Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: “Girl Slaves of Milwaukee Breweries” by Mother Jones

Quote Mother Jones, Mlk Girl Slaves n Virtue, AtR p2, Apr 9, 1910 ———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday April 14, 1910
Milwaukee, Wisconsin – Mother Jones on Girl Slaves of Brewery Plutocrats

From the Appeal to Reason of April 9, 1910:

It is the same old story, as pitiful as old, as true as pitiful.

When the whistle blows in the morning, it calls the girl slaves of the bottle washing department of the breweries, to don their wet shoes and rags, and hustle to the bastile to serve out their sentences.

It is indeed true, they are sentenced to hard, brutal labor, labor that gives no cheer, brings no recompense. Condemned for life to drudge daily in the wash-room with wet shoes and wet clothes, surrounded with foul mouthed, brutal foremen, whose orders and language would not look well in print, and would surely shock over-sensitive ears, or delicate nerves!

And their crime? Involuntary poverty. It is hereditary. They are no more to blame for it than a horse is, for having the glanders. It is the accident of birth. This accident that throws so many girl workers into the urging, seething mass, known as the working class, is what forces them out of the cradle into servitude-to be willing (?)slaves of the mill, factory, department store, hell or bottling shop in Milwaukee’s colossal breweries.

Here they create wealth for the brewery barons, that they may own palaces, theaters, automobiles, blooded stock, farms, banks and heaven knows what all, while the poor girls slave on, all day, in the vile smell of sour beer, lifting cases of empty and full bottles, weighing from 100 to 150 pounds, while wearing wet shoes and rags; for God knows they can not buy clothes on the miserable pittance doled out to them by their soulless master class.

That these slaves of the dampness should contract rheumatism is a foregone conclusion. Rheumatism is one of the chronic ailments, and is closely followed by consumption. Consumption is well known to be only a disease of poverty. The Milwaukee law makers, of course, enacted an anti-spitting ordinance, to protect the public health, and the brewers contributed to the Red Cross society to make war on the shadow of tuberculosis, and all the while the big capitalists are setting out incubators to hatch out germs enough among the poor workers to destroy the nation. Should one of these poor girl slaves spit on the sidewalk, it would cost her more than she can make in two weeks work. Such is the fine system of the present day affairs.

The foreman on these breweries regulates the time, even, that the girls may stay in the toilet room, and in the event of overstaying it gives him an opportunity he seems to be looking for, to indulge in indecent and foul language. Should the patient slave forget herself and take offense, it will cost her the job in that prison. And after all, bad as it is, it is all that she knows how to do. To deprive her of the job, means less crusts and worse rags in “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” Many of the girls have no home nor parents, and are forced to feed and clothe and shelter themselves; and all this on an average of $3.00 per week. Ye Gods! What a horrible nightmare! What hope is there for decency, when unscrupulous wealth may exploit its producers so shamelessly?

No matter how cold how stormy, how inclement the weather, many of these poor slaves must walk from their shacks to their work, for their miserable stipend precludes any possibility of squeezing a street car ride out of it. Is this civilization? If so, what, please, is barbarism?

As an illustration of what these poor girls must submit to, one about to become a mother told me, with tears in her eyes, that every other day a depraved specimen of mankind took delight in measuring her girth, and passing such comments as befits such humorous (?) occasions.

While the wage paid is 75 and 85 cents a day, the poor slaves are not permitted to work more than three or four days a week, and the continual threat of idle days makes the slaves much more tractable and submissive than they otherwise would be. Often when their day’s work is done, they are put to washing off the tables and the lunch-room floor, and other odd jobs for which there is not even the suggestion of compensation. Of course, abuse always follows power, and nowhere is it more in evidence than in this miserable treatment the brewers and their hireling accord their girl slaves.

The foreman also uses his influence through certain living mediums, near at hand, to neutralize any effort having in view the organization of these poor, helpless victims of an unholy and brutal profit system, and threats of discharge were made, should these girls attend my meetings.

One of these foremen actually carried a union card, but the writer of this article reported him to the union and had him deprived of it for using such foul language to the girls under him. I learned of him venting his spite by discharging several girls, and I went to the superintendent and told him the character of the foreman; on the strength of my charges he was called to the office, and when he was informed of the nature of the visit, he patted the superintendent familiarly on the back and whined out how loyal he was to the superintendent, the whole performance taking on the character of a servile lickspittle. As he fawns on his superior, so he expects to play autocrat with his menials, and exacts the same cringing from those under him. Such is the petty boss, who holds the living of the working class girls in his hands.

The brewers themselves were always courteous when I called on them, but their underlings were not so tactful, evidently working under instructions. The only brewer who treated me rudely or denied me admittance was Mr. Blatz, who brusquely told me his feelings in the following words: “The Brewer’s Association of Milwaukee met when you first came to town, and decided not to permit these girls to organize.” This Brewer’s association is a strong union of all the brewery plutocrats, composed of Schlitz, Pabst, Miller and Blatz breweries, who are the principal employers of women. This union met and decided, as above stated, that these women should not be permitted to organize! I told Mr. Blatz that he could not shut me out of the halls of legislation, that as soon as the legislature assembles I shall appear there and put these conditions on record, and demand an investigation and the drafting of suitable laws to protect the womanhood of the state.

Organized labor and humanity demand protection for these helpless victims of insatiable greed, in the interest of the motherhood of our future state.

Will the people of this country at large, and the organized wage-workers in particular, tolerate and stand any longer for such conditions, as exist in the bottling establishments of these Milwaukee breweries? I hope not! Therefore, I ask all fair minded people to refrain from purchasing the product of these baron brewers until they change things for the better for these poor girls, working in their bottling establishments.

Exploited by the brewers! Insulted by the petty bosses! Deserted by the press, which completely ignored me and gave no helping hand to these poor girls’ cause. Had they had a vote, however, their case would likely have attracted more attention from all sides. Poor peons of the brewers! Neglected by all the Gods! Deserted by all mankind! The present shorn of all that makes life worth living, the future hopeless, without a comforting star or glimmer! What avails our boasted greatness, built upon such human wreckage? What is civilization and progress to them? What “message” bears our holy brotherhood in the gorgeous temples of modern worship?

What terrors has the over-investigated white slave traffic for the woman brewery worker of Milwaukee? What a prolific recruiting station for the red light district. For, after all, the white slave eats, drinks and wears good clothing, and to the hopeless, this means living, if it only lasts a minute. What has the beer slave to lose?-the petty boss will make her job cost her her virtue anyhow. This has come to be a price of a job everywhere, nowadays. Is it any wonder the white slave traffic abounds on all sides?

No wonder the working class has lost all faith in God. Hell itself has no terrors worse than a term in industrial slavery. I will give these brewery lords of Milwaukee notice that my two months investigation and efforts to organize, in spite of all obstacles placed in my way, will bear fruit, and the sooner they realize their duty, the better it will be for themselves. Will they do it?

[Photograph, paragraph breaks and emphasis added.]