In one of those racial or ethnic ‘niche’ jobs that the U.S. has so many of, Greek boys were employed as bootblacks in many northern cities, often brought in groups from individual localities in a ‘padrone’ system. Here, the conditions of life, threats from immigration officials, and attempts to organize Chicago’s shoe shine boys.

‘The Greek Bootblack in Chicago’ by Vasilike Vaitses from Life and Labor (W.T.U.L.). Vol. 6 No. 6. June, 1916.

The present movement to organize the Greek bootblacks of Chicago under the American Federation of Labor is only one of several attempts made in the past to better the condition of these boys either by organization or legislation.

Former Attempts to Improve Conditions

In 1907, the United States Bureau of Immigration began an investigation of the padrone system under which the bootblacks worked. The report of the Commission for 1908 showed that as a result of the investigation fourteen padrones in Chicago were indicted. It was found that many of the boys came to the United States under contract to work for a “shoe shine boss” who was either a relative or countryman and who posed as uncle or father of the boy in order to secure his admittance to the United States. Very often the boss had forwarded the ticket and the boy would have to work it out indefinitely at any rate the “boss” might choose.

Convictions of the “bosses” were very difficult to secure and so the net result of the investigation was that very few fines were imposed on the bosses while a number of the boys, who were very anxious to remain and who had told their story in the hope of improving their conditions, were deported, although they were very eager to remain. Conditions remained as before except that a more careful investigation is now made at the ports of the destination of boys coming alone to the United States, and a bond is often required for those under sixteen years of age, guaranteeing that they will be sent to day-school until sixteen.

Some evidence of the existence of the system of peonage and a few cases where the boy had suffered extreme physical abuse, came to the attention of the Immigrants’ Protective League of Chicago, and in 1909 an investigation was made of the “shoe shine parlors” of the loop district of Chicago. Most of the boys were young and worked very long hours for seven days a week. They were found living in crowded quarters furnished them by their bosses in neighborhoods where they were exposed to vicious temptations.

Another investigation recently made by the league shows that during the past seven years conditions have not changed for the better, and the industry has increased enormously. It is estimated that there are at present over two hundred shoe shine parlors employing about two thousand Greek boys.

Difficulties of Long Hours

The ages of the bootblacks range from 13 to 40 years the average being 17. Many of the boys seem much younger than the age that they give. With but a few exceptions, the boys work on an average of fourteen hours a day; some work as long as sixteen hours. In the loop district the shoe shine parlors” are usually open until midnight on Saturdays, but only until 8 or 9 on Sunday evenings and week days. This precludes any possibility of the boys attending evening school, so that even after three or four years’ residence in this country their knowledge of English is limited, in many cases, to simple phrases pertaining to their work. Nearly every Greek boy has had at least a grammar school education in Greek and wants to improve himself. Some of the more ambitious boys spend their leisure moments in trying to learn English from a “Method Book.” The boys complain more about working on Sunday than about the long hours during the week. Most of the boys say that they go to church only on Christmas and Easter, and many have never been to church since coming to America. As the Greeks are very religious, they consider this a great hardship and complain of it more than the fact that they are not allowed any time for recreation or for visiting their relatives and friends.

One boy tells of how he was docked $1 from his pay for taking an afternoon off to visit a relative in the county hospital. There is no chance for recreation or amusement, and very little desire for any at the end of a long day, for although the work in itself is not hard, the long monotonous hours are fatiguing. More especially is this true in the winter, for the parlors—which are only stalls—are unheated and kept closed up and so, of course, are unventilated.

Low Wages

The wages are low–averaging $15 a month and board and room. This money is not always paid regularly. In many cases the boy has a drawing account with the boss. Then when he wishes to leave, he has great difficulty in collecting what is due him. Many such cases have reached the Immigrants’ Protective League and the Legal Aid Society. Some of the boys, who complained bitterly of the conditions under which they worked and lived, said when other work was suggested to them, that they were afraid to leave for fear of losing their money, as the boys before them had. Boys have been known to work for relatives and not receive any wages, their bosses telling them that the money was sent to their parents in Greece. How much goes, if any, they never know. In all but a few cases, the boys are not allowed to keep their tips.

