An Experiment in Altruism

by Margaret Pollock Sherwood

The Tailoress learned her lesson well. She listened to the Anarchist until she was convinced that the hard conditions of her class were due, not as she had always thought, to the will of God, but to the selfishness of man, and that it was her duty to lead her fellow-workers in rebellion.

She was shrinking, timid, sensitive, but she nerved herself to her task.

She began by forming a union in her own shop. It spread rapidly, soon including most of the vest-makers in the city. The few who had good wages joined for the sake of the many who had not.

The Tailoress did the work of organization admirably, and developed powers of generalship of which no one had suspected her. Only a little while after the formation of the union the time for action came. The monetary depression, which had been causing unusual distress among the poor, affected trade so seriously that the wages of garment-makers were cut down everywhere throughout the city. The vest-makers suffered with the rest.

The Tailoress acted as spokeswoman in the committee appointed by her union to wait on the contractors for this kind of work. To each she stated her case of grievances admirably, but no one of them gave her assurance of redress.

Then she led the vest-makers triumphantly out on a strike.

I have not the heart to give the details of the fight that followed. It was a case where the employers won a speedy victory, because of the ease with which this work can be secured. In a few days many of the contractors had filled their shops with new employés, and the work was going on as usual, while the Tailoress and her followers were adrift. Nothing had been ripe for the revolt except the enthusiasm of the rebels.

I had been sorely puzzled by the problem. The cause I felt was just, but I found it difficult to face the idea of the misery that failure would bring. I was hardly heroic enough to agree with the Altruist and the Anarchist that the defeated strikers would be sufficiently rewarded by the martyr’s consolation of suffering gloriously for their faith. Possibly this was because I was acquainted with some of them.

The battle was lost, and the Tailoress was broken-hearted. Her Jeanne D’Arc courage left her. In her consciousness of the wretchedness she had caused, she forgot that her impulse had been noble. She shrank from the prophetess into a nervous, hysterical woman.

We tried every method of consolation. The practical came first, and we laboured incessantly, seeking employment for the vest-makers thrown out of work. Two shops, after slight intercession, took back their employés, in spite of the prejudice roused by the union. Many of the women were successful in securing new work of a lower grade.