A few paragraphs of working class life in Buffalo, New York from 1913, and a story repeated so often, over so many generation, that it encapsulates the exploitation of capitalism; workers forced to steal from their workplaces to live while the theft of the ruling class is excused.

‘Department Store Clerk Fined For Shoplifting’ from Buffalo Socialist. Vol. 1 No. 33. January 18, 1913.

A woman 30 years of age, whose husband had left her some time ago with two children to support by her unaided efforts, was arrested and hauled before, Patrick J. Keeler, judge of the city court, last week on four charges of petit larceny.

It appears that this woman tried to support herself and her two children by working as a saleswoman in one of the department stores. She found it necessary to seek additional sources of income on the outside. The responsibilities of motherhood narrowed her opportunities, naturally. So this poor mother utilized her noon hours in visiting other department stores to pick up things of use and value.

“Justice” was meted out. The woman was fined $25 and placed on probation. This means that she will be required to pay her fine on the installment plan.

One of the viperous afternoon sheets, published mostly in the interest of such institutions as the department stores, published the story of this poor woman’s predicament, under the same headline that appears above. The full name, address, age, residence and domestic relations of this victim of capitalism was boldly and fearlessly given, so that she might lose even the miserable job that she had and find it so much more difficult to find another; and so she might be disgraced in society and her children humiliated, and by means of further pangs, have it burned into their young minds that the “sins” of the mother are visited upon the children unto the fourth generation. The penny a-liner did not shriek, “Crucify her!” He did crucify her. The name of the particular department store that thrived by the exploitation of this poor woman was not given by the sheet. Department stores spend thousands and thousands a year for advertising space.

When Minister Hooker was arrested for shoplifting the capitalist newspapers were filled with excuses for him in his hour of trial, and “mental aberration” was invented as a new disease purposely for his exoneration.

The Buffalo Socialist was a weekly published in Buffalo New York by the Buffalo Socialist Publishing Company from 1911-1915 and aligned with the Socialist Party of America. Edited by Max Sherover, the company also produced a weekly women’s newspaper, New Age, from 1915.

For PDF of issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/buffalo-socialist/v1n33-jan-18-1913-Buf-Soc.pdf