The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 19, 1926, Page 13

By Thurber Lewis ITTING in the Cook county jafl in Chicago are 29 workers. By the time this appears in print their num- bers will be swelled to 44. They are garment workers, mostly women. They are there because they violated an injunction two years ago. The injunction was issued by Judge Denis Sullivan of the superior court of Chicago. He had a long history of anti-labor decisions to his credit before the strike of April, 1924, for activity in which the 44 members of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union now sit in jail. He ig still on the bench. In the mean- time he has more than vindicated his sobriquet of “Injunction Czar Sulli- van.” On February 27th, 1924, 3,000 ladies’ garment workers went on strike. They walked out of the hundreds of dress shops in the Chicago “loop” district determined to organize the trade 100 per cent and set forth de- mamds for an increase in wages and a shortening of the working week. On the very first day of the strike p 13 workers were arrested on the picket line that had been thrown around the shops in the clothing mar- ket. ~ Almost every day during the more than two months the strike lasted, these arrests continued. N the beginning, the police, assisted by several hundred hired gansters merely contented themselves with booking their hundreds of prisoners on “disorderly conduct” or “disturb- ing the peace charges.” But to no avail. The dressmakers’ manufactur- ers association then appealed to the Illinois Employers’ Association, the Chicago Employers’ Association and the “Citizen’s Committee for the En- forcement of the Landis Award,” for help. They got it. An attorney by the name of Dud- ley Taylor, counsel for all three of the above organizations, called upon his friend, Judge Denis Sullivan, early in March to see if something more drastic couldn’t be done to break the spirit of the strikers. It was done. On March 5th Judge Sullivan granted Taylor, appearing for the dressmakers, an injunction that not only forbid picketing but prohibited the strikers from so much as talking to the few scabs that were working or the scab’s FAMILIES! TATE’S Attorney Robert. E. Crowe did his little bit for the poor lit- tle manufacturers by turning over his special police force in plain clothes for their service. The above men- tioned “employers” organization also contributed funds to help defray the costly expense of hired sluggers. The strikers defied the injunction. For a time the police were a little leary of its legal ability to stand e test and didn’t enforce it. They tried beating up the men and women on the picket line. But the more they beat the firmer the lines became. ‘Work- ers from the trades joined the pick- eters. College students came from the University to help out. The Chi- cago Federation of Labor appointed a committee of 15 to support the strik- ers. So they had to use the injunction anyway. In tens and twenties the pickets were brought before the “ozar.” The attorney for the work- ers didn’t have a chance, Sullivan curled his lip and dealt out the sen- tences, Some were fines: $100, $200, $500. Others got sentences ranging from 10 to 30 days, some with fines. All by reason of the autocratic power of Sullivan’s black robe—for holding in contempt the usurpations of a lackey of the bosses, AYOR DEVDPR, State’s Attorney Crowe, Chief of Police Collfis, Judge Foell (who relieved Sullivan tor a time in his weary duties of hand- ing out sentences)—these men are— two years after their brazen, brutal, use of their offices on behalf of the dress manufacturers,—sitting in the game swivel chairs they sat in then. They are still ready to do over again rs the filthy job they performed then. They have done it on many occasions in the past two years. Their connection with gangsters, bootleggers and gunmen is openly known in Chicago. Every Chicago election is attended by violence. You can’t get elected in Chicago unless you have the underworld on your side to do the shooting for you. The cam- paign funds are supplied by the “em- ployers” associations who have re- ceived profitable returns on their money by strikes broken with police clubs and injunctions. Thanks to the sluggers, the terror- ‘ism of the police and the injunctions of Judge Sullivan, the dressmakers did not win their strike. It cost the workers $100,000. And they are not thru paying yet. After two years in the courts, 44 workers have got to Jailed for Defying the Injunction The Beast Is.Still at Work. serve sentences ranging from 10 days to 90. The union has got to pay thousands of dollars in fines, What can be done about these in- junctions? Must striking workers always be put to the task of disobey- ing them and going to jail like the 44 who are there now? Judges are elected in Chicago. Judge Sullivan was elected. He was elected by the votes of thousands of workers, | hee could be more utterly ridiculous. It -is like inviting a ravenous wolf into your home to play with the baby. What's the solution? The solution lies in the workers electing judges of their own. They can do this only by organizing a labor party of their own. That is the lesson of