poverty and intense suffering resulting from months of unemployment extended over a far larger area.  Also the variety of nationalities among the strikers added to the difficulties of conducting negotiations.  Every bit of literature put out had to be printed in nine languages.  And lastly, the want of harmony between certain of the national leaders of the union involved, and the deep distrust felt by some of the local workers and the strikers for a section of them provided a situation which for complexity it would be hard to match.  That the long-continued struggle ended with so large a measure of success for the workers was in part owing to the extraordinary skill and unwearied patience displayed in its handling, and in part to the close and intimate cooeperation between the local strike leaders, both men and women, the Chicago Federation of Labor and the Chicago Women’s Trade Union League.  Much also had been learned from recent experience in the strikes immediately preceding.

The immediate cause of the first striker going out was a cut in the price of making pockets, of a quarter of a cent.  That was on September 22 in Shop 21, in the Hart, Schaffner and Marx factories.  Three weeks later the strike had assumed such proportions that the officers of the United Garment Workers’ District Council No. 6 were asking the Women’s Trade Union League for speakers.  The League organized its own Strike Committee to collect money, assist the pickets and secure publicity.  At the instance of the League also an independent Citizens’ Committee was formed.

In time of sorest need was found efficient leadership.  The garment-workers of Chicago, in their earlier struggles with the manufacturers, had had no such powerful combination to assist them as came to their aid now, when a Joint Strike Conference controlled the situation, with representatives upon it from the United Garment Workers of America International Executive Board, from the Chicago District Council of the same organization, from the Special Order Garment Workers, the Ready Made Garment Workers, the Chicago Federation of Labor and the Women’s Trade Union League.  The American Federation of Labor sent their organizer, Emmett Flood, the untiringly courageous and the ever hopeful.

The first step to be taken was to place before the public in clear and simple form the heterogeneous mass of grievances complained of.  The Women’s Trade Union League invited about a dozen of the girls to tell their story over a simple little breakfast.  Within a week the story told to a handful was printed and distributed broadcast, prefaced, as it was, by an admirable introduction by the late Miss Katharine Coman, of Wellesley College, who happened to be in Chicago, and who was acting as chairman of the grievance committee.  The Citizens’ Committee, headed by Professor George Mead, followed with a statement, admitting the grievances and justifying the strike.