decent to pay your workers so little that they cannot buy milk for their babies?

Is it decent to keep living conditions so low that the death rate becomes 50% higher in your community than in any other part of the state of New Jersey?

Is it decent of you to pay the sheriff and gunmen to beat down the strikers whom you now try to coax back to your hell holes to renew their slavery?

Is it decent to command your mayors and police to club the workers when they ask for a chance to live?

Is it decent to throw gas bombs, and to turn the water hose on the workers in sub-zero weather?

Is it decent of you to close up our halls and institute a reign of terror that shames civilization?

Is it decent of you to refuse to talk the matter over with your workers when prominent men and women such as led the Parade Sunday beg of you to do your share in settling the strike?

We the workers have been decent at all times.

We have asked the most reasonable terms from you and have been ready to settle the strike at all times. We have invited the most through investigation of our work and asked that congress or any other agency find out for itself what we are doing and what we are asking.

Priests and bishops have been at our meetings and participated with us in our work or organization. They all report that we are asking only the fair thing.

The city council of Garfield has endorsed our demands. Prominent committees have endorsed our demands. The entire working class have endorsed our demands.

Forty-seven societies and churches have endorsed our demands.

The greatest demonstration in the history of the textile mill territory led by respected and reputable men in which sixty thousand of our citizens took part endorsed our demands.

All of these think that the United Front Committee and the strikers are decent. Their sense of decency is not outraged by being with us and supporting us. They differ with you fundamentally on your standard of decency. They have great doubts as to the purity of your decency.

You should be the last people on earth to talk about decency. You have not practiced it. You are not practicing it now.

You should be the last one to talk about “civic and oral poison that has been poured into this community.”

You have poured in that poison. Now you want to blame it on the workers. You have no sense of shame and no sense of decency.

It may be that the workers will some day refuse to talk with you. It may be that the priests and the councilmen will not consider you decent enough to talk to some day. You are skating on thin ice when you talk about decency.

The people of this community have had a lot of patience with you. It is not so certain that this patience will last forever.

The meeting at Belmont Park is for the children, but one sees many parents among the crowds of children. Most of them are mothers.

Here is a group of them. I hear them talking Polish and approach them. They are excited like children, and talk about recent events.

I ask them about yesterday’s picketing.

“Oh, people got clubbed badly. Lots of them. The Cossacks try to hit people on the legs as well as on the heads. But we won’t give in. We are strong. You know they have stores here for the strikers. We can get everything there. You cannot imagine how good and clever our strike committee is. They get everything for us. Now they are going to send some of our children away for vacation.”

The big Polish woman continued proudly, “Oh, were strong and we’ll stick to our fight until the bosses will have to give in. Yes, they are obstinate and bitter. Especially Forstmann, he’s still fat. Well, we can wait until he loses his fat, too.”

And after this joke they roar with laughter, these stolid Polish mothers. And their faces and eyes are full of resolution and boldness.

A father with a six-year-old son joins us.

“Tell me, what they talk about today, I don’t understand a word of English,” he says.

I explain the purpose of the meeting to tell the children about relief.

“I see.” he says. “Well, you know these committees of ours are awfully clever. They know everything. Just think. Now they want to give vacation to the kids.” And he nodded his head with pride and wonder.

“And Weisbord. It a simply hard to talk about him. He takes such care of us. Just think, we are living here, dark people. Nobody thought of us and our misery. The mill owners spit on us. But he thought of us and came to help us build a union. And what a head he’s got. You know, he’ got more brains in his little toe than all those mill officials put together.”

At this point a big Polish woman adds her words, “Yes, our people now say, ‘we have two gods, one in the sky. Another here—Weisbord.’”

The meeting starts and we listen to the speakers on the platform under the tall trees. The man with the six-year-old boy wants me to translate for him. He listens to my snatches of explanation and watches the speakers keenly, and applauds. He knows they are talking good things for the strikers and the strikers children. His face expresses deep, unlimited confidence in the “Committee,” the leaders, and an abounding faith in victory.

Stanislawa Piotrowska.

James H. Maurer, President of the Pennsylvania State Federation of Labor, stands strong for the Passaic strikers.

Addressing a mass meeting of union workers in the Harris Theatre, Pittsburgh, May 23, brother Maurer said that the workers of Passaic are “our brothers, fighting the common enemy of the working class. They must be supported. Wherever workers go on strike against the oppression and exploitation of the bosses, there is our fight. Of course we are with them.”

In a strong appeal for unity among all the workers, no matter in what kind of they are organized, brother Maurer said: “We cannot stand aside when our class is attacked. The battle of the Passaic textile workers is our battle.”

Speakers representing the educational department of the Pennsylvania State Federation of Labor have talked at strike meetings in Passaic and funds are being raised in Pennsylvania to help us in our struggle.

The world stands on tiptoe at the thrilling news of the engagement of Marguerite Bahnsen, daughter of Christian Bahnsen, owner of the Gera Mills and the New Jersey Worsted Mills.

Marguerite will marry a count of course. His name is Hon. Richard Dawney, son of Viscount Dawney of London.

So there is one chance gone fluey for a faithful mill worker to marry the bosses daughter.

This lady and her sister Marie have spent the winter in Europe rolling around in their dad’s money that he has squeezed out of the mill workers who are now on strike.

How could these mill barons buy titles for their daughters if the slaves did not work for them night and day? It couldn’t be done. These little girlies would have to earn their own living and behave themselves and not run around with rotten dukes and counts.

The union will give more to the workers and less to the decaying aristocracy of foreign countries.

Marguerite can have her count, but, by Heck, we are also going to have our union.

Last Sunday afternoon the Lawrence United Front Committee met at its new headquarters, 81a Common Street and with great enthusiasm elected three delegates to attend the big Amalgamation Conference of Textile Workers Organizations which will meet at Hotel Imperial, New York City on June 5^th and 6^th.

An immediate fund was raised by the organizations present to pay the expenses of the delegates.

It was the feeling of the Committee that all existing textile workers unions should amalgamate their forces.

That there should be one union for the textile industry embracing all skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled into one powerful organization.

An immediate campaign to organize the unorganized.

Conditions in the Lawrence mills are so bad that a strike is liable to break out any moment. because of this, the United Front has repeatedly urged the textile workers of Lawrence to become organized and prepared. Hundreds of workers have heeded the call but there are thousands of workers in Lawrence.

It is felt that this Conference will stimulate the workers to feel the necessity of becoming organized. That it will create a feeling of national solidarity. That it will break down the prejudice that has been existing between [one] union or another and become united into one solid organization to do away with:

Wage cutting, Long hours, Discharge of workers because of old age, Speeding and doubling up, Unemployment, Company unions.

And fight for:

More wages, Less hours, The right to work, The abolition of the speeding and doubling up systems, Sanitary conditions.

Fred E. Beal, Secretary.
United Front Committee of Textile Workers of Lawrence.

For many years we in the Print Works of the Pacific mill have been suffering from the poisoned gases and fumes. The windows of the Print works are shut, the air is thick with fumes that settle on the lungs and ruin the health of the workers.

Time and again we have been demanding that something be done. For several years now some workers have been demanding the Shop Council that a ventilation system be installed.

When the question was first brought up in the Shop Council, it was referred to the grievance committee. From this committee it traveled to the investigation committee. The result was that an investigation was finally made. An important looking person looked at the walls, scribbled something with his pencil, and promptly left. We waited for the ventilation system to be installed. We have now been waiting for years. We are still waiting.

The Shop council is evidently not very much interested in doing anything for the welfare of the workers. The council has been doing nothing but referring everything that we workers demanded to the management. The management is referring it to Dooms Day.

We the workers should not of be fooled any more by these tricks of the bosses. WE MUST HAVE A REAL UNION.—ONLY THE UNITED FRONT COMMITTEE OF TEXTILE WORKERS WILL BETTER OUR COND1TIONS.

With greetings to the Bulletin and success to the Passaic strikers, I am

A Worker in the Pacific Print Works.

Dear Fellow Workers,

I am a Lawrence worker employed in the Pacific mill. I would like to let you brave Passaic Strikers know some of our grievances. At the present time the mill owners are experimenting on one weaver taking charge of one hundred and three draper looms. This system will put some more weavers in the streets.

Of course the bosses like to [see] the army of unemployed grow bigger so that he can use the unemployed workers as a whip over the heads of those who are employed, to cut some more of their already small wages. This will mean some more profits to the millionaire bosses, more poverty to the workers.

The company union which we have in this mill does not oppose this. They take up petty grievances such as pieces of plaster that are about to fall from the ceiling or ridding the place of roaches.

I hope the day will come when the American Textile workers will learn to organize like the workers in other countries. England for instance, where before you can get a job a worker must show a union card. The union does not allow speed up systems, which put out thousands of workers into the streets. Organized labor dictates, not the bosses.

Pacific Mill Worker.

In the mills here in Lawrence the bosses hit upon a scheme how to make us work without getting any pay. They have here a rule that if you come to work one minuet late you are docked 15 but must work the remaining 14 minuets. If you are late 15 minuets you lose one hour.

Work here begins at 7:15 a. m. and there are always many workers who are late. This slave rule gives the bosses at the end of a year thousands of dollars of unpaid labor. The young workers are those that are hit the hardest by this ruling.

We have been getting the strike Bulletin from Passaic where they tell us about the union and the benefits the workers get through it.

Now if we in Lawrence had a union we would not have such rules or neck-breaking speed systems and maybe get more pay too. I think if the Class conscious workers in Lawrence would take some time and write some of the conditions here to the Bulletin so that everybody can read, it the workers will begin to think, and when they think they organize.

A Lawrence Mill Worker.

I am a worker of the United Piece and Dye Works. My conditions were very bad and had to work long hours, and poor Willie and I couldn’t eat or wear clothes just like I wished too. I couldn’t get any vacation. I couldn’t get any fresh air nor fresh food. I didn’t have any strength. I felt ill all the time and worked like a slave there. There was not any enjoyment at all. I come out on strike, and since I came out I get plenty of fresh air and plenty of sunshine. I get clothes and shoes for myself.

I learned a great deal about the bosses. They don’t care at all about the workers, for if they did they would give them a living wage and realize that the workers want to be organized into a union, and not a company union either. We are going to stick together and listen to our leader, Weisbord.

I have studied the history of the bosses and I know how they used to treat the slaves in olden times. But now they wouldn’t fool them anymore, I know, because, although I am a colored worker I stick together with the white workers because I see that all workers slave alike. The bosses tried all kinds of tricks to break us, but instead they united us. Fellow workers stick together! White or Colored, Italian or Polish.

By a Colored young Worker of Lodi.

We went out on strike 18 weeks ago protesting against wage cuts. We went out on strike because it was no longer possible for us to live with the miserly wages we were getting, and because we were fast becoming slaves for mill owners. Our wages were miserable enough without giving us another wage cut while mill owners profits were exceedingly higher than last year.

The mill owners drew their profits from the following sources:

1. Wage cuts.
2. Employing mothers and aged women for night work.
3. The employment of children who were under the age of 15 years and paying them less than half of the wages and doing the same work as a grown up.
4. By using the speed up system.
5. By keeping the mill in an unsanitary and unsafe condition.

For these reasons we went out on strike and for the same reasons we have been clubbed, beaten and terrorized with riot acts and other means.

These who call themselves 100% Americans say that we are foreigners who don’t belong here. I was born and bred in America and I would like to ask these mill owners and 100% Americans where I belong if I don’t belong here. Can they dictate where I belong and where I should go?

Then there is another thing I would like to ask these so-called 100% Americans, and that is what would they think of one of our greatest American statesman who on Sept. 30 1859 said: “Capital is stolen labor and its only function is to steal labor.” This man was Abraham Lincoln.

A Lodi Worker.

Tuesday, May 24^th, I read the article the bosses put in the newspapers entitled “Our position". In that article they said that they would have nothing to do with the United Front Committee, and that our union was not the kind of a union to have in their mills.

Well, I’d like to say this much to the bosses. The United Front Committee is made up of strikers 100 per cent, and the reason the bosses will not meet the United Front Committee is this. We have learned a whole lot in this strike, we have opened our eyes and the bosses seeing this, they cannot put anything over on the United Front Committee, refuse to meet with us. But they shall meet us in the end, and talk business. The kind of business that we will talk is, “ONE BIG TEXTILE UNION.” They must come off their high horses and decide to settle the strike once and for all.

The second point is this: They do not want a union in the mills. They said it was not the right kind of a Union. I know what they want. They want us to have what they call the notorious “Company Union,” in other words, A Bosses Fakers Union. We will not have it. It’s either “Our Union,” or the bosses can close down until they give in. we are ready to fight to a finish for OUR UNION in the Textile Mills.

P. M., A Young Striker.

I am a young striker, 17 years of age, and my mother was forced to go to work for $20 a week for 48 hours, and there are six of us in the family. When I reached the age of 14, I had to quit school and go to work to help my mother keep things going. I also had to work while going to school. I used to work every Saturday on a farm for $1.

When my father left us the ages stood as follows: three sisters of the ages of, 6, 8, 11. And two brothers, 10, 16; so you see that I was forced to quit school.

I went on strike because I worked in several mills and several departments and found out that I was just like a slave. Well, we know that we are going to win and better our conditions after we do win. I believe in all the mills young workers suffer the same, so here is a chance for all.

A Young Striker.

The young workers in the United Piece Dye Works is one of the most exploited workers of any mill. Young boys and girls from the ages of 12 to 16 have to work 11 to 13 hours a day under the most disgraceful conditions and wages ever known.

The following are a few instances why the young workers went out on strike.

The examining room of the U. P. D. W. employs about 100 girls. These girls get from 16 to 18¢ an hour. Their work is to scrub the spots from the silk with benzene. They do this from 10 to 12 hours per day. During this time the room is full of dust. The strong odor of benzene which goes down into the lungs causing consumption at an early age.

Numbers of young boys work in the Boil off Depot. This is one of the worst hell holes of the U P. D W. Here the young workers work for 33 to 35¢ per hour and from 12 to 14 hours a day. There is water continually dripping from the ceiling caused by the steam which fills the room. There are no lockers and they have no lunch hour. They eat their dampened lunch with one hand and handle wet silk and soap suds with the other. At quitting time they take off the wet working clothes and put on their street clothes which by this time are just as wet as the working clothes.

These exploited young workers are now on strike and will never go back until these inhuman conditions are completely wiped out!

A Lodi Young Worker.

The mill owners say that the United Front Committee is pouring a “flood of civic and moral poison” into this community. Look who is helping us. See all those priests. See the citizens in the parade. See Bainbridge Colby. See John Larkin Hughes. See Rabbi Wise. See James P. Walsh. See Senators LaFollete, Wheeler and Borah. See Rev. John Haynes Holmes. See the city councilmen of Garfield. See the whole working class of America.

The bosses seem to think we should be ashamed of this great company that is backing us in pouring “the flood of civic and moral poison” into this community that has been so gently and morally cared for by the mill owners.

If our crime is not too great, we might be forgiven some day, if not forgotten.

Fellow Workers:

After 18 weeks of wonderful fighting we, have made the bosses say that the workers can join a union. But the bosses want to own this union. They want to control it. And if the bosses own the union what good is it? Will a bosses union ever fight the boss? Will a bosses union ever strike for more wages or less hours?

The Textile Workers in the big cotton mill of Manchester. N. H. were forced into a bosses union. And what happened? This bosses union went to the boss and asked the boss to cut their wages 10 per cent. It was this bosses union that gave the bosses in Passaic the idea to cut our wages.

The Textile Workers in the big Pacific Mills in Lawchester, N. H. were forced into a bosses union. And what happened? The bosses not only cut wages 10% but also began to speed up the work. Woolen weavers running two looms, before are now forced to run six! In the cotton mill, weavers are running 120 looms each in some cases! Did the company Union fight this? No, the Company Union kissed the bosses boots and said what a great company the Pacific Mill was.

Right here in Passaic in the Forstmann-Huffmann Co. Plant we have a good example of what a bosses union means. In every room the boss had a sucker or spy. These spies were made “delegates” of the bosses union. They used to go to the boss and report every worker who kicked about his pay or who kicked about the long hours of work or who kicked about the night work for women or who kicked about the rotten stinking conditions in the mill. The Forstmann-Huffmann Co. Union like all of Company unions was a spy union. It was a scab union. It was a sucker union. All the honest workers of Forstmann & Huffmann have this bosses union. That’s why the Forstmann-Huffmann workers are such good strikers. They say, with us, “To Hell with the Company union.”

We don’t want a suckers union. We want a real union, a union of our own. Over 4,000,000 workers in this country have their own union. The textile workers in Paterson have their own union and if the textile workers can win a union in Paterson, we can win union in Passaic.

Without a union of our own we have no safety, no protection. The bosses make ten million promises. But they don’t keep one. They will cut wages again. They will fire all the good union fighters. They will crush us ten times worse than before. Only a union of our own will protect us. We will never go back until we have our own union.

Down with the bosses Company Union. Three cheers for the Workers Union!

UNITED FRONT COMMITTEE.

There maybe nothing rotten in Denmark but there is something very rotten in our public schools.

Reports come to us often and regularly of insults by the teachers to the strikers children and mean treatment and boss propaganda in the schools. This we might expect. The teachers on the whole do not know anything about the conditions in the homes or about the conditions in the mills where the parents of the children have to work.

A case has come to the headquarters of the United Front Committee that deserves attention.

Little Helen Wilda, 11 years old, living with her parents and seven other children in the family, was sent by the school nurse to the Memorial School dental office for treatment.

The girl tells this story:

“When I came in the dentist put me in the chair and pulled out two of my good teeth in the lower left jaw. This was not at all necessary. The tooth the nurse said should be pulled and the tooth that ached was on the other side, and he never pulled that. I didn’t want him to pull my good teeth. It hurt awfully and I cried.”

“Then he asked me for fifty cents and I said I did not have any money for my parents were on strike.”

“O, you are that kind, are you, he shouted and grabbed me by the throat and threw me on the floor. He hit me on the arm and these are the marks I have.”

This is a simple story, but a powerful one. The girl showed us her throat and arms, blue and black. We saw the marks made by this brute on that helpless girl. We saw the cavities where her sound teeth had been and we also saw the decaying tooth which should have been pulled.

If the citizens let cases like this go without attention, we will have little left of civilization. There is a move on foot to bring this brute lackey of the bosses to time. We shall find out if a school dentist can pull the wrong teeth and clutch the neck and arms of helpless little girls till they are black and blue and get away with it.

It is high time that someone came to the aid of these workers and their children. We are not ashamed of any man or woman who came from other cities or states or countries or other worlds to help cases like this. Are you?

The good people of Passaic and surrounding territory have not been aware of the hellish condition that the brutal bosses have gradually established in these parts.

But the day is at hand for a reckoning and now many of the sincere citizens have cast their lot with the workers, bringing pressure to bear upon the brutal bosses and helping the workers to organize for their own protection.

This is the title appearing over a leading editorial in the current issue of the Journal of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Worker’s affiliated with the American Federation of Labor.

This powerful trade union with over 142,000 members knows something about company unions. It has had first hand experience with them and it has found them a lie from beginning to end. So it warns its members and the entire trade union movement of this country against these snaky company committees. This is what it says:

THE COMPANY UNION LIE. The company union lie consists in holding that the company union confers the same benefits upon its members that the trade union does …………….

Members of organized labor—spokesmen for the trade union—admit that certain corporations, where trade unions are weak, are in fact rich enough and powerful enough to keep their workers as robots are kept. Their bodies can be consigned to company houses, their brains can be consigned to company experts. Their health can be consigned to company doctors, and their politics can be consigned to company directors. Their babies can be consigned to company hospitals, and their reading to company libraries. They can be born, if you please, INTO A NEW KIND OF SLAVERY, a slavery without slavery’s horror or physical pain and suffering, but no less a slavery of mind and spirit.

Then the Electrical Workers Journal quotes Father John A. Ryan of the National Catholic Welfare Council. Father Ryan is a friend of real trade unions, just as the Associated Societies and Parishes of Passaic and Vicinity is a friend of real unionism and the enemy of fake company unions such as the one Julius Forstmann put over on his workers in 1920. This is what Father Ryan says about such sucker organizations as the F & H “representative assembly":

“After more than three centuries there approaches a return to feudalism. The new feudalism is political and industrial. Not improbably it will be more or less benevolent! The lords of industry will realize at least for a considerable number of years that their position and profits will be more secure if they refrain from the cruder and coarser forms of injustice, and permit the dependent classes, both urban and rural, to obtain a moderate share of the products of industry. The masses will probably enjoy a slightly higher degree of economic welfare than has ever been within their reach before. But they will enjoy it at the expense of genuine freedom. The mind of the masses will have become A SLAVE MIND. Possibly this is the kind of society that we want in this country, but, it is not the kind that made and kept America free. It is emphatically not the kind of society that committed the destinies of the country, to the custody of Abraham Lincoln.”

The Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Journal then continues with its editorial as follows:

“All of us ought also to see clearly the dire consequences of a widespread placid acceptance of company unionism now. Such a stupid acceptance of company unionism will mean a drag and delay on industry and on political and traditional democracy.”

The company union, Passaic workers now understand clearly, is undemocratic, un-American, contrary to the traditions and practices of American labor. It is a complete surrender to the boss.

Our cry must continue: “Down with Forstmann’s joke of a union. Up with the real union—the union of the textile workers!”

Dear Fellow Workers:

Just a few lines to tell you about the hard life of us working ladies in the New Jersey Worsted Spinning Co. About the sanitary conditions in the mill—they are horrible. The roaches are as big as an animal and we had to put our lunch in the box where they were, with oil, too, and when a person ate it, he ate more wool and oil than food.

Once a wealthy person asked me if we had any lunch hour. Why, when the new night superintendent came in, we wasn’t even allowed to eat at all and when he came around we had to hide our bit of sandwich under our dirty apron. Oh, you rich fellows, if I could only speak with you (and Mr. McBride too), I’d tell you what excellent conditions we have in the mills. [Yes, say] they have excellent conditions for the bosses. When their time comes for [lunch] they go into the office and take a good drink and sit down for an hour and then for the hour after. But us poor jackasses, we even have no time to go to the toilet, for the night superintendent that the bosses appointed to be a sucker, he comes to the women’s toilet. Maybe a lady just fell down on the cement floor to [rest] herself a [minuet] and he runs in and yell at her, “Come on, go to your machine!” For us poor working people there is no freedom at all.

When my husband brings in $24 a week and we pay $25 a month rent, where is the food and clothing to come from? Unless you hold up somebody, the wife has to go in the mill and slave also. From 2:30 to 12 at night, and get up at seven o’clock to send the children to school and fix dinner and then supper and then again to work. There is no rest at all. If we had an American standard of living, there would be less sickness and more health.

A. J. B.

The Northwestern Christian Advocate comments editorially on the Passaic reign of terror:

It is not a local matter that in Passaic, N. J., in the course of a textile strike, the local police have revived the old Russian outdoor sport of clubbing the people. The attack of the police on the strikers, who were assembled in orderly and legal fashion, clubbing them over the heads, running them down, turning water upon them, is a matter to which the whole country must pay attention. The police did not act as guardians of the law but as partisans of the employers. It is hard to see where the part they played differed from that of the thug, frequently hired by lawless employers to "beat up” the strikers.

One picturesque feature of this lawlessness of the police is a symbol of the real character of the issues at stake. When the police assaulted the crowd with gas and clubs, many veterans of the World War turned over to the strikers the steel helmets and gas masks which they had used in what we fondly termed “The battle [strike] of freedom” in France. It was very fitting that these implements which had done service for freedom in France should be used again as protection from the Cossacks of America. For the battle of the strikers against the police in this instance was actually a battle for American ideals of freedom.

It was only a few years ago that all the billboards of Passaic were plastered with large posters with the slogan: “To Make the World a Decent Place to Live in.” It is a good slogan. It did great service a few years ago. It is still needed in America.

We will never make America “a decent place to live in” without the preservation of American rights and free speech and assemblage.

We would not have seen this editorial had not the bosses open shop organ The New York Commercial reprinted it and called it “utter nonsense.” We are always glad to see the anti-labor newspapers print such “nonsense” even if they do get nonsensical themselves in commenting upon it.

The workers of Passaic can decide very well whether it is the truth or not.

A statement just issued by the Peoples Reconstruction League of Washington D. C. has some highly significant information for the Passaic textile workers.

You know the textile bosses are always going to Congress and whining that they must have a high Tariff on woolens and worsteds or they will not be able to pay “good wages” to their workers. They weep a lot when they go to Washington about how the high tariff rates, will help the worker, "fill the dinner pail” and create prosperity in the industry.

We workers in Passaic know from experience just what that prosperity looks like. Now we are finding out that the bosses prosperity is not the workers prosperity. The boss hogs it for himself. This is the way the People’s Reconstruction League report puts it:

“Wages paid in factories manufacturing textiles and their products were, in 1921, 21:1 per cent of the value of the product; in 1923, however, only 18.4 per cent of their value.”

Which simply means that the workers received less proportionately of the value of the textiles made in 1923, under a higher tariff, than they did in 1921 under a lower tariff. And yet, when Forstmann and his crew went to Washington to plead for the higher tariff, they told the Senators and Congressmen that it would mean higher wages for the worker! It has meant just the opposite for the worker It has meant higher profits for the bosses.

Why is this so? Because the workers have had no union with which to take from the bloated mill owners a larger share of the value of the manufactured product.

Tariff or no tariff, the workers will get the lean end of the bacon until when?—Until a Real Union is built. Until the workers have POWER to take their full share of prosperity.

What do the bosses mean by telling us to go back to work now and talk the matter of settlement over afterward?

Everybody knows that if we went back first, the bosses would do with us just what they pleased. They would certainly not recognize our union any more if we went back first than they would if we stick to the bitter end.

All they want to do is to try to fool us and get a stranglehold on us once more. If they could only get us into their mills, they could browbeat us and fire all the best fighters in the union.

They did that before. They did not even listen to the representatives of the committee. They fired the entire delegation. That was their friendliness at that time. Have they changed since then? Can the leopard change his spots? How have they acted during the strike? Have the failed to use all their opposition to our union? Have they omitted any brutality within their reach? Could they possibly have been more hostile than they have been?

And now they tell us to come back and say the workers will be met with kindness and that they will be treated decently. We do not believe them. They do not deserve our confidence. Their word is no good. They are not reliable. They lie to us and when their lie cannot fool us, they threaten us.

Nothing will save us except power. Power of the union that we build is what we must have. We are not going to build a union for them to enslave us with. Our own Union is our only safeguard. We have it and will keep it

And now the mill owners come and tell us that “they will not recognize any organization as speaking collectively for their employees except that organization, in purpose and method, thoroughly harmonizes with the peculiar conditions in which the industry and the particular mills are subjected.”

In other words, the bosses say they will not have a union run by the workers, but only a union run by the bosses themselves.

That is old stuff.

You had a union run by yourself in the Forstmann and Huffmann mills. Why did the workers walk out if that union was such a fine thing for the workers? Why are the Forstmann & Huffmann workers some of the most loyal workers of the United Front Committee? Why have they a greater disgust for the company union than the rest of the workers?

They know what the company union is? They have felt its iron heel. They have experienced the humility of being in a union that has stood for the bosses and only for the bosses. They know that this company union is full of rats and stool pigeons and spies, and that the company uses this union to fool the workers and to keep them in constant terror.

Of all rotten things the company union is the rottenest. It is a perversion. It is a lie. It is a piece of hypocrisy. It is a mantle to cover up the skullduggery of the bosses. It is an instrument of hypnotism to put the workers to sleep. It is a sleight of hand method to rob the workers. It is the trick of the juggler to deceive the slaves. It is the jimmy of the burglar to get into the homes of the workers to rob them. It is the gun of the [footpad] that terrorizes the innocent. It is the slimy, dishonest, hypocritical, treasonable, agency of the bosses whereby the workers may successfully be skinned and kept in utter subjection and helplessness.

What would the bosses say if we should come to them dictate to them what kind of union they must have for themselves? Wouldn’t they think that we were nutty if we should tell them that we will not recognize their organization, but that their organization must suit us?

What a silly and idiotic bunch they are!

And now that the workers have become wise to their underhanded game they get sore and tell us they won’t play in our yard.

But we have equally settled that never as long as we breathe the breath of life will we submit to the company union that the bosses want to fool us with. That is settled.

The bosses can rave for all time, and decide that we are not decent enough and that they will not meet with us and recognize our union, but that does not change our position.

We have concluded that life is not worth living under the old conditions in the mills. We have concluded that if we go back without our own union we will be worse than before and to submit to such hell is unthinkable.

No. You may kill us, but you cannot drive us back to the mills without our union.

If you understand that, you may save a lot of valuable time.

There is nothing so abominable as a stupid and prejudiced judge. People expect dignity and a little degree of decency of a court. We have had a lot of the other kind in this strike.

On Monday ten young men, some strikers and some others, were out for a ride. On their way they sang songs and at times shouted, “Hurrah for Weisbord!”

Whereupon a patriotic cop arrested them.

Being dragged before the judge he told them it was a horrible thing for them to sing and make a noise in the night.

Then turning right around he asked them: “Why not yell ‘Hurrah for work;’ instead of ‘Hurrah for Weisbord.?"’

So it was not the noise after all that mattered with the judge. He wanted them to shout the shout of the bosses.

Now what business has the judge to take sides like that? The men were charged with shouting and singing. If they had been singing and shouting for the bosses it would have been all right, and no arrest would have been made.

If the judges think they can get the respect of the people with that kind of stuff they may have to guess several times.

The same judge sentenced one of the party to get a job before noon the same day. That is just as foolish as it can be. Suppose the young man could not find a job by noon, what then? Ten days in jail.

There are millions of workers who would thank the judge if he would find decent jobs for them. With unemployment as it is in every industry the judge takes a long chance when he asks this man to get a job by noon.

This is the kind of judges the workers will get rid of when the time comes. We shall not tolerate them beyond the present term.

Another attempt to break the strike we must be prepared to meet. We are reliably informed that a certain New York strike-breaking agency is about to send some of its choice collection of thugs and ex-convicts to mingle with the strikers and create dissention. They will try to look like workers and talk like workers. They will talk several languages. They may talk American—the language of violence.

This is an old trick. It has been tried in every strike of any consequence in a final effort to demoralize workers unity.

Several thousand dollars will be spent on this job. The gutters will be raked for professional provocateurs to do it. They will mingle with the workers and try discourage them. They will circulate all sorts of lies. They will try to get workers to return to the mills. They will be paid money by the mills to do this dirty work.

We are ready for these underworld characters. We shall not be tricked or fooled by their stories. We know who they are, and who has sent them here, and who is paying the bill.

We suggest to the mills that they might better save this money for the wages fund for workers on looms and spinning frames after we have returned to the mills WITH OUR UNION.

Money spent on dicks and thugs will not make the wheels turn. It will not make scabs of strikers. It will be wasted.

Suppose we had had a lot of scab women in this strike. Or suppose we had had a lot of women without guts, who would be whimpering every day, "Oh, I’m sick of this old strike. When is it ever going to end?” Suppose we had had women, who would say, every time their old man got clubbed on the picket line, “Serves you right. Why don’t you go back to the mill where you belong, then you won’t get clubbed,” or “It’s your fault I can’t pay the rent this spring, and the landlord coming after me every day.”

Could we win the strike if had women like that around? We couldn’t have held out one month, not to speak of four months successfully as we done. No, we haven’t any such specimens of women around in this strike. Here, on the contrary, it [is] the women who have been right on the job on the picket line and at the meetings from first to last. Very often, it is Mrs. Striker here who rousts her old man out of bed in the morning to go on the picket line. And in the evening, its just as likely as not that she leaves the kids with him to mind while she runs off to a women’s meeting. Well, aren’t they his kids, too? And while he may not say much, while he may look kind of dumbfounded sometimes, he probably is thinking, the old crank, while he scratches his head, “Well, after all, my old woman, she isn’t so bad. She seems to have a lot of guts, after all. I guess I knew what I was doing when I picked her.”

His wife is his partner now, not some sort of truck-horse or cow who worked like a slave in the kitchen and never knew a thing of what was going on outside. She is his partner who works with him in the mill, and in strike time goes on the picket line with him, gets clubbed with him and works like an equal in everything. And she is the sort of woman that is the very backbone of this strike, who is building up the Union and winning the strike for all the textile workers.
 
 

FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND WORKERS through their elected delegates, expressed their solidarity with the Passaic textile strikers at the “Support the Passaic Strike Conference,” held in Passaic, N. J., Saturday, May 29^th.

Through resolutions, .passed unanimously by the delegates, who numbered nearly two hundred, they pledged the support of workers all over the United States to the Textile strikers,—to defense an relief funds, and to every effort to sustain this workers struggle.

The meeting was an inspiring one. The largest hall in Passaic was packed with delegates, and strikers, who crowded the balconies and aisles to welcome the representatives of sympathetic labor unions, fraternal organizations, relief conferences and other groups who had come to pledge further help.

Alfred Wagenknecht, secretary of relief, was elected chairman of the meeting; and mother Ella Reeves Bloor, and R. S. Kling of the Machinists Union of New Haven Conn., vice chairman. Jacob C. Robinson, of the Pressmen’s Union of Detroit and chairman of the Detroit International Workers aid was made secretary. The resolutions committee was composed of Charles W. Ervin, Amalgamated Clothing Workers. R. S. Kling, Machinists Union of New Haven, Conn. Mercer Green Johnson, from the Baltimore Committee for Passaic Strikers Relief. Rebecca Grecht, Workers Party. Abraham Binns, Federated Textile Operatives of New Bedford, Mass. A Wise, of the Joint Board of Cloak, Skirt, Dress and Reefer Makers Union. L. I. G. W. U. of New York, and Louis A. Baum of the Photographic Workers Union of New York.

