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diff --git a/11424-0.txt b/11424-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7f577f3 --- /dev/null +++ b/11424-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10465 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11424 *** + +[Illustration: A Factory or a Home?] + + + + +THE + +TRADE UNION WOMAN + +BY + +ALICE HENRY + +MEMBER OF OFFICE EMPLOYÉS' ASSOCIATION OF CHICAGO. No. 12755. AND +FORMERLY EDITOR OF _LIFE AND LABOR_ + + +ILLUSTRATED + +1915 + + + + +TO + +THE TRADE UNION WOMEN OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA + + + + +PREFACE + +This brief account of trade unionism in relation to the working-women +of the United States has been written to furnish a handbook of the +subject, and to supply in convenient form answers to the questions +that are daily put to the writer and to all others who feel the +organization of women to be a vital issue. + +To treat the subject exhaustively would be impossible without years of +research, but meanwhile it seemed well to furnish this short popular +account of an important movement, in order to satisfy the eager desire +for information regarding the working-woman, and her attitude towards +the modern labor movement, and towards the national industries in +regard to which she plays so essential a part. Women are doing their +share of their country's work under entirely novel conditions, and +it therefore becomes a national responsibility to see that the human +worker is not sacrificed to the material product. + +Many of the difficulties and dangers surrounding the working-woman +affect the workingman also, but on the other hand, there are special +reasons, springing out of the ancestral claims which life makes upon +woman, arising also out of her domestic and social environment, and +again out of her special function as mother, why the condition of the +wage-earning woman should be the subject of separate consideration. It +is impossible to discuss intelligently wages, hours and sanitation in +reference to women workers unless these facts are borne in mind. + +What makes the whole matter of overwhelming importance is the wasteful +way in which the health, the lives, and the capacity for future +motherhood of our young girls are squandered during the few brief +years they spend as human machines in our factories and stores. Youth, +joy and the possibility of future happiness lost forever, in order +that we may have cheap (or dear), waists or shoes or watches. + +Further, since the young girl is the future mother of the race, it is +she who chooses the father of her children. Every condition, either +economic or social, whether of training or of environment, which in +any degree tends to limit her power of choice, or to narrow its range, +or to lower her standards of selection, works out in a national and +racial deprivation. And surely no one will deny that the degrading +industrial conditions under which such a large number of our young +girls live and work do all of these, do limit and narrow the range of +selection and do lower the standards of the working-girl in making her +marriage choice. + +Give her fairer wages, shorten her hours of toil, let her have the +chance of a good time, of a happy girlhood, and an independent, normal +woman will be free to make a real choice of the best man. She will not +be tempted to passively accept any man who offers himself, just +in order to escape from a life of unbearable toil, monotony and +deprivation. + +So far, women and girls, exploited themselves, have been used as an +instrument yet further to cheapen and exploit men. In this direction +things could hardly reach a lower level than they have done. + +Now the national conscience has at length been touched regarding +women, and we venture to hope that in proportion as women have been +used to debase industrial standards, so in like degree as the nation +insists upon better treatment being accorded her, the results may so +react upon the whole field of industry that men too may be sharers in +the benefits. + +But there is a mightier force at work, a force more significant +and more characteristic of our age than even the awakened civic +conscience, showing itself in just and humane legislation. That is the +spirit of independence expressed in many different forms, markedly in +the new desire and therefore in the new capacity for collective action +which women are discovering in themselves to a degree never known +before. + +As regards wage-earning working-women, the two main channels through +which this new spirit is manifesting itself are first, their +increasing efforts after industrial organization, and next in the more +general realization by them of the need of the vote as a means of +self-expression, whether individual or collective. + +Thus the trade union on the one hand, offering to the working-woman +protection in the earning of her living, links up her interests with +those of her working brother; while on the other hand, in the demand +for the vote women of all classes are recognizing common disabilities, +a common sisterhood and a common hope. + +This book was almost completed when the sound of the war of the +nations broke upon our ears. It would be vain to deny that to all +idealists, of every shade of thought, the catastrophe came as a +stupefying blow. "It is unbelievable, impossible," said one. "It can't +last," added another. Reaction from that extreme of incredulity led +many to take refuge in hopeless, inactive despair and cynicism. + +Even the few months that have elapsed have enabled both the +over-hopeful and the despairing to recover their lost balance, and to +take up again their little share of the immemorial task of humanity, +to struggle onward, ever onward and upward. + +What had become of the movement of the workers, that they could have +permitted a war of so many nations, in which the workers of every +country involved must be the chief sufferers? + +The labor movement, like every other idealist movement, contains a +sprinkling of unpopular pessimistic souls, who drive home, in season +and out of season, a few unpopular truths. One of these unwelcome +truths is to the effect that the world is not following after the +idealists half as fast as they think it is. Reformers of every kind +make an amount of noise in the world these days out of all proportion +to their numbers. They deceive themselves, and to a certain extent +they deceive others. The wish to see their splendid visions a reality +leads to the belief that they are already on the point of being +victors over the hard-to-move and well-intrenched powers that be. As +to the quality of his thinking and the soundness of his reasoning, the +idealist is ahead of the world all the time, and just as surely the +world pays him the compliment of following in his trail. But only in +its own time and at its own good pleasure. It is in quantity that he +is short. There is never enough of him to do all the tasks, to be +in every place at once. Rarely has he converts enough to assure a +majority of votes or voices on his side. + +So the supreme crises of the world come, and he has for the time to +step aside; to be a mere onlooker; to wait in awe-struck patience +until the pessimist beholds the realization of his worst fears; until +the optimist can take heart again, and reviving his crushed and +withered hopes once more set their fulfillment forward in the future. + +In spite of all, the idealist is ever justified. He is justified today +in Europe no less than in America; justified by the ruin and waste +that have come in the train of following outworn political creeds, and +yielding to animosities inherited from past centuries; justified by +the disastrous results of unchecked national economic competition, +when the age of international coöperation is already upon us; +justified by the utter contempt shown by masculine rulers and +statesmen for the constructive and the fostering side of life, +typified and embodied in the woman half of society. + +No! our ideals are not changed, nor are they in aught belittled +by what has occurred. It is for us to cherish and guard them more +faithfully, to serve them more devotedly than ever. Even if we must +from now on walk softly all the days of our life, and prepare to +accept unresentfully disappointment and heart-sickening delay, we can +still draw comfort from this: + + Hope thou not much, and fear thou not at all. + +Meanwhile we sit, as it were, facing a vast stage, in front of us a +dropped curtain. From behind that veil there reaches our strained ears +now and then a cry of agony unspeakable, and again a faint whisper of +hope. + +But until that curtain is raised, after the hand of the war-fiend is +stayed; until we can again communicate, each with the other as human +beings and not as untamed, primitive savages, we can know in detail +little that has happened, and foresee nothing that may hereafter +happen. + +That some of America's industrial and social problems will be affected +radically by the results of the European war goes without saying; how, +and in what degree, it is impossible to foretell. + +Meanwhile our work is here, and we have to pursue it. Whatever +will strengthen the labor movement, or the woman movement, goes to +strengthen the world forces of peace. Let us hold fast to that. And +conversely, whatever economic or ethical changes will help to insure a +permanent basis for world peace will grant to both the labor movement +and the woman movement enlarged opportunity to come into their own. + +ALICE HENRY, + +Chicago, July, 1915. + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + +I. EARLY TRADE UNIONS AMONG WOMEN + +II. WOMEN IN THE KNIGHTS OF LABOR + +III. THE BEGINNINGS OF MODERN ORGANIZATION + +IV. THE WOMEN'S TRADE UNION LEAGUE + +V. THE HUGE STRIKES + +VI. THE IMMIGRANT WOMAN AND ORGANIZATION. + +VII. THE WOMAN ORGANIZER + +VIII. THE TRADE UNION IN OTHER FIELDS + +IX. WOMEN AND THE VOCATIONS + +X. WOMAN AND VOCATIONAL TRAINING + +XI. THE WORKING WOMAN AND MARRIAGE + +XII. THE WORKING WOMAN AND THE VOTE + +XIII. TRADE-UNION IDEALS AND POLICIES + +APPENDIX I AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE HOTEL AND RESTAURANT EMPLOYÉS +INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE AFFILIATED WITH THE AMERICAN AND CHICAGO +FEDERATION OF LABOR + +APPENDIX II. THE HART, SCHAFFNER AND MARX LABOR AGREEMENTS + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + +INDEX + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +A Factory or a Home? + +In a Basement Sweatshop + +Girl Gas Blowers + +A Bindery + +Interior of One of the Largest and Best Equipped Waist and Cloak +Factories in New York City + +A Contrast + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +It was a revolutionary change in our ways of thinking when the idea of +development, social as well as physical, really took hold of mankind. +But our minds are curiously stiff and slow to move, and we still +mostly think of development as a process that has taken place, and +that is going to take place--in the future. And that change is the +very stuff of which life consists (not that change is taking place +at this moment, but that this moment is change), that means another +revolution in the world of thought, and it gives to life a fresh +meaning. No one has, as it appears to me, placed such emphasis upon +this as has Henri Bergson. It is not that he emphasizes the mere fact +of the evolution of society and of all human relations. That, he, and +we, may well take for granted. It has surely been amply demonstrated +and illustrated by writers as widely separated in their interpretation +of social evolution as Herbert Spencer and Karl Marx. But with the +further thought in mind that, alike in the lowliest physical organism +or in the most complex social organism, life itself is change, we view +every problem of life from another angle. To see life steadily and +see it whole is one stage. Bergson bids us see life on the move, ever +changing, growing, evolving, a creation new every moment. + +For students of society this means that we are to aim at the +understanding of social processes, rather than stop short with the +consideration of facts; facts are to be studied because they go +to make up processes. We are not to stop short with the study of +conditions, but go on to find out what tendencies certain conditions +encourage. All social and industrial questions therefore are to be +interpreted in their dynamic rather than in their static aspects. + +In the Labor Museum of Hull House is shown a very ingenious diagram, +representing the development on the mechanical side of the process of +spinning, one of the oldest of the arts. It consists of a strip of +cardboard, about a yard long, marked off into centuries and decades. +From 2000 B.C. up to A.D. 1500 the hand spindle was the only +instrument used. From 1500 up to the middle of the eighteenth century +the spinning-wheel was used as well. From the middle of the eighteenth +century up till today has been the period of the application of steam +to spinning machinery. + +The profound symbolism expressed by the little chart goes beyond the +interesting fact in the history of applied physics and mechanics which +it tells, on to the tremendous changes which it sums up. The textile +industries were primarily women's work, and with the mechanical +changes in this group of primitive industries were inextricably bound +up changes far more momentous in the social environment and the +individual development of the worker. + +Yet, if a profoundly impressive story, it is also a simple and plain +one. It is so easy to understand because we have the help of history +to interpret it to us, a help that fails us completely when, instead +of being able to look from a distance and see events in their due +proportions and in their right order, we are driven to extract as best +we can a meaning from occurrences that happen and conditions that lie +before our very eyes. That we cannot see the wood for the trees was +never more painfully true than when we first try to tell a clear story +amid the clatter and din of our industrial life. Past history is +of little assistance in interpreting the social and industrial +development, in which we ourselves are atoms. Much information is to +be obtained, though piecemeal and with difficulty, but especially +as relates to women, it has not yet been classified and ordered and +placed ready to hand. + +The industrial group activities of women are the inevitable, though +belated result of the entry of women into the modern industrial +system, and are called forth by the new demands which life is making +upon women's faculties. We cannot stop short here, and consider these +activities mainly in regard to what has led up to them, nor yet as to +what is their extent and effect today. Far more important is it to try +to discover what are the tendencies, which they as yet faintly and +imperfectly, often confusedly, express. + +In the labor movement of this country woman has played and is playing +an important part. But in its completeness no one knows the story, +and those who know sections of it most intimately are too busy +living their own parts in that story, to pause long enough to be its +chroniclers. For to be part of a movement is more absorbing than to +write about it. Whom then shall we ask? To whom shall we turn for even +an imperfect knowledge of the story, at once noble and sordid, tragic +and commonplace, of woman's side of the labor movement? To whom, you +would say, but to the worker herself? And where does the worker speak +with such clearness, with such unfaltering steadiness, as through her +union, the organization of her trade? + +In the industrial maze the individual worker cannot interpret her own +life story from her knowledge of the little patch of life which is +all her hurried fingers ever touch. Only an organization can be an +interpreter here. Fortunately for the student, the organization does +act as interpreter, both for the organized women who have been drawn +into the labor movement and for those less fortunate who are still +struggling on single-handed and alone. The organized workers in one +way or another come into fairly close relations with their unorganized +sisters. Besides, the movement in its modern form is still so young +that there is scarcely a woman worker in the unions who did not begin +her trade life as an unorganized toiler. + +Speaking broadly, the points upon which the trade-union movement +concentrates are the raising of wages, the shortening of hours, +the diminution of seasonal work, the abolition or regulation of +piece-work, with its resultant speeding up, the maintaining of +sanitary conditions, and the guarding of unsafe machinery, the +enforcement of laws against child-labor, the abolition of taxes for +power and working materials such as thread and needles, and of unfair +fines for petty or unproved offenses--and with these, the recognition +of the union to insure the obtaining and the keeping of all the rest. + +A single case taken from a non-union trade (a textile trade, too) +must serve to suggest the reasons that make organization a necessity. +Twenty-one years ago in the bag and hemp factories of St. Louis, girl +experts turned out 460 yards of material in a twelve-hour day, the pay +being 24 cents per bolt (of from 60 to 66 yards). These girls earned +$1.84 per day (on the bolt of from 60 to 66 yards). Four years ago a +girl could not hold her job under 1,000 yards in a ten-hour day. "The +fastest possible worker can turn out only 1,200 yards, and the price +has dropped to 15 cents per hundred yards. The old rate of 24 cents +per bolt used to net $1.80 to a very quick worker. The new rate to one +equally competent is but $1.50. Workers have to fill a shuttle every +minute and a half or two minutes. This necessitates the strain of +constant vigilance, as the breaking of the thread causes unevenness, +and for this operators are laid off for two or three days. The +operators are at such a tension that they not only stand all day, but +may not even bend their knees. The air is thick with lint, which the +workers inhale. The throat and eyes are terribly affected, and it is +necessary to work with the head bound up, and to comb the lint from +the eyebrows. The proprietors have to retain a physician to attend the +workers every morning, and medicine is supplied free, as an accepted +need for everyone so engaged. One year is spent in learning the trade, +and the girls last at it only from three to four years afterwards. +Some of them enter marriage, but many of them are thrown on the human +waste-heap. One company employs nearly 1,000 women, so that a large +number are affected by these vile and inhuman conditions. The girls in +the trade are mostly Slovaks, Poles and Bohemians, who have not long +been in this country. In their inexperience they count $1.50 as good +wages, although gained at ever so great a physical cost." + +These are intolerable conditions, and that tens of thousands are +enduring similar hardships in the course of earning a living and +contributing their share towards the commercial output of the country +only aggravates the cruelty and the injustice to the helpless and +defrauded girls. It is not an individual problem merely. It is a +national responsibility shared by every citizen to see that such +cruelty and such injustice shall cease. No system of commercial +production can be permanently maintained which ignores the primitive +rights of the human workers to such returns for labor as shall provide +decent food, clothing, shelter, education and recreation for the +worker and for those dependent upon him or her, as well as steadiness +of employment, and the guarantee of such working conditions as shall +not be prejudicial to health. + +If the community is not to be moved either by pity or by a sense of +justice then perhaps it will awake to a realization of the national +danger involved when so many of the workers, and especially when +so many of the girls and women work under circumstances ruinous to +health, and affording, besides, small chance for all-round normal +development on either the individual or the social side. These are +evils whose results do not die out with the generation primarily +involved, but must as well through inheritance as through environment +injure the children of the workers, and their offspring yet unborn. + +The passing away from the individual worker of personal control +over the raw material and the instruments of production, which has +accompanied the advent of the factory system, means that some degree +of control corresponding to that formerly possessed by the individual +should be assured to the group of workers in the factory or the trade. +Such control is assured through the collective power of the workers, +acting in coöperation in their trade union. One reason why the woman +worker is in so many respects worse off than the man is because she +has so far enjoyed so little of the protection of the trade union in +her work. Why she has not had it, and why more and more she desires +it, is what I will try to show in the following pages. + +There is one criticism, to which almost every writer dealing with a +present-day topic, lies exposed. That is, why certain aspects of the +subject, or certain closely related questions, have either not been +dealt with at all, or touched on only lightly. For instance, the +subject of the organization of wage-earning women is indeed bound up +with the industrial history of the United States, with the legal and +social position of women, with the handicaps under which the colored +races suffer, and with the entire labor problem. + +In answer I can but plead that there had to be some limits. These +are all matters which have been treated by many others, and I +intentionally confined myself to a section of the field not hitherto +covered. + +Though the greatest care has been taken to avoid errors, some mistakes +have doubtless crept in and the author would be glad to have these +pointed out. I acknowledge gratefully what I owe to others, whether +that help has come to me through books and periodical literature or +through personal information from those possessing special expert +knowledge. No one can ever begin to repay such a debt, but such thanks +as are possible, I offer here. + +The brief historical sketch of the early trade unions is based almost +entirely upon the "History of Women in Trade Unions," Volume X, of the +"Report on the Condition of Women and Child Wage-Earners in the United +States," issued by the Commissioner of Labor, then Mr. Charles P. +Neill. Dr. John B. Andrews deals with the earlier period, and he shows +how persistent have been the efforts of working-women to benefit +themselves through collective action. + +"Organization," he writes, "among working-women, contrary to the +general impression, is not new. Women, from the beginning of the +trade-union movement in this country have occupied an important place +in the ranks of organized labor. For eighty years and over, women +wage-earners in America have formed trade unions and gone on strike +for shorter hours, better pay, and improved conditions. The American +labor movement had its real beginning about the year 1825. In that +year the tailoresses of New York formed a union." + +The history of women in trade unions he divides into four periods: (1) +the beginnings of organization, extending from 1825 to about 1840; (2) +the development of associations interested in labor reform, including +the beginnings of legislative activity, 1840 to 1860; (3) the +sustained development of pure trade unions, and the rise of the +struggle over the suffrage, 1860 to 1880; and (4) the impress and +educative influence of the Knights of Labor, 1881 to date, and the +present development under the predominant leadership of the American +Federation of Labor. + + + + +THE TRADE UNION WOMAN + + +I + +EARLY TRADE UNIONS AMONG WOMEN 1825-1840 + + +The earliest factory employment to engage large numbers of women was +the cotton industry of New England, and the mill hands of that day +seem to have been entirely native-born Americans. The first power loom +was set up in Waltham, Massachusetts, in 1814, and the name of the +young woman weaver who operated it was Deborah Skinner. In 1817 there +were three power looms in Fall River, Massachusetts; the weavers were +Sallie Winters, Hannah Borden and Mary Healy. + +The first form of trade-union activity among wage-earning women in the +United States was the local strike. The earliest of these of which +there is any record was but a short-lived affair. It was typical, +nevertheless, of the sudden, impulsive uprising of the unorganized +everywhere. It would hardly be worth recording, except that in such +hasty outbursts of indignation against the so unequal distribution of +the burdens of industry lies the germ of the whole labor movement. +This small strike took place in July, 1828, in the cotton mills +of Paterson, New Jersey, among the boy and girl helpers over the +apparently trifling detail of a change of the dinner hour from twelve +o'clock to one. Presently there were involved the carpenters, masons +and machinists in a general demand for a ten-hour day. In a week the +strike had collapsed, and the leaders found themselves out of work, +although the point on which the young workers had gone out was +conceded. + +It was among the mill operatives of Dover, New Hampshire, that the +first really important strike involving women occurred. This was in +December of the same year (1828). On this occasion between three +hundred and four hundred women went out. The next we hear of the Dover +girls is six years later, when eight hundred went out in resistance +to a cut in wages. These women and girls were practically all the +daughters of farmers and small professional men. For their day they +were well educated, often teaching school during a part of the year. +They prided themselves on being the "daughters of freemen," and while +adapting themselves for the sake of earning a living to the novel +conditions of factory employment, they were not made of the stuff to +submit tamely to irritating rules of discipline, to petty despotism, +and to what they felt was a breach of tacit agreement, involved in +periodical cutting of wages. Although most of them may have but dimly +understood that factory employment required the protection of a +permanent organization for the operatives, and looked to the temporary +combination provided by the strike for the remedy of their ills, still +there was more in the air, and more in the minds of some of the girl +leaders than just strikes undertaken for the purpose of abolishing +single definite wrongs. + +That employers recognized this, and were prepared to stifle in the +birth any efforts that their women employés might make towards +maintaining permanent organizations, is evident by the allusions in +the press of the day to the "ironclad oath" by which the employé +had to agree, on entering the factory, to accept whatever wage the +employer might see fit to pay, and had to promise not to join any +combination "whereby the work may be impeded or the company's interest +in any work injured." + +Also we find that no general gathering of organized workingmen could +take place without the question of the inroad of women into the +factories being hotly debated. All the speakers would be agreed that +the poorly paid and overworked woman was bringing a very dangerous +element into the labor world, but there was not the same unanimity +when it came to proposing a remedy. Advice that women should go back +into the home was then as now the readiest cure for the evil, for even +so early as this the men realized that the underpayment of women meant +the underpayment of men, while the employment of women too often +meant the dis-employment of men. But it was not long before the more +intelligent understood that there was some great general force at work +here, which was not to be dealt with nor the resultant evils cured by +a resort to primitive conditions. Soon there were bodies of workingmen +publicly advocating the organization of women into trade unions as the +only rational plan of coping with a thoroughly vicious situation. + +Meanwhile such a powerful organ as the _Boston Courier_ went so far as +to say that the girls ought to be thankful to be employed at all. +If it were not for the poor labor papers of that day we should have +little chance of knowing the workers' side of the story at all. + +During the next few years many women's strikes are recorded among +cotton operatives, but most of them, though conducted with spirit and +intelligence, seemed to have ended none too happily for the workers. +It is nevertheless probable that the possibility that these rebellious +ones might strike often acted as a check upon the cotton lords and +their mill managers. Indeed the strikes at Lowell, Massachusetts, of +1834 and 1836 involved so large a number of operatives (up to 2,500 +girls at one time), and these were so brave and daring in their public +demands for the right of personal liberty and just treatment that the +entire press of the country gave publicity to the matter, although +the orthodox newspapers were mostly shocked at the "wicked +misrepresentations" of the ringleaders in this industrial rebellion. + +The 1836 strike at the Lowell mills throws a curious light upon the +habits of those days. Something analogous to the "living-in" system +was in force. In 1825 when the Lowell mills were first opened, the +companies who owned the mills provided boarding-houses for their girl +operatives, and the boarding-house keepers had in their lease to agree +to charge them not more than $1.25 per week. (Their wages are said to +have rarely exceeded $2.50 per week.) But in these thirteen years +the cost of living had risen, and at this rate for board the +boarding-house keepers could no longer make ends meet, and many were +ruined. The mill-owners, seeing what desperate plight these women were +in, agreed to deduct from the weekly rent a sum equivalent to twelve +cents per boarder, and they also authorized the housekeepers to charge +each girl twelve cents more. This raised the total income of the +housekeepers to practically one dollar and fifty cents per head. As +there was no talk of raising wages in proportion, this arrangement was +equivalent to a cut of twelve cents per week and the girls rebelled +and went out on strike to the number of twenty-five hundred. In all +probability, however, it was not only the enforced lessening of their +wages, but some of the many irritating conditions as well that always +attend any plan of living-in, whether the employé be a mill girl, a +department-store clerk or a domestic servant, that goaded the girls +on, for we hear of "dictation not only as to what they shall eat and +drink and wherewithal they shall be clothed, but when they shall eat, +drink and sleep." + +The strikers paraded through the streets of Lowell, singing, + + Oh, isn't it a pity that such a pretty girl as I + Should be sent to the factory to pine away and die? + Oh! I cannot be a slave, + For I'm so fond of liberty + That I cannot be a slave. + +The girls appealed to the memories, still green, of the War of +Independence. + +"As our fathers resisted unto blood the lordly avarice of the British +ministry, so we, their daughters, never will wear the yoke which has +been prepared for us." + +With this and many similar appeals they heartened one another. But +before the close of October, 1836, the strike was broken and the +girls were back at work on the employers' terms. Still an echo of the +struggle is heard in the following month at the Annual Convention +of the National Trades Union, where the Committee on Female Labor +recommended that "they [the women operatives] should immediately adopt +energetic measures, in the construction of societies to support each +other." + +Almost every difficulty that the working-woman has to face today had +its analogue then. For instance, speeding up: "The factory girls of +Amesbury have had a flare-up and turned out because they were told +they must tend two looms in future without any advance of wages." + +A pitiful account comes from eastern Pennsylvania, where the cotton +industry had by this time a footing. Whole families would be in the +mill "save only one small girl to take care of the house and provide +the meals." + +Yet the wages of all the members were needed to supply bare wants. +The hours in the mills were cruelly long. In the summer, "from five +o'clock in the morning until sunset, being fourteen hours and a half, +with an intermission of half an hour for breakfast and an hour for +dinner, leaving thirteen hours of hard labor." Out of repeated and +vain protests and repeated strikes, perhaps not always in vain, were +developed the beginnings of the trade-union movement of Pennsylvania, +the men taking the lead. The women, even where admitted to membership +in the unions, seem to have taken little part in the ordinary work of +the union, as we only hear of them in times of stress and strike. + +The women who worked in the cotton mills were massed together by the +conditions of their calling, in great groups, and a sense of community +of interest would thus, one would think, be more easily established. +Women engaged in various branches of sewing were, on the other hand, +in much smaller groups, but they were far more widely distributed. +One result of this was that meeting together and comparing notes was +always difficult and often impossible. Even within the same town, with +the imperfect means of transit, with badly made and worst lit streets, +one group of workers had little means of knowing whether they were +receiving the same or different rates of pay for the same work, or for +the same number of work hours. So much sewing has always been done in +the homes of the workers that it is a matter of surprise to learn that +the very first women's trade union of which we have any knowledge +was formed, probably in some very loose organization, among the +tailoresses of New York in the year 1825. Six years later +the tailoresses of New York were again clubbed together for +self-protection against the inevitable consequences of reduced and +inadequate wages. Their secretary, Mrs. Lavinia Waight, must have +been a very new woman. She, unreasonable person, was not content with +asking better wages for her trade and her sex, but she even wanted +the vote for herself and her sisters. Indeed, from the expression she +uses, "the duties of legislation," she perhaps even desired that women +should be qualified to sit in the legislature. In this same year, +1831, there was a strike of tailoresses reported to include sixteen +hundred women, and they must have remained out several weeks. This +was not, like so many, an unorganized strike, but was authorized and +managed by the United Tailoresses' Society, of which we now hear for +the first time. We hear of the beginning of many of these short-lived +societies, but rarely is there any record of when they went under, or +how. + +Innumerable organizations of a temporary character existed from +time to time in the other large cities, Baltimore and Philadelphia. +Philadelphia has the distinguished honor of being the home of Matthew +Carey, who was instrumental in starting the first public inquiry into +the conditions of working-women, as he was also the first in America +to make public protest against the insufficient pay and wretched +conditions imposed upon women, who were now entering the wage-earning +occupations in considerable numbers. He assisted the sewing-women of +all branches to form what was practically a city federation of women's +unions, the first of its kind. One committee was authorized to send to +the Secretary of War a protest against the disgracefully low prices +paid for army clothing. Matthew Carey was also held responsible, +rightly or wrongly, for an uprising in the book-binding establishments +of New York. + +All this agitation among workers and the general public was having +some effect upon the ethical standards of employers, for a meeting of +master book-binders of New York disowned those of their number +who paid "less than $3 a week." An occasional word of support and +sympathy, too, filters through the daily press. The _Commercial +Bulletin_ severely criticized the rates the Secretary of War was +paying for his army clothing orders, while the _Public Ledger_ of +Philadelphia, speaking of a strike among the women umbrella sewers +of New York, commented thus: "In this case we decidedly approve the +turn-out. Turning out, if peaceably conducted, is perfectly legal, and +often necessary, especially among female laborers." + +The next year we again find Matthew Carey helping the oppressed +women. This time it is with a letter and money to support the ladies' +Association of Shoe Binders and Corders of Philadelphia, then on +strike. Shoe-binding was a home industry, existing in many of the +towns, and open to all the abuses of home-work. + +Lynn, Massachusetts, was then and for long after the center of +the shoe trade, and the scene of some of the earliest attempts of +home-workers to organize. + +1840-1860 + +Nothing in the history of women's organizations in the last century +leaves a more disheartening impression than the want of continuity in +the struggle, although there was never a break nor a let-up in the +conditions of low wages, interminably long hours, and general +poverty of existence which year in and year out were the lot of the +wage-earning women in the manufacturing districts. + +Although based in every instance upon a common and crying need, the +successive attempts of women at organization as a means of improving +their industrial condition are absolutely unrelated to one another. +Not only so, but it is pathetic to note that the brave women leaders +of women in one generation cannot even have known of the existence of +their predecessors in the self-same fight. They were not always too +well informed as to the conditions of their sister workers in other +cities or states, where distance alone severed them. But where time +made the gap, where they were separated by the distance of but one +lifetime, sometimes by a much shorter period, the severance seems to +have been to our way of thinking, strangely complete, and disastrously +so. Students had not begun to be interested in the troubles of +everyday folk, so there were no records of past occurrences of the +same sort that the workers could read. To hunt up in old files of +newspapers allusions to former strikes and former agreements is a +hard, slow task for the trained student of today; for those girls it +was impossible. We have no reason to believe that the names of Lavinia +Waight and Louisa Mitchell, the leaders of New York tailoresses in +1831, were known to Sarah Bagley or Huldah Stone, when in 1845 they +stirred Lowell. Each of the leaders whose names have come down to +us, and all of their unknown and unnamed followers had to take their +courage in their hands, think out for themselves the meaning of +intolerable conditions, and as best they could feel after the readiest +remedies. To these women the very meaning of international or even +interstate trade competition must have been unknown. They had every +one of them to learn by bitter experience how very useless the best +meant laws might be to insure just and humane treatment, if the ideal +of an out-of-date, and therefore fictitious, individual personal +liberty were allowed to overrule and annul the greatest good of the +greatest number. + +This second period was essentially a seedtime, a time of lofty ideals +and of very idealist philosophy. The writers of that day saw clearly +that there was much that was rotten in the State of Denmark, and +they wrought hard to find a way out, but they did not realize the +complexity of society any more than they recognized the economic basis +upon which all our social activities are built. They unquestionably +placed overmuch stress upon clearing the ground in patches, literally +as well as metaphorically. Hence it was that so many plans for general +reform produced so little definite result, except on the one hand +setting before the then rising generation a higher standard of social +responsibility which was destined deeply to tinge the after conduct +and social activities of that generation, and on the other hand much +social experimenting upon a small scale which stored up information +and experience for the future. For instance the work done in trying +out small coöperative experiments like that of Brook Farm has taught +the successors of the first community builders much that could only be +learned by practical experience, and not the least important of those +lessons has been how not to do it. + +The land question, which could have troubled no American when in +earlier days he felt himself part proprietor in a new world, was +beginning to be a problem to try the mettle of the keenest thinkers +and the most eager reformers. And even so early as the beginning of +this second period there was to be seen on the social horizon a small +cloud, no bigger than a man's hand, which was to grow and grow till in +a few years it was to blot out of sight all other matters of public +concern. This was the movement for the abolition of slavery. Till that +national anachronism was at least politically and legally cleared out +of the way, there was no great amount of public interest or public +effort to be spared for any other subject. And yet were there any, on +either side of that great question, who guessed that the passing of +that even then belated institution was to give rise to and leave in +its train problems quite as momentous as the abolition of slavery, and +far more tremendous in their scope and range? By these problems we +have been faced ever since, and continue to be faced by them today. +To grant to any set of people nominal freedom, and deny them economic +freedom is only half solving the difficulty. To deny economic freedom +to the colored person is in the end to deny it to the white person, +too. + +The immediate cause which seems to have brought about the downfall of +the labor organizations of the first period (1825-1840) was the panic +of 1837, and the long financial depression which succeeded. We read, +on the other side of the water, of the "Hungry Forties," and although +no such period of famine and profound misery fell to the lot of the +people of the United States, as Great Britain and Ireland suffered, +the influence of the depression was long and widely felt in the +manufacturing districts of the Eastern states. Secondarily the workers +were to know of its effects still later, through the invasion of +their industrial field by Irish immigrants, starved out by that same +depression, and by the potato famine that followed it. These newcomers +brought with them very un-American standards of living, and flooded +the labor market with labor unskilled and therefore cheaper than the +normal native supply. When the year 1845 came it is to be inferred +that the worst immediate effects of the financial distress had passed, +for from then on the working-women made repeated efforts to improve +their condition. Baffled in one direction they would turn in another. + +As earlier, there is a long series of local strikes, and another long +succession of short-lived local organizations. It is principally in +the textile trade that we hear of both strikes and unions, but also +among seamstresses and tailoresses, shoemakers and capmakers. New +York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Boston, Fall River and Lowell all +contributed their quota of industrial uprisings among the exasperated +and sorely pressed workers, with a sad similarity in the stories. + +In a class by themselves, however, were the female labor reform +associations, which for some years did excellent work in widely +separated cities. These were strictly trade unions, in spite of their +somewhat vague name. They seem to have drawn their membership from the +workers in the local trades. That of Lowell, perhaps the best known, +originated among the mill girls, but admitted other workers. Lowell, +as usual, was to the fore in the quality of its women leaders. The +first president of the Association was the brilliant and able Sarah +G. Bagley. She and other delegates went before the Massachusetts +legislative committee in 1845, and gave evidence as to the conditions +in the textile mills. This, the first American governmental +investigation, was brought about almost solely in response to the +petitions of the working-women, who had already secured thousands of +signatures of factory operatives to a petition asking for a ten-hour +law. + +The Lowell Association had their correspondent to the _Voice of +Industry_, and also a press committee to take note of and contradict +false statements appearing in the papers concerning factory +operatives. They had most modern ideas on the value of publicity, +and neglected no opportunity of keeping, the workers' cause well in +evidence, whether through "factory tracts," letters to the papers, +speeches or personal correspondence. They boldly attacked legislators +who were false to their trust, and in one case, at least, succeeded +in influencing an election, helping to secure the defeat of William +Schouler, chairman of that legislative committee before which the +women delegates had appeared, which they charged with dishonesty in +withholding from the legislature all the most important facts brought +forward by the trade-union witnesses. + +Other female labor reform associations existed about this period in +Manchester and Dover, New Hampshire. The first-named was particularly +active in securing the passage of the too soon wrecked ten-hour law. +In New York a similar body of women workers was organized in 1845 as +the Female Industrial Association. The sewing trades in many branches, +cap-makers, straw-workers, book-folders and stitchers and lace-makers +were among the trades represented. In Philadelphia the tailoresses in +1850 formed an industrial union. It maintained a coöperative tailoring +shop, backed by the support of such coöperative advocates as George +Lippard, John Shedden, Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Oakes Smith. In +1853 the Industrial Union published a report of its activities, +showing that in two years the business had paid away in wages to +tailoresses more than four thousand dollars. + +In the men's conventions of this time a number of women besides +the redoubtable Sarah Bagley took an active part, being seated as +delegates from their own labor reform associations. At the meeting in +1846 of the New England Workingmen's Association, for instance, Miss +Huldah J. Stone, of Lowell, was elected recording secretary, and Mrs. +C.N.M. Quimby was appointed one of the board of six directors. At all +the meetings of the New England Congress, which met several times a +year, the women's point of view was well presented by the delegates +from the various trades. + +The National Industrial Congress, organized first in New York in 1845, +and which met yearly for the next ten years, was supposed to stand for +all the interests of the workingman and woman, but gave most of its +attention to the land question and other subjects of general reform. +This scattered the energies of the organizations and weakened their +power as trade unions. But in the long anti-slavery agitation, which +was just then rising to its height on the eve of the Civil War, even +the land question was forgotten, and the voice of the trade unionists, +speaking for man or woman, was utterly unheeded. + +Imperfect as are the accounts that have come down to us, it is +clear that this second generation of trade unionists were educating +themselves to more competent methods of handling the industrial +problem. The women workers of Pittsburgh coöperated with the women +of New England in trying to obtain from the manufacturers of their +respective centers a promise that neither group would work their +establishments longer than ten hours a day--this, to meet the ready +objection so familiar in our ears still, that the competition of +other mills would make the concession in one center ruinous to the +manufacturers who should grant it. This was the crowning effort of +the Pittsburgh mill-workers to obtain improvement. Strikes for higher +wages had failed. Strikes for a ten-hour day had failed. And now it is +pitiful to write that even this interstate coöperation on the part of +the girls for relief by a peaceful trade agreement failed, too, the +employers falling back upon their "undoubted right" to run their +factories as many hours as they pleased. + +The women then appealed to the legislatures, and between 1847 and +1851, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Pennsylvania all passed ten-hour +laws.[A] But they were not passed simultaneously, which gave the +employers in the particular state dealt with, the excuse that under +such legislation they could not face interstate competition in their +business, and since every law contained a saving clause permitting +contracting out by individual employers and employés, all these +beneficial acts were so much waste paper. The manufacturers expressed +themselves as willing enough to stand for the shorter work-day, but +absolutely declined to risk the loss of their business in competing +with those rival manufacturers who might take advantage of the "saving +clause." + +[Footnote A: In the same year, 1847, a ten-hour law was passed in New +Hampshire and in Great Britain, with, however, very different outcome, +for in Great Britain the law was enforced, there being no complication +of state and national control there.] + +For nearly fifty years after this period, the right to overwork +and the "right" to be overworked remained untouched by legislative +interference. And yet the need for labor legislation, restricting +hours, and for uniform federal legislation was as clearly evident then +as it is to us today, to meet the industrial needs and to satisfy the +undoubted rights of the working folk of the twentieth century. + + +1860-1880 + +The organization of labor upon a national basis really began during +this period. During the ten years from 1863 to 1873 there existed more +than thirty national trade unions. Of these only two, the printers and +the cigar-makers, admitted women to their membership. But in addition +the women shoemakers had their own national union, the Daughters of +St. Crispin. Women's unions of all sorts were represented in the +National Labor Union. + +From this body women's local unions received every possible +encouragement. As far as I can understand, the National Labor Union +carried on little active work between conventions, but at these +gatherings it stood for equal pay for equal work, although, as it +appears to us, inconsistently and short-sightedly the delegates +refused to incorporate into their resolutions the demand for the +ballot as a needful weapon in the hands of women in their strivings +after industrial equality. The need for industrial equality had +been forced upon the apprehension of men unionists after they had +themselves suffered for long years from the undercutting competition +of women. That women needed to be strong politically in order that +they might be strong industrially was a step beyond these good +brothers. + +There were also two state labor unions, composed solely of women, the +Massachusetts Working-Women's League, and the Working-Women's Labor +Union for the state of New York. + +But most of the organization work among women was still local in +character. The New England girl was now practically out of the +business, driven out by the still more hardly pushed immigrant. With +her departure were lost to the trades she had practiced the remnants +of the experience and the education several generations of workers had +acquired in trade unionism and trade-union policy and methods. + +Still, at intervals and under sore disadvantages the poor newcomers +did some fighting on their own account. Although they were immigrants +they were of flesh and blood like their predecessors, and they +naturally rebelled against the ever-increasing amount of work that +was demanded of them. The two looms, formerly complained of, had now +increased to six and seven. The piece of cloth that used to be thirty +yards long was now forty-two yards, though the price per piece +remained the same. But strike after strike was lost. A notable +exception was the strike of the Fall River weavers in 1875. It was led +by the women weavers, who refused to accept a ten per cent. cut in +wages to which the men of the organization (for they were organized) +had agreed. The women went out in strike in the bitter month of +January, taking the men with them. The leaders selected three mills, +and struck against those, keeping the rest of their members at work, +in order to have sufficient funds for their purposes. Even so, 3,500 +looms and 156,000 spindles were thrown idle, and 3,125 strikers were +out. The strike lasted more than two months and was successful. + +Progress must have seemed at the time, may even seem to us looking +back, to be tantalizingly slow, but far oftener than in earlier days +do the annals of trade unionism report, "The strikers won." Another +feature is the ever-increasing interest and sympathy shown in such +industrial risings of the oppressed by a certain few among the more +fortunate members of society. One strike of cap-makers (men and +women), was helped to a successful issue by rich German bankers and +German societies. + +The account of the condition of women in the sewing trades during +the sixties makes appalling reading. The wonder is not that +the organizations of seamstresses during those years were few, +short-lived, and attended with little success, but that among women so +crushed and working at starvation wages any attempt at organization +should have been possible at all. A number of circumstances combined +to bring their earnings below, far below, the margin of subsistence. +It was still the day of pocket-money wages, when girls living at home +would take in sewing at prices which afforded them small luxuries, but +which cut the remuneration of the woman who had to live by her needle +to starvation point. + +It was still the period of transition in the introduction of the +sewing-machine. The wages earned under these circumstances were +incredibly low. The true sweating system with all its dire effects +upon the health of the worker, and threatening the very existence of +the home, was in full force. The enormous amount of work which was +given out in army contracts to supply the needs of the soldiers then +on active service in the Civil War, was sublet by contractors at the +following rates. The price paid by the Government for the making of +a shirt might be eighteen cents. Out of that all the worker would +receive would be seven cents. And cases are cited of old women, +presumably slow workers, who at these rates could earn but a dollar +and a half per week. Even young and strong workers were but little +better off. From innumerable cases brought to light $2 and $3 a week +seem to have been a common income for a woman. Some even "supported" +(Heaven save the mark!) others out of such wretched pittances. + +Aurora Phelps, of Boston, a born leader, in 1869, gave evidence that +there were then in Boston eight thousand sewing-women, who did not +earn over twenty-five cents a day, and that she herself had seen the +time when she could not afford to pay for soap and firing to wash her +own clothes. She said that she had known a girl to live for a week on +a five-cent loaf of bread a day, going from shop to shop in search of +the one bit of work she was able to do. For by this time division of +work had come in, and the average machine operator was paid as badly +as the hand needlewoman. + +The circumstance that probably more than any other accentuated this +terrible state of affairs was the addition to the ranks of the +wage-earners of thousands of "war widows." With homes broken up and +the breadwinner gone, these untrained women took up sewing as the only +thing they could do, and so overstocked the labor market that a +new "Song of the Shirt" rose from attic to basement in the poorer +districts of all the larger cities. + +As early as 1864 meetings were held in order to bring pressure upon +the officials who had the giving out of the army contracts, to have +the work given out direct, and therefore at advanced prices to the +worker. Only three months before his death, in January, 1865, these +facts reached President Lincoln, and were referred by him to the +quartermaster with a request that "he should hereafter manage the +supplies of contract work for the Government, made up by women, so as +to give them remunerative wages for labor." + +During these years a number of small unions were formed, some as far +west as Detroit and Chicago, but in almost every case the union later +became a coöperative society. Some of them, we know, ceased to exist +after a few months. Of others the forming of the organization is +recorded in some labor paper, and after a while the name drops out, +and nothing more is heard of it. + +Ten years later, in New York, there was formed a large, and for +several years very active association of umbrella-sewers. This +organization so impressed Mrs. Patterson, a visiting Englishwoman, +that when she returned home, she exerted herself to form unions among +working-women and encouraged others to do the same. It was through +her persistence that the British Women's Trade Union League came into +existence. + +If the conditions in the sewing trades were at this period the very +worst that it is possible to imagine, so low that organization from +within was impossible, while as yet the public mind was unprepared to +accept the alternative of legislative interference with either hours +or wages, there were other trades wherein conditions were far more +satisfactory, and in which organization had made considerable +progress. + +The Collar Laundry Workers of Troy, New York, had in 1866 about as bad +wages as the sewing-women everywhere, but they were spared the curse +of homework, as it was essentially a factory trade. The collars, cuffs +and shirts were made and laundered by workers of the same factories. +How early the workers organized is not known, but in the year 1866 +they had a union so prosperous that they were able to give one +thousand dollars from their treasury towards the assistance of the +striking ironmolders of Troy, and later on five hundred dollars to +help the striking bricklayers of New York. They had in course of time +succeeded in raising their own wages from the very low average of +two dollars and three dollars per week to a scale ranging from eight +dollars to fourteen dollars for different classes of work, although +their hours appear to have been very long, from twelve to fourteen +hours per day. But the laundresses wanted still more pay, and in May, +1869, they went on strike to the number of four hundred, but after a +desperate struggle, in which they were supported by the sympathy of +the townspeople, they were beaten, and their splendid union put out of +existence. + +Miss Kate Mullaney, their leader, was so highly thought of that in +1868 she had been made national organizer of women for the National +Labor Union, the first appointment of the kind of which there is any +record. She tried to save what she could out of the wreck of the +union by forming the Coöperative Linen, Collar and Cuff Factory, and +obtained for it the patronage of the great department store of A.T. +Stewart, in Broadway. + +The experiences of the women printers have been typical of the +difficulties which women have had to face in what is called a man's +trade of the highly organized class. The tragic alternative that is +too often offered to women, just as it is offered to any race or class +placed at an economic disadvantage, of being kept outside a skilled +trade, through the short-sighted policy of the workers in possession, +or of entering it by some back door, whether as mere undersellers or +as actual strike-breakers, is illustrated in all its phases in the +printing trade. + +As early as 1856 the Boston Typographical Union seriously considered +discharging any member found working with female compositors. This +feeling, though not always so bluntly expressed, lasted for many +years. It was not singular, therefore, that under these circumstances, +employers took advantage of such a situation, and whenever it suited +them, employed women. These were not even non-unionists, seeing that +as women they were by the men of their own trade judged ineligible for +admission to the union. It is believed that women were thus the means +of the printers losing many strikes. In 1864 the proprietor of one of +the Chicago daily papers boasted that he "placed materials in remote +rooms in the city and there secretly instructed girls to set type, and +kept them there till they were sufficiently proficient to enter the +office, and thus enabled the employer to take a 'snap judgment' on his +journeymen." + +After this a wiser policy was adopted by the typographical unions. The +keener-sighted among their members began not only to adopt a softer +tone towards their hardly pressed sisters in toil, but made it clear +that what they were really objecting to was the low wage for which +women worked. + +The first sign of the great change of heart was the action of the +"Big Six," of New York, which undertook all the initial expenses +of starting a women's union. On October 12, 1868, the Women's +Typographical Union No. 1 was organized, with Miss Augusta Lewis as +president. Within the next three years women were admitted into the +printers' unions of Chicago, Washington, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh +and Boston. Meantime, the Women's Typographical No. 1 was growing in +numbers and influence, and was evidently backed by the New York men's +union. It obtained national recognition on June 11, 1869, by receiving +a charter from the International Typographical Union of North America. +It was represented by two delegates at the International Convention +held in Cincinnati in 1870. One of these delegates was Miss Lewis +herself. She was elected corresponding secretary of the International +Union, and served, we are told, with unusual ability and tact. It is +less encouraging to have to add, that since her day, no woman has held +an international office. + +The two contrary views prevailing among men unionists: that of the +man who said, "Keep women out at all hazards--out of the union, +and therefore out of the best of the trade, but out of the trade, +altogether, if possible," and that of the man who resigned himself to +the inevitable and contented himself with urging equal pay, and with +insisting upon the women joining the union, were never more sharply +contrasted than in the cigar-making trade. We actually find the +International Union, which after 1867 by its constitution admitted +women, being openly defied in this vital matter by some of its own +largest city locals. These were the years during which the trade was +undergoing very radical changes. From being a home occupation, or an +occupation carried on in quite small establishments, requiring very +little capital, it was becoming more and more a factory trade. The +levying by the government of an internal revenue tax on cigars, and +the introduction of the molding machine, which could be operated by +unskilled girl labor, seem to have been the two principal influences +tending towards the creation of the big cigar-manufacturing plant. + +The national leaders recognized the full gravity of the problem, +and met it in a tolerant, rational spirit. Not so many of the local +bodies. Baltimore and Cincinnati cigar-makers were particularly +bitter, and the "Cincinnati Cigar-makers' Protective Union was for a +time denied affiliation with the International Union on account of its +attitude of absolute exclusion towards women." + +In 1887 the Cincinnati secretary (judging from his impatience we +wonder if he was a very young man) wrote: "We first used every +endeavor to get women into the union, but no one would join, therefore +we passed the resolution that if they would not work with us we would +work against them; but I think we have taught them a lesson that will +serve them another time." This unhappy spirit Cincinnati maintained +for several years. The men were but building up future difficulties +for themselves, as is evident from the fact that in Cincinnati itself +there were by 1880 several hundred women cigar-makers, and not one of +them in a union. + +As the Civil War had so profoundly affected the sewing trades, so +it was war, although not upon this continent, that added to the +difficulties of American cigar-makers. In the Austro-Prussian War, +the invading army entered Bohemia and destroyed the Bohemian cigar +factories. The workers, who, as far as we know, were mostly women, and +skilled women at that, emigrated in thousands to the United States, +and landing in New York either took up their trade there or went +further afield to other Eastern cities. This happened just about the +time that the processes of cigar-making were being subdivided and +specialized, so presently a very complicated situation resulted. +Finding the control of their trade slipping away from them, the +skilled men workers in the New York factories went out on strike, and +many of the Bohemian women, being also skilled, followed them, and so +it came about that it was American girls upon whom the manufacturers +had to depend as strike-breakers. Their reliance was justified. With +the aid of these girls, as well as that of men strike-breakers, the +employers gained the day. + +To what extent even the more intelligent trade-union leaders felt true +comradeship for their women co-workers it is difficult to say. The +underlying thought may often have been that safety for the man lay in +his insisting upon just and even favorable conditions for women. +Even under conditions of nominal equality the woman was so often +handicapped by her physique, by the difficulty she experienced in +obtaining thorough training, and by the additional claims of her home, +that the men must have felt they were likely to keep their hold on the +best positions anyhow, and perhaps all the more readily with the union +exacting identical standards of accomplishment from all workers, while +at the same time claiming for all identical standards of wages. + +There is certainly something of this idea in the plan outlined +by President Strasser of the International Cigar-makers, and he +represented the advance guard of his generation, in his annual report +in the year 1879. + +"We cannot drive the females out of the trade but we can restrict this +daily quota of labor through factory laws. No girl under eighteen +should be employed more than eight hours per day; all overwork should +be prohibited; while married women should be kept out of factories at +least six weeks before and six weeks after confinement." + +But it is a man's way out, after all, and it is the man's way still. +There is the same readiness shown today to save the woman from +overwork before and after confinement, although she may be thereby at +the same time deprived of the means of support, while there is no hint +of any provision for either herself or the baby, not to speak of other +children who may be dependent upon her. In many quarters today there +is the same willingness to stand for equal pay, but very little +anxiety to see that the young girl worker be as well trained as the +boy, in order that the girl may be able with reason and justice to +demand the same wage from an employer. + + + + +II + +WOMEN IN THE KNIGHTS OF LABOR + + +So little trace is left in the world of organized labor today of that +short-lived body, the Knights of Labor, that it might be thought +worthy of but slight notice in any general review. + +But women have peculiar reason to remember the Knights, and to be +grateful to them, for they were the first large national organization +to which women were admitted on terms of equality with men, and in the +work of the organization itself, they played an active and a notable +part. + +From the year 1869 till 1878 the Knights of Labor existed as a secret +order, having for its aim the improvement of living conditions. Its +philosophy and its policy were well expressed in the motto, taken from +the maxims of Solon, the Greek lawgiver: "That is the most perfect +government in which an injury to one is the concern of all." + +The career of the Knights of Labor, however, as an active force in the +community, began with the National Convention of 1878, from which time +it made efforts to cover the wage-earning and farming classes, which +had to constitute three-fourths of the membership. The organization +was formed distinctly upon the industrial and not upon the craft plan. +That is, instead of a local branch being confined to members of one +trade, the plan was to include representatives of different trades and +callings. That the fundamental interests of the wage-earner and the +farmer were identical, was not so much stated as taken for granted. +In defining eligibility for membership there were certain significant +exceptions made; the following, being considered as pursuing +distinctly antisocial occupations, were pointedly excluded: dealers +in intoxicants, lawyers, bankers, stock-brokers and professional +gamblers. + +Women were first formally admitted to the order in September, 1881. It +is said that Mrs. Terence V. Powderly, wife of the then Grand Master +Workman, was the first to join. It is not known that any figures +exist showing the number of women who at any one time belonged to the +Knights of Labor, but Dr. Andrews estimates the number, about the year +1886, when the order was most influential, at about 50,000. Among this +50,000 were a great variety of trades, but shoe-workers must have +predominated, and many of these had received their training in trade +unionism among the Daughters of St. Crispin. + +The Knights evidently took the view that the woman's industrial +problem must to a certain extent be handled apart from that of the +men, and more important still, that it must be handled as a whole. +This broad treatment of the subject was shown when at the convention +of 1885 it was voted, on the motion of Miss Mary Hannafin, a +saleswoman of Philadelphia, that a committee to collect statistics on +women's work be appointed. This committee consisted of Miss Hannafin +and Miss Mary Stirling, also of Philadelphia, and Mrs. Lizzie H. +Shute, of Haverhill, Massachusetts, who were the only women delegates +to the Convention. + +At the next convention, held in 1886 in Richmond, Virginia, there were +sixteen women delegates, out of a total of six hundred. Mr. Terence +V. Powderly, Grand Master Workman, appointed the sixteen women as +a committee to receive and consider the report of this previously +appointed special committee of three. The result of their +deliberations was sufficiently remarkable. They set an example to +their sex in taking the free and independent stand they did. For they +announced that they had "formed a permanent organization, the object +of which will be to investigate the abuses to which our sex is +subjected by unscrupulous employers, to agitate the principle which +our order teaches of equal pay for equal work and abolition of child +labor." They also recommended that the expenses of this new woman's +department