The shirt-waist makers in the Triangle factory, in hope of bettering their conditions, had formed a union, and had informed their employers of their action.  The employers promptly locked them out of the shop, and the girls declared a strike.

The strike was more than two months old when the Cooper Union meeting was held, and the employers showed no signs of giving in.  It was agreed that a general strike of shirt-waist makers ought to be declared.  But the union was weak, there were no funds, and most of the shirt-waist makers were women and unused to the idea of solidarity in action.  Could they stand together in an industrial struggle which promised to be long and bitter?

President Gompers was plainly fearful that they could not.

Suddenly a very small, very young, very intense Jewish girl, known to her associates as Clara Lemlich, sprang to her feet, and, with the assistance of two young men, climbed to the high platform.  Flinging up her arms with a dramatic gesture she poured out a flood of speech, entirely unintelligible to the presiding Gompers, and to the members of the Women’s Trade Union League.  The Yiddish-speaking majority in the audience understood, however, and the others quickly caught the spirit of her impassioned plea.

The vast audience rose as one man, and a great roar arose.  “Yes, we will all strike!”

“And will you keep the faith?” cried the girl on the platform.  “Will you swear by the old Jewish oath of our fathers?”

Two thousand Jewish hands were thrust in air, and two thousand Jewish throats uttered the oath:  “If I turn traitor to the cause I now pledge, may this hand wither and drop off from this arm I now raise.”

Clara Lemlich’s part in the work was accomplished.  Within a few days forty thousand shirt-waist makers were on strike.

The Women’s Trade Union League, under the direction of Miss Helen Marot, secretary, at once took hold of the strike.

There were two things to be done at once.  The forty thousand had to be enrolled in the union, and those manufacturers who were willing to accept the terms of the strikers had to be “signed up.”  Clinton Hall, one of the largest buildings on the lower East Side, was secured, and for several weeks the rooms and hallways of the building and the street outside were crowded almost to the limit of safety with men and women strikers, anxious and perspiring “bosses,” and busy, active associates of the Women’s Trade Union League.

The immediate business needs of the organization being satisfied the League members undertook the work of picketing the shops.  Picketing, if this activity has not been revealed to you, consists in patrolling the neighborhood of the factories during the hours when the strike breakers are going to and from their nefarious business, and importuning them to join the strike.

Peaceful picketing is legal.  The law permits a striker to speak to the girl who has taken her place, permits her to present her cause in her most persuasive fashion, but if she lays her hand, ever so gently on the other’s arm or shoulder, this constitutes technical violence.