Albert Weisbord, strike organizer and leader, made the first address. He reviewed the history of the strike—the wage cuts and brutal disregard of the workers interests that had caused it. In flaming words he painted a picture of the organized campaigns of terror which the bosses have launched against the strikers in an attempt to break the strike as well as the tricky moves by which the bosses have tried to fool the workers. Again and again he was applauded as he drove home to the delegates and to the strikers who knew the story so well, how bitter has been the fight and how courageous the struggle of the workers.

“This successful conference proves that the Passaic textile strike is not a local issue but concerns the workers internationally,” he said. “The union smashing campaign of the employers, the wage cutting campaign to which unskilled labor has been especially subjected to, has been going on for years. In wage cutting, the textile workers have suffered most.”

“The Passaic strike is a strike for all of unorganized and organized labor. It is a strike to put a stop to union smashing by launching an effort to organize the million textile workers. Organization of the textile workers will inspire the workers in steel, oil, automobiles and other industries to organize. The Passaic strike is a strike to put a stop to wage slashes and if we win back our wage cuts, then other industrial despots will hesitate to cut wages in their industries.

“The lesson of the Passaic strike is that the unorganized [must] be organized. The further lesson is that there must be placed into operation the widest possible united fronts in the labor field so that all of labor may withstand the onslaughts of the capitalists. There must be trade union unity and a compact between all of labor and its sympathizers if the workers in this country are not to be further disorganized and exploited by wage cuts. The Passaic strike is actually your strike and as your strike you must help to win it.”

Elizabeth Gurly Flynn spoke for defense. Declaring that the mill owners were determined to take revenge upon the leaders of the strike through the courts. “Weisbord has been framed up and indicted. Jack Rubenstein has been indicted and beaten up in jail so badly that he had to be sent to a hospital. Nearly three hundred workers have been arrested and held under various charges. The mill owners are determined to deprive the workers of the services of their leaders. We must build a defense fund that no striker can serve unjust terms as a punishment. A victory will not be complete until we are assured that they will not be thrown into jail for long terms.”

Robert W. Dunn, of the American Civil Liberties Union, spoke upon the abrogation of all constitutional guarantees by the mill owners and their tools, reciting the outrages perpetrated during this and other strikes in New Jersey. “The fight for the civil liberties guaranteed by our constitution must continue,” he declared. “These have been denied us in New Jersey. Not only strikers but strikers friends have been arrested, given unfair trials, and unjust sentences.”

An appeal for extended relief conferences, for help of all kinds was made by Alfred Wagenknecht, secretary of relief to the delegates present. "Strike relief is not charity,” he told them. “Strike relief is a fundamental essential of the struggle of the workers against their exploiters. Strike relief in any battle is forthcoming because the workers knew that they have mutual interests and are part of the gigantic army of workers engaged in, not only a national, but also an international conflict with the employers and imperialists.”

“The international character of strike relief is shown by the contributions that went forward from many countries to the textile strikers in Shanghai and Bombay. It is shown by the recent contribution of three million rubles to the striking British miners, by the unions of Soviet Russia. The Passaic strike is no longer a local struggle. Organizations from everywhere have entered into it.”

“Workers from all over the world are beginning to concern themselves with strikes in all parts of the world.”

“The Passaic strike is your struggle because you are part of the working class.” You have responsibilities in this struggle because a defeat will be your loss and in a victory you will also win. You must go out of this conference resolved to broaden your contacts, widen your relief activity, to organize relief conferences in at least 30 cities. If this strike lasts all summer, relief must be forthcoming in a steady stream. The children must receive special attention at once. Milk and nutritious meals for the textile strikers children is the slogan upon which renewed collections must be made.”

“We need clothing. We need shoes. Strikers come in every day and ask for a little bit of cloth to make a little girl some bloomers or a little boy a shirt. We give them an old dress to make over. Nothing is lost here.”

“Children need shoes. Men and women need shoes so that they can go on the picket lines and to the meetings. And always we need money for food. The response has been wonderful but still we need a wider and greater response.” He explained the working of the relief system that does not allow food relief to any family that has any resources at all in the way of savings or credit. He stated that the relief was run almost entirely by the strikers themselves.

“I want you to take back to your organizations the knowledge that the relief work in Passaic is proceeding on a basis both economical and just,” he told the delegates.

The delegates spent the morning on a tour of Passaic, which took them past all the mills and the historic places where the brutal clubbings, the use of fire hose and tear bombs, the blackjack and the riot guns have left their indelible marks upon the men, women and children strikers.

Delegates were present from all over the east, including Detroit, Boston, Philadelphia, Lawrence, Mass., Katonah, N. Y., New Haven, Conn., New Jersey cities as well as New York City, and other points.

Many delegates spoke at the meeting, pledging the support of their organizations to the strike.

“The Amalgamated Clothing Workers will do everything in their power to keep money and relief pouring in until the Passaic strike is won,” declared Charles Ervin of that organization.

’’For every dollar you have given you owe another dollar,” urged Mercer Greene Johnson of the Baltimore conference. He told how he had lost his position as rector of Trinity Church, Newark, because of his sympathy with the Paterson silk strike of 1919, and concluded that “the years since then have been the best of my life.”

R. S. Kling declared that all textile centers are looking toward Passaic as toward a leader, and suggested that a school for speakers be established here to develop leaders among the workers for possible strikes in other centers.

Ben Thomas of the Relief Conference of Philadelphia said that he would take back a message of the “wonderful spirit” of Passaic and urge redoubled support in Philadelphia.

Kate Gitlow spoke for the United Council of Workingclass Housewives and told of the two kitchens already established for strikers children where a thousand children are now fed. “We must feed 10,000 children if the strike continues,” she said.

Abraham Binns, a veteran weaver, scarred in many battles, declared that Passaic “had made a good job,” and that in twenty years of experience with labor organizations the Passaic strike stood out as a remarkable struggle.

“The Detroit Federation of Labor officially endorsed the strike last Wednesday,” said Jacob C. Robinson, vice president of the Pressmen’s Union, No. 2. “On the basis of this, I hope to establish a weekly contribution of $500, and send a carload of clothes very soon.”

“The textile workers of all New England look to Passaic,” was another message brought by A. Bimba Laisve.

Obermeyer of the Amalgamated Food Workers, said that his organization was prepared to send further large donations of food.

The Rev. C. L. Orbach of the local Slavic Committee, A Wise of the International Ladies Garment Workers, Pascal Cosgrove of the Shoe Workers, delegates of the carpenters and the jewelry workers, Young Pioneers of America, Workers Party, businessmen’s associations—all gave their pledges to carry on for relief until the textile strikers win, until their demands for a bare living wage and a union are met by the bosses.

Letters and telegrams sending greetings and assurance of moral and financial support were read to the Conference. These came from various points in the United States, such as Los Angeles, Calif.; Toledo, Ohio; Rochester, N. Y.; Milwaukee, Wis.; Detroit, Mich.; Mattapan, Mass.; New York, N. Y.; Hudson Heights, N. J.; Keene, N. H. and Auburn, Me.

Minutes of the support the Passaic Strike Conference held May 29, 1926 at Kanter’s Auditorium, Passaic, New Jersey.

The Support the Passaic Strike Conference was called to order by Alfred Wagenknecht, Chairman of the General Relief Committee of Textile Strikers of Passaic and vicinity.

The Agenda was read and unanimously adopted by the Conference.

Convention call read: 197 delegates present representing 500,000 people. Roll call of delegates upon basis of credentials presented.

Elections: Chairman, Alfred Wagenknecht; Relief Chairman, Vice Chairman, Mother Ella Reeves Bloor, representing the United Front Committee of Lawrence, Mass., and R. S. Kling of the Machinists Union of New Haven Conn., Secretary; Jacob C. Robinson, Local No. 2 of the Pressmen’s Union of Detroit and Chairman of the Detroit International Workers Aid. The Resolutions Committee was composed of Charles W. Ervin of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, R. S. Kling, Elm Lodge 420, Machinists Union of New Haven, Conn.; Mercer Greene Johnson from the Baltimore Committee for Passaic Strikers Relief; Rebecca Grecht, Workers Party, District No. 2; Abraham Binns, Federated Textile Operatives of New Bedford, Mass.; A. Wise, of the Joint Board of Cloak, Skirt, Dress and Reefer makers Union J. I. G. W. U. of New York and Louis A. Baum of the Photographic Workers Union of New York.

Conference addressed by Albert Weisbord: Resolution on a United Front in support of the strike was introduced by Weisbord and unanimously adopted.

Address by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn on defense of victims of Passaic struggles. Resolution on defense read and unanimously adopted.

Address by Robert Dunn on Civil Liberties. Resolution on civil liberties introduced and passed unanimously.

Address by Alfred Wagenknecht, Chairman of General Relief Committee for Passaic and vicinity. Resolution on Relief read and unanimously adopted by conference.

Letters and telegrams sending greetings and assurance of moral and financial support were read to the Conference. These came from various points in the United States such as Los Angeles, Cal., Toledo, Ohio, Rochester, N. Y., Milwaukee, Wis., Detroit, Mich., Mattapan, Mass., New York, N. Y., Hudson Heights, N. J., Keene N. H., and Auburn, Me.

An invitation was extended the delegates of the conference to visit the bazaar in Paterson arranged by the Paterson Relief Conference for the benefit of the Passaic textile strikers.

The Conference was then opened for general discussion and reports from the various relief conferences and sympathetic organizations were given. Among the delegates reporting were the following: Charles W. Ervin of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union of America, Dr. Mercer Greene Johnston of the Baltimore Relief Committee. Michael Obermeier of the Amalgamated Food Workers, R. S. Kling, Elm Lodge 420 of the Machinist Union of New Haven, Conn., Ben Thomas of the Philadelphia Relief Conference, Abraham Binns of the Federated Textile Operatives of New Bedford, Mass., A. Wise of the Joint Board of Cloak, Skirt, Dress and Reefer Makers Union, J. I. G. W. U., Jacob C. Robinson of the Pressmen’s Union of Detroit and Chairman of the Detroit International Workers. A. Bimba, Editor of Laisve, New York, Vito of the Springfield Mass. Relief Conference, Reverend C. I. Orbach of the Associated Slavic Societies, and Parishes of Passaic and vicinity and head of the recent Slavic Peace Committee, Roger Francezon of the Marine and Transport Workers Union, Marion Emerson of the International Workers Aid of New York. Kate Gitlow of the Workingclass Housewives, Pascal Cosgrove of the Shoe Workers Protective Union, Sam Zeldu of International Lace Operatives, Local No. 2. A. Lapidua of Local No. 376, United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, Sylvia Gudis of the Young Pioneers of District No. 2, New York, Adolph Gersh of Brookwood Labor College, Irving Freiman of the Essex County Relief Conference, Mother Ella Reeves Bloor of the United Front Committee of Lawrence, Mass., and J. O. Bentall, of the International Labor Defense.

This textile center of New Jersey is indeed an industrial hell. Decades of starvation wages, long hours of labor, night work, child labor, spy systems, persecutions, vocational diseases, unsanitary workshops and homes and miserable poverty drive the textile workers to periodic revolts despite the fact that the mass of them are unorganized.

Textile strikes throughout labor history have been historical battles for the right to organize and for a bare living wage. No group of industrial lords are more skilled at turning the blood of their wage slaves into exorbitant profits than are the textile barons. There are one million of these workers who need a union to protect them.

The big Passaic strike of today is one of a series of revolts against the inhuman exploitation of the textile baron. The Passaic textile strike is, however, a more heroic and courageous battle, because of the lessons these poverty stricken workers have learned from previous struggles with the employing class.

The textile strikers of Passaic and vicinity have withstood every form of violence and viciousness that the mill owners could invent. They have braved the brutal police, jails, riot guns and tear gas bombs. Their wives and children have been trampled upon and many strikers and sympathizers jailed. Mounted police, on horse and motorcycle, have ridden through and over strikers peacefully marching along the public highways. The clubs of the arms of the law have broken many strikers heads. This strike has become known the world over for its brutality and abrogation of civil rights to which the strikers have been subjected.

We, the delegates to the Support the Passaic Strike Conference, gathered here today, cannot of course stand shoulder to shoulder with these brave workers in their daily conflicts with the powers of the textile barons. We can, however, in the many cities from which we come, arouse the workers and all sympathizers to the need of such support as they can render.

The longer the struggle, the more need is there for the moral and financial support of the millions of workers and the thousands of workers organizations and sympathizers.

We must support this strike. We must help to win this strike by giving the strikers, their families and children, the bread they need to carry on. Relief funds in the thousands of dollars must continue to pour into Passaic. Money from us and those with whom we come in contact will help to win for the strikers a living wage and a union.

This Conference, therefore, calls upon all labor unions, workers fraternal organizations, and other sympathetic organizations and individuals to join hands in each city, and upon the basis of the broadest possible united front, begin to gather relief funds by organizing relief conferences.

Relief conferences that are functioning today prove that this organized method of gathering relief funds, meets with the widest success. Tag days, house to house collections, shop collections, bazaars, concerts, mass meetings, solicitation of funds from organization treasuries, these are undertakings which a steadily functioning conference makes possible.

This general conference indorses the organization of relief conferences in every city, and advises that a group of organizers be placed in the field at once for this purpose.

A special campaign for children’s relief should be inaugurated at once. Thousands of undernourished strikers children must have our aid. Years of starvation wages have resulted in 58 percent of them being underweight and weak from undernourishment. An appalling fact of the night work of mothers and of undernourishment due to low wages, is shown in the mortality of the Passaic textile strikers children, the death rate being 50 percent greater than among other children of New Jersey.

We must help save these children whom the textile barons through their intense system of exploitation are actually murdering. This conference advises the inauguration of a campaign for $100,000 for children’s relief. The sums of money collected to be used to purchase milk for the thousands of textile workers little children, many of whom have been deprived of sufficient milk since infancy; to establish additional kitchens where the children may be fed one nutritious meal daily; to give them more playgrounds; to place the most needy in workers camps. We must help strengthen these children for the struggle they will someday have to make against the exploiters, and aiding the strikers children means helping to win this strike.

Finally, this conference calls upon all of labor and all its sympathizers to remain steadily at work gathering relief funds during the whole period of the strike. The textile bosses have decided to fight the strikers to a finish. We declare we shall be in at the finish, but that the finish shall be victory for the workers.

The 19^th week of the struggle begins Monday. We cheer you [Passaic] Textile Strikers, with the promise that this 19^th week finds us as keen to assist as at any period. We are with you for a STRONG UNION and a LIVING WAGE.

The Shop Council or company union chiefs of the Pacific Mill, and 184 Broadway are again carrying out the orders of the bosses. They are paid to mislead the workers and to organize a scab union prepared to stab the workers in the back. The same individuals who are on the bosses plant and production committee, whose business it is to increase production and the huge profits of the owners by introducing speed up systems, doubling up the work, and throwing thousands of workers out of the mills to starve, are also organizing a scab union at 184 Broadway.

The Lawrence workers must know the facts about the clever agents of the bosses who are already offering five dollars a week strike pay in order to allure the workers away from the only organization that is made up of workers and fights the bosses—the United Front Committee of Textile Workers.

The Thiel Detective Agency of industrial spies organized the Shop Council and plant committee of the Pacific mill. The nest of industrial spies and suckers paid by the Thiel Agency are behind the activities of the individuals of the Pacific plant committee.

Whenever a group of workers begin to organize themselves for better conditions, the paid stools, of the bosses always raise the cry of “Communism, Moscow, and outside agitators.” This trick is too old to fool any intelligent workers. Every scab, every spy, every profiteering boss, every exploiter of labor, every crooked labor faker have used that trick since the workers began to organize their unions. In Passaic, the heroic struggle of our 16,000 fellow workers for bread, was also attacked by the bosses and their spies as the work of “Moscow, Communists and extremists.” The only ones who scab in Passaic now, who take the bread from the mouths of little children are the members of the Forstmann-Huffmann shop council or company union. That council was organized by the same detective agency that is operating the Pacific shop council and the union at 184 Broadway.

The workers [of] Lawrence shrink from contact with the lowest and most vile creature on two legs, the industrial spy, professional scab and sucker.

The United Front Committee of the Lawrence Textile workers is the only organization affiliated with the United Front Committee of Passaic. The United Front Committee of Lawrence has cleaned out the suckers and company union agents from its ranks. It is the only organization consisting of workers and free from the influence of the bosses and detective agencies. The United Front Committee proceeds to organize the textile workers of Lawrence and unites all textile workers organizations into one solid United Front which will win better conditions of life and higher wages for the textile workers.

In spite of the insidious campaign of intimidation and terrorism carried on by the American legion, and the Thiel Detectives of the Company union in an effort to stop the meeting, hundreds of Lawrence workers turned out to declare their solidarity with Sacco and Vanzetti. Stanley Clark of the International Labor Defense, received a splendid ovation while the audience stood up and cheered Albert Weisbord, leader of the Passaic Strike, and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn well known leader of the strike of 1912.

Sacco and Vanzetti, declared the speakers, are innocent. The judges of the Supreme Court know that they are innocent. Their only crime consists of their loyalty to labor. It is for that crime that the bosses of Massachusetts are thirsty for their blood. The Supreme Court has refused them a new trial because they know that the outcome of a new trial can only be the complete liberation of Sacco and Vanzetti. The district attorney and the Supreme Court are afraid to put their state witnesses on the stand. They know that they have been proven perjurers and liers, and that neither Sacco nor Vanzetti were any where near the murder scene at South Braintree. The masters courts have said the last word, “Sacco and Vanzetti must die.” It is now up to the workers to say in a mighty voice, “Sacco and Vanzetti must live.”

“The Lawrence workers are preparing once again to take their rightful place in the front ranks of American labor,” declared the chairman representing the United Front Committee of Textile Workers: “Neither the American Legion, the Thiel agents of the company union, nor the hysterical propaganda of the newspapers will stop the United Front Committee from organizing the textile workers to struggle against poverty, forced unemployment, the speed-up and starvation. Soon you workers may expect new attacks on the United Front Committee by the bosses. Soon you will receive circulars shouting, ‘Reds’, ’Moscow,’ and ‘outsiders’. When you hear that, tell these people that you are wise to the tricks of industrial spies and bosses agents!”

Joseph Salerno, local leader, especially amongst the Italian workers, analyzed the Sacco and Vanzetti case as a frame-up and a grave insult to the entire Italian race. The cause of Sacco and Vanzetti is the cause of every worker. The workers of Lawrence especially know that only labor can save these victims of the bosses greed and vengeance. It was the demonstrations and protests of the workers that saves Ettor and Giovanetti in the 1922 frame-up. Lawrence labor must declare Sacco and Vanzetti are dear to the working class. They shall not die.

After working for five years in the Arlington mills from 7:15 to 5, I received as a reward for my good work a button. After giving my best five years to the mill I have as a reward a button. And this is all I possess after five years of toil and sweat. And this is all I now possess after giving five years of my strength and energy to the mill owners. In these five years my mill owners have made more than five millions of clear profit. In these five years the mill owners have invested thousands of dollars in speed up systems which sapped the life out of us workers. In these five years the mill owners have spent many a happy day in Europe. In these five years I have starved many a day. Now I have a button to take care of myself and my family.

Arlington Mill Worker.

We workers did not expect much from the industrial commission appointed several weeks ago by Peter Carr, to find means and ways of bringing new industries into Lawrence to give work to the thousands of workers who are knocking about for work. We know through experience that no help to the workers can come from these quarters. And do you think we were right?

The industria1 commission met. And what do you think they have suggested as a remedy for unemployment? What do you think was the chief subject of discussion at the meeting of this commission? You would never guess. All Through this meeting they were talking and arguing how the 54 hour week can be introduced again in the mills of Lawrence. This is how the city government solves our problems. This is how the bosses want to do away with unemployment. More exploitation, more working hours, more unemployment and more starvation.

Lawrence Worker.

An excerpt from a recent Report on Conditions of Women and Children in Industry.

Statement on 46 cotton mills investigated in New England States.

“Dust and lint abounded in the picker rooms and card rooms. Lint is given off in all the processes up to and including spinning. The dust can be kept down by frequent sweeping, scrubbing and cleaning but in most of the mills visited there was an objectionable and wholly unnecessary amount of both in the atmosphere.

The noise of the machinery is nerve wrecking; the work in many occupations requires close and constant attention and in the spinning and weaving rooms, the air is hot and moist, often to an injurious degree.

Wash rooms for women workers were not common, being found only in thirteen mills. Dressing rooms were rarer still.

It is not pin money nor because they prefer it to the home that women work. They do it to make a living and often enough, a poor living at that. In many cases at the expense of their health.”

There are 8,549,511 women in this country engaged in gainful occupations. 1,920,281 are married.

Average weekly wages ranged $16.85 in Rhode Island to $8.80 in Alabama.

What some Forstmann & Hufftmann Workers Think of the BUNK UNION --- (Taken from affidavits signed and sworn to by F & H strikers)

The following are statements made under oath by workers who have “enjoyed” the benevolent tyranny of the F & H company union for nearly 6 years. These workers are the most intelligent, active, independent, and self-respecting ones on the F & H payroll. What they say should be of interest to the Botany and other workers whose bosses are now willing to “concede” the company union in order to break the strike:

“The F & H employees were organized into what is called a “representative assembly” in May 1920. They were organized by Mr. Reinhold, personnel manager of the F & H mills. Mr. R. called a meeting of all employees and asked them to pick out a representative from each room, and forced them to vote.

“Mr. R. passed out slips with check numbers and told them they had to vote. The company paid for the time the employees spent at the meeting. The workers elected 54 representatives to the assembly and Mr. R. chose 54 persons. About two or three times a year the company held a general meeting. At these meetings, the mill provided free meals, cigars, cigarettes and all kinds of refreshments to the representatives.”

“During 1925, the representative assembly under the influence of the mill managers, put into effect certain rules with reference to speeding up the work.

(Here he details the several ways in which this was done in the spinning and weaving departments.)

“We were told that grievances as to conditions, wages, etc., could not be brought before the Representative Assembly unless they had first been presented to the authorities (management—in the form of a “docket committee")

“I know that the workers in the Forstmann & Huffmann plant objected to the speed-up system, the laying off of men, requiring the remaining men to do all the work of the men laid off, the unsanitary conditions and the low wages.”

“I have been a member of the shop committee and of the representative assembly for the past three years. At the meetings of the assembly the workers were all afraid to speak concerning conditions. I never in my three years membership in the assembly spoke once at the meetings, because I knew what I said would be taken down and used against me.”

“I was injured in the mill and requested one of the elected “representatives” to preset my case before the assembly to see whether any operation was required. The ‘rep.’ conferred with the doctor and the mill authorities, who decided that this was not the kind of a case to present to the Representative Assembly.”

“I was elected a representative in 1923. I attended regularly the meetings of the Representative Assembly and I know of my own knowledge, cases where persons who had complaints to bring before the Representative Assembly were told that they would lose their positions if they would do so.”

“The procedure in accordance with the rules of the organization (company union) was that if anyone had grievance or complaint to make to the Assembly, he was first required to take it up with what was known as the Docket Committee, most of whose members were connected with the employment office of the mills. If this committee ruled that a complaint was not to be brought before the “representative assembly”, it was not brought. This committee determined before each meeting of the company union what was to be discussed.”

“Since 1922 the popularity of the assembly has constantly decreased because the workers felt it was nothing but a company union. Workers have refused to be elected as representatives and on several occasions voted for famous race horses for their ‘representative’!

“Before the strike, members of the representative assembly were requested by me and other workers to present grievances as to conditions, wages, etc., before the Assembly. These matters could not be brought before the Representative Assembly until they were first presented to the mill authorities. The members of the shop committee (company union) were all afraid to bring these questions before the mill managers.”

The above quotations tell us something about the FAKE UNION at the F & H! How it makes cowards out of workers. How it refuses to take up their just grievances. How it serves as the tool of the management to terrorize and exploit the workers in every department.

More affidavits on this subject will be presented in subsequent issues of the Textile Bulletin.

If you want to get arrested a little, all you have to do is to go to Passaic or Garfield and talk to the strikers and tell them to have their own union and not to bother with the god damn company union.

That is what happened to Benjamin Stolberg, outside agitator from New York, graduate of Harvard ‘20’, Phi Beta Kappa, listed in “Who’s Who?” Poet, writer for the Nation and the Times, brought up in the sunshine and culture of America, and at the time he spoke, as nearly a gentleman as a man can be in the neighborhood of the Forstmann and Huffmann mills. He was reared by god fearing parents and school teachers, moral to the degree that he was granted a passport to New Jersey, promised a crown of glory when he goes to heaven.

This product of America’s finest university and the lamkin in the valley of infantile innocence burst forth in such language that the ears of the sensitive cops were sent from pole to pole and all around the circumference. These refined servants of the most high bosses have never been used to such blasphemy. They have been standing on their head in the washbowl all since, scrubbing and soaping and rubbing and grabbing and having one helluva time to get the obscene and profane and vulgar impurities out of their lily white ears that never before had come within radio distance of so much as an exaggerated perturbance of a maiden aunt.

Right in the hall, Ben Stolberg the very next day after Decoration day so decorated the pure atmosphere of Garfield that that the police have been wearing cotton and wool in their ears all since for fear of being shocked by another outburst of horrible profanity. He is said to have said the following sentence:

“Organized labor is going to see to it that you come with your own union and not with their goddam company union.”

Blasphemy! It soiled the ears of the cops. They grabbed him. Slammed him into the hoosegow. Ran for their life to their washbowl to cleanse their ears. Are there yet according to latest report.

The outrage against these tender [saplings] in the vineyard of the bosses must be avenged. That their immaculate cops should have been soiled to such a degree is a crime unforgivable.

Straightway they told the criminal after they arrested him, “What the hell is America coming to when a goddam s…. of a b….. like you can get up and talk that way? Why, I wouldn’t talk like that before my own mother. Your goddam swearing sounds like hell.”

What will happen when this arch criminal gets before judge Baker is yet to be learned. Can the judge stand the shock of the testimony? If there is a funeral in New Jersey and a judge is laid to rest, it is another proof that the outside agitators are a menace to the tranquility of humanity and the serenity of the gentle bosses.

The heroic struggle of the Passaic textile strikers now in its 19^th week, calls for the united and continuous support of all labor until victory is assured.

It is a struggle of the intensely exploited workers against the inhuman conditions that oppress them. The fight of these workers is a fight of all the workers in this country.

The Passaic strikers fighting under the banner of the United Front Committee of Textile Workers today constitute a valiant part of the workers vanguard in this country. With their bodies they have borne the blows that have been meant for the entire working class. We must protect these strikers.

The Passaic strike marks a new chapter in the struggle of the worker for a decent living wage. It marks a forward step in the organization of the unorganized so badly needed. It gives a new impetus to the move for unity of labor’s ranks not only in the textile industry but everywhere.

The Passaic strikers have raised the slogan of the United Front of the Workers against the united front of the bosses. And we, the delegates in this “Support the Passaic Strike” Conference assembled together, hereby resolve that we shall carry home with us this slogan and see to it that all the means in our power, that a mighty united front of labor is created for the support of the Passaic strikers, and for one union in the textile industry.

Practically every liberty guaranteed in the Constitution of the United States and the State of New Jersey has been denied the 16,000 textile strikers.

Civil safeguards that together make up every keystone of our government have been wiped out in the campaign of lawlessness and terrorization conducted by the mill owners and their irresponsible and un-American agents.

Workers attempting to picket as well as bystanders, have been brutally clubbed and their heads split open by policemen’s clubs, even newspaper men and photographers have been driven from the picket lines and their property destroyed. The legal right to picket has been at times completely wiped out and is even now seriously and unconstitutionally restricted.

Strikers and their friends have been arrested and framed up without warrant or cause and barbarously assaulted, both in and out of prison, by the police Cossacks.

The whole administration of justice in Passaic and vicinity has been prostituted to the wishes of the mill owners. Judicial officials have acted as though they were prosecuting agents of the mills in their futile efforts to destroy the unity and solidarity of the textile workers and drive them back to the mills.

The right of peaceful assembly has also been seriously interfered with. Halls have been closed by order of petty local tyrants and in some cases still remain closed through the use threats and intimidation’s against hall owners.

In view of these clearly unconstitutional acts and practices, this conference resolves to do all in its power to assist those organizations working to retain, preserve and uphold the Bill of Rights of the Constitution of the United States during this orderly strike of textile workers.

The textile mill owners in their efforts to break this strike of 16,000 workers have conducted a literal reign of terror through the local mayors, police chiefs, sheriffs and other public officials. They have arrested and indicted Albert Weisbord, the organizer of the United Front Conference, Jack Rubenstein, and other strike leaders and picket captains; they have arrested, clubbed and held under false charges, nearly 300 of the active spirits of the struggle. Many of them have been brutally treated by the police at the time of their arrest and during their incarceration. All of them must have strong legal defense and protection against the lawless and vindictive mill owners and their agents in public office.

In addition to the textile strikers arrested when attempting to picket and carry out their legal rights, several other citizens such as Norman Thomas, Esther Lowell, Robert Wolf, Robert Dunn and others have been arrested, thrown into jail, denied fair trials and finally released under outrageously excessive bail in flagrant violation of constitutional guarantees. If indicted, the very best of legal defense will be necessary in order to prevent them being railroaded to prison for their work on behalf of the striking textile workers.

For the defense of the arrested strikers, their leaders and their sympathizers, this conference pledges its complete and wholehearted support. It will cooperate with the United Front Committee of Textile Strikers of Passaic and vicinity, with the International Labor Defense and the American Civil Liberties Union in making this defense work practical and effective. To secure the release of all those under arrest, a strong, permanent and aggressive defense movement must be built up to defend and protect them. The mill owners must not be permitted to send Weisbord and the other valiant members to prison for long terms—as punishment for their loyalty to the textile workers.

Therefore, we call upon all members to build up simultaneously with the relief work, a united defense movement and we pledge ourselves even after the strike is victoriously won to consider the victory incomplete until we have secured the release of all those who have been the victim of this reign of terror.

“Trade Unionists all over the United States should support men and women who previous to this dispute were not organized, not knowing when they came out, whether they were going to be supported in their fight against tyrants,” writes J. Hardwich, secretary, Branch 8 (Philadelphia) the Chartered Society of Amalgamated Lace Operatives of America, in forwarding a contribution from his union.

“We in Branch 8 feel proud of having people in the Ranks of Trade Unionism of the caliber of the Passaic Strikers who by their heroic fight for a living wage have beaten anything in the annals of trade unionism. Stick to your guns, men and women of Passaic, in your gallant fight for justice and fair play and I am confident victory will be yours.”

Dear Fellow Workers:

I read in the Passaic Daily News what Sheriff Nimmo said about us poor people being misled. Why, if it wasn’t for Sheriff Nimmo and his thugs and the pay they’re getting from the bosses we would be back inside the mills with our strong union long ago.

Fellow workers, now is the time for us to open our eyes and see that we stick to our leaders who have almost given their lives for us, and to the other working people who are supporting us with their money to show that they are fighting with us to a finish.

Then when we enter the “Great Heaven"—the mills, [the] United Front Committee will enter the great gates with its—banner flying strong and peaceful. And the mills then will be sanitary mills. May the great union be strong forever and ever.

A. J. B.

Dear fellow Workers:

Here is a little poem I have written and wish you would have it published in the next Strikers Bulletin.

Win this battle to a victory
Enlightens our path to victory
Is our medal cry
Spirits that can never to broken
Bitter bosses that we must conquer
Options to which they must fail
Revealing the causes of this battle
Down with the Bosses All.

We can’t win the strike because scabs work in the mills and they take the bread from our mouths by scabbing. If we did not have scabs, then we will win the strike. I wish the strike will be won because we could have more food to eat and have more clothes. I will help my parents to go on the picket lines so that we will win the strike.

By Mary Kosa

Dear fellow working women:

Just a few words for us women working in those mills nights. I would like to face any of those people, like Dr. McBride who say the conditions are wonderful. Just let me tell him myself or I could face anybody and tell them what a hell-hole it really is. Especially since the night superintendent gave cut orders that we should not even eat by our machines, we had to eat our piece of dry sandwich while he was away looking at other rooms.

Now the fight is on in real earnest! Not that the Passaic Textile Strike has not had its earnest moments. The sound of policemen’s clubs on the heads of men, women and children on strike, has been heard all over the world. We have just had our BLOODY FRIDAY! Strikers walking home peacefully from a hall meeting, were assaulted most brutally by a whiskey-maddened police. They’re doling out whiskey now to keep up the courage of the arms of the law!

But the fight is on in real earnest now because the BOSSES HAVE ORGANIZED THEIR UNION. Up to now the six big textile mills have followed an alone strike policy. Of course, the same arms of law and order worked for all the mills, yet, up to now each single mill laid claim to “its own workers” and itched to deal with “its workers” singly. One at a time.

NOW THE TEXTILE BOSSES HAVE A UNION! They have decided to UNITE to beat the Textile Strikers, and the first decision made by the NEW TEXTILE BOSSES UNION was that the TEXTILE WORKERS SHALL NEVER HAVE A UNION!

We say that the Textile Strikers SHALL HAVE A UNION to protect themselves and their families and children. HOW DO YOU VOTE?

We also say that the stool workers, oil workers, auto workers, all organized workers SHOULD HAVE A UNION. That’s the point by the way. All the bosses know that if the Textile Strikers got THEIR UNION, then the other millions of unorganized workers will want one too.

So, this is a fight for UNIONISM! And in this fight EVERY WORKER MUST TAKE PART.

Now the fight is on in real earnest. Now you must get down to the work of helping to win the Textile Strike in real earnest. You may not get within slugging distance of a Passaic policeman’s club, but you can encourage the 16,000 textile strikers in their struggle by AIDING FINANCIALLY. Money from you will be the club with which we, the textile strikers, can use most effectively against the bosses.

1. We are giving relief to 14,500 strikers and dependents.
2. Four food relief stores are functioning to capacity.
3. One clothing store distributes contributed wearing apparel.
4. Five picket line lunch counters serve coffee and sandwiches to strikers on picket duty.
5. Two children’ kitchens feed a thousand children daily.
6. Three Physicians take care of the sick and the clubbed strikers.
7. A total of 125 strikers perform all details of the relief work WITHOUT RENUMERATION.

