Provider. Today is born out of yesterday and theres no birth without pain. Spring 1901. 16 years old coming to america with five words of english. My name is xena. Impossible language. Ill never learn it. My name is xena. My name is in the old country i worked like an animal and even before my children are born the mark is on them. Animal. Before god, i swear my children will not live as i have lived. Freedom doesnt come like a bird on the wing doesnt come down like the summer rain Freedom Freedom is a hard one thing youve got to work for it fight for it day and night for it and every generation got to win it again pass it on to your children, mother pass it on to your children, brother you got to work for it, fight for it day and night for it pass it on to your children pass it on new arrivals scheduled for examination will present themselves with the documents. Find the line matching the letter on your tag. Name . Place of birth . Odessa. How much money you got . No understand. Money, denaro . You have two minutes to ask them 32 questions and finish the health inspection. Keep an eye out for tb. Please, god, let nothing go wrong. Let them take us into america. Why do you keep asking me what its going to be like . I told you 1,000 times. The streets are paved with gold and the houses are made of marble, yeah, yeah, even the toilet. Is this a country . Gold in america. Learn, study, pay attention, keep your eyes open, you hear . This is gold in america where millionaires grow on trees like little apples. Hi. Is this a country . As true as im standing here, one family, vanderbilt, has seven houses on fifth avenue. Also in case they need a little fresh air, a hole in the wall at newport, not to mention a 60room shack in north carolina. I read in the paper, just to take care of the grounds they spend the whole department of agriculture. Let this be a lesson. Save your money. Official new york city housing survey, 1905. We find it difficult to conv convey conditions in the new immigrant neighborhoods. Darkness, dampness and dirt. Dirt and discomfort and disease. Diphtheria and death. Mulberry street, 17 of us in four rooms. Uncle antonio from naples, and aunt bianca and the kids sleeping in the parlor. If i ever get a boyfriend, where can we go to hold hands . Into the park with the pigeons. Theres certain rules of etiquette one certainly does not question. A lady does not show her ankle or raise her voice. If unmarried, the girl must be accompanied by a chaperon. The best and safest thing to do is to stay at home and help mother about the house. 12 hours a day, mama makes 50 cents, i make a dime. Louie makes a nickel. Laying down track for the westbound trains, stacking up timbers in the state of main, digging out coal in the West Virginia hills, hammering steel in the pittsburgh mills. Immigrants from australia and italy. Six day week and a 12hour day and its welcome, boys, to the usa. Dollar a day for a factory hand and its welcome, ladies, to the promised land. Immigrants and the sons of immigrants putting down roofs, hanging on. Stubborn is a tree that pushes its way up through the work. Acrobats and clowns, rascals and lovers, builders and dreamers, leaving their signatures on the cities. They came dreaming of gold in the streets and finding no miracles, they made their own. The miracle of friendship, the miracle of laugher, the miracle of the generations. The miracle of learning. Listen, you want to hear the president s, george washington, john adams, Thomas Jefferson professor genius, what else did you learn . Daniel webster, quote, justice is the great interest of man on earth. From your mouth to gods ears i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. When i die, dont bury me at all, hang me up on the spool room wall so i can keep on working in the promised land. I got the blues. I got the blues. I got the blues i got the blues lordy, lordy, school is hard got to work like hell 2 million children in the mills and the mines. 6 million grownups unemployed. Why hire a man for a dollar when you can hire a kid for a dime . I was taught in my youth that it was the height of vulgarity to discuss money. A professor in chicago came up with a few statistics. An American Family cannot adequately survive on less than 900 a year. The average working man earns about 400. When the union inspirations through the workers blood shall run there can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun the force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one for the Union Makes Us Strong solidarity forever the garment workers of new york keeping alive a tradition. Immigrants and the sons of immigrants carrying on the heritage of the boston carpenters who fought for the tenhour day while missouri was still indian territory. Side will side well battle on ward victory will come i assure you the rights and interests of the laboring man will be protected and cared for not by the labor agitator, but to the christian men who god has given control of the property interests of this country. Freedom doesnt come like a bird on the wings doesnt come down like the summer rain freedom, freedom is a hard one thing youve got to work for it, fight for it, day and night for it and everything generation got to win it again. Pass it on to your to your chi mother pass it on to your children, brother i came to chicago, green off the boat, 1910. Got myself a job at a Mens Clothing shop, hart and marx, shared of being fired for sneezing, looking at the foreman cross eyed. Get up before dawn, come home in the dark. The childrens faces you dont look on except when theyre sleepy, and in the slack season. Speed up, you can go crazy with the speed up, turning out more, more, more for the same money. Just like this, all of a sudden the foreman announces theyre cutting the piece rate for seaming pants. Youve got a wife and kids to support. You keep your mouth shut. Lucy, youre going to just sit there and take it . Not me. Im not taking it. Im walking out. Sure, its all right for them. A handful of girls. Ive got kids to feed. They warned us, blacklisted, finished in chicago. Why doesnt the union do something . The socalled union, my boy, is strictly for the cutters and the aristocrats. Theyre not interested in green horns. What am i doing in here taking over their work . I ought to be out there with them. What do we do . I dont know what youre going to do. I know what im going to do. Out. Im walking out. Did you hear . Did you hear the latest . 