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Forms to be Filled out for Each Interview
FORM A
Circumstances of Interview
STATE New York
NAME OF IkORKER Herman Spector
ADDRESS 4121 Third Avenue, N.Y.C.
DATE January 24, 1939
SUBJECT HOW I MADE OUT (Interview With Fur Union Member)
1. Date and time cf interview Afternoon of January 23rd.
2. Place of interview
Headcuarters, Fur Workers Union
West 26th Street
3. Name and address of informant Anonymous
4. Name and address of person, if any, wno put you in
touch with informant.
None
5. Name and address of person, if any, accompanying you
H. Partnow
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
6. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.
Hallway entrace to union offices. Hoke -in -wall coffepot, run as
concession b5. elderly bearded Jew, at one side. Building has a run-down
look, was formerly branch of American Railway Express. Nawmiddleaged
and young men soberly shuffle from floor to floor, greet each other,
stand about in groups on dusty stone floor. Signs and placards announcing
activities are stuck up on walls of main meeting room, benches and tables
thrown about haphazardly. Chance interview netted the story.
(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)
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
STATE New York
NAVE OF WORKER Herman Spector
ADDRESS 4121 Third Avenue, N.Y.C.
DATE January 24, 1939
SUBJECT HOW I MADE OUT (Interview With Member of Fur Workers Union)
HOW I MADE OUT
I am a furrier twenty-two years. Troo a relation I got into it.
Dot time I worked six monts for notting, den stotted about five dollars
a week. Den was a union from AF of L, de setup was not like now, de
people dot were at de head, dey were not for de benefit of de workers
but for deir own end of it. At de outset people could not recognize
dot it was a sell, dot dey were selling de workers, dey used to get
around two, tree hundred people to vote in de elections, den de next
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day you heard tw, tree tousand voted. Elections were sold in a batch,
dey had already strongarm guys dis was 1917, 18, 19 till it came
de workers learned dey didn't riprisant de working people.
From de real struggle I didn't know, for de simple rizzon I was
on de udda side at dot time. In 1926 I got into business, I had my
awn place, I stood about, tree, four years, den I quit, I should say
it quit me, I vent out wid plenty of losses. I tried de best for my
business, but to tell de troot, it was scabbing on one side, dough
I didn't work at scab work, still, I can tell anybody about it now,
I am not ashamed. In my mind den I wanted to maze money, dis was
de ideology, it was not in my mind I mould have to be a worker.
You see, I developed up till eighteen a week in 1917, den I got
forty-five a week in 1918, I ended ninety-five a meek. Dot time we
woulda gotten tree or four hundred a week if we had de right udder
ship, we went out on strike dot time for maybe five percent, and for
de business agent was someting too, I noticed it was a racketeering.
At mittings I was told to sit down, if I wanted to take poht in dis-
cussions dey said nutting doing. 1920 gave me de first blow. When
de union lost de strike. In my eyes would never be lost de strike
if de union had been for de workers. So after dis I couldn't be-
lieve de union riprisanted de workers.
In de old days it happened, when workers had a little bit of
struggle, de union sent professional gangsters. Dey took em in,
dey gave em books, and de were sitting in de shop wid revolves.
We had den Big Louis, we had de Strawberry gang plenty! De only
ting what I stotted to witness when I was a boss in 1926, I nad
workers which dey told me dey did have now a good liddership, but
I laughed out of dem, I wouldn't believe dis. I used to read de
Forwarts, dot precious dirty shytt, and of course it turned every-
ting upside down. So I didn't wanna believe till when I got troo
wid business, den I stotted to develop, I used to see when dey attacked
de union, de gangsters, in my paper, de Forwarts de Times, evvyting
dey put on de udder side.
Today conditions which we suffer is not de fault of de union,
dis is de fault of de system. Sure de slack sizzon affects us. Many
have to go on Relief. Dose who are unemployed, I believe de maturity
of dem live on de sweat and blood of deir children, mainly dey are
elderly people. Twenty-seven to tirty-five are de fellers who really
suffer when dey Exe out of work, for de rizzon dey are along and dey
goksmail children. People ia dis trade are helpless, de maturity,
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some go out to sell socks, mme drive a taxi when dey are not working,
some sells razorblades, dey are not mechanics, dey rely on dis trade.
Asthma and T.B. is predominant, skin disease, high and low blood -pressure
a lot. I believe dis is from de fact dey haven't got enough to live on,
dey are worrying, what else? Also dere is tremendous speedup, de boss
eyes you like a beast, you have to do more work today dan ever before.
But de union is for de workers, wid good liddership, even d)ugh we
suffer now from worse dan scabs, we have people who are here to do
damage politically, dey try to go out and demoralize de workers,
if dey don't work its de union's fault dey say, to me dey are worse
dan scabs. A cholera nal dem hoppenl