Didactic fiction; Political fiction; Social problems -- Fiction
But if Yetta did not think her work mattered very much, Isadore and
Rheinhardt and Paulding and all those who had the welfare of _The
Clarion_ at heart thought very differently about it. Gradually she
transformed the labor page into a vital force in the trade-union world.
Organized labor is fighting out the same problem in democracy which our
larger community is facing. "How shall elected delegates be made to
represent their constituents?" The rank and file of workers cannot
attend all the meetings of their central organizations any more than we
can spend all our time in watching Congress. Labor bosses, like
political crooks, love darkness. Yetta, taking a suggestion from the
progressive magazines, turned the light of publicity on the weekly
meetings of the Central Federated Union. She made the Monday afternoon
labor page a verbatim report of the Sunday session. Among the delegates
to the C. F. U. there were many fearless, upright men who were as much
opposed to gang politics as any insurgent senator at Washington. Yetta
knew them from her old work and drew them into a sort of informal Good
Government Club. Every day she tried to run some story dealing with
this issue of clean politics. More and more the "labor grafters"
denounced _The Clarion_, and more and more their opponents came to rely
on it as their greatest ally. The percentage of "crooked" and "straight"
among the unionists is about the same as in any church membership. The
circulation grew among the honest workers--the vast majority.
Her influence was not confined to her own department. Her experience in
the Woman's Trade Union League had made her an expert beggar; more and
more she helped Isadore, relieving him of some of the burden of
money-raising. This freed more of his time and energy for his page. He
listened more docilely to her suggestions about bettering the style of
his editorials--adding snap to them--than he had done when Paulding had
tried to help him. The improvement was noticeable. During her
apprenticeship under Mr. Brace Yetta had absorbed some of his "sense of
make-up." Harry Moore often appealed to her judgment. In time _The
Clarion_ began to look almost attractive.
One day Yetta's old friend Cowan, the sporting editor of _The Star_, met
her on the street.
"I hear you're working on this Socialist paper," he said. "How goes it?"
"I like it better than _The Star_," she replied.
"I've looked over some of the copies," he said. "You people aren't
handling local news the way you ought to. Why don't you tear the lid off
this Subway scandal? I'm not a Socialist. But I hate to see such good
stories going to waste."
Yetta rather wearily went over the long story of their limitations. She
had learned to recite it as glibly as Isadore or Paulding.
"It's too bad," Cowan said, as he left her. "I didn't realize you were
up against it so hard. I sure hate to see some of these hot stories
unused."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account