Politics & Power Quote by Rose Schneiderman

There is a live wire of collective impatience in Schneiderman's phrasing: “very restive” sounds almost polite, but it’s really a warning shot. She’s describing workers who have reached the point where obedience feels like self-erasure. The line “could not sit under that notice” turns management’s posted edict into something physical, oppressive, literally overhead. It captures how power works in industrial workplaces: not only through wages and hours, but through signage, rules, and the constant performance of submission.

The pivot is the conditional threat aimed at organized labor itself. Schneiderman isn’t just condemning employers; she’s pressuring the “National Board” to act. “Call them out” invokes the formal machinery of a sanctioned strike, a reminder that union leadership can function like a gatekeeper, rationing permission for revolt. Her subtext is clear: legitimacy is a luxury when the shop floor is boiling. If the official channels stall, workers will “go out of themselves” - an almost biblical, self-propelled exodus that doubles as a dare. Either the institution leads, or it gets bypassed.

In early 20th-century labor fights (especially in garment shops where Schneiderman organized), this wasn’t rhetoric for its own sake; it was crisis management. She’s translating a mood - anger sharpened into readiness - into leverage. The sentence is engineered to make inaction look dangerous, because the alternative to organized action isn’t peace. It’s spontaneous, uncontrollable conflict.