and the expenses of a woman investigator should be borne by +the order. The report was adopted and the memorable Woman's Department +of the Knights of Labor was created. Memorable for the purpose and +the plan that underlay its foundation, it was also memorable for the +character and achievements of the brilliant, able and devoted woman +who was chosen as general investigator. + +Mrs. Leonora Barry was a young widow with three children. She had +tried to earn a living for them in a hosiery mill at Amsterdam, New +York. For herself her endeavor to work as a mill hand was singularly +unfortunate, for during her first week she earned but sixty-five +cents. But if she did not during that week master any of the processes +concerned in the making of machine-made stockings, she learned a good +deal more than this, a good deal more than she set out to learn. She +learned of the insults young girls were obliged to submit to on pain +of losing their jobs, and a righteous wrath grew within her at the +knowledge. During this hard time also she heard first of the Knights +of Labor, and having heard of them, she promptly joined. As she was +classified at the 1886 convention as a "machine hand," it is probable +that she had by this time taken up her original trade. + +For four years Mrs. Barry did fine work. She combined in a remarkable +degree qualities rarely found in the same individual. She followed in +no one's tracks, but planned out her own methods, and carried out a +campaign in which she fulfilled the duties of investigator, organizer +and public lecturer. This at a time when the means of traveling were +far more primitive than they are today; and not in one state alone, +for she covered almost all the Eastern half of the country. We know +that she went as far west as Leadville, Colorado, because of the +touching little story that is told of her visit there. In that town +she had founded the Martha Washington Assembly of the Knights of +Labor, and when she left she was given a small parcel with the request +that she would not open it until she reached home. But, as she tells +it herself, + + My woman's curiosity got the better of me, and I opened the + package, and found therein a purse which had been carried for + fifteen years by Brother Horgan, who was with us last year, + and inside of that a little souvenir in the shape of five + twenty-dollar gold pieces. You say that I was the instrument + through whose means the Martha Washington Assembly was organized. + This is partially true, but it is also true that the good and true + Knights of Leadville are as much the founder as I am. + +She possessed a social vision, and saw the problems of the wrongs of +women in relation to the general industrial question, so that in her +organizing work she was many-sided. The disputes that she was forever +settling, the apathy that she was forever encountering, she dealt with +in the tolerant spirit of one to whom these were but incidents in the +growth of the labor movement. In dealing with the "little ones" in +that movement we hear of her as only patient and helpful and offering +words of encouragement, however small the visible results of her +efforts might be. + +But towards those set in high places she could be intensely scornful, +as for instance when she is found appealing to the order itself, +asking that "more consideration be given, and more thorough +educational measures be adopted on behalf of the working-women of our +land, the majority of whom are entirely ignorant of the economic and +industrial question, which is to them of vital importance, and they +must ever remain so while the selfishness of their brothers in toil +is carried to such an extent as I find it to be among those who have +sworn to demand equal pay for equal work. Thus far in the history of +our order that part of our platform has been but a mockery of the +principle intended." + +Mrs. Barry started out to make regular investigations of different +trades in which women were employed, in order that she might +accurately inform herself and others as to what actual conditions +were. But here she received her first serious check. She had no legal +authority to enter any establishment where the proprietor objected, +and even in other cases, where permission had been given, she +discovered afterwards to her dismay that her visits had led to the +dismissal of those who had in all innocence given her information, +as in the case quoted of Sister Annie Conboy, a worker in a mill, in +Auburn, New York. But little was gained by shutting out such a bright +and observant woman. Mrs. Barry's practical knowledge of factory +conditions was already wide and her relations with workers of the +poorest and most oppressed class so intimate that little that she +wanted to know seems to have escaped her, and she was often the +channel through which information was furnished to the then newly +established state bureaus of labor. + +Baffled, however, in the further carrying out of her plans for a +thorough, and for that day, nation-wide investigation, she turned her +attention mainly to education and organizing, establishing new local +unions, helping those already in existence, and trying everywhere +to strengthen the spirit of the workers in striving to procure for +themselves improved standards. + +In her second year of work Mrs. Barry had the assistance of a most +able headquarters secretary, Mary O'Reilly, a cotton mill hand from +Providence, Rhode Island. During eleven months there were no fewer +than three hundred and thirty-seven applications for the presence +of the organizer. Out of these Mrs. Barry filled two hundred and +thirteen, traveling to nearly a hundred cities and towns, and +delivering one hundred public addresses. She was in great demand as a +speaker before women's organizations outside the labor movement, for +it was just about that time that women more fortunately placed were +beginning to be generally aroused to a shamefaced sense of their +responsibility for the hard lot of their poorer sisters. Thus she +spoke before the aristocratic Century Club of Philadelphia, and +attended the session of the International Women's Congress held in +Washington, D.C., in March and April, 1887. + +The wages of but two dollars and fifty cents or three dollars for a +week of eighty-four hours; the intolerable sufferings of the women and +child wage-earners recorded in her reports make heart-rending reading +today, especially when we realize how great in amount and how +continuous has been the suffering in all the intervening years. +So much publicity, however, and the undaunted spirit and unbroken +determination of a certain number of the workers have assuredly had +their effect, and some improvements there have been. + +Speeding up is, in all probability, worse today than ever. It is +difficult to compare wages without making a close investigation in +different localities and in many trades, and testing, by a comparison +with the cost of living, the real and not merely the money value of +wages, but there is a general agreement among authorities that +wages on the whole have not kept pace with the workers' necessary +expenditures. But in one respect the worker today is much better off. +At the time we are speaking of, the facts of the wrong conditions, +the low wages, the long hours, and the many irritating tyrannies the +workers had to bear, only rarely reached the public ear. Let us thank +God for our muck-rakers. Their stories and their pictures are all the +while making people realize that there is such a thing as a common +responsibility for the wrongs of individuals. + +Here is a managerial economy for you. The girls in a corset factory in +Newark, New Jersey, if not inside when the whistle stopped blowing (at +seven o'clock apparently) were locked out till half-past seven, and +then they were docked two hours for waste power. + +In a linen mill in Paterson, New Jersey, we are told how in one branch +the women stood on a stone floor with water from a revolving cylinder +flying constantly against the breast. They had in the coldest weather +to go home with underclothing dripping because they were allowed +neither space nor a few moments of time in which to change their +clothing. + +Mrs. Barry's work, educating, organizing, and latterly pushing forward +protective legislation continued up till her marriage with O.R. Lake, +a union printer, in 1890, when she finally withdrew from active +participation in the labor movement. + +Mrs. Barry could never have been afforded the opportunity even to set +out on her mission, had it not been for the support and coöperation of +other women delegates. The leaders in the Knights of Labor were ahead +of their time in so freely inviting women to take part in their +deliberations. It was at the seventh convention, in 1883, that +the first woman delegate appeared. She was Miss Mary Stirling, a +shoe-worker from Philadelphia. Miss Kate Dowling, of Rochester, New +York, had also been elected, but did not attend. Next year saw two +women, Miss Mary Hannafin, saleswoman, also from Philadelphia, and +Miss Louisa M. Eaton, of Lynn, probably a shoe-worker. During the +preceding year Miss Hannafin had taken an active part in protecting +the girls discharged in a lock-out in a Philadelphia shoe factory, not +only against the employer, but even against the weakness of some of +the men of her own assembly who were practically taking the side of +the strike-breakers, by organizing them into a rival assembly. The +question came up in the convention for settlement, and the delegates +voted for Miss Hannafin in the stand she had taken. + +It was upon her initiative, likewise, at the convention in the +following year, that the committee was formed to collect statistics +of women's work, and in the year after (1886), it was again Miss +Hannafin, the indefatigable, backed by the splendid force of sixteen +women delegates, who succeeded in having Mrs. Barry appointed general +investigator. + +One of the most active and devoted women in the Knights of Labor was +Mrs. George Rodgers, then and still of Chicago. For a good many years +she had been in a quiet way educating and organizing among the girls +in her own neighborhood, and had organized a working-women's union +there. For seven years she attended the state assembly of the Knights +of Labor, and was judge of the district court of the organization. +But it is by her attendance as one of the sixteen women at the 1886 +National Convention, which was held in Richmond, Virginia, that she is +best remembered. She registered as "housekeeper" and a housekeeper +she must indeed have been, with all her outside interests a busy +housemother. There accompanied her to the gathering her baby of two +weeks old, the youngest of her twelve children. To this youthful trade +unionist, a little girl, the convention voted the highest numbered +badge (800), and also presented her with a valuable watch and chain, +for use in future years. + +One cannot help suspecting that such an unusual representation of +women must have been the reward of some special effort, for it was +never repeated. Subsequent conventions saw but two or three seated to +plead women's cause. At the 1890 convention, the occasion on which +Mrs. Barry sent in her letter of resignation, there was but one woman +delegate. She was the remarkable Alzina P. Stevens, originally a mill +hand, but at this time a journalist of Toledo, Ohio. The men offered +the now vacant post of general investigator to her, but she declined. +However, between this period and her too early death, Mrs. Stevens was +yet to do notable work for the labor movement. + +During the years that the Knights of Labor were active, the women +members were not only to be found in the mixed assemblies, but between +1881 and 1886 there are recorded the chartering of no fewer than one +hundred and ninety local assemblies composed entirely of women. Even +distant centers like Memphis, Little Rock and San Francisco were drawn +upon, as well as the manufacturing towns in Ontario, Canada. Besides +those formed of workers in separate trades, such as shoe-workers, mill +operatives, and garment-workers, there were locals, like the federal +labor unions of today, in which those engaged in various occupations +would unite together. Some of the women's locals existed for a good +many years, but a large proportion are recorded as having lapsed or +suspended after one or two years. Apart from the usual difficulties in +holding women's organizations together, there is no doubt that many +locals, both of men and of women, were organized far too hastily, +without the members having the least understanding of the first +principles of trade unionism, or indeed of any side of the industrial +question. + +The organizers attempted far too much, and neglected the slow, solid +work of preparation, and the no less important follow-up work; this +had much to do with the early decline of the entire organization. The +women's end of the movement suffered first and most quickly. From 1890 +on, the women's membership became smaller and smaller, until practical +interest by women and for women in the body wholly died out. + +But the genuine workers had sown seed of which another movement was to +reap the results. The year 1886 was the year of the first meeting +of the American Federation of Labor as we know it. With its gradual +development, the growth of the modern trade-union movement among women +is inextricably bound up. + + + + +III + +THE BEGINNINGS OF MODERN ORGANIZATION + + +As the Knights of Labor declined, the American Federation of Labor was +rising to power and influence. It was at first known as the Federation +of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada, +and organized under its present name in 1886. For some time the +Knights of Labor and the younger organization exchanged greetings and +counsel, and some of the leaders cherished the expectation that the +field of effort was large enough to give scope to both. The American +Federation of Labor, being a federation of trade unions, kept well in +view the strengthening of strictly trade organizations. The Knights, +as we have seen, were on the other hand, far more loosely organized, +containing many members, both men and women, and even whole +assemblies, outside of any trade, and they were therefore inclined to +give a large share of their attention to matters of general reform, +outside of purely trade-union or labor questions. It was the very +largeness of their program which proved in the end a source of +weakness, while latterly the activities of the organization +became clogged by the burden of a membership with no intelligent +understanding of the platform and aims. + +But although the absence of adequate restrictions on admission to +membership, and the ease of affiliation, not to speak of other +reasons, had led to the acceptance of numbers of those who were only +nominally interested in trade unionism, it had also permitted the +entry of a band of women, not all qualified as wage-workers, but +in faith and deed devoted trade unionists, and keenly alive to the +necessity of bringing the wage-earning woman into the labor movement. +The energies of this group were evidently sadly missed during the +early years of the American Federation of Labor. + +The present national organization came into existence in 1881, under +the style and title of the Federation of Trades and Labor Unions of +the United States and Canada. It reorganized at the convention of +1886, and adopted the present name, the American Federation of Labor. +It was built up by trade-union members of the skilled trades, and to +them trade qualifications and trade autonomy were essential articles +of faith. This was a much more solid groundwork upon which to raise a +labor movement. But at first it worked none too well for the women, +although as the national organizations with women members joined the +Federation the women were necessarily taken in, too. Likewise they +shared in some, at least, of the benefits and advantages accruing from +the linking together of the organized workers in one strong body. But +the unions of which the new organization was composed in these early +days were principally unions in what were exclusively men's trades, +such as the building and iron trades, mining and so on. In the trades, +again, in which women were engaged, they were not in any great numbers +to be found in the union of the trade. So the inferior position held +by women in the industrial world was therefore inevitably reflected in +the Federation. It is true that time after time, in the very earliest +conventions, resolutions would be passed recommending the organization +of women. But matters went no further. + +In 1882 Mrs. Charlotte Smith, president and representative of an +organization styled variously the Women's National Labor League, and +the Women's National Industrial League, presented a memorial to the +Convention of the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (the +Federation's name at that time), asking for the advice, assistance and +coöperation of labor organizations. She mentioned that in 1880, there +were recorded 2,647,157 women as employed in gainful occupations. A +favorable resolution followed. At the convention of 1885, she was +again present, and was accorded a seat without a vote. On her request +again the delegates committed themselves to a resolution favoring the +organization of women. + +In 1890 Delegate T.J. Morgan, of Chicago, introduced, and the +convention passed, a resolution, favoring the submission to Congress +of an amendment extending the right of suffrage to women. At this +convention appeared the first fully accredited woman delegate, Mrs. +Mary Burke, of the Retail Clerks, from Findlay, Ohio. A resolution was +introduced and received endorsement, but no action followed. It +asked for the placing in the field of a sufficient number of women +organizers to labor in behalf of the emancipation of women of the +wage-working class. + +In 1891 there were present at the annual convention of the American +Federation of Labor Mrs. Eva McDonald Valesh and Miss Ida Van Etten. +A committee was appointed with Mrs. Valesh as chairman and Miss Van +Etten as secretary. They brought in a report that the convention +create the office of national organizer, the organizer to be a woman +at a salary of twelve hundred dollars a year and expenses, to be +appointed the following January, and that the constitution be so +amended that the woman organizer have a seat on the Executive Board. +The latter suggestion was not acted upon. But Miss Mary E. Kenney of +the Bindery Women (now Mrs. Mary Kenney O'Sullivan) was appointed +organizer, and held the position for five months. She attended the +1892 convention as a fully accredited delegate. Naturally she could +produce no very marked results in that brief period, and the remark +is made that her work was of necessity of a pioneer and missionary +character rather than one of immediate results--a self-evident +commentary. Later women were organizers for brief periods, one being +Miss Anna Fitzgerald, of the National Women's Label League. + +As years passed on, and the American Federation of Labor grew by the +affiliation of almost all the national trade unions, it became the one +acknowledged central national body. Along with the men, such women +as were in the organizations came in, too. But it was only as a rare +exception that we heard of women delegates, and no woman has ever yet +had a seat upon the Executive Board, although women delegates have +been appointed upon both special and standing committees. + +The responsibility for this must be shared by all. It is partly an +outgrowth of the backward state of the women themselves. They are at +a disadvantage in their lack of training, their lower wages and their +unconsciousness of the benefits of organization; also owing to the +fact that such a large number of women are engaged in the unskilled +trades that are hardest to organize. On the other hand, neither the +national unions, the state and central bodies, nor the local unions +have ever realized the value of the women membership they actually +have, nor the urgent necessity that exists for organizing all +working-women. To their own trade gatherings even, they have rarely +admitted women delegates in proportion to the number of women workers. +Only now and then, even today, do we find a woman upon the executive +board of a national trade union, and when it comes to electing +delegates to labor's yearly national gathering, it is men who are +chosen, even in a trade like the garment-workers, in which there is a +great preponderance of women. + +Of the important international unions with women members there are but +two which have a continuous, unbroken history of over fifty years. +These are the Typographical Union, dating back to 1850, and the Cigar +Makers' International Union, which was founded in 1864. + +Other international bodies, founded since, are: + + Boot and Shoe Workers' Union. 1889 + Hotel and Restaurant Employés Union. 1890 + Retail Clerks' International Protective Association. 1890 + United Garment Workers of America. 1891 + International Brotherhood of Bookbinders. 1892 + Tobacco Workers' International Union. 1895 + International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. 1900 + Shirt, Waist and Laundry Workers International U'n. 1900 + United Textile Workers' Union. 1901 + International Glove Workers' Union of N. America. 1902 + +One group of unions, older than any of these, dating back to 1885, are +the locals of the hat trimmers. These workers belong to no national +organization, and it is only recently that they have been affiliated +with the American Federation of Labor. They are not, as might be +judged from the title, milliners; they trim and bind men's hats. They +coöperate with the Panama and Straw Hat Trimmers and Operators. In New +York the hat trimmers and the workers in straw are combined into one +organization, under the name of the United Felt, Panama and Straw Hat +Trimmers' and Operators' Union of Greater New York. The Hat Trimmers +are almost wholly a women's organization, and their affairs are +controlled almost entirely by women. The various locals coöperate with +and support one another. But in their stage of organization this group +of unions closely resembles the local unions, whether of men or +women, which existed in so many trades before the day of nation-wide +organizations set in. Eventually it must come about that they join the +national organization. Outside of New York there are locals in New +Jersey, Massachusetts and Connecticut. The parent union is that of +Danbury, Connecticut. + +The girl hat-trimmers, under the leadership of Melinda Scott, of +Newark and New York, have during the last ten years improved both +wages and conditions and have besides increased their numbers and +aided in forming new locals in other centers. They are known in the +annals of organized labor chiefly for the loyalty and devotion they +showed during the strike of the Danbury hatters in 1909. They not only +refused, to a girl, to go back to work, when that would have broken +the strike, but time after time, when money was collected and sent to +them, even as large a sum as one thousand dollars, they handed it +over to the men's organizations, feeling that the men, with wives +and children dependent upon them, were in even greater need than +themselves. "Seeing the larger vision and recognizing the greater +need, these young women gave to the mother and the child of their +working brothers. Although a small group, there is none whose members +have shown a more complete understanding of the inner meaning of trade +unionism, or a finer spirit of self-sacrifice in the service of their +fellows." + +When we try to estimate the power of a movement, we judge it by its +numbers, by its activities, and by its influence upon other movements. + +As to the numbers of women trade unionists, we have very imperfect +statistics upon which to base any finding. If the statistics kept by +the Labor Bureau of the state of New York can be taken as typical of +conditions in other parts of the country, and they probably can, +the proportion of women unionists has not at all kept pace with the +increasing numbers of men organized. In 1894 there were in that state +149,709 men trade unionists, and 7,488 women. In 1902 both had about +doubled their numbers--these read: men, 313,592; women, 15,509. By +1908, however, while there were then of men, 363,761, the women had +diminished to 10,698. Since then, we have to note a marked change, +beginning with 1910, and continuing ever since. In 1913 the unionized +men reached 568,726, and the women 78,522. The increase of men in +the organized trades of the state during the twelvemonth preceding +September 30, 1913, was twenty per cent., while of women it was +one hundred and eleven per cent. This enormous increase, more than +doubling the entire union strength among women, is mainly due to the +successful organization in the garment trades in New York City. + +So far there has been no adequate investigation covering the +activities of women in the labor world during the last or modern +period. We know that after the panic of 1893, which dealt a blow to +trade unionism among men, the movement among women was almost at a +standstill. We may feel that the international unions have failed to +see the light, and have mostly fallen far short of what they might +have done in promoting the organization of women workers; but we must +acknowledge with thankfulness the fact that they have at least kept +alive the tradition of trade unionism among women, and have thus +prepared the way for the education and the organization of the women +workers by the women workers themselves. + +As to legislation, the steady improvement brought about through the +limitation of hours, through modern sanitary regulations, and through +child-labor laws, has all along been supported by a handful +of trade-union women, working especially through the national +organizations, in which, as members, they made their influence felt. + +There were always brave souls among the women, and chivalrous souls, +here and there among the men, and the struggles made to form and keep +alive tiny local unions we shall probably never know, for no complete +records exist. The only way in which the ground can be even partially +covered is by a series of studies in each locality, such as the one +made by Miss Lillian Matthews, through her work in San Francisco. + +In this connection it must be remembered that those uprisings among +women of the last century, were after all local and limited in +their effects and range. Most of them bore no relation to national +organization of even the trade involved, still less to an +all-embracing, national labor organization, such as the American +Federation of Labor. In these earlier stages, when organization of +both men and women was mainly local, women's influence, when felt +at all, was felt strongly within the locality affected, and it is +therefore only there that we hear about it. + +Still, twenty-five years ago, the day of national organization had +already dawned. To organize a trade on a national scale is at best a +slow process, and it naturally takes a much longer time for women to +influence and enter into the administrative work of a national union, +than of a separate local union, which perhaps they have helped to +found. They are therefore too apt to lose touch with the big national +union, and even with its local branch in their own city. It is almost +like the difference between the small home kitchen, with whose +possibilities a woman is familiar, and the great food-producing +factory, run on a business scale, whose management seems to her +something far-removed and unfamiliar. It was not until 1904, when the +National Women's Trade Union League was formed out of unions with +women members, that women workers, as women, can be said to have begun +national organization at all. The account of that body is reserved for +another chapter. + +Meanwhile as instances of the many determined localized efforts among +women to raise wages and better conditions, there follow here outlines +of the formation of the Working Women's Society in New York, the +successful organization of the Laundry Workers in San Francisco, and +of the splendid but defeated struggle of the girls in the packing +plants of Chicago. + +In 1886 a small body of working-women, of whom Leonora O'Reilly was +one, began holding meetings on the. East Side of New York City, to +inquire into and talk over bad conditions, and see how they could be +remedied. They were shortly joined by some women of position, who saw +in this spontaneous effort one promising remedy, at least for some of +the gross evils of underpayment, overwork and humiliation suffered by +the working-women and girls of New York, in common with those in +every industrial center. Among those other women who thus gave their +support, and gave it in the truly democratic spirit, were the famous +Josephine Shaw Lowell, Mrs. Robert Abbé, Miss Arria Huntingdon and +Miss L.S. Perkins, who was the first treasurer of the little group. +Mrs. Lowell's long experience in public work, and her unusual +executive ability were of much value at first. The result of the +meetings was the formation of the Working Women's Society. They held +their first public meeting on February 2, 1888. In their announcement +of principles they declared "the need of a central society, which +shall gather together those already devoted to the cause of +organization among women, shall collect statistics and publish facts, +shall be ready to furnish information and advice, and, above all, +shall continue and increase agitation on this subject." Among their +specific objects were "to found trade organizations, where they do not +exist, and to encourage and assist existing labor organizations, to +the end of increasing wages and shortening hours." Another object was +to promote the passing and the enforcement of laws for the protection +of women and children in factories, and yet another the following up +of cases of injustice in the shops. + +The Working Women's Society gave very valuable aid in the +feather-workers' strike. Without the Society's backing the women could +never have had their case put before the public as it was. Again, it +was through their efforts, chiefly, that the law was passed in 1890, +providing for women factory inspectors in the state of New York. It is +stated that this was the first law of the kind in the world, and that +the British law, passed shortly afterwards, was founded upon its +provisions. + +Not limiting itself to helping in direct labor organization, and +legislation, the Working Women's Society undertook among the more +fortunate classes a campaign of sorely needed education, and made upon +them, at the same time, a claim for full and active coöperation in the +battle for industrial justice. + +This was done through the foundation of the Consumers' League of New +York, now a branch of the National Consumers' League, which has done +good and faithful service in bringing home to many some sense of +the moral responsibility of the purchaser in maintaining oppressive +industrial conditions, while, on the other hand it has persistently +striven for better standards of labor legislation. It was through the +Consumers' League, and especially through the ability and industry of +its notable officer, Josephine Goldmark, that the remarkable mass of +information on the toxic effects of fatigue, and the legislation +to check overwork already in force in other countries was brought +together in such complete form, as to enable Louis Brandeis to +successfully defend the ten-hour law for women, first for Oregon, and +afterwards for Illinois. The Working Women's Society did its work at a +time when organization for women was even more unpopular than today. +It did much to lessen that unpopularity, and to hearten its members +for the never-ending struggle. All its agitation told, and prepared +the way for the Women's Trade Union League, which, a decade later, +took up the very same task. + +In the year 1900, the status of the steam-laundry-workers of San +Francisco was about as low as could possibly be imagined. White men +and girls had come into the trade about 1888, taking the place of +the Chinese, who had been the first laundrymen on the West Coast. +Regarding their treatment, Miss Lillian Ruth Matthews writes: + + The conditions surrounding the employment of these first white + workers were among those survivals from the eighteenth century, + which still linger incongruously in our modern industrial + organization. The "living-in" system was the order, each laundry + providing board and lodging for its employés. The dormitories were + wretched places, with four beds in each small room. The food was + poor and scanty, and even though the girls worked till midnight or + after, no food was allowed after the evening meal at six o'clock. + Half-an-hour only was allowed for lunch. Early in the morning, the + women were routed out in no gentle manner and by six o'clock the + unwholesome breakfast was over, and every one hard at work.... + The girls were physically depleted from their hard work and poor + nourishment. Their hands were "blistered and puffed, their feet + swollen, calloused, and sore." One girl said, "Many a time I've + been so tired that I hadn't the courage to take my clothes off. + I've thrown myself on the bed and slept like dead until I got so + cold and cramped that at two or three in the morning I'd rouse + up and undress and crawl into bed, only to crawl out again at + half-past five." + +As to wages, under the wretched "living-in" system the girls received +but eight dollars and ten dollars a month in money. But even those who +lived at home in no instance received more than twenty-five dollars +a month, and in many cases widows with children to support would be +trying to do their duty by their little ones on seventeen dollars and +fifty cents a month. + +In the summer of 1900, letters many of them anonymous, were received +both by the State Labor Commissioner and by the newspapers. A reporter +from the _San Francisco Examiner_ took a job as a laundry-worker, and +published appalling accounts of miserable wages, utter slavery as to +hours and degrading conditions generally. Even the city ordinance +forbidding work after ten at night (!) was found to be flagrantly +violated, the girls continually working till midnight, and sometimes +till two in the morning. + +The first measure of improvement was the passing of a new ordinance, +forbidding work after seven in the evening. The workers, however, +promptly realized that the more humane regulation was likely to be as +ill enforced as the former one had been unless there was a union to +see that it was carried out. + +About three hundred of the men organized, and applied to the Laundry +Workers' International Union for a charter. The men did not wish +to take the women in, but the executive board of the national +organization, to their everlasting credit, refused the charter unless +the women were taken in as well. Even so, a great many of the women +were too frightened to take any steps themselves, as the employers +were already threatening with dismissal any who dared to join a union, +but the most courageous of the girls, with the help of some of the +best of the men resolved to go on. Hannah Mahony, now Mrs. Hannah +Nolan, Labor Inspector, took up the difficult task of organizing. So +energetic and successful was she, that in sixteen weeks the majority +of the girls, as well as the men, had joined the new union. It was all +carried out secretly, and only when they felt themselves strong enough +did they come out into the open with a demand for a higher wage-scale +and shorter hours. + +By April 1, 1901, the conditions in the laundry industry were +effectually revolutionized. The boarding system was abolished, wages +were substantially increased and the working day was shortened; girls +who had been receiving $8 and $10 a month were now paid $6 and $10 a +week; ten hours was declared to constitute the working day and nine +holidays a year were allowed. For overtime the employés were to be +paid at the rate of time and a half. An hour was to be taken at noon, +and any employé violating this rule was to be fined. The fine was +devised as an educative reminder of the new obligation the laborers +were under to protect one another, and to raise the standard of the +industry upon which they must depend for a living, so fearful was the +union that old conditions might creep insidiously back upon workers +unaccustomed to independence. + +The next step was the nine-hour day, and this in good time was +obtained too, but only as the result of the power of the strong, +well-managed union. + +The union was just five years old, when unheard-of disaster fell on +San Francisco, the earthquake and fire. Well indeed did the members +stand the test. Like their fellow-unionists, the waitresses, they +made such good use of their trade-union solidarity, and showed such +courage, wisdom and resource, that the union became even more to the +laundry-workers than it had been before this severe trial of its +worth. Two-thirds of the steam laundries had been destroyed, likewise +the union headquarters. Yet within a week all the camps and bread +lines had been visited, and members requested to register at the +secretary's home, and called together to a meeting. + +Temporary headquarters were found and opened as a relief station, +where members were supplied with clothing and shoes. Within another +week the nine laundries that had escaped the fire resumed work, the +employés going back under the old agreement. + +By the time the next April came round nine of the burnt laundries were +rebuilt, all on the most modern scale as to design and fittings, and +equipped with the very newest machinery. But still there were only +eighteen steam laundries to meet all San Francisco's needs, and +therefore business was very brisk. So in April, 1907, it seemed good +to the union leaders to try for better terms when renewing their +agreement. When they made their demand for the eight-hour day as well +as for increased wages, the proprietors refused, and eleven hundred +workers went out, the entire working force of fourteen laundries. The +other four laundries, with but two hundred workers altogether, had the +old agreement signed up, and kept on working. The strike lasted eleven +weeks, and cost the union over $24,000. Meanwhile the Conciliation +Committee of the Labor Council, after many conferences and much effort +succeeded in arranging a compromise, the working week to be fifty-one +hours, with a sliding scale under which the eight-hour day would +be reached in April, 1910. Work before seven in the morning was +prohibited, all time after five o'clock was considered overtime, +and must be paid for at time-and-a-half rate. The passing of the +eight-hour law in May, 1911, suggested to some ingenious employers a +method of getting behind their own agreement, at least to the extent +of utilizing their plant to the utmost. They accordingly proposed to +free themselves from any obligation to pay overtime, as long as the +eight consecutive hours were not exceeded. The leaders of the union +saw the danger lurking under this suggestion, in that it might mean +all sorts of irregular hours, or even a two-shift system, involving +perpetual night work, and going home from work long distances in the +middle of the night. After many months of haggling, the union won its +point. All work after five o'clock was to be paid at overtime rate, +with the exception of Monday, when the closing time was made six. This +because in all laundries there is apt to be delay in starting work on +Monday, as hardly any work can be done until the drivers have come in +from their first round, with bundles of soiled linen. This arrangement +remained in force at time of writing. + +As regards wages, Miss Matthews estimates the average increase in the +twelve years since the Steam Laundry Workers' Union was first formed +at about thirty per cent. With the exception of the head marker, and +the head washer at the one end, each at twenty-two dollars and fifty +cents per week, and the little shaker girl on the mangle at seven +dollars per week at the other, wages range from eighteen dollars down +to eight dollars, more than the scale, however, being paid, it is +said, to every worker with some skill and experience. Apprentices are +allowed for in the union agreement. + +The union does not permit its members to work at unguarded machinery, +hence accidents are rare, and for such as do happen, usually slight +ones, like burns, the union officials are inclined to hold the workers +themselves responsible. + +All of the steam laundries in San Francisco, now thirty-two in number, +are unionized, including the laundries operated in one of the largest +hotels. The union regards with just pride and satisfaction the fine +conditions, short hours and comparatively high wages which its trade +enjoys, as well as the improved social standards and the spirit of +independence and coöperation which are the fruit of these many years +of union activity. + +But outside the labor organization, and at once a sad contrast and a +possible menace, lie two groups of businesses, the French laundries +and the Japanese laundries. The former are mostly conducted on the +old, out-of-date lines of a passing domestic industry, housed in +made-over washrooms and ironing rooms, equipped with little modern +machinery, most of the work being done by hand, and the employés being +often the family or at least the relatives of the proprietor. In their +present stage it is quite difficult to unionize these establishments +and they do cut prices for the proprietors of the steam laundries. + +But both steam laundries and French laundries, both employers and +workers, both unionists and non-unionists are at least found in +agreement in their united opposition to the Japanese laundries, from +whose competition all parties suffer, and in this they are backed +by the whole of organized labor. The possibility of unionizing the +Japanese laundries is not even considered. + +The story of the Steam Laundry Workers' Union of San Francisco is an +encouraging lesson to those toilers in any craft who go on strike. But +it also holds for them a warning. A successful strike is a good thing, +for the most part, but its gains can be made permanent only if, when +the excitement of the strike is over, the workers act up to their +principles and keep their union together. The leaders must remember +that numbers alone do not make strength, that most of the rank and +file, and not unfrequently the leaders too, need the apprenticeship +of long experience before any union can be a strong organization. The +union's choicest gift to its membership lies in the opportunity +thus offered to the whole of the members to grow into the spirit of +fellowship. + + +A few words should be said here of another strike among +laundry-workers, this time almost entirely women, which although as +bravely contested, ended in complete failure. This was the strike of +the starchers in the Troy, New York, shirt and collar trade. In the +Federal Report on the Condition of Women and Child Wage Earners, Mr. +W.P.D. Bliss gives a brief account of it. In 1905 the starchers +had their wages cut, and at the same time some heavy machinery was +introduced. The starchers went out, and organized a union, which over +one thousand women joined. They kept up the struggle from June, 1905, +throughout a whole summer, autumn and winter till March, 1906. It was +up till that time, probably the largest women's strike that had +ever taken place in this country and was conducted with uncommon +persistence and steadiness of purpose. They were backed by the +international union, and appointing a committee visited various +cities, and obtained, it is said, about twenty-five thousand dollars +in this way for the support of their members. Many meetings and street +demonstrations were held in Troy, and much bitter feeling existed +between the strikers and the non-union help brought in. The strike at +length collapsed; the firms continued to introduce more machinery, +and the girls had to submit. Mr. Bliss concludes: "The Troy union +was broken up and since then has had little more than a nominal +existence." + +During the nineties there were a number of efforts made to organize +working-women in Chicago. Some unions were organized at Hull House, +where Mrs. Alzina P. Stevens and Mrs. Florence Kelley were then +residents. Mrs. George Rodgers (K. of L.), Mrs. Robert Howe, Dr. +Fannie Dickenson, Mrs. Corinne Brown, Mrs. T.J. Morgan, Mrs. Frank +J. Pearson, Mrs. Fannie Kavanagh and Miss Lizzie Ford were active +workers. Miss Mary E. Kenney (Mrs. O'Sullivan), afterwards the first +woman organizer under the American Federation of Labor, was +another. She was successful in reaching the girls in her own trade +(book-binding), besides those in the garment trades and in the shoe +factories, also in bringing the need for collective bargaining +strongly before social and settlement workers. + +Chicago has long been the largest and the most important among the +centers of the meat-packing industry. None of the food trades have +received more investigation and publicity, and the need for yet +more publicity, and for stricter and yet stricter supervision is +perpetually being emphasized. But most of the efforts that have +been made to awake and keep alive a sense of public rights and +responsibility in the conducting of huge institutions like the Chicago +packing-plants, have centered on the danger to the health of the +consumer through eating diseased or decomposed meat. The public cares +little, and has not troubled to learn much about the conditions of the +workers, without whom there could be no stockyards and no meat-packing +industry. Not that some of the investigators have not tried to bring +this point forward. It was the chief aim of Upton Sinclair, when he +wrote "The Jungle," and yet even he discovered to his dismay that, as +he bitterly phrased it, he had hoped to strike at the heart of the +American people, and he had only hit them in their stomach. + +But that is a story by itself. Let us go back to the brave struggle +begun by the women in the packing-plants in the year 1902 to improve +their conditions by organizing. + +For a great many years prior to this, women had been employed in +certain branches of the work, such as painting cans and pasting on +labels. But towards the close of the nineties the packers began to put +women into departments that had always been staffed by men. So it was +when girls began to wield the knife that the men workers first began +to fear the competition of the "petticoat butchers." The idea of +organizing the girls, were they painters or butchers, as a way of +meeting this new menace, did not occur to them. + +At this time, in the fall of 1902, the oldest and best workers were +Irish girls, with all the wit and quickness of their race. Especially +was Maggie Condon a favorite and a leader. She was an extremely quick +worker. With the temperament of an idealist, she took a pride in her +work, liked to do it well, and was especially successful in turning +out a great amount of work. Quicker and quicker she became till, on +the basis of the good wages she was making, she built up dreams of +comfort for herself and her family. One of her choicest ambitions was +to be able to afford a room of her own. But just so surely as she +reached the point where such a luxury would be possible, just so +surely would come the cut in wages, and she had to begin this driving +of herself all over again. Three times this happened. When her well +and hardly earned twenty-two dollars was cut the third time Maggie +realized that this was no way to mend matters. The harder she worked, +the worse she was paid! And not only was she paid worse, she who as +one of the best workers could stand a reduction better than most, but +the cut went all down the line, and affected the poorest paid and the +slowest workers as well. + +Hannah O'Day was not one of the quick ones. Her strength had been too +early sapped. There was no child-labor law in Illinois when she should +have been at school, and at eleven she was already a wage-earner. +Along with the rest she also had suffered from the repeated cuts that +the pace-making of the ones at the top had brought about. It was +evident that something must be done. Maggie Condon, Hannah O'Day and +some of the others, began, first to think, and then to talk over the +matter with one another. They knew about the Haymarket trouble. There +were rumors of a strike the men had once had. They had heard of the +Knights of Labor, and wrote to someone, but nothing came of it. So +one day, when there was more than usual cause for irritation +and discouragement, what did Hannah O'Day do but tie a red silk +handkerchief to the end of a stick. With this for their banner and the +two leaders at their head, a whole troop of girls marched out into +Packingtown. + +The strike ended as most such strikes of the unorganized, unprepared +for, and unfinanced sort, must end, in failure, in the return to work +on no better terms of the rank and file, and in the black-listing of +the leaders. But the idea of organization had taken root, and this +group of Irish girls still clung together. "We can't have a union," +said one, "but we must have something. Let us have a club, and we'll +call it the Maud Gonne Club." This is touching remembrance of the +Irish woman patriot. + +Time passed on, and one evening during the winter of 1903 Miss Mary +McDowell, of the University of Chicago Settlement, was talking at a +Union Label League meeting, and she brought out some facts from what +she knew of the condition of the women workers in the packing-houses, +showing what a menace to the whole of the working world was the +underpaid woman. This got into the papers, and Maggie Condon and her +sister read it, and felt that here was a woman who understood. And she +was in their own district, too. + +So it came about that the Maud Gonne Club became slowly transformed +into a real union. This took quite a while. The girls interested used +to come over once a week to the Settlement, where Michael Donnelly +was their tutor and helper. Miss McDowell carefully absented herself, +feeling that she wanted the girls to manage their own affairs, until +it transpired that they wished her to be there, and thought it strange +that she should be so punctilious. After that she attended almost +every meeting. When they felt ready, they obtained the charter with +eight charter members and were known as Local 183 of the Amalgamated +Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America. Little by little +the local grew in numbers. One July night the meeting was particularly +well attended and particularly lively, none the less so that +the discussion was carried on to the accompaniment of a violent +thunderstorm, the remarks of the excitable speakers being punctuated +by flashes of lightning and crashes of thunder. The matter under +consideration was to parade or not to parade on the coming Labor Day. +The anxious question to decide was whether they could by their +numbers make an impression great enough to balance the dangers of the +individual and risky publicity. + +The vote was cast in favor of parading. When the day came the affair +was an entire success. Two wagons gaily trimmed were filled with girls +in white dresses, carrying banners and singing labor songs. The happy +results were seen at subsequent meetings of the union, for after that +other girls from other than the Irish group came in fast, peasant +girls, wearing their shawls, and colored girls, till, when the union +was six months old, it had five hundred members. The initiation of +the first colored girl was a touching occasion. Hannah O'Day had been +present at one of the men's meetings, on an evening when it had been +a colored man who at the ceremony of initiation had presented white +candidates for membership, and the sense of universal brotherhood had +then come over her as a sort of revelation. And there were others who +felt with her. One night, Hannah being doorkeeper at her own union +meeting, a colored girl applied to be admitted. Hannah called out: +"A colored sister is at the door; what'll I do with her." It was the +young president herself, Mollie Daley, though she had been brought up +to think of colored folks as "trash," who, with a disregard of strict +parliamentary law, but with a beautiful cordiality, broke in with: "I +say, admit her at once, and let yez give her a hearty welcome." The +girl who was very dark, but extremely handsome, had been not a little +nervous over the reception that might await her. She was quite +overcome when she found herself greeted with hearty applause. + +On another occasion, on the question being asked from the ritual: "Any +grievances?" a sensitive colored girl arose, and said a Polish girl +had called her names. The Polish girl defended herself by saying: +"Well, she called me Polak, and I won't stand for that." The president +summoned them both to the front. "Ain't you ashamed of yourselves?" +She proceeded: "Now shake and make up, and don't bring your grievances +here, unless they're from the whole shop." + +The girls had good training in union principles from the first, so +that if their phrases were sometimes a trifle crude, they were none +the less the expression of genuine good sense. For instance, some +complaint would be brought forward, and in the early days the question +would come: "Is this your own kick, or is it all of our kick?" A sound +distinction to make, quite as sound as when later on, the officers +having learned the formal phrases, they would put it in another +way, and say: "Is this a private grievance or is it a collective +grievance?" + +Instead of the old hysterical getting mad, and laying down their tools +and walking out, when things did not go right, grievances were now +taken to the union, and discussed, and if supported by the body, taken +to the foreman and managers by the business agent, Maud Sutter. + +From the beginning the women delegates from Local 183 to the Packing +Trades Council of Chicago were on an equality with the men, and girl +delegates attended the convention of the National Association at +Cincinnati and also at St. Louis. + +It is sad to record that through no fault of their own, the girls' +organization met an early downfall. It passed out of existence after +the stockyards' strike of 1904, being inevitably involved in the +defeat of the men, and going down with them to disaster. + +The Irish leadership that produced such splendid results, is now, in +any case, not there to be called upon, as the girls now employed in +the packing-plants of Chicago are practically all immigrant girls from +eastern Europe. When the present system of unorganized labor in the +trade is abolished, as some day it must be, it will only be through a +fresh beginning among an altogether different group, that it will be +possible to reach the women. + +But the spirit that permeated Local 183 has never wholly died in the +hearts of those who belonged to it, and it springs up now and then +in quarters little expected, calling to remembrance Maggie Condon's +reason for pushing the union of which she was a charter member and the +first vice-president. "Girls, we ought to organize for them that comes +after us." + + + + +IV + +THE WOMEN'S TRADE UNION LEAGUE + + +One of the least encouraging features of trade unionism among women +in the United States has been the small need of success which has +attended efforts after organization in the past, especially the lack +of permanence in such organizations as have been formed. In the brief +historical review it has been shown how fitful were women's first +attempts in this direction, how limited the success, and how temporary +the organizations themselves. + +It is true there is an essential difference between the loose and +momentary coöperation of unorganized workers aiming at the remedying +of special grievances, and disbanding their association whenever that +particular struggle is over, and a permanent organization representing +the workers' side all the time and holding them in a bond of mutual +helpfulness. Most of the strikes of women during the first half of the +last century, like many today, sprang from impatience with intolerable +burdens, and the "temporary union," often led by some men's +organization, merely dissolved away with the ending of the strike, +whether successful or not. But altogether apart from such sporadic +risings as these, there were, as we have seen, from a very early +period, genuine trade unions composed of working-women. + +The Women's Trade Union League is the first organization which has +attempted to deal with the whole of the problems of the woman in +industry on a national scale. As we have seen, there have been, +besides the many women's unions, and the men's unions to which women +have been and are admitted, the large body, the Women's National Union +Label League, and a number of women's auxiliaries in connection with +such unions as the Switchmen, the Machinists, and the Typographical +Union. The Women's Union Label League has, however, devoted most +of its energies to encouraging the purchase and use of union-made +products. The women's auxiliaries have been formed from the wives of +men from that particular union. They have often maintained a fund for +sick and out-of-work members and their families, and have besides +furnished a social environment in which all could become better +acquainted, and they would besides take an active part in the +entertainment of a national convention, whenever it came to their +city. But except indirectly, none of these associations have aided in +the organization of women wage-earners, still less have taken it for +their allotted task. Perhaps earlier, the formation of such a body +as the National Women's Trade would have been impracticable. But it +certainly responds to the urgent needs of today, and is, after all, +but a natural development of the trade-union movement, with especial +reference to the crying needs of women and children in the highly +specialized industries. + +The individual worker, restless under the miseries of her lot, and +awakening also, it may be, to a sense of the meaning of our industrial +system, learns to see the need of the union of her trade. When she +does so, she has taken a distinct step forward. If an extensive trade, +the local is affiliated with the international, but neither local nor +international, as we shall see, as yet grant to the woman worker the +same attention as they give to the man, because to men trade unionists +the men's problems are the chief and most absorbing. So what more +natural than that women belonging to various unions should come +together to discuss the problems that are common to them all as +women workers, whatever their trade, and aid one another in their +difficulties, coöperate in their various activities, and thus, also, +be able to present to their brothers the collective expression of +their needs? Upon this simple basis is the local Women's Trade Union +League formed. Linking together the organized women of the same +city, it brings them, through the National League, into touch and +communication with the trade-union women in other cities. + +While it is true that organization can neither be imposed nor forced +upon any group, it is no less true that when girls are ready such a +compact body, founded upon so broad a basis, can bring about results +both in the line of education and organization which no other branch +of the labor movement is equipped or fitted to do. And many labor +leaders, who have sadly enough acknowledged that the labor movement +that did not embrace women was like a giant carrying one arm in a +sling, have already gratefully admitted that such a league of women's +unions can produce results under circumstances where men, unaided, +would have been helpless. + +For the origin of the Women's Trade Union League, we must go back to +1874, when Mrs. Emma Patterson, the wife of an English trade unionist +and herself deeply impressed with the deplorable condition of women +wage-earners everywhere, was on a visit to the United States. The +importance of combination as a remedy was freshly brought home to her +through what she saw of the women's organizations then most prominent +and flourishing in New York, the Parasol and Umbrella Makers' Union, +the Women's Typographical Union, and the Women's Protective Union. +She returned to England with a plan for helping women workers to help +themselves. Shortly afterwards she and others whom she interested +formed the Women's Protective and Provident League, the title later +on being changed to the bolder and more radical British Women's Trade +Union League, a federation of women's unions, with an individual +membership as well. It is known to the public on this side of the +water through the visits of Mary Macarthur, its very able secretary. + +This body had been in existence nearly thirty years before the +corresponding organization was formed in this country. About 1902 Mr. +William English Walling had his attention drawn to what the British +Women's Trade Union League was accomplishing among some of the poorest +working-women in England. + +He mentioned what he had learned to others. Among the earliest to +welcome the idea of forming such a league was Mrs. Mary Kenney +O'Sullivan, a bindery-worker of Boston, long in touch with the labor +movement. In the fall of 1903 the American Federation of Labor was +holding its annual convention in that city. The presence of so many +labor leaders seemed to make the moment a favorable one. A meeting of +those interested was called in Faneuil Hall on November 14. Mr. John +O'Brien, president of the Retail Clerks' International Protective +Union, presided. Among the trades represented were the Ladies' Garment +Workers, the United Garment Workers, the Amalgamated Meat Cutters +and Butcher Workmen, Clerks, Shoe Workers and Textile Workers. The +National Women's Trade Union League was organized and the following +officers elected: president, Mrs. Mary Morton Kehew, Boston; +vice-president, Miss Jane Addams, Chicago; secretary, Mrs. Mary Kenney +O'Sullivan, Boston; treasurer, Miss Mary Donovan, Boot and Shoe +Workers; board members, Miss Mary McDowell, Chicago; Miss Lillian D. +Wald, New York; Miss Ellen Lindstrom, United Garment Workers; Miss +Mary Trites, Textile Workers; Miss Leonora O'Reilly, Ladies' Garment +Workers. + +The one main purpose of the new league, as of its British prototype, +was from the first the organization of women into trade unions, to +be affiliated with the regular labor movement, in this case with +the American Federation of Labor, and the strengthening of all such +organizations as already existed. While, as in England, the backbone +of the League was to consist of a federation of women's unions, +provision was made for taking into individual membership not only +trade unionists, but those women, and men too, who, although not +wage-earners themselves, believed that the workers should be organized +and were unwilling that those who toil should suffer from unjust +conditions. + +A branch of the National Women's Trade Union League was formed in +Chicago in January, 1904; another in New York in March of the same +year, and a third in Boston in June of the same year. With these three +industrial centers in line, the new campaign was fairly begun. + +The first three years were occupied mainly with preparatory work, +becoming known to the unions and the workers, and developing +activities both through the office and in the field. + +Early in 1907 Mrs. Raymond Robins, of Chicago, became National +President, a position which she has held ever since. To the tremendous +task of aiding the young organization till it was at least out of its +swaddling clothes she brought boundless energy and a single-minded +devotion which admitted of attention to no rival cause. Being a woman +of independent means, she was able to give her time entirely to the +work of the League. She would be on the road for weeks at a time, +speaking, interviewing working-women, manufacturers or legislators, +all the while holding the threads, organization here, legislation +there. + +But the first opportunity for the Women's Trade Union League to do +work on a large scale, work truly national in its results, came +with the huge strikes in the sewing trades of 1909-1911. To these a +separate chapter is devoted. It is sufficient here to say that the +backing given by the National League and its branches in New York, in +Philadelphia and in Chicago was in great part responsible for the very +considerable measure of success which has been the outcome of these +fierce industrial struggles. On the whole, the strikers gained much +better terms than they could possibly have done unassisted. Almost +entirely foreigners, they had no adequate means of reaching with their +story the English-speaking and reading public of their city. The +Leagues made it their particular business to see that the strikers' +side of the dispute was brought out in the press and in meetings and +gatherings of different groups. It is related of one manufacturer, +whose house was strike-bound, that he was heard one day expressing +to a friend in their club his bewilderment over the never-ending +publicity given to this strike in the daily newspapers, adding that it +was a pity; these affairs were always better settled quietly. + +To win even from failure success, to win for success permanence, was +the next aim of the League, and nowhere has this constructive policy +of theirs brought about more significant results than in the aid which +they were able to give to the workers in the sewing trades. In New +York it was the League which made possible the large organizations +which exist today among the cloak-makers, the waist-makers and other +white-goods-workers. The League support during the great strikes, and +its continued quiet work after the strikes were over, first showed the +public that there was power and meaning in this new development, this +new spirit among the most oppressed women workers. The attitude of the +League also convinced labor men that this was no dilettante welfare +society, but absolutely fair and square with the labor movement. The +Chicago League, after helping in the same way in the garment-workers' +strike which is now in its fifth year, contributed towards bringing +about the agreement between the firm of Hart, Schaffner and Marx, +Chicago, and their employés, an agreement controlling the wages and +the working conditions of between 7,000 and 10,000 men and women, the +number varying with the season and the state of trade. The plan of +preference to unionists, which gives to this form of contract the name +of the "Preferential Shop," had its origin in Australia, where it is +embodied in arbitration acts, but in no single trade there had it been +applied on such a huge scale. The Protocol of Peace, which is a trade +agreement similar to that of the Hart, Schaffner and Marx employés, +and which came into force first in the cloak and suit industry in New +York after the strike of 1913, affects, it is stated, the enormous +number of 300,000 workers.