It is a well known fact that Jewish workers can be organized much easier than workers of other nationalities. Take, for instance, German workers. In order to organize them, it would take months and even years of talking and enlightenment, until we can succeed in organizing them. But if they are once organized, they would not leave the organization even though they may suffer the greatest defeat in their strikes, yet they would still remain in the union to which they belong.

But that is not so with Jewish workers. You can easily organize them, but the question is whether you can hold them in the organization. Whether they win or lose, they soon get tired of it. They fall out of the organization, and as a result, the union soon collapses. In general, you find Jewish workers organizing themselves, at least, once a year.

In business on a small scale, where the bosses are not big capitalists, new unions are born almost every few months, and it happens in the following manner: One fine morning the boss is having an argument with a worker; the boss being nervous and grouchy, slaps the worker. Or, it may happen that the boss deducts five cents from a dozen pieces of work. Soon there develops a feeling of solidarity amongst the workers, and every worker thinks of taking revenge on the exploiters. In the evening, after they get through with their work, they get together and hold a meeting on a corner near the shop, and they decide, right then and there, to organize a union, and if necessary to strike. They make a collection, they have handbills printed. They invite other workers of the trade to join them not to let those exploiters oppress them. In the evening, when the meeting is about to take place, a fiery crater appears and holds an inflammatory speech, waking up the sleeping giant, the Samson of labor, to fight, and urging them on to join the union, at once. They pay twenty-five cents, in dues, and decide to go on strike, immediately.

However, not having the necessary experience how to conduct strikes, and also not having financial support, they appeal to Jewish workers working at different trades, and belonging to different unions, to aid them. But the workers of the different unions, adopt resolutions of sympathy and give them their moral support, but when it comes to financial support, there is very little or none at all. And naturally, when they are on strike, and get no financial aid, they are not able to pay the grocery-man and the butcher, and you certainly cannot pay with sympathy resolutions. Soon the enthusiasm and ardor of the striking workers cools down. The fiery oratory of the agitators loses its effect. They are forced to give up the strike. The workers go back to work as a dejected and defeated lot. Thus their condition, instead of improving, becomes worse than previously, and in a few months the story repeats itself, and with the same results.

The Chicago Cloak Makers were not exception in that direction. Since the last five years, the once strong union of the cloak makers has almost entirely disappeared. Since its collapse they tried to reorganize the 4same union five or six times, and although they didn't go out on strike each time they reorganized, yet, they organized with the intention of building up a strong and powerful union which would be able to withstand the terrific pressure, and to transform hell into heaven. Finding out a week later that hell was still in their midst, and that it would take a long time yet until their condition would improve, the organizers sneaked away from the union, and along with them the union died a natural death. If a union cannot conduct strikes, what is the union good for, anyway. So the same story repeated itself several times in Chicago and with the same results.

But the Chicago Cloak Makers learned something out of all their failures, and they learned a valuable lesson. They learned that in order to have a union which can do any good in the future, the following is necessary:

First, to have patience, and not try to get everybody into the union overnight. Secondly, the newly acquired members must understand that if they could exist five years without a union, they can have patience enough to wait another half year or even a year until the union would be able to do something for them.

Thirdly, in order to conduct a successful struggle it is necessary to have adequate financial means.

And that purpose the present Cloak Makers' Union is aiming to accomplish, and the way they are going now, it seems that they will be successful in all directions.

The Union has already the greatest majority of cloak makers as its members, and new workers are joining the union at every meeting. As for its financial status, it is improving right along, and when the time will come to conduct a strike, it will be ready for it even financially.

It is remarkable that even the cloak manufacturers are beginning to feel that a strong union is already in existence, and are beginning to treat it with respect. They realize that in order to avoid trouble, they must raise the wages of their workers, and accord them better working conditions, in order to avoid trouble with the union.

Now let that be an example to other Jewish workers who work at different trades to organize themselves in order to improve their lot. They must remember to have patience, and to follow the example of the Cloak Makers' Union. They must remember that in union there is strength.

A New York Cloak Maker.