1. Organize a Passaic Strikers Relief Conference in your city AT ONCE.
2. Hold a TAG DAY in your city.
3. Make a HOUSE TO HOUSE COLLECTION in your city.
4. Make a collection in YOUR SHOP.
5. Request your union and fraternal organization to vote a sum of money out of its treasury.
6. Organize a BAZAAR, MASS MEETING, CONCERT or other affairs for the benefit of the Passaic strikers.
7. Send to address below for CONTRIBUTION LISTS and COLLECT EVERYWHERE.

WE MUST SEND HUNDREDS OF CHILDREN TO THE HOMES OF FRIENDS AND ADDITIONAL THOUSANDS TO CAMPS SO WE MAY GIVE THEM HEALTH AND STRENGTH TO WITHSTAND THE MERCILESS EXPLOITATION OF THE TEXTILE BOSSES AND MAKE THEM A POWER IN THE FUTURE RANKS OF ORGANIZED LABOR.

The United Front Committee of Textile Workers and the Textile Strike Bulletin bid all the delegates to the Amalgamation conference a hearty welcome.

You come into the territory of the great conflict between the textile barons and the workers in the mills that has been going on for nineteen weeks and that is still waging strong.

The strikers are stronger than at any other period of the strike, and have determined to win the strike all cost.

You have come to a conference that is of the greatest importance. You are taking up the question of organizing the unorganized in the entire textile industry. The workers in this industry are sorely exploited. They are looking with hopeful eyes to the delegates in this conference to provide some means whereby the work of organization may proceed with all speed so that there may be at least some degree of relief from the suffering that the workers in the textile industry now endure.

This conference will inspire us to even greater efforts and we pledge our hearty cooperation with you in all your plans and efforts in behalf of a union of all the textile workers.

One of the great services of this strike is the thorough exposure of the company union.

Never before has there been such light thrown upon the company union in the textile industry as in this attempt by the bosses to coax the strikers to accept this contraption in instead of their own union.

When the bosses started the campaign to get the workers back and have them join the company union, the workers in the Forstmann and Huffmannn mills came forth with information on the workings of this company union that shot it all to pieces. The thing now looks like a course sand sieve that will not hold enough water to moisten a postage stamp.

Pretty thin of Julius Forstmann to come and offer this hypocritical instrument of the bosses to the workers and expect them to fall for it. He had not figured on the nineteen weeks that the strikers have had in the university of the strike. He did not figure on leadership of this strike. It was a new one on him.

Well by this time the company union is quite fit to be picked up and crumbled into an ash can. The company union might be cremated, if it were not for the brass that is in it with too much slag to melt.

But the workers in Passaic and in the whole textile industry are well through with the company union. It would be hard to resurrect the old corpse again.

Thank you, Mr. Julius Forstmann, for bringing it out so we could have a look at it and forget it.

Now the Lodi police have broken loose—or rather the Lodi bosses.

It is some time ago that the workers learned the fact that the bosses control every act of the police. So that when the police were lined up long before the picket line came along, the strikers knew that something would happen.

The assault was typical. The chief flew up and declared with much dignity that “law and order” must be preserved, and then he and his Cossacks beat down thirty innocent pickets.

We have heard that formula before. It is framed and hung up on every wall of the castles of the bosses. No well ordered police station is complete without it. No chief and no cop is well educated unless he knows it by heart. No newspaper office controlled by the bosses can get along without it. No cub reporter can hold his job unless he is able to say it forward and backward. No mayor or safety commissioner could draw a cent for their campaign from the bosses if they had not already learned the “law and order” formula in their Sunday school. No sheriff or peanut judge would ever get the backing of the barons if they could not harp on “law and order” like a mendicant before a tenement house.

Well, it is the parrot that parrots this “law and order” stuff, drilled in the parlors of the bosses until it can say it as plainly as “Polly want a cracker.”

And the funny part of it is that they think it is a brand new idea and a brainy conception, a wholly original expression that only the greatest mind and the most moral of mortals could possibly invent.

“Law and order!”

Under that guise the whole gang of the bosses and the brainless parrots of the master class try to hide themselves while they club the workers and beat them into pulp. Under that guise they commit the most atrocious crimes and get by with it. Under that guise the police can remove their badges and their numbers so the victim and other witnesses may not be able to prosecute the criminal cop. Under that guise the judge hands out the most outrageous decisions and sentences.

It’s a handy cover for the scoundrels and it serves the bosses mightily.

So when the police break loose in their slugging and illegal beatings, the workers know that it is another assault by the brutal bosses who are so naive that they think the workers will ever return without protection for themselves in the form of a union.

No, the workers will seek protection against the brutalities of the bosses. The union is their best protection.

It was good for the 200 delegates to the relief conference to see what the strikers look like. It is almost impossible for the outside world to realize how much energy and enthusiasm is bottled up in the Passaic district until it is actually seen.

These delegates were simply overwhelmed and declared that they had never imagined that there was as much to this strike as they found when they came to the conference.

Others have had the same experience. Speakers have come to help in the strike, to give inspiration. Invariably they have returned fully as much helped by the inspiration the strikers have given them as they have been able to impart to the strikers.

This is a situation in which there is a wonderful process of reciprocity. Labor in America has done a glorious relief work. The feeding of the thousands of strikers every day has meant the success of the strike and will mean full victory in the end.

On the other hand, Labor in America has received in return such tremendous inspiration that it will lift the organized and unorganized masses a to a higher level than any other force during this period.

In fact, the strikers have given full value for every loaf of bread they have received. Both sides have gone forth to give and both sides have given abundantly.

The delegates went home with a new spirit, and from now on there will be more relief than ever. The strikers saw the mighty force behind them and will fight hard to make good.

The conference was a mighty event for the workers of this country. It was the beginning of bigger things to come. If bosses had been present they would have had several sleepless nights since then.
 
 

After seventeen weeks of bitter struggle against all the forces that the fur manufactures could mobilize against the Furriers Union, 12,000 fur workers have come out Victorious.

They have won a 40 hour week and 10¢ increase in wages besides other Trade Demands.

The victory is especially significant because of the militant tactics of the new leadership, under the splendid generalship of Ben Gold, the general manager of the Joint Board.

Like our own Weisbord, brother Gold incurred the hatred and hostility of all the bosses and reactionary leaders, but had the affection and support of the masses in the needle trades.

The Passaic strikers can learn much from the tactics used in the furrier strike, which prove that solidarity and determination always win against all obstacles.

Here in Passaic, let us take new courage and fresh determination and score the next victory for the workers and lay the basis for the union in the textile industry, as powerful and effective as the furriers have built up in the needle trades.

Workers who have no unions are forced to accept wage cuts and long hours, while workers with a union and militant leadership win more wages and shorter hours.

This is the lesson of the fur workers strike.

Fight for your union.

Three women, Elizabeth Roma, Anna Kerstner and Mary Szanto, all of Lanza Ave., Garfield, went out one evening to pay an educational visit to a scab. They took the two children with them, little Nicholas Roma, four years old, and Mary Kerstner, five. They took two men also, as protectors, for anything can develop when you go to visit a scab. They reasoned with the man, who had been working in the Forstmann and Huffmann Mill. They showed him how he was taking the bread out of their children’s mouths, and robbing his own children of their future. They got his promise that he would stop scabbing. Then they left peacefully, early in the evening.

Meanwhile, in the neighborhood got wind of the visit and called the police court. The police were waiting on the corner when the group came out. The cops arrested them, and for good measure—or to give themselves exorcise—pulled in with them three men who were also standing harmlessly at the corner.

All night the five men remained packed in a cell. The kiddies and their mothers, since no cell was vacant for them, wore away the long hours on chairs in one of the rooms of the court house. With the morning, the babies were hungry. But no food was forthcoming for children or grown people, although it was two o’clock when they were finally released. One bottle of milk was the only breakfast provided for the children.

$1000 bail was fixed for each of the adults on a charge of threatening to kill. Far from be frightened by this ridiculous charge, the women came out ready to round up all the scabs of their neighborhood, and the children will surely grow up into good class conscious fighters, with the early education they got in jail.

“We solemnly pledge our fullest support for the Passaic strike and for one union in the Textile industry.”

With this resolution passed unanimously by the delegates to the unity textile conference held Saturday and Sunday in New York, all the independent unions in the country pledge themselves to the move for one solid industrial union.

In speaking of the conference, Organizer Weisbord said: “The unity textile conference that was held in New York City yesterday marks a definite step forward in forming out of the many different unions in the textile industry, one solid industrial union. Definite plans have been made to bring the unions together again to work out a common scheme of action against the employers. All sections of the conference were unanimous and the utmost cordiality prevailed among the delegates of the various unions. Forty-three delegates, representing fifteen unions and textile groupings were present. The resolutions adopted called for the enthusiastic support of the Passaic strike and denounced in no uncertain terms the company union schemes, called for a fight for the abolition of child labor and pledged all the unions present to a persistent campaign for organizing the resistance of the textile workers to the horrible conditions now prevailing.

“Two weeks from now the committee of ten that was elected to map out further plans for a joint campaign to organize the unorganized in the textile industry on a basis of a fight against the mill owners for decent living and working conditions will meet. Albert Weisbord, the leader of the Passaic strike, is a member of this committee, and will be present at all of its meetings.

“The results of this conference may be very far reaching, for if the plans that were made are successful, it will mean that all of the independent textile unions outside of the American Federation of Labor will be banded together for the first time in a close knit organization to fight the mill owners.

“All of the delegates went away from the conference with the feeling that much progress has been made toward unity in the textile industry.”

The Resolution on the Passaic strike, adopted unanimously by the delegates is as follows:

“The heroic strike of our fellow workers in Passaic now in its 19^th week, calls for the united and continuous support by all textile unions until victory is assured.

“It is a struggle against the inhuman conditions which are general throughout the textile industry. The fight of our fellow-workers of Passaic is a fight of every textile worker in America.

“The Passaic strikers fighting under the banner of the United Front Committee of Textile Workers today constitute a valiant part of the workers vanguard in this country. With their own bodies they have borne the blows that have been meant for us also.

“The Passaic strike marks a new chapter in the struggle of the workers for a decent living wage. It marks a forward step in the organization of the unorganized so badly needed. It gives a new impetus to the move for unity of labor’s ranks in the textile industry.

“The Passaic strikers have raised the slogan of the united front of the workers against the united front of the bosses. And we the delegates assembled together at this unity conference called by the Federated Textile Unions solemnly pledge our fullest support for the Passaic Strike and for one union in the textile industry.”

The menace of the “company union” was dealt with in the following resolution, also carried unanimously.

“Whereas in many textile mills there are company unions, known variously as Employees Representation Plans, etc., etc.

“Whereas the purpose of the employers in establishing such organizations is to facilitate the speeding up of the workers, and to prevent the growth of real true unionism in the textile industry.

“Whereas in actual practice these company unions exert a demoralizing effect upon the workers understanding and a destructive effect upon their struggle for better conditions, therefore be it

“Resolved that this conference and the unions here assembled emphatically condemn company unionism as directly harmful to the workers interests, and pledge themselves to carry on an aggressive fight against company unionism and for the establishment of genuine labor unionism in the textile industry.”

A resolution on child labor was as follows:

“Whereas in the textile industry there are employed a very large number of child laborers under the age of 16 and

“Whereas the employment of children impairs their health and general development and does not give these children a chance to grow up healthy, and

“Whereas the employment of children to do the tasks of the adult workers for a most miserably low wage tends to lower the standard of living of all the workers in the particular industry, therefore be it

“Resolved that this conference of the textile workers representatives go on record against the employment of children in industry, in particular, the textile industry, to start an energetic campaign for the abolition of child labor.”

The fourth resolution passed unanimously by the conference, was on the general condition of the industry. It was as follows:

“The present conditions prevailing throughout the textile industry challenges the attention of all organized labor and especially of the leaders of the organized textile workers in America.

“The most superficial survey of the conditions under which the million textile operatives suffer are general in every branch of the industry.

“The wages paid in this highly protected industry have been notoriously below the subsistence level and on top of this the mill owners have been engaged in a wage slashing campaign in which the already low wages have been reduced from twenty to forty percent in the last two years.

“Unemployment and half-time work has been the rule and the impoverishment of the textile workers has been still further increased by this means and they have been compelled to accept increasingly bad conditions of work from this cause.

“The introduction of the multiple loom system, especially in the cotton mills, the increase in the number of looms in every branch of the industry required the speeding up and efficiency systems introduced in all departments of every branch of the textile industry still further increase the exploitation of the mill workers.

“The use of child labor prevalent in the Southern mills and the intense exploitation of the workers in the mills of the South, many of which are owned and operated by the same companies controlling large corporations in the Northern mills operate to still further reduce the already low standard of living of all the textile workers.

“In most of the mills, systems of fines and docking are prevalent and the textile workers suffer under a multitude of petty abuses. The system of fines and docking filch annually hundreds of thousands of dollars from the pockets of the textile workers.

“Long hours of labor at intense speed, running from forty-eight to seventy hours per week sap the vitality of the textile workers in all textile centers and ruin the health of the women workers.

“Therefore we, the delegates representing our organizations at this Conference of Textile Workers, this 5^th day of June, 1926, pledge ourselves to do all in our power to organize the unorganized textile workers in every branch of the industry, as by this means and by this means alone can these bad conditions be remedied and the whole standard of living in the industry raised and improved. Only by consolidating all the organized forces and carrying on a persistent campaign for organizing the resistance of the workers to these conditions can we expect any permanent improvement and to this end we pledge ourselves and our organizations to give moral, financial and collective support to this program.”

When she came in to the office we were all startled. Her face was so gray and lined and sick—she looked as if she might fall to pieces any moment. She kept twisting her hands together nervously and she seemed very frightened.

Yes, she had been sick, she said. For two weeks she had been “on the bed.” Her husband had thought she would die, and if it hadn’t been for the neighbors coming in she didn’t know how she could have done for the kids. What was her matter? She had been clubbed on “Bloody Friday.

“I was going along the street from Belmont Park Hall. I was going to march, then picket Forstmann-Huffmann on my way home. We were nearly there when I seen a cop go up and hit a woman in front of me. Everybody was hollering and booing after that and the cops began to chase the people. I couldn’t run so fast so they caught me and punched me and hit me awful.” The big gray eyes dilate with fear and the hands twitch nervously.

“Were you hollering, too?”

“No, I wasn’t ever hollering. I just couldn’t run fast enough, so they got me and hit me and then took me off to jail. My husband come and got me out because I got small kids, and the next day I was too sick to stay in the court. The judge took one look at me and says, “Go home,” and they ain’t ever called me to come back.”

“What was it made you so sick—just the beating?”

“Oh lady,” and now the gray eyes brimmed over. “All that punching and hitting they gave me—I’ve lost my little baby,” and the bereft mother burst into tears, “I’ve got five others, but the youngest is three now, and I wanted a tiny one again.”

So “Bloody Friday” still goes on, taking its toll of the workers, of the little children, of the unborn. This mother and other mothers, how can they forget these outrages which the bosses and their henchmen are bringing to them and their children? How can the workers of America forget such scenes, or let these heroic people suffer longer? The struggles must be won once and for all, so that never again in Passaic can a policeman club down and kill the unborn child of a worker.

As the glorious sun burst through the clouds on Sunday, June 6^th, after several rainy days, so did the strikers spirits brighten up and their courage revive at the all day picnic held at Rochelle Park. The committee had talked to the Weather Man the week before, and he had disappointed them. This time Weisbord himself put in a word, and as he has a pull there as well as in Passaic, we got a most perfect day.

Early in the morning in the glowing sunshine the buses started out from Belmont Hall. Trip after trip they made and crowd after crowd of strikers started out to hike, in a long joyful picnic picket-line, and still the crowds kept coming. If there were a thousand people at that picnic Sunday there were twenty thousand, all enjoying the outing and its program to the full.

Sports took up the morning. The winners of the different events were as follows:
25 yard dash:—Wanda Jackowski and William Scoka.
100 yard dash—Mamie Sandusky and Louis Obsuth.
Potato race—Marguerite Toth and Steve Obsuth.
Sack Race—Mamie Sandusky and Louis Obsuth.
Tug of war—Joe Toth, John Vanyo, Joe Vanyo, Louis Obsuth, Steve Zakopchan and Prudsoce Brio.

In the afternoon a baseball game came off between the Lodi Independents and the Philadelphia Giants. Free lunch consisting of cake, milk and sandwiches was served to the children. Later, there was a program consisting of singing by the Ukrainian Choir of Passaic, playing by the Silvertone Orchestra, and recitations and songs by the Pioneers of New York.

The climax of the day came at six o’clock when the magic news flew around the grounds that Weisbord was present. He came fresh from the Amalgamation Conference in New York and gave the report of the hopeful outcome of that conference. Dancing on the ground, in the light of the setting sun, wound up the day.

Back went the trucks with their loads, one after another. Sunburned, tired with the pleasant tiredness of a day in the open air, the strikers went back as they had come, singing and cheering. If any had been a bit blue, if any had felt that the strike was lasting long and were getting tired, they came back from the picnic with spirits fresh and courage high. They have girded up their loins and are ready for the fight, once more again. The picnic will long be remembered as one of the happy events of the strike.

In contrast to the plight of the textile workers, the building trades are well organized, and by virtue of their bargaining power, bricklayers receive $12 a day. This may seem to be an excessive wage, but brick laying is a part time industry and the annual earnings of the brick layers are not excessive when it is considered that they and their families must be tided over the idle days as well as work days.

“The terrible industry is also a part time industry but the highest wage in the Passaic mills for the highest skilled workers prior to the cut was only 55 cents an hour. By working full time (48 hours a week prior to the cut, 55 hours a week since the 10 per cent cut), the highest paid wage earner in the Passaic mills would receive only $26. 40; and by working full time every one of the 52 weeks of the year, his annual earnings would be only $1,372.80. At part time the highest paid wage earners receive much less than this, and the lower paid workers still less than they.”

W. Jett Lauck

“Sure, I want to learn English,” the Hungarian striker explained, laboriously picking his words, “I was in Italy I army, one year. I learn Italian beautiful. Here …….” He spread his hands in a hopeless gesture. “I’m in America five years, all I learn is Polish. I work five years in Botany mill, all Polish people around me, so I learn Polish. Only since the strike, I begin to learn a little bit English.”

Yes, it took the strike to teach the workers English, as well as many other things. The bosses never wanted them to learn it, and for very good reasons. The knowledge would unite them as one people, instead of separating them into groups of Polish, Hungarian and Italian workers, each one hating the other. People separated are not organized, which would serve the bosses purpose very well.

Furthermore, the worker who does not know the language of the country can be tricked. He can be fooled by the boss who will tell him things he does not understand, meanwhile putting something over on him.

These textile bosses opposed any attempt to teach the workers English, even setting spies to follow teachers who have made such attempts. The Union will see to it that the workers who have spent from five to twenty years in this country will have the opportunity to learn English.

Just think of those women in Passaic, especially the ones who don’t know how to speak English. They were afraid of the bosses shadow and no wonder, because when the husband brings in only $24 a week with seven children, the wife has to slave in the mills and stand for all kinds of yelling so as not to lose her dear “position” in the great heaven. (I would rather call it a hell-hole or prison).

One night a woman went to get herself a bottle of water and a sandwich and started to eat it, just as the boss came along. When he saw the lady eating, just because she was leaning against her machine he started to yell so you could hear it from one end of the room to the other.

It’s because we weren’t organized and had no union to protect us that we had stand such criminal insults from the bosses. So lets stick together and stand firm. I appeal to you poor working ladies who don’t know how to talk in American.

The Company Union is the greatest enemy of the workers. It is a TOOL OF THE BOSSES and is ALWAYS USED AGAINST THE WORKERS.

The bosses created, operate and control the Shop Council. Whatever the bosses create can not be good for the workers. The Company Union is a UNION FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE COMPANY—You need an ORGANIZATION FOR YOUR OWN BENEFIT. This organization that fights for the Textile Workers—the Union that organized and leads 16,000 Textile Workers in Passaic is the United Front Committee. The United Front Committee combines all the Textile Workers Unions and organizes the unorganized workers into one POWERFUL UNITED FRONT.

FELLOW WORKERS: Smash the Shop Council of the bosses and their suckers! Join the United Front Committee of the Workers!

Beware of the smooth tongued agents of the bosses who have a smile on their lips and carry a dagger in their hearts for the workers. Don’t trust the individuals who in the mill speak to you against the Shop Council, and ask you to elect them in order to fight for you. They are deceiving you. Ask these people why is it that the management ALWAYS and without exception get a majority on the Council?

The Shop Council is the bosses tool. Everyone who participates in it directly or indirectly helps the bosses, and keeps the workers from organizing a real union. The Shop Council is a scab organization. It O.K.’s all the tricks of planning boards and efficiency experts to exploit you. The Shop Council cuts wages, introduces speed-up systems, and keeps you occupied with petty grievances while the bosses cut your wages, speed you like machines, and then lay you off because you have produced too much.

Fellow Workers of the Pacific Mills! The United Front Committee of Lawrence Textile Workers calls upon you to:

1. SMASH THE SHOP COUNCIL.
2. Repudiate and Boycott the Suckers Club.
3. Join the Unified Front Committee
                           FOR
Higher Wages, Better Conditions, Unemployment Relief.
                       AGAINST
Wage Cuts, Speed-Up Systems, Starvation.
JOIN US AND WIN!

The national conference of Textile workers unions branded company unionism in a resolution adopted unanimously as "harmful to the workers interests” and as a trick "to facilitate the speeding up of the workers and to prevent the growth of real trade unionism in the textile industry.”

The conference called by the Federation of Textile workers which includes the American Federation of Textile Operatives, pledged itself "to carry on an aggressive fight against company unionism and for the establishment of genuine labor unionism in the textile industry.”

A typical company union exists in the Pacific mills of Lawrence under the name of ‘Shop Council.’ The leaders of this company union also parade around as the leaders of a textile workers union. They declare that they will affiliate with the A. F. T O. But the A. F. T. O. repudiates Company unionism. The American Federation of Textile Operatives voted through its delegates at the National Conference for the resolution condemning Company unions, and pledged itself to fight the company union.

The leaders of the shop council will have to look elsewhere for affiliation. They are already affiliated with the Bosses. No workers union or organization will tolerate company union agents in its ranks. You can’t feed from two bags at the same time. You can’t serve both god and the devil.

The American Woolen Co. announces that they are going to close down for their annual 10-day vacation in July. How kind the bosses are to us, and how grateful we are to them. They don’t want us to toil in the hot summer days. They want to give us workers a rest, to enjoy nature and the beautiful summertime.

Will the bosses perhaps advise us what to do with our time? Ten whole days! Just imagine! Where should we go? To Canada? To the seashore? Perhaps to Italy or Paris? The bosses know where to spend a vacation, get the real stuff and have a ‘helluva’ time. They spend 90 per cent of our money and their time there. They know. Won’t they please tell us? Why not post suggestions on the bulletin boards or on the walls in the mills the same as they did with wage cuts?

Or did the bosses ever consider what we are going to eat during our grand vacation? Nature surely is wonderful. Sunlight is good for the health. Did it ever occur to our bosses that nature demands also food? Did they make any provisions for our stomachs when they give us our vacation? And then again the bosses evidently want us to have a complete vacation --- our stomachs included. We have been working 4 and 3 days a week for months. We have had lots of spare time to eat enough to last all year.

No! we will let our bosses eat for us during our glorious vacation. And you bet your life they will.

An American Woolen Co. appreciative worker.

We the weavers of the Edward Bloom Co. have been on strike for the past seven weeks. The reason for the strike was a wage cut of Twenty-five per cent. For the first five weeks the Bloom mill was practically shut down but in the last part of the sixth week he tried to break the strike by hiring scabs. He failed in the attempt. The night before the scabs were going in to work, the foreman went to some of the strikers houses and told them that the strike was over and that they should come back to work. When the strike committee heard of this, they went around to all the weavers and told them to all be on picket line the next morning. The next morning there were about 50 of us on the picket line and we stopped all but three professional scabs. Mr. Bloom had policemen to protect the scabs all day long. If we keep up the good work we’ll win the strike soon.

By T. T.

I am a young weaver, 17 years old. I have been working for the Edward Bloom Co. for about a year and a half. I was making $13 a week and had to work 55 hours to make it. We went on strike because our wages were cut about 25%. We will not go back without a union because if we do Mr. Bloom will fire our leaders and treat us like dogs.

By F. A.

The big women’s meeting that was held one evening recently was like a big cross section of the strike. A crowded hall, women of all ages, old women with shawls or kerchiefs over their heads, young girls, mothers with babies in their arms, you learn the very heart of the strike of Passaic at such a meeting.

There is strength in these women and power. They are no passive audience who sit like jugs and have the words of the speakers poured into them. They take part in the meeting. There is a response and approval that makes it a live thing. You can see them thinking together and getting ready to act together.

The many weeks of strike has added something in them. They come out from the [drudgery] of the mill and home into the picket line and hall where they were fighting together, for the women knew what they were fighting for, for their faces showed it. Animating these women is a calm determination to win the strike.

Weisbord appears, applause, more applause, applause that will not stop. There are hundreds of faces lighted up. Cheers from the young girls. At last he has a chance to speak. It is about the women after all.

Rows upon rows of women, the packed hall full of women have welded themselves together in a fighting mass that means nothing short of strength.

This evening is only another step in the lessons on unionism that they have been learning from the strike, another expression of solidarity. A meeting like this could not have been held in a textile town a few years ago. Here are women of all races listening to speakers in English. Women have come out of their homes to meet together for a high purpose. The cry has been always before, you cannot organize the women.

You can organize the women.

They answer for themselves by such meetings. You can organize the women.

The women are organized.

“For many years it has been the policy of these German mill owners to employ immigrant labor. Before the last immigration Act was passed, agents were sent to Ellis Island with instructions to secure as great a diversity of nationalities as possible. This was for the purpose of making it more difficult for the employees to become organized. National animosities and antipathies were accentuated and encouraged, and rivalry as between nationalities was encouraged as an expedient for more intensive production schedules.

“The individual is powerless to negotiate for higher wages, and until he and his fellows become organized, and thus enabled to bargain collectively, he is at the mercy of the mill manager, and must take whatever wages and working conditions the mill manager chooses to force upon him.”

W. Jett Lauck.

Infant mortality in Passaic is 43 to 52 per cent greater than in the rest of the state of New Jersey, and the death rate in the age groups from 10 to 19 years (period of adolescence) is [28] per cent greater than in the rest of the state.

“Passaic is a textile center. The work in the textile mills is done indoors in hot steam filled rooms, or in rooms filled with dirty disease laden dust, or in the presence of strong chemicals and dyes of various kind. The combination of these technical conditions with the inadequate standard of living forced upon the workers by the low wages paid and with the long hours of work speeded up to a high degree of efficiency saps the strength and resistance of the workers to such an extent that they readily fall as victims of such diseases as tuberculosis, wool sorters disease, (anthrax), cancer, digestive disorders, anemia, etc.”

Textile Strike Bulletin.

Dear Friends:

Our organization has just put on in our official organ “Das [Nacht] Wort”, a page for the Youth and Children of our members. I presume you know that we are a militant workers fraternal organization.

Can you give us the names of young people between twelve and eighteen who would like to correspond either through our paper or directly with our readers? We are going to have a Correspondence Bureau for names, addresses and communications of correspondents from other cities, as well as from other countries—in all conditions of life.

We would like to put our young readers in direct contact with workers children who are already experiencing their struggles and problems --- in order that they may learn, in their own language and from each other what their inheritance is as workers children, under this system of Society.

We have read with intense interest the expressions from the children in your Strike Bulletin. We are proud of the fearlessness and courage shown in this bitter fight by the Textile Workers and their children. They have already won—whatever the outcome of the strike may be, that first essential for ultimate control, a consciousness of their power! They are already victors.

Fraternally,
Phyllis Lewigston
Editor, Young Peoples Page.

Note: The above letter shows the importance of “With the Young Strikers Section” and also of the section “With the Strikers Children.” Those young strikers who are willing to send articles and correspondence for the paper of this sympathizing organization should bring it up to the office and we will have it forwarded.

I am a worker of the United Piece and Dye Works. The conditions were very bad and I had to work long hours and poor Willie and I couldn’t eat nor wear clothes I needed. I couldn’t get any vacation. I couldn’t get any fresh air nor fresh food. I didn’t have any strength. I felt ill all the time and worked like a slave there. There was not any enjoyment at all. I came out on strike and since I came out I get plenty of fresh air and plenty of sunshine. I get clothes and shoes for myself.

I learned a great deal about the bosses. They don’t care at all about the workers, for if they did they would give them a living wage and realize that the workers want to be organized into a union, and not a company union either.

We are going to stick together and listen to our leader Weisbord. I have studied the history of the bosses, and I know how they used to treat the slaves in olden times. But now they can’t fool them any more, I know, because although I am a colored worker I stick together with the white workers because I see that all workers slave alike. The bosses tried all kinds of tricks to break us, but instead they united us. Fellow workers, stick together! White or colored, Italian or Polish!

By a Colored Young Worker of Lodi.

Nancy Sandusky, our Militant Textile Strike girt leader of Passaic, is doing good work on a tour arranged for by the International Workers Aid, together with Dora F. Lohse, assistant National Secretary of the I. W. A. who is a very forceful speaker and has much relief work activity to her credit.

Meetings were successfully held—Toledo, Cleveland, Canton and Youngstown, Ohio, Rochester, Utica and Schenectady, New York. Everywhere the audience cheered the speakers, and promised to help the Textile Strikers to win their just demands and a strong union. At every meeting a collection was taken and subscription lists given out, many supporters were gained and strike committees will be formed to continue the help of strikers relief.

The affidavits that all the strikers filled out showed an average wage of $23 before the wage cut and $17.18 after the wage cut. This is for all the weavers regardless their age and the number of looms they ran. Of course a young, less experienced weaver running only three looms made a good deal less. Fifteen dollars a week is about all an average young weaver could make after the wage cut.

Besides receiving less pay the young, less experienced weavers, suffer most from the abuse of the straw bosses, for they have some regard for the skilled weaver, but they know the young weaver is completely at their mercy on account of his inexperience.

The Union will put an end to this. Besides raising the pay of the young weavers along with the adults, it will be a protection for the younger weavers from the insults and abuse of the bosses. The Union is the only thing that will force the bosses and even Mr. Bloom himself to treat the workers like men and women and not like lugs. When the foremen and the super knows that he will have to account for any insult to the Union, he will learn to become a gentleman.

Young weaver, you see you have more to gain. Get into the fight for the Union and for a decent wage.

One day in the street by the Passaic Worsted Spinning Mill were some policemen standing on the corner. There were some children also, jumping rope. Two policemen came along and started to turn the rope, and the children were jumping. After a while the cops gave the children some pennies and said they should put two fingers up and say they would never call scabs. Our kids were too wise for them and said, “Nothing doing, we’ll call dirty rotten scab whenever we see one!”

Mrs. Bresnac.

I am a young weaver, sixteen years old and have been working for E. Bloom Co. for nearly two years. As soon as I was fourteen, I had to go to work to help support the family of eight. My sister also went to work at fourteen.

When I started to work I was getting $9.00 for 44 hours. After two years, I was getting $16.00 for 48 hours a week. I am working of three looms and have to stand on my feet all day. After work my feet hurt.

By N. Y.

On June 3^rd a young tinsmith of Passaic, John Kreitl, 18 years old fell from a roof to his death. His father is a striker and a widower, left with four other children. John had been the sole support of his family.

The women of Council No. 2 of the Working class Housewives, hearing of his death at his job and knowing that no help would be forthcoming from his boss for the family, collected a sum of money which they presented together with a basket of flowers at the funeral. The workers hearts and purses are ever ready when misfortune comes to one of their number!

In the early stages of the strike the mill owners thought they could force the strikers back to work by starving them, and especially their children. They were sadly mistaken as the past weeks of the struggle have proven to everyone who take facts as they are.

The United Front Committee, through its relief stores and especially the children’s kitchens shall feed the children of the strikers as long as is necessary in order that the strike may be won and the strong textile union established here in Passaic. It gives one a real sense of working class spirit to see the hundreds of children fed daily at the kitchen and enjoying a real wholesome meal for the first time in their lives.

Some of the children, whose parents slaved all their lives in the mills making the textile masters wealthier and wealthier all the time, have never had a taste till now of milk or any other food that is nutritious and makes for healthy men and woman. The children that eat in these kitchens realize what this union means to them and will grow up with a spirit of class consciousness and a desire to fight for the working class. Stand firm! Fight until you win! One Big Union for all textile workers!

The following short but cheering letter has been received within the past week:

“I am herewith enclosing another check for $400 for the relief of the Passaic strikers.

Fraternally yours,
I. Beckman, Secretary.
United Mass. Relief Conference.”

Tickets were being given out for this concert. A big audience of woman filed in orderly fashion before the platform. Organizer Weisbord held out the tickets to the hands that were raised for them. Tranquil marching women held up their hands to get tickets for the Sunday night concert. Opera singers were coming from New York, also well known musicians.

In front of the women fluttered a lean, imperative hand, a hand that demanded, a hand that had to have a ticket. The boy who held his hand up with his imperative gesture was blonde and under-nourished and he was wise and he knew what he wanted, he knew he had to have a ticket. It was not a children’s concert. Children only got tickets if there were some left over.

The little boy stood there valiant, upright, his outstretched hand voicing his resolve. There was strength in that boy, and there was power in his persistence. It was as if in his lean body he possessed all the will and passion of the mill workers starved children to do away with the conditions that have made them starved.

The women moved slowly and calmly—an endless file taking their turns with discipline.

