LET MY PEOPLE KNOW

In the beginning there was a postcard.

Wilfred was the name chosen for the six pound baby. Mother and Dad had studied Walter Scott in the night school where they had met and out of the pages of Ivanhoe had come the protector of the oppressed, the defender of Rebecca—Wilfred. In later years many shortened the second name, Mendelson, into the popular Mendy.

The soil that baby Wilfred grew in was rich. In the years before his coming there were battles against the Tsarist regime, the actions of the Polish Jewish/Yorkers Socialist Bund, the carrying of illegal leaflets and all the varied needs of the underground V front of those days. From such posts did his father come to the golden land at the age of fifteen. Then more years of struggle—labor's upsurge in the needle trades, the organization of the United Garment Workers and then the birth of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. Harry Mendelson was there in the charter years when he was in his teens and twenties. He stands there still, firmer at his half century.

And his mother, Gertrude, came from the Ukraine of the Tsars to work in the garment shops of New York. In the flaming torch of the Triangle Shop fire 147 working girls died when doors locked against the union would not open. She worked there, suffered three months after the fire. Terror, bribery, and this never to be forgotten disaster were weapons used to halt the growing International Ladies Garment Workers Union. Gertrude went back to work at Triangle to collect evidence against the boss, but such as he were evidence-proof.

In 1913 Harry and Gertrude met in night school—he was studying pharmacy, she to be a librarian. 1914 was the year of their marriage.

World events were home events in the Mendelson household. Morris Hillquit ran for Mayor of New York City in 1917. After a street corner election rally little Mendy stood on a parlor chair and chimed in two year old style "Vote for Hillquit, Vote Straight Socialist." The November 1917 Revolution in Russia was a topic at the table. The votes-for-women campaign was explained to him.

When the Irish patriot McSweeney went on a hunger strike, the Mendelsons explained why to Wilfred. The five year old decided to join in the hunger strike saying he wouldn't eat until McSweeney won out.

These were years when the family lived near the Bronx Park. Once on a trip to the park, Mendy wanted to break off some flowers. Father explained that the park and the flowers belonged to everybody, that no one had a right to hurt public property, that one day all would belong to everybody and that would be Socialism.

In the post-war housing shortage, Mendy's parents organized a rent strike against greedy landlords. All this became part of the boy. The talks of a father and mother with a working class outlook, their campaigns for betterment all helped mould the future.

A sister came into the family when Mendy was near three years old. She best remembers the days as children at Brighton Beach during a summer. Pa would try to stop them from talking in bed. Mendy was always winning races against all the other boys. His legs were very long for his body, they won him public school and high school racing medals. Sharp in sister Jeanette's mind is the time she won a swimming medal through Mendy's encouragement. She was first in the field and turned to see if she was leading. Mendy's voice rang to her, "Go ahead, you're the first one there." Such are things a sister remembers.

The years at public school and high school were, in the main, lived at the huge Amalgamated Cooperative Houses. Harry Mendelson was among the first to conceive of this huge workers' cooperative dwelling plan. He played an important part in winning the support of his union for the project. Wilfred thrived in the surroundings of a host of childrens' activities, a summer day camp in which Gertrude Mendelson was active, a dramatics group (once they acted a play by John Reed), and a young peoples' group called The Eagles. These years brought home public school cards all marked AAA, though his 6B teacher felt he was deficient in penmanship.

High school days were spent at DeWitt Clinton. He was not a stellar pupil there. In the world at large an economic order was cracking. Other forces were pulling him. The last years in high school were harbinger years ; father lost a short lived business, school had a luncheon strike. Graduation came in June 1931.