Could they stand together in an industrial struggle which promised to be long and bitter?
President Gompers was plainly fearful that they could not.
Suddenly a very small, very young, very intense Jewish girl, known to her associates as Clara Lemlich, sprang to her feet, and, with the assistance of two young men, climbed to the high platform.

Flinging up her arms with a dramatic gesture she poured out a flood of speech, entirely unintelligible to the presiding Gompers, and to the members of the Women's Trade Union League.

The Yiddish-speaking majority in the audience understood, however, and the others quickly caught the spirit of her impassioned plea.
The vast audience rose as one man, and a great roar arose.

"Yes, we will all strike!" "And will you keep the faith ?" cried the girl on the platform.

"Will you swear by the old Jewish oath of our fathers ?" Two thousand Jewish hands were thrust in air, and two thousand Jewish throats uttered the oath: "If I turn traitor to the cause I now pledge, may this hand wither and drop off from this arm I now raise." Clara Lemlich's part in the work was accomplished.