The little boy stood by the edge of the platform with his outstretched gaping hand. Not once did he stop his mute demand while the large audience walked past in their slow fashion. That boy knew how to stick, he knew how to get what he wanted and thin as he was, he knew how to use all the force that was in him. It was as if this ticket was a ticket that meant life and death. The last woman walked slowly past. The little flock of children crowded up. His hand darted up in triumph and he went off with his ticket of paper, the bit of paper that meant he would hear the music next Sunday night, the bit of paper that meant also that he was made of the stuff of the mill workers children that win strikes.

Last Saturday I took a “look see” at the textile strike situation in and around Passaic.

This remarkable strike now is in its 18^th week and, like Johnny Walker, going strong.

Almost from the beginning I have been thinking I ought to take a look in on it. During the Spanish War Mr. Dooley declared he had “fought, bled and died in every spot in Cuba.” I feel somewhat that way about New Jersey. Especially of the region round about Newark in which Passaic, Garfield, Clifton, Paterson, and other mill towns are situated. My nostrils are familiar with its every smell. And my back is not unfamiliar with the stripes that come from protesting against those smells. Even those antisocial smells that literally massacre innocents in such wholesale fashion as to reduce Herod from the rank of a red tyrant to that of a pink piker.

The death rate of children among the mill folk of Passaic and vicinity is 50 per cent greater than elsewhere in New Jersey!

“It’s a damned shame.”

That’s a quotation. A quotation from a meaty little book I keep close at hand, called “Human Justice for Those at the Bottom: An Appeal to Those at the Top.” Here is the context of quotation:

“There is a type of Englishman who, when moved to a certain point of indignation at witnessing or hearing of a situation of shameful injustice would sometimes give utterance to his feelings and say: ‘It’s a damned shame.’

“And very rarely would it happen that the man whose feelings found expression in such words would not proceed to action. Now this is the point of feeling to which all of us should be moved by the contemplation of the shamefully unjust condition of this million at the bottom.”

The million the author had in mind were in England. The million I have in mind at the moment are in America. In the textile industry. One of the prodigious predatory industrial infants protected by our tariff from foreign competition and given perfectly free hand to fleece the American consumer and the American wage-earner.

Of this overworked and underfed million, a valiant vanguard, 16,000 strong, driven to desperation by the starvation wages of mill owners who have fattened fabulously on the faithful labor of their fingers, are on strike. Incidentally, the biggest of these mill owners are foreigners, who are reaping the rich rewards of the American tariff while warring against American standards of living. Yes, coining the very bodies and souls of American workers into stupendous profits on alien capital!

Against these strikers are arrayed upwards of $30,000,000 of mill capital, plus all the other wealth of Passaic and vicinity worth mentioning, which immediately lined up with the $30,000,000, plus the majesty of the state of New Jersey, (famous for “Jersey Justice") as represented by the mayors of Passaic, Garfield and Clifton, the chief of police and police magistrate of Passaic, the sheriff of Bergen County, Gov. Moore, and Sens. Edge and Edwards, all of whom function as if they were under such peculiar obligations to the $30,000,000, as to wipe out all human obligations.

“It’s a damned shame.”

Somehow that quotation kept running through my mind all day last Saturday. And the longer it ran the hotter it got. Once I am afraid I blurted it out loud. Loud enough for 3,000 friendly ears to hear. My spiritual breakbands must have burnt out. Even asbestos might have gone to pieces under the grueling test.

Early in the day the quotation popped into my mind. I was in one of the two kitchens in which a thousand hungry children are given a meal a day. Before me, and close enough to be touched, were children of which any nation ought to be proud. Somewhat undersized, somewhat underfed, but with clean, smiling faces, snappy eyes, and bubbling spirits. I suppressed the quotation, but in doing so I forgot to watch my eyes. When I became aware of them again they were moist. A woman near me was crying.

You see, the very lives of these children—more precious really, even from a national point of view, than swollen dividends—were at stake! Absolutely without reason, absolutely contrary to good public morals, death was playing havoc among them. And neither the mayor of Passaic, nor the governor of New Jersey, nor either of the U. S. senators of the state, cared a continental. Poor souls! Pitifully poor. If Christians, not up on their Gospels (Matt. 18:10), perhaps. Or wanting in imagination. Or living in the black shadow of the $30,000,000, and in perpetual obedience to it.

The spirit of the children of these strikers is marvelous. Nothing downs them. Nothing daunts them. I saw chalked in childish hand on a mill wall: "Cops are devils.” These kids have much right to believe that. Again and again they have seen the police behave with all the brutality of the Czarist Cossack. The New York World ran a cartoon showing Uncle Sam taking down the sign “Bergen County,” and substituting another, reading “Siberia.”

It may be a little unfair to the decenter sort of devils to put them on a par with the Passaic police in their assaults on women and children. But whether “devils” or not, the cops have not been able to cow the kids. The other night they picketed chief Zober’s house and sang him songs about Cossacks of their own composing, with a few snappy significant yells thrown in to dispel any lingering doubt he might have to as how he and his band of ruffians stand with them.

The spirit of the strikers themselves, of all ages and both sexes, from those in their teens on up to their parents and their grandparents, is most remarkable. I have never seen anything like it in all my relations with the labor movement.

It is more like the buoyant spirit that animated the early Christians than anything I have ever come in contact with. They are literally smiling through this strike. I had thought my visit to Passaic would be depressing. Quite the contrary. I came away with the feeling that I had passed through "miles and miles of smiles and smiles” on fearless faces. Faces that looked good to me.

The great meeting in Kantors Auditorium was one of the most inspiring I ever attended. Here gathered some 1,500 local strikers and representatives from Boston and Chicago, Springfield and Detroit, Rochester and Baltimore, and a couple of hundred places between, who brought words of encouragement from half a million friends to the 16,000 men and women on strike. For half an hour before the meeting got down to serious talk and business there was cheering and singing that would have done credit to any college gathering.

The yells were full of pep. The songs set to good old tunes like "John Brown’s Body,” “Hold the Fort,” “Revive Us Again,” and such, and joined in by girls and boys, mothers and fathers, and grandmothers and grandfathers that Franz Hals would have delighted to paint, gave me an inspiring vision of an awakening labor movement in America that would play a sorely needed and vital part in the shaping of American history in the years just ahead of us.

The Passaic strikers have faced, and are facing, great odds. But through 18 long weeks they have carried on magnificently. Not for a moment have they weakened. The strike is still a hundred per cent strike.

Deprived of every right guaranteed by state and national constitutions, they patiently bided their time. Threatened with death by those whose sworn duty it was to protect them in their rights, they smiled philosophically. Possibly some of them winked and asked; “O death, where is thy sting-aling-ling?”

What is to become of the final outcome of this just and splendidly orderly and [competently] managed strike? The strikers say they will win. And they believe what they say. Their faith in their cause and in their leader, Albert Weisbord, know no bounds.

I heard this young Jew acclaimed as another young Jew was acclaimed some 2000 years ago for somewhat similar reasons. Compassion on the unshepherded multitude coupled with the modest and seeming miraculous satisfaction of their hunger.

And I heard this young Jew declare that the strikers would rather die than return to the mills under the old conditions or anything like them, and the declaration greeted with thunderous applause from hardy hands.

I believe with all my heart that this strike should succeed. I believe that if properly supported by organized labor and persons of liberal views as it certainly ought to be it will succeed. I believe that these strikers can be defeated only by crushing their splendid spirits.

It may be possible to do that, not by bullying or beating or jailing them, but by starvation. But if that is done, the loss to the whole labor movement, indeed to our whole country, will be enormous. The spirit I saw manifested in these textile workers is essential to the future of a free America. To sabotage it, as the petty politicians of New Jersey are sabotaging it, is suicidal. These 16,000 workers are worth their weight in gold. To destroy them while we are celebrating the sesquicentennial of American independence would be national lunacy.—From the Baltimore Daily Post.

Taylorville, Ill.

Notwithstanding the unemployment among Illinois miners the past two years, Local 3473 of the United Mine Workers, with headquarters at Taylorville, voted to send $1 per member to the Passaic textile strikers, who have been out four months trying to regain a wage cut, and obtain recognition of their union. The sum amounts to $200.

“We hope all other local unions will follow suit,” Local 3473 declares.

On Saturday, June 19^th, a conference will be held in Passaic, called by the Working women’s Council together with the United Council of Working class Housewives. The purpose of this conference is of great moment in the winning of the strike. The United Council is preparing to extend the work it has been doing for several months in feeding the children of the textile strikers.

A hungry child at home more than anything else will send a father back into the mills. The knowledge that their children are being cared for, fed with full unstinted meals every day, more than anything else will keep the strikers holding courageously to their post.

Women, this is your work. The United Council needs the cooperation of all the women of this territory to collect more funds so that it can establish several more kitchens. We are feeding 1000 children now; we must feed 5,000! The Councils of Passaic, of Newark, of New York and Brooklyn are doing noble work. Join your efforts with theirs!

The Conference of June 19^th will lay the basis for in intensive drive for funds for the relief of the children of the textile strikers. Call a special meeting of your organization! Elect delegates! See that you are represented in Passaic on June 19^th.

For information address LEONA SMITH, Chairman, Kitchen Committee, 743, Main Avenue, Passaic.

Millions of young girls and women are employed in the mills, farms, stores, and factories, of America. They are engaged in every kind of work from domestic service to the manufacture of all kinds and all sorts of commodities. The lack of laws protecting women employed in industry is one of the greatest indictments against our civilization. The women are the mothers of the nation and if they are permitted to be exploited indiscriminately and their health is undermined due to a lack of sanitary health laws, then the future of the nation is very black.

A number of attempts have been made to safeguard women, especially in respect to their family functions by some states in the Union. In Massachusetts, Connecticut, Missouri, Vermont and New Jersey there are laws on the statute books prohibiting them to work from two to six weeks before childbirth. But these laws lack teeth in them and they are grossly violated especially in those industries where there is no union organized to protect the women employed in the mills.

Some states have no night work for women laws similar to the law in the state of New Jersey that prohibits women to work from the hours of ten P. M. to 6 A. M. These laws are never enforced however where the women are not organized or no union exists; the employers have a free play to violate these laws as they please and the state departments of labor rarely have the power to enforce these laws. We have one outstanding example of this fact. In the state of New Jersey a law was passed in 1923 to go into effect 1925 that no women could be employed in laundries, bakeries and factories from 10 P. M. to 6 A. M. This law was never enforced by the Textile Operators of Passaic.

The Passaic Textile Operators asked for extension of two years time before the law became operative. The law was amended accordingly, with the understanding that they would obey it. When Jan, 1925 arrived, the Passaic Textile Operators and mill owners regarded the law as a scrap of paper. They have continued to work women at night without any interference on the part of the law. Consequently the women working in the textile industry of New Jersey under such miserable and exhausting conditions have an infant death rate under one year of age 53% higher than anywhere else in the state.

Fellow workers, have you stopped to realize what will become of us if such conditions are to continue? Do you realize what a great menace women labor means? Have you asked yourself why so many women, both mothers and young girls are employed in industry? Most mothers are forced to work because the wage their husband earns is too small to provide for his family. Young women and girls are employed because they are a cheap source of labor to be used against the union workers in times of strikes and in normal times.

Sisters in industry, it is about time we saw the handwriting on the wall and proceed to organize ourselves and fight shoulder to shoulder with our brothers and husbands for better and higher standards of living. Now is the time when wage cuts are the order, long hours of toil is a common thing, for us to join the ranks of the organized trade union workers of the country. Unorganized women everywhere organize, you have nothing to lose but your chains!

There are now two children’s kitchens in Passaic, one at 25 Dayton Avenue, and the other at 170 Third Street. The Dayton Avenue one feeds 58 children at one time, and the other, seventy-two. There are generally four or five shifts a day. Between the two places, about a thousand different children are being fed six days a week. The serving of the dinner begins at about 3:30, when the children come out of school. The meals are made as full and nourishing as possible, the menu including soup, stew, salads, prunes, applesauce, etc. Soup is the most popular dish, though these children are glad even to get bread. A cup of milk is given to each child. For some of them this is the first chance in their lives to drink milk.

The work is done by the women of the Workingwomen’s and Housewives Councils, who elect committees for every day. They are helped in the afternoon when there is a rush of work in serving the children, by women strikers.

The children receive a weekly meal ticket, which is punched for every meal and exchanged at the end of the week. It goes without saying that scabs children are branded and get no food in the kitchens.

The kitchens are managed by an Executive Committee of which Leona Smith is Chairman, and which is composed of three delegates elected from each of the Councils, with two representatives of the children. This Committee meets regularly once a week to conduct the business both kitchens. There are also a buying and a menu committee.

Funds a collected by the different branches of the United Council of Working class Housewives. Many members of these branches come out Passaic to help in the actual work of the kitchens, and all go back as enthusiastic supporters of the work. The long continuance of the strike makes it necessary to extend the work by opening several more kitchens. This will mean the collection of more and more money and food stuffs. The United Council of Working class Housewives is calling a conference in Passaic on the 19^th of June to which all women’s organizations are urged to send delegates. Here the basis will be laid for bigger and better support of the textile strike through the children’s

Kitchens.

From early morning the women were ready, with their tables set up under the trees in a shady corner of the grounds. Six great cans of milk, huge boxes of sandwiches and piles of cakes ready for the kiddies. Early in the afternoon they started to serve, and the children kept warming in such numbers that hours passed before they had fed all.

The women of Council No. 2 of the Working class Housewives had a committee of ten women present, who were helped by some of the women of Council No. 1 and others. They accomplished this task of feeding several thousand hungry, active youngsters as though they had had training to do it all their lives instead of simply for the last few weeks in the children’s kitchens. Their efforts played a great part in making the picnic a success.

Here’s another Contribution from the Workers of California:

“We enclose check for $196.95 as donation to the Passaic Textile Strikers Fund from our organization.

“At our May Day celebration, at which the enclosed check is a part of the receipts, there were also passed Resolutions, unanimously, for the relief of the strikers from the tyranny being perpetrated upon them by those in power in that district, of which we enclose a copy to be given as much publicity as possible.

“We realize that their fight is our fight, and while we are separated by quite a distance we nevertheless appreciate their noble work for the Emancipation of Labor.

“May the GOOD work go on.”

Yours for EMANCIPATION,
International Labor Day Federation.
San Francisco, Cal.

It may be blasphemy to suggest that the mill barons are not the whole cheese in the state of New Jersey and in the United States, but we still hold that they are not.

It may be further blasphemy to suggest that the mill owners will some day have to come to time, but they will.

The agency that will bring them around and make them quite willing to talk to the workers about settlement will not be any particular courtesy on the part of the mediators or on the part of the workers themselves or the union. The bosses do not bow to bows. They do not faint at sob stories. They do not listen to facts and figures. They do not care about public sentiment. They are not concerned with the welfare of their workers and do not worry what happens in the community where they have scooped in their millions. Their heart is not softened by statistics of mortality or by women’s working nights, by children dying while slaving in their mills and by the poverty and suffering caused by the inhumanly low wages they pay.

They do not listen to a priest or to a rabbi or to professional investigators who to come to them with a desire to have the strike settled justly. Diplomatic overtures have no influence on them.

Then what is left?

There is still one certain crowbar that will pry them loose and turn them over.

It is POWER.

And that power is in the union of the workers.

The solidarity and the unity of the workers in this strike and the continuation of this unity and the unbroken ranks of the workers and the cementing of them into one firm body like that of a trained athlete with muscles and brains and guts and determination will pry them loose.

Power is what is needed and nothing else. That power is now in the workers through the union they have established. This union is being perfected and trained and strengthened. Before it the mill owners will quake some day. They will come and beg. They will regret that they were not more decent to the workers in the early weeks of the strike. They will wonder what the workers will do about the beatings and the jailings and the insults they have had to endure at the behest of the bosses. They will know that the workers would be justified in using most severe measures. And they may be surprised to find that the workers will be entirely fair and entirely free from revenge and entirely just, and that they will deal with the brutal tyrants without any thought of retaliation.

Power alone will bring the mill owners to time and they might as well make up their minds to the fact that this power is here and that the longer they wait the harder it will be for them to bow to the inevitable.

For the workers in the textile industry have determined to organize the entire industry and with that they will have the necessary power to protect themselves against the injustice that has be heaped upon them in the past.

“These Passaic and vicinity mills have for a long time successfully opposed collective bargaining on the part of their employees. In order to more certainly prevent their employees from becoming organized, none of these mills would hire a new employee until he been investigated by this council and could show a card from the office of the council. The main idea of the investigation was to determine whether the applicant was likely to become a “troublemaker.” By a system of code marks on the card, the several were enabled to know the objections attaching to the applicant and to hire or refuse to hire accordingly.

“The council kept records of the employees and former employees of the member mills and any former employee of any of them who had either quit or been discharged was unable to obtain employment by any of these mills if his former record showed that he had been guilty of any serious infraction of the rules or policies of the member mills. That is, potential leaders in organizations of the workers, were blacklisted as troublemakers. If there was any suspicion that the applicant for a position might possibly cause any trouble, or influence other employees, or create dissatisfaction with wages or working conditions, the Council would report on him unfavorably.

“Each member mill employed labor spies to watch the employees and talk to them, and to report to the management any actions or language which might indicate the possibly of his causing trouble. These detectives and spies were especially instructed to report any person who complained about his wages or working conditions, whether he ever mentioned forming a union, etc.”

W. Jett Lauck.

Conclusive evidence of Labor’s firm determination to back our struggle to final victory is shown in the continued flood of letters daily arriving at Relief headquarters. Labor is answering the bosses threat to starve the workers into submission in the only effective way it could be answered --- with money and supplies. But great as is the response the need is always several laps ahead, and the General Relief Committee of Textile Strikers is urging the friends and supporters of the striking textile workers to redouble their efforts at this juncture. Following are some of the larger donations received during the week.

Polish National Alliance of Brooklyn, $300.00; First Hungarian Baptist Church, Garfield, N. J., $50.00; Associated Church of Passaic, N. J., $67.10; Yiddish literary and Dramatic Circle, Elizabeth, N. J., $125.00; Ida Hoffman, collection at Kinderland, New York City, on an outing on Decoration Day, $67.10; United Relief Committee of Brockton, collection $36.90; Amalgamated Public Service Workers Union, New York City, collection, $33 40; Aug. Baltin, Minneapolis Br. Lettish Fed., $25.00; John Winkel, Chicago Branch Lettish Fed., $73.70; Joint Council of New York—United Cloth Hat and Cap Makers of North America, $64.50; S. Alexander & Co., $45.00; New Bedford Loomfixer’s Union, (6^th donation) $50.00; Lydia Gibson Minor (Milk Fund) $50.00; Moving Picture Machine Operators of U. S. and Canada, Chicago, Ill., $50.00; Workmen’s Circle, Winnipeg School, $50.00; Workmen’s

Circle, Branch 537, $5.00; Ladies Auxiliary of the U. M. W. of A., Alden Station, Luzerne Co., Pa., $25.00; New Bedford Weavers Protective Assn., New Bedford, Mass., $25.00.

In St. Louis, Missouri, the Dramatic section of the Freiheit Club gave a special performance at the Palace Theater for the benefit of the Passaic Strikers.

The theater was crowded to capacity with standing room only. Everyone present greeted the performance, and the cause for which it was given enthusiastically.

To date, seventy-five dollars has been received by the National Office of the International Workers Aid from the Freiheit Committee, with the assurance that more would follow.

(signed) F. G. Biedenkapp,

Nat’l Sec. I. W. A.

Twenty weeks have passed since the Strike began in Passaic and vicinity. A very serious situation has existed ever since in this entire community. The whole state and the whole country has felt the effects of the strike.

Does this bother Senator Edwards? Does he take an interest in the affairs of his state?

He did arise to oppose the resolution for an investigation of the textile industry. He did make a trip to Paterson and stopped off at Passaic for a few moments. He did tell the strikers to go back to work and take chances with the bosses for a settlement afterward.

Oh yes. Senator Edwards was here all right. But for what purpose? No one is in the dark as to the purpose of Senator Edwards. One thing and one thing only was in his mind: How best to serve the mill owners.

When he found that the workers were standing firm he sat down in his soft seat in Washington and for all we know he has forgotten that there is such a place as Passaic.

We are in the twentieth week of the strike and Senator Edwards never so much as sends us a word. He might at least ask how we are getting along, but he does not even worry about that.

The workers gave the votes that elected him. They did that because they were fooled into doing so by the press and the bosses. They did it ignorantly. They had figured on getting help from Senator Edwards in case they needed it. They did not know that the bosses would get all his support. The bosses had only one vote to a hundred votes of the workers, but Senator Edwards thinks that this one vote is more important than the hundred that the workers threw away on him.

Good and well. The workers have learned a very valuable lesson. Not the strikers only, but the workers in all of New Jersey. The actions of Senator Edwards stand out as one of the unforgettable insults to a suffering mass of workers. They will see to it that such insults will not be hurled at them again by this man.

In spite of Senator Edwards, the investigation of the textile industry will go on. Reliable investigators like W. Jett Lauck have dug up evidence against the mill owners and shown up the conditions and the wages in the mills where the workers refuse to slave away their lives unless they get relief.

So the investigation will be carried on and the facts will be brought to light even if Senator Edwards goes to sleep and snores like a saw mill.

The strike has become a veritable university to the mill workers who never had a chance to study the problems of their own lives.

First of all the workers have learned to write. They are contributing some of the best material in the Bulletin as well as writing for other publications. Some of their articles are reprinted by labor papers and journals far and wide. In this number of the Bulletin you will find several contributions from the strikers who never thought of seeing their articles in print before the strike. You will read—and your eyes will get wet as you rend—the little play on the strike, by a striker’s girl of 11 years of age. No son or daughter of any of the bosses even after they might be through a university could begin to match that little girl in intelligence and insight.

In the second place, the strikers have learned to organize. You ask them what is the most important demand in this strike, and they will not mention the abolition of the wage cuts, nor the ten per cent increase. These are important to them, but they have a broader vision and they now see clearly that the most important demand is the recognition of the union. The union is first and last with all the workers now. They will rather die than go back to the mills without the union.

In the third place, they are learning about their own importance in the industry. They have become aware of the fact that all the bosses together could not run [one mill.] The minuet the workers stop working everything stops. The entire industry is helpless without the [workers.] The whole community suffers when the workers quit.

Not so when the bosses leave. They never quit working for they never began. But they do go to Europe, and they do go on long trips, and they do leave the mills and go far away. Julius Forstmann and his daughters and wife were on a six month trip to Europe returning toward Spring. Max Stoehr was in Europe many months at the same time and did not worry about his mills as far as his work in them was concerned. Bahnsen is in Europe most of the time peddling his daughters to rotten counts whose titles cost millions of dollars.

Did anyone ever dream of blaming these gentlemen for the closing down of the mills? Were the mills at all dependent on their presence in them? The workers are learning that as far as the bosses are concerned they can stay in Europe all the time. It does not matter at all.

But as soon as the workers leave the mills every loom hangs like a dishrag. The whole community is upset and business goes on the bum. The papers begin to holler and the patriots stand on every corner gawking with their mouths open cursing the strikers and the leaders and make a mournful noise. Why don’t they holler when the bosses go to Europe? Why don’t they cry when the mill owners go on a lark? Because there is no change in the industry and no stoppage of work.

From now on the workers are going to take their proper place in industry and not grovel in the dirt at the feet of the tyrannical and useless bosses. The workers have decided to stand erect and be men and women. If they do the work they will demand a decent pay for it and decent treatment while performing it.

A new era is dawning in the textile industry. The conference held in Imperial Hotel of New York, Saturday and Sunday, promises to have far reaching effects.

There are a number of struggling unions and committees in the textile industry that have been fighting valiantly for years to become strong enough to cope with the situation among textile workers. But it is fully recognized that the power of the bosses is not to be dealt with on a small scale. In many cases there have been defeats of the workers and the conditions have constantly grown worse.

Leaders in these organizations have recognized the necessity for unification of all the forces and amalgamation of all the organizations. This problem was taken up at the conference and the first steps were taken towards definite work along these lines.

The Passaic strike has inspired the other workers to more determined effort to organize the unorganized in the textile industry. The existing unions afford a splendid basis for such work. With all these united into one live working force it would be possible to make a tremendous headway among the unorganized.

The committee that has been elected to carry on the work will have the unanimous support of all the workers in this important and vast industry. Only hope and encouragement is seen with nothing but full success as a final result.
 
 

For scabbing on the union Richard Kellner, 54, of 53 Sampson Street, Garfield, N. J. lost his right arm last Friday. He had it crushed in a blood-curdling accident in the mill of the New Jersey Worsted Spinning Company.

At one of the other mills, it is reported, a 14-year old boy was burned to death during the same week.

There have been hundreds of frightful accidents in the mills, but the boss-controlled papers are suppressing such news. The bosses don’t want the suckers to know they are endangering their lives and limbs by going back to the mills to work side by side with inexperienced men.

In a monster demonstration that stirred this city as no labor parade has ever done, the Furriers Union of New York celebrated its strike victory on Tuesday morning in which its 12,000 members joined to the last individual and in which 10,000 other union men and women participated, while hundreds of thousands of sympathetic workers blocked the streets for four hours to cheer the marchers on their way.

Starting from the meeting halls in lower Manhattan, the line followed 4^th street to 3^rd avenue to 8^th street and 2^nd avenue to 11^th street, left to 4^th avenue, up to 21^st street, then to 7^th avenue, to 32nd street, turned back to 6^th avenue, to 22^nd street, back to 4^th avenue to Union Square where a tremendous demonstration was held in front of the Freiheit, with prolonged cheers and the singing of the International.

Six bands kept up the music. The most popular air was the International in which vast masses joined singing. Business ceased and the multitudes in stores and factories waved their handkerchiefs and red bandanas, shouting and cheering their victorious brothers in the long fight that ended so successfully for the union.

Banners with large letters read:
"Three cheers for the 40-hour week.”
"Long live the Furriers Union.”
"Long live our present leadership.”
"Solidarity in the Furriers Union.”
"The General Picket Committee will always be ready to protect the Furriers Union.”

Large sections kept singing “Solidarity Forever,” and after each stanza they shouted “Three cheers for Passaic Strikers.”

A large wreath of red roses made up into the huge letter G had the picture of Ben Gold in the center. This young leader has become a great power among the workers, and his influence over the masses and his ability to make the progressive leadership the dominant force in the union has placed him in very high esteem among the rank and file. With the remarkable popularity he has achieved he carries himself quietly and modestly among the masses by whom he is deeply loved and respected.

“The success of this strike,” said Gold, “lies in the fact that the rank and file was drawn into the struggle and the workers themselves were called upon to shape the policies and to carry them out. Other unions must do the same and will meet the same success when that plan is followed.

“Our next step is Amalgamation which will insure strength to the union, and thus make it invincible against the bosses.

“The present leadership is made up of the expelled members, driven out by the reactionaries. We came back and made a success of our work. This should be a warning to the reactionaries not to expel the intelligent element and the progressives.

“We brought into this struggle all the unorganized and have added over 1,000 new members. Most of these were Greeks and they have already proven to be among the most active. We keep an open door to the newcomers and make them welcome.

“Of course the 40-hour week is the biggest gain. The next big gain is the demonstration to the workers of their power.”

Civil suits amounting to $70,000 damages have been brought against six Passaic policemen in the Circuit court by Benjamin Lovanski, Polish organizer for the United Front Committee and John Ricci. The suits are being pressed by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Benjamin Lovanski, an active organizer for the United Front has been threatened by police many times for his successful work. On May 6 they seized the opportunity to punish him by beating him up and arresting him. His was one of the most severe cases of beating during the strike, and as usual, entirely unwarranted.

On May 6 a woman scab was hit by a tin can thrown by a mischievous child. Many workers were about, it being time for the few scabs to leave the mill. The police chased some workers children who had not thrown the can, and arrested them, jostling them about and handling them roughly. Lovanski, who was standing near, spoke to the police officer asking him not to frighten the child, and then to the child, telling her to go quietly. The Cossacks seized that excuse. They set upon Lovanski and beat him badly, so that more than five weeks afterwards he still bears the marks and is under medical care. The officers named are Herman Zober, Barney Warshaw, Henry Berger, Peter Nieradka, and Edward J. Hogan.

After the beating and arrest of Lovanski, he was charged with attempting to incite the crowd to riot, but was acquitted at his trial.

“Bloody Friday,” May 14, is still echoed in the case of John Ricci against Officer John Van Hoven. On this day, when scores of strikers were set upon and clubbed by police as they were returning from the meeting hall to their homes, John Ricci was attacked on his own property and was beaten by Van Hoven. The officer was engaged in the ‘noble’ work of clearing the streets of strikers. He came upon Ricci, standing in his yard and ordered him to move on.

“I can’t move on. I’m home already,” said Ricci. “I’ll show you whether you can move on or not” said Van Hoven, and attacked him.

Ricci is asking for $20,000 and Lovanski is asking $50,000 damages.

It remains to be seen what the courts will do in the civil cases, whether there is justice in those courts or not. It has been established quite definitely during the strike that no redress can be had from the criminal courts when a striker is beaten to the point of unconsciousness by the Cossack police. In two attempts to bring policemen to justice, warrants could not even be obtained for sixteen cases and were only served in the other cases after much quibbling and delay. Officers finally accepted service and were released without bail.

The powerful support of the needle trades, backing the Passaic strikers with all their influence, was presaged last night by the action of the Joint Board of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union when it voted unanimously to enter conferences to be called by the United Front Committee embracing all the needle trades.

The conference which will take up questions of ways an means of aiding the Passaic strikers, will consider as one of them a boycott of scab goods from Passaic by the garment workers.

The Amalgamated Clothing Workers, the Furriers, the Capmakers Union, --- all needle trade unions will be asked to join the conference. Now that the Furriers strike is won, the slogan of “On to Passaic” is being adopted by organized labor, intent upon the success of this strike.

“I expect the conference to be well attended,” said Albert Weisbord in expressing his satisfaction with the action taken by the Joint Board of the I. I. G. W. U. “The unions all understanding as they do, the tremendous value and importance to workers as a whole of a union in the textile industry, will support the textile strike in this manner completely and vigorously.”

A tremendous mass meeting to be held out of doors if possible will celebrate the furriers victory on Sunday afternoon in Passaic. Fannie Warshawsky and other leaders of the furriers union will be speakers. Anthony Ramuglia of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of Newark will also be present and will speak. Ben Gold, the militant leader of the Furriers, is expected to speak at the Passaic strike during the coming week, which will be the twenty first week of strike.

Win 40-Hour Week and Ten Per Cent Increase in Wages

The four month’s struggle of the 12,000 furriers, which was declared by the New York Joint Board of the Fur Workers International Workers Union following the lockout of the workers by the Fur Manufacturers Association has ended victoriously for the workers. The long and bitter struggle that started February 17 has come to a close. It was a victory for the 40-hour, five-day week.

At four o’clock Friday morning, Ben Gold, chairman of the general strike committee and Samuel E. Samuels, of the Fur Manufacturers Association, signed the new agreement which expires Jan. 31, 1929. The strikers win not only the forty-hour week, but ten per cent increase minimum raise and a substantial reclassification of minimum scale, no overtime, no sectional contracting and no discharge during a week preceding a holiday, and the union to permit work on Saturday during four autumn months of September, October, November and December, with extra pay.

The strikers waited all night for news of settlement, then paraded through the fur manufacturing section singing and thronged to meeting halls where the celebration continued all morning. The agreement was presented to the shop chairman at a meeting Friday afternoon at Manhattan Lyceum. It will be brought before the workers for ratification of mass meetings Monday morning at nine o’clock, at Webster Hall and the Manhattan Lyceum. The majority of the workers will be back in their shops by the end of next week.

The furriers issued an appeal for support of the strike on the basis that it was a struggle to establish a shorter work-week, a forty-hour week. Labor unions, central trade and labor councils, joint boards and labor organizations of all kinds endorsed the forty hour proposal. The forty-hour week meeting held by the fur strikers in Madison Square Garden was a big success.

The manufacturers have conceded the forty hours together with other demands. The great strike marked by splendid mass picketing and magnificent courage has ended in a great victory not only for the fur workers but for the whole working class. Great credit is due the splendid generalship, courage and ability displayed by the leadership of Gold and his associates and the general strike committee. The greatest credit is due the militant rank and file of the furriers union and especially, the picket committee. They faced the gangsters and police who carried guns, clubs and knives. They were arrested by the hundreds. In spite of the many scars of battle that they displayed, they continued the struggle with renewed enthusiasm and courage every day. It is the rank and file that made the victory possible.

We all hail the victory of our fellow fur workers. It marks the beginning of great forward strides not only in the needle trades but throughout the American labor movement.

All signs point to the greatest success for the “Feed the Children” Conference of women’s organizations called by the United Council of Workingclass Housewives in conjunction with the Workingwomen’s Council of Passaic.

The conference will convene at 2 p. m. on Saturday June 19, at strike headquarters, 743 Main Avenue, Passaic, N. J.

Invitations were sent out a week ago, every effort being made to cover all women’s organizations in the states of New York and New Jersey. Any women’s organizations not receiving an invitation are asked to communicate at once with L. Smith, Chairman of Children’s Kitchen Committee, 743 Main Avenue, Passaic, N. J. Also, those organizations having received invitations are requested to send in their duplicate credentials at once.

The “Feed the Children” Conference has the approval of the General Relief Committee of Textile Strikers, and all friends of the strikers are asked to support the same. The strike is in its twenty-first week now. The mills are as effectively crippled as at the start of the strike. The bosses losing millions of dollars. They are trying all sorts of underhanded methods to get the strikers back without their union. In all these efforts they have failed. The union is strong as ever. But the union needs your help to carry on the fight to a victorious finish. The bosses starvation offensive must be defeated. There must be no cry of hungry children to weaken the morale of the parents. Support the “Feed the Children” Conference and help defeat the bosses starvation of offensive!

The fur strikers have won! After eighteen weeks of struggle they have won the great victory of a forty hour week and a ten per cent increase in wages.