Bad Conditions

The “boss” who employs several boys houses them and provides the food as part of their wage. This system affords a heartless, unconscientious employer a great opportunity to wrong the boys. He usually rents a few rooms or a flat and has an old man who cares for the rooms and does the cooking. One employer has three parlors” and employs eleven boys. He has a flat of four rooms–three bedrooms and a large kitchen which is also used as a living room. The rooms are clean but poorly furnished, with no carpets on the floors excepting in the room in which the “boss” sleeps. In his room, there are sheets and pillow slips and even white spreads on the beds. For the boys, there are three double beds and three single beds accommodations for nine and yet thirteen were found living there. The food is good but simple. The only objection made by the boys in this respect is that during the day they have only bread, cheese and olives and they are allowed only a few minutes to eat this at noon. Late at night they have their big meal when they are too tired to enjoy it.

Many of these boys work without complaining of even the long hours in the hope that in time they will have saved enough to set up an establishment of their own. So it was with one boy, George Prasinos, who now has a shoe shine parlor and hat cleaning establishment on the north side. But he has not forgotten his experiences as a bootblack and has felt for a long time the necessity of organizing and has urged many of the prominent Greeks to help the boys. Last fall he talked with the editor of a Greek newspaper. A Greek boy had just come from Buffalo and asked the editor for work. The boy looked sick but insisted that he must work. His story was that he had come to America to some relatives in Bufalo and had worked for the last three years as a bootblack for them. He received no wages–the relatives claiming that they were sending his wages to his family in Greece. His health became affected by the long hours in an unventilated parlor and he soon became a victim of tuberculosis. His relatives then told him he should look for other work and gave him a ticket to Chicago. Within a week he died.

Beginning of Present Organization

After this incident, the Greek editor co-operated with Prasinos in starting a movement towards organization and for two or three months ran weekly articles concerning the bootblack industry. Over three hundred letters were received from the boys, not only in Chicago, but in other cities, telling the conditions under which they work and urging that something be done to help them.

A mass meeting was then called at Hull House, the last of March of this year, to which about 600 boys and bosses” came. Several prominent Greeks and Americans addressed the boys–among them Emmet Flood, organizer of the American Federation of Labor. The boys showed much enthusiasm and meetings are now being held every Sunday evening at Hull House. At each meeting, several of the boys relate their experiences and urge the more skeptical ones to join in this effort to better themselves. They have elected officers, adopted by-laws and applied to the American Federation of Labor for a charter. The size of the meetings does not show the interest of the boys, for many of the “bosses” are not in favor of the organization and are keeping their shops open until 10 o’clock on Sunday evenings to prevent the boys from coming. But the boys think that this is their great opportunity, and they hope to use it to bring about a great change in the entire bootblack industry.

Life and Labor was the monthly journal of the Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL). The WTUL was founded by the American Federation of Labor, which it had a contentious relationship with, in 1903. Founded to encourage women to join the A.F. of L. and for the A.F. of L. to take organizing women seriously, along with labor and workplace issues, the WTUL was also instrumental in creating whatever alliance existed between the labor and suffrage movements. Begun near the peak of the WTUL’s influence in 1911, Life and Labor’s first editor was Alice Henry (1857-1943), an Australian-born feminist, journalist, and labor activists who emigrated to the United States in 1906 and became office secretary of the Women’s Trade Union League in Chicago. She later served as the WTUL’s field organizer and director of the education. Henry’s editorship was followed by Stella M. Franklin in 1915, Amy W. Fields in in 1916, and Margaret D. Robins until the closing of the journal in 1921. While never abandoning its early strike support and union organizing, the WTUL increasingly focused on regulation of workplaces and reform of labor law. The League’s close relationship with the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America makes ‘Life and Labor’ the essential publication for students of that union, as well as for those interest in labor legislation, garment workers, suffrage, early 20th century immigrant workers, women workers, and many more topics covered and advocated by ‘Life and Labor.’

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