February 27, 2009
100 Years Ago In the Forward
A man walked into the offices of the Forward and told us the following:
“My name is Sam Engelman, and I come from Toronto, Canada. Every Sunday for the past two weeks, my picture has appeared in your Gallery of Disappeared Men. I felt very bad upon seeing my photograph in the Forward. I couldn’t sleep. So I decided I would have to travel to New York, show up in the offices of your paper and let you decide what should be done. I want to support my wife; that is the purpose of my trip.”
We asked him, “Are you willing to go back and live with your wife?” He replied: “It’s not possible. She is beautiful, and I loved her, but she is very nervous and there was no peace between us. We can’t live together, but I’m here to do my duty, to support her.”
75 Years Ago In the Forward
Since the advent of the industrialization of labor and the creation of the sweatshop industry, unions and other organizations have tried to protect workers’ rights and to defend these workers against exploitative bosses. Perhaps less well known is the fact that the bosses, often together with politicians, have also created a number of organizations in order to protect their “right” to exploit their workers. Possibly the worst of these organizations, The Home Work Protective League, was created just a few weeks ago by “cockroach bosses and Tammany politicians,” the purpose of which — as they themselves admit — is to prevent any attempts to make home work, which is the type of sweatshop labor in which clothing is finished in homes by women and children, illegal. This is the kind of work that keeps the children of impoverished families stuck in their dingy tenements at work, and away from school. This medieval practice and its supporters must be stopped.
50 Years Ago In the Forward
At a press conference, Israeli Premier David Ben-Gurion declared that Egypt will be the first Arab state to be at peace with Israel. He said that he hoped that Egypt’s leaders would have the foresight to see that peace with Israel is not only possible, but also in their own interests. Ben-Gurion added that certain conditions had to be created for peace with the Arab world, including the creation of truly democratic governments in the region, and Arab acceptance of the fact that they cannot dismantle the State of Israel.
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