"Look at him," she said, as though addressing a third person. "Look at the new millionaire."
"It might have been all yours. But you did not think I was good enough for you." "You can keep it all to yourself and welcome."
"Well, will you come to work?"
"You can"t do without me, can you? He can"t get finisher-girls, the poor fellow. Well, how much will you pay me?"
We agreed upon the price, but on taking leave she said, "I was joking."
"What do you mean? Don"t you want to work for me, Gussie?"
She shook her head
"Why?"
"I don"t want you to think I begrudge you your millions. We"ll be better friends at a distance. Good-by."
"You"re a funny girl, Gussie. Good-by."
A short time after this conversation I had trouble with the Cloak-makers" Union, of which Gussie was one of the oldest and most loyal members
The cause of the conflict was an operator named Blitt, a native of Antomir, who had been working in my shop for some months. He was a spare little fellow with a nose so compressed at the nostrils that it looked as though it was inhaling some sharp, pleasant odor.
It gave his face a droll appearance, but his eyes, dark and large, were very attractive. I had known him as a small boy in my birthplace, where he belonged to a much better family than I
When Blitt was invited to join the Levinsky Antomir Society of my employees he refused. It turned out that he was one of the active spirits of the union and also an ardent member of the Socialist party. His foreman had not the courage to discharge him, because of my well-known predilection for natives of Antomir, so he reported him to me as a dangerous fellow
"He isn"t going to blow up the building, is he?" I said, lightly
"But he may do other mischief. He"s one of the leaders of the union."
"Let him lead."
The next time I looked at Blitt I felt uncomfortable. His refusal to join my Antomir organization hurt me, and his activities in the union and at socialist gatherings kindled my rancor. His compressed nose revolted me now.
I wanted to get rid of him
Not that I had remained inflexible in my views regarding the distribution of wealth in the world. Some of the best-known people in the country were openly taking the ground that the poor man was not getting a "square deal." To sympathize with organized labor was no longer "bad form," some society women even doing picket duty for Jewish factory-girls out on strike.
Socialism, which used to be declared utterly un-American, had come to be almost a vogue. American colleges were leavened with it, while American magazines were building up stupendous circulations by exposing the corruption of the mighty. Public opinion had, during the past two decades, undergone a striking change in this respect. I had watched that change and I could not but be influenced by it. For all my theorizing about the "survival of the fittest" and the "dying off of the weaklings," I could not help feeling that, in an abstract way, the socialists were not altogether wrong.
The case was different, however, when I considered it in connection with the concrete struggle of trade-unionism (which among the Jewish immigrants was practically but another name for socialism) against low wages or high rent.
I must confess, too, that the defeat with which I had met at Tevkin"s house had greatly intensified my hostility to socialists.
As I have remarked in a previous chapter, I ascribed my fiasco to the socialist atmosphere that surrounded Anna. I was embittered
The socialists were constantly harping on "cla.s.s struggle," "cla.s.s antagonism," "cla.s.s psychology." I would dismiss it all as absurd, but I did hate the trade-unions, particularly those of the East Side.
Altogether there was too much socialism among the ma.s.ses of the Ghetto, I thought
Blitt now seemed to be the embodiment of this "cla.s.s antagonism."
"Ah, he won"t join my Antomir Society!" I would storm and fume and writhe inwardly. "That"s a tacit protest against the whole society as an organization of "slaves." It means that the society makes meek, obedient servants of my employees and helps me fleece them. As if they did not earn in my shop more than they would anywhere else! As if they could all get steady work outside my place! And what about the loans and all sorts of other favors they get from me? If they worked for their own fathers they could not be treated better than they are treated here." I felt outraged
I rebuked myself for making much ado about nothing. Indeed, this was a growing weakness with me. Some trifle unworthy of consideration would get on my nerves and bother me like a grain of sand in the eye. Was I getting old? But, no, I felt in the prime of life, full of vigor, and more active and more alive to the pa.s.sions than a youth
Whenever I chanced to be on the floor where Blitt worked I would avoid looking in his direction. His presence irritated me. "How ridiculous," I often thought. "One would imagine he"s my conscience and that"s why I want to get rid of him." As a consequence, I dared not send him away, and, as a consequence of this, he irritated me more than ever
Finally, one afternoon, acting on the spur of the moment, I called his foreman to me and told him to discharge him
A committee of the union called on me. I refused to deal with them. The upshot was a strike--not merely for the return of Blitt to my employment, but also for higher wages and the recognition of the union. The organization was not strong, and only a small number of my men were members of it, but when these went out all the others followed their contagious example, the members of my Antomir Society not excepted
The police gave me ample protection, and there were thousands of cloak-makers who remained outside the union, so that I soon had all the "hands" I wanted; but the conflict caused me all sorts of other mortifications. For one thing, it gave me no end of hostile publicity. The socialist Yiddish daily, which had an overwhelmingly wide circulation now, printed reports of meetings at which I had been hissed and hooted. I was accused of bribing corrupt politicians who were supposed to help me suppress the strike by means of police clubs. I was charged with bringing disgrace upon the Jewish people
The thought of Tevkin reading these reports and of Anna hearing of them hurt me cruelly. I could see Moissey reveling in the hisses with which my name was greeted. And Elsie? Did she take part in some of the demonstrations against me? Were she and Anna collecting funds for my striking employees? The reports in the American papers also were inclined to favor the strikers.
Public opinion was against me. What galled me worse than all, perhaps, was the sympathy shown for the strikers by some German-Jewish financiers and philanthropists, men whose acquaintance it was the height of my ambition to cultivate. All of which only served to pour oil into the flames of my hatred for the union
Bender implored me to settle the strike
"The union doesn"t amount to a row of pins," he urged. "A week or two after we settle, things will get back to their old state."
"Where"s your backbone, Bender?" I exploded. "If you had your way, those fellows would run the whole business. You have no sense of dignity. And yet you were born in America."
I was always accompanied by a detective
One of the strikers was in my pay. Every morning at a fixed hour he would call at a certain hotel, where he reported the doings of the organization to Bender and myself. One of the things I thus learned was that the union was hard up and constantly exacting loans from Gussie and several other members who had savings-bank accounts. One day, however, when the secretary appealed to her for a further loan with which to pay fines for arrested pickets and a.s.sist some of the neediest strikers, she flew into a pa.s.sion. "What do you want of me, murderers that you are?"
she cried, bursting into tears.
"Haven"t I done enough? Have you no hearts?"
A minute or two later she yielded
"Bleed me, bleed me, cruel people that you are!" she said, pointing at her heart, as she started toward her savings bank
I was moved. When my spy had departed I paced the floor for some minutes.
Then, pausing, I smilingly declared to Bender my determination to ask the union for a committee. He was overjoyed and shook my hand solemnly
One of my bookkeepers was to communicate with the strike committee in the afternoon. Two hours before the time set for their meeting I saw in one of the afternoon papers an interview with the president of the union. His statements were so unjust to me, I thought, and so bitter, that the fighting blood was again up in my veins
But the image of Gussie giving her hard-earned money to help the strikers haunted me. The next morning I went to Atlantic City for a few days, letting Bender "do as he pleased." The strike was compromised, the men obtaining a partial concession of their demands and Blitt waiving his claim to his former job
CHAPTER VI
MY business continued to grow. My consumption of raw material reached gigantic dimensions, so much so that at times, when I liked a pattern, I would buy up the entire output and sell some of it to smaller manufacturers at a profit.
Gradually I abandoned the higher grades of goods, developing my whole business along the lines of popular prices. There are two cloak-and-suit houses that make a specialty of costly garments.