c 



England combined. By the latter part of the century 

 New York was producing more than a fifth of the 

 nation's cigars. 



Jose Marti, head of the Cuban revolutionary move- 

 ment against Spain, maintained headquarters in New 

 York. As the Cuban handrollers worked at making 

 cigars, a reader would apprise them of contemporary 

 events in Cuba. From these "pulpits of liberty," as they 

 were referred to, 10 percent of the rollers' wages were 

 donated toward the revolution. 



igar making -an impoverished, profession 



But life for most of the rollers was scarcely com- 

 fortable. Conditions were deplorable. Most shops were 

 small and dirty. Whole families were crowded into small 

 rooms where they ate, slept and toiled. Teddy Roosevelt, 

 who as a New York Assemblyman became interested in 

 improving these working conditions, commented on an 

 experience he had while visiting one such cigar making 

 shop: 



7 have always remembered one room in which 

 two families were living. On my inquiry as to 

 who the third adult male was I was told that 

 he was a boarder with one of the families. 

 There were several children, three men and 

 two women in this room. The tobacco was 

 stowed about everywhere, alongside the foul 

 bedding, and in a corner where there were 

 scraps of food. The men, women and children 

 in this room worked by day and far into the 

 evening, and they slept and ate there. They 

 were Bohemians, unable to speak English, ex- 

 cept that one of the children knew enough to 

 act as an interpreter. 

 Together with Samuel Gompers, who had been head 

 of the Cigar Makers International Union of America 



17 



