Show A WORKINGWOMANS VICTORY WORKGWOMA1rs A curious episode In the history of strikes closed by the return of SOO employees em-ployees to the Lowell carpet mills after a strike of three weeks caused by the peritilstency of one woman In turning out more work than her follow workwomen Mrs Jessie Derrick wn one of 300 women wo-men employed in the carpet mill These women Including Mrs Derrick were members of a union Last September this union mads 11 request for an increase in-crease of wages rhe management granted the request In an unlookedfor way I fitted the looms with higher gears thereby gtvlng hem an increased capacity This cnaplflO the workers to earn moro in tho wjnic Into at the old wages But the union was not content con-tent with moro earnings at the old wagon I wanted higher wage uithout increasing tho output so n rule was adopted that not moro than one piece should IH protJu < vl In two and a half days and a commute v aa appointed L to watch tho girls and see Just how much work each one did Early In April the committee reported that Mrs Derrick was a flagrant offender against tho union law in more ways than one She had turned out more than the al lot < d work In the time She had 0 fused to remain idle when her stent was finished She had actually gone ntual early to the mill and cleaned and greased her loom HO as to be ready to be I gin weaving at the sound of the whistle I whiste Thus she had not only violated the union rule but had been reprehensibly i industrious and thus discredited her less ambitious associates The president ol the union remonstrated with her und pointed out the wrongfulness of such Industrious habits Mrs Derrick per sisted In her right to work instead of loafing and to earn all she could in the hours of work A committee of the union went to the manager and de manded her discharge The manager refused Then Mrs Derrick was expelled ex-pelled from the union and O weaving girls struck the mills were necessarily closed and SOO employees were reduced I to idleness emilo < The strike continued three weeks and I I attracted the attention of labor circles all over the country Pressure was brought to bear on Mrs Derrick to sub mit and reenter tho union but she re i I fused to subject her Industry to the re I I strlctlons of the lazy and the mill i management stood by her Eventually Evcntully the untenableness of the position taken by the strikers became apparent to themselves The union rule which had forbidden the doing oC more than n cer tain amount of work within a specified time was repealed Last week the 300 girls marched back to their looms Mrs Jessie Derrick among them and the SOO employees of the Lowell carpet mills were again earning wages I had been a protracted and bitter light of one wo man against 300 women and the one I I woman fighting for the I I fghtng right of free I 1 industry won Cleveland Plain Dealer I |