Struggle of Jewish Workers Depicted at A. F. of L. Conference

The struggle of the Jewish workers, the course of their development, their striving for a higher standard of life, held the attention of the American Federation of Labor convention today. Morris Sigmann, of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers, who presented a bust of President Gompers by the Jewish sculptor, Morris Weinner, related the struggle of the Jewish workers from the early days of the sweatshop system, when they worked unlimited hours for smallest wages, to the present days of unemployment insurance, sanitary labels, etc. He credited Samuel Gompers with being the one who had encouraged their leaders and who was responsible for the great cloak makers strike in 1910 by the speech he delivered in Madison Square Garden. “We felt that we could not have better expressed our appreciation to the grand old chief of the American movement than by presenting him with this bust.”

Gompers paid a tribute to the Jewish workers, saying, “These men and women to whom Brother Sigmann refers and whom he so ably represents, knew me and trusted me. I want to live for one thing alone: to leave a better labor movement in America.”