2,000 out. Six more shops out. 18,000. 35,000. You hear . 40,000 out. The unions looking to make a deal under the table and sell us down the river. Im a mildmannered girl as can be i have never done them harm that i can see they throw me in the can they go wild, simply wild over me broken heads and empty stomachs. Four months out in the freezing street. Four months standing together, standing solid. I see charlie out there walking in the line. Up comes a foreman who gives him a punch and yells go home, troublemaker. So charlie says, ive got my rights. Rights they gave him. A bullet in the head they gave him. How do you do, sir . My name is jane adams. Im a social worker. I wonder, mr. Shafter, how long its been since you saw with your own eyes the conditions under which these people work for you . So i went down to my factory, and i looked and then i wasnt surprised they were on strike. I was only surprised they waited so long. Shafter had grievances and waged. What does hillman say . All we want is to be treated as human beings, not machines. Arbitration is the first step. All right. So they got arbitration and a little security at hart, shaft and marx. That leaves the rest of us right back where we started. You think this is the end . Take it from me, this is only the beginning. Something in the wind blowing east from chicago. A restless murmur running through the shops. Something being born. The beginning of hope. New york, 1912, part of the Mens Clothing market. 60,000 vest makers and buttonhole makers, pressers and dressmakers and tailors slapped into jail by the police and bailed out by theorello laguardia. A 53hour week. A big present they gave us. Ice in the winter. Listen, whatever it is, you have to fight through it. If my information is mistaken please correct me, which i will appreciate. Thank something in the wind. Something struggling to be born. Baltimore, strike and sellout. Rochester, sellout and heartbreak. The unions having a convention, nashville, tennessee. Why nashville . The biggest locals are new york, baltimore. Theyre making it tough for us to get out there. So why nashville . Why not alaska . Beg, borrow, somehow scrape together the money for train fare. Nashville call out for nashville boston, to new york, cincinnati, philadelphia, baltimore are delinquent and will not be seated we were out on strike we didnt have to eat how can we pay dues . You have no right to speak baltimore is still out on strike the balcony is out of order we insist that the brethren in the balcony be heard the delegate from chicago is out of order listen. We just came in from nashville. Chicago walked out of the convention. Yeah and new york and baltimore. Boston, philadelphia and cincinnati. 75 of the membership walked out. Really . What does it mean . Holding their own convention. Were setting up our own union. It will be an outlaw outfit. Sydney, youre out of your mind staking your head on a wild gamble. In the month of december, in the year 1914 they gathered at webster hall and they took the gamble. It was our dream to give security to our members, security within the framework of liberty, of individual freedom. Lincoln said a nation cannot exist half slave and half free, neither can a man. We cannot exist free politically, but slaves industrially. Dear brother, we just formed an organizing committee for clothing workers in milwaukee. Cutters, and the bohemian, two italian pantsmakers, two poles, a swede and a hungarian. Starting with nothing, with empty pockets and a barrel of hope. Organizing new york and chicago. Wisconsin and new jersey, baltimore and boston, kentucky, missouri, ohio, montreal, toronto, pennsylvania. Doctor brother hillman. Maybe you can come to our assistance. We had a little strike in philadelphia. Our business engine got thrown in jail. I havent got to buy postage stamp, much less pay the fine. Worse comes to worse, dont worry, ill hock my overcoat. Listen, im a boss. To tell you the truth, the union is the best thing to ever happen in this industry. You have arbitration and we can come together like human beings and set standards and rates in a civilized manner, you know what i mean . Since we went union, weve never in had a strike. It was 1915. Special to mcclures magazine. Midway through the wilson administration, they were seeing the beginnings of a new freedom. A weakening of the grip of monopolies by the passage of the corrupt passages act. The workmans compensation, child labor laws. Immigrants and the sons of immigrants. A fisherman from nantucket, the east side, farm boys from arkansas. Goodbye ma, goodbye pa i may not know what the wars about but ill bet ill soon find out ill bring a kaiser or two, and thats about all one fella can do [ bombs bursting ] i may not know what the wars about but i bet by gosh ill soon find out oh, my darling, dont you fear ill bring you a gun for a souvenir u. S. Army, dead and missing, 130,500. Wounded, 234,300. U. S. Steel profits, 2 billion. In the back wash of war, depression and a rising hysteria. In a single year, 61 murders by lynching. Revolution in russia touching off panic at home. Victims of the poma raid, their houses were without search warrants, 3,000 foreignborn arrested, without lawyers and held without charges for three months. In pittsburgh and gary, indiana, it was a 12hour day. Take it or leave it and you better take it if you know whats good for you. Tell me what is a vigilante man what is a vigilante man does he carry a claw in his hand and would he beat your brother and sister down amalgamated clothing workers of america, enclosed, find our contribution 1 hun,000 for the relief of the steel strikers. We know that this is only the beginning of one of the greatest attacks ever directed against american labor. 