BLOUSE-MAK ERS IN REVOLT.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 838, 9 June 1910, Page 3

BLOUSE-MAK ERS IN REVOLT.

The magazines by tho last American mail contain full accounts of tho blousemakers' strike, and the description of Clara Lemlich, the young girl whose speech brought on the strike, is interesting. She was born in Russia of Jewish parents, whom the cruelty of the Russian Government caused to flee- to America; there they settled in New York, and as the father was not able to earn enough to keep his family, his wife had to put .her shoulder to the wheel. She entered a blouse factory, where for years she worked at 'a machine, earning a beggarly wage. As her child Clara grew up she also became a wage-earner, and as soon as she was big enough to guide a needle entered the factory. But where the mother had worked and suffered in silence,, the daughter's spirit revolted, and it seemed as if nil the oppression and cruelty received by her ancestors were urging the girl to revolt. At a big mass meeting of blouse-makers, this girl jumped upon the platform, whole aimless speakers_ were, wasting time, and in her native Yiddish spoke with such force and feeling that even those who did not know her language could understand her. She urged them to waste no more time in futile speech, but to decide there and then to strike or not to strike. It was the match that fired the pile, and thegirls struck.