[A] + +[Footnote A: In May, 1915, the Protocol was set aside by the cloak and +suit manufacturers. A strike impended. Mayor Mitchel called a Council +of Conciliation, Dr. Felix Adler as chairman. Their report was +accepted by the union and finally by the employers, and industrial +peace was restored.] + +Just as sound and important work is being done all the time with many +smaller groups. For instance, the straw-and panama-hat-makers of New +York tried to organize and were met by a number of the manufacturers +with a black list. A general strike was declared on February 14, 1913. +The League members were able to give very valuable aid to the strikers +by assisting in picketing and by attending the courts when the pickets +were arrested. This strike had to be called off, and was apparently +lost, but the union remains and is far stronger than before the strike +took place. + +But better results even than this were gained in the strike in the +potteries in Trenton, New Jersey. The Central Labor Union of Trenton +and all the trade-union men in the city gave splendid coöperation to +the strikers. They handed over the girls to the care of Miss +Melinda Scott, the League organizer, and under her directions the +inexperienced unionists did fine work and helped to bring about a +satisfactory settlement. This success gave heart of grace to the +girls in certain woolen and silk mills of Trenton. Wages there were +appalling. They varied from two dollars and fifty cents to eleven +dollars. Many children, nominally fourteen, but looking very young, +were employed. The owner of the factory at length consented to meet +the workers with the League organizer in conference at the New York +headquarters, and after several weeks the strike was settled on the +workers' terms. + +The New York organizer also helped the Boston League in the strike of +the paper factories of Holyoke, Massachusetts. The cause of the strike +here was an arrangement under which eight girls could be got to do the +work of twelve. Here the workers actually stood up for a share of the +profits under the new arrangement, or else that the discharged girls +should be reinstated. The manufacturers chose the latter alternative. + +The Candy Workers' Union in Boston was also formed through the Women's +Trade Union League. The girls had walked all over Boston for two days +asking policemen, carmen and anyone else who would listen to them how +to form a union. They had no umbrellas, and their shoes were dripping +with the wet. They were Jewish, Italian and American girls. As a +result of the organization formed they obtained a very material raise +in wages, the better allotment of work in the slack season and the +taking up of all disputed questions between the manufacturers and the +union. + +From experience gained during these gigantic industrial wars, the +National League has laid down definite conditions under which its +locals may coöperate with unions in time of strike. These take part +only in strikes in which women are involved, and then only after +having been formally invited to assist, and on the understanding that +two League representatives may attend all executive meetings of the +strikers' union. It has been found that the lines in which the aid of +the Women's Trade Union League is of most value to any exploited group +are these: (1) organization and direction of public opinion; (2) +patrolling the streets; (3) fair play in the courts; (4) help in the +raising of funds through unions and allies; (5) where workers are +unorganized, help in the formation of trade-union organization. + +The League workers thus make it their business to open up channels of +publicity, at least giving the papers something to talk about, and +reaching with the strikers' side of the story, churches, clubs, and +other associations of well-meaning citizens, who are not at all in +touch with organized labor. Allies, in particular, can do much to +preserve traditions of fair play, in regard to the use of the streets +for peaceful picketing. By providing bonds for girls arrested, +lawfully or unlawfully, and by attending in person such cases when +these come up in court, they are standing for the principles of +democracy. + +In addition, the local leagues are willing to take charge of the +arrangements under which girls are sent to other unions, asking for +moral and financial aid. Men trade unionists long ago discovered how +irresistible a pleader the young girl can be, but they are not always +equally impressed with the need of safeguarding the girls, often +little more than children, chosen for these trying expeditions, and +sent off alone, or at best, two together, to distant industrial +centers. The working-girl needs no chaperon, but equally with her +wealthier sister, she does require and ought to receive motherly care +and oversight. She is perhaps leaving home for the first time, and +there should be someone to see to it that when she arrives in a +strange city a comfortable and convenient lodging-place has been found +for her. She should be shown how to conserve her strength in finding +her way from one locality to another in following up the evening +meetings of unions, and she should have some woman to turn to if she +should become sick. Points, all of these, the busy secretaries of +central labor bodies may very easily overlook, accustomed as they are +to deal with mature men, in the habit of traveling about the country, +who may surely be left to take care of themselves. + +The activities of the local leagues vary in detail in the different +cities. In all there are monthly business meetings, the business +run by the girls, with perhaps a speaker to follow, and sometimes +a program of entertainment. Lectures on week evenings, classes and +amusements are provided as far as workers and funds permit. The first +important work among newly arrived women immigrants in the Middle West +was done by the Chicago League, and this laid the groundwork for the +present Immigrants' Protective League. Headquarters are a center for +organizing, open all the time to receive word of struggling unions, +helping out in difficulties, counseling the impulsive, and encouraging +the timid. When a group of workers see for themselves the need of +organization, a body of experienced women standing ready to mother a +new little union, the hospitable room standing open, literally night +and day, can afford the most powerful aid in extending organization +among timid girls. If courage and daring are needed in this work, +courage to stand by the weak, daring to go out and picket in freezing +weather with unfriendly policemen around, patience is if possible more +essential in the organizer's make-up. It often takes months of +gentle persistence before the girls, be they human-hair-workers or +cracker-packers, or domestic workers or stenographers, see how greatly +it is to their own interest to join or to form a labor organization. +Many locals formed with so much thought and after so much pains, drop +to pieces after a few months or a year or two. That is a universal +experience in the labor movement everywhere. But it does not therefore +follow that nothing has been gained. Even a group so loosely held +together that it melts away after the first impulse of indignation +has died out is often successful in procuring shorter hours or better +wages or improved conditions for the trade or shops of their city. +Besides each individual girl has had a little bit of education in what +coöperation means, and what collective bargaining can do. The League +itself is a reminder, too, that all working-girls have many interests +in common, whatever their trade. + +But besides aiding in the forming of new locals, the Women's Trade +Union League can be a force strengthening the unions already +established. Each of the leagues has an organization committee, whose +meetings are attended by delegates from the different women's trades. +These begin mostly as experience meetings, but end generally in either +massing the effort of all on one particular union's struggle, or +in planning legislative action by which all women workers can be +benefited. + +In New York and Boston, Chicago and St. Louis and Kansas City the +local leagues have in every case had a marked effect upon industrial +legislation for women. They have been prime movers in the campaigns +for better fire protection in the factories in both New York and +Chicago, and for the limitation of hours of working-women in the +states of New York, Massachusetts, Illinois and Missouri, and for +minimum-wage legislation in Massachusetts and Illinois. + +In every one of these states the Women's Trade Union League has first +of all provided an opportunity for the organized women of different +trades to come together and decide upon a common policy; next, to +coöperate with other bodies, such as the State Federation of Labor, +and the city centrals, the Consumers' League, the American Association +for Labor Legislation, and the women's clubs, in support of such +humane legislation. Much of the actual lobbying necessary has been +done by the girls themselves, and they have exercised a power out +of all proportion to their numbers or the tiny treasury at their +disposal. No arguments of sociologists were half so convincing to +legislators or so enlightening to the public as those of the girls who +had themselves been through the mill. "Every hour I carry my trays I +walk a mile," said Elizabeth Maloney of the Waitresses' Union. "Don't +you think that eight hours a day is enough for any girl to walk?" + +When we turn to the National League itself, if there is less to record +of actual achievement, there are possibilities untold. Never before +have all the work of this country had an organization, open to all, +with which to express themselves on a national scale. + +Early in 1905 the Executive Board of the League appointed a committee +with Mary McDowell chairman to secure the coöperation of all +organizations interested in the welfare of woman in demanding a +federal investigation and report upon the conditions of working-women +and girls in all the principal industrial centers. Miss McDowell +called to her aid all the forces of organized labor, the General +Federation of Women's Clubs and other women's associations, the social +settlements and church workers. So strengthened and supported, the +committee then went to Washington, and consulted with President +Roosevelt and the then Commissioner of Labor, Dr. Charles P. Neill. + +Miss McDowell, more than any other one person, was responsible for the +passing in 1907 of the measure which authorized and the appropriation +which made possible the investigation which during the next four +years the Department of Commerce and Labor made. The result of that +investigation is contained in the nineteen volumes of the report. + +The first gatherings of any size at which League members met +and conferred together were the interstate conferences, held +simultaneously in Boston, New York and Chicago, the first in the +summer of 1907 and the second in 1908. The former was the first +interstate conference of women unionists ever held in the United +States, and it was therefore a most notable event. Especially was it +interesting because of the number of women delegates who came from +other states, and from quite distant points, Boston drawing them from +the New England states, New York from its own extensive industrial +territory, and Chicago from the Middle West. Inspired by what she +heard in Chicago, Hannah Hennessy went back to found the St. Louis +Women's Trade Union League. It was at the first interstate conference, +also, that a committee was appointed to wait upon the American +Federation of Labor Executive Board, during the Norfolk Convention +in November, 1907. The Illinois State Committee of the Women's Trade +Union League, whose fine legislative work helped to secure the passage +of the present ten-hour law for women, also grew out of the discussion +which came up in the Chicago conference. + +The lines on which the League is developing can be observed through +the work done and reported upon at the biennial conventions of which +five have been held. The first, at Norfolk, Virginia, in 1907, was +an informal gathering of but seven delegates, women who had been +attending the convention of the American Federation of Labor of that +year. Subsequent conventions have taken place every two years since +then. These have been held in Chicago, Boston and St. Louis and New +York respectively. On each occasion about seventy delegates have +reported. They are certainly a picked lot of girls. They are trained, +trained not in fancy debate, but in practical discussion. They have +met with employers in trade conferences where an error in statement or +a hasty word might mean a cut in wages or an increase in hours for +two years to come. They have met with their fellow-workers in union +meetings, where, if a girl aspires to lead her sisters or brothers, +she has to show both readiness of wit and good-humored patience in +differing from the others. + +These women are growing too, as all must grow who live on life's +firing line, and shrink not from meeting the very hardest problems of +today. The working-woman, in her daily struggle comes up against every +one of them, and not one can be evaded. + +Industrial legislation, judicial decisions, the right to organize, the +power to vote, are to the awakened working-woman not just academic +questions, but something that affects her wages, her hours. They may +mean enough to eat, time to rest, and beyond these home happiness and +social freedom. + +In two directions especially can the growing importance of the women's +trade-union movement be observed: on the one hand in the incessant +appeals, coming from all over the continent, to the National League, +for advice and assistance in organizing women into the local unions +of their trade; on the other in the degree in which it is gradually +coming to be recognized by public men, by politicians, by business +men, as well as by students and thinkers, that it is to organized +women they must turn, whenever they want an authoritative expression +as to the working-women's needs and desires. + +Two sets of resolutions discussed and passed by the fourth biennial +convention of the National Women's Trade Union League, held in 1913, +were afterwards published broadcast over the country, and have been +of marked educational value. The one pleaded for the speedy +enfranchisement of women for these reasons: because the most costly +production and the most valuable asset of any nation is its output of +men and women; because the industrial conditions under which more than +six million girls and women are forced to work is an individual and +social menace; and because working-women as an unenfranchised class +are continually used to lower the standards of men. The League +in particular protested against the ill-judged activities of the +anti-suffrage women, "a group of women of leisure, who by accident of +birth have led sheltered and protected lives, and who never through +experience have had to face the misery that low wages and long hours +produce." + +This stirring, appeal made a profound impression on suffragists and +anti-suffragists alike, in the labor world, and amid the general +public. It was of course hotly resented by that small group of women +of privilege, who think they know better than working-women what are +the needs of working-women. Its deep significance lay in that it was +a voice from the voiceless millions. It gave many pause to think and +catch, as they had never caught before, the vital meaning underlying +the demand for the vote. + +The other series of resolutions expressed no less forcefully the +women's consciousness of the intimate connection between education and +labor, and pressed home the fact that organized laboring-women are +watchful of the work being done in our public schools, and are anxious +that it should be brought and kept up to the level of present-day +needs. As is mentioned elsewhere, these resolutions laid special +stress upon the necessity of making all courses of industrial training +coeducational, of including in them the history of the evolution of +industry, and the philosophy of collective bargaining, and of insuring +that all boys and girls, before they leave school to go to work, +have a knowledge of the state and federal laws that exist for their +protection. These resolutions were sent to 1,075 boards of education +in the United States. Replies have been received from twenty-six +boards in fifteen states. Of these fourteen already have vocational +training in their schools, two are planning such training, and six +referred the resolutions to committees. Of those having training in +the schools, thirteen have courses open to both boys and girls, and +one has courses for girls exclusively, but is planning to open a +school for boys. + +The National League for four years published its own magazine, _Life +and Labor_, with a double function; on the one hand as the organ of +the League activities, and the expression of the members' views; on +the other as a running diary of what was happening in the world of +working-women, for the information of students and of all interested +in sociological matters. + +In the chapter on The Woman Organizer allusion is made to the efforts +of the League to train women as trade-union organizers. Miss Louisa +Mittelstadt, of Kansas City, and Miss Myrtle Whitehead, of Baltimore, +belonging to different branches of the Brewery Workers, came to +Chicago to be trained in office and field work, and are now making +good use of their experience. One was sent by the central labor body, +and the other by the local league. Miss Fannie Colin was a third +pupil, a member of the International Ladies' Garment Workers, from New +York City. + +A word in conclusion regarding some of the typical leaders who are +largely responsible for the policy of the League, and are to be +credited in no small measure with its successes. + +After Mrs. Raymond Robins, the national president, already spoken of, +and standing beside her as a national figure comes Agnes Nestor, of +Irish descent, and a native of Grand Rapids, Michigan, upon whose +slight shoulders rest alike burdens and honors. Both she bears +calmly. She is a glove-worker, and the only woman president of an +international union. She is both a member of the National Executive +Board of the Women's Trade Union League, and the president of the +Chicago League, and she has served as one of the two women members of +the Federal Commission on Industrial Education. She has done fine work +as a leader in her own city of Chicago, but neither Chicago, nor even +Illinois, can claim her when the nation calls. + +Melinda Scott is English by birth, belongs to New York, and has +achieved remarkable results in her own union of the hat-trimmers. It +is not during the exciting stage of a perhaps spectacular strike that +Miss Scott shines; it is during the weary time when only patience and +endurance can hold the girls together, and afterwards, when, whether +the strike is lost or won, enthusiasm is apt to flag, and when +disputes bid fair to break down the hardly won agreement. + +Initiated at sixteen into the Knights of Labor, Leonora O'Reilly took +the vows that she has ever since kept in the spirit and in the letter. +After many years spent as a garment-worker, she became a teacher in +the Manhattan Trade School for Girls. She was one of the charter +members of the New York Women's Trade Union League and has always been +one of its most effective speakers. Leonora and her Celtic idealism +have made many converts. + +Russia in America is embodied in Rose Schneidermann. She is the living +representative of the gifts that the Slavic races, and especially +the Russian Jew, have contributed to American life. Coming here in +childhood, her life has been spent in New York. + +As an example of her achievements, for four years she worked +untiringly among the white-goods-workers of New York, until they +were strong enough to call a general strike, a strike which was so +successful that they won a great part of their demands, and ever since +have held their union together, seven thousand strong. Penetrated with +the profound sadness of her people, and passionately alive to the +workers' wrongs, Rose Schneidermann can stir immense audiences, and +move them to tears as readily as to indignation. For her all the hope +of the world's future is embodied in two movements, trade unionism on +the one hand and socialism on the other. + +[Illustration: IN A BASEMENT SWEATSHOP + +Women picking rags collected from households. These rags have neither +been cleaned nor disinfected and give off dust at every handling.] + +[Illustration: GIRL GAS BLOWERS. KANSAS CITY] + +The New York League owes much of its success to Mary Dreier, the +sister of Mrs. Raymond Robins. She was its president for several +years, and by her perseverance and devotion, did much to build up the +organization in its early days. + +The rest of the League leaders must be summed up even more briefly. +Mary Anderson, a member of the Boot and Shoe Workers' International +Board, is of Scandinavian origin, and has all the steadfastness of the +Swedes. Another very excellent organizer and much-loved trade unionist +is Emma Steghagen, also of the Boot and Shoe Workers, and for seven +years secretary of the Chicago League. She may be called the League +veteran, for her association with trade unionism began with the +Knights of Labor. Others are Mary McEnerney, Mary Haney, Hilda +Svenson. + +Elizabeth Maloney, she of the snapping eyes and fervent heart, +marshals her waitresses through strike after strike against grinding +employers, or she eloquently pleads their cause, whether in the state +legislature, or with her own International, at the convention of +the Hotel and Restaurant Employés, if the men show themselves a bit +forgetful, as they sometimes do, of the girls' interest. + +Nelle Quick, bindery woman, has been transferred from her trade-union +activities in St. Louis to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the state +of Missouri. + +From among clerical workers came into the League women who have +left their mark, Helen Marot and Alice Bean, of New York, and Mabel +Gillespie, of Boston, while Stella Franklin, the Australian, for long +held the reins of the national office in Chicago. + +Gertrude Barnum, who graduated into trade unionism from settlement +work, and Josephine Casey, of the Elevated Railroad Clerks, are two +who were long actively associated with the Woman's Trade Union League, +but of late years both have been organizers under the International of +the Ladies' Garment Workers. + +Among the allies, the non-wage-earners, are Mary Dreier, president of +the New York League, who was also the only woman member of the New +York State Factory Investigating Commission; Mrs. Glendower Evans, +notable for her service in advancing legislation for the minimum wage; +Mary McDowell, of the University of Chicago Settlement, mother of +the stockyards folk, beloved of the Poles and the Bohemians and the +Ruthenians, who cross the ocean to settle on the desolate banks of +Bubbly Creek. Mrs. D.W. Knefler, of St. Louis, did pioneering work for +girlish trade unionism in that conservative city. + +Miss Gillespie, the Secretary of the Boston Women's Trade Union +League, has been for years its main standby. Working in coöperation +with the young president, Miss Julia O'Connor, of the Telephone +Operators, her influence in the labor movement is an important factor +in the Massachusetts situation. She is a member of the State Minimum +Wage Commission. + +Young as is the League, some most heroic members have already passed +into the unseen. Adelaide Samuels was a teacher in the public schools +who, in the day of very small things for the New York League, acted as +treasurer and chairman of the label committee. In her scant leisure +she worked patiently towards the end that girls in the poorest trades +should win for themselves the power of making the collective bargain. +She died before she could have seen any tangible results from her +efforts. + +Hannah Hennessy, who carried away from the first interstate conference +in Chicago a vision in her heart of a Women's Trade Union League in +every large city, a few years later laid down her life as the result +of the hardships endured while picketing on behalf of the Marx and +Haas strikers. Her youth had slipped away, and her strength had been +sapped by weary years as an ill-paid garment-worker, so that exposure +to cold and wet found her power of resistance gone, and a few weeks +later she was no more. + +At the other end of the social scale, but thrilled with the same +unselfish desire to better the conditions of the girl toilers, stood +Carola Woerishofer, the rich college girl, who, once she was committed +to the cause, never spared herself, picketing today, giving bonds +tomorrow for the latest prisoner of the strike, spending a whole hot +summer in a laundry, that she might know first-hand what the toiler +pays that we may wear clean clothes. And so on, until the last +sad scene of all, when on duty as inspector of the New York State +Immigration Bureau, her car capsized, and Carola Woerishofer's brief, +strenuous service to humanity was ended. + +From yet another group came Frances Squire Potter, formerly professor +of English Literature in the University of Minnesota, who a few +years ago became profoundly impressed with the unfair and oppressive +conditions under which working-women live and toil. Thus was she led +far away from academic fields, first into suffrage work, and later +into the National Women's Trade Union League. Until her health gave +way, about a year before her death, she acted as official lecturer for +the League. Through her unique gifts as a speaker, and her beautiful +personality, she interpreted the cause of the working-woman to many +thousands of hearers. She was also departmental editor of _Life and +Labor_, the League's magazine. + +Great have been the vicissitudes of the labor movement among men, but +for many years now, the tendency towards national cohesion has been +growing. This tendency has been greatly strengthened by the rapid +development, and at the same time, the cheapening of the means of +transport and communication between distant regions of the country. + +In the advantages arising from this general growth of the labor +movement, both in its local activities and on its national side, women +workers have indeed shared. This is true, both on account of the +direct benefits accruing to them through joining mixed organizations, +or being aided by men to form separate organizations of their own, +and also through the vast assistance rendered by organized labor in +obtaining protective legislation for the most utterly helpless and +exploited toilers, for example, the child-labor laws which state after +state has placed upon the statute book, sanitary regulations, and laws +for the safeguarding of machinery dangerous to workers. + +Still, compared with the extensive movement among men, in which the +women have been more or less a side issue, feminine trade unionism has +been but fitful in its manifestations, and far indeed from keeping +pace with the rate at which women have poured into the industrial +field. The youth of a large number of the girl workers, and the fact +that, as they grow up, so many of them pass out of the wage-earning +occupations, marriage, and the expectation of marriage, the main +obstacles that stand in the way today in getting women to organize and +to hold their unions together, furnish also the underlying causes of +the want of continuity of the trade-union movement among women since +it first began in the United States in the early part of the last +century. The too frequent change in the personnel of the members, and +therefore in the composition of the union itself, means an absence +of the permanence of spirit which is an essential condition for the +handing on in unbroken succession of standards of loyalty and esprit +de corps. + +It is continuity that has rendered possible all human progress, +through the passing on from all of us to our successors, of each +small acquirement, of each elevation of standard. Where, but for +such continuity would be the college spirit, that descends upon and +baptizes the newcomer as he enters the college gates? Where, but for +continuity would be the constantly rising standards of morality and +social responsibility? Where, but for continuity would be national +life and all that makes patriotism worthy? Where, indeed, would be +humanity itself? + +The average man is a wage-earner, and as such a fit subject for +organization. If extensive groups of men remain unorganized, the +responsibility lies partly on the trade unions, and is partly +conditioned by our social and political environment. But either way, a +man is a trade unionist or he is not. The line is clear cut, and trade +unions therefore admit no one not actually a worker in their own +trade. + +But it is not so with women. Outside the wage-earning groups there +is the great bulk of married women, and a still considerable, though +ever-lessening number of single women, who, although productive +laborers, are yet, owing to the primitive and antiquated status of +home industry, not acknowledged as such in the labor market. Not +being remunerated in money, they are not considered as wage-earners. +(Witness the census report, which, in omitting those performing unpaid +domestic duties from the statistics of gainful occupations, does but +reflect the tragic fact that woman's home work has no money value and +confirms the popular impression that "mother doesn't work.") + +Yet another force to be reckoned with in estimating the difficulties +which stand in the way of unionizing women is the widespread hostility +to trade unionism, as expressed through newspaper and magazine +articles, and through public speakers, both religious and secular. The +average girl, even more than the average man, is sensitive to public +opinion, as expressed through such accepted channels of authority. The +standards of public opinion have been her safeguard in the past, and +she still looks to them for guidance, not realizing how often such +commonly accepted views are misinterpretations of the problems she +herself has to face today. In the middle of the last century, a period +that was most critical for men's unions in England, a number of +leaders of public thought, men of influence and standing in the +community, such as Charles Kingsley, Frederick Denison Maurice and +others, came to the help of the men by maintaining their right to +organize. In the United States, during the corresponding stage of +extreme unpopularity, Horace Greeley, Charles A. Dana and Wendell +Phillips extended similar support to workingmen. We today are apt +to forget that women's unions with us are just now in the very same +immature stage of development, as men's unions passed through half a +century ago. The labor men of that day had their position immensely +strengthened by just such help afforded from outside their immediate +circle. It is therefore not strange that women's unions, at their +present stage of growth, should be in need of just such help. + +To sum up, in addition to all the difficulties which have to be met +by men in the labor movement, women are at a disadvantage through the +comparative youth and inexperience of many female workers, through +their want of trade training, through the assumption, almost universal +among young girls, that they will one day marry and leave the trade, +and through their unconscious response to the public opinion which +disapproves of women joining trade unions. + +It is then the lack of permanence, of continuity in spirit and in +concerted action, produced by all these causes, working together, and +the difficulties in the way of remedying this lack of permanence, +which this young organization, the National Women's Trade Union League +of America, has fully and fairly recognized, and which, with a courage +matched to its high purpose, it is facing and trying to conquer. + +The Women's Trade Union League, while essentially a part of the labor +movement, has yet its own definite rôle to play, and at this point it +is well to note the response made by organized labor in supporting the +League's efforts. It works under the endorsement of both the American +Federation of Labor and the Trades and Labor Congress of Canada, and +has received in its undertakings the practical support, besides, +of many of the most influential of the international unions, in +occupations as different as those of the shoe-workers, the carpenters +and the miners. The rank and file of the local organizations, in city +after city, have given the same hearty and unqualified approval to the +League's pioneering work, in bringing the unorganized women and girls +into the unions, and in carrying on a constant educative work among +those already organized. As an instance of this openly expressed +approval, take the cordial coöperation which the Chicago League has +ever received from the Chicago Federation of Labor and its allied +locals. But, owing to the complexity of women's lives, the varied +and inconsistent demands that are made upon their energies, the +organization of the League has to be somewhat different from that of +any body which labor men would have formed for themselves. + +Locally the relationship varies. In St. Louis the League has never +been represented in the central body by its own delegates, but by +members representing primarily their own organizations, such as +Bindery Women and Boot and Shoe Workers. In Boston, New York and +Chicago each League is represented by its own delegates. In Kansas +City, Missouri, again, not only are the delegates of the League seated +in the central body, but every union of men in it pays a per capita +tax into the funds of the Kansas City Women's Trade Union League. + +The National League receives a certain amount of financial support +from the American Federation of Labor, and from a number of the +international unions, several of the latter being affiliated with the +League. State federations, city central bodies, and local unions in +different parts of the country give similar coöperation and money +support. + +As the labor movement is organized, it collects into suitable groups +the different classes of wage-earners. But the average housekeeping, +married woman, although both worker and producer, is not a +wage-earner, although more and more, as the home industries become +specialized is she becoming a wage-earner for at least part of her +time. But, as our lives are arranged at present the largest proportion +of married women and a considerable number of single women are +ineligible for admission as members of any trade union. Are +they therefore to be shut out from the labor movement, and from +participation in its activities, no matter how closely their own +interests are bound up with it, no matter how intensely they are in +sympathy with its aims, no matter though as single girls they may have +been members of a union? + +We have noted already how much stronger the labor movement would be +if the women and girls engaged in the trades were brought in through +organization. Still further would organized men be advantaged if their +movement were reinforced by this great body of home-keeping women, +vast in numbers, and with their untouched reserves of energy and +experience. + +Again, it is only by making room for such women within the labor +movement that women can be represented in sufficient numbers in the +councils of labor. As long as there was no recognized way of admitting +the home woman to even a tiny corner of the labor field, as long as +entry was restricted solely to the wage-earning woman, there seemed +no chance of women being ever in anything but a hopeless minority in +either local or international union, and that minority, too, composed +so largely of young and inexperienced girls. Is it any wonder, then, +that the interests of the working-girls have suffered, and that, as a +ready consequence, workingmen's interests have suffered, too. + +The Women's Trade Union League is also bringing into touch with the +labor movement other women's organizations, and especially winning +their increased coöperation in the campaigns for legislation. It is +largely through the ally[A] membership that the Women's Trade Union +League has been able to reach the public ear as well as to attract +assistance and coöperation, especially from the suffragists and the +women's clubs. The suffragists have always been more or less in +sympathy with labor organizations, while outside labor circles, the +largest body to second the efforts of organized labor in the direction +of humanity has been the women's clubs, whether expressing themselves +through the General Federation, or through local activity in their +home towns. An immense group of women thus early became committed +to an active opposition to the employment of children either in +factories, or under the even more dangerous and demoralizing +conditions which await mere babies in the street or in tenement homes. + +[Footnote A: An ally is a man or a woman of any class not a worker +in any organized trade who believes in the organization of women and +subscribes to the following League platform. + +1. Organization of all workers into trade unions. +2. Equal pay for equal work. +3. Eight-hour day. +4. A living wage. +5. Full citizenship for women.] + +There is a similar movement going on within the National Young Women's +Christian Association. The reason for this stand being taken by +women's organizations was characteristic. The impelling force that +urged those women on was something far deeper than mere philanthropy. +It was the acceptance by a whole group of women of the old +responsibilities of motherhood, in the new form that these must take +on if new conditions are to be met. It was as if the motherhood of the +country had said in so many words: "Social conditions are changing, +but we are still the mothers of the new generation. Society is +threatened with this calamity, that they will pass beyond our care +before the needs and claims of childhood have been satisfied. As +individuals we are now powerless. Let us see what coöperation will do +to right conditions that are fast slipping beyond our control." + +But how unconscious the vast number of women of this type were, either +of the true nature of the force they were obeying or the point whither +they were tending, was graphically illustrated at the Biennial +Federation of Women's Clubs in St. Paul, in 1906, when a woman +protested from the floor against the appointment of a committee to +deal with industrial conditions. She added that she was all in favor +of the Federation working against child labor, but they had no call to +interfere in industrial questions. + +This is an illustration of how the rank and file of the clubwomen +became committed to industrial reform as part of their program, and +incidentally, although there were those among their leaders who well +knew whither the movement was tending. The Women's Trade Union League +represents one of the forces that is leading on the most conservative +among them to stand forth for industrial justice consciously and +deliberately, while the League's special aims are brought the nearer +to accomplishment by the support of this other group of women. + +The Women's Trade Union League is, and as long as it fulfills its +present function, will surely remain, a federation of trade unions +with women members, but it finds a niche and provides an honorable and +useful function for the wives of workingmen, for ex-trade-union women, +and for others who endorse trade unionism and gladly give their +support to a constructive work, aiming at strengthening the weakest +wing of labor, the unorganized, down-driven, underpaid working-girls. + +If the League is to be an organization open to, and aiming at +including eventually the great majority of working-women, it must be +so flexible as to admit the woman who works in the home without formal +wages, as well as the woman who works for an employer for wages. Both +are in many respects upon the same footing in relation to society. +Both are earners and producers. Both require the help of organization. +Both should be an integral part of the labor movement. Both therefore +may be consistently received as dues-paying members into Women's Trade +Union Leagues, even although we are still too confused and puzzled +to permit of housewives forming their own unions, and therefore such +members have to be received as allies. + +In thus leaving open a door, however, through which all working-women +may enter the League, the founders were mindful of the fact, and have +it embodied in the constitution, that the main strength must lie in +the increasing number of wage-earning girls and women who are socially +developed up to the point of being themselves organized into trade +unions. The League has so far grown, and can in the future grow +normally, only so far as it is the highest organized expression of the +ideals, the wishes and the needs of the wage-earning girl. + +As for the woman of wealth, I should be the last to question her right +to opportunities for self-development, or to deny her the joy of +assisting her sorely driven sisters to rise out of the industrial +mire, and stand erect in self-reliant independence. But if the League +is to grow until it becomes the universal expression of the woman's +part in organized labor, then the privilege of assisting with +financial help the ordinary activities of the League can be hers only +during the infancy of the body. No organization can draw its nurture +permanently from sources outside of itself, although many a movement +has been nursed through its early stages of uncertainty and struggle +by the aid of the sympathetic and understanding outsider. + + + + +V + +THE HUGE STRIKES + + +In September, 1909, the name of the Triangle Shirt Waist Company, +which has since become a word of such ill omen, was known to few +outside the trade. The factory had not then been wrapped in the flames +and smoke of the Asch fire, that was to cut short the lives of one +hundred and forty-three workers, and to blight the existence and mar +the happiness of many more. + +But by a not altogether inexplicable coincidence, it had been among +the employés of this very firm that the smoldering flames of human +discontent broke out, that were to grow into the "Strike of the Forty +Thousand," a strike that proved to be but the first of a long series +of revolts among the foreign garment-workers of the largest cities in +the East and the Middle West. + +It is true that in such an extensive trade as that of making +ready-made clothes, with its low wages and its speeding-up, its +sweating and its uncertainty of employment, there is always a strike +on somewhere. At that very time, there were in progress two strikes of +quite respectable size: one in Boston, under the Ladies' Tailors' +and Dressmakers' Union, and the other in St. Louis, where the +long-drawn-out Marx and Haas strike involving the makers of men's +ready-made clothing, was in its first stage. + +But outside of labor circles, these strikes were attracting no +particular attention. The public were not even aware of what was +happening, and would have been entirely indifferent if they had known. + +The turning out of ladies' ready-made waists is an immense business in +New York. The trade, like other branches of garment-making, is largely +in the hands of Jewish employers. The workers are principally recently +arrived foreigners, Russian and other Slavic Jews, Italians and other +immigrants from eastern Europe. They are in an overwhelming majority +women, or, to be more accurate, girls. + +During all the earlier part of the year 1909 the Ladies' Waist Makers' +Union No. 25 had been showing quite undue activity and unwelcome +persistence in preaching unionism and its advantages among all and +sundry of these foreign girls, and with quite unusual success. The +managers of the Triangle Shirt Waist Company awoke one morning to a +sense of what was happening. To quote from a writer in _The Outlook_: + + One of the firm appeared before the girls and told them in kind + phrases that the company was friendly to the union, and that + they desired to encourage it, and that they might better give + assistance, they would like to know what girls belonged to it. The + girls, taken in by this speech, acknowledged their membership; + only, instead of a few that the company had thought to discover + and weed out, it developed that one hundred and fifty girls were + members. That evening they were told, in the same kind way, that, + because of a lull in the trade, due to an uncertainty as to + fashions in sleeves, there was for the time being no more work. + The girls took their discharge without suspicion; but the next + morning they saw in the newspaper advertisements of the company + asking for shirt-waist operators at once. Their eyes opened by + this, the girls picketed the shop, and told the girls who answered + the advertisement that the shop was on strike. The company + retaliated by hiring thugs to intimidate the girls, and for + several weeks the picketing girls were being constantly attacked + and beaten. These mêlées were followed by wholesale arrests of + strikers, from a dozen to twenty girls being arrested daily. + +Out of ninety-eight arrested all but nineteen were fined in sums of +from one to ten dollars. + +With the aid of the police and a complaisant bench the Triangle +Company had been successful in its attempt to empty the young union's +treasury, and had likewise intimidated the workers till their courage +and spirit were failing them. The manufacturers had accomplished their +object. + +At this stage the New York Women's Trade Union League took up the +battle of the girls. Every morning they stationed allies in front +of the factory, to act as witnesses against illegal arrest, and to +prevent interference with lawful picketing. The wrath of the police +was then turned upon the League. First one and then another ally was +arrested, this performance culminating in the unlawful arrest of Mary +Dreier, president of the League. The police were sadly fooled upon +this occasion, and their position was not in any degree strengthened, +when they angrily, and just as unreasonably freed their prisoner, as +soon as they discovered her identity. "Why didn't you tell me you was +a rich lady? I'd never have arrested you in the world." + +This was good copy for the newspapers, and the whole story of wrongful +discharge, unlawful arrest and insulting treatment of the strikers by +the police began to filter into the public mind through the columns of +the daily press. It was shown that what had happened in the case of +the Triangle employés had been repeated, with variations, in the case +of many other shops. Respectable and conservative citizens began to +wonder if there might not be two sides to the story. They learned, +for instance, of the unjust "bundle" system, under which the employer +gives out a bundle of work to a girl, and when she returns the +completed work, gives her a ticket which she can convert into cash on +pay day. If the ticket, a tiny scrap of paper, should be lost, the +girl had no claim on the firm for the work she had actually done. +Again, some employers had insisted that they paid good wages, showing +books revealing the astonishing fact that girls were receiving thirty +dollars, thirty-five dollars, and even forty dollars per week. Small +reason to strike here, said the credulous reader, as he or she perused +the morning paper. But the protest of the libelled manufacturer lost +much of its force, when it was explained that these large sums were +not the wage of one individual girl, but were group earnings, paid to +one girl, and receipted for by her, but having to be shared with two, +three or four others, who had worked with and under the girl whose +name appeared on the payroll. + +Monday, November 22, was a memorable day. A mass meeting had been +called in Cooper Union to consider the situation. Mr. Gompers was one +of the speakers. At the far end of the hall rose a little Jewish girl, +and asked to be heard. Once on the platform, she began speaking in +Yiddish, fast and earnestly. She concluded by saying she was tired of +talking, and so would put the motion for a general strike of the whole +trade. One who was present, describing the tense dramatic moment that +followed, writes: "The audience unanimously endorsed it. 'Do you mean +faith?' said the chairman. 'Will you take the old Jewish oath,' And +up came 2,000 Jewish hands with the prayer, 'If I turn traitor to the +cause I now pledge, may this hand wither and drop off at the wrist +from this arm I now raise.'" The girl was Clara Lemlich, from the +Leiserson factory. She did not complain for herself, for she was a +fairly well-paid worker, making up to fifteen dollars in the rush +season, but for her much poorer sisters. + +The response within that hall typified the response next day outside. +I quote the words of an onlooker: + + From every waist-making factory in New York and Brooklyn, the + girls poured forth, filling the narrow streets of the East Side, + crowding the headquarters at Clinton Hall, and overflowing into + twenty-four smaller halls in the vicinity. It was like a mighty + army, rising in the night, and demanding to be heard. But it was + an undisciplined army. Without previous knowledge of organization, + without means of expression, these young workers, mostly under + twenty, poured into the Union. For the first two weeks from 1,000 + to 1,500 joined each day. The clerical work alone, involved in, + registering and placing recruits was almost overwhelming. Then + halls had to be rented and managed, and speakers to be procured. + And not for one nationality alone. Each hall, and there were + twenty-four, had to have speakers in Yiddish, Italian and English. + Every member of the League was pressed into service. Still small + halls were not enough. Lipzin's Theatre was offered to the + strikers, and mass meetings were held there five afternoons a + week. + + Meanwhile committees were appointed from each shop to settle upon + a price list. As the quality of work differed in different shops, + a uniform wage was impossible and had to be settled by each shop + individually. When the hundreds of price lists were at last + complete, meetings were arranged for each shop committee and their + employers. Again the price list was discussed, and a compromise + usually effected. In almost every shop, however, an increase of + from 15 to 20 per cent. was granted. + +Apart from wages, the contract insured significant improvements. +Besides calling for recognition of the union it demanded full pay for +legal holidays, limited night work during the rush season to eight +P.M., abolished all Sunday work, did away with the inside contracting +system, under which one girl took out work for several, and provided +for a fair allotment of work in slack seasons. + +After one hundred and ninety firms had signed up, and the majority +of the strikers had returned to their shops, an attempt was made to +settle with the still obdurate employers through arbitration, at the +suggestion of the National Civic Federation. + +Meanwhile picketing was going on; the pickets were being punished, not +only with heavy fines, thus depleting the union's treasury, but with +terms in the workhouse. Some of these criminals for principle were +little girls in short skirts, and no attempt was made to separate +them when in confinement from disorderly characters. But what was the +result? The leaders saw to it that a photograph was taken of such a +group, with "Workhouse Prisoners" pinned across the breast of each, +and worn as a badge of honor, a diploma of achievement, and the +newspapers were but too glad to print the picture. When that spirit +of irrepressible energy and revolt once possesses men or women, +punishment is converted into reward, disgrace transmuted into honor. + +This it was, more even than the story of the wrongs endured, which had +its effect on the public. In the rebound of feeling the illegality of +the police behavior was admitted. The difficulties put in the way of +the courageous little pickets led to the forming of parades, and +the holding of meetings even in a class of society where no one had +counted on receiving sympathy. The ladies of the rich and exclusive +Colony Club learned from the girls themselves of the many +disadvantages connected with waist-making. For instance that in the +off season there was little regular work at all; and that all the time +there were the fines and breakages. One girl told how she had been +docked for a tucking foot, which, as she said, just wore out on her, +"It wasn't really my fault," she concluded, "and I think the boss +should look out for his own foots." + +Said another: "When a girl comes five minutes late at my shop, she is +compelled to go home. She may live outside of the city, it does not +matter, she must go home and lose a day. + +"We work eight days in the week. This may seem strange to you who know +that there are only seven days in the week. But we work from seven +in the morning till very late at night, when there's a rush, and +sometimes we work a week and a half in one week." + +The socialist women did yeoman service, protecting the pickets, +attending the trials, speaking at meetings and taking a full share of +the hard work. The organized suffragists and clubwomen were drawn into +the thick of the fight. They spread the girls' story far and wide, +raised money, helped to find bonds, and were rewarded by increased +inspiration for their own propaganda. + +The enormous extent of the strike, being, as it was, by far the +largest uprising of women that has ever taken place upon this +continent, while adding proportionately to the difficulties of +conducting it to a successful issue, yet in the end deepened and +intensified the lesson it conveyed. + +In the end about three hundred shops signed up, but of these at least +a hundred were lost during the first year. This was due, the workers +say, partly to the terrible dullness in the trade following the +strike, and partly to the fact that they were not entirely closed +shops. + +Since then, however, the organization has grown in strength. It was +one of these coming under the protocol, covering the Ladies' Garment +Workers, in so many branches, which was agreed to after the strikes +in the needle trades of the winter of 1913. The name was changed from +Ladies' Waist Makers, to Ladies' Waist and Dress Makers. + +But the waist-makers' strike was not confined to New York. With +the opening of their busy season, the New York manufacturers found +themselves hard pressed to fill their orders, and they were making +efforts to have the work done in other cities, not strike-bound. One +of the cities in which they placed their orders was Philadelphia. +It was with small success, however, for the spirit of unrest was +spreading, and before many weeks were over, most of the Philadelphia +waist-makers had followed the example of their New York sisters. + +The girls were in many respects worse off in Philadelphia than in New +York itself. Unions in the sewing trades were largely down and out +there, and public opinion was opposed to organized labor. + +When the disturbance did come, it was not so much the result of any +clever policy deliberately thought out, as it was the sudden uprising +and revolt of exasperated girls against a system of persistent cutting +down extending over about four years. A cent would be taken off here, +and a half-cent there, or two operations would be run into one, and +the combined piece of work under one, and that a new, name would bring +a lower rate of pay. The practice of paying for oil needles, cotton +and silk had been introduced, a practice most irritating with its +paltry deduction from a girl's weekly wage. Next there was a system of +fines for what was called "mussing" work. Every one of these so-called +improvements in discipline was deftly utilized as an excuse for taking +so much off the girls' pay. + +Patience became exhausted and the girls just walked out. Two-thirds of +the waist-makers in the city walked out. Of these about eighty-five +per cent., it is believed, were Jewish girls, the rest made up of +Italians with a few Poles. The girls who did not go out were mostly +Americans. One observer estimated at the time that about forty per +cent. of those in the trade were under twenty years of age, running +down to children of twelve. + +When the workers, with no sort of warning or explanation, or making +any regular preliminary demands, just quit, it upset matters +considerably. A little girl waist-maker may appear to be a very +insignificant member of the community, but if you multiply her by +four thousand, her absence makes an appreciable gap in the industrial +machine, and its cogs fail to catch as accurately as heretofore. So +that even the decent manufacturers felt pretty badly, not so much +about the strike itself, as its, to them, inexplicable suddenness. +Such men were suffering, of course, largely for the deeds of their +more unscrupulous fellow-employers. + +One manufacturer, for instance, had gained quite a reputation for +his donations to certain orphanages. These were to him a profitable +investment, seeing that the institutions served to provide him with a +supply of cheap labor. He had in his shop many orphans, who for two +reasons could hardly leave his employ. They had no friends to whom to +go, and they were also supposed to be under obligations of gratitude +to their benefactor-employer. One of his girl employés, to whom he +paid seven dollars a week, turned out for that wage twelve dollars' +worth of work. This fact the employer admitted, justifying himself by +saying that he was supporting her brother in an orphanage. + +It was a hard winter, and the first week of the strike wore away +without a sign of hope. Public opinion was slow to rouse, and the +newspapers were definitely adverse. The general view seemed to be that +such a strike was an intolerable nuisance, if not something worse. At +length the conservative _Ledger_ came out with a two-column editorial, +outlining the situation, and from then on news of the various +happenings, as they occurred, could be found in all the papers. But +the girls were unorganized. There was no money, and they faced +the first days of the new year in a mood of utter discouragement. +Organizers from the International of the Ladies' Garment Workers had, +however, come on from New York to take charge. The strikers were +supported by the Central Labor Union of Philadelphia, under the +leadership of the capable John J. Murphy, and representatives of the +National Women's Trade Union League, in the persons of Mrs. Raymond +Robins and Miss Agnes Nestor, were already on the scene. + +In the struggle itself, the New York experiences were repeated. The +fight went on slowly and stubbornly. Arrests occurred daily and still +more arrests. Money was the pressing need, not only for food and rent, +but to pay fines and to arrange for the constantly needed bonds to +bail out arrested pickets. At length a group of prominent Philadelphia +women headed by Mrs. George Biddle, enlisted the help of some leading +lawyers, and an advisory council was formed for the protection of +legal rights, and even for directing a backfire on lawbreaking +employers by filing suits for damages. With such interest and +such help money, too, was obtained. The residents of the College +Settlement, especially Miss Anna Davies, the head resident, and Miss +Anne Young, the members of the Consumers' League, the suffragists and +the clubwomen all gave their help. + +These women were moved to action by stories such as those of the +little girl, whom her late employer had been begging to return to his +deserted factory. "The boss, he say to me, 'You can't live if you not +work.' And I say to the boss, 'I live not much on forty-nine cents a +day.'" + +As in New York, the police here overreached themselves in their zeal, +and arrested a well-known society girl, whom they caught walking +arm-in-arm with a striking waist-maker. Result, the utter discomfiture +of the Director of Public Safety, and triumph for the fortunate +reporters who got the good story. + +An investigation into the price of food, made just then by one of the +evening newspapers came in quite opportunely, forcing the public to +wonder whether, after all, the girls were asking for any really higher +wage, or whether they were not merely struggling to hold on to such +a wage as would keep pace with the increasing prices of all sorts of +food, fuel, lighting, the commonest clothing and the humblest shelter. + +The strike had gone on for some weeks, when an effort was made to +obtain an injunction forbidding the picketing of the Haber factory. +This was finally to crush the strike and down the strikers. But +in pressing for an injunction the manufacturers came up against a +difficulty of their own making. The plea that had all along been urged +upon the union had been the futility of trying to continue a strike +that was not injuring the employers. "For," they had many times said, +"we have plenty of workers, our factories are going full blast." +Whereas the Haber witnesses in the injunction suit were bringing proof +of how seriously the business was being injured through the success of +the girl pickets in maintaining the strike, and, the money loss, they +assured the court was to be reckoned up in thousands of dollars. This +inconsistency impressed the judge, and the strikers had the chance +of telling their story in open court. "Strikers' Day" was a public +hearing of the whole story of the strike. + +That night both sides got together, and began to discuss a +working agreement. After twenty-five hours of conference between +representatives of the Shirt Waist Makers' Union and of the +Manufacturers' Association, an agreement was arrived at, giving the +workers substantial gains; employment of all union workers in the +shops without discrimination; a fifty-two-and-a-half-hour week and +no work on Saturday afternoon; no charges for water, oil, needles or +ordinary wear and tear on machinery; wages to be decided with the +union for each particular shop, and all future grievances to be +settled by a permanent Board of Arbitration; the agreement to run till +May 1, 1911. + +The workers' success was, unfortunately, not lasting. Owing to the +want of efficient local leadership, the organization soon dropped to +pieces. That gone, there was nothing left to stand between the toilers +and the old relentless pressure of the competitive struggle, +ever driving the employers to ask more, and ever compelling the +wage-earners to yield more. The Philadelphia shirt-waist strike of +1910 furnishes a sad and convincing proof of how little is gained +by the mere winning of a strike, however bravely fought, unless the +strikers are able to keep a live organization together, the members +coöperating patiently and steadily, so as to handle the fresh shop +difficulties which every week brings, in the spirit of mutual help as +well as self-help. + +These first Eastern strikes in the garment trades, although local in +their incidence, were national in their effects. There had been so +much that was dramatic and unusual in the rebellion of the workers, +and it had been so effectively played up in the press of the entire +country that by the time spring arrived and the strikes were really +ended, and ended in both cities with very tangible benefits for the +workers, there was hardly anyone who had not heard something about the +great strikes, and who had not had their most deeply rooted opinions +modified. It was an educational lesson on the grand scale. But the +effects did not stop here. The impression upon the workers themselves +everywhere was wholly unexpected. They had been encouraged and +heartened to combine and thus help one another to obtain some measure +of control over workshop and wages. + +The echoes of the shirt-waist strikes had hardly died away, when there +arose from another group of dissatisfied workers, the self-same cry +for industrial justice. + +There is no doubt that the Chicago strike which began among the makers +of ready-made men's clothing in September, 1910, was the direct +outcome of the strikes in New York and Philadelphia. While the Western +uprising had many features in common with these, yet it presented +difficulties all its own, and in its outcome won a unique success. +Not only was the number of workers taking part greater than in the +previous struggles, but, owing to the fact of a large number of the +strikers being men, and a big proportion of these heads of families, +the poverty and intense suffering resulting from months of +unemployment extended over a far larger area. Also the variety +of nationalities among the strikers added to the difficulties of +conducting negotiations. Every bit of literature put out had to be +printed in nine languages. And lastly, the want of harmony between +certain of the national leaders of the union involved, and the deep +distrust felt by some of the local workers and the strikers for a +section of them provided a situation which for complexity it would be +hard to match. That the long-continued struggle ended with so large +a measure of success for the workers was in part owing to the +extraordinary skill and unwearied patience displayed in its handling, +and in part to the close and intimate coöperation between the local +strike leaders, both men and women, the Chicago Federation of Labor +and the Chicago Women's Trade Union League. Much also had been learned +from recent experience in the strikes immediately preceding. + +The immediate cause of the first striker going out was a cut in the +price of making pockets, of a quarter of a cent. That was on September +22 in Shop 21, in the Hart, Schaffner and Marx factories. Three weeks +later the strike had assumed such proportions that the officers of the +United Garment Workers' District Council No. 6 were asking the Women's +Trade Union League for speakers. The League organized its own Strike +Committee to collect money, assist the pickets and secure publicity. +At the instance of the League also an independent Citizens' Committee +was formed. + +In time of sorest need was found efficient leadership. The +garment-workers of Chicago, in their earlier struggles with the +manufacturers, had had no such powerful combination to assist them as +came to their aid now, when a Joint Strike Conference controlled +the situation, with representatives upon it from the United Garment +Workers of America International Executive Board, from the Chicago +District Council of the same organization, from the Special Order +Garment Workers, the Ready Made Garment Workers, the Chicago +Federation of Labor and the Women's Trade Union League. The American +Federation of Labor sent their organizer, Emmett Flood, the untiringly +courageous and the ever hopeful. + +The first step to be taken was to place before the public in clear and +simple form the heterogeneous mass of grievances complained of. The +Women's Trade Union League invited about a dozen of the girls to tell +their story over a simple little breakfast. Within a week the story +told to a handful was printed and distributed broadcast, prefaced, as +it was, by an admirable introduction by the late Miss Katharine Coman, +of Wellesley College, who happened to be in Chicago, and who was +acting as chairman of the grievance committee. The Citizens' +Committee, headed by Professor George Mead, followed with a statement, +admitting the grievances and justifying the strike. + +From then on the story lived on the front page of all the newspapers, +and speakers to address unions, meetings of strikers, women's clubs +and churches were in constant demand. Here again, the suffragist and +the socialist women showed where their sympathies lay and of what +mettle they were made. Visiting speakers, such as Miss Margaret +Bondfield and Mrs. Philip Snowden, took their turn also. The socialist +women of Chicago issued a special strike edition of the _Daily +Socialist_. With the help of the striking girls as "newsies" they +gathered in the city on one Saturday the handsome sum of $3,345. +Another group of very poor Poles sent in regularly about two hundred +dollars per week, sometimes the bulk of it in nickels and dimes. A +sewing gathering composed of old ladies in one of the suburbs sewed +industriously for weeks on quilts and coverings for the strikers. Some +small children in a Wisconsin village were to have had a goose for +their Christmas dinner, but hearing of little children who might have +no dinner, sent the price of the bird, one dollar and sixty-five +cents, into the strikers' treasury. + +At first strike pay was handed out every Friday from out of the funds +of the United Garment Workers. But on Friday, November 11, the number +of applicants for strike pay was far beyond what it was possible to +handle in the cramped office quarters. Through some misunderstanding, +which has to this day never been explained, the crowd, many thousands +of men, women and children, were denied admittance to the large wheat +pit of the Open Board of Trade, which, it was understood, had been +reserved for their use. It was a heart-rending sight, as from early +morning till late afternoon they waited in the halls and corridors and +outside in the streets. At first in dumb patience and afterwards in +bewilderment, but all along with unexampled gentleness and quietness. + +At this point, Mr. John Fitzpatrick, president of the Chicago +Federation of Labor, took hold of a situation already difficult, and +which might soon have become dangerous. He explained to the crowd that +everyone would be attended to in their various district halls, and +that all vouchers already out would be redeemed. This relieved the +tension, but the Joint Strike Committee were driven to take over at +once the question of relief, so that none should be reduced to accept +that hunger bargain, which, as Mrs. Robins put it, meant the surrender +of civilization. + +With such an immense number of strike-bound families to support, +the utmost economy of resources was necessary, and it was resolved +hereafter to give out as little cash as possible, but to follow the +example of the United Mine Workers and others and open commissary +stations. This plan was carried out, and more than any other one plan, +saved the day. Benefits were handed over, in the form of groceries on +a fixed ration scale. As far as we know, such a plan had never before +been adapted to the needs of women and children, nor carried out by +organized labor for the benefit of a large unorganized group. Of +the economy of the system there is no question, seeing that a +well-organized committee can always purchase supplies in quantities at +wholesale price, sometimes at cost price, and frequently can, as was +done in this instance, draw upon the good feeling of merchants and +dealers, and receive large contributions of bread, flour, coal and +other commodities. Commissary stations were established in different +localities. Here is a sample ration as furnished at one of the stores, +although, thanks to the kindness of friends, the allowance actually +supplied was of a much more varied character: + + Bread 18 loaves + Coffee 1 lb. + Sugar 5 lbs. + Beans 5 lbs. + Oatmeal 2 pkgs. (large) + Ham 10 lbs. + +For Italians, oatmeal was replaced by spaghetti, and Kosher food for +those of the orthodox Jewish faith was arranged for through orders +upon local grocery stores and kosher butchers in the Jewish quarter. +The tickets entitling to supplies were issued through the shop +chairman at the local halls to those strikers known to be in greatest +need. + +The commissary plan, however, still left untouched such matters as +rent, fuel, gas, and likewise the necessities of the single young men +and girls. Also the little babies and the nursing mothers, who needed +fresh milk, had to be thought of and provided for. There were certain +strictly brought up, self-respecting little foreign girls who +explained with tears that they could not take an order on a restaurant +where there were strange people about, because "it would not be +decent," a terrible criticism on so many of our public eating places. +So a small separate fund was collected which gave two dollars a week +per head, to tide over the time of trouble for some of these sorely +pressed ones. There was a committee on milk for babies, and another on +rent, and the League handled the question of coal. + +With these necessities provided for, the strikers settled down to a +test of slow endurance. Picketing went on as before, and although +arrests were numerous, and fines followed in the train of arrests, the +police and the court situation was at no time so acute as it had been +in either New York or Philadelphia. + +The heroism shown by many of the strikers and their families it would +be hard to overestimate. Small inconveniences were made light of. +Families on strike themselves, or the friends of strikers would crush +into yet tighter quarters so that a couple of boys or two or three +girls out of work might crowd into the vacated room, and so have a +shelter over their heads "till the strike was over." A League member +found her way one bitter afternoon in December to one home where lay +an Italian woman in bed with a new-born baby and three other children, +aged three, four and five years respectively, surrounding her. There +was neither food nor fuel in the house. On the bed were three letters +from the husband's employer, offering to raise his old pay from +fifteen to thirty dollars per week, if he would go back to work and so +help to break the strike. The wife spoke with pride of the husband's +refusal to be a traitor. "It is not only bread we give the children. +We live not by bread alone. We live by freedom, and I will fight for +it though I die to give it to my children." And this woman's baby was +one of 1,250 babies born into strikers' homes that winter. + +To me those long months were like nothing so much as like living in a +besieged city. There was the same planning for the obtaining of food, +and making it last as long as possible, the same pinched, wan faces, +the same hunger illnesses, the same laying of little ones into baby +graves. And again, besides the home problems, there was the same +difficulty of getting at the real news, knowing the meaning of what +was going on, the same heart-wearing alternations of hope and dread. + +Through it all, moreover, persisted the sense that this was something +more than an industrial rising, although it was mainly so. It was +likewise the uprising of a foreign people, oppressed and despised. +It was the tragedy of the immigrant, his high hopes of liberty and +prosperity in the new land blighted, finding himself in America, but +not of America. + +By the end of November the manufacturers were beginning to tire of +watching their idle machinery, and the tale of unfilled orders grew +monotonous. There began to be grumbles from the public against the +disastrous effects upon business of the long-continued struggle. +Alderman Merriam succeeded in having the City Council bring about a +conference of the parties to the strike "to the end that a just and +lasting settlement of the points in controversy may be made." + +Messrs Hart, Schaffner and Marx, a firm employing in forty-eight shops +between eight and nine thousand workers, agreed to meet with the +committee and the labor leaders. After long hours of conferring +a tentative agreement was at length arrived