injunctions, But the 44 workers who are in now cannot be saved by a labor party. A labor party can only save workers in the future. Something must be done about it now. The Chicago Federation of Labor took a stand for the strikers in 1924, ft unanimously condemned the Sulli- van injunction. Fitzpatrick warned Mayor Dever and State’s . Attorney Crowe during the strike that Chicago labor was taking the beatings of the Strikers as its own. It is time for Fitzpatrick and the Chicago Federa- tion of Labor to speak again and more severely, If these 44 workers serve out their sentences they will, personally, be Ky tle the worse off. Jail.is wicked; but they are serving their sentences bravely and defiantly. The sharpest blow will be dealt the labor move- ment of Chicago for allowing these workers to sit in Cook county jail without doing anything about it. HANDS We do not care what Charles Mason, whose diary, (thru an incident that we will not mention), happened to fall into our hands) contributed to the so- lution of the problems confronting us in every-day life, but we know that he was one of the over-sentimental, never- theless sincere, dreamers of a great Utopia—a great Utopia which was to him no more than a dream, for he did not know where to find it. January 19, 1923. CANNOT forget them—those hands. Thin — shriveled — rough — dirty. They were marked with the scars of cuts and bruises; the blood vessels had been brokeh by strain, leaving, here and there, little red shadows. The thin skin was protruded by pale blue vessels. The fingers were long, and each joint, sparsely covered by tight flesh, was indicated by a bony knot— they looked terrible. In my dreams last night, they haunted me—those hands, I saw her fumble in a ragged pocket- book for a dime with which she pur- chased some sundry or other—I did not notice what it was—and then my eyes wandered from her hands to her face, Haggard, sunken eyes, drooping mouth, thin—emaciated. A ghost of what had once been—perhaps—a beau- tiful woman. Her garments—I cannot describe them. A muddled creation of feathers and I know not what covered her head and dropped—with a’ few straggling hairs—into her face. She lifted one of those damned hands and brushed the hair aside—that scrawny hand. She left the store and I followed close behind. I saw her go into a fac- tory across the street and the mental vision of the interior crossed before me, She had been there for years slaving—slaving—slaving, I could see her bent to her task, year after year, month after month, week after week, day after day. Interrupted occasional- iy while she gave birth to a child—an- other mouth to feed by her and “her man,” who also fought the machine for a mere pittance—then the oldest child in line took to the task of nurse maid while the mother went back to slavery. Only one out of a million such. Damn those hands—they bear the mark, February 5, 1923, Sp was in the store again today—I saw her. Beside her was a vision wrapped in fur—a vision—a woman— delicate and beautiful. She reached for a sundry on a shelf—her hand was 1 a lily, her fingers tapered—the uails were brilliant—they were just plump enough—beautiful—my eyes lin- gered. My poor old woman reached at the same time—the hands touched— HE Soviet government considers as one of its main tasks the edu- cation of women, the raising of their cultural level and the development of their initiative and social activity. Il- lustrative of this fact is the steady growth of special newspapers and magazines for women, In 1924 the circulation of national periodicals for women was 74,000; 1lo- cal periodicals, 50,000; periodicals in non-Russian language®, 14,250, In 1925 the circulation of national organs iricreased to 151,000; local or- gans, 126,200; non-Russian languages, 29,900, By C. O’Brien Robinson the beautiful woman cringed and brushed the other aside and stepped back as though she had touched a ser- pent. In a moment she had left the store— she was soon whirled away in a wait- ing car—on which was the initials of the factory owner—she was his wife. The wage slave bit her lip. Tears brimmed her eyes. She returned to the factory. I see those hands delving inté the filthy by-product of the factory—mak- ing wealth—for the beautiful woman who cringed at her touch. I am filled with a hate—a jumble of emotions—I cannot describe them—I want to do something, something, I know not what—for those withered hands. I want to hold them and smooth them and treat their bruises— I cannot for they are too numerous— millions of them—hands! Papers and Magazines for Women in the Soviet Union. In 1926 the eirculation of national organs reached 192,500; local organs, 152,600; . anes ee lanaguages, 32,- 900. The total eiveuiation of women’s periodicals at this day is 382,000. In addition to newspapers and mag- azines, the Soviet government also publishes for women large numbers of books and pamphlets. All of which is only one phase. of the tremendous educational activities of the Soviet government to make the worker and peasant woman a con- scious and active participator in the building of a Communist order of society. ’ a a ek i ol lll i lll ill a ean nenlnnarttetticicheetientartheangthatinn SS a