MOTHER FLOOR DEFENDS STRIKERS AT PASSAIC

Mother Ella Reeves Bloor, prominent organizer in the Passaic textile strike, in her talk at the Liberal Club yesterday emphasized the peaceful conduct of the strikers, the courageous and intelligent leadership of Albert Weisbord, and the unjust violence of the opposition.

"Weisbord came to Passaic after the workers' first unsuccessful attempt to organize, and succeeded in welding them together", Mother Bloor said in regard to the beginning of the strike.

"I have never seen so solid and united a front as that presented by the Passaic mill workers in my large experience as a promoter. There was practically no inside friction, in spite of the fact that the workers were not held together or supported by any powerful union.

"The opposition has been the most brutal and unjust since the copper strikes in Colorado a number of years ago. The mayor and chief of police of Garfield are both high salaried employees of the mill owners, and as such have employed every means to crush the strikers.

"Several instances of the violence of the police, which were entirely unprovoked by the workers were the throwing of tear gas bombs, and the attack on the pickets and the newspaper reporters, when the latter had come to snap the mounted police on their ridiculous steeds.

"With the arrest of Weisbord last week, and of one of the several New York lawyers who came out to test the validity of the riot act, it seems as though these authorities had about reached the end of their rope.

"I look upon the foolish and unlawful measures they are now taking as a hopeful sign for the strikers. Even with their leader Weisbord in jail, they have proved by their peaceful but firm adherence to the strike that they will never give in until their demands are met.

"These demands are simply the restoration of the recent 10 per cent cut in wages, and the abolition of the speeding up and doubling up system."

Mother Bloor said that the less than living wage, and the hard working conditions which brought about the Passaic strike are also prevalent in all the other textile industries of this country.

A great many scabs, however, have been won over to the strikers' side by the peaceful arguments of the leaders.