Document text
ORIGINAL MSS. OR FIELD NOTES (Check one)
PUB. Livinz Lore in New
England
TITLE Shoe Laster of LINA -41
WRITER Jane K. _Leary
DATE 3/17/39 WDS. PP., 6
CHECKER DATE
SOURCES_OTTM-(1)_Interviewmdth E. Rnh3muyi..
COMMENTS
.3/1/7/3
The following notes were taken from an interview
with Elmer Robinson, elderly laster who was also for a num-
ber of years, a business agent for the lasterts union. He
lives at a convalescent home, 101 Nahant St., Lynn. He is
of Yankee stock, was born in Maine, and came to Lynn when
he was twenty-one years of age.
Name --Jane K. Leary
Subject -Shoe Laster of Lynn
Informant -Elmer Robinson
Section 1,
Page 1.
A little questioning led Mr. Robinson to tell me some-
thing of his days when he traveled as organizer for the
laster's union.
"I went to a little town in Indiana and I was warned
before I went there that it was a tough town to go into.
Well, as soon as I registered at the hotel there, I decided
to go out and get a shave. When I got in the chair I asked
the barber is this was a union shop. The man looked at me
suspiciously, while he waved the shaving knife dangerously
near my throat.
"'Don't cut my throat' I yelled him, before I realized
that the man was a friend, not foe. 'Sh- Sh' respo4ded the
barber, 'Don't tell any one in this town, that you are a
union man. They run em out of town. I'm one too, but no
one knows it.' He showed me his union card, further urging
me not to let any one else know in town that I was a union
man, and not on my life to let it be known that I was an
organizer.
"When I went back to the hotel, I was followed to the
desk by an impressive looking gentlemen. 'Are you Mr. Robin-
son?' he asked me.
"'I'm Robinson', I said. 'I don't know about the mis-
ter! (I always hated to be called Mister and a lot of folks
used to call me that, just to tease me, I guess) What can
I do for you?'
Page 2
"'Mr. Robinson,' said my new found friend, whom I after-
wards found to be a member of the Citizen's Alliance of that
town,' there's a train out of this town in just five minutes.
If you hurry you can make it, and I advise you to hurry.'
"II got a little business to do in this town. If I
hadn't met you, it would have taken just about a half hour.
Slit you make me want to stay. Now I got money in the safe
in this hotel and I'm registered for a room. I'm gonna eat
my dinner here and maybe I'll stay all night. And I got a
telegram that all set to go on the wires just in case any
thing happens to me. Understand?
When I went into the dining room to eat my meal I was
put way over in the corner of the room by myself, just as
if I would contaminate the others in the room if I was set
tint near tem. But I didn't pay any attention and after I
finished my meal I went out to see what trouble the union
had got itself into there. I found they were responsible
for it themselves.
"Well, I never was one, to take the part of the union
if it was in the wrong, so I went bazk to that fellow at
the hotel and told him the union had been wrong, that in
this instance the citizens of the town were right.
"Well, they was surprised. They didn't expect me to
say anything like that. That evening they asked me to at-
tend a meeting of the Citizen's Alliance and I learned a
lot there. The unions were not always right in their fights
in those early days.
Page 3
"But often in most places the manufacturers tied
things up so, that the workers didn't have a chance. One
of the most vicious manufacturers organizations that ever
existed, was in the town that I grew up in in
Maine. There a person couldn't get a job, unless he had a
permit from the Citizen's Alliance and one from the manufac-
turer he worked for before he got this new job. They had
things all sewed up there.
"I did a lot of organizing work in Lynn. I organized
the 'girls' (stitchers). Most people said it couldn't be
done, that they w!n't work or hold together. But I made
their organization stick.
"And I organized the first sit down strike in the coun-
try. That was in Lynn. I'll tell you more about that the
next time you come.
"I was twenty-one years old when I came to Lynn. I
was born down east in Maine, but I haven't got much use
for the people down there. They don't come no narrower.
I coulda told ahead of time that there'd be trouble up there
for Henry and them that's in jail there now, the way the
judges and the lawyers and the people are set against a new
idea.
"When I was four years old, my mother died. I just
come up myself. I had a sister youngerin me. She's livine
in Lynn taday for as soon as I could after I got settled
Page 4
rk
here, I brought her d own too.
"I met all kinds of people in my time, all races and
of all religions. I've come to the conclusion it don't
matter what race ya are, or what religion ya hold to. The
important thing is what sorta person are ya. Ya can't help
who your parents are nor much, what ya believe, but ya can
help what ya make of yourself.