at, signed by the +representatives of all parties, approved by the Chicago Federation +of Labor, and, when referred to the army of strikers for their +confirmation, was by them _rejected_. Indeed the great majority +refused even to vote upon it at all. This was indeed a body blow to +the hopes of peace. For the unfavorable attitude of the strikers there +were, however, several reasons. The agreement, such as it was, did not +affect quite a fourth of the whole number of workers who were out, and +a regular stampede back to work of the rest, with no guarantee at all, +was greatly to be dreaded. Again, a clause discriminating against +all who it should be decided had been guilty of violence during the +strike, gave deep offense. It was felt to be adding insult to injury, +to allude to violence during a struggle conducted so quietly and with +such dignity and self-restraint. But a further explanation lay in the +attitude of mind of the strikers themselves. The idea of compromise +was new to them, and the acceptance of any compromise was a way out of +the difficulty, that was not for one moment to be considered. Thus it +came about that a settlement that many an old experienced organization +would have accepted was ruled quite out of court by these new and +ardent converts to trade unionism, who were prepared to go on, facing +destitution, rather than yield a jot of what seemed to them an +essential principle. + +Organized labor, indeed, realized fully the seriousness of the +situation. The leaders had used their utmost influence to have the +agreement accepted, and their advice had been set aside. + +What view, then, was taken of this development of these central +bodies and by the affiliated trades of the city, who were all taxing +themselves severely both in time and money for the support of the +strike? + +The democracy of labor was on this occasion indeed justified of its +children, and the supreme right of the strikers to make the final +decision on their own affairs and abide by the consequences was +maintained. Plans were laid for continuing the commissary stores, and +just at this stage there was received from the United Garment Workers +the sum of $4,000 for the support of the stores. The strikers were +also encouraged to hold out when on January 9 the firm of Sturm-Mayer +signed up and took back about five hundred workers. Also, a committee +of the state Senate began an inquiry into the strike, thus further +educating the public into an understanding of the causes lying back of +all the discontent, and accounting for much of the determination not +to give in. + +All the same, the prospects seemed very dark, and the strikers and +their leaders had settled down to a steady, dogged resistance. It was +like nothing in the world so much as holding a besieged city, and +the outcome was as uncertain, and depended upon the possibility +of obtaining for the beleaguered ones supplies of the primitive +necessaries of life, food and fuel. And the fort was held until about +the middle of January came the news that Hart, Schaffner and Marx had +opened up negotiations, and presently an agreement was signed, and +their thousands of employés were back at work. + +They were back at work under an agreement, which, while it did not, +strictly speaking, recognize the union, did not discriminate against +members of the union. Nay, as the workers had to have representation +and representatives, it was soon found that in practice it was only +through their organization that the workers could express themselves +at all. + +This is not the place in which to enlarge upon the remarkable success +which has attended the working out of this memorable agreement. It is +enough to say that ever since all dealings between the firm and +their employés have been conducted upon the principle of collective +bargaining. + +The agreement with Messrs. Hart, Schaffner and Marx was signed on +January 14, 1911, and the Joint Conference Board then bent all +its efforts towards some settlement with houses of the Wholesale +Clothiers' Association and the National Tailors' Association for the +twenty or thirty thousand strikers still out. + +Suddenly, without any warning the strike was terminated. How and why +it has never been explained, even to those most interested in its +support. All that is known is that on February 3 the strike was called +off at a meeting of the Strikers' Executive Committee, at which Mr. +T.A. Rickert, president of the United Garment Workers of America, and +his organizers, were present. This was done, without consulting the +Joint Conference Board, which for fourteen weeks had had charge of +the strike, and which was composed of representatives from the United +Garment Workers of America, the Garment Workers' local District +Council, the strikers' own Executive Committee, the Chicago Federation +of Labor, and the Women's Trade Union League. + +This meant the close of the struggle. Three out of the four commissary +stations were closed the following day, and the fourth a week later. + +As regards the great mass of strikers then left, it was but a hunger +bargain. They had to return to work without any guarantee for fair +treatment, without any agency through which grievances could be dealt +with, or even brought before the employers. And hundreds of the +workers had not even the poor comfort that they could go back. +Business was disorganized, work was slack, and the Association houses +would not even try to make room for their rebellious employés. The +refusal of work would be made more bitter by the manner of its +refusal. Several were met with the gibe, "You're a good speaker, +go down to your halls, they want you there." One employer actually +invited a returned striker into his private office, shook hands with +him as if in welcome, and then told him it was his last visit, he +might go! + +The beginning of the present stage of the industrial rebellion among +working-women in the United States may be said to have been made with +the immense garment-workers' strikes. All have been strikes of the +unorganized, the common theory that strikes must have their origin in +the mischief-breeding activities of the walking delegate finding no +confirmation here. They were strikes of people who knew not what +a union was, making protest in the only way known to them against +intolerable conditions, and the strikers were mostly very young women. +One most significant fact was that they had the support of a national +body of trade-union women, banded together in a federation, working +on the one hand with organized labor, and on the other bringing in as +helpers large groups of outside women. Such measure of success as came +to the strikers, and the indirect strengthening of the woman's cause, +which has since borne such fruit, was in great part due to the +splendid reinforcement of organized labor, through the efforts of this +league of women's unions. + +I need touch but lightly on the strikes in other branches of the +sewing trades, where the history of the uprising was very similar. + +In July, 1910, 70,000 cloak-makers of New York were out on strike +for nine weeks asking shorter hours, increase of wages; and sanitary +conditions in their workshops. All these and some minor demands were +in the end granted by the Manufacturers' Association, who controlled +the trade, but the settlement nearly went to pieces on the rock of +union recognition. An arrangement was eventually arrived at, on the +suggestion of Mr. Louis Brandeis, that the principle of preference +to unionists, first enforced in Australia, should be embodied in the +agreement. Under this plan, union standards as to hours of labor, +rates of wages and working conditions prevail, and, when hiring help, +union men of the necessary qualifications and degree of skill must +have precedence over non-union men. With the signing of the agreement +the strike ended. + +January, 1913, saw another group of garment-workers on strike in New +York. This time there were included men and women in the men's garment +trades, also the white-goods-workers, the wrapper and kimono-makers, +and the ladies' waist-and dress-makers. There is no means of knowing +how many workers were out at any one time, but the number was +estimated at over 100,000. The white-goods-workers embraced the +very youngest girls, raw immigrants from Italy and Russia, whom the +manufacturers set to work as soon as they were able to put plain seams +through the machine, and this was all the skill they ever attained. +These children from their extreme youth and inexperience were +peculiarly exposed to danger from the approaches of cadets of the +underworld, and an appeal went out for a large number of women to +patrol the streets, and see that the girls at least had the protection +of their presence. + +The employers belonging to the Dress and Waist Manufacturers' +Association made terms with their people, after a struggle, under an +agreement very similar to that described above in connection with the +cloak-makers. + +One of the most satisfactory results of the strikes among the +garment-workers has been the standardizing of the trade wherever an +agreement has been procured and steadily adhered to. It is not only +that hours are shorter and wages improved, and the health and safety +of the worker guarded, and work spread more evenly over the entire +year, but the harassing dread of the cut without notice, and of +wholesale, uncalled-for dismissals is removed. Thus is an element +of certainty and a sense of method and order introduced. Above all, +home-work is abolished. + +In an unstandardized trade there can be no certainty as to wages and +hours, while there is a constant tendency to level down under the +pressure of unchecked competition from both above and below. There is +too frequent breaking of factory laws and ignoring of the city's fire +and health ordinances, because the unorganized workers dare not, on +peril of losing their jobs, insist that laws and ordinances were made +to be kept and not broken. Also, in any trade where a profit can be +made by giving out work, as in the sewing trades, we find, unless this +is prevented by organization or legislation, an enormous amount of +home-work, ill-paid and injurious to all, cutting down the wages +of the factory hands, and involving the wholesale exploitation of +children. + +Home-work the unions will have none of, and therefore, wherever the +collective bargain has been struck and kept, there we find the giving +out of work from the factory absolutely forbidden, the home guarded +from the entrance of the contractor, motherhood respected, babyhood +defended from the outrage of child labor, and a higher standard of +living secured for the family by the higher and securer earnings of +the normal breadwinners. + +Everywhere on the continent the results of these strikes have been +felt, women's strikes as they have been for the most part. The trade +unionists of this generation have been encouraged in realizing +how much fight there was in these young girls. All labor has been +inspired. In trade after trade unorganized workers have learned the +meaning of the words "the solidarity of labor," and it has become +to them an article of faith. Whether it has been button-workers in +Muscatine, or corset-workers in Kalamazoo, shoe-workers in St. Louis, +or textile-workers in Lawrence, whether the struggle has been crowned +with success or crushed into the dust of failure, the workers have +been heartened to fight the more bravely because of the thrilling +example set them by the garment-workers, and have thus brought the day +of deliverance for all a little nearer hand. + +Again, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, the public has been taught +many lessons. The immense newspaper publicity, which could never have +been obtained except for a struggle on a stupendous scale, has proved +a campaign of education for young and old, for business man and +farmer, for lawyer and politician, for housewife and for student. +It has left the manufacturer less cocksure of the soundness of his +individualist philosophy. More often is he found explaining and even +apologizing for industrial conditions, which of yore he would have +ignored as non-existent. He can no longer claim from the public his +aforetime undisputed privilege of running his own business as he +pleases, without concern for either the wishes or the welfare of +employés and community. + +The results are also seen in the fact that it is now so much easier +to get the workers' story across the footlights in smaller local +struggles, such as those of the porcelain-workers in Trenton and! the +waitresses in Chicago; in the increasing success in putting through +legislation for the limitation of hours and the regulation of wages +for the poorest paid in state after state. By state or by nation +one body after another is set the task of doing something towards +accounting for the unceasing industrial unrest, towards solving the +general industrial problem. Even if to some of us the remedial +plans outlined seem to fall far short of the mark, they still are a +beginning and are a foretaste of better things ahead. + +The conferences and discussions on unemployment are an admission, +however belated, that a society which has, in the interests of the +privileged classes, permitted the exploitation of the worker, must +face the consequences, bear some of the burden, and do its share +towards preventing the continuance of the evil. We do not cure +smallpox by punishing the patient, nor do we thus prevent its +recurrence among others. We handle the disease both by treating the +sick person himself, and by finding the causes that lead to its +spread, and arresting these. Industrial eruptive diseases have to +be dealt with in like fashion, the cause sought for, and the social +remedy applied fearlessly. + + + + +V + +THE IMMIGRANT WOMAN AND ORGANIZATION + + +The melting-pot of the races is also the melting-pot of nationalities. +The drama that we are witnessing in America is a drama on a more +tremendous scale than can ever have been staged in the world before. + +By the unawakened and so-called pure American the incoming Italian or +Jew is regarded as an outsider, who may be graciously permitted to hew +wood and draw water, to forge steel in a rolling-mill or to sew in a +factory, to cut ice or make roads for the rest of us, and who may, +on the other hand, be given the cold shoulder more or less politely, +generally less, when it comes to acquaintanceship, to the simple +democratic social intercourse which we share with those whom we admit +as our equals. + +I, too, am an immigrant, although an English-speaking and Anglo-Saxon +immigrant. Therefore I am accepted among Americans as one of +themselves. But there comes to me often a bitter sense of separation +from my fellow-immigrants, a separation by not one wall, but many. +First, the wall we none of us can help, the wall raised by difference +of language. Next, the wall raised by different manners and customs. +This we might try to scale oftener than we do. Again, there are +separating walls, harder than these either to surmount or to lay low, +walls of provincial arrogance and crass self-satisfaction, and the +racial pride that is mostly another name for primitive ignorance. + +An ordinary city-dwelling American or an English-speaking foreigner +earning a living in business or in one of the professions or even in +some of the skilled trades might live a lifetime in the United States +and never meet non-Americanized foreigners socially at all. In church +or club or on the footing of private entertainment these first-comers +and their friends keep themselves to themselves. And although among us +such race-defined limits are less hard and fast than, say, the lines +of class in old European countries, still there they are. The less +enlightened do not even think about the immigrant within our shores +at all. Those somewhat more advanced will talk glibly about the +Americanization of the foreigner that is going on all the time. So is +it. That is true, but the point here to be noted is that the desirable +and inevitable process of the Americanization of the foreigner, and +his assimilation by and into the American nation takes place outside +the charmed circles wherein these good respectable folks dwell; takes +place in spite of their indifference; takes place without their active +assistance, without their coöperation, save and except so far as that +coöperation is unconscious and unavoidable. + +The Americanizing process takes place in the street, in the cars, in +the stores, in the workshop, at the theater, and the nickel show, in +the wheatfield and on the icefield; best and quickest of all in the +school, and nowhere so consciously as in the trade union, for all that +section of foreigners whom organized labor has been able to reach +and draw into its fold. Carried out for the most part in crude and +haphazard fashion the process goes on, only in the vast majority of +cases it is far slower than it need be. + +Too many are but little touched, or touched only in painful ways by +the Americanizing process, especially the married women who stay in +their homes. Their lot is so often a tragedy. They have lost their own +country and yet have not gained another. Even this is not the worst. +The younger folks are in some fashion made over into American men and +women. And here comes in the crucial question which concerns something +more than universality of opportunity, quality of opportunity. These +little Poles and Ruthenians and Bohemians are finally made over into +Americans. Their life-contribution will be given to the generation now +growing up, of which they will form a part. We want that contribution +to be as fine as possible. They cannot give more than they themselves +are. And what they are to be in very large part we are making them. +Will they not be all the finer citizens-to-be if we come closer to +them and to their parents in the warm friendly social relations of +life? + +The plane of social intercourse is the last to be transformed by +democracy. Here is it that aristocratic and undemocratic limitations +hamper us the longest. Here we are still far behind the fine, free and +admirable planing out of differences, and rounding off of angles and +making over of characters that is part of the democracy of the street +and the marketplace. Here between strangers is the closest physical +nearness. Here the common need to live and earn a living supplies a +mutual education through the very acts of serving and being served, +of buying and selling and using the common thoroughfares and means +of transportation. And that basic democracy of the street and the +marketplace is all between strangers. + +It is the very fact that this blending of peoples, this rubbing off of +racial angles, takes place in and through the commonplace surroundings +of everyday life, that blinds most to the greatness and the wonder +of the transformation and to the pressing importance of the right +adjustments being made, and made early. But to the observer whose eyes +are not holden, there comes a sense that he is every day witnessing a +warfare of Titans, that in these prosaic American communities it is +world powers that are in clash and in conflict while in preparation +for the harmony to be. + +Upon careful consideration it would appear that the immigrant problem +is only a slightly varied expression of the general social and +economic problem. It focuses public attention because the case of the +immigrant is so extreme. For instance, whatever conditions, industrial +or civic, press hardly upon the American worker, these conditions +press with yet greater hardship upon the alien. The alien and his +difficulties form therefore a first point of contact, the point where +the social reformer begins with his suggestions for improvement. +The very same thought unconsciously forms the basis of many of the +proposed methods of dealing with the immigrant, however startlingly +these may differ from one another in expression. On the one hand we +have such suggestions as that of Mr. Paul Kellogg, which he called "A +Labor Tariff, A Minimum Wage for the Immigrant." It does not take +very acute reasoning to perceive that if such a proposal were ever to +become law, it would not be very long before there would have to be a +universal minimum wage for everyone. + +On the other hand, Mr. Edward B. Whitney in his Memorandum appended to +the Report of the Commission of the State of New York argues thus +in discussing the claim made by the majority of the Commission that +certain special help and protection is needed by the alien. He asks +"whether, if a further extension of this kind of state charity is to +be made, it would not be better to take up something for the benefit +of our own citizens or for the benefit of citizen and alien alike." +Mr. Whitney is entirely logical. Only progress rarely takes place for +logical reasons, or on lines dictated by logic, but it does in +almost all cases follow the line of least resistance, and the wise +progressive accepts gratefully whatever he can get, without being too +anxious as to whether it seems to be logically the next step or not. + +The immigrant has hitherto been used as an excuse to permit the +dehumanizing of our cities; he has been used industrially as an +instrument to make life harder for the hardly pressed classes of +workers whom he joined on his arrival here. That such has been his +sorry function has been his misfortune as well as theirs. Would it not +be equally natural and far more fair to utilize his presence among us +to raise our civic and economic and industrial standards? It is no +new story, this. Out of every social problem we can construct a +stepping-stone to something better and higher than was before. The +most that we know of health has been learned through a study of +the misadjustments that bring about disease. What has been done +educationally to assist the defective, the handicapped and the +dependent has thrown a flood of light upon the training of the normal +child. Through work undertaken in the first instance for the benefit +of the exceptions, the minority, the whole community has benefited. + +In this connection no one will deny that immigrants, both men and +women, have their handicaps. In the great majority of instances they +are handicapped by an upbringing among primitive conditions, by their +unavoidable ignorance of our language and our customs, and by a quite +natural mental confusion as to our standards of conduct, to them +so curiously exacting in some respects as, for instance, where the +schooling of their children is concerned, so incomprehensibly lax in +others, say, in the unusual freedom accorded to those same children +when grown but a little older. + +We shall find that whatever we do for the immigrant will be, in the +end, so much accomplished for the good of all. Let us lessen this +unfair pressure upon him, as far as we can, and we shall surely find +that in helping him to help himself, we have, at the same time, +benefited all workers. + +It is easy to see that the great strikes in the sewing and textile +trades of the last few years have proved a searchlight especially into +women's industrial conditions, educating the whole public by informing +them of the terrible price paid for our comfort by the makers of the +commonest articles of household purchase and use, the sacrifice of +youth, health, happiness, and life itself demanded by any industry +which exacts of the employés cruelly long hours of work at an +exhausting speed, and which for such overwork pays them wretchedly. + +These uprisings have besides stimulated to an encouraging degree the +forming of an intelligent public opinion upon the problem of the +immigrant, and a wholesomely increased sense of responsibility towards +the immigrant. And indeed it was time. Miss Grace Abbott, director of +the Chicago League for the Protection of Immigrants, tells a story, +illustrating how very unintelligent an educated professional man can +be in relation to immigrant problems. + +"Not long ago," she says, "I listened to a paper by a sanitary +engineer, on the relation between the immigrant and public health. It +was based on a study of typhoid fever in a certain city in the United +States. He showed that most typhoid epidemics started among our +foreign colonies, and spread to other sections. This, he explained, is +because the foreigner has been accustomed to a pure water supply, and +is therefore much more susceptible to typhoid than the American +who has struggled since birth against the diseases which come from +polluted water. + +"Instead, then, of urging this as an additional reason for giving +us all decent water, he drew the remarkable conclusion that in the +interests of the public health, some new basis for the exclusion of +immigrants must be adopted. In this way," Miss Abbott adds, "most +discussions on the immigrant are diverted, and leave the fundamental +problems quite untouched. For whether we adopt a literary and physique +test, increase the head-tax, and do all the other things suggested by +the restrictionists, thousands of immigrants will continue to come to +us every year." + +Apart from general considerations, these gigantic industrial +upheavals have afforded to the public-spirited citizen an unsurpassed +opportunity of understanding and appreciating the industrial problem +as it affects and is affected by the immigrant girl and young woman. A +few of us, here and there, from personal and trade experience knew the +facts years ago as well as they are generally known today. But not +all the Government reports, not an army of investigators could have +imparted this knowledge to the public, and impressed upon them the +sordid suffering of the working and living conditions of the foreign +woman in the sewing trades in any great American city. + +For in strikes of such magnitude, where whole groups of the +participators themselves lived for months in a white heat of idealism +and enthusiasm, life-stories are no longer dragged out of shy retiring +girls, but are poured out in a burning flood by those very same girls, +now quite transformed by the revolution through which they have +passed, and by the new ideas of liberty and sisterhood with which they +are possessed. + +I speak of the woman worker here, because it is she who is my concern +at present, and in all the now historic strikes she has played a very +large part. Indeed in the first of these risings, in the shirtwaist +strikes of 1909-1910 in New York and Philadelphia, very few men +workers were involved, and in the huge Chicago strike, 1910-1911, +among the makers of men's ready-made clothing, although there the girl +strikers numbered only about one-fourth of the whole, even that fourth +made up the very respectable total of, it is believed, somewhere +around 10,000 individuals, the population of a small city. Indeed it +would give most Americans pause to be told that in this same Chicago +strike the whole of the workers, men and women together, numbered more +than the troops that Washington was able to place in the field at any +one time during the War of Independence. + +Most of these strikes have been strikes of unorganized workers, who +did not know even of the existence of a union till after they had gone +out, and therefore with no idea of appealing to an organization for +even moral support. In Chicago the strikers belonged to nine different +nationalities, speaking as many different languages, so it is clear +that the pressure must have been indeed irresistible that forced so +many thousands with apparently no common meeting-ground or even common +means of communication out of the shops into the street. When +the organized strike, they know why. When the unorganized of one +nationality and one tongue strike, they can tell one another why. Yet +these people struck in spots all over the city almost simultaneously, +although in most cases without any knowledge by one group that other +groups were also resisting oppression and making a last stand against +any further degradation of their poor standards of living. Amid every +variety of shop grievance, and with the widest possible difference +in race, language and customs, they shared two disadvantageous +conditions: industrially they were oppressed, and socially they were +subject races. Therefore they were one people, in spite of their nine +nationalities. These two conditions acted and reacted upon one another +complicating and intensifying the struggle. But because of this very +intensity it has been easier for the onlooker to separate out the real +questions at issue, easier for the sympathetic American to come into +wholesome and human relationship with this large body of his brothers +and sisters. To him they could be one group, for their interests +were one, and they had been too long separated from him and from one +another by the accidents of birth and speech. + +So the searchlight turned on then on the sewing trades has since cast +its enlightening beams on industrial conditions in other trades, in +which, too, one race is perpetually played off against another with +the unfailing result of cuts in wages and lowering of standards of +living. + +All tests of admission to secure some measure of selection among new +arrivals are but experiments in an untried field. We have no tests but +rough-and-ready ones, and even these are often inconsistent with one +another. For instance, for a good many years now the immigration +inspectors have taken such precautions as they could against the +admission of the insane, but it is only recently that modified Binet +tests have been used to check the entry of a socially far more +injurious class, the congenitally feebleminded. + +Those who have worked extensively among newly arrived foreign girls +find that they arrive here with, as a rule, much less idea of what +awaits them, what will be expected of them, and the difficulties +and even dangers they may encounter, than the men. When the Chicago +Women's Trade Union League began its immigration department a few +years ago, it was found that three dollars was about the average +sum which a girl had in her pocket when she reached the city of her +destination. Ten dollars was felt to be a fortune, while I have since +heard of young girls landing alone in a great city, and without a +single cent with which to leave the depot. It is often said, why do +their mothers let them go away (sixteen and eighteen are common ages) +so young, so inexperienced? It must be remembered that many of the +Polish and Lithuanian girls, for example, come from small villages. +The mothers themselves have never seen a big city, and have not +the remotest conception of any place of more than five hundred +inhabitants, where the distances are short, and where everyone knows +everyone else. They have no idea of the value of money, when it comes +to earning and spending it in America. Three dollars a week is to +mother, as to daughter, an ample sum for the young traveler. + +It often happens that many of the young immigrants have had letters +from those who had preceded them. But we know what human nature is. +The person who succeeds proudly writes home the good news. The still +more successful person is able to take a trip home and display the +visible signs of his or her wealth. The unsuccessful, as a rule, +either does not write at all, or writing, does not admit the +humiliating truth. + +In the ignorance and inexperience of the young foreign girl the white +slaver finds his easiest prey, and the betrayer is too often the man +speaking her own tongue. On this terrible subject the nation, like +other nations, is beginning to wake up to its responsibilities in +relation to the immigrant girl as in relation to other girls. This +special danger to young womanhood is so linked with other social +questions that I merely allude to it here, because of the certainty +I entertain that much even of this danger would lessen if the +trade-union movement among women were so strong and so extensive that +any woman, young or old, could travel from place to place as a member +of a truly world-wide organization. Then she would have a better +chance of arriving well posted as to ways of earning her living, and +of finding friends in every city and every town and village. + +It may be urged that there exist already organizations world-wide in +their scope, such as the religious associations, for the very purpose +of safeguarding wandering girlhood. There are, and they accomplish a +notable amount of good. But their appeal is not universal; they never +have money or workers enough to cope adequately with a task like this, +and they are not built upon the sound economic basis of the trade +union. + +The immigrant problem was not encountered by the first factory workers +here, who were American-born. So we find the earliest leaders in the +trade organization of women were wholly drawn from the daughters of +the native settlers. They felt and spoke always as free-women, "the +daughters of freemen." When this class of girls withdrew from the +factories, they gave place to the Irish immigrant, in some respects a +less advanced type than themselves. I have briefly traced some of the +economic reasons which affected the rise, growth and eventual passing +away of the various phases of trade unionism among women in this +country. The progress of these was radically modified by the influx +into the trades of workers from one nation after another; by the +passing from a trade or a group of trades of body after body of the +old workers, starved out or giving way before the recent arrivals, +whose pitiful power to seize the jobs of the others and earn some sort +of a living, has lain in their very weakness and helplessness. + +So the first Irish girls who came into the factory life of New England +were peasants, with no knowledge of city life, but quick and ready to +learn. They went into the new occupations, and picked up the new ways +of doing things. And by the time they had grasped the meaning of this +strange industrial world in which they found themselves, they were +in the relentless grasp of machine-controlled industry. Under +untold handicaps they had to begin at the very beginning, and start +rebellions on their own account. From the sixties on we can detect the +preponderance of Irish names in the annals of early trade unionism. +When they had adapted themselves to their conditions, for they quickly +became Americanized, they showed in the trade unions which they +organized the remarkable qualities for political leadership which the +Irish and Irish-Americans have ever since displayed in this country. +The important rôle which Irish and Irish-American men have played in +the councils of American trade unionism is well known, and their power +today remains very great. So as regards the women, by glancing over +the past we can readily trace the influence of the Irish girl, in the +efforts after organization, unsuccessful as these often were. It was +Maggie McNamara who led the Brooklyn Female Burnishers' Association +in 1868. It was during the sixties that Kate Mullaney was leading her +splendid body of Troy laundresses, and twenty years later we find +Leonora Barry, another Irish girl, as the leading spirit among the +women of the Knights of Labor. + +Except in isolated instances, no other race has come to the front +among working-women until recently. We read of German women and +Bohemian women as faithful unionists. But Germans, Bohemians and +Scandinavians advanced or lost ground along with the others. By this +time, moreover, the nation had become more habituated to absorbing +immigrants from various nations, and the distinction between races +was less accentuated after a few years' residence. On the part of the +Germans and Scandinavians, amalgamation has been so speedy, and in the +end so complete, that most of those who have been here some time, and +invariably the children of the first-comers, are Americans through and +through. + +With the foreign peoples that we have with us today, the situation +is somewhat different. Certain general principles are common to the +course of all these migrations. They originate, on the one hand, in +economic pressure, complicated not unfrequently with religious wars or +persecutions, and on the other, in the expectation of better times +in a new country. They meet the demands of a new country, asking for +labor, and are further subject to the inducements of agents. Under our +haphazard social arrangements, the newly arrived often meet wretched +conditions, and have no means of knowing how they are being used to +lower yet further wages for themselves and others. + +Always, whatever their own descent and history, the older inhabitants +feel resentment, knowing no more than their unfortunate rivals what +is the underlying reason of the trouble. Milder forms of antagonism +consist in sending the immigrant workers "to Coventry," using +contemptuous language of or to them, as we hear every day in "dago" +or "sheeny," and in objections by the elders to the young people +associating together, while the shameful use that is continually made +of the immigrants as strike-breakers may rouse such mutual indignation +that there are riots and pitched battles as a consequence. + +The first indignant efforts to exclude the intruders are vain. More +and more do experienced trade unionists admit this, and plead for the +acceptance of the inevitable, and turn all their energies towards the +organization of the unwelcome rivals. Scabs they must be, if +left alone. Better take them in where they can be influenced and +controlled, and can therefore do less damage. Here is where the help +of the foreign organizer is so essential to overcome the indifference +and quell the misgivings of the strangers in a situation where the +influence of the employer is almost always adverse. + +At length the immigrant gains a footing; he is left in possession, +either wholly or partly, and amalgamation to a great degree takes +place. A generation grows up that knew not the sad rivalry of their +fathers, for fresh industrial rivalries on different grounds have +replaced the old, as sharply cut, but not on race lines. + +Every one of these stages can be seen today in all the industrial +centers and in many rural ones, with one people or another. + +While the tendency of the organized labor movement, both in the United +States and in Canada, is towards restriction, whether exercised +directly through immigration laws, or indirectly through laws against +the importation of contract labor, there exist wide differences of +opinion among trade unionists, and in the younger groups are many who +recognize that there are limits beyond which no legislation can +affect the issue, and that even more important than the conditions of +admission to this new world is the treatment which the worker receives +after he passes the entrance gate. If it is necessary in the interests +of those already in this country to guard the portals carefully, it is +equally necessary for the welfare of all, that the community through +their legislators, both state and national, should accept the +responsibility of preventing the ruthless exploitation of immigrants +in the interest of private profit. Exploited and injured themselves, +these become the unconscious instruments of hardly less ruthless +exploitation and injury to their fellows in the competitive struggle +for a bare subsistence. + +Such exploitation could be in some degree checked through the +authorities assuming control, and especially by furnishing to the new +arrivals abundant information and advice, acquainting them with the +state of the labor market in different localities and at different +times. It is for the authorities also to see that the transportation +of newly arrived foreigners from place to place is rendered secure; +to encourage their early instruction in the language and laws of the +country and the ordinances of the city, along with enlightenment as to +the resources in time of trouble, which lie open to the poorest, if +they but know where to turn. + +In the first number of the _Immigrants in America Review_, the editor, +Frances A. Kellor, points out what an unusual opportunity has been +granted to America to formulate a definite program with reference +to alien residents. Now is the time, she insists, to perfect laws, +establish systems and improve conditions, when, owing to the European +War, but few immigrants are arriving, and therefore, when no great +rush of people demand expedients. "Now is the time to build, to +repair, to initiate, so we may obviate the necessity for expedients." + +The writer shows that efforts ought to be directed along seven lines, +and the work on these seven lines should be closely coördinated. + +1. _Transportation_. The safe transportation of admitted aliens to +their destination. + +2. _Employment_. Security of employment, and adequate coördinated, +regulated labor-market organization. + +3. _Standards of living_. Making it possible for the immigrant +to adopt and maintain better standards of living, by removal of +discriminations in localities, housing and sanitation, and by +preventing overcrowding. + +4. _Savings_. Information regarding savings banks, loan funds, +agricultural colonies, and legislation regarding the same. + +5. _Education_. Reduction of illiteracy, the teaching of civics, and +extension of opportunity of education and industrial training. + +6. _Citizenship_. Higher and simpler naturalization requirements, and +processes, and placing the legal status of the alien upon a just and +consistent foundation. + +7. _Public Charges_. National and state coöperation in the care of any +who may become public charges. + +No one can suppose that every Greek boy desires to become a shoeblack, +or that every Scandinavian girl is fitted for domestic service and for +nothing else; that every Slavic Jewess should become a garment-worker; +that every Italian man should work on the roads; that the Lithuanian +and Hungarian, no matter what their training or their ability, should +be compelled to go into the steel-rolling mills. All this because they +land speaking no English, and not knowing how to place themselves in +occupations better adapted to their inclinations and qualifications. +No one knows how many educated and trained men and women are thus +turned into hewers of wood and drawers of water, to the ruin of their +own lives and the loss of the community. + +The unregulated private employment office, the padrone and the +sweat-shop are the agencies who direct the newcomers to jobs, whether +it be in the city or out in the country camp. + +Many of the new arrivals would gladly take up agriculture, if they +knew where to go, and were safeguarded against imposition--having a +fee taken, for instance, and then landed several hundred miles away, +penniless, to find all the jobs gone. + +The immigrant on landing is very much like the child leaving school to +go to work, and requires vocational guidance just as sorely. + +The needs of the alien are closely related to the general question of +unemployment. He suffers in an acute degree from the want of system in +the regularization of industry, and the fact that we have failed +to recognize unemployment, and all irregularity of employment as +a condition to be met and provided against by industry and the +community. + +Americans take credit to themselves that so many immigrants do well, +succeed, become prosperous citizens and members of society, but wish +to shoulder none of the blame when the alien falls down by the way, or +lives under such home conditions that his babies die, and his older +children fall out of their grades, drift into the street trades or +find their way into the juvenile court. Americans forget how many of +all these evil results are due to the want of social machinery to +enable the alien to fit into his new surroundings, or the neglect to +set such social machinery agoing where it already exists. In the small +towns it is not unusual for health ordinances to be strictly enforced +in the English-speaking localities, and allowed to remain a dead +letter in the immigrant districts. In Chicago it was in the stockyards +district that garbage was dumped for many years; garbage, the product +of other wards, that the residents of those other wards insisted be +removed from their back-doors. How much of the high infant death-rate +among stockyards families has been due to the garbage exposed and +decaying, so carefully brought there, from the fine residential +districts? + +Legally the alien suffers under a burden of disabilities of which he +is usually wholly unaware, until he has broken some law or regulation +devised, it would appear, often for his discomfiture, rather than +for anyone's else benefit. These laws and regulations, in themselves +sometimes just and sometimes unjust, make up a mass of the most +inconsistent legislation. State laws, varying from state to state, and +city ordinances equally individual limit the employment of aliens +on public work. Peddlers' and fishers' licenses come under similar +restrictions; so with the owning of property, the right to leave +property by will, say, to a wife and children in Europe, and the right +even to protection of life, in violation of treaty rights. "The state +courts have never punished a single outrage of this kind" [violence at +the hands of a mob]. The federal government, Miss Kellor states, makes +a payment to a victim's heirs out of a secret service fund "if the +ambassador is persistent, and threatens to withdraw from Washington if +the murder of his countrymen is not to be punished." + +These are all most serious handicaps, and certainly the need for +investigation of all laws, the codifying of many, and the abolition of +some is urgent. + +If some of these handicaps were lifted from the immigrant, complaint +against under-cutting competition of cheap foreign labor would largely +cease, and the task of organizers among the foreign workers would be +much simplified, even while we are waiting for the day when it will be +possible for all to obtain work without turning others out of their +jobs, which can only come about when we produce intelligently for the +use of all, instead of for the profit of the exceptional few. + +Here and there work on the lines sketched out is beginning, even +though much of it is as yet unrelated to the rest. The community is +making headway, in the acknowledgment by various states, headed by New +York, of the just claim of the immigrant, once he is admitted within +our borders, to the protection of the government. For long after +the Federal authorities took over the control of immigration, their +concern was limited to some degree of restriction over the entry +of foreigners, and the enforcement of deportation, when such was +considered necessary. Quite a fresh departure, however, was made +in the year 1910, when the state of New York, following the +recommendations of its State Commission on Immigration (1909), +established its Bureau of Industries and Immigration, which really +grew out of the activities of a private society. Other communities +are also realizing their responsibility. California established a +permanent Commission on Immigration and Housing in 1913, and the +Investigating Commissions of Massachusetts and New Jersey recommended +similar agencies in their reports to the legislatures in 1914. + +New York has already accomplished excellent results, and more +important still, has shown the direction, in which other states may +both follow and coöperate. A few years more may see us with interstate +legislation insuring the better care and protection of immigrants all +over the country, interstate legislation being the curiously +indirect method which the United States has hit upon to overcome +the imperfections and deficiencies of its national instrument of +government. One of these days may even find the Federal House at +Washington taking over, in other lines besides that of foreign +workers, the functions outlined for it in the first instance by the +daughter states. + +The United States Government has recently entered a new field in the +passage of a law, authorizing the protection of immigrants in transit +to their destination, and providing for the establishment of a station +in Chicago, where the immigrants will go on their arrival, and will +thus be protected from the gross frauds from which they have so long +suffered. The present administration also promises an experiment +in the development of the Bureau of Information in the Immigration +Department. + +It is not so easy for any of us to give the same dispassionate +consideration to the problem that is with us as to that which has long +been settled, and has passed away into the calm atmosphere of history. +And truly, there are complications in the present situation which our +fathers had not to face. And first, the much greater dissimilarity in +training, mental outlook, social customs, and in the case of the +men and women from eastern Europe, not to speak of Asia, the utter +unlikeness in language, makes mutual knowledge and understanding much +more difficult, and the growth of mutual confidence, therefore, much +slower. + +No one has yet analyzed the effects upon the nervous system of the +migrating worker, of the unsettlement of habits, and the change of +surroundings and social environment, working in connection with the +changed climatic conditions, and the often total change in food. This +is one phase of the immigrant problem which deserves the most careful +study. And when, as too often in the case of the Russian Jew, this +complete alteration of life is piled on top of the persecutions so +many of them have endured, and the shocks so many have sustained +before leaving their native land, the normal, usual effects of +the transition are emphasized and exaggerated, and it may take a +generation or longer before complete Americanization and amalgamation +is brought about. + +The longer such a change is in being consummated, the more is the +new generation likely to retain some of their most characteristic +qualities permanently; to retain and therefore to impress these upon +the dominant race, in this case upon the American nation, through +association, and finally, through marriage. Especially is this a +probable result where we find such vitality and such intensely +prepotent power as among the Jews. + +In reference to trade-union organization among women, while each +nationality presents its own inherent problem, there is equally +no doubt but that each will in the future make its own special +contribution towards the progress and increased scope of the movement +among the women workers. + +As matters are developing today, the fulfillment of this promise of +the future has already begun most markedly among the Slavic Jewesses, +especially those from Russia. These young women have already brought, +and are every day bringing into the dreary sweatshop and the +speeded-up factory a spirit of fearlessness and independence both +in thought and action, which is having an amazing effect upon the +conditions of factory industry in the trades where they work. So also, +supporting and supported by the men of their own race, these Russian +Jewish girls, many of them extremely young, are inspiring their +fellow-workers and interpenetrating the somewhat matter-of-fact +atmosphere of American trade unionism with their own militant +determination and enthusiasm. With most, the strike has been their +initiation into trade unionism, often the general strike in their own +trade, the strike on a scale hitherto unparalleled in trades where +either the whole or a very considerable proportion of the workers are +women. Some again, especially among the leaders, approach unionism +through the ever open door of socialism. If I speak here of the women +of the Slavic Jewish race, it is not that I wish to ignore the men. I +have to leave them on one side, that is all. + +These girls add to courage and enthusiasm, such remarkable gifts of +intellect and powers of expression as to make them a power wherever +they have become awakened to the new problems that face them here and +now, and to their own responsibilities in relation thereto. They are +essentially individualists. They do not readily or naturally either +lean upon others or coöperate with others, nor yet confide in others. +They come here with a history generations long of ill-treatment and +persecution. Many thousands of them have witnessed their dearest +tortured, outraged and killed with the narrowest possible escape from +some similar fate themselves. To most any return to their native +country is completely barred, and they do not therefore nurse the +hope, so inveterately cherished by the Italians, for instance, that +they may some day be able to go back. + +When the Russian Jewish girl first hears of a trade union, she has +usually been some years in one of our cities, working in a factory or +a sweatshop, let us say as a garment-worker. The religious and social +liberty which she has here learnt to consider her due has stimulated +her desire for further freedom, while the tremendous industrial +pressure under which she earns her daily bread stirs the keenest +resentment. One day patience, Jewish girlish patience, reaches its +limit. A cut in wages, exhausting overtime, or the insults of an +overbearing foreman, and an unpremeditated strike results. It may be +small, poorly managed, and unsuccessful. The next time things may go +better, and the girls come in touch with a union, and take their first +lessons in the meaning of collective bargaining. (What is passing in +the minds of the rank and file at this stage I am not certain. The +obscurities of their psychology are more difficult to fathom.) But I +am sure that to the leaders of the young protestants it is not so +much in the light of a tower of refuge that the trade union presents +itself, but rather as an instrument by means of which they believe +that they can control a situation which has become unbearable. As +happens to many endowed with the gift of leadership, they travel much +farther than they had any idea of when they set out. As time goes on, +if they are real leaders, they learn to understand human nature in +its varied aspects, the human nature of bosses, as well as the human +nature of their fellow-wage-earners. After a year or two as presidents +or secretaries of their local, you will hear these fiery-tongued +little orators preaching endurance, in order to gain an end not +obtainable today, aye, even advising compromise, they to whom the very +word compromise had erstwhile been impossible. This implies no loss of +principle, no paltering with loyalty, but merely putting in practice +the wisdom of the experienced statesman. Nearly all, sooner or later, +embrace the socialist philosophy, and many are party members. In that +philosophy they find a religious sanction in their most determined +struggles after victory, and unfailing support and consolation in the +hour of defeat. + +As for the rank and file, with them, too, something of the same mental +processes probably goes on in a minor degree; but they are much longer +in learning their lesson, and meanwhile are often exceedingly hard to +direct. They are impulsive beyond belief. It used once to be remarked +that Jewish girls were the easiest of all to organize during a strike, +and the hardest of all to hold in the union afterwards. This is +fortunately not so true today, now that there are a few trained +leaders of their own race, whom they trust, and who understand their +moods, and know, better than most Americans, how to handle them. + +The alien is forever being resented as an obstacle, even if an +unconscious one, in the way of organization. Yet as far as women are +concerned, it is to this group of aliens in particular that is due the +recent tremendous impulse towards organization among the most poorly +paid women. In the sewing trades, and in some other trades, such as +candy-making, it is the American girls who have accepted conditions, +and allowed matters to drift from bad to worse. It is the foreign +girl, and especially the Slavic Jewess who has been making the fight +for higher wages, shorter hours, better shop management, and above +all, for the right to organize; and she has kept it up, year after +year, and in city after city, in spite of all expectations to the +contrary. + +One of the indirect benefits of the colossal strikes in the sewing +trades in which these Jewish girls have played so conspicuous a +part has been the increasing degree in which those of differing +nationalities have come to understand one another, as men and women +having common difficulties and common rights, as all alike members +of the great working people. Through sore trial many have learnt the +meaning of "class consciousness," who never heard of the word. + +The new spirit is beginning to touch the Italian girl, and as time +goes on, she, too, will be brought into the fold of unionism. To meet +with large success, we need as leaders and organizers, Italians, both +men and women, of the type of Arthur Carotti, as capable and devoted. +The Italian girl is guarded in her home as is the girl of no other +race, and this works both for good and for evil. The freedom of the +streets, accorded so unquestioningly to their girls by the parents of +other nationalities, is conscientiously denied to the Italian girl. No +respectable family would permit their daughters to go to any sort of +an evening gathering, to attend church or dance or union meeting, +unless accompanied by father, mother or brother. While no one can +help deeply respecting the principles of family affection and +responsibility which dictate this code of manners, there is equally no +blinking the fact that it raises a most serious barrier in the way of +organizing girls of Italian parentage. Nor on the other hand is it +of the least avail to protect the girl against the evils of the +industrial system of which the whole family form a part. In especial +it does not serve to shield her from the injurious effects of cruel +overwork. In no class of our city population do we find more of this +atrocious evil, misnamed homework than among Italian families, +and whether it is sewing, artificial-flower-or feather-making or +nut-picking, neither grown daughters nor little children are spared +here. Along with the mother and under her eye, the whole group +work day after day, and often far into the night at occupations in +themselves harmless enough under proper conditions, but ruinous to +health and happiness when permitted to intrude under the family roof. +For the wrong of home-work is not to be measured even by the injury +suffered by the workers themselves. All parasitic trades, such as +these, lower wages in the open market. The manufacturer is continually +impelled to cut down wages in his shops to keep pace with the +competition of the ill-remunerated home-worker. + +As I have said above, I believe that every race that has settled down +here in this America has some special contribution to bestow, which +will work for good to the whole labor movement. I have instanced the +case of the Slavic Jewess as one who has certainly arrived. From +others the gift has still to come. From the Italian girl it will come +in good time, for they are beginning to enter the unions now, and from +the lips of their own fellow-countrywomen even Italian mothers will +learn to accept for their daughters the gospel they will not listen to +from foreigners like ourselves. The most severely handicapped of all +the nationalities so far, to my thinking, is the Polish. They are what +is called pure Slavs, that is, with no Jewish blood. They are peasant +girls and cannot be better described than they are in a pamphlet +on "The Girl Employed in Hotels and Restaurants," published by the +Juvenile Protective League to Chicago. + +In these places Polish girls are chosen for the following reasons: + +1. Because they come of strong peasant stock, and accomplish a large +amount of work. + +2. They are very thorough in what they do. + +3. They are willing to take low wages. + +4. They are very submissive, that is, they never protest. + +5. They are ignorant of the laws of this country, and are easily +imposed upon. + +6. They never betray their superiors, no matter what they see. + +What a scathing indictment of the American people is set forth in this +brief summing up! + +The trades that swallow up these strong, patient, long-enduring +creatures are work in the meat-canning plants, and dish-washing and +scrubbing in restaurants and hotels. These really valuable qualities +of physical strength and teachableness, unbalanced by any sense of +what is due to themselves, let alone their fellow-workers, prove their +industrial ruin. + +It is only when they are fortunate enough to get into a better class +of work, and when they chance upon some well-organized establishment +and are drawn into the union as a matter of course that we find Polish +girls in unions at all. Intellectually they are not in the running +with the Russian Jewess and the peasant surroundings of their +childhood have offered them few advantages. One evening, for instance, +there were initiated into a glove-workers' local seventeen new Polish +members. Of these two only were able to read and write English, and of +the remainder not more than half were able to read and write Polish. +As to what is to be the later standing and the ultimate contribution +of the Polish girl, I cannot hazard a guess. I only know that she +possesses fine qualities which we are not utilizing and which we may +be obliterating by the cruel treatment so many thousands of Polish +girls are receiving at our hands. + +I cannot see any prospect of organizing them in any reasonable numbers +at present. The one thing we can do to alleviate their hard lot is to +secure legislation--legislation for shorter hours and for the minimum +wage. + +Their suspiciousness is perhaps the chief barrier in the way of social +elevation of the Poles. That Poles can be organized is shown by +the remarkable success of the Polish National Alliance and kindred +societies. Their capacity for coöperation is seen in their +establishment of their own coöperative stores. + + + + +VII + +THE WOMAN ORGANIZER + + +The problems that face the woman organizer are many and complex. They +are the harder to handle, inasmuch as there is very little assistance +to be had from any body of tradition on the subject among women +workers. The movement for organization among women is still so +inchoate. The woman organizer turns to the more experienced men +leaders, and finds that often, even with the best will in the world, +they cannot help her. The difficulties she meets with are, in detail, +so different from theirs that she has to work out her own solutions +for herself. + +It is indeed a blind alley in which she has so often to move. The +workers are young and ignorant, therefore, by all odds, they require +the protection of both legislation and organization. Again, the +workers are young and ignorant, and therefore they have not learnt the +necessity for such protection. Their wages are in most cases low, +too low for decent self-support. But just because their wages are so +inadequate for bare needs it is in many cases all the more difficult +to induce them to deduct from such scanty pay the fifty cents a month +which is the smallest sum upon which any organization can pay its way +and produce tangible benefits for its members. + +Left to her own devices, the solution of her financial difficulties +which the average girl finds is always to lessen her expenses so as to +manage on the lessening wage that is inevitable in all trades if not +resisted. To find a cheaper room, to take one more girl into her room, +to spend a few cents a day less for food--these are the near-hand +economies that first present themselves to the girlish mind. This is +on the economizing side. When it comes to trying to earn more, to work +longer hours is surely the self-evident way of increasing the contents +of the weekly pay envelope. The younger and inexperienced the worker, +the more readily is she fooled into believing that the more work she +turns out, under a piece-work system, the more money will she earn, +not only in that week but in the succeeding weeks. + +To this child-like and simple code of worldly wisdom and of ethics, +the policy advised by the organizer is indeed entirely foreign. To +some very good girls, indeed, it seems ethically wrong not to work +your hardest, or, as they say, do your best, especially when you are +urged to. To more, it seems a silly, not to say impossible plan, not +to try and earn as big a wage as possible. But the organizer comes in +and she approaches the question from the other end. She does not talk +about a standard of living, but she preaches it all the time. It is +her business and her vocation to bring the girls to see that the first +step towards getting more wages is to want more wages, to ask for more +wages, and then, seeing that the single girl has no power of bringing +about this result by herself, to show them that they must band +together with the determination to make their wage square with their +ideas of living, and not think that they must forever square their +mode of living with their wage. + +In the acceptance into the mind of this idea is involved a complete +revolution. + +It is in making of this ideal theory a living force, by helping girls +to put it into practice in everyday shop life that the girl organizer +has her special work cut out for her. And here she necessarily +contrasts favorably with the average man organizer when he tries to +deal with girls, because she understands the girl's work and the +girl's problems better, and the girl knows that she does. + +I have taken wages as the prime subject of the organizer's activities +only because wages form the crux of the whole question. There, without +any deceiving veils falling between, we come close up to the real +point at issue between the employer and the employed, between the +employé and the community, the standard of living that is possible, +as measured by the employé's share of the product of labor. But in +practice, money wages form only one element of the standard of living +problem, although the one around which least confusion gathers. + +Whatever form the demands of labor organizations may take, the essence +of the demand is the same: better terms for the worker always, however +temporary circumstances or technical details may obscure the issue. + +That this holds of reductions in hours of work has become a truism +among trade unionists, who recognize that any reduction of hours +of work eventually, though not perhaps immediately, results in a +readjustment of wages, whether week-workers or piece-workers or both +be involved, till the original money wage at any rate is reached, +supposing, of course, that no other influence enters in as an element +to lessen rates of pay. + +The question of equal pay for equal work involves indeed much more +complicated issues, as regards both the individual worker and the +whole body of women workers in the trade or branch of the trade +affected. But even here, the underlying purpose is the same, the +assuring, to the total number of workers whose labor has gone into the +production, of a certain amount of finished marketable work, of an +increased, or at the least, not a lessened share of the product of +their toil. It is not to be questioned that if women are permitted +to work at the same operations as men for a lesser remuneration, the +man's wage must go down. In addition, he may, even at the lowered +rate, lose his job, as the employer may cherish the not altogether +groundless hope that he may cut down the women's wage yet further and +employ yet more women, and yet fewer men. + +In the same way the provision of better sanitary conditions, the +fencing off of dangerous machinery, the prohibition usually of +dangerous processes or of the use of dangerous materials, such as lead +or white phosphorus, all involve an addition small or large, to the +cost of manufacture. If, however, there be in all these instances an +increase in the cost of manufacture there are also results to the +well-being of the workers, which, if they could be measured in money, +would be out of all proportion to the money cost to the employer or +to the purchasing community. But again, it is the maintenance of the +workers' ideal standard of living which causes the trade union to +demand that their share of the product of their toil shall not be +lessened by needless or avoidable risks to life or limb or health. + +I have taken these demands in the order, in which, generally speaking, +the organizer can induce the young girl worker to consider them in her +own case. Better pay makes by far the easiest appeal, whether it be to +the very young girl with her eager desire for a good time or to her +older sister upon whom, quite surely, years have laid some of life's +increasing burdens. + +Next in order of attractiveness came shorter hours, especially if the +wage-earners can be assured that wages will stay where they are. + +But nothing short of both years and trade experience, apparently, will +impress upon the worker all that is implied in those words that we +write so easily and pronounce so glibly--sanitary conditions. + +The young girls have all the blessed, happy-go-lucky care-free-ness +of children, the children they are in years. They start out on their +wage-earning career with the abounding high spirits and the stores of +vitality of extreme youth. They are proud of their new capacity to +earn, to begin to keep themselves and to help the mother and the +others, and at first it does not seem to them as if anything could +break them down or kill them. They do not at first associate bad air +with headaches or sore throats, nor long standing with backaches, nor +following the many needles of a power sewing-machine with eye trouble. +The dangerous knife-edge on the revolving wheel, or the belting +that may catch hair or clothing is to them only an item in the +shop-furnishings, that they hope may not catch them napping. + +All along the progress of labor organization has been exceedingly slow +among women as compared with men, and has been far indeed from keeping +pace with the rate at which increasing numbers of women have +poured into the industrial field. So that it was not strange that +well-meaning labor men, judging from personal experiences or arguing +from analogy, came to the conclusion, paralyzing indeed to their own +strivings after an all-inclusive, nation-wide organization of the +workers, that women could not be organized. Or if such a labor man did +not like to put it quite so bluntly, even to himself, he would shake +his head, and regretfully remark that women did not make good trade +unionists. If someone less experienced or more hopeful came along with +plans for including or for helping women, the veteran trade unionist +had too often a number of facts to bring forward, the bald accuracy of +which was not to be disputed, of how in his own trade the women were +scabbing on the men by working for a lower wage, or that they were so +indifferent about the meetings, or worse still, how that women's local +did so fine during the strike, and then just went to pieces, and now +there wasn't any local at all. + +"Facts are not to be explained away," he would conclude. No, they are +not to be explained away, but some facts may be explained, and not +unfrequently the explanation is based upon some other fact, which has +been overlooked. With the present