Document text
4s,
STATE
Forms to be Filled out for Each Interview
New York
NAME OF WORKER
ADDRESS
DATE.
SUBJECT
FORMA
Circumstances of Interview
Vivian Morris
225 West 130th Street, N.Y.C.
February 2, 1939
Domestic Workers
1. Date and time cf. interview
2. Place of interview
3. Name and address of informant Rose Reed
318 West 119th Street
New York City
4. Name and address of -person, if any, who put you in
touch with informant.
5. Name and address of person, if any, accompanying you
6. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, for any of the forms, each
bearing the proper heading and the number to wbich the material refers.)
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
FORM C
Text of Interview (Unedited)
STATE New York
NOE OF WORKER Vivian Morris
ADDRESS 225 West 130th Street, N.Y.C.
DATE February 2, 1939
SUBJECT Domestic Workers
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
Having talked to and wheedled out the stories of rebellion
and tirades of hate from the habitues of the various slave marts,
I came to the conclusion that this was a one sided, and not a
true cross section of the domestic affairs. So I decided to take
a subway to the Kingsbridge Road section of the Bronx, and inter-
view some of the domestics who mould we mending their ways home-
ward, after their days work.
I walked down Kingsbridge Road and attempted to halt two wo-
men who appeared to be domestic workers but they were in too much
of a hurry to be bothered. One mumbled something about having to
ihurry hams and cook and the other just plain ignored me.
The third lady whom I attempted to interview, a kindly middle
aged woman of about forty, didn't have to cook and didn't ignore
me. She remarked that she had not seen me before and that I must
be new on the job. I agreed and as we entered the subway turnstiles
we were chatting aimably.
Her name was Rose Reed, and in a soft spoken uncongealed manner
she opened the door to her feelings on the domestic workers situation.
Rose said that there could be much improvement in the pay and working
v.
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conditions of the domestics, but she got a fair salary and the con-
ditions under -which she worked were not as bad as the majority of her
fellow workers found them. She was on the job eight hours a day,
and took one of these for lunch. She was paid three fifty per day
and carfare.
This was a startling revelation to me, after the fifteen and
twenty cent per hour scale of the women who frequented the slave
marts. I asked Rose if she were happy. She said no because she
knew too many other instances in which her sisters were exploited
and worked like oxen because they did not understand how to better
conditions.
I looked -puzzled at this assertion, and she went on to explain;
"there was a time when I worked for law wages, the same as many other
women who are employed as household servants." But while my back
was almost breaking from the work, my heart was light and as I sang
"I Got to Get Rid of this Heavy Load," or "Go Dawn Moses, I searched
my brain for some salvation from that awful work. I mantedtto get
rid of that heavy load, but I didn't know where to begin.
Then one Sunday I was sitting next to a sister in church and
I bold her haw hard I had been working. She showed me the way out.
She said she was working for some good people who paid her well
and treated her so nice that she asked her if she was a member of
the Domestic Workers Union. She told them she did not know of such
a union, and let it drop at that. A few days later her employeer
gave her the address of the Union and urged her to join. Finally
she said she would join to keep the madam from asking her about it
again, and she not knowing anything about. This was one of the
best things she ever did in her whole life she daid.
I asked her for the address of this place and she gave it to
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MB. I joined the union and, do you know I got plenty of work.
Conditions and wages were so good I hardly believed it.
"I've been a member of the union for nearly six years now,
honey," she proudly patted her union book, then passed it over
to me. "Are you in the union?" Rose shot at me.
ItNo-no,11 I answered in a flustered tone.
"Soli I think the best thing that you could do would be
to join up," she sagely confided. "You can't fight your battles
alone."
The woman was actually trying to recruit mei
"What are you doing tomorrow around twelve working?" she
asked kindly.
"No, I'm off tomorrow."
"Good. Stop past my house and I will take you to the union
hall. You don't have to join. Just see the spirit and the great
work going on there. I live at 316 West 119th Street. Will you
be there?" she asked anxiously.
Bewildered and thunderstruck by this new slant on the domes-
tic situation and finding out that some domestics were clutching
at and holding tenaciously to the solution to their exploitation
enigma, I consented to vist the hall and find out the functions
of the Domestic -';lorkers' Union.