They met in New York on Monday to celebrate their victory. Eleven thousand of them met in three fine halls to ratify the agreement, to cheer their leaders, and to express their solidarity with the Passaic textile strikers.

It is a thrilling scene. To the Passaic visitors it is prophetic. Our victory meeting will be like this when we have won our struggle. Flowers on the platform and more coming up the aisle! Songs! Cheers! Laughter! Joy! Happy faces! It is victory. After eighteen, long, anxious weeks, it is victory!

“Gold, Gold, Gold!” cry the people, anxious for their leader to come. "Weisbord, Weisbord, Weisbord!” cry the people in Passaic. It is so like our own meeting.

The power of the great furriers union is seen in the assurance of the people. Here are no wage slaves, driven to long hours of labor for a miserable pittance. This is a great powerful group of workers, who do not fear to hold their heads up before the boss. The boss respects them because they have power, and all workers respect them because they have built this power for themselves. They are self respecting. They know that they have fought courageously. Seven hundred of them have been arrested during the strike. They have been beaten up by gangsters. They have been framed up. They have been attacked from all sides. They saw their treasury run low so there was no money for relief. In the face of everything they fought on. they were undaunted. Now their faces reflect the joy of an honest victory.

The speakers tell of the struggle, explain the agreement, discuss the treatment of scabs. The scabs cannot keep on working after they have been scabbing on their fellow workers jobs. No,—they will all lose their jobs as they have already lost their place in the union, and they cannot have either back again under the agreement until the union says so.

The people listen and applaud. Telegrams are read from unions and friends.

Ben Gold comes to the stage. He is young and strong, a leader like Weisbord. The people love him as we do Weisbord. When his leadership was questioned they shouted for him. Just as we shouted for Weisbord at the Wallington meeting. In victory they cheer him as we will cheer our leader.

He has no sooner quieted the people than new cheering breaks out and shouts of “Weisbord” from the furriers who recognize him at the door. Weisbord has come to the victory meeting to bring the congratulations of the Passaic strikers and to remind them of our struggle. How the furriers cheer the leader of the fight in Passaic.

“I do not know why you cheer for me when the whole world is cheering you,” he began. “In a time when there was pessimism in the labor movement your union has stepped forward and won a victory for all labor. At a time of wage cuts, you have won an increase. When hours were being lengthened, you have won shorter hours. You have been the first of the workers crashing through the tyranny of the bosses.

“But if there is to be a strong fist, there must be a strong arm and a strong body to support it. The textile industry must be that body for you. Now consider our condition as compared with yours. You have a minimum wage of $40 and you have won an increase. We have a minimum wage of $12 a week and superimposed upon that miserable pittance, a ten per cent wage cut. You have won a forty hour week. We are threatened with a fifty-four hour week. Long ago you have seen to it in your union that your shops are decent. We have shops that make life in the mills a veritable hell.

“In Passaic we have looked to you during our struggle. When we had mass picket lines, you had mass picket lines. When we were clubbed, you were being clubbed. Your leadership was attacked as was the leadership of the Passaic strike, and you ratified yours as the Passaic strikers ratified theirs. I hope I will offend no one if I say that I would feel myself honored if I model myself after your leadership and follow in its footsteps. I will go back to the Passaic strikers, on the twenty-first week of the fight with renewed courage, with renewed faith, with renewed energy. Your victory will carry us over the top.”

Lying Reporter Gets Call Down For False Statement In World

In an open letter to the New York World, Albert Weisbord has exposed the statements of John J. Leary Jr., “labor expert” for the New York World, as made in that paper this week concerning the textile Unity Conference as entirely false. His letter is as follows:

“In a statement to the press, William E. G. Batty of the American Federation of Textile Opperatives and chairman of the Publicity Committee of the Unity Conference called by the Federated Textile Unions last Saturday and Sunday, branded as false the statement made by John J. Leary Jr., the “labor expert” of the New York World. Mr. Leary had stated, although he was not present at the meeting and did not know anything about it, that in the meeting Weisbord had proposed a plan for calling sympathetic strikes, which plan was turned down by the Conference and to which Brother Tanzy of the American Federated Textile Operatives was bitterly opposed. Mr. Batty points out that nothing could be further from the truth and that the reporters stating this were wildly using their imagination. All action taken at the Conference was unanimous and a hardy spirit of cordiality prevailed.

“It seems strange that the New York World, a liberal paper, should continue to have in its employ one who is reputed to be a member of the Department of Justice and who writes such deliberately false articles. Mr. Leary is being repudiated by the American Federation of Labor and by every decent labor organization that knows what his tactics are.”

A judge in Wilmington, Del., sentenced two men to a term in prison and forty lashes for an alleged hold up. The prison time was not out of the ordinary, but the flogging was. It is a remnant of barbarism and is not allowed in decent communities.

So when the pure and good officials started to give the forty lashes they drove out all newspapermen and photographers. The cameras were confiscated and the plates destroyed even though there were no pictures taken.

One fellow, a New Yorker, climbed up on a wall and took some pictures of the flogging, he wanted to show the raw flesh and the streaming blood and the blue welts that the nice warden produced on the backs of bound human beings who writhed in the anguish of the blows. But he was arrested and fined $5, his camera taken from him and smashed, and narrowly escaped a flogging himself.

When the officials want to do some real dirty work, they do not want any publicity of it.

You all remember the smashing of the cameras in the strike. The Passaic police under instruction of the mill owners did such rotten work that they knew it would put this town in the class with blackest barbarism.

The bosses are doing such dirty work in Passaic that they do not like to see pictures of it. But they may not be able to keep their outrages from the screen of this country. It is well to let the world know just how brutal some inhuman vultures are. They shall not rule forever.

Lawrence held its third tag day for the benefit of the Passaic strikers today.

Thousands of workers could be seen wearing the beautiful red roses which was their symbol of solidarity with the brave Passaic textile strikers who have who have been fighting so heroically for twenty weeks.

Thousands of Lawrence workers are out of work and are only living from "hand to mouth.” Those that are working, work only two, three and four days a week. Despite this, the workers dug deep into their pockets and gave pennies, nickels and dimes. Many pitiable ta1es of suffering were told to the collectors by these workers, who have produced abundantly --- for the bosses—all necessities of life and have nothing now to show for it but shabby clothes, callous hands and ill health.

The collectors who were well informed on the Passaic strike situation and unemployment, answered hundreds of questions—questions such as: "When are they going to win?” “Will they stick to their Union?” ‘Will there be a strike in Lawrence soon?” “Will all the textile unions join together?” "Will Weisbord come to Lawrence after the Passaic strike?” “What can the United Front do for the unemployed?” The collectors had a very busy day answering so many and all kinds of questions—but they feel that the United Front is now closer than ever to the workers and that very soon Lawrence, like Passaic will have a 100 per cent organization. The four highest collectors were: Fred E. Beal, $74.49; William Murdoch, $71.38; Mary Siskind, $65.23 and L. Sheffts, $30.63. The total amount collected was $137.79.

The total expenses were:
40 gross artificial flowers ($1.00 a gross)…..$40.00
400 fresh flowers (for Merrimac Park………$13.00
Express charges for flowers…………………$.94
Telegram to N. Y. for flowers……………….$.36
Expenses to Boston for collectors…………….$2.00
R. R. Fare for Boston collectors……………..$24.20
Total………………………………………….$80.50

The Amount sent to Passaic was $357.29

Fred E. Beal, Sec’y United Front Committee of Textile Workers, 81 Common St.

$200.000 Victory Relief and Defense Fund Sponsored by May, 29 Conference

That labor will back the gallant fight of the textile strikers to the victorious end, is the cheering message being received daily at the office of the General Relief Committee of Textile Strikers at 743 Main Avenue, Passaic, N. J.

The Committee finds this very encouraging at this time, as, with the strike entering its twenty-first week, the strain is getting daily more acute. Every day brings additional need for relief. Strikers who formerly were able to get along on their slender resources are now finding it necessary, in increasing numbers, to apply for strike relief.

It was with this in mind, that the May 29 “Support the Passaic Strike” Conference authorized and sponsored a campaign to raise $200,000 for strike relief purposes. That campaign is now under way, and is known as the $200,000 Victory Relief and Defense Campaign. Of the $200,000 which it is proposed to raise, $100,000 will be used for child relief; children’s kitchens, playgrounds, summer camps, etc.

Labor is determined to protect the strikers children from the bosses starvation offensive. Labor is determined that there shall be no cries of hungry children to break the splendid morale of the Passaic textile strikers. Organized and its friends are out to defeat this latest and damnable barbarism of the textile barons, and the following letters, a few of those being received, show that labor recognizes the need for continued relief.

The Delegate Conference called for the purpose of organizing Passaic Striker Relief in this city is meeting with a lively and favorable response. Already many duplicate credentials have been returned to the local office of the General Relief Committee, Textile Strikers, at 799 Broadway, Room 508. To date, over 50 unions have accepted.

In addition, the International Ladies Aid and the Emergency Committee for Strikers Relief are extending the invitation to their affiliations and are expecting to bring out a large number.

The Conference is called for Friday evening, June 25, at 8 o’clock at Labor Temple, 244 East 14^th Street. Invitations have been sent to the labor unions, workers fraternal organizations and all sympathetic associations asking them to send delegates to this conference. While every effort is being made to cover all organizations, those not receiving an invitation within the present week are asked to communicate with the local office at 799 Broadway.

“I send five dollars to you, but prison warden returned the money to me. I wish the Textile Strike the greatest success.”

Jerry Skolpensky.

Workers Solidarity

United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, Local Union 376.

“Enclosed you will find a check for $100.00 as a donation from the above local union to help win the Passaic Textile Strike.

“Wishing you the best of success and assuring you of our solidarity with the workers of Passaic, I remain

“Nathan Rosen,

“Recording Secretary.”

The following inspiring letter, with checks amounting to one thousand dollars, was received at the office of the General Relief Committee of Textile Strikers during the week from Mrs. Louise W. Wise, the wife of Rabbi Stephen S. Wise:

Free Synagogue Child Adoption Committee

New York, June 10, 1926

“I am to be able to send you the enclosed checks which more than fulfill my promise to secure $1,000 for the milk fund. Of course, I do not mean to stop here if it is possible to do anything more for the cause and in any way interest other friends. Do let me know how things are progressing.

“With every good wish, believe me.
Sincerely yours,
Louise W. Wise.”

Passaic Relief Conference are scheduled for five big cities during the present month, as the workers and friends of labor rally anew in support of the textile strikers right to live and have a strong union of their own.

Chicago will have a relief conference on June 16 at Ashland Auditorium, at which Clarence Darrow, the great labor lawyer will be one of the speakers. Albert Weisbord, Strike Organizer and leader, has been invited and will attend if he be spared from the Passaic front.

Pittsburgh will have its conference on June 21 to organize relief for the strike.

In Brownsville, Pa., a relief conference will be held June 27.

Cleveland will have a conference June 29. Two girl strikers have been sent to Cleveland to help along the work.

Two strikers will also go forward to Philadelphia where relief activity is being intensified.

In New York City, a delegate conference will be held June 25^th at 8 p. m. in Labor Temple, 244 East 14^th Street for the purpose of further organizing relief. Invitations to this conference were sent out two weeks ago and have met with a lively response. Already scores of duplicate credentials have been returned to the New York office of the General Relief Committee of Passaic Strikers, at 799 Broadway, Room 508.

The General Relief Committee of Textile Strikers is making a nation-wide effort to organize a conference in every city. All friends of the working-class, all supporters of the Passaic strike, are asked to co-operate to the end. In cities where there are not enough labor unions, sympathizers should organize their own relief conference. There is urgent need for intensification of relief work.

We want a union!

We want to live!

We want to see the unorganized organized, we have shown by our own example that they can be organized.

The New York Furriers have won their victory. Let therefore the slogan be “NOW ON TO PASSAIC!” Victory is just around the corner for our union. Our victory is your [victory.] LET EVERYBODY HELP!

The economics class at East High School of Cleveland, Ohio, was given the opportunity of hearing about conditions in Passaic at the present time, when Nancy Sandowsky, the “Joan of Arc” of the Passaic strikers talked to them in their class room on this subject.

Although it had been the policy of the teacher either to evade the question of the strike or skillfully to squirm out of answering questions about it, Nancy managed to get the truth across. She told of the experience of the strikers delegation to the White House and to the home of one of the two New Jersey senators in Washington, and how the President refused to see the strikers and the senator showed plainly that he was not going to take the side of the textile workers against the bosses of the New Jersey mills. Then she told of the clubbing of women and children in the strike area, of the starvation and cold that the strikers have suffered since the strike began.

Of strike organizer and leader Albert Weisbord, Nancy said, “Weisbord is our real leader, and we will stand by him until we win the strike.”

The students who heard this talk, heard the truth probably for the first time. Even the teacher had very little to say, for he had against him this time two fighters, one a member of the Young Workers League, who made the proposition that Nancy speak, and the other one who knows far more about the real side of economics than the teacher ever imagined existed.

Participating in the great textile strike in New Jersey are many hundreds of colored textile workers. quite a number of these are playing a leading, part in the strike, being delegates of the union and captains on the picket lines. They are showing a splendid spirit.

There are nearly 800 colored men, women and children among the strikers, and they are making it pretty hot for those workers, white and colored, who have sneaked back to the mills to scab on the union. At Lodi alone, there are fully 400 colored strikers. At Passaic and Garfield are other hundreds. They have been addressed several times by leaders of the of the Negro Labor Congress, an organization that has done good work in holding the colored strikers to the union.

At an enthusiastic youth meeting, with 1500 young workers crowded into Belmont Park Hall, fourteen delegates were elected to the Youth Conference to be held in New York on June 18.

The youth meeting, which was held Thursday evening, was addressed by Clarence Miller, Jack Rubenstein, Theresa Staudinger, Frank Harrison and Bill Sroka. Young workers gave a short program of dancing, songs, and mass recitation.

“The young workers in fighting for the union have even more to gain than the older workers,” said Clarence Miller. “The bosses oppress the young workers more than the others. The long hours, the extra low wages, the unsanitary conditions, the speed up systems are even more harmful to the young worker than to the old.”

“At this time, when the bosses are straining all their energies to break up our ranks and drive us back beaten, into the

mill, the young workers must again step forward. With the greatest of courage and enthusiasm you must carry forward the banner of victory.”

The delegates elected to the Youth Conference were Anna Fisher, Frank Harrison, Leonard DeSilvo. Theresa Staudinger, Mary Szensenstein, Thomas Regan, Mike Elasik, Stephen Gede, Teddy Timochko, Lena Chernenko, Jack Rubenstein, Katherine Toth, Clarence Miller, and Bill Sroka.

On Sunday, June 6^th, a group of children met at 743 Main Avenue at 8 o’clock. We waited until a truck came and we all got in it and sang songs until we reached the picnic grounds.

When we reached there we were surprised because there was thousands of people. We had races and games over there. The one who won the race won a prize. Some of the games we had there were: Dodge Ball, Cossack Can’t Catch Me, Getting Johnstone’s Goat and other interesting games. We had eats and milk and cake and sandwiches. We also got tickets for ice cream and soda.

After a while a baseball game started, but we do not know who won because Mr. Weisbord came and all the people ran after Weisbord to hear what he had to say. Everybody cheered for Weisbord. The New York Pioneers gave a play called—"THE BUILDERS.” The crowd of people liked it very much. Everybody liked their songs too.

And when the sun began to set everybody went home in trucks. It was a fine day.

J. H., age 13.

Hurrah for our strike! You should see the children forming picket lines around the scabs houses. They begin 5 P. M. and end at 9 P. M. if the police don’t break them up. When they do break them up, you should hear them kids yell “Cossacks” at the top of their voices and as soon as the police leave they form another picket line. They march around until they get tired. Then they disperse in an orderly manner until the next day. You can be sure they will keep this up until the strike is over, even if it takes all year.

B. S. X., a young striker.

I have been working in the Forstmann and Huffmann Plant in the spinning department, where they make the young workers as well as the old work like slaves for the weekly wages ranging from 15 to 20 dollars. There were times especially in the summer months when the heat is so intense, so unbearable, that the spinner musters up enough courage in spite of the fact that he could easily be fired according to how the boss feels, to go to him and tell him that the people can’t stand it any longer and he’ll have to let us go home. Then three out of ten complaints he’ll agree with the spinners.

The floor we worked on was very oily and it was easy to slip and injure yourself. In the summer when it was about 95 degrees outside, it was 110 sometimes 120 degrees in the mill. We had to work with water running our faces and backs. We had no windows open. All day long we had to work in the same stinking air as there was no ventilation at all.

In my room there were about 400 to 500 people working in the same air day after day. When anybody got sick they were sent home. If they were not better in a few days they lost their job. The room is dark, dirty and very clogged. Everywhere you see roaches running around. If you put your lunch on top of the machine the cockroaches eat a hole right through your bread.

There is a small girl about four feet tall slaving in these mills for a wage of five to six dollars per week. The bosses give you five minuets to the lavatory. But when they (bosses) go they stay about an hour and a half. If our machine breaks when they are away we have to wait till they come and fix it, without being paid for the lost time. A few years passed and I was making an even $8.90 a week. Then the 10 per cent reduction, following this the strike. I went out for an increase in wages, better conditions, a union and no discrimination against union workers.

By T. T.

The following letter speaks for itself and is the kind the General Relief Committee of Textile Strikers likes to get:

“We enclose check for $196.95 as a donation to the Passaic Textile Strikers Fund from the above organization.

“At our May Day celebration, at which the enclosed check is a part of the receipts, there was also passed Resolutions, unanimously, for the relief of the strikers from the tyranny being perpetrated upon them by those in power in that district, of which we enclose a copy to be given as much publicity as possible.

“We realize that their fight is our fight and while we are separated by quite a distance, we nevertheless appreciate their noble effort for the emancipation of Labor.

“May the good work go on and the day speeded.
Yours for Emancipation,
International Labor Day Federation.

We said something in last weeks Bulletin about “High Tariff and Low Wages.” We printed a statement from the Peoples Reconstruction League, the Farmers Organization at Washington, showing how the textile workers get less of the value of their product they make under the present high tariff than under the lower tariff. And yet the mill owners cry for the high tariff and tell the public that it means higher wages. This, it has been clearly proven, is a lie. The mill owners, of course, get more PROFITS under the high tariff but the workers fare worse!

These facts and others concerning the conditions under which the Passaic workers toil—and strike ---were laid before the United States Senate Committee on Education and Labor by W. Jett Lauck, eminent author and economist formerly associated with the U. S. Commission on Industrial Relations and later with the National War Labor Board under William Howard Taft and Frank P. Walsh.

Mr. Lauck spoke before the Senate Committee at a hearing on Senator Shepherds resolution calling for an investigation of the conditions in the textile, steel and aluminum industries. The hearing was held in Washington on May 26, 1926. Lauck’s findings are so significant we quote the chief sections of them as follows:

If the protective tariff system is designed among other alleged advantages to make possible decent standards of work, living, and compensation to American wage-earners, the highly protected industry of Passaic and vicinity is the most colossal sham and hypocrisy ever perpetrated on the American wage-earner.

The Woolen and Worsted industry, which is highly localized in that city now enjoys an average protective duty of 78 per cent. This should afford an abundant margin of profit to the mill-owners after establishing standards of work and wages which are contemplated by the tariff law and which have been sanctioned by enlightened public opinion and successful industrial leadership. Instead of conditions which arise from wise industrial statesmanship, however, and which were to be stimulated by the existing tariff legislation, those which actually exist are quite the reverse. They not only repudiate all accepted industrial safeguards and guarantees for wage-earners but they also disregard the most elementary, moral and human standards. The mill owners of Passaic have flagrantly violated the fundamental intent of the existing tariff law, and have been recreant to every obligation of political and industrial democracy. They should have the unreserved condemnation of the Congress, and of all those who love humanity and who cherish democratic institutions and ideals.

Of the conditions which exist in Passaic, it is difficult to speak temperately and briefly. The wrongs, oppressions, and exploitations which the people have [endured] may, however, be summarily recapitulated as follows:

FIRST:—The Passaic mills, against which the strike has been directed are alien controlled. The majority were under the Alien Property Custodian during the War. They are now under the domination of large German textile interests. The Alien Property Custodian reported that the Botany Mills were 85 per cent enemy owned, the Garfield mills 47 per cent, the Gera mills 88 per cent, Passaic Worsted Spinning Company 60 per cent, Forstmann & Huffmann Company 72 per cent. They have been established behind our protective tariff wall in order to evade competitive disadvantages. Since the War and the return of these properties to German control, the effort has been constantly made to impose an intolerable Prussian industrial autocracy upon the employees.

SECOND:—The workers of these mills have been denied the right to organize. Industrial spies have been used to detect and thwart any attempts in this direction, wage earners who have joined labor organizations have been blacklisted, discriminated against, and summarily discharged.

THIRD—The employees of these mills are denied the right of collective bargaining through representatives of their owns choosing. The mill owners will not recognize or deal with their organizations. This is a fundamental right which is essential to industrial freedom, and which custom, precedent, and enlightened opinion and statesmanship have established in our basic industries. Its denial in industrial life is analogous to the denial in political life of representation as a condition to taxation. The mill owners of Passaic, however, repudiate this fundamental safeguard of industrial liberty.

FOURTH—The workers of these mills are denied a living wage, or a wage sufficient to enable them to support their families decently or in health and with any degree of comfort. By way of illustration, seventy-one per cent of the workers in the Botany Worsted Mills earned during 1925 less than $1200 while the remaining 29 per cent earned less than $1600. The absolute inadequacy of these earnings is shown by the fact that the National Industrial Conference Board, a federation of the leading employers organizations of the country, which is not sympathetic with the attitude of organized labor, as the result of original investigations in the adjacent textile communities of West Hoboken and Union Hill, New Jersey, established the sum of $1604 per annum as the necessary “minimum cost of living among wage-earners” families. As a matter of fact, the annual earnings of the worker in the Passaic mills are not sufficient to maintain the minimum standards of subsistence, or, a bare annual existence for himself and his family.

FIFTH—Under these deplorable conditions, in order that families may exist at all, wives and children, must go to work in the mills in order to supplement the earnings of the husband and father. The 1920 Census shows that in New Jersey textile industries there were employed 27,588 men, 24,609 women, and 8,168 children under 16 years of age.

Our own original investigations have shown that the usual custom in Passaic is for the husband to work in the day, while the wife works at night. Although this night work of women is forbidden by State Law, the law is not enforced because of a legal tangle deliberately produced by the mill owners. Although the people of New Jersey have forbidden it, the Passaic industrial autocracy has by manipulation thwarted their will, and women are forced to work at night.

Because of the economic pressure on the mother, she can secure no relief even during the period of pregnancy, because it is then that family expenses increase. There are many instances of babies being born at the mills. Frequently, the time taken from work by mothers, amounts to no more than a few days before and after the birth of the child.

SIXTH:—The effect of these conditions upon infant mortality is appalling. Those who control the Passaic mills and direct their policies are indirectly but morally guilty of the premature and avoidable deaths of thousands of infants. Passaic has 43 per cent greater mortality than has the entire state of New Jersey among children under one year of age, 52 per cent greater for children under 5 years, 32 per cent greater among children 5 to 9 years of age. The blood of these children is on the hands of the Passaic mill owners for they have created the conditions which resulted in their deaths. And they have done this thing under a tariff of 78 per cent which was designed to protect the wage earner and his family.

SEVENTH:—That working conditions in the Passaic mills are intolerable.

During rush periods, the wage earners, both men and women, are forced to work long overtime hours, under penalty of discharge for refusal or even unwillingness. During slack seasons, they are placed upon part-time and are sent home at unexpected and irregular hours.

The foremen are exceedingly brutal. Language used to employees is profane and indecent. Facilities for men and women are unsanitary. Ventilation is bad. The results are preventable occupational diseases such as rheumatics and tuberculosis. Much of the work is classed as dangerous, and most of the danger could be eliminated by a humane management. The mill owners as a whole are completely indifferent to the welfare of the workers.

The workers are thus deprived of their fundamental industrial liberties and subjected to intolerable working conditions. They have been deprived of all rights and privileges which have been sanctioned by State and Federal legislation, by judicial decisions, by public and private arbitration boards, by the best public opinion and industrial statesmanship, and by the pronouncements of all Christian churches without regard to denomination.

On the other hand, the mill owners have been reaping excessive profits from the benefits of protection and the exploitation of their employees. For the 7 years ending December 31, 1923, the profits of the Botany Worsted Mills, by way of illustration, averaged $3,160,212 per year, or $93 per share on each share of capital stock outstanding. In 1924, a holding company was organized with a tremendously increased number of shares of no par value in order to conceal earnings. This new company owns the Botany and Garfield Worsted Mills, and has large interests in two German textile manufacturing groups. A part of the funds realized from the reorganization was used to finance these textile interests in Germany. Blair & Co., the underwriters of the new holding company in their statement relative to the sale of the new securities created stated that the Botany Mill “had never had an unprofitable year.”

All the other companies with the exception of the Botany, are closed corporations, and make no public report to the usual financial manuals and agencies. The Alien Property Custodian in taking over the properties in 1918 reported earnings ranging from 10 to 25 per cent, and these returns have been larger instead of smaller, since their return to their original alien owners.

The International Workers Aid, Local New York, is conducting a series of open air meetings every night in the working class sections of New York City. Hundreds of workers nightly listen to the message of the Passaic strike as it is recited by well known speakers in the labor movement as well as the strikers themselves. Committees of strikers with helmets and gas masks attend all the meetings. Collections of between $25 and $50 are collected nightly.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass., June Relief work is moving fast in Springfield, Mass. A United Relief Committee has been organized, comprising ten organizations so far, as follows: Women’s Educational Club, Italian Progressive Club, Jewish Cultural Club, Workmen’s Circle, Branch 711; Workmen’s Circle, Branch 745; Workmen’s Circle, Branch 716 (Holyoke); Independent Workmen’s Circle, Jewish Branch Socialist Party, and the Workers (Communist) Party.

On Tuesday, May 25, Ella Reeve Bloor spoke before our committee, and filled [us] with enthusiasm to carry on the work. We have a prominent store to serve as a station for the collection of clothing donations, and last week we shipped five cases to Passaic. On Sunday night we are holding a mass meeting with J. O. Bentall as speaker and the following Sunday we are organizing a house to house canvass.

Mary Reed
Secretary, United Relief Committee,
Springfield.

The following short but cheering letter has been received by the United Front Committee of Textile Strikers:

“I am enclosing another check for $400 for the relief of the Passaic strikers.

Fraternally yours,
I. Beckman, Secretary,
United Mass Relief Committee.”

The Baltimore Conference which we call the Baltimore Committee for the Relief of Passaic Strikers met last evening with the Ladies Culture Society, to hear the report of last weeks Conference at Passaic from our delegate, Mercer G. Johnston. There was general enthusiasm over the fine work that the Strike Committee is doing, the excellency of its practical working of relief and the splendid spirit of men, women and children.

The practical outcome of the meeting was that a collection was taken up by the Ladies Culture Society, which amounted to $50 which was “matched” by a similar amount by the Chairman of the Baltimore Conference. This is a good augury for success on our new slogan of another thousand for Passaic.

To Organized Labor And All Sympathizers: ---

THE FUR WORKERS WON THEIR STRIKE! This should inspire the entire organized labor movement. Other UNIONS have had their victories. Other workers have won strikes because they were ORGANIZED INTO A UNION.

“WE ALSO WANT A UNION!” We the TEXTILE STRIKERS of New Jersey want to win enough wages to keep from starving and we know we can do this through a UNION, in this effort of ours to ORGANIZE THE UNORGANIZED, all of ORGANIZED LABOR should be interested.

Gary does not want the Steel Workers to ORGANIZE. The automobile barons do not want the Auto Workers to ORGANIZE. Rockefeller does not want the Oil Workers to ORGANIZE. The textile barons do not want the Textile Workers to ORGANIZE. ALL THE BOSSES ARE AGAINST UNIONS. ALL OF LABOR must fight FOR UNIONS. This is very plain.

WE MUST BUILD THE ORGANIZED LABOR MOVEMENT OF AMERICA! And the best way to begin is by HELPING US, THE TEXTILE WORKERS, WIN OUR STRIKE. You can help us win by SENDING A DELEGATE to the conference called by the General Relief Committee of Textile Strikers. Friday evening, June 25, at 8 p. m., Labor Temple, 244 East 14^th Street.

THE FUR WORKERS WON! NOW ON TO PASSAIC. Victory is just around the corner! Your help will SCORE! The Fur Workers HAVE WON! NOW ON TO PASSAIC. Let everyone, EVERY UNION, every sympathizer, GIVE A LIFT TO THE PASSAIC TEXTILE STRIKERS. AND THIS RIGHT AWAY! Lets score AGAIN in Passaic!

VICTORY IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER!

HELP US TO IT!

SEND A DELEGATE!

GENERAL RELIEF COMMITTEE,

---Textile strikers ---

The following letter has been received with check for $250.00. (This is the third contribution from the club.)

“Fellow Workers:

“Please find check for $250.00 for the Passaic Strikers. This is the profit of a concert which we held for that purpose here in Roselle Labor Lyceum on May 22^nd.

Yours fraternally,
Mrs. D. [Chasen].
Ladies …….. Club of Roselle, N. J.

June 11, 1926

Brothers:

Enclosed you will find check for $113.10, the result of the last collection.

We have also a few bundles of clothes in our office which we would be glad to get away from here. Kindly let us know if there is a place in New York who solicits such things.

Hoping to hear from you as soon as possible, we are,

Fraternally yours,
BUTCHER UNION No. ..4.
M. S. Reissner, Sec’y.

June 10, 1926

Enclosed is regular check for $25 in aid of the strike.

Fraternally yours,
Abraham Binns, Sec’y.

Brothers:

Enclosed please find check for $202.75 from our house to house collection of June 6, conducted under the auspices of the United Relief Committee of Springfield, Mass., consisting of the following organizations: Workmen’s Circle Br. 716; Workmen’s Circle Br. 711; Jewish Culture Club; Workers (Communist) Party; Russian Progressive Club; Italian Progressive Club, Socialist Party;

Tell the Passaic strikers in our name to continue until they win their just demands. We stand behind them until they will triumph.

United Relief Committee,
I. Bloom, Secretary.

Paterson Relief Conference for the Passaic Textile Strikers.

June 10, 1926.

Fellow Workers:

Enclosed you will find a check for one thousand ($1,000) dollars from the Paterson Relief Conference. In about a week you can expect another check for the same amount. Kindly send us a receipt by mail.

With best wishes I am fraternally your,
LOUIS STEIN. Treasurer.

Here is an example of the letters being received by the General Relief Committee of Textile Strikers, 743 Main Avenue, Passaic, N. J.:

“Fellow Workers:

“Here we are again with two lists collected at our membership meeting last night.
"More lists are coming.
"Hold the fort and win.

“Sincerely and fraternally Yours for Solidarity,
"Amal. Public Service Workers Union,
"350 East 81^st Street, New York City.”

N. B.—this time it was $33.40

The papers and the police report that there have been bombing of houses and porches in Clifton and Garfield.

In each instance these bombs have been of mysterious origin and the police say they stand ‘’baffled.”

The reports are that these bombs are put at the homes of scabs. The implication is made that the strikers are the bombers.

But there is a greater mystery about the inability of the police to capture these bombers. No trace of them is to be found. In one case the bomb was placed at the house of a worker who was not a scab. That seems to “baffle” the newspapers greatly.

It is very clear that the strikers could not possibly profit by the use of bombs. That method has never been used by decent strikers. It would be the surest way of losing the strike. No intelligent leadership will for one moment tolerate anything like that.

So it may be put down as an absolute certainty that the strikers and the strike leadership in Passaic are not the guilty ones.

Where must we look for the bombers. The place to look is where the fellows live who want to break the strike. Who are the most anxious to see this strike lost?

No one need to guess very long. The bosses are very anxious to see this strike broken. They have used every weapon they could think of to break this strike. They have flirted with death itself. If they could place a bomb so that someone would be killed and then fasten and frame this on the strikers, they think they would be able to divert public sympathy, arrest the leaders of the strike, stop meetings, raid the offices and by sheer force and terrorism break the strike.

The skirts of the Woolen trusts are crimson with crimes of this kind. The trick was tried in Lawrence and the crime of bombing with loss of life was traced to no lesser figure than the president of the woolen trust, Mr. Wood, who committed suicide last winter in Florida.

There is no mystery about the inability of the police to find the bombers. The bosses control the police thoroughly, and it would not be natural for the police to snoop around the nests of the bosses for bombers. The police made that mistake once and found the president of the woolen company, Mr. Wood, as the fine gentleman who used bombs and then blamed it on the strikers.

Now the bosses teach the police that they must not make such blunders any more. Hence the police stand “baffled.”

There is no depth of infamy to which the bosses will not stoop. It becomes more and more clear that the workers must take hold and root out this evil weed in the community and establish safety and decency for themselves and their children.

The bosses are letting out a yell a minute these days.

They [are playing] a losing game to try to weave cloth with scabs.

[Their] investigators report that most of the stuff turned out by the scabs is unmarketable. Very few of the scabs know how to do the work, and some of them are artists at running bad threads and mussing up the goods.

And not only do the scabs spoil the goods, but they ruin much of the machinery. It will cost the mill owners hundreds of thousands of dollars to get the machinery back to where the regular workers left it.

Yet the mill owners tolerate the scabs and spend big money to fight the picket line that influences these scabs against breaking the strike.

If the bosses had given all the money lost in this strike to the workers it would have amounted to many times what the strikers demand in way of increase.

The bosses are not the longheaded business brains they are cracked up to be. They have demonstrated very clearly exactly what not to do.

But their hatred for the union and for anything that gives the workers any rights that the bosses must respect drives them into the frenzied condition they now find themselves in.

But we are determined that we will have our union before we go back to weave good cloth and use the machinery properly.

Let the bosses understand this thoroughly.

The good news of the victory of the New York Fur Workers who had been on strike for seventeen weeks came just as we were going to press last week.

