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SILENT PICKETING IS NO CINCH WAITRESSES
ON THE PICKET JOB HAVE GRIT
t - BY JANE WH1TAKER
Silent picketing, which, according to the decree of three judges who '
iwJip'HTPrl- fh PvirfatfoA -fn thf TTcnrlH RfrJl r thft nnlv1 lawful form Of
M picketing so far as anyone has, been able to Interpret that decree, looks very
easy when you watch the sixteen gins picKeting tne eignt restaurants m
Tfiiab, Powers and Efting in the loop.
Slowly they walk up and down, keeping rigidly within the orders laid
down by whimsical police who represent the law, sometimes 'forced tfr
' walk cldse to the sidewalk, again to go so many feet north or south or east
or west,' never to speak to anyone though they may be spoken to, enduring
the furious gaze of the nubile, and, I am sorry to say, 8011 .enduring taunts
of 'low-minded men in some cases. "
But you' have to get away from the street you have to meet the wait-
Tesses where he fetter o'f sQence is not placed upon them to Understand
" just-what a bitp task silent picketing may be.
Inside these restaurants are gh"ls who have taken their places, girls
that the pickets calT "scabs." And "scab'1 is the most contemptous name
by whicji any human being may be tagged by another. Itbreathes the
same scorn that was and is attached to the spy, the traitor to his country,
Jot the "scab to the working man or
woman is the traitor Id his lor her
class.
One of the pickets has been arrest
ed, charged hy Evelyn Williams, a
girl who is helping Kriab pi his ef
forts to hreak- the strike, with slap
ping her in the face.
I really laughed when I herd that,
because I had listened some months
ago to Aimie CJemmons, the; heroine
of the Calumet capper strike, tell me
what the wives and sisters and
daughters of the strikers did to the
"scabs" in Calumet, and that Slap
sounded like a love pat in compari
son with the primitive method of
dealing with strikebreakers in the
more-primitive country.
1 " But slapping a strikebreaker in the
face is not permissible under the
law. Nor is it permissibleto talk to
these girls who are helping the res
taurant keepers defeat the wait
resses The only thing the law al
lows, according to the three judges
before mentioned, is the, carrying of
. cards', and qne of these 'carried by
-the pickets reads: "Don't, be a scab !"
That is a "silent" protest
Nor, according to the learned
judges, may. a girl inform the pub
lic that there is a strike on In the res
taurant hefore. which she is picketing,
so she closes her hpg and carries an
other card bearing this information.
An amusing incident occurred in a
Knab restaurant yesterday morning.
A man, huge-framed and with a very
pleasant face, entered the restaurant,
took a seat and ordered his break
fast. Outside the pickets watched
,him rebelliously, but, ahsorbed in his
paper, the man did not heed.
ine Dreamasi was1 servea ana ne
began to eat, then suddenly he lifted
his eyes to the Window and just at
that moment one "of the pickets
thrust forward, so that he might see
it, the cards telling of the strike.
Through thewihdow the man read,
then he smiled like the sbn coming
out of the clouds after a storm. He
laid ddwn his napkin, pushed his
chair away, left his unfinished break
fast and walked out of the restaurant
without paying for the food served
him, and, though the entire working
force of the restaurant rushed to the
street after him, he sauntered indif
ferently away and was not arrested-
Even the policemen have improved
somewhat in their treatment" C the
f . -
