Coming Nation from Girard, Kansas • 9

THE COMING NATION A Long Awaited Strilce By PAULINE M. NEWMAN Becent strikes have touched new strata of labor. Sections of the workers hitherto considered hopeless by union organizers have moved. The Department store clerk has always been considered a helpless, because a reconciled, slave. Her condition has pointed countless morals and formed the base of the plot of endless grim tales.

Philanthropists have sympathised with her and evolved pretty plans for her relief, varying from decorated rest rooms to "shop early" crazes. The other day the girls in the Buffalo department stores decided to help themselves, and did more in a week than all their friends have done for them in half a century. THE long awaited for has at last happened. The department store slaves are beginning to wake from their lethargy. They rub their eyes, and finding themselves part of the working class, they demand to be treated as human beings.

That the first ray of light should come from Buffalo is no credit to the great metropolis where a hundred thousand of them are subjected to the meanest kinds of exploitation. However, this is no vision; TWENTY-FIVE HUNDRED of them have left the stores in a body, each and every one, of them determined upon getting their rights. Nor is their strike untimely. 1 Not because it is the busy season, but because the public, through the many investigations, is now aware of the awful conditions under which the store clerks are working. And their conditions are bad.

Those who are actively engaged in the labor movement Tcnow that the conditions of the department store clerks of Buffalo and the same holds good the world over are much worse than those which exist in the factories. The work of the sales girl in any of these stores is a nerve-wrecking occupation. Standing on one 's feet from early morning until late at night without any rest, save a half hour for lunch, is in itself destructive of life and energy. But it is not mere standing; she work, or starve, they were the hardest to be approached on the question of organization, and the slowest to respond to the call of Unionism. Until recently the store clerk had a notion that she was above the factory girl.

She was going to "business," and received a "salary," if you please I She to organize? The ideal Perhaps it would be well to give some reasons for this attitude. The average department store clerk is usually an American. Those who were not born in this country were at least brought up here, and had some schooling. While at school they are taught to believe themselves free, and with equal opportunities to "get ahead." Nor are these teachings neglected while at work in a department store. For every store has a system, whereby the girls and boys are taught to believe that their interest is identical with that of their employer; that being loyal the company, means being loyal to themselves, and that to be honest to the employer, is to be honest to God.

Once a week, at least, all the employees must listen to a "lecture." These lectures are, as a rule, given by the superintendent, or at times by one of the firm. In these lectures the clerks and all the other employees are urged to take an ferent wages for same work; dissmissal without warning, and, above all, from starvation wages. The above holds good in every other city. Yet, in spite of these inhuman conditions under which the department store clerks were forced to jm 0 1 interest the welfare of the company; to come early; to leave in no hurry; to be satisfied with their wages; to be gentle, and meek. These lectures are always concluded with something ilke this "And now let me say to you, that too, have been a "cash" boy at one time but I have followed the instructions and the kind advice such as I am giving you this, evening, and you know now what position I hold here.

Remember that every one of you has the same opportunity as I had, if you will only take my advice." Not only must they attend to the lectures, but they are also required to read "literature" dealing with the same subject. They must if they want to keep their jobs. This, then, is the reason why the store clerks have, until recently, been terribly slow in waking up to the necessity of having a Union of their own, and disregard the satanic preaching of must always be on the alert, looking out for customers; ever ready with a smile whether 6he feels like smiling or not. To feel out of sorts is a privilege she must never indulge in. To look anything but sweet-tempered and pleasant means the danger of being reported to the floor walker, or to the superintendent.

Then there is the woman who comes into the store "just to look she will ask to be shown all sorts of although she has not the least intention to buy; and when she leaves the floorwalker will -often pour his wrath upon the clerk for failing to make a sale. Store Wages Less Than Factory Wages. The wages of the Buffalo department store girl are much lower than of a factory girl. Yet she must be better dressed than her sister of the factory. And dressing costs money when a girl is 1 1 good.

She also works longer hours than the girl in the factory. There is hardly a day in the week when the clerks leave their places of work at the supposed closing hour; yet they never get i 1 Government Makes Investigations. So much were the department store Mass Meeting of Department Mallly Addressing Store Strikers Bertha Meeting. girls underpaid and overworked that in many citiqs the United States Government was practically forced to investigate their conditions. Through the revelations of the Chicago Vice Commission the store clerks are believed to be a bad lot.

But the present strike in Buffalo is evidence enough that CONDITIONS, NOT THEY, ARE BAD. The time has come when the department store employees are determined to have a voice in their daily welfare. They are beginning to understand that without an organization of their own they can't hope for anything good. They are tired of waiting and hoping for their employers to become generous and better their conditions. They are tired of waiting for the law to fix a minimum wage for them.

They have been waiting long enough; but no more. The strike of department stores in Buffalo ia only a beginning. The clerks in other cities are getting ready to strike. And goodness only knows that it is high time for them to strike, and to strike hard. Many kind-hearted people in Buffalo have for years advocated the closing of the stores on Saturday nights, but without results.

The Consumers' League of that city has done good work along that line, but accomplished nothing. All this time, however, the Socialists of Buffalo, through their weekly paper, urged the clerks to take matters into their own hands; to organize and not wait for anybody to come and help them. They told them that they must rely upon no one but themselves. They pointed out to them how they could get higher wages, and shorter hours, if they will only get together. Thus the agitation continued.

Until at last their call has reached the mind and heart of every (Continued on Page 14.) paid for working overtime. To deprive her of her only bit of leisure, she is often called upon to work on Sunday, spending her day of rest in lectures, various instructions, etc. On week days these lectures and instructions always come when the regular day's work is over. Listen to these lectures she must, else she is put down as a "disloyal" one. On Saturday evenings the clerks of the Buffalo department stores used to work until 11 o'clock at night.

Of course the stores were open until ten only; but that was for the "dear" public. The clerks, however, never left the stores before 11 o'clock. On that night, the only night in the week when girls and boys of the working class forget their misery, and try to make the best of that which life at present offers them; on that night the girls in the Buffalo dpeartment stores are still hard at work, tired and nervous, waiting for the one day of rest which may be turned into another day of drudgery if the "interest of the concern require it." The wages for clerks of the five and ten cent stores were from three and a half to five dollars a week. Very few, if any, received more than that. And the clerks of the big department stores were receiving from four to seven dollars a week.

There are very few, indeed, who were getting above eight dollars a week. Those who did were usually heads of departments. Little children who are known not by their names, but as "cash," or "check," usually start with two dollars, and are being raised to the magnificent sum of three dollars a week. For this they must be well equipped, alert, bright and obedient. Fines Deducted from Wages.

The Buffalo department store employees suffer from excessive fines, compulsory benefit funds, dif- i-rt Group of Department Store Strikers on the Picket Line..