The fight had been waged valiantly by the workers and there had never been a moment when they felt weak. They had made just demands and like the textile strikers they were backed by the sympathy and support of the whole working-class.

Two outstanding factors made the strike successful:

First: The Union.

The furriers are well organized with a splendid union machinery. Every member of the union had to take part in the activities of the strike. Committees were at work constantly. The picket line was on the job always. Meetings were held regularly. Scabs were taken care of effectively and definitely educated. The power of the union made it impossible for the bosses to carry on their business without a big loss. The Union kept the workers together in a fine spirit. It kept up a splendid morale.

Secondly: The Leadership.

Two marked elements characterized the leadership. The first of them is class consciousness and militancy. No matter what the bosses put up as excuses for refusing to grant the demands, the leadership had a reply. The condition of the industry had been analyzed. The methods of attack by the bosses had been discovered. The plan of action was mapped out. Flexibility for emergency was there. The leadership adapted itself to every new situation. Intensive strike education was carried on. Unity of all forces at hand was maintained. Every available element of strength was made use of in a skillful manner. Ever strategy possible was brought into play.

The second characteristic of the leadership was devotion to the workers and their union. The committees were made up of men and women of integrity and sincerity. There was no double crossing. No secret meetings with the bosses. No attempt on the part of prominent persons to mislead the masses. No star chamber proceedings. No bribery. No faltering or show of weakness. Every member of the union that was put in trust of leadership made good. The leadership was made up of men and women of integrity. What an example to trades unionism in this country and in the whole world!

And there was that leader of power, intelligence and integrity, Ben Gold. From the fire of one of the hottest battles waged in labor wars he comes out bright and strong. He met every emergency and solved every problem like man and a true worker. The bosses hated him and misrepresented him, but the workers of his union and the workers in all this country love and respect him for his fine leadership and his unflinching devotion to the great cause.

Our strike in the textile center is much like the strike of the fur workers, except they had an organization and a treasury to fall back on, while we came out empty handed and without a union.

But now we have a union. The workers all over the country help us. We have also a splendid leadership. This strike has been and is characterized by fine intelligence and an unshakable integrity. Our organizer, Albert Weisbord, has mastered the situation at all times. He has analyzed and pointed out every essential fact since the strike started. He has stood by the union and the workers to the last ounce of his strength.

Like the fur workers we shall come out victorious.

One of the nurses from School No. 10, Passaic, came on a visit of Inspection one day to our Children’s Kitchens. She had heard all sorts of reports about them; she had heard that they were good and she had heard that they were terrible. She seemed somewhat disposed to believe the latter.

We showed her all their was to see. We showed her the nice, clean floors and the windows with their white curtains. We showed her the shining white pots and dishes; the neatly set tables. We showed her the good, wholesome food stewing with appetizing odors on the stove; the milk that was ready for all the children. The children trooped in and she saw them eagerly eat their meal, served by motherly cleanly-dressed women.

She came, she saw—she was surprised and full of admiration! She went away declaring that the conduct of the kitchens was beyond reproach. All others who have come to pick flaws with our work have gone away with the same impression.

It happened, too, that in one of the city schools, where the children are weighed regularly, a general gain in weight has been reported for the children who are being fed in the kitchens. One little boy has gained as much as ten pounds! The work of the United Council of Working Class Housewives is bearing fruit in more than one way.
 
 

As a counter move against the strength and determination of the workers now on strike for 22 weeks, the mill owners in desperation are lavishly spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in bringing into the heretofore peaceful strike area many hundreds of gangsters and bums secured from all parts of the country.

Agents are busy scouring every textile center in New England for workers who are ignorant of the strike in Passaic, while in the meantime regularly established agencies in the larger cities of the country are steadily cleaning out the gun men and gangsters and pouring them into the mills in Passaic.

Daily the situation grows more threatening and menacing, for the mill owners have armed these gangsters and the police permit them to parade through the streets, in so-called “citizens patrols” and attack and beat up strikers with impunity. Strikers have been stabbed and one striker actually has been shot. The mill owners, while shrieking that the United Front Committee is employing violent tactics, are increasing their violence day by day.

We wish to point out that we shall demand that these gangsters and gunmen who are permitted to continue their brutal excesses are brought to terms and their arms taken away from them. The high wages that are paid these imported thugs, we shall demand and in the ……. shall be paid to the peace loving and orderly workers that have [settled] in Passaic. Too long have the mill owners controlled the political and administrative machinery of the strike locality. We are determined to see that the strike area is cleansed from these thugs and gangsters that the bosses have imported.

Anthony Toth of 74 Dayton Avenue showed his marks to the strikers. At a mass meeting in Belmont Park, he showed the great black bruises that a policeman’s club has inflicted on his body.

After he had been dragged from a striker’s gathering and arrested for no offense at all, he was taken into Botany Mill where he was given his "medicine” for his crimes. Anthony Toth is a good striker. That is the whole story of the police objection to him. That is why he was dragged into Botany mill, the Passaic police station annex, to be given a brutal beating, so that the marks remained on his body for days.

The Passaic police evidently are getting desperate. For 22 weeks they have been unable to obey their bosses orders which are “Break this strike". They are resorting to more violent means every day. They are determined to break the spirit of the strike and they think that brutalities like these will accomplish it.

Anthony Toth showed his marks at the mass meeting. That meant that he will be back on the picket lines, back talking to the scabs, back fighting for the Union. The strikers cheered him when they saw his bruises. That meant that they will follow the example of this good union man. They will continue to be good fighters. They will win the strike.

PASSAIC, N. J. (FP).—In the 21^st week of the great textile strike here the strikers ranks remain unbroken despite all the police brutality that has been used against them. Mayor William Burke of Garfield has been trying to get Sheriff George Nimmo to go with his deputies to that town and supplant the local police. But Nimmo has refused, saying: “Unless Mayor Burke can show me that the strikers are rioting and that life, limb and property are in danger, I will not order out my guards. I want to know also who would pay for this special service, for these guards cost a lot of money.”

Burke went to Nimmo after the Garfield city council had reported his request that it call the sheriff and his men again. Burke presented a petition signed by 800 citizens asking for such action. The exploding of two bombs at night was part of the argument for obtaining additional “protection,” as it was plain that various councilmen were skeptical about the origin of the bombs. Many people here remember that William A. Wood, head of the American Woolen Company, was convicted of causing dynamite to be planted by agent provocateurs during the 1912 strike in Lawrence, Mass.

In breaking up a crowd of 200 strikers who were listening to a speech by strike leaders, the Garfield police dragged Mrs. Anna Murat into a patrol wagon. She had a baby in her arms and two children clinging to her skirt. [Anthony] Toth, striker, was ejected from Hungarian hall by policemen here and was taken to Botany mill, where he was beaten so savagely that he is not expected to live.

In their sheer desperation the mill owners are resorting ever more openly to violence and provocative tactics. In yesterday’s papers, Recorder Baker of Garfield is reported to have said, “You strikers have declared open war on the public and law abiding residents of this city, and it has become necessary for us to fight back. It is my sworn duty to see that law and order are maintained in this city and I intend to do so. You people have been trying to make fools of the police officers and we will stand it no longer.”

Under this charge that the strikers are committing acts of violence, the gangsters imported by the mill owners and the police are daily clubbing, knifing, and shooting our strikers. Yesterday for example, one of our strikers was seized by the police, rushed into the Botany mill office and beaten senseless by clubs. At yesterday’s meeting we took a picture of the man’s body which was all blue from the clubbing that he had received. In Garfield, the hired gangsters and imported scabs acting evidently under orders of the mill owners and with the official sanction of Recorder Baker, are parading through the streets armed to the teeth with guns, knives, clubs, blackjacks and lead pipes. Everywhere they are beating up our strikers while the police look on and laugh.

What does all this mean? It means that the mill owners have declared open and violent war against the strikers. The mill owners understand they are above and beyond the law and can with impunity perpetrate all of the outrages that they continuously place against the strikers.

What can the strikers do? Can we file complaints with such bitter and biased judges as Davidson and Baker? Davidson has repeatedly declared that he will listen to no strikers complaints against policemen of Passaic. Recorder Baker, in such statements as the above, made publicly over and over, has proven himself a Fascist who would stop at nothing in crushing the union and toadying to the mill owners.

We wish to say that should these provocative actions on the part of the mill owners result in clashes that it will not be the fault of the union or of the strikers. When strikers are dragged out of their homes at night time and beaten up by police and scabs together, should someone be injured in the process, the citizens in the strike area will understand that it is the mill owners and their agents who are directly responsible by their provocative and violent actions for anything that might result.

Sheriff Nimmo will not come back to Garfield. Although Mayor Botany Burke spent a whole day in the sheriff’s office, crying that the interests of the bosses might be damaged if he did not return to institute another reign of terror in Garfield, Sheriff Nimmo still pussyfoots.

“I’d better not come. You really don’t need me,” says the sheriff.

This is a very different tone from the former occasion upon which Sheriff Nimmo came to Garfield. He scarcely waited for an invitation at all when he came in to read the riot act to peaceful pickets in front of Forstmann-Huffmann mill. In fact, nobody knows just who did invite the sheriff to step in with his hired gunmen to deprive peaceful citizens of the right to congregate, to hold meetings, discuss the strike, or do anything which displeased this little Czar. Everybody passes the buck. Sheriff Nimmo says that Mayor Botany Burke invited him but Mayor Burke says no, he didn’t.

So little Sheriff Nimmo, came, and the union broke his lawless rule and he left Garfield the joke of the whole country. Perhaps he remembers that lesson the Union gave him. Perhaps he hesitates to return to face a strong, militant organization like the United Front Committee which has shown the world that it will move to protect itself when its rights are infringed upon.

Or perhaps, the bosses who paid the bills of the sawed-off-shot-gun gentry have decided that the reign of terror was a bad investment after all. It did not discourage the strikers into scabbing. It didn’t present mass meetings and discussions of the strike. It didn’t present picketing. It didn’t serve to break the strike. The weeks of terrorism, unjust arrests, brutal assaults upon strikers, came to exactly nothing. The bosses need their money just now. It may be that they haven’t any to waste on a sheriff and his gangsters, who have already been proven useless to them.

For the third time within a week, the striking textile workers have forced the police Cossacks of this region to leave their union meetings. Two Sundays ago a troop of twenty Passaic Cossacks were ordered out of Ukrainian Hall by Albert Weisbord, strike organizer and leader. Weisbord informed them it was a union meeting on private property, and open to union members only. They were asked to show their union cards, and failing to do so were ordered out. Their retreat was accompanied by a chorus of boos from the 9,000 union members present.

During the past week the experience was repeated at Belmont Park, when Garfield Cossacks were forced to leave the premises. Last night the police again invaded the union meeting at Belmont Park, and again were ordered out. They called up headquarters about the matter, but were informed that they had better leave the hall. And they left.

Only a change in the attitude of the cloak and suit manufacturers here toward the unions demands can avert a strike of 45,000 members of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union in New York. The union’s joint board has issued a call for a mass meeting in Madison Square Garden on June 29 at 4 p. m. At that time final word of the workers to their employers in advance of the expected strike will be said.

Manufacturers and sub-contractors in the employers industrial council have accepted the recommendations of the governors special mediation commission with regard to wage and working conditions, but the I. L. G. W. U. has rejected these recommendations, contending that they ignored the principal grievances of the workers. The jobbers have not yet announced their position.

For two years this controversy has been brewing. The union demands include a 40 hour work week and a guarantee of 36 weeks work a year. If the employers persist in their present attitude, it is likely that the 45,000 workers concerned will walk out early in July. It is evident that the patience of the cloak and suit makers is close to an end.

Weavers employed by the Ed Bloom Company here who went on strike ten weeks ago as a protest against a 25 per cent wage cut are now reaching out to extend the strike to other crafts at work in the Bloom plant --- namely, the loom fixers, warpers, spinners, winders and quillers.

The winders are mostly young girls. Recently their wage was cut ten per cent, and the warpers were cut $2 a warp. The spinners are unable to earn more than $16 a week, while a quillers limit is $13. When the weavers walked out their pay rate was so low that some of them had to work [70] or more hours to make a living wage.

Demands of the weavers are:
1. Restoration of the wage previous to the cut and 1 per cent per yard increase.
2. Recognition of the union.
3. Time and a half for overtime.

Efforts of the company to resume work in the weaving department with strikebreakers have failed. The strikers are getting strong financial and moral support from other labor unions and from other organizations here. Sympathy of local merchants is largely with them.

Various workers who had quit the Bloom firm obtained jobs at the B. and A. Corticelli Company’s mills. One day recently the weavers union learned that Ed Bloom had visited the Corticelli offices and conferred with the heads there. Immediately afterward all the former Bloom employees were "laid off” by the Corticellis.

Affidavits made by numerous strikers at the union’s request attested that they had made an average wage of $23 a week before the cut and an average of $17.18 afterward. Young weavers of short experience, running only three looms, could make only $15 maximum wages. And the younger weavers were always at the mercy of the straw bosses, who frequently were insulting, the union charges.

How one worker forced his boss to contribute to the relief of the textile strikers, is told in the following letter, received at strike headquarters, from Morris Langer, a member of Furriers Union, Local 25, Newark, N. J.:

Fellow Workers:

As a result of an insulting remark made to me by one of my bosses, Mr. Spector, of the Guarantee Fur Co., of Newark, I am sending you a check for $10.00 which my boss agreed to give as a penalty for the insult.

Best wishes for a successful settlement of the strike.

I remain,
Morris Langer,
Floral Hill, Chatham, N. J.

The Textile Barons of New England and the millionaire mill owners of Lawrence have declared war upon the textile workers. At the conference of the Cotton kings, held in New York, they decided to starve the workers into submission.

The mill owners of Lawrence have a program of more wage cuts in the fall of the year. Not content with indirect wage cuts through speeding up and part time work, they openly speak in their full page ads in the newspaper of the necessity for direct wage cuts.

The political henchmen of the mill owners are brazenly preparing themselves for the return of the 54 hour week. You textile workers of Lawrence may think that this is impossible. But it is a fact. The Industrial Commission appointed by Carr did nothing else but discuss the necessity for the return of the 54 hour week.

Unemployment is very severe. You workers are going through a hard summer. Your savings are all eaten up. The masters intend to solve the unemployment crisis by creating fake commissions while they speed up still more. You now produce too much working part time, and the mill owners want to increase your hours so that you will work less days, and do 3 days in two for smaller pay.

The bosses want to reduce your already miserable starvation wages until you reach the stage of Chinese Coolies. The bosses can do all this because they are organized. They have their economic and political organizations. You can only save yourselves and your families from inevitable starvation by organizing yourselves and STICKING TO YOUR UNIOIN.

The wolf is already at your door. Hunger is facing your women and children. In the Fall of the year the masters are coming with another wage cut. Will you take it? We know you won’t. We know that you will resist! BUT HOW? You must be prepared like your brave brothers in Passaic. Your only salvation is the UNITED FRONT COMMITTEE. YOUR ONLY GUARANTEE IS YOUR UNION CARD AND THE UNION DUES STAMPS, which you see on this page.

Only workers holding this card are members or the United Front Committee. Only workers who buy this dues stamp are affiliated with the United Front Committee of Passaic which is leading the wonderful struggle of your 16,000 brother textile workers. All other dues stamps are peddled by the company union people of 184 who are agents of the bosses.

Fellow Workers:

Our mill owners who are on their vacation on the other side of the ocean, enjoying all the wealth which we produce here, who do not even know the looks of the mills spend many an hour of their day on luncheons and dinners.

We workers in the Print Works who toil from 7:15 sharp to 5 p. m. do not get any time to eat our lunch. If we get hungry lunch hour, we must chew our dry sandwiches and tend our machines at the same time. The food which we eat in this way does us very little good. The day’s work is a greater strain upon us because we have no rest from 7 to 5 p. m.

The reward for working continuously without proper time to rest or eat decently which they have forced upon us is [18] dollars 75 cents on the average. I wonder how long this amount would last our mill owners out in Europe. I also wonder how a family can be raised on that magnificent wage even when we are sacrificing our lunch time and producing wealth without stopping.

A Pacific Mill Worker.

We, the workers of the Print Works agree with the circular spread by the United Front Committee on the Shop Council in the Pacific Mills. When the distributors handed out the circulars one morning at the mill gate, we took them inside the mill. All the workers in my department read it. Some fellow pasted a couple of them on the wall in our room, and everybody stood around reading and discussing it. All the workers liked the circular and agreed with it. They said it was true and O. K. The shop council is a suckers and bosses organization. We have no use for it. Even some of our representatives on the council agreed with the circular. They said they don’t believe in the council, but they go there because it gives them an hour off during work time, to rest. One worker answered him: Isn’t it acting the sucker when one man gets an hour’s rest, and usually has a steady job, because he is a member of the council, while the rest of us are driven, speeded up and work part time? If you want an hour’s rest let’s get it for all the workers through a real union. When only a few men get privileges which the rest of the workers don’t get, these few are naturally closer to the boss, and become suckers.

The United Front Committee is right. We don’t believe in the council. Let’s do away with it altogether, and join the United Front Committee which stands for all the workers.

Print Room Worker.

Dear Fellow Workers:

The letter you distributed at the Print Works this morning against the company union we have here created a lot of discussion in the Bleach room where I work. We all know that what you say about the company union is true. Most of the workers who have voted for the company union delegates did so because they were afraid to lose their jobs. Many didn’t vote. The company union does nothing for us. They never discuss about giving us more wages or less hours. But the bosses through the company union double and speed us up and cut our wages.

Many mornings we come to work all prepared for work with our dinners in our baskets and they make us hang around until 8 o’clock and then send us home. If we complain the boss tells us there are many more waiting to take our place. If we ever needed a union we need it now.

Bleach House Worker.

Pacific Print Works.

I am a weaver in the No. 10 mill. I make about 17 dollars a week working so hard that I often don’t feel my arms at the end of the day. In this mill the loom fixers act like suckers. They look down upon the weavers, who depend upon them and take advantage when the loom is [stopped]. Sometimes they fix the loom so that it wouldn’t work right. Sometimes they refuse to fix it altogether and make us lose a lot of time.

A woman worker one day [was fired] because the fixer wouldn’t fix her loom. She had children to feed at home. Work was slack. She was making very little money. The loom fixer purposely took his time and wouldn’t fix the loom.

These people should feel ashamed of themselves. They are also workers, but they are like the bosses. Very often they carry everything they hear and talk to the boss and he knows about it the next day. No honest worker should have anything to do with the sucker and bosses tool. They should cross over to the other side when they meet one of these rats, they are so mean, low and contemptible.

A worker in mill No. 10.

Pacific Mill.

The Arlington Mill began in 1865 with a capital of $200,000. At the end of 1925 its capital was above $15,000,000.

Our young lives, our energy, the energy of our wives and children was turned into this great pile of gold which is used for a further exploitation.

An old-timer in the Arlington Mill.

When the strike is won some of these guys who are so faithful to the company now will be kind of sorry they were not as faithful and true to their own fellow workers.

In my class reader it says that the world is a happy place and that "we should all be as happy as kings.” Yes, we know that the Kings and the Kaisers who run the mills in Passaic and Garfield are happy. But the workers children will be happy when we ditch these Kaisers and Kings.

About 70 delegates, all young workers, came together to a youth conference held in New York City on Friday, June 18^th, to discuss the problems confronting the young workers in the shops and mills. About 40 of these delegates came from shops where some 10,000 young workers are employed. The rest of the delegates came from unions—shoe workers, needle trades workers, iron workers, food workers, textile workers. The delegates of the United Front Committee were all there. Three Plumbers Helpers Clubs were represented and also the Young Workers League, an organization of young workers.

All the young workers gathered discussed the problems confronting the young workers in the shops—the problems of low starvation wages, long hours, unbearable unsanitary conditions, bad foremen, speed up, spies and blacklist agencies, bosses company unions, etc. The young worker is forced to bear a double yoke of exploitation, for he is oppressed first as a worker and then as a young worker.

Two of the delegates, both 15 years old, pointed out the lot and misery of the child laborers. Just as the adult must help the young workers, so must the young workers help the child laborers.

And it was clear to everyone that if the young workers are to remedy this situation, they must organize into a labor union. And in this connection the important role the youth play in the union was pointed out. The youth are always in the forefront of the fight, bringing with them the spirit of youth and vigor and enthusiasm and militancy. What better examples can be cited than the part the young workers are playing in the heroic struggle of the textile workers and the part they played in the Furriers strike, which contributed so much to the victory of the furriers.

The conference adopted a resolution pointing out the necessity for the unionization of the young workers, calling on the American Federation of Labor to start an organization campaign to bring the young workers into the ranks of organized labor and urging the local unions to form special committees to work out ways and means to organize the youth.

Greetings were sent to the striking Passaic textile workers who are now fighting their bosses for the 22^nd week. Similar greetings were sent to the striking shoe workers and to the striking miners of England.

A resolution was adopted against the employment of children under 16 years of age. A resolution similar to the one adopted by the Pennsylvania Federation of Labor was adopted condemning the Citizens Military Training Camps as an agency used to train strikebreakers. The conference further adopted a resolution on the question of race prejudice, and Jim Crowism, pointing out that the workers must fight the attempt of the bosses to divide the workers by inciting race prejudice and race hatred.

A committee of 21 delegates were elected for the purpose of carrying on the work that this conference had begun. This committee was instructed to carry on a campaign for the unionization of the young workers. Fellow workers, Joe Harrison, Theresa Staudinger, Nancy Sandusky, Jack Rubenstein and W. W. Elam were elected on this committee to represent the United Front Committee.

This conference was a beginning—an important, significant beginning.

For the first time in the history of the labor movement in America, the young workers have gotten together to discus the problems confronting young workers.

The conference was unanimous in expressing the need for the unionization of the young workers. The entire labor movement must take note of this expression and must make special efforts to organize the youth if it is to become a powerful weapon of the working class against the bosses.

What more fitting way of closing the youth conference than with the singing of “SOLIDARITY FOREVER"—and the “UNION MAKES US STRONG!” Fine, clear, voices sang it with a will.

Six little starved Passaic kids vainly pried at the White House lids, ambassadors of strikers who are trying hard to see things through. The kids just wanted Cal to see that wage cuts didn’t bring them glee. They carried banners meant to show that low pay don’t make milk to flow, and in spite of what the bosses sed, starvation wages won’t buy bred. They even took a keen delight in showing Cal that in the night their mothers worked to make up pay their fathers lack who toil by day.

Good Cal, who has a kid what’s grown, wasn’t anxious to be shown. An indigestion hit him hard just as the strike kids reached his yard. Now if Boy Scouts had been his callers, kind Cal would greet with joyful hollers. Dear Cal will wear his gladdest rags, if what you raise ain’t pay but flags. His clerk, he told the hungry bunch that Cal was sick from too much lunch, and if from lack of bread they ache, poor Cal did too, from too much cake.

Let me give Cal a good suggestion, that’s one bum way to meet the question. This belly-aching ain’t no way to solve the problems of the day.

We have forgotten how to sing; our laughter is a godless thing; listless and loud and shrill and sly;

We have forgotten how to smile. Our lips, our voices, too are vile. We are all dead before we die.

Our mother’s mothers made us so; the father that we never know in blindness and in wantonness.

Caused us to come to question you. What is it that you others do, that profit so by our distress?

You and your children, softly sleep. We and our mothers vigil keep. You cheated us of all delight,

Ere our sick spirits came to birth; you made our fair and fruitful earth a nest of pestilence and blight.

Your black machines are never still, and hard, relentless as your will, they card us like the cotton waste.

Flesh and blood more cheap than they, they seize and eat and shred away, to feed the fever of your haste.

For we are waste and shoddy here, who know no God, no faith but fear, no happiness, no hope but sleep.

Half imbecile and half obscene, we sit and tend each tense machine, too sick to sigh, to tired to weep.

Until the tortured end of day, when fevered faces turn away, to see the stars from blackness leap.

Dear Fellow Workers:

We are now in our twenty-second week of the strike. And we are still strong. We must stick together no matter how long, until we win our union. It is something worth while fighting for.

I was working in the Gera Mill and the conditions are not fit for a worker to work in. Our lady boss is very rough. And she has a face like ten days rain.

If you ask her for some work she looks at you, you’ll think she’ll eat you up. We just had twenty-four minutes dinner time. And if we don’t finish on time she gets a fit. So, fellow workers, stand firm. We must win our union.

A YOUNG GERA WORKER.

Thousands of textile workers of Passaic went on strike on account of the reduction of wages. They slaved from morning to night to keep us children healthy, strong, and in good clothes in order to go to school.

We children must help win this strike by picketing, attending meetings, cheering up our parents, and the most important thing—keep the scabs out of the mills.

During this strike we can learn something. For instance we can learn how to organize while still young so we will know how when we are older --- we who know what it is to be hungry and to be cold.

We must encourage our parents. Some of them say “Why did I ever go on strike?”

We must answer, “You went on strike to fight the bosses. Do not be afraid, we must and will win.

This strike will go on even if the children must lead the pickets and do all the fighting while our parents are in bed bleeding from wounds received while peacefully picketing.

Now that school is over the children will be more active than ever in the strike.

I am a striker’s child know what it is to be clubbed by those brutal Cossacks. THIS IS ALL TRUE. I myself have been arrested twice and clubbed while leading picket lines, more than once. Some children have had the same and some even worse, I believe.

WE MUST WIN! STICK TOGETHER!

M. T., Age 11.

Oh me—Oh my,
We’ll get there bye and bye.
If anyone here sure likes the eats,
Its I – I –I –I –I.
Oh My—Oh Me!
Our hearts are full of glee,
If anyone here sure likes the eats,
It’s me – me – me –me –me.

We received the following post card from Steven Kish who was one of the four children we sent to the camp run by the Henry Street Settlement. As soon as school closes we will be able to send many more children away to camps.

Dear Sophie:

I like it very much here. They give us good things to eat. We sleep in a green house. In the house are four beds. All of us four sleep in four beds.

From Stephen Kish.

Newark, New Jersey.

Dear Young Comrades:

Enclosed is a check for $44.11 which has been collected for meal tickets by the Young Pioneers of Newark.

We shall continue collecting money for the Passaic strikers and hope that our little bit will help you so that you may stand by your parents and the older workers in their fight against the bosses until they win this strike, in spite of all the obstacles placed in their way by the bosses and their agents.

Fraternally yours,

Young Pioneers of Newark, Lotti Blumenthal,

We have been getting many contributions from the Pioneers all through the country. The Los Angeles Pioneers are proving that they are really on the job helping the children of the textile strikers. They have sent us this week $55.75. Keep up the good work, Pioneers. We from this end are standing firm.

Saturday night we made a picket line and more and more children joined us until we had a big picket line. Then we picketed every scabs house until we came to an apartment house where most of the people are scabs.

Then we hollered boo so that you could hear us, and a cop came running. Then one girl hollered “Jiggers, the cops,” but we thought she was only fooling so we kept on singing louder until the cop came near and we heard him throw the club and it almost hit me in the foot.

Then we all started to run and I didn’t know where to run so I ran into a gate where strikers lived and hid behind the lady. Then the cop came over there and said: “I saw one of the kids run in here.” But the striker hid me and the cop went away angrily.

B. G., Age 11.

Whole-heartedly pledging their organizations to the work of supporting the children’s kitchens, the delegates from women organizations in the states of New Jersey and New York, present at the “Feed the Children” Conference last Saturday afternoon at Kanter’s Auditorium, unanimously voted for a permanent delegated conference, as the best means of assuring continued support for the kitchens.

The “Feed the Children” Conference was called to order by Leona Smith, who read the Conference Call to the assembled delegates.

Mary Heaton Vorse, of Council No. 8. N. Y. C., United Council of Workingclass Housewives, was elected chairman; Leona Smith, vice chairman, and Bertha Kuppersmith of the General of Relief Committee, secretary.

The conference was addressed by Alfred Wagenkneht, Relief Chairman; Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, and Mrs. Kate Gitlow of the United Council of Workingclass Housewives, on the Subject of supporting relief for the strikers and their families. They were all three vigorously applauded by the delegates and many strikers present, while from the rear of the hall the children added their quota with a variation of the union cheer to “Two – Four – Six – Eight! who do we appreciate? Wagenknecht! Wagenknecht! Wagenknecht! Two –Four – Six – Eight! Whom do we appreciate? Flynn! Flynn! Flynn!” And again, "Two – Four – Six –Eight! Whom do we appreciate? Gitlow! Gitlow! Gitlow!”

The hall again rocked to thunderous applause as the delegates of those organizations who were already aiding in the work made their reports, and in most instances turned in money collected during the last week.

Among those taking part in discussion and reporting were, Helen Yeskevitch, of the Lithuanian Working Women’s Alliance of America; Mrs. Raskin of Council No. 1, Passaic; Mrs. Schwartz of Council No. 6, Williamsburg; Mrs. Bloom, Council No. 2, Newark; Karoly Muray of St. Anthony of Padau Hungarian Society, Passaic; Mrs. Fishman of Council No. 5, Coney Island; Mrs. Berg of the Community Welfare Club of Passaic, N. J.; Anna Bresnac, Frances Janicke, and Frances Ribardo of the United Front Committee; Mrs. Cohen of Brownsville Council No. 7; Mrs. Black of the Mothers Club of Henry Street; Mrs. Epstein, Council No. 3, Bronx; Mrs. Gordon of Council No. 4, Williamsburg; Mrs. Roseman, Council No. 1, N. Y. C.; Mrs. Paikstys, Lithuanian Workingmen’s Alliance; Sarah Sherman of Trenton N. J.; Leona Smith, Mary Heaton Vorse and Mrs. Kate Gitow.

Resolutions on the Strike, on Defense, on Support of the Kitchens and Protection of Women in industry were read and unanimously adopted. The resolutions on the Kitchens, declared, in part:

“We, as delegates of women’s organizations, feel most keenly the plight of the women and children of Passaic. We are ready to fight for them and with them to win a better life for the women and a future for the children. Our support of the strike will therefore take the form of relieving the hunger of the children, that no mother may weaken in the fight through seeing her child hungry and unfed. We pledge our organizations therefore to spare no effort, to leave no means untried, to build up a stronger support for the work of feeding the children in the kitchens established by the United Council Workingclass Housewives.”

The Conference also went on record “to support any move for the protection of women in industry, particularly the textile. It declares itself in favor of such legislation as will protect women against night work, against working when pregnant, against long hours, low wages and unsanitary conditions.”

Leona Smith was unanimously elected secretary of the permanent conference which is to hold regular meetings for the furtherance of plans in support of the kitchens. One delegate was elected to the permanent conference from every organization represented at Saturday’s “Feed the Children” Conference.

The first conference will be held on Monday, June 28, at 8 p. m., 177 East Broadway, New York.

“I’m no speaker, but I’ll just try to tell you people what my club is doing. I never made a speech before, but I’ll try to do the best I can.”

So declared one woman delegate after another as she got up on the floor Saturday at the Feed the Children Conference. And they all overcame their timidity and gave the conference very interesting reports on the activities of their clubs and councils on behalf of the kitchen.

“We wanted to raise money quickly in my club, so we decided to have a house to house collection. Four of us went out one Sunday morning and we collected a hundred dollars.

“Our council held a package party for the kitchens. We made two hundred and thirty dollars that way which we sent to Passaic.

“Our club’ sent in three hundred dollars earlier in the strike. Since then we made a hundred dollars on meal tickets which we brought here today.”

Mrs. Raskin tried to tell us that she couldn’t talk. But no one could believe her since she followed up this statement with one of the best reports of the afternoon. She showed the conference how the actual work of the kitchens is carried out. “We can’t raise so much money here in Passaic, since most of our members in the councils here are strikers,” she told us. “But there is one thing we can do and that we are doing to the best of our power. That is the actual work of feeding the children. What you might call the heavy labor.” She went on to explain how the women do the buying, going all over the town to get donations and low prices. How they spend whole days in the cooking, the dish-washing, the serving of the meals. And the satisfaction they feel in seeing the children looking better and better as the weeks go by.

Frances Ribardo, one of the delegates of the United Front Committee, militant and unafraid after the training of the picket line, gave a picture of the work of the striking women; how they get up at five in the morning, hastily do a bit of work at home, then out to the picket line. In snow and heat, through all these months, they have been on this job of guarding the mills. If Mrs. Ribardo is a type of the women in this strike, and if all are working as she is, the strike can never be lost.

The first offensive of the Paterson police began on Tuesday when seven United Front workers were arrested there for distributing a pamphlet which calls upon the Dye workers of Paterson to stop scabbing on their striking brothers in Lodi. Juachino Salerno, Raffaele Coviella, Salvatore Ribardo, and Riagia Gugliucci were fined five dollars a piece for the high crime of pointing out to the Dye workers their miserable condition. Thomas DeFatzio, Francesco Coco, and Jack Grabinski were dismissed.

The leaflet which they distributed reads as follows:

To All Dye Workers of Paterson:

For a long time the Silk dye workers have suffered terrible conditions. We work very long hours. We get very low pay. How can we live on 40 or 50 cents an hour? The toilets and other sanitary conditions, the poisons and wetness in the mills are enough to kill even animals.

Why is this so? Why is it that of all the workers in Paterson, we are the worst paid and the worst treated? It is because we have no union! We must organize. We must get ourselves into a union to fight against these awful conditions.

Over in Lodi, the workers of the United Piece Dye have joined the United Front Committee of Textile Workers. They have been on strike for ….. weeks and they are putting up a very brave struggle. We must not scab on them. We must not do the work that the Lodi Dye workers used to do. We must help the Lodi Dye Workers. Their fight is our fight. They are fighting against the same conditions that we have here. They are fighting for:

1. 25 per cent increase all wages;
2. 44 hour week;
3. Time and a half for overtime;
4. Decent sanitary working conditions;
5. No discrimination against union men;
6. Recognition of the union.

Dye workers, prepare for our own struggle. Don’t do scab work. Fight for decent conditions. Join the United Front Committee. Come to the union office and sign up!