1920. In six short years we built ourselves one of the strongest unions in the country. In new york, the 44hour week and a working machinery in arbitration. So the employers decide its time to bring the union and turn back the clock and return back the sweat shop. Lockout. Theyve got it all figured. Shut down the machines, locked the doors and get a Court Injunction against picketing, sit back and starve us out. The judges came back into the courtroom. Hes getting ready to read the decision. What happens if they get the injunction . We get stuck in the klink for picketing. Thats what happens. The Supreme Court of new york is now in session. The honorable justice sickling presiding. The crowd must stand at all times as the captains of industry. Injunction granted. While the employers may succeed in getting injunctions, they succeed in nothing else. As long as they think they can ship customers injunctions instead of pant, let them go ahead. Hang on. Sit tight and hang on. If we crack it means the end of the union. They open shop again with the sevenday week and 12hour day, starvation, slums, crime, and everything that is rot ebb and everything that is inhuman. Your Organization Must ask great sacrifices. We ask you to walk instead of spending a nickel carfare, your lives depend on it, your future. The future of your children. We will take care that there is not a single house without bread. We wont give you meat, but your brothers and sisters in chicago, rochester and baltimore wont let you starve. What . With the starting in the sweat shop at the age of 11, somehow i never got time to go to harvard, so at the age of 47 im going to look at college, American History, public speaking, labor history and even art classes. We volunteered to go down there and to arrange entertainment. I dont believe the world has such children anywhere as the east side children. They took our modest program and transformed it with their magic. I sat there thinking, oh, what if the business of society were making children like this instead of profits. If we hung on, and hung on for six long months as we won. We did it. We did it. We hung on and we won. The 20s. A checken in every pot and a tuz ney every garage. Cancel the child labor cancel the child labor laws. Dough, dee, oh, dough and patrick henry, henry made a speech, a famous speech when he told them never take the bottom crazy town, go, dough, dee, oh, dough the 20s isnt oh, dee, oh, dough layoffs, unemployment, rent, payments due and the radio, go to the bank and they ask you for security. If i had security i would not be there in the first place. My hands are my security. As we come marching, marching, we battle, too, for men, for they are womens children and we mother them again. Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes, hearts starve as well as bodies. Give us bread, but give us roses. The amalgamated, putting up cop rattive, lowrent houses where a working man can get a loan on the security of his labor. Setting up the only Unemployment Insurance program in the nation and that was also the 20s. Up, up, up boy, the skys the limit at t, 303, u. S. Steel, 255. 23, i live my life, but who are you. U. S. Steel, 313. Hey, whats wrong with the market . U. S. Steel, 300. U. S. Steel 152. U. S. Steel 60. Who cares if the sky has to fall in the sea. Who cares what bags fail in yonkers, long as youve got a kiss that conquers president hoover assured reporters today that, quote, the fundamental business of the country is on a sound and prosperous basis. The secretary of the treasury announced, quote, i can guarantee that there is nothing in the situation to be concerned about. Its a mighty hard road that these poor road that these poor hands have hoed at the edge of your cities you will see us then we come with the dust and were gone with the wind fed up with being unemployed. Tired of being hungry. 20,000 boys went down to washington to demand the veterans bonus we had coming to us. Hoover sicked the army on us and chased us out of the capital. Let me tell you, mister, we aint taking it no more. There are going to be some changes made. California came here to nominate a president. California will vote for roosevelt there is a mysterious cycle in human events to some generations, much is given. Of a generation, much is expected. This generation of americans has a rendezvous with destiny. A Running River of social legislation. The ctc and the wpa bringing jobs to 1 million unemployed setting minimum wages and maximum hours. Child labor laws passed again. The tba bringing light to the dark valleys. The Social Security act partially inspired by the amalgamated pattern with insurance. The wagner Labor Relations act. Employees shall have the right to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing. Until you organize and express yourselves, theyll vote for the bill that lengthens the working hour that abolishes the prevailing wage. Thats what they will do unless you make your rights known, and you cant do it unless you organize. Im on this country on representation. There are organizations. They want participation. They want protection. They want employment and theyre going have those things through the leadership and instrumentality of the new labor movement. Instead of 1,000 crab unions segregating the workers, the cio met one big union for every major industry. Organize the unorganized. With the steel mills. Deck hands, stokers aboard the ships and the oilfields, zinc miners, lead miners, copper miners, rubber workers, electrical workers. The amalgamated cut Workers Organizing laundry workers, cleaners and diners, retail clerks and providing the manpower and the money to organize a textile workers union. If you are not far away you have to build a union and make it strong if you stick together it wont be long shorter hour, better working vacations vacation with pay, take the kids to the seashore i got to run on the union train, because if you wait for the boss to raise your pay well all be waiting for judgment day it will be the fan, now you know youre underpaid, but the boss says you aints, and you may be down and out, but you aint beaten, talk it over. Which side are you on my daddy was a miner and im a miners son, and ill stick with the union until this is won which side are you on which side are you which side are you on we have been down here for five days, what do you say, this land is your land this land is my land from california to the new york islands from the redwood forests to the gulf