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Forms to be Filled out for Each Interview FOLKLORE
NEW YORK//
FORM A
Circumstances of Interview
STATE Yew York
NAM OF WORKER Terry Roth Sam Schwartz
ADDRESS 47 West 69th Street
DATE ..larch 22, 139
SUBJECT Give People A Chance
1. Date and tii of interview
-aarch 13th, 1 P.M.
2. Place of interview
Unemployed Division, I.L.GX.U.
3. Name and address of informant
Not given
4. Name and address of person, if any, who put you in
touch with informant.
5. Name and address of person, if any, accompanyinL you
Sam Schwartz
6. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.
152 W13 Street
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, for any of the forms, each
bearing the proper heading and the number to which the material refers.)
STATE
NAEE OF WORKER
ADDRESS
DATE
SUBJECT
FORM C
Text of Interview (Unedited)
New York
Terry Roth
47 West 69 Street
March 22, 1939
Give People a Chance
"GIVE HIM A CHANCE"
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
Sam Schwartz
152 l'Etst 13 Street
"You got to elect the union officers every year. When he is
for life, is no good. When I'm a foreman in the place and you work for me,
if I have to worry about being foreman again, I am good to you. You feel
sorry when the foreman leaves the place. Don't I want to be good to you?
Is better for me to be foreman than operator. But when I am bad foreman I'll
have to go back to the machine. I'll try to be good. So it's with union. Why
shouldn't he be only one year he should knaw he must be elected again? Once
I was chairman of the shop. They call a meeting and I don't feel good. I
can't be to the meeting. The workers tell me. "It's very important. You must."
So they call a meeting, it was right near the shop, and we came up there.
I was presented with a present. It's still by me yet. I didn't expect it.
A surprise. They force me to come. I'm a man I been through plenty. I
belong to the union twenty eight years, and when I fight for somebody, I
fight for the rights. But there is people holding office. Why? Because
there is something in it. The truth must come out. All comes out in the
wash. I remember it was a strike. The rights of left came out. We were
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picketing. You think I would work? I wouldn't go if it was CIO or American
Federation. I wouldn't go. See? It is brotherhood, but no union.
I'm suffering since then, since N.R.A. If I would take a couple
of dollars and take and open in a candy store. Believe me, I would have
plenty now. NOW it is the season. It IS the dress season. And look
here, all the people_can't get work. It is the same in the cheap line;
the same in the good line.
One thing I'm going to tell you. The way the Jewish bosses
act even to the Jew is worster than Hitler and MussolinAi. A hundred
A
Hitlers they wouldn't act that way. The Jew boss don't respect the man
and woman. It makes no difference, ages. They only want Italians.
Didn't I see it with my own eyes, they are advertising in the Italian papers?
If I would go in business, I'm telling you the truth. If I invest $1,000,
I would like to make $2,000. Everybody wants to make a lying. I'm telling
you something. It is a girl went up in a place in Broadway, I thought she is
a gentile. She tells me she's a Jew. In one place she is working four days
and the Italians act so friendly. But when they find out she's a Jew, they
turn their head away. "They don't recognize me any more". Here WES a girl
that she made a good week to remain over there. She made more than the scale.
From that place they told her there is no more work. She seen those bundles
they are giving the Italian workers.
How do you expect when you come up a new worker from the union.
The boss, he gives you a garment to work. To take out pieces and make out
a new garment. The old workers are sitting. They are ripping. If I'll
give you after this a bundle, work already. You got experience. Like in
a tailor shop. You want a suit made. You come for the first visit to have
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for yourself a dress for a hundred dollars. You come a second time to try
on. Take in here a little, leave out there a little. It's not perfect,
even yet. That's what I say. Give a worker a chance he should get used
to the place.
I come up in a place Monday, he says Tuesday. Tuesday,
he says Wednesday. On Thursday I wait another day. He tells me bring a
pertner.
I bring. As soon he sees him starting to work, he's sending
him away. GIVE HIM A CHANCE. Even a man that sits and works by you,
when he gets a new garment is strange.
You knawI He has to ask "where is the
everything he needs. They handle them
Let him get acquainted with you.
presser?" He is not used where is
around just like dogs in the factory.
The union sends up a man to the boss. They look on him. They
say, "he's too slaw". "I'M TOO SLOW?" I answered him. "You Know me?"
I think I never see you. This is the first time I see you."
Three years ago I come into a place. From the pinking machine
is dirt up to your neck. If I'm not lifting up my feet, would drag up to my
neck. "Alright. Sit down to work". IN THE DIRT. I see what they are working.
He gives me a small bundle. When I finish, he says that's all. I see the
others, by them is bundles big like a house. "When is payday?" He says next
week. I come Thursday. He says Friday. Friday, is Saturday. Saturday I
say, "make out my name and give me the pay." You knaw haw it is Saturday.
