entirely unintelligible to the presiding Gompers, and to the members of
the Women's Trade Union League. The Yiddish-speaking majority in the
audience understood, however, and the others quickly caught the spirit
of her impassioned plea.

The vast audience rose as one man, and a great roar arose. "Yes, we
will all strike!"

"And will you keep the faith?" cried the girl on the platform. "Will you
swear by the old Jewish oath of our fathers?"

Two thousand Jewish hands were thrust in air, and two thousand Jewish
throats uttered the oath: "If I turn traitor to the cause I now pledge,
may this hand wither and drop off from this arm I now raise."

Clara Lemlich's part in the work was accomplished. Within a few days
forty thousand shirt-waist makers were on strike.

The Women's Trade Union League, under the direction of Miss Helen Marot,
secretary, at once took hold of the strike.

There were two things to be done at once. The forty thousand had to be
enrolled in the union, and those manufacturers who were willing to
accept the terms of the strikers had to be "signed up." Clinton Hall,
one of the largest buildings on the lower East Side, was secured, and
for several weeks the rooms and hallways of the building and the street
outside were crowded almost to the limit of safety with men and women
strikers, anxious and perspiring "bosses," and busy, active associates
of the Women's Trade Union League.