Document text
Amount 519.
Title
W
Date received
C'Ae
Consignment no.
Shipped Place of origin 4 2.e
Label Project worker_ _e
Project editor
Remarks
Fig if511-4,q-- )11...4A:ety)
PA L. C. PROJECT IA/
Form -3 UNIT
5Wtkeial4. Collection (or Type)
Date44
Forms to be Filled out for Each Interview FOLKLORE
IT -E.,: YORK
FORLI A
Circumstances of Interview
STATE New York
NAME OF WORKER Terry Roth Sam Schwartz
ADERELS 47 West 69 Street
aLIE April 18, 1939
SUBJECT A Committee From The Right
2800 Bronx Park East
1. Date and t -nterview April 13 17, 1939
2. Place of interview Furriers Union
3. Name and address of informant Mrs. Cohen
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, surrounCincs, etc.
(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.)
FORM C
Text of Interview (Unedited)
STATE New York
FOLKLORE
NEV[ YORK
NAM OF '.iORKER Terry Roth Sam Schwartz
ADDRESS
DATE
SUBJECT
47 West 69 Street
April 18, 1939
A Committee From The Right
2800 Bronx Park East
That was in 1929, before we had the united front. We had
two unions. One union was on thirty-first street --the right union. So
the left wing, the workers that they were registered with the left union,
they received letters to come over in the other union to be with them.
So we understood what it is. Knives and clubs and everything. So we
didn't go. But once the boss received a letter from the right union he
should send over the workers to them. He gave me the letter. What I
did with the letter is understood. I threw it away. Comes another letter.
"If we won't be Friday there on thirty first Street, so on Monday morning
we'll have a committee." We knew what a committee will be. It was already
the work to the end, and of course we didn't go. Before I went home I told
my boss. "Mr. Brenner, Monday morning I'll be in the shop eight o'clock."
"That for, Mrs. Cohen, you know you are the first to work, and the cutter
wouldn't even be there. I wouldn't even be ready for you the work."
"Here in your shop, Mr. Brenner, I'll have work. You know
what means a c ommittee for the left workers? .:,;ainst the life of the
workers."
"You mean gangsters?"
"Of course."
2.
"Oi, Mrs. Cohen. You mustn't come. I know you from long
ago. You are a mother. If they'll beat you in the shop---"
"In my presense, if they'll lay a finger on the worker, I'll---"
"Mrs. Cohen, please don't go against the gangsters because
they'll kill you. Think of your two children."
"The union is my third child."
and "Please, Mrs. Cohen," and "Please."
I told him. "I haven't got any tools, only my scissors.
I'll bring my kitchen tools, a knife, a hammer, a rolling pin."
In my house I told my husband if I won't come home he should
look for me OR in the hospital, OR in Jail, or in morgue. So Monday morning
Mr. Brenner called the right union up and told them he doesn't want any trouble
in the shop. He wouldn't force them to go. Because Mrs. Cohen was in the
shop. So they didn't come and the boss told the business agent that they
got scared from the kitchen tools.