A little different. I was wearing the same suit, but my shoes, I have a shine.
I walk into the place. I never seen the boss before. I didn't know him.
You see so many dogs running around, you don't know which is the right dog.
I go into the office. •The door is closed. I wait a couple minutes. The
door opens up. One man walks out. I walk in there. "My name is so and so.
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I came for my pay. Thursday. Friday, Saturday." He looks at me.
"Oh," he says, "some workers look prosperous." "Oh, sure", I answer, "tome
workers look prosperous and some bosses look like rotten cockroaches."
I'm an operator. No. I'm not tired, standing. I'm very light.
Very light. I could talk to you all year round. I don't play no cards.
I remind myself. A boss gives a man a chair next to me. I see
that he makes a mistake with a skirt. I can see in the notches that it's
not right. That what means a union sister and brother. I seen this fellow
made mistakes and I'm going to help him before the boss should see it.
Sometimes it happens there is workers they are ashamed. So I told him
you made a mistake with the notches. And I showed him. And I started to work.
I mind my business. He made a dress and it came to the Zipper he didn't know
how. I don't know if it's good or bad. But the way I'm working, it's my
system. So I hhow him. The boss passes by and he gives a look that I
showed him. "That's all right," he says, "don't be afraid." Because when I'll
show you, I'll show you the right way. There are some people, they/11 show
you in the wrong may, they should be the old timers in the place. Even a
chair. You got to get used. A chair is too law. Or too high. OR it's
on the left side of the shop and you're used to on the right side. Even after
you'll be working a long time in a shop, I'll change you over to the sixth
machine. You can't work already. Or the machine stands this way, OR the
other way. It happens. I KNOW.
They call the young workers seamers. When they call worker years
ago to work, "Hey, bring up a good worker, over there." Now you come up in
a place to work, they try to give you a cross examination. More than about
the citizens papers. They give you red tape. I'm telling you. You get blue
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and red all kinds colors on the face. You don't know what to answer. A
man will have to put on skirts. Then the bosses will act different. Sons
of the Jewish women are putting on a cross on her. I heard of such a girl.
So, after she's working four days, she tells the boss she's Jewish.
"And," she says, "I wish that your children and your wife should have to put
on a cross to look for a job."
I was int candy store. A/eoung fellyw comes in there. I take
a bottle Pepsicola in the store. He stands there. Talking. Talking. Talk-
ing. He's a presser. He takes out a bundle. Like a housel THEY are mak-
ing a living. I'm an operator. Is to be a operator, you could be quicker
a doctor than a mechanic on the machin,s. Now everything is from pieces,
a thousand pieces. You have to be a mechanic with those pieces. They
don't give a man work several times to do. Is like this. You go up to
a shop and you go into the office there is the boss. He sits there like
a king.
"You got to be verra fast. Not slaw. But FAST. GOOD. AND
FAST. When you'll make $30.00 it wouldn't be enough for me."
You didn't see yet the plant. But you got to come in with
the horses. It's a joke. Like the operation was wuccessful but the
patient died. The work is alright but if you can't make 30 dollars,
you're fired. Who seew a machine? Does he start to work? The work
is alright, but you're too slow. You're fired. Go, Mr. Boss, let's
run a race. I would be the operator and you be the horse.
What kind of thing is this. Two weeks before the holidays,
people are hanging around h -re in seawon. Why can't they work? The
ONLY THING is to put people to work. You go up in a shop where there
is empty machines. No matter whether it's good or cheap dresses.
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Or it's slow. Full up the machines. Force it. Let him sit down
and work. Let him work a week.
Give people a chance. You cannot
run a system; -come and go, come and go. You are a boss. I would
like to set a job in your place. Well? Give me.
I was telling you about this presser. I nice boy. About
23 years. Takes out a bundle bills. I'm looking at it. My eyes
are falling out. He wEnt over to play on the machines. "You married"
I ask him. "No. Next year I'll be married." So I ask him. "What
is your boss like Any Jewish people working in your shop?" The
way I ast him the question, he didn't answer me."
"What is your boss, a Jaw?" "NO, he's Italian." All the
people what's in the shop is Italian."
once I'm sitting in a shop. Sits a woman under me. All
grey. The boss comes over and rungs her knee. Like a chicken she
screams. I ask her, "You got a husband?" You know it isn't just .a
conversation to take her out. "Sure". "What's your husband doing?"
"my husband works in a electric company. My children bring in money.
I pay $65 rent." "So what do you have to work?" "I like also to bring
in money." I HAVE TO FIGHT to make a living of a couple of cents. And
by her it's a joke. She like to bring in money also.