question, the one important fact +which explains a good deal is the youth of so many women workers. This +by no means disposes of each particular situation with its special +difficulties, but it does help to explain the general tendency among +the women to be neglectful of meetings and to let their local go to +pieces, which so distracts our friend. + +This new competitor with men, whom we think of and speak of as a +woman, is in many cases not a woman at all, but only a girl, very +often only a child. From this one fact arises a whole class, of +conditions, with resulting problems and difficulties totally different +from any the man trade unionist has to deal with among men. + +The first and most palpable difficulty is that the majority of workers +are yet at the play age. They are still at the stage when play is +one of the rightful conditions under which they carry on their main +business of growing up. Many of them are not ready to be in the +factory at all. Certainly not for eight, ten or twelve hours a day. +And so those young things, after an unthankful and exhausting day's +toil, are not going to attend meetings unless these can be made +attractive to them. And the meeting that may appear entirely right and +even attractive to the man of thirty or forty will be tiresome and +boring past endurance to the girl of sixteen or eighteen. + +Then there are other huge difficulties to encounter. The very first +principles of coöperative action and mutual responsibility are unknown +to the great majority of the young workers. Too rarely does it +happen, that in her own home the girl has learnt anything about trade +unionism, at least trade unionism for women. The greater number of +girls are not the daughters of factory mothers. The mother, whether +American or foreign-born, grew up herself in simpler conditions, and +does not begin to comprehend the utterly changed environment in which +her little daughter has to work when she enters a modern factory. If +American, she may; have married just out of her father's home, and if +foreign-born she may have been tending silkworms or picking grapes +in Italy, or at field-work in Poland or Hungary. Very different +occupations these from turning raw silk into ribbon or velvet in an +Eastern mill, or labelling fruit-jars in an Illinois cannery. + +Again, neither in the public nor in the parochial school are the +workers-to-be taught anything concerning the labor movement or the +meaning of collective bargaining. Even if they should have attained +the eighth grade with its dizzy heights of learning, the little +teaching they have received in civics has not touched upon either of +the most vital problems of our day, the labor movement or the woman +movement. + +The mere youth, however, of the girl workers is not in itself the +chief or the most, insuperable difficulty. If these girls were boys +we might look forward to their growing up in the trade, gaining +experience and becoming ever more valuable elements in the union +membership. But after a few years the larger percentage of the girls +marry and are lost to the union and to unionism for good. Nay, a girl +is often such a temporary hand that she does not even remain out +her term of working years in one trade, but drifts into and out of +half-a-dozen unskilled or semi-skilled occupations, and works for +twenty different employers in the course of a few years. The head of a +public-school social center made it her business to inquire of fifty +girls, all over sixteen, and probably none over eighteen how long each +had held her present job. Two only had been over a year at the one +place. The rest accounted for such short periods as four months, six +weeks, two weeks, at paper-box-making, candy-packing or book-binding +with, of course, dull seasons and periods of unemployment between. + +In the organized trades conditions are not quite so exasperating, but +even in these the short working term of the girl employé means an +utter lack of continuity in the membership of the trade and therefore +of the union. The element of permanence in men's organizations is in +great measure the result of the fact that men, whether they remain in +one particular trade or shift to another, are at least in industry for +life as wage-earners, unless indeed they pass on into the employing or +wage-paying class. + +But instead of seeing in the temporary employment of so many girls +only another reason why they need the protection and the educational +advantages of organization, we have been too contented to let ill +alone, and all alike, the girl, the workingman, and the community are +suffering for this inertia. + +In this connection the first and most important matter to take up is +that of women organizers, for women workers will never be enrolled in +the labor movement of America in adequate numbers except through women +organizers. And where are these today? + +A most emphatic presentation of the practical reasons why the man +organizer can rarely handle effectively young women workers, and why +therefore women are absolutely necessary if the organization on any +large scale is to be successful, was made before the Convention of the +American Federation of Labor in Toronto in 1909. + +The speaker was Mr. Thomas Rumsey of Toledo. He described his own +helplessness before the problem. He told, how, to begin with, it was +not possible for a man to have that readiness of access to the girl +workers when in their own homes and in their leisure hours which the +woman organizer readily obtained. + +"If a girl is living at home," he said, "it is not quite, so awkward, +but if she is in lodgings I can't possibly ask to see her in her own +room. If I talk to her at all it will be out on the street, which is +not pleasant, especially if it is snowing or freezing or blowing a +gale. It is not under these conditions that a girl is likely to see +the use of an organization or be attracted by its happier and more +social side." Then he went on to say that he himself often did not +know what best to say to his girl when he had caught her. He was +ignorant, perhaps almost as ignorant as an outsider, of the conditions +under which she did her work. He might know or be able to find out her +wages and hours; he might guess that there was fining and speeding up, +but he would know nothing of the details, and on any sanitary question +or any moral question he would be utterly at sea. He could neither +put the questions nor get the answers, nor in any way win the +girl's confidence. Therefore, Mr. Rumsey concluded, if the American +Federation of Labor is going to acknowledge its responsibilities in +the great field of labor propaganda among women it must seriously take +up the question of organizing women by women. + +On a similar basis of reasoning it is easy to see that in the great +majority of cases the successful organization of the women in any +particular trade can be best carried out by one of themselves, a +woman from their own trade. Not only do the girls believe that she +understands their difficulties better than anyone else, but in most +instances she does indeed bring to her work that exact knowledge of +details and processes which gives the girls confidence that she +can fairly state their case, that she will not, through technical +ignorance, ask for impossibilities, nor on the other hand permit +herself to be browbeaten by a foreman or superintendent because +she does not know anything about the quality of material used, the +peculiarities of a machine or the local or seasonal needs of the +trade. Employers and managers also quickly recognize when organizers +know whereof they talk. They, like the employés, realize that with +such competent and efficient organizers or business agents they, too, +are on firmer ground, even though they may not always acknowledge it. + +To these sound general rules there are exceptions. There are cases +where a man organizer can be invaluable, especially in some great, +even if temporary, crisis. Also, there are in the American labor +movement a few women who possess a genius for organizing on the very +broadest lines. So profound is their sympathy with all their sisters, +so thorough their grasp of general principles, so quick their +perception of details, so intimate their knowledge of human nature and +so sound and cool their judgment that they can be sent far afield +into trades quite foreign to those of which they have had personal +experience, and make a success of it. But such as these are rare and, +when found, to be prized and cherished. The ordinary everyday way of +drawing the women workers into the union and into the labor movement +would be to have in every trade women from that trade at work all +the time organizing their fellow-workers and holding them in the +organization. + +When the preliminary difficulties of organization have been met and +overcome, when the new union has been set on its feet or the old one +strengthened, there remains for the girl leader to keep her forces +together. + +The commonest complaint of all is that women members of a trade union +do not attend their meetings. It is indeed a very serious difficulty +to cope with, and the reasons for this poor attendance and want of +interest in union affairs have to be fairly faced. + +At first glance it seems curious that the meetings of a mixed local +composed of both men and girls, should have for the girls even less +attraction than meetings of their own sex only. But so it is. A +business meeting of a local affords none of the lively social +intercourse of a gathering for pleasure or even of a class for +instruction. The men, mostly the older men, run the meeting and often +are the meeting. Their influence may be out of all proportion to their +numbers. It is they who decide the place where the local shall meet +and the hour at which members shall assemble. The place is therefore +often over a saloon, to which many girls naturally and rightly object. +Sometimes it is even in a disreputable district. The girls may prefer +that the meeting should begin shortly after closing time so that they +do not need to go home and return, or have to loiter about for two or +three hours. They like meetings to be over early. The men mostly name +eight o'clock as the time of beginning, but business very often will +not start much before nine. Then, too, the men feel that they have +come together to talk, and talk they do while they allow the real +business to drag. Of course, the girls are not interested in long +discussions on matters they do not understand and in which they have +no part and naturally they stay away, and so make matters worse, for +the men feel they are doing their best for the interests of the union, +resent the women's indifference, and are more sure than ever that +women do not make good unionists. + +Among the remedies proposed for this unsatisfactory state of affairs +is compulsory attendance at a certain number of meetings per year +under penalty of a fine or even losing of the card. (A very drastic +measure this last and risky, unless the trade has the closed shop.) + +Where the conditions of the trade permit it by far the best plan is to +have the women organized in separate locals. The meetings of women and +girls only draw better attendances, give far more opportunity for all +the members to take part in the business, and beyond all question form +the finest training ground for the women leaders who inconsiderable +numbers are needed so badly in the woman's side of the trade-union +movement today. + +Those trade-union women who advocate mixed locals for every trade +which embraces both men and women are of two types. Some are mature, +perhaps elderly women, who have been trade unionists all their lives, +who have grown up in the same locals with men, who have in the long +years passed through and left behind their period of probation and +training, and to whose presence and active coöperation the men have +become accustomed. These women are able to express their views in +public, can put or discuss a motion or take the chair as readily as +their brothers. The other type is represented by those individual +women or girls in whom exceptional ability takes the place of +experience, and who appreciate the educational advantages of working +along with experienced trade-union leaders. I have in my mind at this +moment one girl over whose face comes all the rapture of the keen +student as she explains how much she has learnt from working with men +in their meetings. She ardently advocates mixed locals for all. For +the born captain the plea is sound. Always she is quick enough to +profit by the men's experience, by their ways of managing conferences +and balancing advantages and losses in presenting a wage-scale or +accepting an agreement. At the same time she is not so overwhelmed by +their superiority, born of long practice in handling such situations, +but that she retains her own independence of judgment and clearness +of vision, and at the fitting moment will rise and place the woman's +point of view before her male co-workers. Oh yes, for herself she is +right, and for the coming woman she is right, too. But the risk is +rather that she and such as she pressing on in their individual +advancement will outstep the rank and file of their sisters at the +present stage while trade unionism among women is still so young a +movement, and one which under the most hopeful circumstances will +have to fulfill for many years the task of receiving, teaching and +assimilating vast numbers of young and quite untrained, in many cases +non-English-speaking girls. + +The mixed local for all mixed trades is, I believe, the ultimate +goal which women trade unionists ought to keep in mind. But with the +average girl today the plan does not work. The mixed local does +not, as a general rule, offer the best training-class for new girl +recruits, in which they may obtain their training in collective +bargaining or coöperative effort. To begin with, they are often so +absurdly young that they stand in the position of children put into +a class at school two or three grades ahead of their capacity and +expected to do work for which they have had no preparation through the +earlier grades. Many of the discussions that go on are quite above +the girls' heads. And even when a young girl has something to say and +wishes to say it, want of practice and timidity often keep her silent. +It is to be regretted, too, that some trade-union men are far from +realizing either the girls' needs in their daily work or their +difficulties in meetings, and lecture, reprove or bully, where they +ought to listen and persuade. + +The girls, as a rule, are not only happier in their own women's local, +but they have the interest of running the meetings themselves. They +choose their own hall and fix their own time of meeting. Their +officers are of their own selecting and taken from among themselves. +The rank and, file, too, get the splendid training that is conferred +when persons actually and not merely nominally work together for a +common end. Their introduction to the great problems of labor is +through their practical understanding and handling of those problems +as they encounter them in the everyday difficulties of the shop and +the factory and as dealt with when they come up before the union +meeting or have to be settled in bargaining with an employer. + +But there are other and broader reasons still why it is women who +should in the main be the leaders and teachers of women in the trade +union, that newest and best school for the working-women. Women have +always been the teachers of the race. It was in the far-back ages with +motherhood as their normal school that primitive women learnt their +profession and handed on to their daughters their slowly acquired +skill. Whenever woman has been left to self-development on her own +lines her achievements have always been in the constructive direction. +Always she has been busy helping to make some young thing grow, +whether the object of her solicitous attention were a wild grass, a +baby, or an art. What does education mean but the drawing forth of +latent qualities? Is not the best teacher the one who calls these +forth? Are not women teachers, trained, wise, and patient, urgently +needed in the labor movement of our day? Just now, when the number of +young girls in industry is so great, the girls need them, we know. +Possibly the men also would be the gainers through their influence. +The labor movement is a constant fight, it is true, but it is also a +school of development. In the near future we hope it will mean to +all workers even more than a discipline, a storehouse of culture, a +provider of joy and of pleasure, of care in sickness, of support in +adversity, and best of all, a preparation for and a hastener on of +that coöperative commonwealth for which more and more of us ever watch +and pray. + +The need for the woman organizer admitted, the demand for women +organizers becomes pressing. And where are they to be found? The reply +is that they are not to be found, not yet. If the organizers were +to be obtained such requests would be increased fourfold. But the +material is ready to hand. The born organizer, with initiative, +resource, courage and patience exists in every trade, in every city, +and she comes of every race. But on the one hand she is untrained, and +on the other cannot stop to receive training unless for a little while +she is relieved from the pressing necessity of earning her living. + +The problem of how to provide women organizers in response to the +demand for such workers, with its solution, was admirably put by Mrs. +Raymond Robins, in her presidential address before the Fourth Biennial +Convention of the National Women's Trade Union League in St. Louis, in +June, 1913, when she said: + +The best organizers without question are the trade-union girls. Many +a girl capable of leadership and service is held within the ranks +because neither she as an individual nor her organization has money +enough to set her free for service. Will it be possible for the +National Women's Trade Union League to establish a training-school +for women organizers, even though in the beginning it may be only a +training-class, offering every trade-union girl a scholarship for a +year? + +The course finally outlined included a knowledge of the principles +of trade unionism, and their practical application in field-work, a +knowledge of labor legislation, of parliamentary law, and practice in +writing and speaking. + +In the following year, 1914, the League was able to give several +months of training to three trade-union girls. Cordial coöperation +was received from both the University of Chicago and North-western +University. For the present no further students have been received, +because of the need of larger financial resources to maintain classes +in session regularly. + +The need for a training-school is attested by the constant demands +for women organizers received at the headquarters of the League from +central labor bodies and men's unions, and by the example of the +thorough training given to young women taking up work in other fields +somewhat analogous. Such a school for women might very well prove in +this country the nucleus of university extension work in the labor +movement for both men and women, similar to that which has been so +successfully inaugurated in Great Britain, and which is making headway +in Canada and in Australia. + +At the Seattle Convention of the American Federation of Labor held in +November, 1914, a resolution was passed levying an assessment of one +cent upon the entire membership to organize women. Efforts were mainly +concentrated upon workers in the textile industry, to which special +organizers, both men and women, were assigned. There is no trade +which has worse conditions, and consequently wages and regularity +of employment are immediately affected adversely by any industrial +depression. + +Women in the labor movement will have to make their own mistakes +and earn their own experience. I have dwelt elsewhere upon the many +advantages that accrue to women and girls from belonging to an +organization so vital and so bound up with some of our most +fundamental needs, as the trade union. On the very surface it +is evident that in such a body working-women learn to be more +business-like, to work together in harmony, to share loyally the +results of their united action, whether these spell defeat or success. +If they err, they promptly learn of their mistakes from their, +fellow-workers, men or women, from employers, and from their families. + +Here, however, is perhaps the place to call attention to one markedly +feminine tendency, which should be discouraged in these early days +lest in process of time it might even gain the standing of a virtue, +and that is the inclination among the leaders to indulge in unlimited +overwork in all their labor activities. Labor men overwork too, but +not, as a rule, to the same degree, nor nearly so frequently as women. + +Do not mistake. Women do not fall into this error because they are +trade unionists, or because they are inspired by the labor movement or +by the splendid ideals or by the aspiration after a free womanhood. + +No! Trade-union and socialist and suffrage women overwork because they +are women, because through long ages the altruistic side has been +overdeveloped. They have brought along with them into their public +work the habit of self-sacrifice, and that overconscientiousness +in detail which their foremothers acquired during the countless +generations when obedience, self-immolation and self-obliteration were +considered women's chief duties. Personally these good sisters are +blameless. But that does not in the least alter the hard fact that +such overdevotion is an uneconomical expenditure of nervous energy. + +When a wiser onlooker, wise with the onlooker's wisdom, urges +moderation even in overwork, there is put forward the pathetic plea, +variously worded: + +"So much to do, so little time to do it." + +I have never heard that hard-to-be-met argument so well answered as by +a woman physician, who gave these reasons to her patient, one of the +overdevoted ilk. + +"Agreed," she said, "there is so much to do that you cannot possibly +do it all, nor the half, nor the tenth, nor the fiftieth part of it. +Furthermore, the struggle is going on for a long, long time, and there +are occasions ahead when your aid will be needed as badly or more +badly than today. And when that hour comes, if you do not take care +of yourself now, you will not be there to furnish the help others +require. Not that I think you are dangerously ill, but I'm reminding +you that, at the rate you are going, your working years, the years +during which your energy and your initiative will last, are going to +be few, so pull up and go slow! + +"You are a leader, and you are so, partly at least, because you are a +highly trained person. It has taken many years to train you up to this +pitch of efficiency. You can handle agreements, at a pinch you can +draft a bill. You are a favorite and influential speaker. You are +invaluable in a strike, and you have often prevented strikes. We all +want you to go on doing all these things. Now, tell me, which is +the most valuable to the whole labor movement, a few years of your +activity, or many years?" + +That puts the matter in a nutshell. + +I do not wish to overlook the fact that there are exceptional +occasions when overwork to the extent of breakdown or even death is +justified, or to have it supposed that I think mere life our most +valuable possession, or that there may not be many a time when truly +to save your life is to lose it. But I repeat that habitual, everyday +overwork, is uneconomical, injurious to the cause we serve, and likely +to lessen rather than heighten the efficiency of the indispensable +leaders when the supreme test comes. + + + + +VIII + +THE TRADE UNION IN OTHER FIELDS + + +When we begin! to survey the vast field of industry covered by +different occupations we get the same sense of confusion that comes +to us when we look at an ant-heap. The workers are going hither and +thither, with apparently no ordered plan, with no unity or community +of purpose that we can discover. But those who have given time and +patience to the task have been able to read order even in the chaos of +the ant-hill. And so may we, with our far more complex human ant-hill, +if we will set to work. The material for such a study lies ready to +our hand in bewildering abundance; but to make any practical studies +which shall aid the workers and the thinking public to follow the line +of least resistance in raising standards of wages and of status as +well will be the work of many years and of many minds. Even today +there are some general indications of how the workers are going to +settle their own problems. + +Some foreign critics and some critics at home are very severe upon the +backwardness of the labor movement in the United States, and in +these criticisms there is a large element of truth. Yet there is one +difficulty under which we labor on this continent, which these critics +do not take into consideration. That is the primal one of the immense +size of the country, along with all the secondary difficulties +involved in this first one. There has never been any other country +even attempting a task so stupendous as ours--to organize, to make +one, to obtain good conditions for today, to insure as good and better +conditions for tomorrow, for the wage-earning ones out of a population +of over ninety millions spread over three million square miles. And +with these millions of human beings of so many different races, with +no common history and often no common language, this particular task +has fallen to the lot of no other nation on the face of this earth. +Efforts at organization of the people and by the people, are +perpetually being undermined. Capitalism is nationally fairly well +organized, so that there has been all the time more and more agreement +among the great lords of finance, not to trespass on one another's +preserves. But it is not so with the workers. Even in trades where +there exists a formal national organization, there will be towns and +states where it will either be non-existent or extremely weak, so that +workers, especially the unskilled, as they drift from town to town in +search of work, tend to pass out of, rather than into, the union of +their trade. And thus members of every trade organization live in +dread of the inroad into their city or their state of crowds of +unorganized competitors for their particular kind of employment. Why, +if it were Great Britain or Germany, by the time we had organized one +state, we should have organized a whole country. + +But the big country is ours, and the big task must be shouldered. + +It is only natural that trade-union organization should have +progressed furthest in those occupations which, as industries, are the +most highly developed. The handicrafts of old, the weaving and the +carving and the pottery, have through a thousand inventions become +specialized, and the work of the single operative has been divided +up into a hundred processes. These are the conditions, and this the +environment under which the workers most frequently organize. The +operations have become more or less defined and standardized, and the +operatives are more readily grouped and classified. Also, even amid +all the noise and clatter of the factory, they have opportunity for +becoming acquainted, sometimes while working together, or at the noon +hour, or when going to or coming from work. There are still few enough +women engaged in factory work who have come into trade unions, but the +path has at least been cleared, both by the numbers of men who have +shown the way, and by the increasing independence of women themselves. +Similar reasoning applies to the workers in the culinary trades. These +also are the modern, specialized forms of the old domestic arts of +cooking and otherwise preparing and serving food. The workers, the +cooks and the waitresses, have their separate, allotted tasks; they +also have opportunities of even closer association than the factory +operatives. These opportunities, which may be used among the young +folks to exchange views on the latest nickel show, to compare the +last boss with the present one, may also, among the older ones, mean +talking over better wages and hours and how to get them, and here may +spring up the beginnings of organization. + +The number of women organized into trade unions is still +insignificant, compared with those unreached by even a glimmering of +knowledge as to what trade unionism means. The movement will not only +have to become stronger numerically in the trades it already includes. +It must extend in other directions, taking in the huge army of the +unskilled and the semi-skilled, outside of those trades, so as +to cover the fruit-pickers in the fields and the packers in the +canneries, the paper-box-makers, the sorters of nuts and the knotters +of feathers, those who pick the cotton from the plant, as well as +those who make the cotten into cloth. Another group yet to be enrolled +are the hundreds of thousands of girls in stores, engaged in selling +what the girls in factories have made, and still other large groups +of girls in mercantile offices who are indirectly helping on the same +business of exchange of goods for cash, and cash for goods, and who +are just as truly part of the industrial world and of commercial life. +But the pity is that the girl serving at the counter and the girl +operating the typewriter do not know this. + +Take two other great classes of women, who have to be considered and +reckoned with in any wide view of the wage-earning woman. These are +nurses and teachers. The product of their toil is nothing that can be +seen or handled, nothing that can be readily estimated in dollars and +cents. But it must none the less be counted to their credit in any +estimate of the national wealth, for it is to be read in terms of +sound bodies and alert minds. + +Large numbers of women and girls are musicians, actresses and other +theatrical employés. The labor movement needs them all, and, although +few of them realize it, they need the labor movement. These are +professions with great prizes, but the average worker makes no big +wage, has no assurance of steadiness of employment, of sick pay when +out of work, or of such freedom while working as shall bring out the +very best that is in her. + +In almost all of these occupations are to be found the beginnings +of organization on trade-union lines. The American Federation of +Musicians is a large and powerful body, of such standing in the +profession that the entire membership of the Symphony Orchestras in +all the large cities of the United States and Canada (with the single +exception of the Boston Symphony Orchestra) belongs to it. Women, so +far, although admitted to the Federation, have had no prominent part +in its activities. + +Nurses and attendants in several of the state institutions of Illinois +have during the last two years formed unions. Already they have had +hours shortened from the old irregular schedule of twelve, fourteen +and even sixteen hours a day to an eight-hour workday for all, as far +as practicable. The State Board is also entirely favorable to concede +higher wages, one day off in seven, and an annual vacation of two +weeks on pay, but cannot carry these recommendations out without an +increased appropriation from the legislature. + +There are now eight small associations of stenographers and +bookkeepers and other office employés, one as far west as San +Francisco, while there is at least one court reporters' union. + +The various federations of school-teachers have worked to raise school +and teaching standards as well as their own financial position. They +have besides, owing to the preponderance of women in the teaching +profession, made a strong point of the justice of equal pay for equal +work. Women teachers are perhaps in a better position to make this +fight for all their sex than any other women. + +The fact that so many bodies of teachers have one after another +affiliated with the labor movement has had a secondary result in +bringing home to teachers the needs of the children, the disadvantages +under which so many of them grow up, and still more the handicap under +which most children enter industry. So it has come about that the +teaching body in several cities has been roused to plead the cause of +the workers' children, and therefore of the workers, and has brought +much practical knowledge and first-hand information before health +departments, educational authorities, and legislators. + +Yet another angle from which the organization of teachers has to be +considered is that they are actually, if not always technically, +public employés. Every objection that can be raised against the +organization of public employés, if valid at all, is valid here. Every +reason that can be urged why public employés should be able to give +collective expression to their ideas and their wishes has force here. + +The domestic servant, as we know her, is but a survival in culture +from an earlier time, and more primitive environment. As a personal +attendant, with no limitation of hours, without defined and +standardized duties, and taking out part of her wages in the form of +board and lodging, also at no standardized valuation, she will have to +be improved out of existence altogether. + +On the other hand as a skilled worker, she fills an important function +in the community, satisfying permanent human needs, preparing food to +support our bodies, and making clean and beautiful the homes wherein +we dwell. Surely humanity is not so stupid that arrangements cannot be +planned by which domestic workers can have their own homes, like +other people, hours of leisure, like other workers, and organizations +through which they may express themselves. The main difficulty in +the immediate future is that the very reason why organization is +so urgently needed by domestic workers is the reason why it is so +difficult to form organizations, the individual isolation in which the +girls live and work. The desire for common action assuredly is there; +one little group after another are meeting and talking over their +difficulties, and planning how they can overcome them. The obstacles +in the way of forming unions of domestic workers are tremendous. What +such groups need, above all, is a union headquarters, with comfortable +and convenient rooms, in which girls could meet their friends during +their times off, or in which they could just rest, if they wanted to, +for many have no friend's house to go to during their precious free +days. Such a headquarters should conduct an employment agency. Other +activities would probably grow out of such a center, and the workers +coöperating would help towards the solving of that domestic problem +which is their concern even more intimately than it is that of those +whom, as things are, they so unwillingly serve. That the finest type +of women are already awake, and nearing the stage when they themselves +recognize the need of organization, is evident from the fact that +in Chicago, Buffalo and Seattle, there lately sprang up almost +simultaneously, small associations of household workers formed to +secure regular hours and better living conditions. + +There is no class of women or girls more urgently in need of a radical +change in their economic condition than department-store clerks. To +this need even the public has of late become somewhat awakened, +thanks mainly to a troop of investigators and to the writers in the +magazines, who on the one hand have roused nation-wide horror by means +of revelations regarding the white-slave traffic, and on the other +have brought to that same national audience painful enlightenment as +to the chronic starvation of both soul and body endured by so many +brave and patient young creatures, who on four, five or six dollars +a week just manage to exist, but who in so doing, are cheated of all +that makes life worth living in the present, and are disinherited of +any prospect of home, health and happiness in the future. + +This story has been told again and again. Yet the public has not yet +learned to relate it to any effectual remedy. Undoubtedly organization +has done a great deal for this class in other countries, notably in +England and in Germany, and in this country also, in the few cities +where it has been brought about. But meanwhile their numbers are +increasing, and it hardly seems human for us to wait while all these +young lives are being ruined in the hope that a few years hence the +department-store clerks succeeding them may be able to save themselves +through organization, when there is another remedy at hand. That +remedy is legislation to cover thoroughly hours, wages and conditions +of work. No one suggests depending exclusively on laws. One reason, +probably, why the freeing of the negro slave has been so often merely +a nominal freeing is because he was able to play so small a part +himself in the gaining of his freedom. It was a gift, truly, from the +master race. But no one, surely, would use that argument in reference +to children, and an immense proportion of the department-store +employés are but children, children between fourteen and eighteen, +and in some states much younger. One hears of occasional instances +in which even children have banded together and gone on strike. +School-children have done it. The little button-sewers of Muscatine, +Iowa, formed a juvenile union during the long strike of 1911. But +these are such exceptional instances that they can hardly count in +normal times. And that such a large body of children and very young +girls are included among department-store employés adds immensely to +the difficulty of gaining over the grown-up women to organization. + +[Illustration: A BINDERY + +Hand folders on platform. Machine folder and hand gatherers below.] + + +[Illustration: INTERIOR OF ONE OF THE LARGEST AND BEST EQUIPPED WAIST +AND CLOAK FACTORIES IN NEW YORK CITY] + +Perhaps at some future time children may mature mentally earlier. If +along with this, education is more efficient, and the civic duty of a +common responsibility for the good of all is taught universally in our +schools, even the child at fourteen may become class-conscious, and +willing to fight and struggle for a common aim. But if that day +ever comes, it will be in the far future, and let us hope that then +childish energies may be free to find other channels of expression and +childish coöperation be exerted for happier aims. The child of today +is often temporarily willful and disobedient, but on the whole he (and +more often she) is pathetically patient and long-suffering under all +sorts of hardships and injustices, and has no idea of anything like an +industrial rebellion. Indeed overwork and ill-usage have upon children +the markedly demoralizing effect of cowing them permanently, so that +in oppressing a child you do more than deprive him of his childhood, +you weaken what ought to be the backbone of his maturity. But improve +conditions, whether by law or otherwise, and you will have a more +independent "spunky" child, a better prospect of having him, when +grown up, a more wholesomely natural rebel. Indeed more or less, this +applies to human beings of any age. + +As regards the minimum wage, the objection raised by certain among the +conservative labor leaders has been that it will retard organization +and check independence of spirit. This reasoning seems quite academic, +in view of the fact that it is the most oppressed workers who are +usually the least able and willing to assert themselves. Give them +shorter hours or better wages, and they will soon be pleading for +still shorter hours and yet higher wages. Wherever the regulation +of wages, through that most democratic method, that of wages boards +composed of representatives of workers and employers, has been +attempted, organization has been encouraged, and this plan of +legalized collective bargaining has been applied to trade after trade. +In Victoria, Australia, the birthplace of the system, and the state +where it has been longest in force, and more fully developed than +anywhere else, the number of trades covered has grown in less than +twenty years from the four experimental trades of shoemaking, baking, +various departments of the clothing trades and furniture-making to 141 +occupations, including such varied employments as engravers, plumbers, +miners and clerical workers. + +It is hardly necessary to say that minimum wages boards in Australia +control the wages of men as well as of women. This question, however, +does not enter into practical labor statesmanship in the United States +today, but the minimum wage for women is a very live issue, and its +introduction in state after state is supported by the working-women, +both speaking as individuals and through their organizations. + +The objections of employers to any regulation of wages is partly +economic, as they fear injury to trade, a fear not sustained by +Australian experience, or by the experience of employers in trades +in this country, in which wages have been raised and are largely +controlled by strong labor organizations. In especial, employers +object to an unequal burden imposed upon the state or states first +experimenting with wages boards. This has no more validity than a +similar objection raised against any and all interference between +employer and employé, whether it be limitation of hours, workmen's +compensation acts or any other industrial legislation. It is only that +another adjustment has to be made, one of the many that any trade +and any employer has always to be making to suit slightly changing +circumstances. And often the adjustment is much less, and the +advantage to the employer arising from having more efficient and +contented employés greater than anticipated. Competition is then not +for the cheapest worker, but for the most efficient. + +Public responsibility for social and economic justice is likely to +be quickened and maintained by the very existence of these permanent +boards created not so much to remedy acute evils as to establish in +the industry conditions more nearly equitable. + +It has ever been found that in regard to ordinary factory legislation, +organized employés were the best inspectors to see that the law was +enforced. This principle holds good in even a more marked degree, +where the representatives of the workers have themselves a say in the +decision, as is the case during the long sessions of a wages board, +where all who take part in the discussions and in the final agreement +are experts in the trade, and intimately acquainted with the practical +details of the industry. + +The very same misgivings as are felt and expressed by employers and by +the public regarding the effect of legislation for the regulation of +wages have been heard on every occasion when any legal check has been +proposed upon the downward pressure upon the worker, inevitable under +our system of competition for trade and markets. What a cry went up +from the manufacturers of Great Britain when a bill to check the +ruthless exploitation of babies in the cotton mills was introduced +into the House of Commons. The very same arguments of interference +with trade, despotic control over the right of the employé to bargain +as an individual, are urged today, no matter how often their futility +and irrelevance have been exposed. + +The question of organization and the white alien has been dealt with +in another chapter, but organization cannot afford to stop even here. +It will never accomplish all that trade unionists desire and what the +workers need until those of every color, the Negro, the Indian, the +Chinese, the Japanese, the Hindoo are included. The southern states +are very imperfectly organized, and trade unionism on any broad scale +will never be achieved there until the colored workers are included. +In this the white workers, neither in the North nor in the South, have +yet recognized their plain duty. It is not the American Federation +itself which is directly responsible, but the national and local +unions in the various trades, who place difficulties in the way of +admitting colored members. "Ordinarily," writes Dr. F.E. Wolfe in his +"Admission to Labor Unions," published by the Johns Hopkins University +Press, "the unimpeded admission of Negroes can be had only where the +local white unionists are favorable. Consequently, racial antipathy +and economic motive may, in any particular trade, nullify the policies +of the national union." This applies even in those cases where the +national union itself would raise no barrier. I think it may be safely +added that there are practically no colored women trade unionists, the +occasional exception but serving to emphasize our utter neglect, as +regards organization, of the colored woman. + +Yet another world waiting to be conquered is the Dominion of Canada, +Canada with its vast area and its still small population, yet with its +cities, from Montreal to Vancouver, facing the very same industrial +problems as American cities, from New York to San Francisco. The +organization of women is, so far, hardly touched in any of the +provinces. + +One encouraging circumstance, and significant of the intimate +connection between the two halves of North America, is the fact that +the international union of each trade includes those dwelling both in +the United States and in Canada; these internationals are in their +turn, for the most part affiliated with both the American Federation +of Labor and the Trades and Labor Congress of Canada. + +Whenever, then, the women of Canada seriously begin to unionize, +advance will be made through these existing international +organizations. As mentioned elsewhere, the Canadian Trades and Labor +Congress of Canada has endorsed the work of the National Women's Trade +Union League of America, and seats a fraternal delegate from the +League at its conventions. + +It can only be a question of time, and of increasing industrial +pressure, when an active trade-union movement will spring up among +Canadian women. Among those who advocate and are prepared to lead in +such a movement are the President of the Trades and Labor Congress, +Mr. J.C. Watters, Mr. James Simpson of the Toronto _Industrial +Banner_, Mrs. Rose Henderson of Montreal, Mr. J.W. Wilkinson, +President of the Vancouver Trades and Labor Council, and Miss Helena +Gutteridge, also of Vancouver. + +The President of the National Women's Trade Union League, in her +opening address before the New York convention in June, 1915, summed +up the situation as to the sweated trades tellingly: + + For tens of thousands of girl and women workers the average wage + in sweated industries still is five, eight and ten cents an hour, + and these earnings represent, on the average, forty weeks' work + out of a fifty-two week year. Further, in the report of the New + York State Factory Investigation Commission we find that out of a + total of 104,000 men and women 13,000 receive less than $5.00 a + week, 34,000 less than $7.00 a week, 68,000 less than $10.00 a + week and only 17,000 receive $15.00 a week or more. These low + wages are not only paid to apprentices either in factories or + stores but to large numbers of women who have been continuously + in industry for years. Again, the New York State Factory + Investigating Commission tells us that half of those who have five + years' experience in stores are receiving less than $8.00 a week, + and only half of those with ten years' experience receive $10.00 a + week. Dr. Howard Woolston of the Commission has pointed out: "Even + for identical work in the same locality, striking differences in + pay are found. In one wholesale candy factory in Manhattan no male + laborer and no female hand-dipper is paid as much as $8 a week, + nor does any female packer receive as much as $5.50. In another + establishment of the same class in the same borough every male + laborer gets $8 or over, and more than half the female dippers and + packers exceed the rates given in the former plant. Again, one + large department store in Manhattan pays 86 per cent. of its + saleswomen $10 or over; another pays 86 per cent. of them less. + When a representative paper-box manufacturer learned that cutters + in neighboring factories receive as little as $10 a week, he + expressed surprise, because he always pays $15 or more. This + indicates that there is no well-established standard at wages in + certain trades. The amounts are fixed by individual bargain, and + labor is 'worth' as much as the employer agrees to pay." + +It has been estimated by the Commission that to raise the wages of two +thousand girls in the candy factories from $5.75 to $8.00 a week, the +confectioners in order to cover the cost will have to charge eighteen +cents more per hundred pounds of candy. It is also estimated that if +work shirts cost $3.00 a dozen, and the workers receive sixty cents +for sewing them we can raise the wages ten per cent. and make the +labor cost sixty-six cents. The price of those dozen shirts has been +raised to $3.06. The cost of labor in the sweated industries is a +small fraction of the manufacturing cost. + +In the face of such evidence is there anyone who can still question +that individual bargaining is a menace against the social order and +that education and equipment in organization and citizenship become a +social necessity? + +Women unionists, like men in the labor movement, are continually asked +to support investigations into industrial conditions, investigations +and yet more investigations. They are asked to give evidence before +boards and commissions, they are asked to furnish journalists and +writers of books with information. They have done so willingly, +but there is a sense coming over many of us that we have had +investigations a-plenty; and that the hour struck some time ago for at +least beginning to put an end to the conditions of needless poverty +and inexcusable oppression, which time after time have been unearthed. + +No one who heard Mrs. Florence Kelley at the Charities and Corrections +Conference in St. Louis in 1910 can forget the powerful plea she +made to social workers that they should not be satisfied with +investigation. Not an investigation has ever been made but has told +the same story, monotonous in its lesson, only varying in details; +workers, and especially women workers, are inadequately paid. Further +she considers that investigations would be even more thorough and +drastic if the investigators, the workers and the public knew that +something would come out of the inquiry beyond words, words, words. + +Investigation alone never remedied any evil, never righted any +injustice. Yet as far as the community are concerned, average men and +women seem quite content when the investigation has been made, and +stop there. What is wrong? Will no real improvement take place till +the workers are strong enough individually and collectively to +manage their own affairs, and through organization, coöperation, and +political action, or its equivalent insure adequate remuneration, +and prevent overwork, speeding up, and dangerous and insanitary +conditions? + +In a degree investigation has prepared the way for legislation. +Legislation will undoubtedly play even a bigger part than it has done +in the protection of the workers. Almost all laws for which organized +labor generally works affect women as well as men, whether they are +anti-injunction statutes, or workmen's compensation acts, or factory +laws. But there is another class of laws, specially favoring women, +about which women have naturally more decided opinions than men. These +are laws as to hours, and more recently as to wages, which are or are +to be applicable to women alone. A just and common-sense argument +extends special legislative protection to women, because of their +generally exploited and handicapped position; but the one strong plea +used in their behalf has been health and safety, the health and safety +of the future mothers of society. At this point we pause. In all +probability such protection will be found so beneficial to women that +it will be eventually extended to men. + +One group of laws in which labor is vitally interested is laws +touching the right of the workers to organize. Many of the most +important judicial decisions in labor cases have turned upon this +point. In this are involved the right to fold arms, and peacefully to +suggest to others to do the same; the right to band together not to +buy non-union goods, and peacefully to persuade others not to buy. + +One angle from which labor views all law-making is that of +administration. A law may be beneficial. It is in danger on two sides. +The first the risk of being declared unconstitutional, a common fate +for the most advanced legislation in this country; or, safe on that +side, it may be so carelessly or inefficiently administered as to be +almost useless. In both cases, strong unions have a great influence in +deciding the fate and the practical usefulness of laws. + +Whether in the making, the confirming, or the administering of laws, +the trade unions form the most important channel through which the +wishes of the workers can be expressed. Organized labor does not speak +only for trade unionists; it necessarily, in almost every case, speaks +for the unorganized as well, partly because the needs of both are +usually the same, and partly because there is no possible method +by which the wishes of the working people can be ascertained, save +through the accepted representatives of the organized portion of the +workers. + +An excellent illustration of how business can and does adjust itself +to meet changing legal demands is seen in what happened when the +Ten-Hour Law came in force in the state of Illinois in July, 1909. + +The women clerks on the elevated railroads of Chicago, who had been in +the habit of working twelve hours a day for seven days a week at $1.75 +a day, were threatened with dismissal, and replacement by men. But +what happened? At first they had to accept as a compromise a temporary +arrangement under which they received eleven hours' pay for ten hours' +work. Their places were not, however, filled by men, and now, they are +receiving for their ten-hour day $1.90 or 15 cents more than they had +previously been paid for a twelve-hour day, and in addition they now +are given every third Sunday off duty. This showed the good results of +the law, particularly when there was a strong organization behind the +workers. Mercantile establishments came in under the amended Ten-hour +Law two years later. + +The new law was, on the whole, wonderfully well observed in Chicago, +and as far as I have been able to learn, in the smaller towns as well. +There were some violations discovered, and plenty more, doubtless, +remained undiscovered. But the defaulting employers must have been +very few compared with the great majority of those who met its +requirement faithfully and intelligently. The proprietors and managers +of the large Chicago department stores, for instance, worked out +beforehand a plan of shifts by which they were able to handle the +Christmas trade, satisfy their customers, and at the same time, +dismiss each set of girls at the end of their ten-hour period. To meet +the necessities of the case a staff of extra hands was engaged by each +of the large department stores. This was a common arrangement. The +regular girls worked from half-past eight till seven o'clock, with +time off for lunch. The extra hands came on in the forenoon at eleven +o'clock and worked till ten in the evening, with supper-time off. +Certain of the stores varied the plan somewhat, by giving two hours +for lunch. These long recesses are not without their disadvantages. +They mean still a very long day on the stretch, and besides, where is +a girl to spend the two hours? She cannot go home, and it is against +the law for her to be in the store, for in the eye of the law, if she +remains on the premises, she is presumably at work, and if at work, +therefore being kept longer than the legal ten hours. + +That a law which had been so vigorously opposed should on the whole +have been observed so faithfully in the second largest city in the +United States, that it should in that city have stood the test, at +its very initiation, of the rush season, is a fact full of hope and +encouragement for all who are endeavoring to have our laws keep pace +with ideals of common justice. + +Some time afterwards the constitutionality of the law was tested in +the courts. Since then, complaints have died away. There is no record +of trading establishments having been compelled to remove to another +state, and we no longer even hear of its being a ruinous handicap to +resident manufacturers. Even reactionary employers are now chiefly +concerned in putting off the impending evil, as they regard it, of +an eight-hour day, which they know cannot be very far off, as it has +already arrived on the Pacific Coast. + +If the acquiescence of Illinois employers was satisfactory, the effect +upon the girls was remarkable and exceeded expectations. During that +Christmas week, the clerks were tired, of course, but they were not in +the state of exhaustion, collapse, and physical and nervous depletion, +which they had experienced in previous years. This bodily salvation +had been expected. It was what organized women had pleaded for and +bargained for, what the defending lawyers, Mr. Louis D. Brandeis and +Mr. William J. Calhoun had urged upon the judges, when the Supreme +Court of Illinois had been earlier called upon to pass upon the +validity of the original ten-hour law, although department-store +employés had not been included within the scope of its protection. + +But the girls were more than not merely worn-out to the point of +exhaustion. Most of them were more alive than they had ever been since +first they started clerking. They were happy, and surprised beyond +measure at their own good fortune. Those juniors who could just +remember how different last Christmas had been, those seniors +whose memories held such searing recollections of many preceding +Christmases, were one in their rejoicing and wonderment. They caught +a dim vision of a common interest. Here was something which all could +share. That one was benefited did not mean another's loss. + +From girl after girl I heard the same story. I would ask them how they +were getting on through the hard time this year. "Oh," a girl would +answer, "it wasn't so bad at all. You see we've got the ten-hour law, +and we can't work after the time is up. It's just wonderful. Why, I'm +going to enjoy Christmas this year. I'm tired, but nothing like I've +always been before. Last Christmas Day I couldn't get out of bed, I +ached so, and I couldn't eat, either." + +And yet, while the girls, thanks to the new law, were having something +like decent, though by no means ideal hours of work, the young +elevator boys, in the same store were working fourteen hours and a +half, day in, day out. + +So imperfect yet are the results of much that is accomplished! + +There are now two states, Mississippi and Oregon, which have ten-hour +laws, applying to both men and women, and including the larger +proportion of the workers. There are also federal statutes, state +laws and municipal ordinances limiting the hours and granting the +eight-hour day to whole groups of workers, either in public or +semi-public employ, or affecting special occupations such as mining. +Thus it is clear, that for both sexes there is now abundant legal +precedent for any shortening of hours, which has its place in a more +advanced social and industrial development. + + + + +IX + +WOMEN AND THE VOCATIONS + + +The profound impression that has been left upon contemporary thought +by the teaching of Lester Ward and those who have followed him, that +woman is the race, has been felt far and wide outside the sphere of +those branches of science, whose students he first startled with the +thought. His idea is indeed revolutionary as far as our immediate past +and our present social arrangements and sex relations are concerned, +but is natural, harmonious and self-explanatory if we regard life, +the life of our own day, not as standing still, but as in a state of +incessant flux and development, and if we are at all concerned to +discover the direction whither these changes are driving us. It +indeed may well have been that the formal enunciation of the primary +importance of woman in the social organism has played its own part in +accelerating her rise into her destined lofty position, though in the +main, any philosophy can be merely the explanation and the record of +an evolution wherein we are little but passive factors. + +This much is certain, that the insistent driving home by this school +of thinkers of woman, woman, woman, as the center and nucleus whence +is developed the child and the home, and all that civilization stands +for, and whose rights as an independent human being are therefore to +be held of supreme importance in the normal evolution of the race, has +served as an incessant reminder to practical workers and reformers in +the sphere of education as well as to leaders of the woman movement. +Especially has this been true when tackling the problems more +immediately affecting women, because these are the truly difficult +problems. Whatever touches man's side of life alone is comparatively +simple and easily understood, and therefore easier of solution. So in +the rough and ready, often cruel, solutions which nature and humanity +have worked out for social problems, it has always been the man +whose livelihood, whose education and whose training have been first +considered, and whose claims have been first satisfied. For this there +are several reasons. Man's possession of material wealth, and his +consequent monopoly of social and political power have naturally +resulted in his attending to his own interests first. The argument, +too, that man was the breadwinner and the protector of the home +against all outside antagonistic influences, which in the past he has +generally been, furnished another reason why, when any class attained +to fresh social privileges, it was the boy and the man of that class, +rather than the woman and the girl, who benefited by them first. The +woman and the girl would come in a poor second, if indeed they were in +at the dividing of the spoils at all. + +There is, however, another reason, and one of profound significance, +which I believe has hardly been touched upon at all, why woman has +been thus constantly relegated to the inferior position. Her problems +are, as I said above, far more difficult of settlement. Because of her +double function as a member of her own generation and as the potential +mother of the next generation, it is impossible to regard her life as +something simple and single, and think out plans for its arrangement, +as we do with man's. So in large measure we have only been following +the line of least resistance, in taking up men's difficulties +first. We have done so quite naturally, because they are not so +overwhelmingly hard to deal with, and have attacked woman's problems, +and striven to satisfy her needs, only when we could find time to get +round to them. This is most strikingly exemplified in the realm of +education. Take the United States alone. It was ever to the boy that +increasing educational advantages were first offered. + +In the year 1639 the authorities of the town of Dorchester, +Massachusetts, hesitated as to whether girls should be admitted to +the apparently just established school. The decision was left "to the +discretion of the elders and seven men." The girls lost. In "Child +Life in Colonial Days" Mrs. Annie Grant is quoted. She spent her +girlhood in Albany, N.Y., sometime during the first half of the +eighteenth century. She says it was very difficult at that time to +procure the means of instruction in those districts. The girls learned +needlework from their mothers and aunts; they learnt to read the +Bible and religious tracts in Dutch; few were taught writing. Similar +accounts come from Virginia. + +Was it university education that was in question, how many +university-trained men had not American colleges turned out before +Lucy Stone was able to obtain admission to Oberlin? + +Harvard was opened in 1636. Two hundred years elapsed before there was +any institution offering corresponding advantages to girls. Oberlin +granted its first degree to a woman in 1838. Mount Holyoke was founded +in 1837, Elmira in 1855 and Vassar in 1865. + +That a perfectly honest element of confusion and puzzle did enter into +the thought of parents and the views of the community, it would be +vain to deny. These young women were incomprehensible. Why were they +not content with the education their mothers had had, and with the +lives their mothers had led before them? Why did they want to leave +comfortable homes, and face the unknown, the hard, perhaps the +dangerous? How inexplicable, how undutiful! Ah! It was the young +people who were seeing furthest into the future; it was the fathers +and mothers who were not recognizing the change that was coming over +the world of their day. + +If then, for the combination of reasons outlined, women have always +lagged in the rear as increasing educational advantages of a literary +or professional character have been provided or procured for boys, it +is not strange, when, in reading over the records of work on the new +lines of industrial education, trade-training and apprenticeship +we detect the very same influences at work, sigh before the same +difficulties, and recognize the old weary, threadbare arguments, too, +which one would surely think had been sufficiently disproved before to +be at least distrusted in this connection. This, however, must surely +be the very last stand of the non-progressivists in education as +regards the worker. The ideals of today aim at education on lines that +will enable every child, boy and girl alike, born in or brought +into any civilized country, to develop all faculties, and that will +simultaneously enable the community to benefit from this complete, +all-round development of every one of its members. + +There is one consideration to which I must call attention, because, +when recognized, it cannot but serve as the utmost stimulus to our +efforts to arrange for vocational education for girls on the broadest +lines. It is this. Whatever general, national or state plans prove the +most complete and satisfactory for girls, will, speaking generally, at +the same time be found to have solved the problem for the boy as well. +The double aim, of equipping the girl to be a mother as well as human +being, is so all-inclusive and is therefore so much more difficult of +accomplishment, that the simpler training necessary for a boy's career +will be automatically provided for at the same time. Therefore the +boy is not likely to be at a disadvantage under such a coeducational +system as is here implied. For it is to nothing short of coeducation +that the organized women of the United States are looking forward, +coeducation on lines adapted to present-day wants. What further +contributions the far-off future may hold for us in the never wholly +to be explored realm of human education in its largest acceptance, +we know not. Until we have learned the lesson of today, and have set +about putting it in practice, such glimpses of the future are not +vouchsafed to us. + +In such an age of transition as ours, any plan of vocational training +intended to include girls must be a compromise with warring facts, and +will therefore have to face objections from both sides, from those +forward-looking ones who feel that the domestic side of woman's +activities is overemphasized, and from those who still hark back, who +would fain refuse to believe that the majority of women have to be +wage-earners for at least part of their lives. These latter argue +that by affording to girls all the advantages of industrial training +granted or which may be granted to boys, we are "taking them out of +the home." As if they were not out of the home already! + +This assumption will appear to most readers paradoxical, if indeed it +does not read as a contradiction in terms. A little thought, however, +will show that it is just because we are all along assuming the +economic primacy of the boy, that the girl has been so disastrously +neglected. It is true that the boy is also a potential father, and +that his training for that lofty function is usually ignored and will +have to be borne in mind, though no one would insist that training +for fatherhood need occupy a parallel position with training for +motherhood. But popular reasoning is not content with accepting this +admission; it goes on to draw the wholly unwarranted conclusion that +while the boy ought to be thoroughly taught on the wage-earning +side, and while such teaching should cover all the more important +occupations, to which he is likely to be called, the girl's +corresponding training shall as a matter of course be quite a +secondary matter, fitting her only for a limited set of pursuits, many +of these ranking low in skill and opportunities of advancement, and +necessarily among the most poorly paid; these being all occupations +which we choose to assume girls will enter, such as sewing or +box-making. Only recently have girls been prepared for the textile +trades, though they have always worked in these, first in the home and +since then in the factories. Still less is any preparation thought +of for the numberless occupations that necessity and a perpetually +changing world are all the while driving girls to take up. There were +in 1910, 8,075,772 women listed as wage-earners in the United States. +Would it not be as well, if a girl is to be a wage-earner, that +she should have at least as much opportunity of learning her trade +properly, as is granted to a boy? + +Setting aside for the moment the fact that girls are already engaged +in so many callings, it is poor policy and worse economy to argue that +because a girl may be but a few years a wage-earner, it is therefore +not worth while to make of her an efficient, capable wage-earner. That +is fair to no one, neither to the girl herself nor to the community. +The girl deserves to be taken more seriously. Do this, and it will +then be clear that a vocational system wide enough and flexible enough +to fit the girl to be at once a capable mother-housekeeper, and a +competent wage-earner, will be a system adequate to the vocational +training of the boy for life-work in any of the industrial pursuits. +It is self-evident that the converse would not hold. + +And first, to those readers of advanced views who will think that I +am conceding even too much in thus consenting apparently to sink +the human activities of the woman in those of the mother during the +greater part of maturity. Touching the question of personal human +development, I concede nothing, as I assert nothing, but I accept +present-day facts, and desire to make such compromise with them as +shall clear the way for whatever forms of home and industrial life +shall evolve from them most naturally and simply. We may observe +with satisfaction and hopefulness that the primitive collection of +unrelated industries which have so long lingered in the home to the +detriment of both and which have confused our thoughts as to which +were the essential and permanent, and which the merely accidental and +temporary functions of the home, are gradually coming within the range +of the specialized trades, and as such are freeing the home from +so much clutter and confusion, and freeing the woman from so many +fettering bonds. But the process is a slow one, and again, it may +not even go on indefinitely. There may be a limit in the process of +specializing home industries. So far as it has gone, different classes +of women are very unequally affected by it. In the United States, +where these changes have gone on faster and further than anywhere +else, the two classes whose occupations have been most radically +modified have been, first and chiefly, the young girl from fourteen to +twenty-four, of every class, and next the grownup woman, who has taken +up one of the professions now for the first time open to women, and +this almost irrespective of whether she is married or single. + +As to the young girl, the transformation of the home plus industries +to the home, pure and simple, a place to live in and rest in, to love +in and be happy in, has so far already been effected, that in the home +of the artisan and the tradesman there is not now usually sufficient +genuine, profitable occupation for more than one growing or grown girl +as assistant to her mother. For two reasons the other daughters will +look out of doors for employment. The first reason is that under +rearranged conditions of industry, there is nothing left for them +to do at home. The second is not less typical of these altered +conditions. The father cannot, even if he would, afford to keep them +at home as non-producers. If the processes of making garments and +preparing food are no longer performed by the members of the +family for one another, the outsiders who do perform them must be +remunerated, and that not in kind, as, for example, with board and +lodging and clothing, but in money wages, in coin. And their share of +the money to enable this complicated system of exchange of services to +be carried out, must be earned by the unmarried daughters of the house +through their working in turn at some wage-earning occupation, also +outside. + +The young woman who has entered medicine, or law, or dentistry, who +paints pictures or writes books, is on very much the same economic +basis as the young working-girl. She, too, is accepted as part of the +already established order of things, and the present generation has +grown up in happy ignorance of the difficulties experienced by the +pioneers in all these professions in establishing their right to +independent careers. The professional woman who has married finds +herself so far on a less secure foundation. Every professional woman +who has children has to work out for herself the problem of the mutual +adjustment of the claims of her profession and her family, but so many +have solved the difficulties and have made the adjustment that it +seems only a question of time when every professional woman may accept +the happiness of wifehood and motherhood when it is offered to her +without feeling that she has to choose once for all between a happy +marriage and a successful professional career. + +Not a few professional women, writers, and speakers, have gone on to +infer that a similar solution was at hand for the working-girl on her +marriage. Not yet is any such adjustment or rather readjustment of +domestic and industrial activities in sight for her. Whatever changes +may take place in the environment of the coming American woman, the +present generation of working-girls as they marry are going to find +their hands abundantly filled with duties within the walls of their +own little homes. We know today how the health and the moral welfare +of children fare when young mothers are prematurely forced back into +the hard and exhausting occupations from which marriage has withdrawn +them. + +Again, the factory conditions of modern industry have been brought to +their present stage with one end in view--economy of time and material +with the aim of cheapening the product. The life and the smooth +running of the human machine, when considered at all, has been thought +of last, and in this respect America is even one of the most backward +of the civilized nations. Hence factory life is hard and disagreeable +to the worker. Especially to the young girl is it often unendurable. +A girl who has been some years in a factory rarely wants her young +sister to come into it, too. She herself is apt to shift from one shop +to another, from trade to trade, always in the hope that some other +work may prove less exhausting and monotonous than that with which she +is familiar by trying experience. Two forces tend to drive girls early +out of industrial life: on the one hand, the perfectly normal instinct +of self-protection in escaping from unnatural and health-ruining +conditions and on the other the no less normal impulse leading +to marriage. But oftener than we like to think, the first is the +overmastering motive. + +Let us now take up the objections of those far more numerous to whom +the provision of trade-training for girls seems superfluous, when not +harmful, and who especially shrink from the suggestion of coeducation. +To satisfy them, let us marshal a few facts and figures. + +Of every kind of education that has been proposed for girls, whether +coeducational or not, we have always heard the same fears expressed. +Such education would make the girl unwomanly, it would unfit her for +her true functions, a man could not wish to marry her, and so on. The +first women teachers and doctors had indeed a hard time. After being +admitted to the profession only at the point of the sword, so to +speak, they had to make good, and in face of all prejudice, prove +their ability to teach or to cure, so as to keep the path open for +those who were to follow after them. No similar demand should be +logically made of the working-girl today when she demands coeducation +on industrial lines. For she is already in the trades from which you +propose so futilely to exclude her, by denying her access to the +technical training preparatory to them, and for fitting her to +practice them. + +Take some other occupations which employ women in great numbers: +textile mill operatives, saleswomen, tobacco-workers, cigar-workers, +boot-and shoe-workers, printers, lithographers, and pressmen, and +book-binders. You can hardly say that these are exceptions, for here +are the figures, from the occupational statistics of the census of +1910.