Chicago; and were the packers to let the union stewards
march into their places and bind them to a contract that
would lose them several thousand dollars a day for a year?
Not much!

All this was in June; and before long the question was
submitted to a referendum in the unions, and the decision
was for a strike. It was the same in all the packing-house
cities; and suddenly the newspapers and public woke up
to face the gruesome spectacle of a meat famine. All sorts
of pleas for a reconsideration were made, but the packers
were obdurate; and all the while they were reducing
wages, and heading off shipments of cattle, and rushing
in wagon-loads of mattresses and cots. So the men boiled
over, and one night telegrams went out from the union
headquarters to all the big packing centers -- to St. Paul,
South Omaha, Sioux City, St. Joseph, Kansas City, East
St. Louis, and New York, -- and the next day at noon be~
tween fifty and sixty thousand men drew off their work~
ing clothes and marched out of the factories, and the great
"Beef Strike" was on.

Jurgis went to his dinner, and afterward he walked
over to see Mike Scully, who lived in a fine house, upon a
street which had been decently paved and lighted for his
especial benefit. Scully had gone into semi-retirement,
and looked nervous and worried. "What do you want?"
he demanded, when he saw Jurgis.

"I came to see if maybe you could get me a place during
the strike," the other replied.

And Scully knit his brows and eyed him narrowly. In
that morning's papers Jurgis had read a fierce denuncia~
tion of the packers by Scully, who had declared that if
they did not treat their people better the city authorities
would end the matter by tearing down their plants.
Now, therefore, Jurgis was not a little taken aback when
the other demanded suddenly, "See here, Rudkus, why
don't you stick by your job?"

Jurgis started. "Work as a scab?" he cried.

"Why not?" demanded Scully. "What's that to you?"

[[317]]

p316 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p317w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p318

v?