Marimpietri and many other future leaders of the workers first emerge. With the rise of these leaders there appeared also not only the hope of a new régime, but a long, steady active drive toward its attainment. The organization of the Hart, Schaffner and Marx workers meant almost as much to all the other clothing workers of Chicago as to themselves. From 1910 until the final triumph in 1919, Chicago was the scene of a series of attempts to organize the entire market. Without the nucleus formed by the organized Hart, Schaffner and Marx workers, and without their constant efforts and support, which they were only in a position to give as a result of the strike, Chicago might still be an unorganized sweat-shop market.

The results of the strike as far as the Hart, Schaffner and Marx workers themselves are concerned are obvious. Aside from all consideration of improved conditions, wages, hours, the agreement of 1911 meant the beginning of a relationship between the firm and its employees, unbroken by whatever storms swept over the rest of the Chicago clothing industry, and undisturbed even by the clothing workers' revolution in 1914. It meant the practical and successful working out of an experiment in collective bargaining and the development of the idea of permanent impartial machinery for the adjustment of industrial disputes.

As a means of educating and training the workers for organization and organized activity, the strike was of the utmost value. It was not only a matter of technical training in the method of organizing and conducting a strike, but of the actual knowledge of each other's condition and realization of their community of interest. As a result of this realization and of the bond that always comes of fighting a common enemy against heavy odds, the workers came out of the fight with a new sense of their fellowship with each other; with a spirit of solidarity that would not be defeated; and with a new consciousness of the fact that as their grievances were not individual but common, their hope for the future lay not in separate but in common action.

"The one great proof that the strikers have learned the lesson of solidarity and unity of action lies in the fact that meetings independent of the Federation of Labor or the Garment Workers Union have been held twice weekly since the ending of the strike. The meetings have been well attended, the halls being just as full as at any time of the strike. The tailors are studying and when another strike does come another story will be written."

It is clear from this statement that one of the important lessons the strike taught the workers was how far it was safe to entrust their hopes to their past leaders. Thus in the very failure of this strike can be seen, in the light of the later events, the signs of future success and of the final break in 1914.

CHAPTER III

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ARBITRATION

THE agreement that was signed on January 14, 1911, between the firm of Hart, Schaffner and Marx and the Joint Board of its employees was a simple document. But it marked the beginning of a period of uninterrupted peace between the company and its organized employees, undisturbed by the industrial storms that again and again swept over the Chicago clothing market in the next eight years.

The importance of the agreement to the workers lay primarily in two results that it accomplished. First, through the recognition and strengthening of the organized workers of Hart, Schaffner and Marx, the great campaigns for the organization of the rest of the market were made possible. The spirit of the unorganized workers was maintained and strengthened with the help of the organized until the final triumph of 1919. Secondly, the agreement of 1911 was the nucleus out of which has developed the present successful agreement, with its elaborate system for the arbitration and adjustment of labor problems and for the preservation of industrial law and order. Throughout the history of this agreement the development of the power and strength of the organized workers can be measured by the changes made in the agreement. With the growth of that power can be traced also the development of the intricate machinery established under the agreement and of the code of industrial law that now governs the relations between the union and the firm.

The text of the first agreement, which ended the strike of 1910, outlines briefly the conditions for the return of the strikers:

"First: All the former employees of Hart, Schaffner and Marx who are now on strike shall be taken back and shall return to work within 10 days from the date hereof.

"Second: There shall be no discrimination of any kind whatsoever against any of the employees of Hart, Schaffner

and Marx, because they are or they are not members of the United Garment Workers of America.

"Third: An arbitration committee, consisting of three members, shall be appointed. Within three days from the date thereof the employees of Hart, Schaffner and Marx shall select one member thereof; within three days thereafter Hart, Schaffner and Marx shall select one member thereof; and the two members thus selected shall immediately proceed to select the third member of such committee.

"Fourth: Subject to the provisions of this agreement, said arbitration committee shall take up, consider, and adjust whatever grievances, if any, the employees of Hart, Schaffner and Marx who are now on strike shall have and shall fix a method for the settlement of grievances, if any, in the future. The finding of the said committee or a majority thereof, shall be binding on both parties."

Hart, Schaffner and Marx at the time of the signing of this agreement were employing about 6,000 workers, men, women and girls, who were represented by a Joint Board, composed of delegates from local unions of the United Garment Workers and three delegates from the Women's Trade Union League. Under the third clause of the agreement, each side selected one arbitrator, the Joint Board of the local unions appointing Mr. Clarence Darrow as their arbitrator and the company, Mr. Carl Meyer. These two then met to select jointly the third arbitrator. Dean Wigmore of Northwestern University Law School was agreed on, but was unable to serve, and the two arbitrators could not agree on another third member at that time. It was finally decided that the two arbitrators should, for the time being, act alone as the Board of Arbitration. Working under this arrangement, on March 13, 1911, the arbitrators made a decision of the utmost importance, which became in practice a part of the agreement. This decision provided briefly for the following: (1) sanitary and health conditions, including proper ventilation, and at least three-quarters of an hour for dinner; (2) so far as practicable, equal division of work among all the workers in slack seasons; (3) the establishment by the company of some method of handling future grievances "through some person or persons in its employ;