[A] + +[Footnote A: The statement that appeared in the report on +"Occupations" in the census returns of 1910, that there were but +nine occupations in which women were not employed, has been widely +commented upon. + +An explanation appearing in the corresponding volume of the census +report for 1910 shows the great difficulties that enumerators and +statisticians experience in getting at exact facts, wherever the +situation is both complex and confused. The census officials admit +their inability to do so in the present instance, although they have +revised the figures with extreme care. With all possible allowance for +error, women still appear in all but a minority of employments. The +classification of occupations is on a different basis, and the number +of divisions much larger; yet even now out of four hundred and +twenty-nine separately listed, women are returned as engaged in all +but forty-two. On the other hand there is only one trade which does +not embrace men, that of the (untrained) midwife.] + +Textile mill operatives 330,766 +Saleswomen 250,438 +Tobacco-workers and cigar-makers 71,334 +Boot- and shoe-makers and repairers 61,084 +Printers, lithographers and pressmen 27,845 +Book-binders 22,012 + +Just here we can see a rock ahead. In the very prospects that we +rejoice over, of the early introduction of public industrial +training, we can detect an added risk for the girl. If such technical +instruction is established in one state after another, but planned +primarily to suit the needs of boys only, and the only teaching +afforded to girls is in the domestic arts, and in the use of the +needle and the pastebrush for wage-earning, where will our girls be +when a few years hence the skilled trades are full of her only too +well-trained industrial rivals? In a greater degree than even today, +the girl will find herself everywhere at a disadvantage for lack of +the early training the state has denied to her, while bestowing +it upon her brother, and the few industrial occupations for which +instruction is provided will be overcrowded with applicants. + +That women should take such an inferior position in the trades they +are in today is regrettable enough. But far more important is it to +make sure that they obtain their fair share of whatever improved +facilities are provided for "the generation knocking at the door" +of life. Working-women or women intimately acquainted with +working-women's needs, should have seats on all commissions, boards +and committees, so that when schemes of state industrial training are +being planned, when schools are built, courses outlined, the interests +of girls may be remembered, and especially so that they be borne in +mind, when budgets are made up and appropriations asked for. + +If not, it will only be one other instance of an added advantage to +the man proving a positive disadvantage to the woman. You cannot +benefit one class and leave another just as it was. Every boon given +to the bettered class increases the disproportion and actually helps +to push yet further down the one left out. + +Among the many influences that make or mar the total content of life +for any class, be that class a nation, a race, an industrial or +economic group, there is one, the importance of which has been all +too little realized. That influence we may call expectance. It is +impossible for anyone to say how far a low standard of industrial +or professional attainment held out before the girl at her most +impressionable age, a standard that to some degree, therefore, +develops within her, as it exists without her, ends in producing the +very inefficiency it begins by assuming. But psychology has shown us +that suggestion or expectance forms one element in the developing of +faculty, and this whether it be manual dexterity, quickness of memory +or exercise of judgment and initiative. + +In all probability, too, this element of expectance has indirect as +well as direct effects, and the indirect are not the least fruitful in +results. To illustrate: it is certain that if we start out by +assuming that girls are poor at accounts, that they cannot understand +machinery, that they are so generally inefficient as to be worth less +wages than boys, any such widespread assumption will go a long way +to produce the ignorant and incompetent and inefficient creatures it +presupposes girls to be. But it will do more than this. Such poor +standards alike of performance and of wages will not end with the +unfortunate girls themselves. They will react upon parents, teachers, +and the community which so largely consists of the parents and which +employs the teachers. Those preëssentials and antecedents of the +competent worker, training, trainers, and the means and instruments +of training, will not be forthcoming. What is the use of providing +at great expense industrial training for girls, when the same money, +spent upon boys, would produce more efficient workers? What is the +use of giving girls such training, when they are presumably by nature +unfitted to benefit by it? + + + + +X + +WOMEN AND VOCATIONAL TRAINING + + +The United States started its national existence with an out-of-doors +people. Until comparatively recent years, the cities were small, and +the great bulk of the inhabitants lived from the natural resources of +the country, that is to say, from the raw products of the mines and +the forests, and the crops grown upon the plains by a most primitive +and wasteful system of agriculture. But the days have forever gone +when a living can be snatched, so to speak, from the land in any of +these ways. The easily gotten stores of the mines and forests are +exhausted; the soil over many millions of acres has been robbed of its +fertility. The nation is now engaged in reckoning up what is left in +the treasury of its natural resources, estimating how best to conserve +and make profitable use of what is left. + +The nation might have done this sooner, but there was in the West +always fresh land to open up and in the East, after a time, a new +source of income in the factory industries, that were more and more +profitably absorbing capital and labor. So that although pioneer +conditions gradually passed away, and it became less easy to wrest a +living from plain or mountain or mine, the idea of finding out what +was wrong, improving methods of agriculture, conserving the forest +wealth by continual replanting or working the less rich mines at a +profit through new processes, or the utilization of by-products, did +not at first suggest itself. + +When, on the other hand, we turn to the manufacturing occupations, +we find that they have followed an analogous, though not precisely +similar, course of evolution. Certainly from the first the +manufacturers showed themselves far ahead of their fellows in the +economical management of the raw material, in the adoption of every +kind of labor and time-saving device and in the disposal of refuse. +But in their way they have been just as short-sighted. They carried +with them into the new occupations the very same careless habits of +national extravagance. They, too, went ahead in a similar hustling +fashion. This time the resources that were used up so recklessly were +human resources, the strength and vitality of the mature man, the +flesh and blood of little children, their stores of energy and +youthful joy and hope. By overwork or accident, the father was cut +off in his strong manhood, the boy was early worn out, and the young +girl's prospects of happy motherhood were forever quenched. + +There are now signs of a blessed reaction setting in here, too, and it +is largely owing to the efforts of organized labor. The principles of +conservation and of a wise economy, which are re-creating the plains +of the West and which will once more clothe with forests the slopes of +the mountains, are at work in the realm of industry. Not a year passes +but that some state or another does not limit anew the hours during +which children may work, or insist upon shorter hours for women, or +the better protection from dangerous machinery, or the safeguarding +of the worker in unhealthy occupations. Organized labor, ever +running ahead of legislation in its standards of hours and sanitary +conditions, provides a school of education and experiment for the +whole community, by procuring for trade unionists working conditions +which afterwards serve as the model for enlightened employers, and as +a standard that the community in the end must exact for the whole body +of workers. + +But more must be done than merely keeping our people alive, by +insisting they shall not be killed in the earning of their bread. +Leaders of thought and many captains of industry have at last grasped +the fact that the worker, uneducated and not trained in any true +sense, is at once a poor tool and a most costly one. Other countries +add their quota of experience, to back up public opinion and +legislative action. Hence the demand heard from one end of the land +to the other for industrial training. The public everywhere after a +century of modern factory industry are at length beginning to have +some definite ideas regarding industrial training for boys who are to +supply the human element in the factory scheme. (Regarding girls, they +still grope in outer darkness.) + +For many years economists were accustomed to express nothing but +satisfaction over the ever-advancing specialization of industry. They +saw only the cheapening of the product, the vast increase in the total +amount produced, and the piling up of profits, and they beheld in all +three results nothing but social advantage. Verily both manufacturer +and consumer were benefited. When the more thoughtful turned their +attention to the actual makers through whose labors the cloth and +the shoes and the pins of specialized industry were produced, they +satisfied themselves that the worker must also be a sharer in the +benefits of the new system; for, said they, everyone who is a worker +is also a consumer. Even though the worker who is making shoes has +to turn out twenty times as much work for the same wages, still as +a consumer he shares in the all-round cheapening of manufactured +articles, and is able to buy clothes and shoes and pins so much the +cheaper. That the cost of living on the whole might be greater, that +the wage of the worker might be too low to permit of his purchasing +the very articles into the making of which his own labor had gone, did +not occur to these _à priori_ reasoners. It has taken a whole century +of incredibly swift mechanical advance, associated at the same time +with the most blind, cruel, and brutal waste of child life and adult +life, to arrive at the beginning of an adjustment between the demands +of machine-driven industry and the needs and the just claims of the +human workers. We have only just recovered from the dazed sense of +wonderment and pride of achievement into which modern discoveries +and inventions, with the resultant enormous increase of commerce +and material wealth, plunged the whole civilized world. We are but +beginning to realize, what we had well-nigh totally overlooked, that +even machine-driven industry with all that it connotes, enormously +increased production of manufactured goods, and the spread of physical +comfort to a degree unknown before among great numbers, is not the +whole of national well-being; that by itself, unbalanced by justice to +the workers, it is not even an unmixed boon. + +I have tried to follow up the evolution of our present industrial +society on several parallel lines: how industry itself has developed, +how immigration affects the labor problem as regards the woman worker, +and the relation of women to the vocations in the modern world. Let us +now glance at our educational systems and see how they fit in to the +needs of the workers, especially of the working-women. For our present +purpose I will not touch on education as we find it in our most +backward states, but rather as it is in the most advanced, since it +is from improvement in these that we may expect to produce the best +results for the whole nation. + +Free and compulsory public education was established to supply +literary and cultural training at a time when children still enjoyed +opportunities of learning in the home, and later in small shops +something of the trades they were to practice when grown-up. I know +of a master plumber, who twenty years ago, as a child of eleven, made +friends with the blacksmith and the tinsmith in the little village +where he lived, and taught himself the elements of his trade at the +blacksmith's anvil and with the tinsmith's tools. At fourteen that boy +knew practically a great deal about the properties of metals, could +handle simple tools deftly, and was well prepared to learn his trade +readily when the time came. + +As the most intelligent city parents cannot as individuals furnish +their children with similar chances today, we must look to the public +schools, which all citizens alike support, to take up the matter, and +supply methodically and deliberately, that training of the eye and +hand, and later that instruction in wage-earning occupations which in +former days, as in the case quoted, the child obtained incidentally, +as it were, in the mere course of growing up. + +On the literary side, it is true, schools are improving all the time. +History is now taught by lantern slides, showing the people's lives, +instead of by a list of dates in a catechism. Geography is illustrated +in the garden plot of the school playground. But in responding to the +new claims which a new age and a changed world are making upon them, +schools and teachers are only beginning to wake up. The manual +training gradually being introduced is a hopeful beginning, but +nothing more. The most valuable and important work of this kind is +reserved for the upper grades of the grammar schools and for certain +high schools, and the children who are able to make use of it are for +the most part the offspring of comfortably off parents, enjoying all +sorts of educational privileges already. Education, publicly provided, +free and compulsory, therefore presumably universal, was established +primarily for the benefit of the workers' children, yet of all +children it is they who are at this moment receiving the least benefit +from it. Many circumstances combine to produce this unfortunate +result. The chief direct cause is poverty in the home. So many +families have to live on such poor wages--five and six hundred dollars +a year--that the children have neither the health to profit by the +schooling nor the books nor the chance to read books at home when the +home is one or perhaps two rooms. The curse of homework in cities ties +the children down to willowing feathers or picking nuts or sewing on +buttons, or carrying parcels to and from the shop that gives out the +work, deprives them of both sleep and play, makes their attendance at +school irregular, and dulls their brains during the hours they are +with the teacher. In the country the frequently short period of school +attendance during the year and the daily out-of-school work forced +from young children by poverty-harassed parents has similar disastrous +results. + +Even in those states which have compulsory attendance up to fourteen, +many children who are quite normal are yet very backward at that age. +The child of a foreign-speaking parent, for instance, who never hears +English spoken at home, needs a longer time to reach the eighth grade +than the child of English-speaking parents. + +Chicago is fairly typical of a large industrial city, and there the +City Club found after investigation that forty-three per cent. of +the pupils who enter the first grade do not reach the eighth grade; +forty-nine per cent. do not go through the eighth grade; eleven per +cent. do not reach the sixth grade, and sixteen per cent. more do not +go through the sixth grade. + +A child who goes through the eighth grade has some sort of an +equipment (on the literary side at least) with which to set out in +life. He has learned how to read a book or a newspaper intelligently, +and how to express himself in writing. If he is an average child he +has acquired a good deal of useful information. He will remember much +of what he has learned, and can turn what knowledge he has to some +account. But the child who leaves school in the fifth or sixth grade, +or, perhaps, even earlier, is apt to have no hold on what he has been +taught, and it all too soon passes from his memory, especially if he +has in his home surroundings no stimulus to mental activity. Poor +little thing! What a mockery to call this education, so little as +it has fitted him to understand life and its problems! What he has +learned out of school, meanwhile, as often as not, is harmful rather +than beneficial. + +The school door closes and the factory gate stands open wide. The +children get their working papers, and slip out of the one, and +through the other. At once, as we arrange matters, begins the fatal +effect of handing over children, body and soul, into the control of +industry. After a few days or weeks of wrapping candy, or carrying +bundles or drawing out bastings, the work, whatever it is, becomes but +a mere mechanical repetition. A few of the muscles only, and none of +the higher faculties of observation, inquiry and judgment come +into play at all, until, at the end of two years the brightest +school-children have perceptibly lost ground in all these directions. + +Two of the most precious years of life are gone. The little workers +are not promoted from performing one process to another more +difficult. They are as far as ever from any prospect of learning a +trade in any intelligent fashion. The slack season comes on. The +little fingers, the quick feet are not required any longer. Once more +there is a scurrying round to look for a job, less cheerfully this +time, the same haphazard applying at another factory for some other +job, that like the first needs no training, like the first, leads +nowhere, but also like the first, brings in three or four dollars +a week, perhaps less. A teacher at a public-school social center +inquired of a group of fifty girls, cracker-packers, garment-workers +and bindery girls, how long each had been in her present situation. +Only one had held hers eighteen months. No other had reached a year in +the same place. The average appeared to be about three or four months. + +Worse still is another class of blind-alley occupation. These are the +street trades. The newsboy, the messenger and the telegraph boy often +make good money to begin with. Girls, too, are being employed by some +of the messenger companies. These are all trades, that apart from the +many dangers inseparable from their pursuit, spell dismissal after two +or three years at most, or as soon as the boy reaches the awkward age. +The experience gained is of no use in any other employment, and the +unusual freedom makes the messenger who has outgrown his calling +averse to the discipline of more regular occupations. + +What a normal vocational education can be, and a normal development of +occupation, is seen in the professions, such as law and medicine. The +lawyer and the doctor are, it is true, confining themselves more and +more to particular branches of their respective callings, and more +and more are they becoming experts in the branch of law or medicine +selected. The lawyer specializes in criminal cases or in damage suits, +in commercial or constitutional law; he is a pleader or a consultant. +The doctor may decide to be a surgeon, or an oculist, an anesthetist +or a laboratory worker. And the public reap the benefit in more expert +advice and treatment. But the likeness between such professional +specialization and the dehumanizing and brain-deadening industrial +specialization, which is the outgrowth of the factory system, is one +in name only as was admirably put by Samuel Gompers, when presiding +over the Convention of the American Federation of Labor at Toronto in +1909. + +"It must be recognized that specialists in industry are vastly +different from specialists in the professions. In the professions, +specialists develop from all the elements of the science of the +profession. Specialists in industry are those who know but one part +of a trade, and absolutely nothing of any other part of it. In the +professions specialists are possessed of all the learning of their +art; in industry they are denied the opportunity of learning the +commonest elementary rudiments of industry other than the same +infinitesimal part performed by them perhaps thousands of times over +each day." + +When the speaker emphasized these points of unlikeness, he was at the +same time, and in the same breath, pointing out the direction in which +industry must be transformed. Training in the whole occupation +must precede the exercise of the specialty. Furthermore, as all +professional training has its cultural side, as well as its strictly +professional side, so the cultural training of the worker must ever +keep step with his vocational training. + +The motto of the school should be, "We are for all," for it is what +teachers and the community are forever forgetting. Think of the +innumerable foundations in the countries of the old world, intended +for poor boys, which have been gradually appropriated by the rich. Of +others again, supposed to be for both boys and girls, from which the +girls have long been excluded. The splendid technical schools of this +country, nominally open to all boys, at least, are by their very terms +closed to the poor boy, however gifted. To give to him that hath +is the tendency against which we must ever guard in planning and +administering systems of public education. With many, perhaps most, +educational institutions, as they grow older, more and more do they +incline to improve the standards of their work, technically speaking, +but to bestow their benefits upon comparatively fewer and fewer +recipients. + +I would not be understood to deprecate original research, or the +training of expert professional workers in any field, still less as +undervaluing thoroughness in any department of teaching. But I plead +for a sense of proportion, that as long as the world is either so poor +or its wealth and opportunities so unequally distributed, a certain +minimum of vocational training shall be insured to all. + +We recognize the need for thorough training in the case of the coming +original investigator, and the expert professional, and they form the +minority. We do not recognize the at least equally pressing need for +the thorough training of the whole working population, and these make +up the vast majority. In so far as the pre-vocational work in primary +schools, the manual work and technical training in high schools, +the short courses, the extension lectures and the correspondence +instruction of universities are meeting this urgent popular need, just +so far are they raising all work to a professional standard, just so +far are they bringing down to the whole nation the gifts of culture +and expert training that have hitherto been the privilege of the few. + +I have often noticed college professors, in turning over the leaves of +a university calendar or syllabus of lectures, pass lightly over the +pages recounting the provision made for short courses, summer schools, +extension or correspondence work, and linger lovingly over the +fuller and more satisfactory program outlined for the teacher or +the professional worker. The latter is only apparently the more +interesting. Take Wisconsin's College of Agriculture, for example. It +sends forth yearly teachers and original investigators, but quite as +great and important a product are the hundreds of farmers and farmers' +sons who come fresh from field and dairy to take their six weeks' +training in the management of cattle or of crops, and to field and +dairy return, carrying away with them the garnered experience of +others, as well as increased intelligence and self-reliance in +handling the problems of their daily toil. + +Anna Garlin Spencer, in her "Woman and Social Culture," points out +how our much-lauded schools of domestic economy fail to benefit the +schoolgirl, through this very overthoroughness and expensiveness how +they are narrowed down to the turning out of teachers of domestic +economy and dietitians and other institutional workers. Domestic +economy as a wage-earning vocation cannot be taught too thoroughly, +but what every girl is entitled to have from the public school during +her school years is a "short course" in the simple elements of +domestic economy, with opportunity for practice. It is nothing so very +elaborate that girls need, but that little they need so badly. Such a +course has in view the girl as a homemaker, and is quite apart from +her training as a wage-earner. + +When again we turn to that side, matters are not any more promising. +If the boy of the working classes is badly off for industrial +training, his sister is in far worse case. Some provision is already +made for the boy, and more is coming his way presently, but of +training for the girl, which shall be adequate to fit her for +self-support, we hear hardly anything. We have noted that women are +already in most of the trades followed by men, and that the number of +this army of working, wage-earning women is legion; that they are +not trained at all, and are so badly paid that as underbidders they +perpetually cut the wages of men. Nay, the young working-girl is even +"her own worst competitor--the competitor against her own future home, +and as wife and mother she may have to live on the wage she herself +has cheapened." + +And to face a situation like this are we making any adequate +preparation? With how little we are satisfied, let me illustrate. +In the address of Mrs. Raymond Robins as president of the National +Women's Trade Union League of America before their Fourth Biennial +Convention in St. Louis, in June, 1913, she told how "in a curriculum +of industrial education we find that under the heading 'Science' boys +study elementary physics, mechanics and electricity, and girls the +action of alkalies, and the removal of stains. While under 'Drawing' +we read, 'For boys the drawing will consist of the practical +application of mechanical and free-hand work to parts of machinery, +house plans, and so forth. Emphasis will be placed upon the reading of +drawings, making sketches of machine parts quickly and accurately. For +the girls the drawing will attempt to apply the simple principles +of design and color to the work. The girls will design and stencil +curtains for the dining-and sewing-rooms and will make designs for +doilies for the table. They will plan attractive spacing for tucks, +ruffles and embroidery for underwear.' Women have entered nearly three +hundred different occupations and trades in America within the past +quarter of a century, three hundred trades and occupations, and they +are to qualify for these by learning to space tucks attractively." + +In the very valuable Twenty-fifth Annual Report of the Commissioner of +Labor, published in 1910, which is devoted to industrial education, +there is but one chapter dealing with girls' industrial schools, +in itself a commentary upon the backwardness of the movement for +industrial education where girls are affected. It is true that the +schools included under this heading do not account for all the school +trade-training given to girls in this country, for the classification +of industrial schools, where there is no general system, is +very difficult, and under no plan of tabulation can there be an +all-inclusive heading for any one type. For instance a school for +colored girls might be classified either as a school for Negroes or as +a school for girls, as a public school, a philanthropic school, or an +evening school, and a school giving trade-training to boys might also +include girls. The writer of this most exhaustive report, however, +states definitely that "trade schools for girls are rare, and even +schools offering them industrial courses as a part of their work are +not common." + +It is impossible to consider vocational training without bearing in +mind the example of Germany. Germany has been the pioneer in this work +and has laid down for the rest of us certain broad principles, even if +there are in the German systems some elements which are unsuitable to +this country. These general principles are most clearly exemplified +in the schools of the city of Munich. Indeed, when people talk of the +German plan, they nearly always mean the Munich plan. What it aims at +is: + +1. To deal in a more satisfactory way with the eighty or ninety per +cent. of children who leave school for work at fourteen, and to bridge +over with profit alike to the child, the employer and the community +the gap between fourteen and sixteen which is the unsolved riddle of +educators everywhere today. + +2. To retain the best elements of the old apprenticeship system, +though in form so unlike it. The boy (for it mainly touches boys) is +learning his trade and he is also working at his trade, and he has +cultural as well as industrial training, and this teaching he receives +during his working hours and in his employer's time. + +3. To provide teachers who combine ability to teach, with technical +skill. + +4. To insure, through joint boards on which both employers and workmen +are represented, even if these boards are generally advisory, only an +interlocking of the technical class and the factory, without which any +system of vocational instruction must fall down.[A] + +[Footnote A: As to how far this is the case, there is a difference +of opinion among authorities. Professor F.W. Roman, who has made so +exhaustive a comparative study of vocational training in the United +States and Germany, writes: "In Germany, there is very little local +control of schools, or anything else. The authority in all lines is +highly centralized." (The Industrial and Commercial Schools of the +United States and Germany, 1915, p. 324.) Dr. Kerchensteiner is quoted +by the Commercial Club of Chicago as saying, in a letter to Mr. Edwin +G. Cooley, that the separate administrative school-boards of Munich +form an essential part of the city's school-system.] + +5. To maintain a system which shall reach that vast bulk of the +population, who, because they need technical training most urgently, +are usually the last to receive it. + +Many of the most advanced educators in this country join issue with +the usual German practice on some most important points. These +consider that it is not sufficient that there be a close interlocking +of the technical school and class and the factory. It is equally +essential that vocational education, supported by public funds, shall +be an integral part of the public-school system, of which it is indeed +but a normal development, and therefore that we must have a unit and +not a dual system. Only thus can we insure that vocational education +will remain education at all and not just provide a training-school +for docile labor as an annex and a convenient entrance hall to the +factory system. Only thus can we insure democracy in the control of +this new branch of public activity. Only thus can the primary schools +be kept in touch with the advanced classes, so that the teacher, from +the very kindergarten up, may feel that she is a part of a complete +whole. Then indeed will all teachers begin to echo the cry of one whom +I heard say: "You ask us to fit the children for the industries. Let +us see if the industries are fit for the children." + +Another point in which we must somewhat modify any European model is +in the limited training provided for girls. A country which is +frankly coeducational in its public schools, state universities and +professional colleges, must continue to be so when installing a new +educational department to meet the changed and changing conditions of +our time. + +The parliament of organized labor in the United States has taken a +liberal view and laid down an advanced program on the subject of +vocational training. In 1908 the American Federation of Labor +appointed a committee on industrial education consisting of nineteen +members, of whom two were women, Agnes Nestor, International Secretary +of the Glove Workers' Union, and Mrs. Raymond Robins, President of the +National Women's Trade Union League of America. Its very first report, +made in 1909, recommended that the Federation should request the +United States Department of Commerce and Labor to investigate the +subject of industrial education in this country and abroad. + +The report of the American Federation of Labor itself, includes +a digest of the United States Bureau of Labor's report, and was +published as Senate Document No. 936. It is called "The Report of the +Committee on Industrial Education of the American Federation of Labor, +compiled and edited by Charles H. Winslow." + +Whatever narrowness and inconsistency individual trade unionists may +be charged with regarding industrial education, the leaders of the +labor movement give it their endorsement in the clearest terms. For +instance, this very report, comments those international unions which +have already established supplemental trade courses, such as the +Typographical Union, the Printing Pressmen's Union, and the Photo +Engravers' Union, and other local efforts, such as the School for +Carpenters and Bricklayers in Chicago and the School for Carriage, +Wagon, and Automobile Workers of New York City. All trade unions which +have not adopted a scheme of technical education are advised to take +the matter up. + +On the question of public-school training, the American Federation of +Labor is no less explicit and emphatic, favoring the establishment of +schools in connection with the public-school system in which pupils +between fourteen and sixteen may be taught the principles of the +trades, with local advisory boards, on which both employers and +organized labor should have seats. But by far the most fundamental +proposal is the following. After outlining the general instruction on +accepted lines, they proceed as follows: + +"The shop instruction for particular trades, and for each trade +represented, the drawing, mathematics, mechanics, physical and +biological science applicable to the trade, the history of that +trade, and a sound system of economics, including and emphasizing the +philosophy of collective bargaining." + +The general introduction of such a plan of training would mean that +the young worker would start out on his wage-earning career with an +intelligent understanding of the modern world, and of his relations to +his employer and to his fellow-laborers, instead of, as at present, +setting forth with no knowledge of the world he is entering, and +moreover, with his mind clogged with a number of utterly out-of-date +ideas, as to his individual power of control over wages and working +conditions.[A] + +[Footnote A: History, as it is usually taught, is not considered from +the industrial viewpoint, nor in the giving of a history lesson +are there inferences drawn from it that would throw light upon the +practical problems that are with us today, or that are fast advancing +to meet us. When a teacher gives a lesson on the history of the United +States, there is great stress laid upon the part played by individual +effort. All through personal achievements are emphasized. The +instructor ends here, on the high note that personal exertion is the +supreme factor of success in life, failing unfortunately to point out +how circumstances have changed, and that even personal effort may have +to take other directions. Of the boys and girls in the schools of the +United States today between nine and fourteen years of age, over eight +millions in 1910, how many will leave school knowing the important +facts that land is no longer free, and that the tools of industry +are no more, as they once were, at the disposal of the most +willing-worker? And that therefore (Oh, most important therefore!) the +workers must work in coöperation if they are to retain the rights +of the human being, and the status signified by that proud name, an +American citizen.] + +If we wish to know the special demands of working-women there is no +way so certain as to consult the organized women. They alone are at +liberty to express their views, while the education they have had +in their unions in handling questions vital to their interests as +wage-earners, and as leaders of other women gives clearness and +definiteness to the expression of those views. + +If organized women can best represent the wage-earners of their sex, +we can gain the best collective statement of their wishes through +them. At the last convention of the National Women's Trade Union +League in June, 1913, the subject of industrial education received +very close attention. The importance of continuation schools after +wage-earning days have commenced was not overlooked. An abstract of +the discussion and the chief resolutions can be found in the issue of +_Life and Labor_ for August, 1913. + +After endorsing the position taken up by the American Federation of +Labor, the women went on to urge educational authorities to arm the +children, while yet at school, with a knowledge of the state and +federal laws enacted for their protection, and asked also "that such +a course shall be of a nature to equip the boy and girl with a full +sense of his or her responsibility for seeing that the laws are +enforced," the reason being that the yearly influx of young boys and +girls into the industrial world in entire ignorance of their own state +laws is one of the most menacing facts we have to face, as their +ignorance and inexperience make exploitation easy, and weaken the +force of such protective legislation as we have. + +Yet another suggestion was that "no working certificates be issued to +a boy or girl unless he or she has passed a satisfactory examination +in the laws which have been enacted by the state for their +protection." + +In making these claims, organized working-women are keeping themselves +well in line with the splendid statement of principles enunciated by +that great educator, John Dewey: + + The ethical responsibility of the school on the social side must + be interpreted in the broadest and freest spirit; it is equivalent + to that training of the child which will give him such possession + of himself that he may take charge of himself; may not only adapt + himself to the changes that are going on, but have power to shape + and direct them. + +When we ask for coeducation on vocational lines, the question is sure +to come up: For how long is a girl likely to use her training in a +wage-earning occupation? It is continually asserted and assumed she +will on the average remain in industry but a few years. The mature +woman as a wage-earner, say the woman over twenty-five, we have been +pleased to term and to treat as an exception which may be ignored in +great general plans. Especially has this been so in laying out schemes +for vocational training, and we find the girl being ignored, not only +on the usual ground that she is a girl, but for the additional, +and not-to-be-questioned reason that it will not pay to give her +instruction in any variety of skilled trades, because she will be +but a short time in any occupation of the sort. Hence this serves to +increase the already undue emphasis placed upon domestic training as +all that a girl needs, and all that her parents or the community ought +to expect her to have. This is only one of the many cases when we try +to solve our new problems by reasoning based upon conditions that have +passed or that are passing away. + +In this connection some startling facts have been brought forward by +Dr. Leonard P. Ayres in the investigations conducted by him for the +Russell Sage Foundation. He tried to find the ages of all the women +who are following seven selected occupations in cities of the United +States of over 50,000 population. The occupations chosen were those in +which the number of women workers exceeds one for every thousand of +the population. The number of women covered was 857,743, and is just +half of all the women engaged in gainful employment in those cities. +The seven occupations listed are housekeeper, nursemaid, laundress, +saleswoman, teacher, dressmaker and servant. No less than forty-four +per cent. of the housekeepers are between twenty-five and forty-four. +Of dressmakers there are fifty-one per cent. between these two ages; +of teachers fifty-eight per cent.; of laundresses forty-nine per +cent., while the one occupation of which a little more than half are +under twenty-five years is that of saleswoman, and even here there are +barely sixty-one per cent., leaving the still considerable proportion +of thirty-nine per cent. of saleswomen over the age of twenty-five. +It is pretty certain that these mature women have given more than the +favorite seven years to their trade. It is to be regretted that the +investigation was not made on lines which would have included some of +the factory occupations. It is difficult to see why it did not. Under +any broad classification there must be more garment-workers, for +instance, in New York or Chicago, than there are teachers. However, we +have reason to be grateful for the fine piece of work which Dr. Ayres +has done here. + +The _Survey_, in an editorial, also quotes in refutation of the +seven-year theory, the findings of the commission which inquired +into the pay of teachers in New York. The commissioners found that +forty-four per cent. of the women teachers in the public schools had +been in the service for ten years or more, and that only twenty-five +per cent. of the men teachers had served as long a term. + +It can hardly be doubted that the tendency is towards the lengthening +of the wage-earning life of the working-woman. A number of factors +affect the situation, about most of which we have as yet little +definite information. There is first, the gradual passing of the +household industries out of the home. Those women, for whom the +opportunity to be thus employed no longer is open, tend to take up or +to remain longer in wage-earning occupations. + + +The changing status of the married woman, her increasing economic +independence and its bearing upon her economic responsibility, are all +facts having an influence upon woman as a wage-earning member of the +community, but how, and in what degree, they affect her length of +service, is still quite uncertain. It is probable too, that they +affect the employment or non-employment of women very differently in +different occupations, but how, and in what degree they do so is mere +guess-work at present. + +Much pains has been expended in arguing that any system of vocational +training should locally be co-related with the industries of the +district. Vain effort! For it appears that the workers of all ages are +on the move all the time. Out of 22,027 thirteen-year-old boys in the +public schools of seventy-eight American cities, only 12,699, or a +little more than half, were living in the places of their birth. And +considering the _wanderlust_ of the young in any case, is anything +more probable than that the very first thing a big proportion of this +advancing body of "vocationally trained" young men and women will want +to do will be to try out their training in some other city? And why +should they not? + +If there has ever been voiced a tenderer plea for a universal +education that shall pass by no child, boy or girl, than that of Stitt +Wilson, former Socialist Mayor of Berkeley, I do not know it. If there +has ever been outlined a finer ideal of an education fitting the +child, every child, to take his place and fill his place in the new +world opening before him, I have not heard of it. He asks that we +should submit ourselves to the leadership of the child--his needs, his +capacities, his ideal hungers--and in so doing we shall answer many +of the most disturbing and difficult problems that perplex our +twentieth-century civilization. Even in those states which make the +best attempt at educating their children, from three-fourths to +nine-tenths, according to the locality, leave the schools at the age +of thirteen or fourteen, and the present quality of the education +given from the age of twelve to sixteen is neither an enrichment in +culture, nor a training for life and livelihood. It is too brief for +culture, and is not intended for vocation. + +Mr. Wilson makes no compromise with existing conditions; concedes not +one point to the second-rate standards that we supinely accept; faces +the question of cost, that basic difficulty which most theoretical +educators waive aside, and which the public never dreams of trying to +meet and overcome. Here are some of his proposals. + + The New Education [he writes] will include training and experience + in domestic science, cookery and home-making; agriculture and + horticulture; pure and applied science, and mechanical and + commercial activities with actual production, distribution and + exchange of commodities. Such training for three to six millions + of both sexes from the age of twelve to twenty-one years will + require land, tools, buildings of various types, machinery, + factory sites by rail and water, timber, water and power sources. + + As all civilization is built upon the back of labor, and as + all culture and leisure rests upon labor, and is not possible + otherwise, so all cultural and liberal education, as generally + understood, shall be sequent to the productive and vocational. The + higher intellectual education should grow out of and be earned by + productive vocational training. + + Hence our schools should be surrounded by lands of the best + quality obtainable, plots of 10, 50, 100 and more acres. These + lands should be the scene of labor that would be actually + productive and not mere play.... In such a school the moral + elements of labor should be primary, viz.: joy to the producer, + through industry and art; perfect honesty in quality of material + and character of workmanship; social coöperation, mutualism, and + fellowship among the workers or students; and last, but not least, + justice--that is, the full product of labor being secured to the + producer. + +He plans to make the schools largely self-supporting, partly through +land endowments easier to obtain under the system of taxation of land +values that is possibly near at hand in the Golden State, for which +primarily the writer is planning. The other source of income would be +from the well-directed labor of the students themselves, particularly +the older ones. He quotes Professor Frank Lawrence Glynn, of the +Vocational School at Albany, New York, as having found that the +average youth can, not by working outside of school hours, but in the +actual process of getting his own education, earn two dollars a week +and upward. Elsewhere, Mr. Wilson shows that the beginnings of such +schools are to be found in operation today, in some of the best reform +institutions of the country. + +For all who desire university training, this would open the door. They +would literally "work their way" through college. One university' +president argues for some such means of helping students: "We need +not so much an increase of beneficiary funds as an increase of the +opportunities for students to earn their living." This is partly +to enable them to pay; for their courses and thereby acquire an +education, but chiefly because through supporting themselves they gain +self-confidence and therefore the power of initiative.[A] + +[Footnote A: "The social and educational need for vocational training +is equally urgent. Widespread vocational training will democratize +the education of the country: (1) by recognizing different tastes and +abilities, and by giving an equal opportunity to all to prepare for +their lifework; (2) by extending education through part-time and +evening instruction to those who are at work in the shop or on +the farm." Report of the Commission on National Aid to Vocational +Instruction, 1914, page 12.] + + + + +XI + +THE WORKING WOMAN AND MARRIAGE + + +It is a lamentable fact that the wholesome and normal tendency towards +organization which is now increasingly noticeable among working-women +has so far remained unrelated to that equally normal and far more +deeply rooted and universal tendency towards marriage. + +As long as the control of trade unionism among women remained with +men, no link between the two was likely to be forged; the problem +is so entirely apart from any that men unionists ever have to face +themselves. It is true that with a man the question of adhering to +a union alike in times of prosperity or times of stress may be +complicated by a wife having a "say-so," through her enthusiasm or her +indifference when it means keeping up dues or attending meetings; yet +more, when belonging to a union may mean being thrown out of work or +ordered on strike, just when there has been a long spell of sickness +or a death with all the attendant expenses, or when perhaps a new +baby is expected or when the hard winter months are at hand and the +children are lacking shoes and clothes. Still, roughly speaking, a man +worker is a unionist or a non-unionist just the same, be he single or +married. + +But how different it is with a girl! The counter influence exerted by +marriage upon organization is not confined to those girls who leave +the trade, and of course the union, if they have belonged to one, +after they have married. The possibility of marriage and especially +the exaggerated expectations girls entertain as to the improvement in +their lot which marriage will bring them is one of the chief adverse +influences that any organization composed of women or containing many +women members has to reckon with, an influence acting all the time on +the side of those employers who oppose organization among their girls. + +It has been the wont of many men unionists in the past and is the +custom of not a few today, to accept at its face value the girl's own +argument: "What's the use of our joining the union? We'll be getting +married presently." It is much the same feeling, although unspoken, +that underlies the ordinary workingman's unwillingness to see women +enter his trade and his indifference to their status in the trade once +they have entered it. The man realizes that this rival of his is but a +temporary worker, and he often, too often, excuses himself tacitly, +if not in words, from making any effort to aid her in improving her +position or from using his influence and longer experience to secure +for her any sort of justice, forgetting that the argument, "She'll +soon get married" is a poor one at best, seeing that as soon as one +girl does marry her place will immediately be filled by another, as +young, as inexperienced as she had been, and as utterly in need of the +protection that experienced and permanent co-workers could give her. +The girl, although she guesses it not, is only too frequently made the +instrument of a terrible retribution; for the poor wage, which was +all that she in her individual helplessness was able to obtain for +herself, is used to lower the pay of the very man, who, had he stood +by her, might have helped her to a higher wage standard and at the +same time preserved his own. + +Again, the probability of the girl marrying increases on all sides the +difficulties encountered in raising standards alike of work and of +wages. Bound up with direct payment are those indirect elements of +remuneration or deduction from remuneration covered by length of +working-hours and by sanitary conditions, since whatever saps the +girl's energy or undermines her health, whether overwork, foul air, +or unsafe or too heavy or overspeeded machinery, forms an actual +deduction from her true wages, besides being a serious deduction from +the wealth-store, the stock of well-being, of the community. + +Up till comparatively recent times the particular difficulties I +have been enumerating did not exist, since, under the system of home +industries universal before the introduction of steam-power, there was +not the same economic competition between men and women, nor was there +this unnatural gap between the occupation of the woman during her +girlhood and afterwards in her married life. In the majority of cases, +indeed, she only continued to carry on under her husband's roof the +very trades which she had learned and practiced in the home of her +parents. And this applied equally to the group of trades which we +still think of as part of the woman's natural home life, baking and +cooking and cleaning and sewing, and to that other group which have +become specialized and therefore are now pursued outside the home, +such as spinning and weaving. It was true also in large part of the +intrinsically out-of-door employments, such as field-work. + +In writing about a change while the process is still going on, it is +extremely difficult to write so as not to be misunderstood. For there +are remote corners, even of the United States, where the primitive +conditions still subsist, and where woman still bears her old-time +relation to industry, where the industrial life of the girl flows on +with no gap or wrench into the occupational life of the married woman. +Through wifehood and motherhood she indeed adds to her burdens, and +complicates her responsibilities, but otherwise she spends her days +in much the same fashion as before, with some deduction, often, alas, +inadequate, to allow for the bearing and rearing of her too frequent +babies. Also in the claims that industry makes upon her in her +relation to the productive life of the community, under such primitive +conditions, her life rests upon the same basis as before. + +As a telling illustration of that primitive woman's occupations, as +she carries them on among us today, the following will serve. Quite +recently a friend, traveling in the mountainous regions of Kentucky, +at the head of Licking Creek, had occasion to call at a little +mountain cabin, newly built out of logs, the chinks stopped up +with clay, evidently the pride and the comfort of the dwellers. It +consisted of one long room. At one end were three beds. In the center +was the family dining-table, and set out in order on one side a number +of bark-seated hickory chairs made by the forest carpenters. On the +other a long bench, probably intended for the younger members of the +family. Facing the door, as the visitor entered, was a huge open +fireplace, with a bar across, whence hung three skillets of kettles +for the cooking of the food. The only occupant of the cabin at that +hour in the afternoon was an old woman. She was engaged in combing +into smoothness with two curry-combs a great pile of knotted wool, +washed, but otherwise as it came off the sheep's back. The wool was +destined to be made into blankets for the household. The simple +apparatus for the carrying-out of the whole process was there at hand, +for the spinning-wheel stood back in a corner of the room, while the +big, heavy loom had, for convenience' sake, been set up on the porch. +That old woman's life may be bare and narrow enough in many ways, but +at least she is rich and fortunate in having the opportunity for the +exercise of a skilled trade, and in it an outlet for self-expression, +and even for artistic taste in the choice of patterns and colors. +Far different the lot of the factory worker with her monotonous and +mindless repetition of lifeless movements at the bidding of the +machine she tends. The Kentucky mountain woman was here practicing in +old age the art she had acquired in her girlhood. Those early lessons +which had formed her industrial education, were of life-long value, +both in enriching her own life, and by adding to her economic and +therefore social value, alike as a member of her own household, and as +a contributor to the wealth of the little community. + +We once had, universally, and there still can be found in such +isolated regions, an industrial arrangement, soundly based upon +community and family needs, and even more normally related to the +woman's own development, better expressing many sides of her nature +than do the confused and conflicting claims of the modern family and +modern industry render possible for vast numbers today. And this, +although wide opportunity for personal and individual development was +so sadly lacking, and the self-abnegation expected from women was so +excessive, that the intellectual and emotional life must often have +been a silent tragedy of repression. + +Among our modern working-women in urban localities, we find today no +such settled plan for thus directing the activities of women to meet +modern needs and conditions. Neither home nor school furnishes our +girls with a training fitting them for a rich and varied occupational +life. The pursuits into which most of them drift or are driven, do +indeed result in the production of a vast amount of manufactured +goods, food, clothing, house and personal furnishings of all sorts, +and of machinery with which may be manufactured yet more goods. Much +of this product is both useful and beneficial to us all, but there +are likewise mountains of articles fashioned, neither useful nor +beneficial, nor resulting in any sort of use, comfort or happiness to +anyone: adulterated foods, shoddy clothes, and toys that go to pieces +in an hour. + +Certainly the girl worker of this twentieth century produces per head, +and with all allowances made for the cost of the capital invested in +factory and machinery, and for superintendence, far and away more in +amount and in money value than did her girl ancestor of a hundred +years ago, or than her contemporary girl ancestor of today in the +Kentucky and Tennessee mountains, or than her other sister, the +farmer's daughter in agricultural regions, who still retains hold of +and practices some of the less primitive industries. + +But the impulse to congratulate ourselves upon this vastly increased +product of labor is checked when we take up the typically modern +girl's life at a later stage. We have observed already that her life +during her first fourteen years is utterly unrelated to the next +period, which she spends in store or factory. The training of her +childhood has been no preparation for the employments of her girlhood. +She is but an unskilled hand, the last cog in a machine, and if these +prove but seven lean years for her, it is only what we might expect. +When they are ended, and married life entered upon, we are again +struck by the absence of any relation between either of these two +life-periods and the stage preceding, and by the fact that at no time +is any intelligent preparation made either for a wage-earning or +a domestic career. This means an utter dislocation between the +successive stages of woman's life, a dislocation, the unfortunate +results of which, end not with the sex directly affected, but bring +about a thousand other evils, the lowering of the general wage +standard, the deterioration of home life, and serious loss to +the children of the coming generation. As far as we know, such a +dislocation in the normal development of women's lives never took +place before on any large scale. I am speaking of it here solely in +relation to the sum of the well-being of the whole community. As it +affects the individual girl and woman herself it has been dealt with +under other heads. + +The cure which the average man has to propose is pithily summed up in +the phrase: "Girls ought to stay at home." The home as woman's +sole sphere is even regarded as the ultimate solution of the whole +difficulty by many men, who know well that it is utterly impracticable +today. A truer note was struck by John Work, when addressing himself +specially to socialist men: + + It would be fatal to our prospects of reaching the women with + the message of socialism if we were to give the millions of + wage-earning women to understand that we did not intend to let + them continue earning their own living, but proposed to compel + them to become dependent upon men. They price what little + independence they have, and they want more of it. + + It would be equally fatal to our prospects of reaching the women + with the message of socialism if we were to give the married women + to understand that they must remain dependent upon men. It is one + of the most hopeful signs of the times that they are chafing under + the galling chains of dependence. + + * * * * * + + Far from shutting women out of the industries, socialism will do + just the opposite. + + It will open up to every woman a full and free opportunity to earn + her own living and receive her full earnings. + + This means the total cessation of marrying for a home. + +The degree of irritation that so many men show when expressing +themselves on the subject of women in the trades is the measure of +their own sense of incompetence to handle it. The mingled apathy and +impatience with which numbers of union men listen to any proposal to +organize the girls with whom they work arises from the same mental +attitude. "These girls have come into our shop. We can't help it. +We didn't ask them. They should be at home. Let them take care of +themselves." + +The inconsistency of such a view is seen when we consider that in the +cities at least an American father (let alone a foreign-born father) +is rarely found nowadays objecting to his own girls going out to work +for wages. He expects it, unless one or more are needed by their +mother at home to help with little ones or to assist in a small family +store or home business. He takes it as a matter of course that his +girls go to work as soon as they leave school, just as his boys do. +And yet the workman in a printing office, we will say, whose own +daughter is earning her living as a stenographer or teacher, will +resent the competition of women type-setters, and will both resent and +despise those daughters of poorer fathers, who have found their way +into the press or binding-rooms. Unionists or non-unionists, such men +ignore the fact that all these girls have just as much right to earn +an honest living at setting type, or folding or tipping and in so +doing to receive the support and protection of any organization there +is, as their own daughters have to take wages for the hours they spend +in schoolroom or in office. The single men but echo the views of the +older ones when such unfortunately is the shop tone, and may be even +more indifferent to the girls' welfare and to the bad economic results +to all workers of our happy-go-lucky system or no-system. + +I do not wish to be understood as accepting either the girl's present +economic position or the absorption in purely domestic occupations of +the workingman's wife as a finality. It is a transitional stage that +we are considering. I look forward to a time, I believe it to be +rapidly approaching, when the home of the workingman, like everyone's +else home, will be truly the home, the happy resting-place, the +sheltering nest of father, mother and children, and when through the +rearrangement of labor, the workingman's wife will be relieved from +her monotonous existence of unrelieved domestic drudgery and overwork, +disguised under the name of wifely and maternal duties, when the +cooking and the washing, for instance, will be no more part of +the home life in the humblest home than in the wealthiest. The +workingman's wife will then share in the general freedom to occupy +part of her time in whatever occupation she is best fitted for, and, +along with every other member of the community she will share in the +benefits arising from the better organisation of domestic work. + +However, this blessed change has not yet come to pass, and of all +city-dwellers, the wife of the workingman seems to be furthest away +from the benefits of the transformation. Therefore, in considering +the connection between the girl's factory life and her probable +occupational future in married life, I have purposely avoided dwelling +upon what is bound to arrive some time in the future, and have tried +to face facts as they exist today, dealing as far as possible with the +difficulties of the generation of girls now in the factories, those +about to enter, and those passing out, remembering only, with a +patience-breeding sense of relief, that the conditions of today may +not necessarily be the conditions of tomorrow. + +I therefore accept in its full meaning domesticity, as practiced by +the most domestic woman, and as preached by the domestic woman's most +ardent advocate among men. Nor am I expressing resentment at the fact +that when a girl leaves the machine-speeded work of the factory, it is +only to take up the heavy burden of the workingman's wife, as we know +it. She must be wife and mother, and manager of the family income, and +cook and laundress and housemaid and seamstress. The improvement of +her position and the amelioration of her lot can only come slowly, +through social changes, as expressed in the woman movement, and +through the widening scope of the principle of