United Front Committee of Textile Workers of Paterson.

Office: 89 Bridge Street.

Hours: 8 a. m. to 9 p. m.

There was a new departure in the last women’s mass meeting, that of Thursday, June 17^th. It was not that it was a big and enthusiastic meeting, filling Ukrainian hall, seats and gallery, for all the women’s meetings have been big and enthusiastic and crowds standing in the rear. It was not that we heard eloquent and cheering speeches from Organizer Weisbord, for the speeches we hear are all eloquent and cheering.

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and from Mother Gitlow. The special feature of this meeting was a series of talks by some of our own number, some of the women strikers.

Theresa Staudinger gave a talk that we really must call a speech, it was so well delivered and so interesting. She explained how the women of the working class bear a double burden since they must not only work in the mills, but must keep up the home, bear and raise children as well.

Frances Janicke spoke, and so did Fanny Onischak, the crackerjack organizer of Council 3, who is doing such good work in the Council as well as on the picket line, that she brought in thirty-two new members in one week.

The palm of the evening however, was carried off by our friend Anna Yurka. If you have not heard Anna make a speech yet, engage her for the next union meeting. She is some speaker, take it from the applause she got last Thursday. She is no young girl, her hair is white, her face is [etched] with the struggles of a mill workers life. But she had the energy and the spirit of a girl when she got up on the platform. And she talked with the liveliness and the courage of the working woman who is always young enough to fight the battles of her class. That was a good story she told, about yanking the scabs out of the Botany. We are going to have Anna Yurka on the program again, the next time the women hold a mass meeting.

Dear Fellow Workers:

My sister and I were sent out by the General Relief Committee to go to Washington. We had never made such a long before and at first we did not want to try, but the trip came off very well anyway.

We set out Thursday morning last week and came back Tuesday night. We visited different labor unions in Washington, the Paperhangers union, the Carpenters, the Bookbinders, the Electrical Workers, the Finger-Print Association, and others. These workers seemed to be, most of them, favorable to us, and gave donations from their treasury. Delegates from five unions are going to organize a relief conference in Washington as they have in many other cities for the support of our strike. This is really the biggest accomplishment of our trip. We are pretty tired from the ride as we just got back but the trip was worth it.

Mrs. M. Hardy and Elizabeth Fuchs.

The end of the twenty-first week of the big textile strike was featured by an attack by Garfield Cossacks on a crowd of 200 women and children who had gathered in Wood Street, Garfield. This is in the center of the strike district and not far from the Forstmann & Huffmann mill. Evidently Mayor Burke, who is an employee of the Botany mills, is not going to permit the workers to congregate within 100 miles of the [sacred] precincts of the F. & H., if he can help it.

Because the crowd of children and women did not obey with alacrity the police order to disperse, some heroic Cossacks charged into the crowd, swinging their clubs onto the heads of women and the soft, unresisting bodies of little children. They wound up their orgy by locking up Mrs. Anna Marut, who had her baby in her arms and two little girls clinging frantically to her skirt. The police Cossacks locked up all four but were later forced to release them upon a physicians order.

After being placed in a cell, Mrs. Murat complained of feeling ill and City Physician Ernest Casini was called to examine her. Dr. Casini found the woman’s heart action irregular and her pulse low as a result of the atrocious treatment to which she was subjected by the Garfield Cossacks. He advised that she be taken to her home. She was thereupon released, her baby and her two little children going home with her.

The incident illustrates both the splendid of the strikers women and children, many of them strikers themselves, and the barbarous treatment to which they are often subjected by the Cossack tools of the bosses. The indomitable spirit with which these striking textile workers meet the onslaughts of the police and other tools of the bosses should inspire every decent worker to come to their aid. In this, the twenty-second week of the heroic struggle, the need is particularly urgent. The strike is still 100 per cent strike. And the striking textile workers are prepared to battle to victory, but they must have your support. This is your fight. Help wage it.

The General Relief Committee, Textile Strikers, is in receipt of a letter from the Berlin office of the Workers International Relief. This communication shows how far-flung is the interest of the working class in the strategic struggle going on in the Passaic textile mills.

The letter promises that every effort will be made to arouse European labor to the need of contributions for Passaic relief.

We have already read what Worker A. and Worker B. have to say about the g-r-a-n-d and g-l-o-r-i-o-u-s bunk company union they have at the Forstmann and Huffmann Company.

They told us how Mr. Reinhold, the personnel manager, holds this bosses union right in the hollow of his hand, how the “representative assembly” has been a device for speeding up work, spying on the workers and preventing them from organizing into a real labor union.

Here are a couple more brief statements, made under oath, by workers who have been fooled and exploited by the company union system.

Worker C:

“I have been a member of this “Representative Assembly for the past four years. I attended regularly the meetings of the assembly. The majority of this assembly was composed of foremen and the higher employees of the Forstmann and Huffmann Company. In the presence of these high men, the members elected from ranks of the workers were afraid to speak up whenever any complaints were brought to their attention, because if they complained they were threatened with the loss of their positions……

Mr. Reinhold dominated at these meetings, and the workers were afraid to incur his displeasure.

“In my four years as a member of the Representative Assembly, I recollect only a few occasions when a workingman said anything at the meetings. On one occasion …. the members of the shop committee of the weaving department had a meeting with the shop committee appointed by the management together with Mr. Reinhold, and several of the workers and I protested against the overtime we had to work. Several days after this meeting, the superintendent of the weaving department called me and another member of our committee into the office, gave us a calling down and told us that we ought to be ashamed of ourselves to be on a shop committee and act as we did.”

Then, worker C. tells of the dinner with beer, cigars and refreshments that was always given the assembly members once a year to put them in a humor to listen to Mr. Reinhold’s fine phrases. Mr. Reinhold’s speeches always took up most of the time at the quarterly meetings of the bunk union. However Worker C says,

“In my four years of experience as a member of the assembly I do not recollect one benefit to the working people that came from any of the talking done at these meetings.”

Words, words, and still more words—but no concrete benefit for the workers. That is the story of the company union wherever it has been used to confuse, mislead and exploit the American textile slaves.”

Worker D:

This worker shows how the company union favorites are natural born strike breakers with no social consciousness or loyalty to the working class. He says:

“I do not know of even one member of the Representative Assembly, elected for the year 1926, who went out on strike.”

Which is the usual practice with company union suckers. They always stand by the company and against their fellow workers.

Worker E:

Worker E, shows how the wages went down under the company union regime and how responsive this Mr. Reinhold was to the wishes of the weavers:

“About a week prior to the time the weavers left the plant,—a shop committee went to see Mr. Reinhold and requested him to give them two looms to work on. For about seven months before this they had been cut down to one loom.

“Reinhold informed the committee that in a week the situation would be remedied. A week passed and nothing was done to change the situation. The weavers then went on strike. When they were preparing to leave Mr. Reinhold approached me and said that if the weavers left they would never be permitted to return.

“I then said to him: ‘We have been working on one loom for about 6 months and I have a family of several children. I am required to work 48 hours a week. I am paid for only 24 hours a week. I make about $17 to $18 a week. How do you expect me to live?’”

But all Mr. Reinhold could answer Worker E. was “Those who leave today will never come back. They will lose their jobs.”

Like all the other intelligent, self-respecting workers who struck against the refined slavery of this Prussian company, union worker E. says, “I deny the representative assembly’s right to speak for me believing that it is controlled by the company. I am on strike and only the United Front Committee has authority to represent me.”

Scores of workers who have suffered under this hypocritical yoke of the company’s stool pigeon union have made statements to the same effect. This strike has opened their eyes to the relative value of this type of "union” as compared to the real trade union controlled and administered by the workers and their true representatives.

The company union is now recognized as a vicious method of exploitation, and during this strike it has served as an instrument of strike breaking and scabbery.

Coal isn’t America’s only sick industry. Textiles also seem in the throes of despondency. This highly protected industry has caused a series of labor calamities hardly equaled by coal, extending many years back of 1912, when the nation was aroused by the inhuman oppression of the Lawrence mill hands. Misery still plods wearily along the drab narrow streets of the New England mill towns, rises to a sharp and dramatic climax in Passaic, New Jersey, where 10,000 workers have been on strike since last winter and then trails off into unrelieved misery again in the south, where employers exploit poor Whites and Negroes with equal impartiality.

The terrible problem of textiles runs continuously along the “fall line” from Maine to Georgia. Wherever rivers course swiftly from uplands to the coastal plains will be found squat masses of dull brick red mills wherein low wages, long hours and seasonal operation spell economic slavery and un-American working conditions. What is the remedy which will pull these mills up to the independent standing of representative American industries, enabling them to pay decent wages to their hundred thousand toilers?

Common humanity could go far in easing the situation at Passaic. If the employers were willing to look upon their workers as human beings rather than mere profit producing cattle, the present strike with its acute distress would never have run its five month course. Instead the bosses have maintained a studied attitude of no compromise, no bargaining. They refuse to negotiate with the union of the workers.

Can such industrial autocracy, coupled with unashamed command of the police and sheriff’s offices, be tolerated? Are we to solve industrial problems by policeman’s clubs, employers Czarism and workers starvation? Every force in America which looks toward industrial progress and social well-being and that means every labor union, every church and public-minded group, should bring pressure to bear immediately on Governor Moore, their United States Senators, and their related organizations in Passaic to bring about a just settlement. In the meantime the strikers and their children suffer keenly in their fight for industrial justice. Contributions addressed to the General Strike Committee, 743 Main Street, Passaic N. J., will help relieve that distress.

Extracts from Editorial in Journal of Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers.

June 18, 1926

Fellow Workers:

Enclosed you will find check of $85.52 which is contribution from South Slavic Workers of this country. They send this little amount to striking workers of Passaic, to help them to fight for their human rights, to fight their battle against the bloody parasites of Wall Street, and against the parasites in general. Just go and fight to the end—we are with you, comrades and brothers.

Fraternally yours,

Louis Joich.

“The owners and managers of the textile industry in the United States have fought a long and successful fight against the unionization of their employees—for their “to run their own business.” The American Federation of Labor has thus far failed to provide collective bargaining for about 3 per cent of the workers in the textile in industry, and these, together with those organized by other agencies, constitute hardly 10 per cent of the 1,000,000 textile workers in the United States.
 
 

“The result of his lack of bargaining power on the part of the workers in the textile industry is the lowest wage of any group of factory workers in the country. This fact is shown not only by the direct figures of earnings, but is further reflected in the percentage increases since prewar wage levels. The textile workers have received a higher percentage increase than other classes of employees for the simple reason that their wage levels were already low and that, as the cost of living rapidly climbed upward, it was everywhere found to be necessary to give the lower brackets of wage earners greater percentage increases in order to enable them to live at all. Higher paid workers were able, by curtailment of recreational and similar expenses, to get along on percentage increases which, for the low paid workers, would not have enabled them to live.”

From statement presented by W. JETT LAUCK, noted Washington Economist to certain United States Senators interested in the Passaic strike.

Oh I can trail a horse ‘roun a field
And handle a tractor too,
But I’m damned if I’ll learn to produce more and more
And hand it all over to you.
For you can get out of your limousine
And learn to trail a horse too,
Or else keep on en’ your road to hell
And we’ll hasten the trip for you.

Walls, walls, walls,
Walls of capitalism;
Chasms, chasms, chasms,
Charms of capitalism;
Cities, cities, cities,
Builded, builded, builded,
Builded by ---
Builded by workers ---
Then why don’t the walls and the chasms and the cities
Belong to the workers?

My people are men of the farms,
And men who toil on the docks
And men who handle the axe,
And men who are punchers of clocks,
My people are men who are slaves,
Slaves are men who are slaves,
Slaves who yet fail to see,
But they’re eager for someone to tell them,
And that is the job for me.

Richard Kellner ain’t gonna scab no more. He says so himself. He also cannot scab, for he got one of his arms mangled last week while scabbing in the New Jersey Worsted Spinning Company and the whole mill was spattered with blood. Now the company doesn’t want him till he gets another arm grown where the first one was but isn’t.

Kellner lives in Garfield, and had it in his head that it would be all right to help the bosses beat the workers who are on strike. This scab couldn’t imagine why the strikers have demanded better and safer conditions in the mills. He may be able to imagine some of that while his arm stub is healing.

He also did not know that it is quite dangerous for all the workers to be around unprotected machinery and especially for inexperienced scabs.

This should be a lesson to all scabs. The thing to do is to stay out of the mills till the strike is settled.

Instead of helping the bosses, all the workers should join the union and help win the strike. Let this be a warning to all the scabs. It is always dangerous to scab—and it is a mean thing to do.

In another mill a boy of 14 was burned to death while scabbing. The miserable company coaxed the poor child into the mill and all he got in return was a pine box for a coffin.

The papers do not mention these accidents. But we get the facts just the same. The scabs are having tough sledding in the mills—and who would go to a funeral of a scab?

Call me a lemon—a fool—a green tomato. Point to my ignorance, my ancestors, my native country. Label my politics, my leaders, my legal record. Nevertheless, I know you cannot make peace as well as profits out of lies, deception, fear and arrogance. Nor out of $18 a week. Nor out of night-working women.

You cannot sacrifice my family for your [prestige]. You shall not exploit my children and then point to their ignorance and their parents ---And when these children grow up, point if you dare to their politics, their leadership, and the record they are making in this strike.

Let there be an end to peace without decency. You need victory for the sake of hidden profit and shaky reputations.

We need peace and a union and a fair settlement for the sake of bread, sunshine and our children.

We will stand in the open—We will fight it out. We will stick to the finish.

The Detroit section of the International Workers Aid writes in that arrangements have been made for a large benefit ball where it is hoped to raise at least $2,000 for Passaic strike relief.

Jacob C. Robinson, chairman of the Detroit section, adds: “Also I am arranging to start a clothing drive, which I hope to have in full swing before the end of the month.”

The Chartered Society of AMALGAMATFD LACE OPERATIVES OF AMERICA.

Scranton, Pa., June 7, 1926

Dear Brothers:

At our general meeting held Saturday, June 5, the strike at Passaic was taken up and discussed. As a result you will please find a check for $100.00.

We want to congratulate the strikers for their gallant fight and wishing you a speedy and successful victory in this battle for your rights.

With best wishes, on behalf of the members of Branch No. 3,

Fraternally yours,

John B. Davis.

Secretary Treasurer.

It seems that the bosses act according to a fixed program in every strike. There are very few strikes in which the bosses do not use gangsters and sluggers.

These gents are furnished by regular agencies—and they cost money. First of all the agency charges $50 per head to these gangsters. Then the gangster charges $50 to come. Then there is transportation, and hotel bills. Then there is the little item of wages. And do not fool yourself into thinking that these fellows come cheap. They get all the way from $20 to $50 a day to do the dirty work.

Of course these gangsters are recruited from the lowest depth of degradation. They are for the most part ex-convicts and potential highway men. Only the most depraved can be recruited to do the job that the bosses demand of them. You will see enough of it before you are through.

Naturally these toughs are not expected to do any productive work. In the first place they are not hired for that purpose and in the second place they do not know how. They are dead weight and a tremendous expense to the bosses.

They are supposed to go into groups and start trouble. They start a fight. They beat the strikers. They try to provoke to violence. If they can start something and assault someone they have a cop ready. They stay and point out a striker to the cop and blame him for the slugging the thug has done. They work hand in glove with the cops.

Then they get after innocent strikers and beat them up as they did with Toth, whose picture you find in this issue of the Bulletin.

Very seldom the workers get by with only being beaten. In almost every strike the bosses have a group of thugs kill someone. In every case the blame is put on the strikers. The leaders or prominent pickets are arrested and charged with murder. Then the strike headquarters are raided. The leaders locked up. The halls closed. Meetings forbidden. Gathering in groups prohibited.

Now the bosses have started on this program. Watch them. See how closely they follow the beaten path of their fellows in strikebreaking and criminal plotting.

It is the duty of all decent people and especially the workers to demand that all thugs and strikebreakers and gangsters be driven out of the city. Tell the bosses in no uncertain way to quit their hellish methods. Make them understand that all blame for violence will be laid at their door. Make them responsible for the horrors that they provide for.

The strike has been peaceable from the side of the workers. It will be so till the end if the bosses do not institute a reign of lawlessness and terror.

The tools of the bosses had gotten the bomb mania so badly that it became a scandal in Garfield and other places.

Of course these gentlemen made every effort to blame the bombing on the strikers. So the Bulletin gave the workers and the bosses some very interesting data.

We showed that only those that want to see the strike broken would do the bombing. For nothing is so harmful to strikers as bombing.

Only those who want the strike broken will use bombs. The strikers do not want the strike broken. They want to win—and they are going to win.

The bosses are the only ones who want to see the strike broken. Thus if you want to find the bombers you can find them easily.

We showed how bombing in the Lawrence strike some years ago was traced directly to William A. Wood, president of the woolen trust. This gent had the decency of committing suicide last winter, so he will not plant any more bombs.

But his brothers in the trade are not all dead yet. Nor do they seem to learn very fast. If the police find it difficult to catch the bombers they might linger about the headquarters of the bosses and get next to their plots.

Now since we came out flatly showing the source of the bombs the thing has stopped. The Passaic Daily Herald says:

“For the first time in several weeks, no bombing or other disturbances were reported over-night in Garfield.”

So the bosses seem to have taken the hint handed them by the Bulletin and stopped the outrageous and damnable bombing business—at least for awhile.

This is one time when they cannot pull that kind of stuff and get away with it.

Mayor Botany Burke is itching to get the sheriff and the gun men back to Garfield and is willing to spend a day coaxing the king of Bergen county into another attempt to restore “law ‘n order.”

But it seems that the Botany Boy is not as powerful as he would like to be. In the first place he could not swing the council in Garfield. The council can see no reason to add to the police disorders by shipping in a lot of gun men to help them make more hell in a burg that would be entirely peaceable if it were not for the police, the mayor and the judge who thinks he is somebody.

The lesson Nimmo learned stuck better than the most optimistic had dared to hope. The sheriff actually likes to stay away. In this he likes exactly what all the good people of Garfield like.

He has not forgotten the day he had to hop into a speeding auto in order to escape a stinging restraining order and get the gaff of the people who heartily despised the self imposed kinglet.

Botany Burke has not yet learned the lesson—not yet. But he will --- even if he has a hide as thick as a buckskin mitten. There seems to be a little hope for Nimmo. He shows at least a little sign of intelligence. But Botany Burke?

The importation of thugs and sluggers indicates that the mill owners are about at the end of their rope.

These drastic measures are not used until the last hope to defeat the strikers is gone. That hope is now done. The bosses are frantic. They are now spending thousands of dollars every day trying to club the workers back. Their coaxing has failed. Their local police have failed. Their program of starvation has failed.

Now they are trying the Gangsters.

They too will fail.

The strikers are too well schooled to fall for any claptrap of the bosses. They have been warned of every trick. They know beforehand every move the bosses are about to make.

Let all the people of Passaic know what the bosses are.

The brutal beating of Fellow Worker Toth looks very bad for the mill owners. Their gangsters dragged him into the Botany mill and tortured him till he was near death.

He was brought to the platform at Belmont park when he was barely able to stand up and his body was shown to the mass of strikers gathered there. It was a tense moment. Big men wept at the sight of this victim of the bloodiest of human viciousness. The strikers will not forget this scene. The children will not forget the black and blue welts and the raw and bleeding flesh of this faithful striker.

Instead of terrorizing the strikers, this unspeakable deed of the bosses put iron into the blood of every striker, and made them like steel in their minds to fight this tyranny to the bitter end.

Such things must stop, and the workers know that only by a firm union will they be able to do away with such brutality as the bosses are now using.

“Hold the fort, for we are coming,” is still the cheering message being received from organized workers all over the country. Many of those who have given are giving again, and are planning again to give. This is the spirit necessary to victory. The following letter tells its own story of sustained interest and effort:

“Fellow Workers:

“Here we are again with two lists collected at our membership meeting last night.

“More lists are coming.

“Hold the fort and win.

“Sincerely and fraternally, yours for Solidarity,

“Amalgamated Public Service Workers Union,

“359 East 81^st Street, New York City.”

NOTE: The amount sent this time was $88.40. Many thanks and keep up the Good Work.
 
 

Albert Weisbord, strike leader, received notice through the capitalist press on Thursday that the bosses are at work in a new frame-up attempt against him.

A “breach of promise suit” brought by an unknown person designated as "Rosalind Lapnore” address not given, has been filed against him in the Supreme Court of the state of New York.

Not only is the complaint a fake on the face of it, but even the service of the papers have been framed up, for although Weisbord has not been served with the papers, court records state that he was served at a Second avenue address on Wednesday afternoon. An attaché of the court has reported back that the papers have been served although Weisbord was in Passaic all day on Wednesday.

“The whole story is ridiculous, said Weisbord. The case is a clear frame-up such as is always tried in every big strike. If they can’t frame the leaders for instigating riots or uttering seditious statements they try something like this.”

“In the early weeks of the strike I predicted to the workers that the bosses would try to frame me up on all of these charges. The workers will not be fooled on this new attack on their leader.”

Jacob Nosovitski, private detective and self-styled “famous international spy,” who brought the mysterious woman described as “Rosalind Lapmore” into the office of Attorney Henry Margoshes, No. 302 Broadway, on Wednesday to institute a $50,000 breach of promise suit against Weisbord was employed by officials of the Botany Worsted Mills on his statement that he could end the strike within ten days. This was three weeks ago. He is said to have been known to them under the name of “Harry Sanders.”

Weisbord has announced his intention to start proceedings to clear his name in a suit which he charges is a “frame-up.”

Max Sherwood, President of the Eagle Detective Agency, No. 1452 Broadway, said yesterday that Nosovitski came to his agency about three weeks ago, and submitted to him several proposals to end the textile strike. These proposals, Sherwood said, “were not to my liking.” He said he informed Nosovitski that he would have nothing to do with the case.

Sherwood admitted that he had employed both Nosovitski and the “spy’s” wife several years ago. At that time they were known as Jacob and Estelle Nosow.

“Nosovitski had been hired by Nathan S. Shaw, a private detective specializing in industrial work,” said Sherwood. Shaw had been in negotiation with the Botany Mills. He had proposed to them that he had a man who had promised to end the strike for a stipulated sum. The amount agreed, according to Shaw’s version, was $20,000. I am informed that the Botany Mills advanced expenses to bring Nosow to Passaic. Nosow in reality Nosovitski, did not unfold his plan of ending the strike, but did mention that he could obtain sufficient evidence to warrant Weisbord’s prosecution by the Federal authorities.

“It was following this that Nosovitski came to my office. I have a number of witnesses who were present the day that Nosovitski called on me.”

Jack Rubenstein, picket captain and leader, has been brutally beaten up again in the Garfield jail. With no slightest excuse for his arrest, he was seized, taken off to the jail, thrown into a cell, and attacked. Even Recorder Baker could not find any excuse to hold him when he was arraigned, and he was dismissed with the payment of costs.

Jack was walking along on Jewell Street early Friday morning when he was passed by an officer in the patrol wagon.

“What are you walking that way for? What are you doing here anyway?” the officer shouted. Jack did not reply.

“I knew when he spoke to me that I was in for a beating this day,” said Jack afterwards.

When he came up to the patrol wagon which had stopped, Officer D. continued to abuse him and finally told him to get into the wagon.

“Am I arrested?” asked Jack.

“Yes you are,” said the Officer and Jack was hustled off to a cell in the station. On the way he received much “fatherly advice” a local alias for threatening, about getting out of Garfield if he knew what was good for him.

In his cell, Rubenstein was attacked by Officer Number two and “Whitey Adamchesky” who had been a party to nearly all the beatings handed out in Garfield and who brutally beat Jack with a rubber hose so that he was sent to a hospital at the time of his last arrest.

“As soon as I saw them come I lay down on my bench, for I could see in their eyes what was coming,” he said after his release on bail. “I knew if I even tried to defend myself [there] were fifty more waiting to jump in on me, and if I was standing up they would only knock me down. I cuddled up on the bench and protected my face, but they got me plenty.”

A doctor’s certificate, signed by Dr. D. H. Tellman, shows that he has "a large area of [thrombosis] (bruises), a swelling and tenderness over right posterior chest, abrasion and contusion of the right eye.” He was charged with being a disorderly person. “With having my feet too close to the ground when I walked, I guess,” says Jack in his characteristic slow speech, “Well, I guess it was just my [time] again.”

Walter Brunko, a striker from United Piece Dye Works, was seriously wounded in the right arm by an armed scab early Tuesday morning.

When Brunko, Thomas Regan, and Philip Maddalena, all active on the picket line, spoke to Thomas Branch, a Negro scab in the Lodi mill, asking him to come out of the mill on strike, he drew a revolver and fired four shots at the strikers. One of them lodged in Brunko’s right arm, shattering the bone of the forearm and tearing the flesh to shreds as it ploughed through and broke into three pieces.

Then the police joined the game. A “Special Officer,” which is another way of saying “Hired Mill Thug,” took it for granted that if there had been shooting the strikers were to blame. Without a word of warning, he began shooting after the three men. Maddalena and Regan, who were hurrying the wounded man to a home for treatment, stopped when the bullets began to fly, and all were taken to the police station in Lodi.

Too seriously wounded to admit of any delay, Brunko was rushed to a Hackensack Hospital to receive treatment. Thomas Branch, the gun-toting scab, was also arrested and charges of assault and battery and threatening to kill were lodged against him. Regan and Maddalena were released. No charges were made against any of the strikers, who were held by Judge Wallace Leyden of Hackensack to be within their rights in addressing the scab. No explanation as to why the “Special Officer” shot without the usual formality of calling upon the men to halt, was given.

Gangsters! Strikebreakers! Gunmen! Thugs! A new reign of terror in Passaic.

Not content with having used every brutality and trick to break their strike and force the textile workers back into slavery in the mills, the bosses of Passaic have now resorted to their last device. They are bringing in strikebreakers and gunmen to terrorize the honest working people of Passaic.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars are being spent by the bosses in this attempt to defeat the union. Strikebreakers are promised wages of fifty dollars a week and free board and room in the mills. Agents are paid to lie to them and trick them into coming to Passaic to work in the mills on strike. Newspapers are being paid to advertise all through New England for “weavers and spinners,” for a mill in “Long Island.” The textile barons who are “too poor to afford” decent wages for their workers are not too poor to afford any amount of money in an attempt to keep the protective union out of Passaic.

For the honest workers there have been only starvation wages, the hideous evil of night work for women, the slavery of little children forced into the mills to eke out the family income, rotten conditions in the mills so that the workers felt themselves dying a little at a time as they were at work, a whole terrible chain of misery forced upon helpless people by the greed of the mill barons. For the strikebreaker high wages, free board and room, and entertainment, in a desperate attempt to destroy the only protection for themselves that the workers have ever been able to establish. The strikebreakers who are paid these high wages are not even honest workers. They do not produce cloth. They loaf and smoke in the mill, drawing their pay for being there in an attempt to frighten the strikers back into the mills.

Daily the situation grows more menacing. The police permit these armed gangsters to parade the streets in so-called “citizens patrols” and attack and beat up strikers with impunity. The “mysterious” bombings which the bosses would like to attribute to strikers, are made the excuse for these "patrols” in which strikers are stabbed and shot.

An amazing story of the trickery of the bosses in obtaining strikebreakers came to light when some honest workers refused to become scabs and recounted the methods by which they were fooled into coming to Passaic.

These experienced weavers answered an advertisement of an agency for workers. In the agency office they were told that they were needed in a mill in Long Island, and were offered fifty dollars a week.

“Is there any trouble in this mill?” the workers asked suspiciously.

“No, there is no trouble at all. The owners want to replace foreigners with Americans, that is all,” the Passaic agent told them.

It was not until the weavers heard the conductor call the station that they knew that they were being brought to Passaic where there is a strike. It was almost midnight. No sooner had the men stepped off the train than they were snatched into taxicabs and before they could protest were driven to the great gates of Botany Mill.

“You are to sleep and eat in the mill,” said the agent.

That was where the weavers got wise. They knew that bosses do not shut up their workers behind the walls of the mills unless they are afraid of something. They knew that no honest worker could be living inside those mills, and that if they once went in they could be kept virtual prisoners. They knew the offer of the bosses for what it was, a bid for strikebreakers.

“You can’t make scabs out of us,” they said, and in spite of all the coaxing of the Botany agents they stuck to that declaration. They went off by themselves, with no money to get back home, no job and no place to sleep in a strange town, still staunchly refusing to scab on their fellow workers.

This was one case where the hired agents of the mills made a terrible mistake. Instead of the professional strikebreakers and gangsters that they were looking for, they got three honest workers who could not be fooled or bribed. In the meantime other agencies in cities all over the country are busy picking up gun men and gangsters and pouring them into Passaic to break a strike. There are still plenty of suckers and scabs in the United States for the mill owners to lay hands on and bring in to terrorize Passaic.

“The extent to which the mill owners are ready to go in debauching the city in order to crush the strikers is unlimited,” declared Albert Weisbord in revealing the situation.

“With the importation of hundreds of gangsters, gun men, thugs, and bums from all over the country into Passaic by the desperate mill owners, three things stand out apparent. First that the mill owners are determined to take the law into their own hands and create a terrible reign of terror in the strike area. Gangsters and bums roam the streets at night fully armed, beating, stabbing and shooting strikers while the police look on and laugh.

“Second, the extent to which the mill owners are ready to go in debauching the city in order to crush the strikers is unlimited. When these mill owners have women sleeping in the same mill, in the next room to several hundred men of the character that these bums and gangsters are, one may be sure that the mill owners, having promised these gangsters “entertainment” are amply living up to their promises, regardless of what the moral cost to the community will be.

“Third, the very high wages paid the outside gangsters and thugs shows how these powerful mill owners are ready to spend their millions to see that their workers do not get a decent standard of living. Here are these mill owners, who have amassed hundreds of millions of dollars through the sweat and labor of their workers, cutting the wages of these already miserably paid workers, and then spending twenty times the amount of money on gangsters and thugs that would be necessary to maintain the workers decently. That such a situation can continue to exist in America is an outstanding disgrace and a shame. For the workers twelve to twenty dollars a week. For the gangster fifty dollars a week and “entertainment.” Shall that be the slogan on which to build a democratic America?”

A few days ago in the evening while I was coming home from Wallington, my attention was much attracted by the interest the little tots of Passaic take in this strike of the textile Hell Hole. The girls and boys made a large picket line on Eighth Street. They were marching up and down in front of the Gera Mills. A boy with a baby’s bath tub was beating loudly to the tune of the other pickets in the rear. Each child, singing gaily, wore a piece of cardboard over his head for protection against the clubs of the Cossacks.

Two policemen spied the children and headed toward the spot where the line was. The children seeing the cops hollered: “Hip, Hip” and ran away on the tracks in the dark night. The cops started to run after them on the tracks. Although they were chased, the children seemed to enjoy it.

Hold firm, you bold strikers, and you shall get the union which will be an everlasting victory for all of us working people.

Mrs. Anna Bresnac.

CLEVELAND, O.—A highly successful Passaic Strike Relief Conference was held in this city on June 29 at Insurance Hall.

The meeting was called to order by Ella Reeve Bloor, Field Organizer, General Relief Committee of Textile Strikers.

Frank Kuchar, delegate, from Carpenters Local 639, was elected temporary chairman.

A report of the strike was given by Ellen Dawson, Secretary of the Strikers Committee, and Theresa Burke. Both girls told of the terrible conditions of the textile workers before the strike, and related the brutality and persecution of the police and mill paid deputies—how they beat women and children on the picket lines and arrested over 400 strikers.

A report on the General Relief Work was given by Field Organizer, Mother Bloor, and practical suggestions offered for immediate work for relief in Cleveland, including collections by lists at shops, house to house collections, Tag Day, picnics, mass meetings, open air demonstrations, moving picture of the “Story of Passaic,” committees to visit unions and fraternal organizations. Clothing collections to be started at once.

These suggestions were followed by a lively discussion. The delegates all favored an immediate mass meeting with Albert Weisbord and James H. Maurer, President of [Penn.] State Federation of Labor, as speakers.

A permanent organization was then effected by the election of Frank Kuchar, delegate from Carpenters Local 639 as President; Esther Sweitzer, delegate from Int’l. Ladies Garment Workers Union, Secretary; Albert N. Gray, Sign Painters Local, Treasurer.

The following delegates were elected to the executive committee: A. M. Scoglione, Machinists Lodge No. 439; F. Schwartz, P. Starkoph, J. Magistro, and S. Turk, Joint Board I. L. G. W., A. J. Bertrand, Auto Mechanics Machinists Union No. 1363, Fred Schultz, Street Car Men Union; John Fromholz, Cooperators Co., I. M. Amter, Workers Party of America; Anna Morgan, Women’s Progressive League; Henry Skalak, Carpenters No. 639; John Kovack, Croatian Benefit Society; Steve Toth, Hungarian Workingmen’s Benefit Society; F. Moroshko, Russian Workers Club; D. Abrams, Workmen’s Circle.

A committee was appointed to send resolution of endorsement and encouragement to the brave strikers of Passaic. Pledges were made by all of the organizations represented, with the following organizations leading: United Automobile and Aircraft Workers; Sign Painters Union; Barbers Union; Croatian Workers Society; Iron Moulders; Workmen’s Sick and Death Benefit; Plumbers Union; Lady Garment Workers.

The meeting adjourned to meet at call of secretary. Joint Board delegates reporting they would request the Board to grant permission to use their room for meeting place.

The Executive Committee met immediately after the conference.

The Machinists delegate from Lodge 1363, reported that the Women’s Auxiliary of their Lodge would receive and pack all clothing sent to their headquarters --- Room 516, Superior Bldg.

A committee consisting of the officers of the Executive Board with Brother Shultz appointed to find suitable place for mass meeting and to secure, if possible, Weisbord and James H. Maurer, as speakers. Brother Fromholz pledged that any time moving pictures should be shown, he would guarantee operators free of charge.

