" I had not, however, begun to work in my new place
when a general strike of the trade was declared
CHAPTER VII THE Cloak-makers' Union had been a weak,
insignificant organization, but at the call for a general strike it
suddenly burst into life. There was a great rush for membership
cards. Everybody seemed to be enthusiastic, full of fight. To me,
however, the strike was a sheer calamity. I laid it all to my own
hard luck. It seemed as though the trouble had been devised for the
express purpose of preventing me from being promoted to full pay;
for the express purpose of upsetting my financial calculations in
connection with my college plans. Everybody was saying that
prices were outrageously low, that the manufacturers were taking
advantage of the weakness of the union, and that they must be
brought to terms. All this was lost upon me. The question of
prices did not interest me, because the wages I was going to
receive were by far the highest I had ever been paid. But the main
thing was that I looked upon the whole business of making cloaks
as a temporary occupation.
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