specialization. + +Even today, without any such radical changes as are foreshadowed +above, the gap between schooldays and working years, between working +years and married life, can to some extent be bridged over if we plan +to do so from the beginning. As has been shown, organized women are +already advocating some such orderly plan for the girl's school +training, as should blend book-learning with manual instruction and +simple domestic accomplishments. But also, in order to deal justly +and fairly by the girl, any reasonable scheme of things would also +presuppose such strict control of the conditions of industry, that +hours would be reasonably short, that in the building and running of +machinery there should be borne in mind always the safety and health +of the workers, instead of, as today, expecting almost all the +adaptation to be on the part of the worker, through pitting the +flexible, delicate, and easily injured human organism against the +inflexible and tireless machine. Other essential conditions would be +the raising of the standard of living, and therefore of remuneration, +for all, down to the weakest and least skilled, and the insistence +upon equal pay for equal work, tending to lessen the antagonism +between men and women on the industrial field. Thus doubly prepared +and adequately protected the girl would pass from her wage-earning +girlhood into home and married life a fresher, less exhausted creature +than she usually is now. Further, she would be more likely to bring to +the bearing and rearing of her children a constitution unenfeebled +by premature overwork and energies unsapped by its monotonous grind. +Again, her understanding of industrial problems would make her a more +intelligent as well as a more sympathetic helpmate. Hand in hand, +husband and wife would more hopefully tackle fresh industrial +difficulties as these arose, and they would do so with some slight +sense of the familiarity that is the best armor in life's battle. + +Besides there is the other possibility, all too often realized, that +lies in the background of every such married woman's consciousness. +She may be an ideally domestic woman, spending her time and strength +on her home and for the Welfare of her husband and children, yet +through no fault of hers, her home may be lost to her, or if not +lost, at least kept together only by her own unremitting efforts as a +wage-earner. It often happens that marriage in course of time proves +to be anything but an assurance of support. Early widowed, the young +mother herself may have to earn her children's bread. Or the husband +may become crippled, or an invalid, or he may turn out a drunkard and +a spendthrift. In any of these circumstances, the responsibility and +the burden of supporting the entire family usually falls upon the +wife. Is it strange that the group so often drift into undeserved +pauperism, sickness and misery, perhaps later on, even into those +depths of social maladjustment that bring about crime? + +The poorly paid employment of office-cleaning is sadly popular among +widows and deserted wives, because, being followed during the evening, +and sometimes night hours, it leaves a mother free during the day to +attend to her cooking and housework and sewing, and be on the spot to +give the children their meals. Free! The irony of it! Free, that is, +to work sixteen hours or longer per day, and free to leave her little +ones in a locked-up room, while she earns enough to pay the rent and +buy the food. Ask any such widowed mother what she is thinking of, as +she plies mop and scrubbing-brush after the offices are closed and the +office force gone home, and she will tell you how she worries for fear +something may have happened to the baby while she is away. She wonders +whether she left the matches out of the reach of four-year-old Sammy; +and Bessie, who isn't very strong, is always so frightened when the +man on the floor above comes home late and quarrels with his wife. + +The theory on which the poor woman was paid her wages when as a single +girl she used to draw her weekly pay-envelope, that a fair living wage +for a woman is what is barely sufficient to support herself, rather +falls down when a whole household has to be kept out of a girl's +miserable pay. + +All these difficulties would be eased for such overburdened ones, if +their early training had been such as to leave them equipped to meet +the vicissitudes of fortune on fairer terms, and if the conditions of +industrial life, allotting equal pay to workers of both sexes, had +also included reasonable opportunities for advancement to higher +grades of work with proportionately increased pay. + +Meanwhile, married women, less handicapped than these, are +experimenting on their own account, and are helping to place the work +of wives as wage-earners on a more settled basis. The wife of the +workingman who has no children, and who lives in a city finds she has +not enough to do in the little flat which is their home. The stove +in winter needs little attention; there is not enough cooking and +cleaning to fill up her time, and as for sewing she can buy most of +their clothing cheaper than she can make it. But any little money she +can earn will come in useful; so she tries for some kind of work, +part-time work, if she can find it. In every big city there are +hundreds of young married women who take half-time jobs in our +department stores or who help to staff the lunch-rooms or wash up or +carry trays, or act as cashiers in our innumerable restaurants. As +half-day girls such waitresses earn their three or four dollars a +week, besides getting their lunch. Very frequently they do not admit +to their fellow-workers that they are married, for the single girl +with her own hard struggle on her hands is apt to resent such +competition. A worker who is in a position to accept voluntarily a +half-time job of this sort is one who must have some other means of +meeting part of her living expenses. A home in the background is such +an aid. The increasingly large number of part-time workers, lessen, +the others reckon, the number of jobs to be had by the ones that have +to work all day, and may tend also to lower wages, since any partly +subsidized worker can afford to take less than the girl who has to +support herself out of her earnings. The latter has never heard of +parasitic trades, and yet in her heart she knows there is something +not quite right here, something that she blindly feels she would like +to put an end to. + +She is quite right in resisting any lowering of wages, but she will +have to accept this inroad into the trades of these exceptionally +placed married women. She will have to throw her efforts into another +channel, using organization to raise the position of working-women +generally into dignified industrial independence. For this still +limited number of half-time married women workers are but the leaf on +the stream, showing the direction events are taking. As specialization +goes on, as the domestic industries are more and more taken out of our +homes, as the gifted and trained teacher more and more shares in the +life of the child, more and more will the woman after she marries +continue to belong to the wage-earning class by being a part-time +worker. To propose eliminating the present (sometimes unfair) +competition of the married woman with the single girl, by excluding +her from any or every trade is as futile as the resentment of men +against all feminine rivals in industry. + +We have been observing, so far, how the lives of women have been +modified, often, not for the better, by the industrial revolution. Let +us glance now in passing at the old home industries themselves, and +note what is still happening. One after another has been taken, not +merely out of the home, where they all originated, but out of the +hands of the sex who invented and developed them. Trade after trade +has thus been taken over from the control of women, and appropriated +and placed on a modern business basis by men. I make no criticism upon +this transference beyond remarking that you hear no howl about it +from the supplanted ones, as you never fail to do over the converse +process, when male workers are driven out of occupations to make way +for women, whose cheapness makes them so formidable an industrial +competitor. But whichever way it works, sex discrimination usually +bodes no good to the lasting interest of any of the workers. When a +trade passes out of the status of a home industry, and takes on the +dignity of an outside occupation, women are rarely in a position to +take hold of it in its new guise. We find men following it, partly +because they are more accustomed to think in terms of professional +skill, and partly because they are in the business swim, and can +more easily gain command of the capital necessary to start any new +enterprise. Men then proceed to hire the original owners as employés, +and women lose greatly in their economic status. + +This is the general rule, though it is by no means wholly the sex +line that divides the old-fashioned houseworker from the specialized +professional, though this habitual difference in standing between +groups of different sex does tend to blur fundamental issues. The +economic struggle in its bare elements would be easy to follow +compared with the complex and perpetually changing forms in which it +is presented to us. + +But the home industries are not yet fully accounted for and disposed +of. Some of the household occupations, essential once to the comfort +and well-being of the family, are shrinking in importance, prior to +vanishing before our eyes, because now they do not for the most part +represent an economical expenditure of energy. Meanwhile, however, +they linger on, a survival in culture, and in millions of homes today +the patient housewife is striving with belated tools to keep her +family fed and clothed and her house spotless. + +Take the cleaning process, for example, and watch what is happening. +Dr. Helen Sumner draws attention to the fact that we ourselves are +witnessing its rapid transformation. It is being taken out of the +hands of the individual houseworker, who is wont to scrub, sweep and +dust in the intervals between marketing, cooking, laundry-work or +sewing, and by whom it is performed well or ill, but always according +to the standards of the individual household, which means that +there are no accepted standards in sweeping, scrubbing and dusting. +House-cleaning is becoming a specialized, skilled trade, performed by +the visiting expert and his staff of professionally trained employés. +Even if as yet these skilled and paid workers enter an ordinary home +only at long intervals, when the mystic process of spring cleaning +seems to justify the expense, the day is plainly in sight when the +usual weekly cleaning will be taken over by these same visitors. +At present the abruptness of the change is broken for us by the +introduction into the market, and the use by the house-mother +of various hand-driven machines, a vast improvement upon the +old-fashioned broom, and accustoming women to the idea of new and +better methods of getting rid of dirt. Few realize the tremendous +import of this comparatively insignificant invention, the atmospheric +cleaner, or what a radical change it is bringing about in the thoughts +of the housewife, whose ideas on the domestic occupations so far have +been mostly as confused as those of the charwoman, who put up on her +door the sign: "Scrubbing and Window-Cleaning Done Here." In the same +way the innumerable electric appliances of today are simplifying the +labors of the housewife; but their chief value is that through them +she is becoming accustomed to the thought of change, and being led on +to distinguish between the housework that can be simplified, and still +done at home, and the much larger proportion which must sooner or +later be relegated to the professional expert, either coming in +at intervals or performing the task elsewhere. And this is true, +fortunately, of women in the country as well as in the cities. + +We have traveled a long way during the last hundred and fifty years +or so, and in that time have witnessed the complete transference from +home to factory of many home industries, notably spinning and weaving, +and soap-and candle-making. Others like the preparation of food are +still in process of transference. The factory industries are the +direct and legitimate offspring of the primitive home industries, and +their growth and development are entirely on the lines of a normal +evolution. + +[Illustration: _Courtesy of The Pine Mountain Settlement_ Primitive +Industry. Kentucky mountain woman at her spinning-wheel. 1913] + +[Illustration: _Courtesy of The Chicago School of Civics and +Philanthropy_ Italian Woman Home Finisher] + +But there is another form of industry that is a ghastly hybrid, the +"home-work" that has been born of the union of advanced factory +methods and primitive home appliances. Such a combination could never +have come into existence, had the working classes at the time of the +inception of machine-driven industry possessed either an understanding +of what was happening, or the power to prevent their own exploitation. +The effects of this home-work are in every way deadly. There is not a +single redeeming feature about the whole business. Like the spinner +or the weaver of olden times, the sewing-machine operator or the +shirt-finisher of the present day provides her own workroom, lighting +and tools, but unlike her, she enjoys no freedom in their use, nor has +she any control over the hours she works, the prices she asks or the +class of work she undertakes. + +With the home-worker hard-driven by her sister in poverty, and driving +her in turn, helpless both in their ignorance under the modern +Juggernaut that is destroying them, pushed ever more cruelly by +relentless competition, the last stronghold, the poor little home +itself, goes down. The mother has no time to care for her children, +nor money wherewith to procure for them the care of others. In her +frantic desire to keep them alive, she holds the whip over her own +flesh and blood, who have to spend their very babyhood in tying +feather-flues or pulling out bastings. Home-work, this unnatural +product of nineteenth-century civilization, as an agency for summarily +destroying the home is unparalleled. Nor do its blighting effects end +with homes wrecked, and children neglected, stunted and slain. The +proud edifice of modern industry itself, on whose account homes +are turned into workshops, children into slaves, and mothers into +slave-drivers, is undermined and degraded by this illegitimate +competition, the most powerful of all factors in lowering wages, and +preventing organization among regular factory hands. The matter lies +in a nutshell. Industry which originated in the home could be safely +carried on there only as long as it remained simple and the operations +thereof such as one individual could complete. As soon as through the +invention of power-driven machinery industry reached the stage of high +specialization and division of labor, at once it became a danger to +the home, and the home a degradation to it. It was at the call of +specialized industry that the factory came into existence, and only in +the factory can it be safely housed. + +A similar and, if it were possible, a worse form of family and group +slavery prevails outside of the cities in the poorer farming regions +and in the cotton states. It is harder to reach and to handle, and +there is cause to fear that it is increasing. Especially in the busy +season when the corn has to be harvested or the cotton picked the +mother is considered as a toiler first, and she is to have her babies +and look after her poor little home and her children as a mere +afterthought. The children are contributors to the family support from +the time they can toddle and schooling comes a bad second in making +the family arrangements. One reason for this growing evil is the +threatening degradation and disappearance of the independent farmer +class, who made up what would have been called in England formerly the +yeomanry of this country, and their replacement by a poor peasantry +degraded by the wretched terms upon which they are driven to snatch a +bare existence from a patch of land to which they are tied by lease, +by mortgage or by wages, and which they have neither the money nor the +knowledge to cultivate to advantage. + +The Federal Commission on Industrial Relations has brought to light +some startling facts in this phase of our social life, as in many +others. I can refer to the evidence of but one witness. She speaks for +many thousands. This is as it is quoted in the daily press. + + Picture for the moment the drama staged at Dallas. + Mrs. I. Borden Harriman of New York is presiding over + the commission. Mrs. Levi Stewart, the wife of a tenant + farmer, is on the witness stand. Mrs. Stewart is a shrinking + little woman with "faded eyes and broken body." She wears + a blue sunbonnet. Her dress of checkered material has lost + its color from long use. In a thin, nervous voice she + answers the questions of the distinguished leader of two + kinds of "society." + + "Do you work in the fields?" Mrs. Harriman began. + + "Yes, ma'am." + + "How old were you when you married?" + + "Fifteen." + + "How old was your husband?" + + "Eighteen." + + "Did you work in the fields when you were a child?" + + "Oh, yes'm, I picked and I chopped." + + "Have you worked in the fields every year?" + + "I do in pickin' and choppin' times." + + "And you do the housework?' + + "There ain't no one else to do it." + + "And the sewing?" + + "Yes, ma'am. I make all the clothes for the children + and myself. I make everything I wear ever since I was + married." + + "Do you make your hats?" + + "Yes, ma'am. I make my hats. I had only two since I + was married." + + "And how long have you been married?" + + "Twenty years." + + "Do you do the milking?" + + "Most always when we can afford a cow." + + "What time do you get up in the morning?" + + "I usually gits up in time to have breakfast done by 4 + o'clock in summer time. In the winter time we are through + with breakfast by sun-up." + + "Did you work in the fields while you were carrying your + children?" + + "Oh, yes, sometimes; sometimes almost nigh to birthin' + time." + + "Is this customary among the tenant farmers' wives you + have known?" + + The answer was an affirmative nod. + +Let us now once more consider the home, and compare factory operations +with the domestic arts. There is no doubt that in cooking, for +instance, the housewife finds scope for a far higher range of +qualifications than the factory girl exercises in preparing tomatoes +in a cannery, or soldering the cans after they are filled with the +cooked fruit. The housewife has first of all to market and next to +prepare the food for cooking. She has to study the proper degree of +heat, watch the length of time needed for boiling or baking in their +several stages, perhaps make additions of flavorings, and serve +daintily or can securely. There is scarcely any division of housework +which does not call for resource and alertness. Unfortunately, +however, although these qualities are indeed called for, they are +not always called forth, because the houseworker is not permitted to +concentrate her whole attention and interest upon any one class of +work, but must be constantly going from one thing to another. Hence +women have indeed acquired marvelous versatility, but at what a heavy +cost! The houseworker only rarely acquires perfect skill and deftness +or any considerable speed in performing any one process. Her +versatility is attained at the price of having no standards of +comparison established, and worse than all, at the price of working +in isolation, and therefore gaining no training in team-work, and so +never having an inkling of what organized effort means. + +Our factory systems, on the other hand, go to the other extreme, being +so arranged that the majority of workers gain marvelous dexterity, and +acquire a dizzying rate of speed, while they are apt to lose in both +resourcefulness and versatility. They do not, however, suffer, to +anything like the same degree, from isolation, and factory life, even +where the employers are opposed to organization, does open a way to +the recognition of common difficulties and common advantages, and +therefore leads eventually in the direction of organization. In the +factory trades the workers have to some extent learnt to be vocal. It +is possible for an outsider to learn something of the inner workings +of an establishment. Upon the highly developed trades, the searchlight +of official investigation is every now and then turned. From +statistics we know the value of the output. We are also learning a +good deal about the workers, the environment that makes for health or +invalidism, or risk to life, and we are in a fair way to learn more. +The organized labor movement furnishes an expression, although still +imperfect, of the workers' views, and keeps before the public the +interests of the workers, even of the unorganized groups. + +But with the domestic woman all this is reversed. In spite of the fact +that in numbers the home women far exceed the wage-earners, the value +of their output has been ignored, and as to the conditions under +which it is produced, not even the most advanced and progressive +statisticians have been able to arrive at any estimate. Of sentiment +tons have been lavished upon the extreme importance of the work of the +housewife in the home, sometimes, methinks, with a lingering misgiving +that she might not be too well content, and might need a little +encouragement to be induced to remain there. What adulation, too, +has been expended upon the work of even the domestic servant, with +comparisons in plenty unfavorable to the factory occupations into +which girls still persist in drifting. Yet in freedom and in social +status, two of the tests by which to judge the relative desirability +of occupations, the paid domestic employments take inferior ranks. +Again, they offer little prospect of advance, for they lead nowhere. + +Further, as noted in an earlier chapter in the census reports all +women returning themselves as engaged in domestic duties (not being +paid employés), were necessarily not listed as gainfully employed. Yet +it is impossible to believe that compared with other ways of employing +time and energy, the hours that women spend in cooking and cleaning +for the family, even if on unavoidably primitive lines, have no value +to the community. Or again, that the hours a mother spends in caring +for her baby, later on in helping with the lessons, and fitting the +children for manhood or womanhood, have no value in the nation's +account book. I will be reminded that this is an unworthy way of +reckoning up the inestimable labors of the wife and mother. Perhaps +so. Yet personally, I should much prefer a system of social economics +which could estimate the items at a fair, not excessive value, and +credit them to the proper quarter. + +A well-known woman publicist recently drew attention to the vast +number of the women engaged in domestic life, and expressed regret +that organizations like the National Women's Trade Union League +confined their attention so exclusively to the women and girls +employed in factories and stores, who, even today, fall so far short +numerically of their sisters who are working in the home or on +the farm. The point is an interesting one, but admits of a ready +explanation. Every movement follows the line of least resistance, +and a movement for the industrial organization of women must first +approach those in the most advanced and highly organized industries. +As I have shown, we really know very much more about the conditions of +factory workers than of home-workers. The former have, in a degree, +found their voice, and are able to give collective expression to their +common interests. + +The League recently urged upon the Secretary for Labor, the +recognition, as an economic factor, of the work of women in the +household trades; the classification of these occupations, whether +paid or unpaid, on a par with other occupations, and lastly, that +there be undertaken a government investigation of domestic service. + +In this connection a long step forward has just been taken through +the inquiries, which during the last two years, the Department of +Agriculture has been making as to the real position of women on the +farm, and has been making them of the women themselves. This came +about through a letter addressed to the Secretary from Mr. Clarence +Poe, Raleigh, North Carolina, under date of July 9, 1913, in which he +said: "Have some bulletins for the farmer's wife, as well as for the +farmer himself. The farm woman has been the most neglected factor +in the rural problem, and she has been especially neglected by the +National Department of Agriculture. Of course, a few such bulletins +are printed, but not enough." + +A letter was accordingly sent out from Washington to the housewives of +the department's 55,000 volunteer crop correspondents, on the whole a +group of picked women. They were invited to state both their personal +views and the results of discussions with women neighbors, their +church organization or any women's organization to which they might +belong. To this letter 2,225 relevant replies were received, many +of these transmitting the opinions of groups of women in the +neighborhood. + +The letter asked "how the United States Department of Agriculture can +better meet the needs of farm housewives." Extracts from the replies +with comments have been published in the form of four bulletins. Many +of the letters make tragic reading: the want of any money of their +own; the never-ending hours; the bad roads and poor schools; neglect +in girlhood and at times of childbirth. A great many thoughtless +husbands will certainly be awakened to a sense of neglected +opportunities, as well as to many sins of commission. + +The bulletins contain appendices of suggestions how farm women can +help one another, and how they may gain much help from the certainly +now thoroughly converted Department of Agriculture, through farmer's +institutes for women, through demonstrations and other extension +work under the Smith-Lever Act of 1914, and through the formation of +women's and girls' clubs. + +It is of the utmost importance to society, as well as to herself, that +the whole economic status of the married woman, performing domestic +duties, should be placed upon a sounder basis. It is not as if the +unsatisfactory position of the average wife and mother could confine +its results to herself. Compared with other occupations, hers fulfills +none of the conditions that the self-respecting wage-earner demands. +The twenty-four-hour day, the seven-day week, no legal claim for +remuneration, these are her common working conditions. Other claims +which a husband can and usually does make upon her I leave unnoticed; +also the unquestioned claim of her children upon her time and +strength. Marital duties, as they are evasively termed, could not +be exacted from any wage servant. Moreover, the very existence of +children whom the married pair have called into being is but an +argument, on the one hand, for the father taking a larger share in +their care, and on the other, for the lightening of the mother's +multifarious burden by the better organization of all household work, +as well as everything that belongs to child culture and care. + +The poor working conditions she suffers under, and the uncertainty of +her position, reduce many a woman's share in the married partnership +to that of an employé in a sweated trade. This kind of marriage, +therefore, like all other sweated trades tends to lower the general +market value of women's work. This is casting no reflection upon the +hundreds of thousands of husbands who do their part fairly, who share +and share alike whatever they have or earn with their wives. How many +a workingman regularly hands over to his wife for the support of the +home the whole of his earnings with perhaps the barest deduction, +a dollar or two, or sometimes only a few cents, for small personal +expenditures. Many wives enjoy complete power over the family purse. +Or the married pair decide together as to how much they can afford to +spend on rent and food and clothing, and when sickness or want of work +face them, they meet the difficulty together. The decisions made, it +is the wife who has the whole responsibility for the actual spending. + +But though so often a man does fulfill in spirit as in letter his +promise to support, as well as to love and honor the girl he has +married, there is very little in the laws of any country to compel +him. And because the man can slip the collar more easily than the +woman can, the woman's position is rendered still more uncertain. +If she were an ordinary wage-worker, we should say of her that her +occupation was an unstandardized one, and that individually she was +too dependent upon the personal goodwill of another. Therefore, +like all other unstandardized callings, marriage, considered as an +occupation, tends to lower the general market value of woman's work. +Conversely, Cicely Hamilton in "Marriage as a Trade," points out that +the improvements in the economic position of the married woman, which +have come about in recent years, are partly at least due to the +successful efforts of single women to make themselves independent and +self-supporting. + +But during the process of transition, and while single women are +forging farther and farther ahead, many a married woman is finding +herself between the upper and the nether millstone. And unfortunately +precisely in the degree that the paid domestic worker is able to make +better arrangements in return for her services, whether as resident or +as visiting employé, many housemothers are likely for a time to find +conditions press yet more severely upon themselves. They will soon +have no one left upon whom they can shift their own burdens of +overwork, as they have so frequently done in the past. Sooner or later +they will be driven to take counsel with their fellows, and will then +assuredly plan some method of organizing housewives for mutual help +and coöperation, and for securing from society some fairer recognition +of the true value of the contribution of the domestic woman to the +wealth of the community. + +It is not strange that she with whom industry had its rise and upon +whom all society rests should be the last to benefit by the forces +of reorganization which are spiritually regenerating the race and +elevating it to a level never before reached. The very function of +sex, whose exercise enters into her relation with her husband, has +complicated what could otherwise have been a simple partnership. The +helplessness of her children and their utter dependence upon her, +which should have furnished her with an additional claim for +consideration, have only tied her more closely and have prevented her +from obtaining that meed of justice from society which a less valuable +servant had long ago won. But in the sistership of womanhood, now +for the first time admitted and hopefully accepted, fortunate and +unfortunate clasp hands, and go forward to aid in making that future +the whole world awaits today. + + + + +XII + +THE WORKING WOMAN AND THE VOTE + + +Olive Schreiner, in "Woman and Labor," lays it down as almost +axiomatic that "the women of no race or class will ever rise in revolt +or attempt to bring about a revolutionary readjustment of their +relation to society, however intense their suffering, and however +clear their perception of it, while the welfare and persistence of +society requires their submission; that whenever there is a general +attempt on the part of the women of any society to readjust their +position in it, a close analysis will always show that the changed +or changing conditions of society have made women's acquiescence no +longer necessary or desirable." + +If this be so, it can only be accepted as the application to women of +a statement which could be made equally of all the down-trodden races +and classes of humanity. The one reason that makes me hesitate about +accepting it as a complete explanation of the age-long submission +of the oppressed is that we are all rather too ready to accept an +explanation that explains away (shall I say?) or at least justifies +the suffering of others. The explanation fits so well. Does it not +fit too well? Probably Olive Schreiner did not intend it to cover the +whole ground. + +In one detail, in any case, I take exception to it. An oppressed class +or race or sex may often suffer intensely and go on suffering and +submitting, but not _after_ they have gained a clear perception of the +intensity of those sufferings, for then the first stage of rebellion +has already begun. Not one of us who has grown to middle age but can +remember, looking back to her own girlhood, how meekly and as a matter +of course women of all classes accepted every sort of suffering as +part of the lot of woman, especially of the married woman, whether it +was excessive child-bearing, pain in childbirth, physical overwork, +or the mental suffering arising out of a penniless and dependent +condition, with the consequent absolute right of the husband to the +custody and control of the children of the union. And in all nations +and classes where this state of affairs still continues, the women +have as yet no clear intellectual perception of the keenness and +unfairness of their suffering. They still try to console themselves +with believing and allowing others to suppose that after all, things +are not so bad; they might be worse. These poor women actually +hypnotize themselves into such a belief. + +Have you not heard a mother urge a daughter or a friend to submit +uncomplainingly to the most outrageous domestic tyranny, for is not +hers after all the common fate of woman? + +No clear perception there! + +This argument in no way touches the exceptional woman or man, +belonging to an oppressed class. Such a woman, for instance, as the +Kaffir woman spoken of by Olive Schreiner in this passage, is the rare +exception. + +But so far Olive Schreiner is undoubtedly right. When the revolt at +length takes place it is in answer to an immediate and pressing need +of the whole community. When the restrictions upon a class have become +hurtful to the whole, when their removal is called for because society +is in need of the energies thus set free, then takes place a more or +less general uprising of the oppressed and restricted ones, apparently +entirely spontaneous and voluntary, in reality having its origin +partly at least in the claim which society is making upon the hitherto +restricted class to take up fuller social responsibilities. + +When observing then the modern change of attitude among women, towards +life, we can therefore only conclude that such an immediate and +pressing need is felt by society today, a claim neither to be ignored +nor denied. + +On this reasoning, then, and observing the eager demand of women +everywhere for increased freedom and independence, we can only draw +the conclusion that the whole world is dimly recognizing an immediate +and pressing need for the higher services of women, services which +they cannot render unless freed legally, politically and sexually. It +is this immense and universal social claim which has been responded +to by the whole organized movement among women, industrial as well as +educational and political. + +In order to understand the relation of the organized suffrage +movement to the question of improving women's industrial and economic +conditions and status, we have to consider the changed conditions of +society under which we live, and we will have to recognize that the +demand for the vote in different countries and at different times may +or may not coincide with the same social content. Psychologically, +indeed, as well as practically, the vote connotes all sorts of +different implications to the women of today, contemporaries though +they are. + +It was with an appreciation of these complexities that Professor W.I. +Thomas has pointed out that in his opinion suffragists often place too +great stress upon primitive woman's political power, and ignore +the fact that women held an even more important relation to the +occupational than to the political life of those early days, and that +in her occupational value is to be traced the true source of her power +and therefore her real influence in any age. + +While agreeing with Professor Thomas that some suffrage arguments do +on the surface appear inconsistent with historical facts, I believe +the inconsistency to be more formal than real. + +As the centuries pass a larger and still larger proportion of human +affairs passes away from individual management and comes under social +and community control. As this process goes on, more and more does the +individual, whether man or woman, need the power to control socially +the conditions that affect his or her individual welfare. In our day +political power rightly used, gives a socialized control of social +conditions, and for the individual it is embodied in and is expressed +by the vote. + +To go back only one hundred years. The great bulk of men and women +were industrially much more nearly on a level than they are today. +A poor level, I grant you, for with the exception of the privileged +classes, few and small were the political powers and therefore the +social control of even men. But every extension of political power +as granted to class after class of men has, as far as women are +concerned, had the fatal effect of increasing the political inequality +between men and women, thus placing women, though not apparently, yet +relatively and actually upon a lower level. + +Again, the status of woman has been crushingly affected by the +contemporaneous and parallel change which has passed over her special +occupations; so that the conditions under which she works today are +decidedly less than ever before by purely personal relationships and +more by such impersonal factors as the trade supply of labor, and +interstate and international competition. This change has affected +woman in an immeasurably greater degree than man. The conditions +of industrial life are in our day in some degree controllable by +political power so that at this point woman again finds herself +civilly and industrially at greater disadvantage than when her status +in all these respects depended principally upon her individual +capacity to handle efficiently problems arising within an area limited +by purely personal relationships. To alter so radically the conditions +of daily life and industry, and not merely to leave its control in the +hands of the old body of voters, but to give over into the hands of an +enlarged and fresh body of voters, and these voters inevitably the men +of her own class who are her industrial competitors, that degree of +control represented by the vote and to refuse it to women is to place +women (though not apparently, yet actually and relatively) upon a +distinctly lowered level. + +So that what suffragists are asking for is in reality not so much +a novel power, as it is liberty to possess and use the same new +instrument of social control as has been already accorded to men. +Without that instrument it is no mere case of her standing still. She +is in very truth retrogressing, as far as effective control over the +conditions under which she lives her life, whether inside the home or +outside of it. In this instinctive desire not to lose ground, to keep +up both with altered social claims of society upon women and with the +improved political equipment of their brothers, is to be found the +economic crux of women's demand for the vote in every country and in +every succeeding decade. + +In the course of human development, the gradual process of the +readjustment of human beings to changed social and economic conditions +is marked at intervals by crises wherein the struggle always going on +beneath the surface between the new forces and existing conditions +wells up to the surface and takes on the nature of a duel between +contending champions. If this is true of one class or of one people, +how much more is it true when the change is one that affects an entire +sex. + +There have been occasions in history and there occur still today +instances when economic conditions being such that their labor was +urgently needed and therefore desired, it was easy for newcomers to +enter a fresh field of industry, and give to a whole class or even +to a whole sex in one locality an additional occupation. Such very +evidently was the case with the first girls who went into the New +England cotton mills. Men's occupations at that time in America lay +for the most part out of doors, and there was therefore no sense of +rivalry experienced, when the girls who used to spin at home began to +spin on a large scale and in great numbers in a factory. + +It is far different where women have been forced by the economic +forces driving them from behind to make their slow and painful way +into a trade already in the possession of men. Of course the wise +thing for the men to do in such a case is to bow to the logic of +events, and through their own advantageous position as first in the +field and through whatever organizations they may possess use all +their power to place their new women rivals on an equal footing +with themselves and so make it impossible for the women to become a +weakening and disintegrating force in the trade. The women being thus +more or less protected by the men from the exploitation of their own +weakness it is then for them to accept the position, as far as they +are able, stand loyally by the men, meet factory conditions as they +find them, being the latest comers, and proceed afterwards to bring +about such modifications and improvements as may seem to them +desirable. + +Unfortunately this in a general way may stand for a description +of everything that has not taken place. The bitter and often true +complaints made by workmen that women have stolen their trade, that +having learnt it, well or ill, they are scabs all the time in their +acceptance of lower wages and worse conditions, relatively much worse +conditions, and that they are often strike-breakers when difficulties +arise, form a sad commentary upon the men's own short-sighted conduct. +To women, driven by need to earn their living in unaccustomed ways, +men have all too often opened no front gate through which they could +make an honest daylight entrance into a trade, but have left only +side-alleys and back-doors through which the guiltless intruders could +slip in. Organized labor today, however, is on record as standing for +the broader policy, however apathetic the individual unions and the +individual trade unionists may often be. + +A dramatic presentation of one of these very complicated situations +is found in the experience of Miss Susan B. Anthony in the printers' +strike in New York in 1869. By some this incident has been interpreted +to show a wide difference of outlook between those women who were +chiefly intent on opening up fresh occupational possibilities for +women, and those who, coming daily face to face with the general +industrial difficulties of women already in the trades, recognized the +urgent need of trade organization for women if the whole standard +of the trades wherein they were already employed was not to be +permanently lowered. + +While there is no such general inference to be drawn, the occurrence +does place in a very strong light the extreme complexity of the +question and the need that then existed, the need that still exists +for closer coöperation between workers approaching the problem of the +independence of the wage-earning woman from different sides. + +The files of the _Revolution_, which Miss Anthony, in conjunction with +Mrs. Stanton and Mr. Parker Pillsbury, published from 1868 to 1870, +are full of the industrial question. Though primarily the paper stood +for the suffrage movement, the editors were on the best of terms with +labor organizations and they were constantly urging working-women to +organize and coöperate with men trade unionists, and in especial to +maintain constantly their claim to equal pay for equal work. + +But just about the time of our story, in the beginning of 1869, Miss +Anthony seems to have been especially impressed with the need of +trade-schools for girls, that they might indeed be qualified to +deserve equal pay, to earn it honestly if they were to ask for it; for +we find her saying: + +"The one great need of the hour is to qualify women workers to _really +earn_ equal wages with men. We must have _training-schools for women_ +in all the industrial avocations. Who will help the women will help +ways and means to establish them." + +Just then a printers' strike occurred and Miss Anthony thought she saw +in the need of labor on the part of the employers an opportunity to +get the employers to start training-schools to teach the printing +trade to girls, in her enthusiasm for this end entirely oblivious of +the fact that it was an unfortunate time to choose for making such a +beginning. She attended an employers' meeting held at the Astor House +and laid her proposal before them. + +The printers felt that they were being betrayed, and by one, too, whom +they had always considered their friend. On behalf of organized labor +Mr. John J. Vincent, secretary of the National Labor Union, made +public protest. + +Miss Anthony's reply to Mr. Vincent, under date February 3, 1869, +published in the New York _Sun_, and reprinted in the _Revolution_, is +very touching, showing clearly enough that in her eagerness to supply +the needed thorough trade-training for young girls, she had for the +moment forgotten what was likely to be the outcome for the girls +themselves of training, however good, obtained in such a fashion. +She had also forgotten how essential it was that she should work in +harmony with the men's organizations as long as they were willing to +work with her. Though not saying so in so many words, the letter is a +shocked avowal that, acting impulsively, she had not comprehended the +drift of her action, and it amounts to a withdrawal from her first +position. She writes: + + Sir: You fail to see my motive in appealing to the Astor House + meeting of employers, for aid to establish a training school for + girls. It was to open the way for a thorough drill to the hundreds + of poor girls, to fit them to earn equal wages with men everywhere + and not to undermine "Typographical No. 6." I did not mean to + convey the impression that "women, already good compositors should + work for a cent less per thousand ems than men," and I rejoice + most heartily that Typographical Union No. 6 stands so nobly by + the Women's Typographical Union No. 1 and demands the admission of + women to all offices under its control, and I rejoice also + that the Women's Union No. 1 stands so nobly and generously by + Typographical Union No. 6 in refusing most advantageous offers to + defeat its demands. + + My advice to all the women compositors of the city, is now, as it + has ever been since last autumn, to join the women's union, for in + union alone there is strength, in union alone there is protection. + + Every one should scorn to allow herself to be made a tool to + undermine the just prices of men workers; and to avoid this union + is necessary. Hence I say, girls, stand by each other, and by the + men, when they stand by you. + +With this the incident seems to have closed, for nothing more is heard +of the employers' training-school.[A] + +[Footnote A: This illustrates well the cruel alternative perpetually +placed before the working-woman and the working-woman's friends. She +is afforded little opportunity to learn a trade thoroughly, and yet, +if she does not stand by her fellow men workers, she is false to +working class loyalty. + +That the women printers of New York were between the devil and the +deep sea is evidenced by the whole story told in Chapter XXI of "New +York Typographical Union No. 6," by George Stevens. In that is related +how about this time was formed a women printers' union, styled +"Women's Typographical No. 1," through the exertions of a number of +women compositors with Augusta Lewis at their head. Miss Lewis voiced +the enthusiastic thanks of the women when, a few months later, the +union received its charter from the International Typographical Union +at its next convention in June, 1869. A different, and a sadder note +runs through Miss Lewis's report to the convention in Baltimore in +1871, in describing the difficulties the women labored under. + +"A year ago last January, Typographical Union No. 6 passed a +resolution admitting union girls in offices under the control of No. +6. Since that time we have never obtained a situation that we could +not have obtained if we had never heard of a union. We refuse to take +the men's situations when they are on strike, and when there is no +strike, if we ask for work in union offices we are told by union +foremen 'that there are no conveniences for us.' We are ostracized +in many offices because we are members of the union; and though the +principle is right, the disadvantages are so many that we cannot +much longer hold together.... No. 1 is indebted to No. 6 for great +assistance, but as long as we are refused work because of sex we +are at the mercy of our employers, and I can see no way out of our +difficulties." + +In 1878 the International enacted a law that no further charter be +granted to women's unions, although it was not supposed to take effect +against any already in existence. Women's Typographical No. 1, already +on the downward grade, on this dissolved. But not till 1883 did the +women printers in New York begin to join the men's union, and there +have been a few women members in it ever since. But how few in +proportion may be judged from the figures on September 30, 1911. Total +membership 6,969, of whom 192 were women. I believe this to be typical +of the position of the woman compositor in other cities.] + +I have given large space to this incident, because it is the only one +of the kind I have come across in Miss Anthony's long career. Page +after page of the _Revolution_ is full of long reports of workingmen's +conventions which she or Mrs. Stanton attended.[A] At these they were +either received as delegates or heard as speakers, advocating the +cause of labor and showing how closely the success of that cause was +bound up with juster treatment towards the working-woman. Many indeed +must have been the labor men, who gained a broader outlook upon their +own problems and difficulties through listening to such unwearied +champions of their all but voiceless sex. + +[Footnote A: Mrs. Stanton's first speech before the New York +legislature, made in 1854, was a demand that married working-women +should have the right to collect their own wages. She and the workers +with her succeeded in having the law amended. Up till then a married +woman might wash all day at the washtub, and at night the law required +that her employer should, upon demand, hand over her hard-earned money +to her husband, however dissolute he might be.] + +To the more conservative among the workingmen the uncompromising views +of these women's advocates must have been very upsetting sometimes, +and always very unconventional. We find that in a workingmen's +assembly in Albany, New York, when one radical delegate moved to +insert the words "and working-women" into the first article of the +Constitution, he felt bound to explain to his fellow-delegates that it +was not his intention to offer anything that would reflect discredit +upon the body. He simply wanted the females to have the benefit +of their trades and he thought by denying them this right a great +injustice was done to them. The speaker who followed opposed the +discussion of the question. "Let the women organize for themselves." +The radicals, however, rose to the occasion. + +Mr. Graham in a long speech said it was a shame and a disgrace for +this body, pretending to ask the elevation of labor to neglect or +refuse to help this large, deserving, but down-trodden class. + +Mr. Topp said he would be ashamed to go home and say he had attended +this assembly if it overlooked the claims of the female organizations. + +The resolution to include the women was carried with applause. + +At the National Labor Congress held in Germania Hall, New York, the +_Revolution_ of October 1, 1868, had noted the admission of four women +delegates as marking a new era in workingmen's conventions. These +were: Katherine Mullaney, president of the Collar Laundry Union of +Troy, N.Y.; Mrs. Mary Kellogg Putnam, representing Working Women's +Association No. 2 of New York City; Miss Anthony herself, delegate +from Working Women's Association No. 1, New York City; and Mary A. +Macdonald, from the Working Women's Protective Labor Union, Mount +Vernon, New York. + +Mrs. Stanton, after a long and exciting debate, was declared a +delegate, but the next day, to please the malcontents, the National +Labor Congress made clear by resolution that it did not regard itself +as endorsing her peculiar ideas or committing itself to the question +of female suffrage, but simply regarded her as a representative +from an organization having for its object "the amelioration of the +condition of those who labor for a living." "Worthy of Talleyrand" is +Miss Anthony's sole comment. + +The connection between the woman movement and the labor movement is +indeed close and fundamental, but that must not be taken to imply that +the workingman and the woman of whatever class have not their own +separate problems to handle and to solve as each sees best. The +marriage relation between two individuals has often been wrecked by +assuming as the basis of their common life that man and wife are one +and that the husband is that one. And so the parallel assumption that +all the working-woman's wrongs will naturally be righted by redress if +their righting is left in the hands of her working brother for many +years led to a very curious and unfortunate neglect of suffrage +propaganda among working-women, and on the part of working-women and +to a no less unfortunate ignorance of industrial problems, also, on +the part of many suffragists, whether those affecting workingmen and +women alike or the women only. + +It was not so in the early days. The instances given above show how +close and friendly were the relations between labor leaders and +suffrage pioneers. What has been said of Miss Anthony applied equally +to the other great women who carried the suffrage banner amid +opprobrium and difficulty. + +The change came that comes so often in the development of a great +movement. One of the main objects which the pioneers had had in view +somehow slipped out of the sight of their successors. The earliest +move of the advanced women of America had been for equal rights of +education, and there success has been greatest and most complete and +thorough. But it was almost exclusively the women who were able to +enter the professions who gained the benefits of this campaign for +equal educational and consequently equal professional opportunities. + +The next aim of the leaders in the woman movement of the last century +had been to accord to woman equality before the law. This affecting +primarily and chiefly woman in her sex relations, had its permanent +results in reference to the legal status of the married woman and +the mother, bearing at the same time secondarily upon the safety and +welfare of the child; hence in the different states a long series of +married women's property acts, equal guardianship acts, modifications +of the gross inequalities of the divorce law, and the steady raising +of the age of protection for girls. + +At least that was the position ten years ago. But today the tide has +turned. Partly is this due to the growth of industrial organization +among women, a development that has followed the ever-increasing +need of mutual protection. Trade unionism has helped to train the +working-woman to listen to the suffrage gospel, though therein she has +often been slower than the workingman, her better educated brother. On +the other hand a great many influences have combined to wake up the +suffragist of our day to the true meaning and value of what she was +asking. Especially has the work of the National Women's Trade Union +League and the campaign of publicity it has conducted on behalf of +the working-woman, both within and without its membership, focused +attention upon the woman in industry as a national responsibility. +Then again the tremendous strikes in which such large numbers of women +and girls have been involved were an education to others than the +strikers--to none more than to the suffrage workers who coöperated +with the ill-used girl strikers in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and +Chicago. + +An influence of even more universal appeal, if of less personal +intensity, has been the suffrage movement in Great Britain. That +movement has educated the public of this country, as they never would +have been educated by any movement confined to this country alone. +Inside the ranks of enrolled suffragists it has been an inspiration, +showering upon their cause a new baptism of mingled tears and +rejoicing. In calmer mood we have learned from our British sisters +much regarding policies adapted to modern situations, and they +have assuredly shown us all sorts of new and original methods of +organization and education. The immense and nation-wide publicity +given by the press of the United States to the more striking and +sensational aspects of the British movement and all the subsequent +talk and writing in other quarters has roused to sex-consciousness +thousands of American women of all classes who had not been previously +interested in the movement for obtaining full citizenship for +themselves and their daughters. These women also aroused, and men, +too, have furnished the huge audiences which have everywhere greeted +such speakers as Mrs. Pankhurst and Mrs. Philip Snowden, when in +person they have presented the mighty story of the transatlantic +struggle. There is no difficulty nowadays in gathering suffrage +audiences anywhere, for the man and the woman walking along the street +supply them to the open-air speaker in the large city and the little +country town as one by one city and town take up the new methods. + +Even more close to lasting work for all the issues that affect the +community through placing upon women an ordered civic responsibility +are the plans for the organizing under different names of woman +suffrage parties and civic leagues which blend the handling of local +activities everywhere with a demand for the ballot in keeping with the +needs of the modern community. No clear-eyed woman can work long in +this sort of atmosphere without realizing how unequally social burdens +press, how unequally social advantages are allotted, whether the +burdens come through hours of work, inadequate remuneration, sanitary +conditions, whether in home or in factory, and whether the advantages +are obtainable through public education, vocational training, medical +care, or in the large field of recreation. + +So important does work through organization, appear to me that, +remembering always that tendencies are more important than conditions, +it would seem in some respects a more wholesome and hopeful situation +for women to be organized and working for one of their common aims, +even though that aim be for the time being merely winning of the vote, +rather than to have the vote, and with it working merely as isolated +individuals, and with neither the power that organization insures nor +the training that it affords. + +But with what we know nowadays there should be no need for any such +unsatisfactory alternative. It would be much more in keeping with the +modern situation if the object of suffrage organizations were to read, +not "to obtain the vote" but "to obtain political, legal and social +equality for women." + +Then as each state, or as the whole country (we hope by and by) +obtains the ballot, so might the organizations go on in a sense as if +nothing had happened. And nothing would have happened, save that a +great body of organized women would be more effective than ever. The +members would individually be equipped with the most modern instrument +of economic and social expression. The organizations themselves would +have risen in public importance and esteem and therefore in influence. +Moreover, and this is the most important point of all, they would be +enrolled among those bodies, whose declared policy would naturally +help in guiding the great bulk of new and untrained feminine voters. + +In the early days of the woman movement, the leaders, I believe, +desired as earnestly and as keenly saw the need for legal and social +or economic equality as we today with all these years of experience +behind us. But the unconscious assumption was all the time that given +political equality every other sort of equality would readily and +logically follow. Even John Stuart Mill seems to have taken this +much for granted. Not indeed that he thought that with universal +enfranchisement the millennium would arrive for either men or women. +But even to his clear brain and in his loyal and chivalrous heart, +political freedom for women did appear as one completed stage in +development, an all-inclusive boon, as it were, in due time bringing +along by irrefragable inference equality on every other plane, +equality before the law and equality in all social and sexual +relations. + +Looking back now, we can see that whatever thinkers and statesmen +fifty years ago may have argued for as best meeting the immediate +needs of the hour, the organized suffrage movement in all the most +advanced countries should long ago have broadened their platform, +and explicitly set before their own members and the public as their +objective not merely "the vote," but "the political, legal and social +equality of women." + +We are not abler, not any broader-minded nor more intellectually +daring than those pioneers, but we have what they had not, the test of +results. Let us briefly glance at what has been the course of events +in those states and countries which were the earliest to obtain +political freedom for their women. + +In none of the four suffrage states first enfranchised in this +country, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho and Colorado, in Australia or in New +Zealand, did any large proportion of women ask for or desire their +political freedom. In that there is nothing strange or exceptional. +Those who see the need of any reform so clearly that they will work +for it make up comparatively a small proportion of any nation or of +any class. Women are no exception. Note Australia. As the suffrage +societies there, as elsewhere, had been organized for this one +purpose, "to obtain the vote," with the obtaining of the vote all +reason for their continued existence ceased. The organizations at once +and inevitably went to pieces. The vote, gained by the efforts of the +few, was now in the hands of great masses of women, who had given +little thought to the matter previously, who were absolutely unaware +of the tremendous power of the new instrument placed in their hands. A +whole sex burst into citizenship, leaderless and with no common policy +upon the essential needs of their sex. + +Except in Victoria, where the state franchise lagged behind till 1909, +the women of Australia have been enfranchised for over twelve years, +and yet it is only recently that they are beginning to get together as +sister women. Those leaders who all along believed in continuous and +organized work by women for the complete freeing of the sex from all +artificial shackles and unequal burdens are now justified of their +belief. New young leaders are beginning to arise, and there are signs +that the rank and file are beginning to march under these leaders +towards far-off ends that are gradually being defined more clearly +from the mists of these years. But they have much ground to make up. +Only so lately as 1910 there were leading women in one of the +large labor conferences who protested against women entering the +legislature, using against that very simple and normal step in advance +the very same moss-grown arguments as we hear used in this country +against the conferring of the franchise itself. + +Nowadays, it is true, no quite similar result is likely to happen in +any state or country which from now on receives enfranchisement, for +the reason that there are now other organizations, such as the General +Federation of Women's Clubs here, and the active women's trade unions, +and suffrage societies on a broad basis and these are every day coming +in closer touch with one another and with the organized suffrage +movement. But neither women's trade unions nor women's clubs can +afford to neglect any means of strengthening their forces, and a sort +of universal association having some simple broad aim such as I +have tried to outline would be an ally which would bring them into +communication with women outside the ranks of any of the great +organizations, for it alone would be elastic enough to include all +women, as its appeal would necessarily be made to all women. + +The universal reasons for equipping women with the vote as with a tool +adapted to her present day needs, and the claims made upon her by the +modern community, the reasons, in short why women want and are asking +for the vote, the universal reasons why men, even good men, cannot be +trusted to take care of women's interests, were never better or more +tersely summed up than in a story told by Philip Snowden in the debate +in the British House of Commons on the Woman Suffrage Bill of 1910, +known as the Conciliation Bill. He said that after listening to the +objections urged by the opponents of the measure, he was reminded of a +man who, traveling with his wife in very rough country, came late at +night to a very poor house of accommodation. When the meal was served +there was nothing on the table but one small mutton chop. "What," said +the man in a shocked tone, "have you nothing at all for my wife?" + + + + +XIII + +TRADE UNION IDEALS AND POLICIES + + +Trade unionism does not embrace the whole of industrial democracy, +even for organized labor and even were the whole of labor organized, +as we hope one of these days it will be, but it does form one of the +elements in any form of industrial democracy as well as affording one +of the pathways thither. + +The most advanced trade unionists are those men and women who +recognize the limitations of industrial organization, but who value +it for its flexibility, for the ease with which it can be transformed +into a training-school, a workers' university, while all the while +it is providing a fortified stronghold from behind whose shelter +the industrial struggle can be successfully carried on, and carried +forward into other fields. + +If we believe, as all, even non-socialists, must to some extent admit, +that economic environment is one of the elemental forces moulding +character and deciding conduct, then surely the coming together of +those who earn their bread in the same occupation is one of the most +natural methods of grouping that human beings can adopt. + +There are still in the movement in all countries those of such a +conservative type that they look to trade organization as we know +it today as practically the sole factor in solving the industrial +problem. + +In order to fulfill its important functions of protecting the workers, +giving to them adequate control over their working conditions, and +the power of bargaining for the disposal of their labor power +through recognized representatives, trade-union organization must be +world-wide. Organizations of capital are so, or are becoming so, and +in order that the workers may bargain upon an equal footing, they must +be in an equally strong position. Now is the first time in the history +of the world that such a plan could be even dreamt of. Rapid means of +communication and easy methods of transport have made it possible for +machine-controlled industry to attract workers from all over the world +to particular centers, and in especial to the United States, and this +has taken place without any regard as to where there was the best +opening for workers of different occupations or as to what might +be the effects upon the standards of living of the workers of +artificially fostered migrations, and haphazard distribution of the +newcomers. + +It is sadly true of the labor movement, as of all other movements +for social advance, that it lags behind the movements organized for +material success and private profit. It lags behind because it lacks +money, money which would keep more trained workers in the field, which +would procure needed information, which would prevent that bitterest +of defeats, losing a strike because the strikers could no longer hold +out against starvation. The labor movement lacks money, partly because +money is so scarce among the workers; they have no surplus from which +to build up the treasury as capital does so readily, and partly +because so many of them do not as yet understand that alone they are +lost, in organization they have strength. While they need the labor +movement, just as much does the labor movement need them. + +More and more, however, are the workers acknowledging their own +weakness, at the same time that they remember their own strength. As +they do so, more and more will they adopt capital's own magnificent +methods of organization to overcome capital's despotism, and be able +to stand out on a footing of equality, as man before man. + +One tendency, long too much in evidence in the labor movement +generally, and one which has still to be guarded against, is to take +overmuch satisfaction in the unionizing of certain skilled trades or +sections of trades, and to neglect the vast bulk of those already +handicapped by want of special skill or training, by sex or by race. +I have heard discussions among labor men which illustrate this. The +platform of the Federation of Labor is explicit, speaking out on this +point in no doubtful tone, but there are plenty of labor men, and +labor women who make their own particular exceptions to a rule that +should know of none. + +I have heard men in the well-paid, highly skilled, splendidly +organized trades speak even contemptuously of the prospect of +organizing the nomad laborers of the land, recognizing no moral claim +laid upon themselves by the very advantages enjoyed by themselves in +their own trade, advantages in which they took so much pride. That is +discouraging enough, but more discouraging still was it to gather one +day from the speech of one who urged convincingly that while both +for self-defense and for righteousness' sake, the skilled organized +workers must take up and make their own the cause of the unskilled and +exploited wanderers, that he too drew his line, and that he drew it at +the organization of the Chinese.