The following is a list of the delegates present: A. M. Scoglione, Int’l. Assoc. Machinist’s Lodge No. 439; A. Witman, Int’l. Hod Carriers No. 184; Alex Mitchell, Cooks Union, Local 167; Sam Rothenberg, Parquet Floor Layers Union; Louis Horn, Bakery Drivers Union No. 334; David Young, Bakery Drivers Union No. 334; John G. Willert, Metal Polishers Union No. 3; B. Miller, Bakers Union Local 56; Henry Skalak, Carpenters and Joiners Local 39; Al Gay, Sign Painters Local 639; N. Shaffer, Cap Makers Local 18; six delegates from the Int’l Ladies Garment Workers; two from the Book Binders; A. J. Bertrand, Auto Mechanics Local 1363; N. Scheisler, Bakers Union No. 19; two delegates from the Amal. Clothing Workers Union; Marko Spojarich, Croatian Benefit Lodge No. 99; John Kovac, Croatian Benefit Lodge No. 14; John Chinnery, United Auto and Aircraft Workers No.195; Joseph Schnell, Chor Wolnose; Stephen Toth, Hungarian Workingmen’s Benefit Fed.; John Fromholz, Co-operators; Michael Schiffra, Slovak Workers Soc.; E. A. Duchan and I. Amter, Workers Party; John G. Willert, Socialist Party; F. Mirachko, Russian Workers Club; Sam Wall, Young Workers League; Anna Morgan, Woman Workers Progressive League; August Broseck, Workmen’s Sick And Death Benefit Fund; Cazlio Mazek, Amer. Lithuanian; Grace Juska and Carl Hacker, Int’l Labor Defense; Joe Fink, Workers Benefit Soc.; Dorothy Kozin, Lettish Defense Soc.; D. Abrams, Workmen’s Circle.

Philadelphia, Pa.—We are sending you herewith check for $100 which represents monies collected by us for the strikers of Passaic.

You might note in the Bulletin that the Philadelphia Conference wants recruits to help with the work of organizing street meetings and other activities.

The free speech fight is on…… The police interfered and is holding Dana Damuglia, pending the decision on the matter of street meetings.

The United Front Committee has the backing of the American Civil Liberties Union and the matter of free speech for the workers will be fought out to the finish.

The United Front Committee has conducted meetings during the winter and spring. No disturbance or disorder has occurred at any meeting. The speakers have talked organization and urged the textile workers to get together into their own union and not be fooled by the company unions.

This has peeved the mill owners who are in control of the government of the state and city and they have recently forbidden all outdoor meetings of the United Front Committee.

Fred Beal who is the secretary of the United Front Committee states that the test will be carried to the highest authority and that the workers will find out if they have any rights left.

The following letter was sent by the Lawrence United Front Committee of Textile Workers to Peter Carr, Director of Public Safety. 
June 23, 1926.Peter Carr, Director of Public Safety,
Lawrence, Mass.

Dear Sir:

The United Front Committee of Lawrence Textile Workers, an organization which aims to reach out to the other workers and educate them to join hands and organize in order to better their condition of life, have applied for a permit to hold open air meetings in accordance with the statutes and ordinances of the city of Lawrence which state in part:

“Application to conduct such parade or procession or open air meetings shall be made in writing to the Director of Public Safety by the person or persons in charge or control thereof or responsible thereof—and in case of open air meetings, shall specify the place at which it is desired to hold such meeting, the purpose thereof, and the name of the organization etc., person, in control thereof or responsible therefor the time during which such meeting is to be held, and the probable duration thereof.” Further ---

“If he, (the Public Safety Director) shall find that such.…. open air meeting is not to be held for any unlawful purpose and will not in any manner tend to be a breach of the peace, or unnecessarily interfere with the public use of the streets, and the ways of the city or the peace and quiet of the inhabitants thereof, he shall issue such permit to the person or organization making application therefore without fee or charge.”

We affirm that the United Front Committee has complied with the provisions of the said law, and is entirely and fully entitled to the use of the public streets under provision of the said law. We are especially cognizant to the fact that many individuals and organizations such as street venders, health speakers, demonstrators of wares and salvation army and other religious organizations have the free use of the public streets without molestation.

We consider the refusal to grant us permits for open air meetings without giving us any legal grounds or reasons for the action, as a grievous abuse of public authority, and as a willful and arbitrary and illegal act on the part of the Director of Public Safety and the City Marshal. We are prepared to establish our legal rights in the City of Lawrence through the courts of law and equity if necessary, and we wish to inform you that the United Front Committee will hold an open air meeting on Monday afternoon, July the ….., on the corner of Common street and Broadway.

Signed—Fred C. Beal
Secretary, Lawrence United Front Committee.

The bosses of the Pacific mill are still not satisfied with the way they are speeding us up. We feel as if our arms are paralyzed after the day’s work. But the bosses want to speed us still more. How we can rush more than we do now I don’t know. But what is that to the bosses when they can make more profits from us? We are mere dogs who are rushed and rushed and kick out, if we refuse to take it.

In room 4 of the Pacific mill No. 10 they put us on 12 additional looms, and make us work on 20 instead of 8 looms. A number of weavers refused to work on 20 looms. The bosses tried their best to make us accept. They even promised more pay. But we refused. Several weavers were then forced to quit.

But the bosses found a member of the Shop Council who accepted the scab job. Her name is S. Cole. The bosses can always find ready scabs in the members of the council. They are kept by the boss and given steady jobs most of them in order to become suckers, ready to do all the dirty work of scabbing upon the workers.

Worker in Pacific Mill.

Uswoko Mills in Lawrence is very busy at present weaving samples, but it seems that the new weavers that were put on lately, can exist on smaller wages than the old timers, although the new help has to be just as efficient as the old ones. They are requested to weave samples for $21.84 a week whereas those weaving samples all through the year are getting $24.50.

This is nothing new for the Uswoko. This kind of thing has been going on for years, and the only reason the workers can find is that when the company puts extra sample weavers on it is always during slack periods and that is their only excuse. When are the workers going to have enough sense to take their chance to better their conditions during the busy seasons.

Uswoko Mill Worker.

In the Pacific Mill No. 10 the weavers are being urged to run 20 large looms, which is double the number that they are using at present. The greedy bosses are promising a forty-dollar wage to the one agreeing to accept the 20 looms and also two helpers. How kind the bosses are. They are willing to pay the helpers $17 each and the weavers $40. The three wages combined seems to amount to more than the pay of two weavers used now running 10 looms each. Workers, Look Out! Can’t You See the Trap?

As soon as the twenty looms will be accepted by everybody, the first thing the helpers will get lost. As for the pay, we know that with every addition of speed ups the pay envelope gets smaller. The next thing that follows is more weavers thrown out of work.

The greedy bosses blame the bad times for the great unemployment at present in this city. It is their speed ups that cause unemployment and misery to the workers. The workers must not accept the bosses bluff. Let the bosses use the 20 looms.

A Pacific Worker.

Lawrence, Mass.
June 22, 1926.

The Boston American at the order of the mill owners tried to stop us from reading the Textile Strike Bulletin during our lunch hour today, by distributing its funny sheet and magazine, section containing pictures of bathing beauties, degenerate countesses and other society features, free of charge.

The bosses know that it is dangerous to let us workers learn the truth about our own struggles. The bosses fear that once we learn the truth about the power that we have and use it, we will not allow ourselves to be exploited and speeded up as if we were mere machines, all for starvation wages.

To turn our attention from the Textile Strike Bulletin, the only worker’s paper we get in this city, to counteract its influence, the Boston American, doing the job for the bosses, distributed their stuff at the same time that the Bulletins were handed out by the Passaic strikers and the United Front Committee. They did not succeed this time. We all read the Bulletin with interest while many of their sheets littered the streets.

An Arlington Worker.

Exception was taken to the article in last issue of the Bulletin that dealt with some of the loom fixers in Pacific Mill No. 10.

This was not a criticism of the loom fixers as a whole, but of those in the Pacific mill who act like suckers and rats. No one can defend that kind of slaves no matter who they are.

All decent loom fixers condemn them. The loom fixers are very strong union men—where they are organized, and as a class of workers they have done much to get other workers organized.

No good loom fixers need to take that article to heart. It was meant only for those who act for the boss against the honest workers.

Editor, Bulletin.

The strike is now in its 23^rd week. It is a time when we need all our good young strikers back into our ranks full force again. The mills are importing thugs and gangsters by the hundreds. These gangsters parade on the streets armed, beat up older strikers, our fathers and mothers, and insult our women folk. We must cleanse the city of these bums and gangsters. And we can do that only if all the young people get into full union activity.

The union takes care of the young worker especially. We know how the boss has beaten and crushed the young worker. And that is why we have a union to take care of the young workers, young and old. We are going to build the young workers, develop them in mind and in body.

At this Friday night’s mass meeting we shall have good speakers, Weisbord, our organizer, has a special message to deliver to you.

There will be a good entertainment too.

We are going to form sports clubs with baseball teams, football teams, and other teams all under the banner of our union. So come to the meeting. The Union needs you and you need the Union.

The United Front Committee of Textile Workers of Passaic and Vicinity.

NOTE: A report of the Youth Conference that was held recently in New York City will be given by our delegates to this conference. There will also be a good musical program.

The Youth Conference held last week in New York City at which there were represented about 60,000 who considered ways and means to remedy conditions of the young workers in the different industries passed the following motion in support of our strike:

We the delegates to the Youth Conference assembled on June 19, 1926 at the Manhattan Lyceum congratulate the heroic textile strikers for the brave fight they are putting up, not only to win better conditions for themselves, but to stop the onslaught of the bosses wage cutting campaign against all the workers. We also want to call attention to all the organized labor movement to the special measures taken by the United Front Committee in organizing and fighting for the young workers, which is resulting in greater activity of the thousands of young textile strikers. We also pledge ourselves to mobilize our organizations and workers in our shops to come to the support of the Passaic textile strikers in any [manner] necessary.

I see most textile workers suffer from working for a rich old duffer. Bum hearts, nephritis and T. B., bad burns, ripped backs and crippled knee. The laboratory X-ray shows most every kink the doctor knows; an ambling clinic with a list of few diseases he ain’t missed.

The reason sure ain’t hard to find. It comes from workers daily grind --- poor wage, long hours, and awful pay, bum food, poor homes at end of day. Too little milk and eggs and meat. The cheapest kinds of stuff to eat. And too much dust instead of air, and not enough of doctors care.

Health ain’t essential to industry, as any profiteer can see. So long as workers have a breath, the surplus fund don’t fear no death. If he has strength enough to breed, the plutocrats don’t have no need of locking their unhealthy shops because they’s short a worker crop. Enough tough babies do get milk to grow sum hands for weaving silk.

So everything is surely jake for grabbing profits with a rake. O, worker’s Death, where is thy sting? Big dividends is sure the thing. O, grave, where is thy victory? Work kills us only by degree.

Let the textile bosses quake and tremble! Within the short space of four days organized labor in four big cities has sent its delegates in their hundreds to Passaic Strike Relief Conferences. In each case, permanent relief conferences have been organized, with delegates of powerful labor unions and workers fraternal organizations comprising the executive committees.

In New York City alone, 247,000 organized workers were represented at the enthusiastic relief conference, held at Labor Temple, 244 East 14^th Street. Delegates from 260 organizations, labor unions for the most part, pledged the power of their organizations against the starvation offensive of the rapacious textile barons.

The New York conference for Passaic strike relief was called to order by Karl Brodsky, temporary secretary of the New York relief organization. Robert W. Dunn, Civil Liberties Union, was elected permanent chairman with A, Wise, Joint Board, International Ladies Garment Workers Union, secretary.

Alfred Wagenknecht, relief chairman, outlined relief work in the strike area, and stressed the need of organizing the strikers for the fight to build the American Labor Movement.

He asked all unions and sympathetic organizations to again open their treasuries for the strikers. “Money in the treasuries must be made to work for the labor movement in order that it may grow and flourish,” the delegates were told. The Relief Chairman asked for shop collections, assessment of memberships, collection of food contributions, collection on contribution lists, buying of children’s campaign seals and milk tickets and the taking of strikers children into workers homes.

The delegates present pledged their organizations to raise three hundred ($300,000) thousand dollars for Passaic strike relief. Of this amount, $23,000 was immediately underwritten by some of the unions present, and six hundred dollars donated in cash. The Workers Party of America pledged itself for $5,000; the Emergency Relief Committee for Strikers Relief, $7 000; Federated Hungarian Singing Society, $3,000; Young Workers League, $1,000; Workingclass Housewives Council No. …. $600. Other pledges will be found elsewhere in this issue of the Bulletin.

The conference elected the following representative executive committee: Cosgrove of the Shoe Workers; Bauni, Carpenters Union; Kate Gitlow, United Council of Workingclass Housewives; George Caracar, Local No. 29; Meyers, Hotel Workers; Jacobson, Furriers Local No. 15; Rose Kuntz, Local No. 22, I. L. G. W. U.; Goldman, Workmen’s Circle, Br. 548; Landy, International Labor Defense; Benjamin Weinstein, Loc. No. 5, Furriers; Marion Emerson, International Workers Aid; Mrs. Karovar, Socialist Consumers League, Br. No. 4; William Weinstone, Workers Party of America; Fisher, Local No. 2, I. L. G. W. U.; Robert Dunn, American Civil Liberties Union; Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, American Fund for Public Service; Nevein, United Council of Workingclass Housewives; Alfred Wagenknecht, Relief Chairman; Frankfeld, Young Workers League; Norman Thomas, League for Industrial Democracy; Baily, Civil Liberties Union; Zeldin, Local No. 2, I. L. G. W. U.; Feins, No. 639, Workmen’s Circle; Samuel Rigger, Amalgamated Clothing Workers; Morris Pinchevsky, No. 305, Workmen’s Circle; A. Gersch, New York Relief Committee; Clarisa Michelson, Emergency Committee for Strikers Relief.

New York heard the battle songs of the strike area during the evening as fifty textile strikers led in the singing of “Solidarity” and other songs familiar to the strike front. The huge auditorium rocked to labor’s fighting songs as the entire assemblage joined in.

Among the speakers of the evening were Frank Benti, textile striker, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Justine Wise, Susan Brandeis, and Louis Heyman, manager Joint Board Cloak and Suit Makers Union, I. L. G. W. U.

Wide spread interest and huge attendance made the steel city’s strike relief conference the biggest labor meet of any kind held in that city for a long time. Several hundred delegates were present from labor unions and workers fraternal organizations in this city. A fine spirit of enthusiasm for the strikers cause prevailed throughout the conference.

The meeting was called to order by Field Organizer Ella Reeve Bloor, of the General Relief Committee, Textile Strikers, June 24 at Walton Hall. Charles Miller, Central Labor Union, was elected temporary secretary; E. R. Bloor, acting temporary secretary. Credentials were received and a report on the strike made by John DiSanto and Mamie Sandusky, textile strikers. The crowded hall of delegates and spectators gave these strikers a tremendous ovation.

A permanent organization was effected, and Fred Singleton, Brotherhood R. R. Clerks Union, elected chairman; with Jane Tait, Office Workers Union, secretary; and J. B. Miller, Structural Iron Workers, treasurer.

The following executive committee, representative of the most active sections of Pittsburgh organized labor, was elected: T. B. Scalion, Web Pressman; A. E. Starrett, Carpenter Union No. 142; Robert Brannigan, Stage Employees; T. Shughrue, Bricklayers Union No. 2; Leonard Craig, Moulders Union No. 46; Andy Lertvany, Upholsterers Union; John Otis, Machinists No. 536; Alexander Agricopulos, Greek Workers League; William Scarville, American Negro Labor Conference; A. Horvat, Journeymen Tailors No. 131; Rose Dieter, Young Workers League; L. Jaffe, Young Workers League.

A rousing Passaic strike relief conference was held in Brownsville June 27 at Miners Hall.

John DiSanto, textile striker, and Mother Bloor, Field Organizer, General Relief Committee, Textile Strikers, reported on the strike and relief activities, and were given a thunderous ovation. The enthusiasm for the strikers cause evinced throughout the conference promises fine results for relief work in this city.

A permanent conference was organized, and Brother Bevens, of the United Mine Workers elected chairman. John Sessesky, United Mine Workers, secretary, and Organizer Zimmermann, general organizer for the A. F. of L., treasurer. An executive committee was elected, composed mostly of members of the Central Labor Council of Brownsville.

From all the delegates came high praise for the way the textile strike has been conducted and for the fine leadership and integrity displayed by Strike Organizer and Leader, Albert Weisbord.

Organized labor in the city of Cleveland held a big strike relief conference on June 29, but apart from a telegram advising that the conference was a huge success, no detailed report has been received as yet.

School is over and the children are free. The rich children can be very happy because they can go to the country and enjoy the “sweet summer breezes” and have good food. But how about the workers children, whose fathers and mothers are robbed by the boss all year round? They must stay in the hot stifling city. Some go to the country ---sure to work on the farm from early morning to late at night picking berries and doing other farm work for a few cents a day. These children have been half starved all year ‘round. They have been poorly clothed and have been living in dingy, miserable homes. They need a vacation. The bosses children are well taken care of and robust. They need no rests and vacations, but they are the only ones getting them. When this strike is won it will be better for the children of the mill workers. They will have more and better food, better clothes and decent homes. But while this strike is on, the union is not forgetting the children. This summer will be the best summer that these children have ever had. Many of them the union will send to camps. Many are going to the homes of friends and sympathizers where they will be well taken care of. For those staying in the city the union will have playgrounds—out in the open air where the children will be given a good meal, in addition to a good time. Hurrah for the union! This is a regular union—it cares for the children too.

150 years ago there was a big fight in America. Americans were fighting against the tyranny of the English bosses and aristocrats. And on July 4^th the colonists declared that they would fight to a finish --- until they were free from the yoke of the English bosses. And 150 years later we here in Passaic are also fighting a big fight. Our fathers do not make enough to keep us in food. Our mothers work nights and we, the children, are left uncared for.

Our sisters and brothers go to work while they are yet small, and their bodies and minds are stunted. 50 per cent more children die in this hell hole of Passaic than in any other part of New Jersey. We are fighting to change these things. We are fighting for the chance to live—for the chance to grow up into healthy men and women. We are fighting against that tyranny of the mill bosses who have the right of life and death over us. And in this fight for the chance to live, the police have clubbed us, and thrown gas bombs at us, and broken up our children’s parade and arrested our leaders. These same police have been protecting those who are after our lives, for the sake of their own profits—the mill owners and their agents—the scabs and suckers.

Yes, we love our county and we love our country’s people. We want the American workers free. We want a Declaration of Independence of the workers against the mill barons and the other bosses. We want America for the workers.

If the bosses think that the hot weather will bring a slack in support of the strike on the relief front they have another guess coming. All labor is rallying to fresh support with vigor and promptness. The women are doing their part. This coming week will see a special drive for funds for supporting the children’s kitchens, under the initiative of the United Council of Workingclass Housewives. The drive will be concentrated in New York and New Jersey. It will begin this Saturday, July 3^rd, and will continue until the following Sunday, July 11^th. A grand drive over the Fourth in the sea-side resorts, Coney Island and Rockaway, and in camps such as Nit Gedeiget and Mohegan Colony will inaugurate the week. It will be followed by a house to house collection of clothing, food, and money.

The United Council will have the support in the drive of other women’s organizations, particularly those which participate in the permanent delegated conference for support of the kitchens. These include the Workingwomen’s Councils, which are affiliated with the United Councils; the Community welfare League and the Women’s Educational Club of Passaic. The Mother’s club of Henry Street Settlement and several branches of the Lithuanian Workingwomen’s Alliance of America.

The splendid work of feeding the strikers children in the kitchens which were established by the United Council of Workingclass Housewives is to be extended until every striker’s child can get one good free meal a day. Such accomplishment is possible, due to the support of many different organizations. Among those cooperating in the work are the International Workers Aid, which pays for the milk, butter and cream daily for the two kitchens, and the Cooperative Butchers and the Cooperative Bakers of Paterson who provide most of the meat and the bread. Donations and help in other ways come in from many varied organizations.

Contributions for the kitchens may be sent either to the United Council of Workingclass, Housewives 80 East 11^th Street, New York City, or to Leona Smith, Secretary of the United Women’s Conference, 743 Main Avenue, Passaic, N. J.

Organizations or individuals wishing to cooperate in the drive should apply for information to the same addresses.

She is the greatest bearer of burdens.

She is double slave. She is a slave for the boss in the mill, and a slave for the family in the home.

She is the one, who, coming home from her toil as a wage earner, plunges into the round of cleaning washing, ironing, cooking. The day is over…. can she rest?—No, the mill awaits her. The black gates of the mill are yawning for her; the machine calls its slave. She must drag her weary body in to keep pace with her machine through the live-long night.

Now she finds that she is going to have a baby. Unwelcome, another life is coming for her to take care of. You think perhaps she can have rest? She can have care, good food, like her rich sisters in this state, someone to fuss over her? ---No!—she is a woman of the working class! There is no money in her house; she must earn the money to care for that new life. She must drag herself to the mill up to the last week,—yes, up to the last day. Her puny baby lying on the bed at home, she must go back again to the tyrant boss, back to the tyrant machine. There is no end to her slavery.

But, is she crushed by this life? Is she weak and whining?—Come into these striking textile towns, to see the real worth of the proletarian woman.

On the picket line, in the children’s kitchens, wherever you go, you see her. Broadbacked, powerful, there is no job too hard for her. She has a good laugh for a good joke, and she has an answer for any scab or Cossack. She is the backbone of this strike.

Compare her with the bosses women that you know—those fashion plates with rouge on their cheeks and polish on their nails, driving their own cars and going shopping and playing with their pet dogs to kill time. You could blow down a dozen of those pampered dolls with one breath.

But the proletarian woman is the real strength of the race. In her is a fresh vitality that is hardly yet tapped, and a strength to overcome all obstacles. She is awakening and organizing. She will show the world something yet.

The first step toward consolidation of women’s organizations in relief work was taken on June 19^th when at the Feed the Children Conference held in Kanter’s Auditorium, on the initiative of the United Council of Workingclass Housewives, a permanent committee was elected to support the work of feeding the strikers children. This permanent body held its first meeting Monday evening, June 28^th at the Amalgamated Center, 177 East Broadway, New York City. It adopted the name: United Women’s Conference to help feed the Passaic Strikers Children. Motions were passed for conducting a drive for money, food and clothing during the week beginning Saturday, July 3^rd and ending Sunday, July 11^th, and for broadening the work of the conference by bringing in other women’s organizations. The conference will meet regularly every month. All women’s clubs and organizations wishing to participate in the work of feeding the children are advised to send a delegate. For information address Leona Smith, Secretary, 743 Main Ave., Passaic N. J.

The Bronx Branch No.2 of the Council of Workingclass Housewives is doing all it can to help the Passaic strikers. We have several open air meetings every week at which we collect money and clothing. On June 11^th we had a concert and mass meeting which brought in $100. All the profit of our entertainments goes for the textile strikers. We are now organizing a tag day for July 10^th-11^th and hope that every class-conscious worker, man or woman, will come and help us. Volunteers should call 1347 Boston Road. Our Branch meets every Wednesday at 2 o’clock at that address. Come and help the Passaic strikers win their just strike. Yours for victory,

Miriam Baumel, Secretary,
Bronx Branch No.2.
United Council of Workingclass Housewives.

DETROIT, Mich.—The Detroit Federation of Labor gave a ball and vaudeville at the Greystone Ballroom Monday evening, June 28 for the benefit the Passaic textile workers. It was one of the largest affairs of its kind ever run by the labor movement in Detroit.

Four orchestras donated their services for the occasions: Goldkette’s, Finzel’s, Ray Miller’s and Seymour Simon’s.

In addition, several high-class vaudeville acts were on hand to entertain the huge turn-out. These acts, too, donated their services in the cause of the Passaic strikers.

The hall was also donated.

Eastern Conference of the Migratory Casual and Unemployed, July 2 to 5, held in Machinist Temple, Philadelphia, Pa.

In session assembled July 4^th. We contribute $10.03 through collection from the delegates present. Delegates representing migratory and unemployed from nearly every state in the Union pledge ourselves not to scab on our fellow workers who are on strike in Passaic and vicinity and we further pledge not to take up the tools of production or obtain work from any concern whose workers are on strike. This message we will take with us to our brothers at home.

You workers are unemployed because you will not submit to work for less than a living wage.

We are unemployed because the rest of the workers produce through the terrible speeding up of production more than all the workers combined can buy and further because there is not enough jobs to go around for every worker.

Therefore in turn for our pledge we ask you workers to demand a shorter work day and more pay to buy back some of the good cloth you produce.

Fraternally,
Delegates from,
San Francisco to Philadelphia.

Passed by unanimous vote.
97 Delegates. 96 Americans by birth. 1 from England. All unemployed.

These delegates represent 2,000,000 migratory workers throughout the United States. Their organization is the International Brotherhood Welfare Association.

Phil. Sec’y, A. J. Carey.

Philadelphia, Pa. June 23.

Dear Sir and Brother:

Enclosed you will find a check of $25.00 as a donation from our local union to the valiant textile strikers. The determination you have shown in the present struggle, against the barons of the textile industry, has won the sympathy and the solidarity of the entire working class.

Fraternally yours,
Michael A. Vannelli,
Rec. Sec.

PASSAIC, N. J.—Dr. Mercer Green Johnston, who spoke at the May 29 "Support the Passaic Strike” Conference in Passaic, N. J., and has been particularly active in the strikers cause, has sent a check for $800 to the General Relief Committee of Textile Strikers, 743 Main Avenue. His check was accompanied by the following letter:

“Enclosed find check for $800, the first installment of that second thousand dollars I promised to send you in that speech of mine at the “Support the Strike” Conference. The other $200 will follow.

MILWAUKEE, Wis.—a special meeting of the Executive Committee of the Central Trades has been called to take up the question of supporting Passaic Strike Relief work in this city. Milwaukee labor is showing great interest and sympathy in the heroic struggle of the textile workers against inhuman conditions in the mills and starvation wages. Many labor leaders have declared their intention of supporting relief work there, and the prospects are very encouraging.

Four big relief conferences in four days is labor’s answer to the textile bosses efforts to break the strike by hunger and the importation of thugs. And more conferences are coming. Labor is lining up for the struggle.

This is the kind of news we like to hear. We, the textile strikers can look only to the workers for the help we need. It is good to see the workers so heartily and loyally responding to our needs. We, on our part, assure them of our iron determination to fight on until victory is achieved.

Victory cannot be long postponed now. The bosses are breaking. Their paid agents are shedding tears all over the pages of the hostile press. The bosses police and thugs are resorting to violence again. The boss-owned courts are once more on the job trying to terrorize the strikers. Sure signs that the bosses are getting nervous over the continued loss of millions of dollars weekly.

Bread means Victory! You don’t have to be on the picket line to help win the strike. You can help by supporting the relief work. Get on the job with shop collections, assessment of memberships, collection of food contributions, individual collections on contribution lists, Buying of children’s seals ands milk tickets, and the taking of strikers children into workers homes. You can’t afford to be a slacker in this fight to organize the unorganized and build the American labor movement.

The Star Bakery, 401 42^nd Street (formerly Liberty Street) Union City, N. J., will deliver bread every Monday for the relief of the striking textile workers.

“Every American, even including the Passaic strikers themselves, pays into the treasuries of the textile mills the a equivalent of the tariff duties (78 per cent in the case of worsteds). These payments are imposed upon Americans in order to enable the mills to pay their workers wages corresponding to the American standard of living. But these Passaic workers do not get such wages, and that is what they are striking for.

“The strikers therefore hope, that the United States Senate, which helps to impose these duties, will either make a thorough investigation of the situation at Passaic and thus help them to get the wages that are due them, or to repeal the duties so that they will not have to pay so much for the clothing (they produce with their own hands) that they wear.”

W. Jett Lauck.

In another part of this Bulletin you will find a very important notice to all strikers. The notice says to all strikers that they are to join their district membership meetings and then points out that that all of the strike area is now divided into sections and districts and all members of the union must be present at the district meetings. Take a look at the notice now and find out to what district and section you belong. Also find out when and where your district meets as soon as possible.

Now that the strike is going on for so long, we must bend all our energies to see to it that a union is formed and the workers carry on union business right during the strike, just as though the workers were back in the mill working in their rooms and shops. At the present time we have the United Front Committee meeting and we have big mass meetings. But we also want to have small meetings where all the workers can take part and speak. At big mass meetings not every body can speak. There is no time for all to speak and besides most of the workers are abashed and timid an afraid to speak at big meetings. But at small meetings, all can speak and everyone will then understand that the union is not the union of the organizers but the union of all the workers.

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At these district membership meetings the regular business of the union will be taken up. Picket lines, scabs, shaky and backward strikers, the relief stores and kitchens, everything that pertains to the winning of the strike and the building up of a strong union will be discussed and action taken. At almost every district membership meeting too there will be a little program, a little educational talk or lecture or some kind of education done that will make the workers understand the union better and be better union fighters when they go back into the mill.

The Union is trying to get regular headquarters for the district meetings and also to arrange to have regular time for meeting. The meeting will be called to order by the United Front Committee delegate—not the organizer who is in charge of that particular district. A secretary will be appointed and the roll called. An executive committee consisting of the best strikers of that district will be formed and actually carry out the works decided upon by the district membership meeting for that particular district.

You see, fellow workers, by the time the strike is over and all of us go back to work in the mill, we will be real union people, trained union workers. No longer will the boss bulldoze us, no longer will the foreman fool us and put us off. All of the workers will know how to handle themselves, to speak on the floor and to act in a regular union disciplined manner. To form a union in the midst of a strike is no easy job. But we can do it. We have done all the other jobs necessary for us to win and we can do this job too.

Come, fellow workers. All together. Our shoulders to the wheel. Let us build a real union, a strong union, with all members understanding exactly what a union means and how to fight for the union in the shop. .And then the bosses can never beat as. We shall show the whole world how the Passaic textile workers fight—and win.

Not a single worker for the boss but all the workers for the union. Every union member taking part in all the union activity and business. Everybody in the district membership meetings.

Some 1500 motormen and switchmen in the New York subways have gone out on strike.

This has brought out the same police force as in all strikes. The cry of “law ‘n order” is raised just as Baker in Garfield parrots the phrase. The strikers are orderly, but the master class has called for 6,500 extra police to club the fifteen hundred strikers.

The men went out for increased wages and more decent hours. The wages for motormen is on an average $35 a week. They want to live, just as the strikers in Passaic want to live. That seems to be a crime nowadays.

Mr. Quackenbush, spokesman for the company said, “We will pay ten dollars an hour to recruit men to take the places of the men who leave.”

That sounds familiar. The bosses in Passaic are paying millions to break the strike.

There is a company union for the subway workers, of course. This company union is just like the one in the Forstmann-Huffmann mills. It is for the bosses and not for the workers.

Now the subway workers have decided to quit the company union and have one of their own. The company union has skinned them of everything. Just as in Passaic.

We give our hand of fellowship to the striking workers in New York. May they win the strike. And may they have their own strong union—a union of the workers.

The board of estimates yesterday refused for the second time to grant permission for a tag day for relief of textile strikers in Passaic, N. J. Mayor Jackson, employing either deliberate or unintentional sarcasm, told Dr. Mercer Green Johnston the request would be “given official consideration” if the mayor of Passaic asked for help. The average school child, if he reads the newspapers, knows the entire city administration of Passaic would enjoy nothing quite so much as to see all the strikers starve to death.

Tag days, as an institution are becoming a nuisance. And that’s just the point. You may be sure that if the request had been made for a tag day for the starving Eskimos in the Sahara Desert or for a fund to buy wheel chairs for crippled canaries or for campaign funds for the Democratic party, the board of estimates would have granted permission with three loud and enthusiastic cheers.

But Dr. Johnston made the mistake of going before our board of estimates for a really worthy cause.

Baltimore Daily Post.

The American Federation of Textile Operatives held its eleventh annual convention in Lawrence, June 30 to July 2 at which over sixty delegates were present coming from 23 different cities, representing most of the organized textile workers of the New England states.

President James Tansey called the convention to order and handled the procedure in masterly manner.

After the credentials committee had reported, the convention took up the matter of two representatives from Passaic, Alfred Wagenknecht and J. O. Bentall. Brother Wagenknecht was given he floor in behalf of the relief committee of Passaic, and presented the needs of the strikers in a most telling way, which the convention gave wholehearted and unanimous approval. He showed how the Passaic strike had prevented a cut in wages that had been contemplated in the Eastern mills, notices have already been posted, but taken down after the battle in Passaic had begun.

Wagenknecht showed the wide influence of the strike, and made it clear that it was not only of local and national importance, but the textile mills in China were operated by British and American owners. He presented the need of full cooperation in the coming months, and his address was cheered and a vote of thanks was given at the close of it.

Bentall was seated as fraternal delegate from Passaic.

Secretary E. G. Batty gave an encouraging report of work done during the year. This report showed progress all along the line and indicated a healthy condition in the union.

In the discussion on the tariff, it was pointed out that the tariff is of no benefit to the workers, but that it gives the mill owners a chance to reap big profits. Instead of raising the wages of the workers, the bosses have cut them to the very lowest level. One of the delegates showed that broadcloth woven in England and sent here sold at the same price as the same cloth produced in the United States, and that the Workers of England received $35 a week for producing it, while the workers in our mills received $18 for doing the same work.

Brother Zelms of Boston, representing the International Labor Defense was given the floor, and in a ten-minute talk brought the convention to its feet in defense of Sacco and Vanzetti. The case was most enthusiastically supported by the convention.

The organization of the unorganized was taken up and plans for intensive work among the non-union workers were laid.

A strong resolution for a Labor Party was presented and the convention went on record unanimously for this resolution, calling for independent political action for the workers, severing themselves from the two old capitalist parties and setting out to build a powerful party of their own.

The old officers were re-elected and a strong executive committee was chosen.