Gunshots and Secret Meetings - March 20, 1896

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Don't forget the secret password!


The major players in the strike are the manufacturers who are large commercial entities that sell and distribute clothing. They are represented by the Manufacturers Association. The contractors seem to be the middlemen who contract with the manufactures for the actual production of garments and then employ individual cutters and tailors to perform the work. I believe that the so-called "Bohemian bosses" in the article are contractors. Finally there are the individual tailors and cutters represented by the unions. Although technically a cutters' strike, the lack of cut cloth materially limits the tailors ability to work such that the two occupations are intertwined. With that background, here is the news from the "southwestern sweating district."





The stage is set. The manufacturers have already started hiring scabs to replace the union cutters and say that they can hold out indefinitely. The union claims to be able to hold out for three to four months. The contractors or "sweaters" are generally against the strike as the last paragraph notes.

Bohemians were clearly on both sides of the strike. Vaclav Krout, apparently a shop owner, is not too sympathetic to the strikers since he is SHOOTING at them. Instead of getting arrested, he simply closes shop for the day and reopens the next day. Gun violence, it isn't what it used to be!

Then there is the secret meeting of the tailors union. Two hundred people show up for the meeting and the reporter is one of twelve kicked out for forgetting the password. I think The Chronicle needed a new reporter.

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