[A] + +[Footnote A: I am not here discussing the unrestricted admission +of Orientals under present economic conditions. I merely use the +illustration to press the point, that organized labor should include +in its ranks all workers already in the United States. A number of the +miners in British Columbia are advocates of the organization of the +Chinese miners in that province.] + +Others again, while they do not openly assert that they disapprove of +the bringing of women into the trade unions, not only give no active +assistance towards that end, but in their blindness even advocate the +exclusion of women from the trades, and especially from their own +particular trade. The arguments which they put forward are mostly of +these types: "Girls oughtn't to be in our trade, it isn't fit for +girls"; or, "Married women oughtn't to work"; or, "Women folks should +stay at home," and if the speaker is a humane and kindly disposed man, +he will add, "and that's where they'll all be one of these days, +when we've got things straightened out again." As instances of this +attitude on the part of trade-union men who ought to know better, and +its results, the pressmen in the printing shops of our great cities +are well organized, and the girls who feed the presses, and stand +beside the men and work with them, are mostly outside the protection +of the union. Some of the glass-blowers are seriously arguing against +the suggestion of organizing the girls who are coming into the trade +in numbers. "Organization won't settle it. That's no sort of a +solution," say the men; "they're nice girls and would be much better +off in some other trade." Just as if girls went into hard and trying +occupations from mere contrariness! It is too late in the day, again, +to shut the door on the women who are going in as core-makers in the +iron industry, but the men in the foundries think they can do it. Men +who act and talk like this have yet much to learn of the true meaning +and purposes of labor organization. + +Wherever, then, we find this spirit of exclusion manifested, whether +actively as in some of the instances I have cited, or passively in +apathetic indifference to the welfare of the down-trodden worker, man +or woman, American or foreign, white or colored, there is no true +spirit of working-class solidarity, only a self-seeking acceptance +of a limited and antiquated form of labor organization, quite out of +keeping with twentieth-century conditions and needs. This does not +make for advance ultimately in any branch of labor, but is one of the +worst retarding influences to the whole movement. In former ages the +principles of democracy could only extend within one class after +another. The democracy of our day is feeling after a larger solution; +the democracy of the future cannot know limits or it will be no +democracy at all. + +It has been pointed out many times that the rich are rich, not so much +in virtue of what they possess, but in virtue of what others do not +possess. The ratio of the difference between the full pocket and many +empty pockets represents the degree in which the one rich man or woman +is able to command the services of many poor men and women. We all +recognize these crude differences and regret the results to society. +But after all is the case so very much bettered when for rich and +poor, we read skilled and unskilled, when we have on the one hand a +trade whose members have attained their high standing through the +benefits of years of training, a strong union, high initiation +fees, perhaps limitation of apprentices? I am neither praising nor +criticizing any methods of trade protection. All of them are probably +highly beneficial to those within the charmed circle of the highly +organized trades. But if, in the very midst of the general state of +industrial anarchy and oppression which the unskilled workers have to +accept, it is possible to find trades in which organization has been +so successful in maintaining good conditions, this is partly because +the number of such artisans, so skilled and so protected, has always +been limited. And let us ask ourselves what are the effects of these +limitations upon those outside the circle, whether those excluded from +the trade or from the organization because of the demands exacted, or +those debarred by poverty or other circumstances from learning any +skilled trade at all. Unquestionably the advantages of the highly +protected ones are not won solely from the employers. Some part of +their industrial wealth is contributed by the despised and ignored +outsiders. Some proportion of their high wages is snatched from +the poor recompense of the unskilled. Women are doubly sufferers, +underpaid both as women and as unskilled workers. It is not necessary +to subscribe to the old discredited wage-fund theory, in order to +agree with this. + +Just here lies the chief danger of the craft form of organization as +a final objective. If the trade-union movement is ever to be wholly +effective and adequate to fulfill its lofty aims, it must cease to +look upon craft organization as a final aim. The present forms of +craft organization are useful, only so long as they are thought of as +a step to something higher, only in so far as the craft is regarded as +a part of the whole. Were this end ever borne in mind, we should hear +less of jurisdictional fights, and there would be more of sincere +endeavor and more of active effort among the better organized workers +to share the benefits of organization with all of the laboring world. +The more helpless and exploited the group, the keener would be the +campaign, the more unsparing the effort on the part of the more +fortunate sons of toil. + +Against such a narrow conservatism, however, there are other forces at +work, both within and without the regularly organized labor movement, +one of them aiming at such reorganization of the present unions as +shall gradually merge the many craft unions into fewer and larger +bodies.[A] This process is evolutionary, and constructive, but slow, +and meanwhile the exploited workers cry in their many tongues, "O +Lord, how long!" or else submit in voiceless despair. + +[Footnote A: The United Mine Workers are essentially on an industrial +basis; they take in all men and boys working in and about the mine.] + +Is it any wonder that under these conditions of industrial anarchy +and imperfect organization of labor power a new voice is heard in the +land, a voice which will not be stilled, revolutionary, imperious, +aiming frankly at the speedy abolition of organized governments, and +of the present industrial system? This is the movement known in Europe +as syndicalism, and on this continent represented by the Industrial +Workers of the World, usually termed the I.W.W. + +Their program stands for the one big union of all the workers, the +general strike and the gaining possession and the conducting of the +industries by the workers engaged in them. They deprecate the making +of agreements with employers, and acknowledge no duty in the keeping +of agreements. + +The year 1911 will be remembered among word-historians as the year +when the word "syndicalism" became an everyday English word. It had +its origin in the French word "syndicalisme," which is French +for trade unionism, just as French and Belgian trade unions are +"syndicats." But because for reasons that cannot be gone into here +so many of the French trade unionists profess this peculiarly +revolutionary philosophy, there has grown up out of and around the +word "syndicalisme" a whole literature with writers like George Sorel +and Gustave Hervé as the prophets and exponents of the new movement. +So the word "syndicalism," thus anglicized, has come to signify this +latest form of trade-union organization and action. + +Although sabotage, interfering with output, clogging machinery, +blocking transportation and so forth have been advocated and practiced +by extreme syndicalists, such do not seem to me to form an essential +and lasting element in syndicalist activity, any more than we find the +wholesale destruction of machinery as carried on by displaced workmen +a hundred years ago, has remained an accepted method of trade-union +action, although such acts may easily form incidents in the progress +of the industrial warfare to which syndicalists are pledged. Neither +at Lawrence, Massachusetts, nor later at Paterson, New Jersey, did the +Industrial Workers of the World, or the large bodies of strikers whom +they led set any of these destructive practices in operation. + +Syndicalism is the latest despairing cry of the industrially +vanquished and down-trodden, and is not to be suppressed by force of +argument, whether the argument comes from the side of the employer or +the fellow-workman. Only with the removal of the causes can we expect +this philosophy of despair to vanish, for it is the courage of despair +that we witness in its converts. The spirit they display lies outside +the field of blame from those who have never known what it means to +lose wife and children in the slow starvation of the strike or husband +and sons in the death-pit of a mine, and themselves to be cheated +life-long of the joys that ought to fall to the lot of the normal, +happiness-seeking human being, from birth to death. + +The syndicalists will have done their work if they rouse the rest of +us to a keener sense of our responsibilities. When the day comes that +every worker receives the full product of his toil, the reasons for +existence of this form of revolutionary activity will have passed +away. + +Of one thing the present writer is convinced. That this newest form of +the industrial struggle, however crude it may appear, however blind +and futile in some of its manifestations, is destined to affect +profoundly the course of the more orthodox trade-union movement. The +daring assumptions that labor is the supreme force, that loyalty to +the working world is the supreme virtue, and failure in that loyalty +the one unpardonable sin, has stirred to the very depths organized +labor of the conservative type, has roused to self-questioning many +and many a self-satisfied orthodox trade unionist, inspiring him with +loftier and more exacting ideals. He has been thrilled, as he had +never been thrilled before with a realization of the dire need of the +submerged and unorganized millions, and of the claims that they have +upon him. Verily, in the face of such revelations, satisfaction in the +fine organization of his own particular trade receives a check. The +good of his own union as his highest aim sinks into insignificance, +though regarding it as a means to an end, he may well go back to his +workshop and his union card, intending to do for his fellow-craftsmen +in his shop and in his trade more than ever before. + +The very activities of the I.W.W. during the last two or three years, +side by side with the representatives of the American Federation of +Labor on the same strike fields, and often carrying out opposition +tactics, have for the first time in their lives given many furiously +to think out policies and plans of campaign. From such shocks and +stimuli are born thinkers and original tacticians, especially among +the younger men and women. + +Wherever syndicalists have actively taken part in labor struggles, +there has been the bitterest antagonism between them and the regular +labor bodies. The latter ever bear in mind the risks of a divided +front, and they have just reason to dread the "dual" organization +as the most completely disruptive influence that can weaken labor's +forces, and play into the employers' hands. Of this experience there +have been too many instances in the United States. + +Syndicalists condemn agreements as a device of the enemy. It is true +that agreements may be so managed as to prove a very weak reed for the +workers to depend on in time of trouble. We have had many instances +within the last few years of the disintegrating effect on the labor +movement of agreements made between the employers and sections of +their employés, which while protecting these particular sections leave +other employés of the same firms out in the cold, either because the +latter have no agreement at all, or because it is worded differently, +or, most common defect of all, because it terminates upon a different +date, three months, say, or a year later. It was on this rock that the +printing pressmen struck during the huge newspaper fight in Chicago +which lasted the whole summer of 1912, ending in a defeat costly to +the conqueror, as well as to the conquered and whose echoes are +still to be heard in discussions between representatives of the +organizations and the sub-organizations involved. Though the fight was +lost by the pressmen, the dispute between the unions involved is not +settled yet, and the two principles at stake, loyalty to the interest +of their fellow-workers and the duty of keeping a pledge made to +employers, are as far as ever from being reconciled. The solution +ahead is surely the strengthening of organizations so that failing +a common agreement one branch or one craft will be in a position to +refuse to sign one of these non-concurrent agreements, or any sort of +agreement, which will leave other workers at a palpable disadvantage. + +The demand for the speedy taking over of the direct control of +industries by the workers appears to me to ignore alike human +limitations and what we know of the evolution of society. But great +hope is to be placed in the coöperative movement, with the gradual +establishment of factories and stores by organizations of the workers +themselves. + +The condemnation of political activity, too, is, as I see it, out +of line with the tendencies of social evolution, which demands +organization and specialized skill in managing the affairs of the +largest community as of the smallest factory. + +The strength and value of syndicalism is rather in criticism than in +constructive results. In almost every paragraph in the platform we +can detect a criticism of some weak point in the labor movement, +in political socialism, or in the existing social framework we are +consenting to accept and live under. + +So far in every country where it has risen into notice syndicalism has +been more of a free-lance body than a regular army, and it may be that +that is what syndicalists will remain. Up to the present they have +shown no particular constructive ability. But they may develop great +leaders, and with development work out plans to meet the new problems +that will crowd upon them. Even if they should not, and should pass +away as similar revolutionary groups have passed before, they will +have hastened tremendously the closer knitting together of all groups +of trade unionists. On the one hand they have already stirred up +socialists to a better understanding and more candid admission of +their own shortcomings in the political field, and on the other, they +have already made labor more fearless and aggressive, and therefore +more venturesome in the claims it makes, and more ready and +resourceful in its adaptation of new methods to solve modern +difficulties. + +Before leaving the syndicalists, I would call attention to a change +that is coming over the spirit of some of their leaders, as regards +immediate plans of action. From a recent number of _La Guerre +Sociale_, edited by Gustave Hervé, the _Labour Leader_ (England), +quotes an article attributed to Hervé himself, in which the writer +says: + +"Because it would be a mistake to expect to achieve everything by +means of the ballot-box, it does not follow that we can achieve +nothing thereby." + +Another syndicalist of influence has been advocating the establishment +of training-schools for the workers, in preparation for the day when +they are to take over the industries. Vocational instruction this upon +the great scale! + +Ramsay McDonald, by no means an indulgent critic of syndicalism, does +not believe that Sorel really anticipates the general strike as the +inauguration of the new order, but as a myth, which will lead the +people on to the fulfillment of the ideal that lies beyond and on the +other side of all anticipated revolutionary action. + +It is time now to consider the tendencies towards growth and +adaptation to modern needs that have been, and are at work, within +the American Federation of Labor, and among those large outside +organizations on the outer edge of the Federation, as it were, such as +the brotherhoods of railroad trainmen. These tendencies, are, speaking +generally, towards such reorganization as will convert many small +unions into fewer, larger, and therefore stronger bodies, and towards +the long-delayed but inevitable organization of the workers on the +political field. Such reorganization is not always smooth sailing, but +the process is an education in itself. + +The combination or the federation of existing organizations is but +the natural response of the workers to the ever-growing complexity of +modern industrial life. Ever closer organization on the part of +the employers, the welding together of twenty businesses into one +corporation, of five corporations into one trust, of all the trusts in +the country into one combine, have to be balanced by correspondingly +complete organization on the part of the workers. There is this +difference of structure, however, between the organization of +employers and that of the employed. The first is comparatively simple, +and is ever making for greater simplicity. Without going into the +disputed question of how far the concentration of business can be +carried, and of whether or not the small business man is to be finally +pushed out of existence, it is beyond question that every huge +business, for example, each one of our gigantic department stores, +includes and represents an army of small concerns, which it has +replaced, which have either been bought up or driven to the wall. In +either case the same amount of trade, which it once took hundreds of +separate small shopkeepers to handle, is now handled by the one firm, +under the one management. Such welding together makes for the economy +in running expenses which is its first aim. But it also makes for +simplicity in organization. It is evidently far easier for the heads +of a few immense businesses to come together than it was for the +proprietors of the vast agglomeration of tiny factories, stores +and offices which once covered the same trade area, or to be quite +accurate, a much smaller trade area, to do so. + +But if, at the one end of the modern process of production and +distribution, we find this tendency towards a magnificent simplicity, +at the other, the workers' end, we have the very same aim of economy +of effort and the cheapening of production resulting in an enormously +increased complexity. The actual work performed by each worker is +simplified. But the variety of processes and the consequent allotting +of the workers into unrelated groups make for social complexity; +render it not easier, but much harder for the workers to come together +and to see and make others see through and in spite of all this +apparent unlikeness of occupation, common interests and a common need +for coöperative action. + +Again, take a factory, such as a cotton mill. The one firm, before +marketing its product, will have employed in its preparation and +final disposal till it reaches the consumer, groups engaged in very +different occupations, spinners, weavers, porters, stenographers, +salesmen, and so on. The industry which furnished employment to +one, or at most, to two groups, has been cut up into a hundred +subdivisions, but the workers have still many interests in common, and +they need to cling together or suffer from all the disadvantages of +unorganized or semi-organized occupations. + +The first unions were naturally craft unions. The men working in the +same shop, and at the same processes got together, and said: "We who +do this work must get to know the fellows in the other shops; we must +just stick together, make common demands and support one another." + +As industry became more highly specialized, there slipped in, +especially during the last fifty years or so, a disintegrating +tendency. The workers in what had been one occupation, found +themselves now practicing but a small fraction of what had been their +trade. They were performing new processes, handling novel tools and +machinery unheard of before. The organizations became divided up into +what were nominally craft unions, in reality only process unions. Or +if a new organization was formed, it was but a mere clipping off the +whole body of operatives. And these unions, too, would probably have +their international organization, to which they could turn to come in +touch with brother workers, similarly qualified and employed. There +is necessarily involved an element of weakness in any organization, +however extensive, built up upon so limited a foundation, unless the +membership has other local and occupational affiliations as well. +So, to meet this defect, there have been formed all sorts of loose +aggregations of unions, and almost every day sees fresh combinations +formed to meet new needs as these arise. Within the wide bounds of +the American Federation itself exist the state federations, also city +federations, which may include the unions in adjoining cities, even +though these are in different states, such as the Tri-City Federation, +covering Davenport, Iowa, and Moline and Rock Island, Illinois. The +district councils, again, are formed from representatives of allied +trades or from widely different branches of the same trade, such as +the councils of the building trades, and the allied printing trades. +There are the international unions (more properly styled continental) +covering the United States and the Dominion of Canada. With these +are affiliated the local unions of a trade or of a whole industry, +sometimes, from all over the continent of North America. Among these +the most catholic in membership are such broadly organized occupations +as the united mine-workers, the garment-workers, the ladies' +garment-workers, the iron, steel and tin-plate workers. An +international union composed of separate unions of the one trade, or a +state or a city federation of local unions of many trades, bears the +same relation to the component single unions as does the union itself +to the individual workers; so we find that all these various and often +changing expressions of the trade-union principle are accepted and +approved of today. + +Even more significant are other groupings which may be observed +forming among the rank and file of the union men and women themselves. + +Sometimes these groups combine with the full approval of the union +leaders, local and international. Sometimes they are more in the +nature of an insurgent body, either desiring greater liberty of +self-government for themselves, or questioning the methods of the +organization's leaders, and desiring to introduce freer, more +democratic and more modern methods into the management of the parent +organization. This may take the form of a district council, and in at +least one noteworthy instance, the employés of one large corporation +send their representatives to a joint board, for purposes of +collective bargaining. + +The railway unions within the American Federation of Labor, one of the +largest and most powerful bodies of union men in the United States +feel the need of some method of grouping which shall link together +the men's locals and the internationals into which the locals +are combined. This is seen in the demand made by the men for the +acknowledgment by the railways of the "system federation." The reason +some of the more radical men were not found supporting the proposal +was not that they objected to a broader form of organization, +but because they considered the particular plan outlined as too +complicated to be effective. + +There is one problem pressing for decisive solution before very long, +and it concerns equally organized labor, governments and public bodies +and the community as a whole. That is, the relations that are to +exist between governing bodies in their function as employer, and the +workers employed by them. So far all parties to this momentous bargain +are content to drift, instead of thinking out the principles upon +which a peaceful and permanent solution can be found for a condition +of affairs, new with this generation, and planning in concert such +arrangements as shall insure even-handed justice to all three parties. + +It is true that governments have always been employers of servants, +ever since the days when they ceased to be masters of slaves, but +till now only on a limited scale. But even on this limited scale no +entirely satisfactory scheme of civil-service administration has +anywhere been worked out. Of late years more and more have the +autocratic powers of public bodies as employers been considerably +clipped, but on the other hand, the ironclad rules which make +change of occupation, whether for promotion or otherwise, necessary +discipline and even deserved dismissal, so difficult to bring about, +have prejudiced the outside community whom they serve against the just +claims of an industrious and faithful body of men and women. And the +very last of these just claims, which either governing bodies or +communities are willing to grant, is liberty to give collective +expression to their common desires. + +The question cannot be burked much longer. Every year sees public +bodies, in the United States as everywhere else, entering upon +new fields of activity. In this country, municipal bodies, state +governments, and even the Federal Government, are in this way +perpetually increasing the number of those directly in their +employ. The establishment of the parcel post alone must have added +considerably to the total of the employés in the Postal Department. It +cannot be very many years before some of the leading monopolies, +such as the telegraph and the telephone, will pass over to national +management, with again an enormous increase in the number of employés. +Schools are already under public control, and one city after another +is taking up, if not manufacture or production, at least distribution +as in the case of water, lighting, ice, milk or coal. + +This is no theoretical question as to whether governmental bodies, +large and small, local and national, should or should not take over +these additional functions of supplying community demands. The fact +is before us now. They are doing it, and in the main, doing it +successfully. But what they are not doing, what these very employés +are not doing, what organized labor is not doing, what the community +is not doing, is to plan intelligently some proper method of +representation, by which the claims, the wishes and the suggestions of +employés may receive consideration, and through which, on the other +hand, the governing body as board of management, and the public, as +in the long last the real employer, shall also have their respective +fights defined and upheld. + +The present position is exactly as if a sovereign power had conquered +a territory, and proposed to govern it, not temporarily, but +permanently, as a subject province. We know that this is not the +modern ideal in politics, and it ought not to be assumed as the right +ideal when the territory acquired is not a geographical district, but +a new function. In this connection, moreover, the criticisms of our +candid friends the syndicalists are not to be slighted. Their solution +of the problem, that the workers should come into actual, literal +possession and management of the industries, whether publicly or +privately owned, may appear to us hopelessly foolish and impractical, +but their misgivings regarding an ever-increasing bureaucratic control +over a large proportion of the workers, who are thus made economically +dependent upon an employer, because that employer chances also to hold +the reins of government, have already ample justification. The people +have the vote, you will say? At least the men have. Proposals to +deprive public employés of the vote have been innumerable, and in not +a few instances have been enacted into law. There are whole bodies of +public employés in many countries today who have no vote. + +The late Colonel Waring was far-sighted beyond his day and generation. +When he took over the Street Cleaning Department of New York, which +was in an utterly demoralized condition, he saw that reasonable +self-government among his army of employés was going to help and not +to hinder his great plans, and it was not only with his full consent, +but at his suggestion and under his direction, that an organization +was formed among them, which gave to the dissatisfied a channel of +expression, and to the constructive minds opportunity to improve the +work of the department, as well as continually to raise the status of +the employé. + +All such organizations to be successful permanently and to be placed +on a solid basis must join their fortunes with the labor movement, and +this is the last pill that either a conservative governing body or the +public themselves are willing to swallow. They use exactly the same +argument that private employers used universally at one time, but +which we hear less of today--the right of the employer to run his own +business in his own way. + +Very many people, who see nothing wicked in a strike against a private +employer, consider that no despotic conduct on the part of superiors, +no unfairness, no possible combination of circumstances, can ever +justify a strike of workers who are paid out of the public purse. Much +also is made of the fact that most of such functions which governments +have hitherto undertaken are directly associated with pressing needs, +such as street-car and railroad service, water and lighting supplies, +and the same line of reasoning will apply, perhaps in even a higher +degree, to future publicly owned and controlled enterprises. This +helps yet further to strengthen the idea that rebellion, however +sorely provoked, is on the part of public employés a sort of +high treason, the reasons for which neither deserve nor admit of +discussion. The greatest confusion of thought prevails, and no +distinction is drawn between the government as the expression and +embodiment of the forces of law, order and protection to all, as truly +the voice of the people, and the government, through its departments, +whether legislative, judicial or administrative, as just a plain +common employer, needing checks and control like all other employers. + +The problem of the public ownership of industries in relation to +employés might well be regarded in a far different light. It holds +indeed a proud and honorable position in social evolution. It is the +latest and most complex development of industry, and as such the heads +of such enterprises should be eager to study the development of +the earlier and simpler forms of industry in relation to the labor +problem, and to study them just as conscientiously and gladly as +they study and adopt scientific and mechanical improvements in their +various departments. + +But no. We are all of us just drifting. Every now and then the +question comes before us, unfortunately rarely as a matter for cool +and sane discussion, but usually arising out of some dispute. Both +sides are then in an embittered mood. There may be a strike on. The +employés may be in the wrong, but any points on which they may yield +are merely concessions wrung from them by force of superior strength, +for the employing body unfailingly assumes rights and privileges +beyond those of the ordinary employer. In particular, discontented +employés are invariably charged with disloyalty, and lectured upon +their duty to the public. As if the public owed nothing to them! + +More democratic methods of expressing the popular will, giving us +legislation, and in consequence administration more in harmony with +the interests of the workers as a whole, and therefore in the end +reacting for the advantage of the community at large, will assuredly +do much to remove some of these difficulties. This is one reason +why direct legislation and such "effective voting" as proportional +representation should be earnestly advocated and supported by +organized labor on all possible occasions. But that we may make full +and wise use of such additional powers of democratic expression in +placing public employment upon a sounder footing, it is necessary that +we should give the subject the closest attention and consideration +both in its general principles, and in details as they present +themselves. If not, satisfaction in the growth of publicly controlled +industry may be marred through the sense that the public are being +served at an unfair cost to an important section of the workers. + +All of these problems touch women as well as men; and if they are to +be solved on a just as well as a broad basis women must do their share +towards the solving. Needless to say, women in industry suffer as much +or more than their brothers from whatever makes for reaction in the +labor movement. It is therefore fortunate for the increasing numbers +of wage-earning women that progressive forces are at work, too. From +one angle, the very activity of Women's Trade Union Leagues in the +cities where they are established is to be regarded as one expression +of the widespread and growing tendency towards such complete +organization of the workers as shall correspond to modern industrial +conditions. + +Mrs. Gilman is never tired of reiterating that we live in a man-made +world, and that the feminine side in either man or woman will never +have a chance for development until this is a human-made world. And +before this can come about woman must be free from the economic +handicap that shackles her today. + +The organization of labor is one of the most important means to +achieve this result. It is not only in facing the world outside, and +in relation to the employer and the consumer that woman organized is +stronger and in every way more effective than woman unorganized. The +relation in which she stands to her brother worker is very different, +when she has behind her the protection and with her the united +strength of her union, and the better a union man he is himself the +more readily and cheerfully will he appreciate this, even if he has +occasionally to make sacrifices to maintain unbroken a bargain in +which both are gainers. + +But at first, in the same way as the average workingman is apt to have +an uncomfortable feeling about the woman entering his trade, even +apart from the most important reason of all, that she is wont to be +a wage-cutter, the average trade-union man retains a somewhat uneasy +apprehension when he finds women entering the union. As they become +active, women introduce a new element. They may not say very much, +but it is gradually discovered that they do not enjoy meeting over +saloons, at the head of two or three flights of grimy backstairs, or +where the street has earned a bad name. + +Woman makes demands. Leaders that even the decenter sort of men would +passively accept, because they are put forward, since they are such +smart fellows, or have pull in trade-union politics, she will have +none of, and will quietly work against them. The women leaders have an +uncomfortable knack of reminding the union that women are on the map, +as it were. + +It is at a psychological moment that she is making herself felt in +the councils of organized labor. Just as the labor movement is itself +being reorganized, with the modern development of the union and of +union activity; just as woman herself is coming into her own; just as +we are passing through the transition period from one form of society +to another; and just as we catch a glimpse of a distant future in +which the world will become, for the first time, one. + +From the very fact that they are women, women trade unionists have +their own distinct contribution to make to the movement. The feminine, +and especially the maternal qualities that man appreciates so in the +home, he is learning (some men have learnt already) to appreciate in +the larger home of the union. + +In speaking thus, I freely, if regretfully, admit that the rartk and +file of both sexes are far indeed from playing their full part. We +have still to depend more largely than is quite fitting or democratic +upon the leaders as standard-bearers. It is also true that there +are women who are willing to accept low ideals in unionism as in +everything else. Their influence is bound to pass. If women are to +make their own peculiar contribution to the labor movement, it will +be by working in glad coöperation with the higher idealism of the men +leaders. + +And when the day comes (may its coming be hastened!) that women are +even only as extensively organized as men are today, the organization +of men will indeed proceed by leaps and bounds. It will not be by +arithmetical, but by geometrical progression, that the union will +count their increases, for it is the masses of unskilled, unorganized, +ill-paid women and girl workers today, who in so many trades today +increase the difficulties of the men tenfold. That dead weight +removed, they could make better terms for themselves and enroll far +more men into their ranks. What increase of power, what new and +untried forces women may bring with them into the common store, just +what these may be, and the manner of their working out, it is too +early to say. + +But the future was never so full of hope as today, not because +conditions are not cruelly hard, and problems not baffling, but, +because, over against these conditions, and helping-to solve these +problems, are ranged the great forces of evolution, ever on the side +of the workers, slowly building up the democracy of the future. + + + + +APPENDIX I + + +This document, which is the contract under which a union waitress +works, is typical. + +AGREEMENT + +Between the Hotel and Restaurant Employés' International Alliance +Affiliated with the American and the Chicago Federation of Labor. + +This contract made and entered into this 10th day of April, 1914, by +and between the H.R.E.I.A. affiliated with the American and Chicago +Federation of Labor of the City of Chicago, County of Cook and State +of Illinois, party of the first part, and: + +Chicago, + +Illinois, party of the second part. + +Party of the first part agrees to furnish good, competent and honest +craftsmen, and does hereby agree to stand responsible for all loss +incurred by any act of their respective members in good standing while +in line of duty. + +The Business Agents of the allied crafts shall have the privilege of +visiting and interviewing the employés while on duty, their visits to +be timed to such hours when employés are not overly busy. + +The second party agrees to employ only members in good standing in +their respective unions, of cooks, and waitresses, except when the +unions are unable to furnish help to the satisfaction of the ... which +choice shall be at the discretion of the above company. Then the +employer may employ any one he desires, provided the employé makes +application to become a member of the union within three days after +employment. + +Chefs, and Head Waitresses must be members of their respective craft +organizations. + +WAITRESSES + +RESTAURANTS + + Steady Waitresses, 6 days, 60 hours $8.00 per week + Lunch and Supper Waitresses, 7 days, 42 + hours or less 6.50 per week + Dinner Waitresses, 6 days, 3 hours 4.00 per week + Extra Supper Waitresses, 6 days, 3 hours 4.00 per week + Night Waitresses, 6 days, 60 hours 9.00 per week + Extra Girls, 10 hours a day 1.50 per day + Extra Girls, Sundays and Holidays 2.00 per day + Head Waitresses, 6 days, 60 hours 10.00 per week + Ushers, 6 days, 60 hours or less 9.00 per week + Ushers, dinner, 6 days, 6 hours or less 5.00 per week + Dog watch Waitresses, 6 days, 60 hours 9.00 per week + +BANQUETS + +Three (3) hours or less, $1.50. + +Any waitress working extra after midnight serving a banquet, dinner, +etc., shall receive 50 cents per hour or fraction of an hour, except +the steady night and dog watch waitresses. + +Waitresses shall do no porter work. + +Overtime shall be charged at the rate of 25 cents per hour or fraction +of an hour. + +Waitresses shall not be reprimanded in the presence of guests. + +Waitresses walking out during meals shall be fined $1.00. + +Waitresses after being hired and failing to report for duty shall be +fined $1.00. + +Employés shall be furnished with proper quarters to change their +clothing and there shall be no charge for same. + +No profane language shall be used to employés. + +There shall be only one split in a ten-hour watch in restaurants. + +If employers desire special uniforms they must furnish same free of +charge. + +Employer shall pay for the laundry of all working linen and furnish +same for waitresses. + +No member shall be permitted to leave the place of employment during +working hours except in case of sickness when a substitute shall be +furnished at the earliest possible moment. + +Employés shall report for duty at least 15 minutes before the hour +called for. They shall be furnished with good, wholesome food. + +All hours shall be the maximum. + +Head Waitresses and Head Waiters are required to give business agent a +list of employés the first week of each month. + +Members must wear their working buttons. There shall be no charge for +breakage unless breaking is wilful or gross carelessness. + +It is agreed that waitresses shall clean silverware once a day. + +THIS CONTRACT shall remain in effect until May 1, 1916, unless there +is a violation of trade union principles. + +ARBITRATION + +During the term of this contract, should any differences arise between +parties of the first and second part of any causes which cannot +be adjusted between them, it shall be submitted to an Arbitration +Committee of five, two selected by the party of the first part and two +by the party of the second part, and the fifth by the four members of +said committee, and while this matter is pending before said committee +for adjustment, there shall be no lockout or strike, and the decision +of the committee on adjustment shall be final and shall supplement or +modify the agreement. This CONTRACT shall remain in effect until May +1, 1916. + +--SIGNED-- + +PARTY OF THE FIRST PART ... PARTY OF THE SECOND PART + + +[NOTE. The dog watch waitress has part day and part night work. She is +on duty usually from 11 a.m. till 2 p.m., and again from 5 p.m. till +midnight, in some non-union restaurants till one o'clock in the +morning. The above agreement calls for not more than one split in a +ten-hour watch, otherwise a waitress might be at call practically all +day long and yet be only ten hours at work. A.H.] + + + + +APPENDIX II + +THE HART, SCHAFFNER AND MARX LABOR AGREEMENTS + +[The following brief abstract covers the essential points in the +successive agreements between Hart, Schaffner and Marx, clothing +manufacturers, of Chicago, and their employés, and is taken from the +pamphlet compiled by Earl Dean Howard, chief deputy for the firm, and +Sidney Hillman, chief deputy for the garment workers.] + + +The conditions upon which the strikers returned to work, as defined in +the agreement dated January 14, 1911, summed up, were: + +1. All former employés to be taken back within ten days. + +2. No discrimination of any kind because of being members, or not +being members, of the United Garment Workers of America. + +3. An Arbitration Committee of three members to be appointed; one from +each side to be chosen within three days; these two then to select the +third. + +4. Subject to the provisions of this agreement, said Arbitration +Committee to take up, consider and adjust grievances, if any, and to +fix a method for settlement of grievances (if any) in the future. The +finding of the said Committee, or a majority thereof, to be binding +upon both parties. + +The Arbitration Committee, or Board, consisted of Mr. Carl Meyer, +representing the firm, and Clarence Darrow, representing the employés. +The office of chairman was not filled until December, 1912, when Mr. +J.E. Williams was chosen. The Board settled the questions around which +the dispute had arisen, and an agreement for two years between the +firm and the workers was signed. For some time the Board continued to +handle fresh complaints, but it gradually became apparent that the +Board, composed of busy men, could not hear all the minor grievances. +The result of a conference was the organization of a permanent body, +the Trade Board, to deal with all such matters, as these arose, or +before they arose, reserving to both parties the right of appeal to +the Arbitration Board. The plan can be judged from the following +clauses in the constitution of the Trade Board: + +TRADE BOARD + +The Trade Board shall consist of eleven members who shall, if +possible, be practical men in the trade; all of whom, excepting the +chairman, shall be employés of said corporation; five members thereof +shall be appointed by the corporation, and five members by the +employés. The members appointed by the corporation shall be certified +in writing by the corporation to the chairman of the board, and the +members appointed by the employés shall be likewise certified in +writing by the joint board of garment workers of Hart Schaffner & +Marx to said chairman. Any of said members of said board, except the +chairman, may be removed and replaced by the power appointing him, +such new appointee to be certified to the chairman in the same manner +as above provided for. + +DEPUTIES + +The representatives of each of the parties of the Trade Board shall +have the power to appoint deputies for each branch of the trade, that +is to say, for cutters, coat makers, trouser makers and vest makers. + +APPEAL TO ARBITRATION BOARD + +In case either party should desire to appeal from any decision of the +Trade Board, or from any change of these rules by the Trade Board, +to the Board of Arbitration, they shall have the right to do so upon +filing a notice in writing with the Trade Board of such intention +within thirty days from the date of the decision, and the said Trade +Board shall then certify said matter to the Board of Arbitration, +where the same shall be given an early hearing by a full Board of +three members. + +The Trade Board was accordingly organized, with Mr. James Mullenbach, +Acting Superintendent of the United Charities of Chicago, as chairman. + +When the time approached for the renewal of the agreement, the closed +or open shop was the point around which all discussions turned. +Eventually, neither was established, but instead the system of +preference to unionists was adopted. It was thus expressed: + + 1. That the firm agrees to this principle of preference, namely, + that they will agree to prefer union men in the hiring of new + employés, subject to reasonable restrictions, and also to prefer + union men in dismissal on account of slack work, subject to a + reasonable preference to older employés, to be arranged by the + Board of Arbitration, it being understood that all who have worked + for the firm six months shall be considered old employés. + + 2. All other matters shall be deliberated on and discussed by the + parties in interest, and if they are unable to reach an agreement, + the matter in dispute shall be submitted to the Arbitration Board + for its final decision. + + Until an agreement can be reached by negotiation by the parties in + interest, or in case of their failure to agree, and a decision is + announced by the Arbitration Board, the old agreement shall be + considered as being in full force and effect. + +This came in force May 1, 1913. + +The chairman of the Arbitration Board, making a statement, three +months later, in August, 1913, after defining the principle to be +"such preference as will make an efficient organization for the +workers, also an efficient, productive administration for the +company," went on: + + In handing down the foregoing decisions relating to preference + which grew out of a three months' consideration of the subject, + and after hearing it discussed at great length and from every + angle, the Board is acutely conscious that it is still largely + an experiment, and that the test of actual practice may reveal + imperfections, foreseen and unforeseen, which cannot be otherwise + demonstrated than by test. + + It therefore regards them as tentative and subject to revision + whenever the test of experiment shall make it seem advisable. + + The Board also feels that unless both parties coöperate in good + faith and in the right spirit to make the experiment a success, + no mechanism of preferential organization, however cunningly + contrived, will survive the jar and clash of hostile feeling or + warring interests. It hands down and publishes these decisions + therefore in the hope that with the needed coöperation they + may help to give the workers a strong, loyal, constructive + organization, and the Company a period of peaceful, harmonious and + efficient administration and production which will compensate for + any disadvantage which the preferential experiment may impose. + +The published pamphlet, under date January 28, 1914, concludes: + + There have been no cases appealed from the Trade Board to the + Board of Arbitration since January, 1913. During the last six + months of 1913 there were not more than a dozen Trade Board Cases. + So many principles have been laid down, and precedents established + by both of these bodies, that the chief deputies are in all cases + able to reach an agreement without appeal to a higher authority. + A gradual change has taken place in the method of dealing with + questions which present new principles, or which represent + questions never before decided. The Board of Arbitration has + appointed Mr. Williams as a committee to investigate and report, + with the understanding that if an agreement can be reached by both + parties without arbitrators, or, if the parties are willing to + accept the decision of the Chairman, then no further meeting of + the Board of Arbitration will be required. This method has proved + to be exceedingly satisfactory to both sides and has resulted in a + form of government which has gradually taken the place of formal + arbitration. In most cases, the Chairman is able by thorough + sifting of the evidence on each side, to suggest a method of + conciliation which is acceptable to both parties. + +A further experience of the System up till July, 1915, only confirms +the above statement. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + +LIST OF BOOKS AND REPORTS AND PERIODICAL LITERATURE SUGGESTED FOR +READING AND REFERENCE + +ABBOTT, EDITH. Women in Industry. New York, 1909. + +ADAMS, T.H., and SUMNER, H.L. Labor Problems. New York, 1909. + +ADDAMS, JANE. The Spirit of Youth in City Streets. New York, 1909. + +ANDREWS, JOHN B. A Practical Plan for the Prevention of Unemployment +in America. New York, 1914. + +---- and BLISS, W.P.D. History of Women in Trade Unions in the United +States. Vol. X of the United States Report on the Condition of Women +and Child Wage Earners. + + +BEBEL, AUGUST. Woman in the Past, Present and Future (Trans.). New +York, 1885. + +BOWEN, LOUISE DE KOVEN. Safeguards for City Youth at Work and at Play. +New York, 1915. + +BRANDEIS, L.D. _Curt Miller_ v. _The State of Oregon_. Brief for +defendants. Supreme Court of the United States. New York, 1908. + +---- _Frank C. Stettler and others_ v. _The Industrial Welfare +Commission of the State of Oregon_. Brief and arguments for the +defendants in the Supreme Court of the State of Oregon. Consumers' +League, New York, 1915. + +---- and GOLDMARK, JOSEPHINE. Brief and Arguments for appellants +in the Supreme Court of the State of Illinois. National Consumers' +League, New York, 1909. + +BRECKINRIDGE, SOPHONISBA P. Legislative Control of Women's Work. +_Journal of Political Economy_. XIV. 107-109. + +BROOKS, JOHN GRAHAM. The Social Unrest. New York, 1903. + +BROWN, ROME G. The Minimum Wage. Minneapolis, 1914. + +BUSBEY. Women's Trade Union Movement in Great Britain. U.S. Department +of Labor. Bul. No. 83. + +BUTLER, ELIZABETH B. Saleswomen in Mercantile Stores. New York, 1913. + +---- Women in the Trades. New York, 1909. + + +CANADA. Department of Labor. Report of Royal Commission on Strike of +Telephone Operators. Ottawa, 1907. + +CLARK, SUE AINSLIE, and WYATT, EDITH. Making Both Ends Meet. New York, +1911. + +CLARK, VICTOR S. The Labor Movement in Australia. New York, 1907. + +COMMONS, JOHN R. Races and Immigrants in America. New York, 1907. + +---- ANDREWS, JOHN B., SUMNER, HELEN L., and OTHERS. Documentary +History of American Industrial Society. Cleveland, 1910. + +---- and OTHERS. Trade Unionism and Labor Problems. Boston, 1905. + +COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA. Legislative Regulation of Wages. Year Book, +No. 5, 1901-1911. pp. 1065-1069. + +COOLEY, E.G. See publications of Commercial Club of Chicago on +vocational education. + + +DEVINE, EDWARD T. Social Forces. New York. + +DEWEY, JOHN. Schools of Tomorrow. New York, 1915. + +---- The School and Society. + +DORR, RHETA CHILDE. What Eight Million Women Want. Boston, 1910. + + +ELY, RICHARD T. The Labor Movement in America. New York, 1905. + + +GILMAN, CHARLOTTE P. Concerning Children. Boston, 1900. + +---- Women and Economics. New York, 1905. + +HAMILTON, CICELY. Marriage as a Trade. + +HARD, WILLIAM. The Women of Tomorrow. New York, 1911. + +HENDERSON, CHARLES RICHMOND. Citizens in Industry. New York, 1915. + +HERRON, BELVA M. Progress of Labor Organization Among Women. +University of Illinois studies, Vol. 1, No. 10. Urbana, 1908. + +HILLMAN, SIDNEY, and HOWARD, EARL DEAN. Hart, Schaffner and Marx Labor +Agreements. Chicago, 1914. + +HOBSON, JOHN A. Evolution of Modern Capitalism. London, 1904. + +---- Problems of Poverty, London, 1906. + +HOURWICH, ISAAC A. Immigration and Labor. New York, 1912. + +HUMPHREY, J.R. Proportional Representation. London, 1911. + + +ILLINOIS STATE FEDERATION OF LABOR. Report of Committee on Vocational +Education, 1914. + + +JACOBI, ABRAHAM. Physical Cost of Women's Work. New York, 1907. + + +KELLEY, FLORENCE. Modern Industry in Relation to the Family. New York, +1915. + +---- Some Ethical Gains Through Legislation. New York, 1906. + +KELLOR, FRANCES A. Out of Work. New York, 1915 ed. + +KERCHENSTEINER, G.M.A. Idea of the Industrial School (Trans.). New +York, 1913. + +---- Schools and the Nation (Trans.). London, 1914. + +KEY, ELLEN. The Woman Movement (Trans.). New York, 1912. + +KIRKUP, THOMAS. History of Socialism. London, 1906. + + +LAGERLÖF, SELMA. Home and the State (Trans.). New York, 1912. + +LEAVITT, FRANK M. Examples of Industrial Education. Boston, 1912. + +LEVINE, Louis. Syndicalism in France. New York, 1914. + + +MACLEAN, ANNIE MARION. Wage Earning Women. New York, 1910. + +MAROT, HELEN. American Labor Unions. New York, 1914. + +MASON, OTIS T. Woman's Share in Primitive Culture. 1894. + +MASSACHUSETTS COMMISSION ON INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. Reports, 1909. + +MATTHEWS, LILLIAN R. Women in Trade Unions in San Francisco. +University of California, 1913. + +MITCHELL, JOHN. Organized Labor. Philadelphia, 1903. + + +NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MANUFACTURERS. Preliminary report on the +Minimum Wage. New York. + +NEARING, SCOTT. Wages in the United States, 1908 to 1910. New York, +1911. + + +OLIVER, THOMAS. Dangerous Trades. London, 1902. + + +PATTEN, SIMON N. The New Basis of Civilization. New York, 1907. + +PEIXOTTO, JESSICA B. Women of California as Trade Unionists. +_Association of Collegiate Alumnae_, Dec., 1908. + +PRESCOTT and HALL. Immigration and Its Effects. New York, 1900. + +PUTNAM, EMILY JAMES. The Lady. New York, 1910. + + +RAUSCHENBUSCH, WALTER. Christianity and the Social Crisis. New York, +1907. + +---- Christianizing the Social Order. New York, 1912. + +RHINELANDER, W.S. Life and Letters of Josephine Shaw Lowell. New York, +1911. + +RICHARDSON, DOROTHY. The Long Day. New York, 1905. + +ROGERS, J.E. THOROLD. Six Centuries of Work and Wages. + +ROMAN, F.W. Industrial and Commercial Schools of the United States and +Germany. New York, 1915. + +ROSS, EDWARD ALSWORTH. Sin and Society. Boston, 1907. + +RUSSELL, CHARLES EDWARD. Why I Am a Socialist. New York, 1910. + +RYAN, JOHN A. A Living Wage in Its Ethical and Economic Aspects. New +York, 1906. + + +SALMON, LUCY M. Progress in the Household. Boston, 1906. + +SCHREINER, OLIVE. Woman and Labour. London and New York, 1911. + +SIMONS, A.M. Social Forces in American History. + +SNEDDEN, DAVID M. Problems of Educational Readjustment. New York, +1913. + +---- The Problem of Vocational Education. Boston, 1910. + +SNOWDEN, PHILIP. The Living Wage. London and New York, 1912. + +SOMBART, WERNER. Socialism and the Social Movement (Trans.). New York, +1909. + +SPARGO, JOHN. Socialism. New York, 1909. Syndicalism, Industrial +Unionism and Socialism. New York, 1913. + +---- and ARNER, G.B.L. Elements of Socialism. New York, 1912. + +SPENCER, ANNA GARLIN. Woman and Social Culture. New York, 1913. + +SUMNER, HELEN L. History of Women in Industry in the United States. +Vol. IX of the United States Report on the Condition of Women and +Child Wage Earners. 1910. + + +THOMAS, W.I. Sex and Society. University of Chicago Press, 1907. + + +VAN KLEECK, MARY. Artificial Flower Making. Women in the Bookbinding +Trade. Russell Sage Foundation publications, 1912. + +VAN VORST, BESSIE and MARIE. The Woman Who Toils. New York, 1903. + + +WARD, LESTER F. Pure Sociology (especially Chapter XIV). New York. + +WEBB, SIDNEY. Economic Theory of a Legal Minimum Wage. _Journal of +Political Economy_, Vol. 20, No. 12., Dec., 1912. + +---- and BEATRICE. History of Trade Unionism. London, 1907. + +WELLS, H.G. New Worlds for Old. New York, 1909. + +WEYL, WALTER E. The New Democracy. New York, 1910. + +WILLETT, M.H. Employment of Women in the Clothing Trades. Columbia +University. New York, 1902. + +WILSON, JENNIE L. Legal and Political Status of Women in the United +States. + +WINSLOW, CHARLES H.; Editor. Twenty-fifth Annual Report of the United +States Bureau of Labor, Industrial Training. + +WOLFE, F.E. Admission to Labor Unions. Johns Hopkins University Press. + +MINIMUM WAGE, THE CASE FOR. By Louis D. Brandeis, M.B. Hammond, John +A. Hobson, Florence Kelley, Esther Packard, Elizabeth C. Watson, +Howard B. Woolston. _The Survey_, Feb. 6, 1915. + + +_Periodicals and Reports_ + + +_American Federationist, A.F. of L. Newsletter_, and other +publications of the American Federation of Labor. Washington, D.C. + +_American Legislation Review_ and other publications of the American +Association for Labor Legislation. New York. + +_Annals of the American Academy of Political Science_. Philadelphia. + +_Child Labor Bulletin, The_ (National), and other publications of the +National Child Labor Committee, New York. + +Commercial Club of Chicago. Publications on Vocational Training. + +_Crisis, The_. New York. + +_Economic Review_. + +_Forerunner, The_. New York. + +_Immigrant in America Review, The_. New York. + +_Journal of Political Economy, The_. University of Chicago Press. + +_Journal of Sociology, The_. University of Chicago Press. + +_Labour Leader, The_. Manchester, England. + +_Labour Woman, The_, and other publications of the National Women's +Labour League. London. + +_Life and Labor_, and other publications of the National Women's Trade +Union League of America. Chicago; and of the local leagues in Boston, +Chicago, New York and elsewhere. + +_Masses, The_. New York. + +National Consumers' League, Publications of. New York. + +National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education, +Publications of. New York. + +_New Republic, The_. New York. + +New York State Factory Investigation Commission, Reports. New York. + +_New York Sunday Call, The_. New York. + +_Political Science Quarterly_. Columbia University. + +_Public, The_. Chicago. + +_Quarterly Journal of Economics_. Harvard University. + +_Survey, The_. New York. + +_Union Labor Advocate_. Woman's Department, up to Dec., 1910. + +United States Bureau of Education. Bulletins on vocational education. + +---- Census of 1910. Occupational statistics. + +---- Children's Bureau. Bulletins. + +---- Department of Agriculture. Bulletins for Women on the Farm. + +---- Department of Labor, Bulletins. + +---- Industrial Relations Commission Reports. + +---- Women and Child Wage Earners, Report on Conditions of. 19 +Volumes. + +_Woman's Industrial News, The_. London. + +_Woman's Journal, The_. Boston. + + + + +INDEX + +Abbé, Mrs. Robert +Abbott, Grace +Abolition movement +Addams, Jane +American Federation of Labor +Anderson, Mary +Andrews, John B. +Anthony, Susan B. +Ayres, Leonard P., quoted + +Bagley, Sarah G. +Barry, Leonora +Bean, Alice +Bergson, Henri +Biddle, Mrs. George +Bliss, W.P.D., quoted +Bondfield, Margaret +Borden, Hannah +_Boston Courier_ +Brandeis, Louis D. +Brown, Corinne +Burke, Mrs. Mary + +Calhoun, William J. +Canada +Capital and labor organization compared +Carey, Matthew +Casey, Josephine +Chinese +Cohn, Fannie +Collective bargaining +Collective grievances +Colored workers +Coman, Katharine +_Commercial Bulletin_ +Condon, Maggie +Conservation movement +Consumers' League +Conventions, labor +Coöperative efforts +Cost of living + +Daley, Mollie +Dana, Charles A. +Davies, Anna +Democracy, and education + and public ownership + evolution of +Dewey, John, quoted +Dickenson, Fannie +Direct legislation +Domestic science profession +Donnelly, Michael +Donovan, Mary +Dorchester, Mass., early schools of +Dreier, Mary E. + +Economic basis of trade union +Economic status of women +Education, according to grade percentage + early, of girls + Glynn, Frank L., on, quoted + in labor questions + of the immigrant + poverty the chief check to + _See also_ Vocational education +"Effective voting" +Efficiency and expectance +Elmira College +Employers' associations +Equal pay +Evans, Mrs. Glendower + +Fitzgerald, Anna +Fitzpatrick, John +Flood, Emmet +Franklin, Stella + +General Federation of Women's Clubs +Gillespie, Mabel +Goldmark, Josephine +Gompers, Samuel + quoted +Graham, Mr. +Grant, Annie +Greeley, Horace +Gutteridge, Helena + +Hamilton, Cicely, quoted +Hannafin, Mary +Harriman, Mrs. J. Borden +Harvard University +Health and shorter hours +Henderson, Rose +Home industries, development of +Home-work, and child labor + and Italians + as social anachronism +Hours + _See also_ Limitation of hours +Huge Strikes + agreements in + Citizens' Committee in +Huge Strikes, close of + immigrants in + Joint Strike Conference Board in + picketing in + results of + Triangle Shirt Waist Co. + United Garment Workers + Women's Trade Union League in +Hull House +Huntingdon, Arria + +Immigrants, Americanization of + discrimination against + domestic policy regarding + education of + employment of + exploitation of + federal and state care of + handicaps of + haphazard distribution of + Juvenile Protective League, quoted, regarding +Immigrants, League for the + Protection of Immigrants + Polish girls as, peculiarly exploited +_Immigrants in America Review_ +Immigration, probable causes of +Industrial Relations, Federal Commission on +Industrial rivalry between men and women +Industrial struggle, new forms of the +Industrial Workers of the World +Industry, children and + degraded + machine-controlled + public ownership the latest development of + standards in +Investigations, by City Club, Chicago + by Federal Commission on Industrial Relations + by Knights of Labor + by New York State Factory Investigating Commission + Federal (Women and Child Wage Earners) + first governmental +I.W.W. + +Japanese laundry workers + +Kavanagh, Fannie +Kehew, Mary Morton +Kelley, Florence +Kellogg, Paul +Kellor, Frances A., quoted +Kenney, Mary E. +Kerchensteiner, Georg, quoted +Kingsley, Charles +Knefler, Mrs. D.W. +Knights of Labor + +Labor legislation, administration of laws under + needed for stores + objections to + providing for women factory inspectors + women affected by + _See also_ Limitation of hours; minimum wage +Labor movement, backwardness of + development of + Irish in +_Labour Leader_ +Lemlich, Clara +Lewis, Augusta +_Life and Labor_ +Limitation of hours, and department-store clerks + and elevated railroad clerks +Limitation of hours, declared constitutional + eight-hour law regarding, in California + effects of, on health + first law for, in Great Britain + for public employés + including men and boys + organized women support + relation of, to wages + ten-hour law regarding, in Illinois +Lippard, George +"Living-in" system +Lowell, Josephine Shaw +Lowell, Mass. + +Macarthur, Mary R. +Macdonald, Mary A. +McDonald, J. Ramsay, quoted +McDowell, Mary E. +McNamara, Maggie +Mahoney, Hannah (Mrs. Nolan) +Maloney, Elizabeth +Marot, Helen +Marriage, an unstandardized trade + and factory life + and organization +Marriage, and the working-woman +Married woman, as a half-time worker + as a wage-earner + economic status of + incongruous position of +Married women and the labor movement +Matthews, Lillian, quoted +Maud Gonne Club +Maurice, F.D. +Mead, George H. +Merriam, Charles E. +Mill, John Stuart +Minimum wage, employers' objections to + for the immigrant + in Australia +Mitchell, Louisa +Mittelstadt, Louisa +Morgan, T.J. +Morgan, Mrs. T.J. +Mott, Lucretia +Mullaney, Kate +Murphy, John J. + +National and other central labor bodies: + Amalgamated Meat Cutters' and Butchers' Workmen of North America + American Federation of Musicians + Boot and Shoe Workers' Union + British Women's Trade Union League + Cigar Makers' International Union + Daughters of St. Crispin + International Brotherhood of Bookbinders + International Glove Workers' Union + International Ladies' Garment Workers + International Typographical Union + Massachusetts Working Women's League + National Industrial Congress + National Labor Congress + National Labor Union + national trade unions, more than thirty from 1863 to 1873 + National Trades Union + New England Congress, policies of + railroad brotherhoods + railway unions + Retail Clerks International Union + Shirt, Waist and Laundry Workers' International Union + Trades and Labor Congress of Canada + United Felt, Panama and Straw Hat Trimmers + United Garment Workers + United Mine Workers + United Textile Workers + Women's Department, Knights of Labor + Women's Labor Reform Associations + Women's National Labor League + Women's state labor unions + Women's Trade Union League + Women's Union Label League + Working Women's Labor Union for the State of N.Y. +National Civic Federation +National Consumers' League +National Young Women's Christian Association +Neill, Charles P. +Nestor, Agnes +New York State Factory Investigating Committee +_New York Sun_ +Northwestern University + +Oberlin College +O'Brien, John +Occupations, and locality + blind-alley trades + boot and shoe workers + button workers + children's employments + department-store clerks + dish-washing + domestic work + dressmakers + employés in state institutions + garment-workers. _See_ sewing trades + glass-blowers + hat-workers + house-cleaning developments + laundry workers and laundresses + mine-workers + musicians + nurses + semi-skilled + tobacco-and cigar-workers + unskilled + waitresses +O'Connor, Julia +O'Day, Hannah +O'Reilly, Leonora +O'Reilly, Mary +Organization, and minimum wage + craft form of + eventually international + in unskilled trades + industrial form of + of colored races + of department-store clerks + of Italians + of Orientals + of Slavic Jewesses + of women, by men + of women backward +O'Sullivan, Mary E. _See_ Mary E. Kenney +_Outlook_, quoted +Overwork and fatigue + +Pankhurst, Mrs. +Patterson, Mrs. Emma +Pearson, Mrs. Frank J. +Perkins, L.S. +_Philadelphia Ledger_ +Phillips, Wendell +Pillsbury, Parker +Poe, Clarence +Polish National Alliance +Popular disapproval of women's trade unions +Potter, Frances Squire +Powderly, Mrs. Terence V. +Powderly, Terence V. +Power loom, first +Preferential shop +Proportional representation +Protection for young trade-union girls +Protocol of peace +Public employés +Public ownership, the latest development of industry +Putnam, Mrs. Mary Kellogg + +Quick, Nelle +Quimby, Mrs. C.N.M. + +_Revolution, The_ +Rickert, T.A. +Robins, Mrs. Raymond quoted +Rodgers, Mrs. George +Roman, F.W., quoted +Roosevelt, Theodore +Rumsey, Thomas +Russell Sage Foundation + +Sabotage +Samuels, Adelaide +San Francisco earthquake +_San Francisco Examiner_ +Sanitation +Schneidermann, Rose +Schreiner, Olive +Scott, Melinda +Secretary for Labor +Sewing machine introduced +Sewing trades, early conditions in war orders for + _See also_ Huge strikes +Shedden, John +Shute, Mrs. Lizzie H. +Simpson, James +Sinclair, Upton +Slavery, family and group +Smith, Mrs. Charlotte +Smith, Mrs. Elizabeth Oakes +Smith-Lever Act +Snowden, Mrs. Philip +Snowden, Philip +Social advance +Socialism, and economic independence and socialists +Sorel, George +Southern mountain women +Specialization and economy + in home industries + in house-cleaning +Specialization, trade and professional, compared +Speeding up +Spencer, Anna Garlin, quoted +Stanton, Elizabeth Cady +Steghagen, Emma +Stevens, Alzina P. +Stevens, George, quoted +Stewart, Mrs. Levi +Stirling, Mary +Stone, Huldah J. +Stone, Lucy +Strasser, President +Strike, American girl strikebreakers in general + Marx & Haas + of Danbury Hatters + of Fall River weavers + of laundry-workers, (S.F.) (Troy) + of packing-plant employés + of printers + work, after + _See also_ Huge strikes. +Sumner, Helen L. +_Survey, The_, quoted +Sutter, Maud +Symphony orchestras +Syndicalism + +Thomas, W. L, quoted +Topp, Mr. +Trade agreement + a typical + Hart, Schaffner and Marx +Trade unions, aims of, xx + and factory inspection + and standard of living + and women members + as training schools + conservative and radical compared + city federations of + craft form of + dues of + exclusiveness of + federation of + in other fields + industrial form of + interstate coöperation of women of + juvenile union + locals of women's, best training school + one big union + outside support for + relations between labor bodies + reorganization of + women membership of + supported by labor men + +United States Agricultural Department +United States Agricultural Department, and immigration + census of, occupations under + industrial development of + _See also_ Investigations +United Tailoresses' Society +University of Chicago + +Valesh, Eva McDonald +Van Etten, Ida +Vassar College +Vincent, John J. +Vocational education, and the immigrant + as part of public system + A.F. of L. on + co-education only solution of + Commercial Club of Chicago, on + domestic economy + ideal plan for + in Germany + original form of + tendencies of experts + women's share in, inadequate +_Voice of Industry_ +Vote, the + +Wages +Wages + group + N.Y. Commission evidence regarding +Waight, Lavinia +Wald, Lillian D. +Walling, William English +War orders +Ward, Lester F. +Watters, J.C. +Whitehead, Myrtle +Whitney, Edward B. +Wilkinson, J.W. +Wilson, J. Stitt, quoted +Winslow, Charles H. +Winters, Sallie +Woerishofer, Carola +Wolfe, F.E., quoted +Woman, as the organizer + as the race + double function of +Woman suffrage, and civic work, and education +Woman suffrage, and great strikes + and industrial struggle + and social control + indorsed by, A.F. of L. + labor conventions + movement for, in Great Britain + organization of women voters under + organized women and +Women, and vocational training + and vocations + compulsory underbidders + in meat-packing plants + non-wage-earning +Woolston, Howard B., quoted +Work, John M., quoted +Working Women's Society + +Young, Anne + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Trade Union Woman, by Alice Henry + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11424 *** |