The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 13, 1904, Page 9

jfon American women ldren are workinpg in upations. Three mil- of these labor outside the These women workers are their physical weak- omed environment. tered our sharply com- em, and must Je-handed a strug- n which the warfare e home. jeap by ufacture and the failure of their have been able ut loss of virtue. and degree of justice they and fre om the great stc arvefully pre alone by able or their short. he lower 1S are a recent investi- men of the asses, finds undergone the sary for a ' nuch less to women than long hours nent lay niversally un- under which resulting preva- and distorted fforts to pro- welfare will this coun- omen are nber of hours of be required e g employers seats for the use of female slarly those with ws have not the labor means express fully ng with women ragraphs of an ar- shed in The Annais of Political Walter Macarthur ude of the American trade at of appeal to the spirit iepen e and to a realization of he truth that the workers are them- ves the sole repository of power to better their lot. The solemn lesson of to-day and every day of our at the workers must depend emselves for the improvement onditions of labor.” is the stern doctrine of trade 1 have no voice in the con- bor which the women work- ers may make, It would be folly for them to assume the entire responsibil- ity for their protection, even if they were able to do so. Instead, the women are ajlowed {o become members of the unions on equal terms with the men and must learn the same lessbns of mutual assistance and support. In no other American Institution do women receive stri Jjustice and equality than is given them in the labor ergan- izations. The continuation of this pol- icy is insured by the fact that it is due as much to economic necessity and the nature and aims of trade unionism as to sentiment. Many causes have combined make it difficult for women to take the first step toward organization. ‘While, as Professor Mason has shown, they have fostered the industyial arts since the dawn of clvilization, they have worked in the isolation of the family unit. As this writer says, “In co-operation women have always been weak. There are few duties that they have in common. Even as beasts of burden they seldom worked in pairs.” Nor was this lack of industrial com- bination replaced by any other form of combination through which they might gain social consciousness or a realization of the power of united ac- tion. Nowadays the women seem to be making up for lost time in the way of organization. Possibly the vast number of women's clubs have an- other ‘than the cultural and social sig- nificance which they clalm. They may be important factors in social evolution, in that they help develop the deficlent social consciousness -in women and prepare them for - the share in our highly organized indus- trial and political life which all the present tendencies seem to make in- evitable. to Aside from thls inherited incapacity for organization, women have been deterred from any systematic and per- sistent effort to better their condition as workers by the feeling that their employment was but a temporary ex- pedient, from which they would be released by marriage. While this must continue to be true of a large number of women workers, still as a class there can be no question of the permanence of their position in the industrial world or of the necessity of developing the higher altruism which shall prompt temporary work- ers to guard the interests of less for- tunate sisters, whose lives depend en- tirely on their conditions of work. Notwithstanding these drawbacks to organization on the part of the women, their influence has not been entirely wanting in the . organizations of the past. They were admitted on equal terms with the men in the old English crafts guilds; and seem to have received full recognition, both in the control of the affairs of the guild and in the con- sumption of ale. Woémen's unfons were not unknown in the early annals of English trades un- fonism. We hear of them as early as 1833. To quote from history by Sydney and Beatrice Webb: “Nor were the women neglected. The Grand Lodge of Operative Bonnet Makers vies in actiy- ity with the miscellaneous Grand Lodge of the Women of Great Britain and Ire- land, and the Lodge of Female Tailors asks indignantly whether the Tallors’ Order is really going to prohibit wom- en from making walstcoats. Whether the Grand National Consolidated Trades Upion was responsible for tite lodges of Female Gardeners and An- cient Virgins, who afterward distin- gulshed - themselves in,the riotous de- mand for an eight-hour day at Oldham, is not clear.” While we find these accounts of a somewhat fitful early activity on the vart of women’s organizations. vet the English trades unionists with the ex- ception of the Lancashire weavers have been far more reluctant about ad- mitting women to their unions than the American. That in this, as in coeducation, the influence of the Western States:of the Union has been potent is suggested by the fact that in 1870 the Granger asso- ciations of Western farmers announced that no grange should be organized or exist without women as members, as well as by the large number and full recognition of women trade unionists in both Chicago and San Francisco. While women have been admitted to membership in the older, more con- servative men’s unions for over twen- ty years, their greatest advance in numbers and influence has been dur- ing the‘last ten years. To-day women not only sit as members in the central labor unions of the great.cities, but ‘also exercise the full rights of dele~ gates in the American Federation of Labor. They have not received such recognition in any other national or- ganization of men. That this great central body has complete faith in a wise yse of what- ever power they may help put into the hands of women is proven by the adoption of the following resolution in favor of woman's suffrage, which was introduced by Vice President Duncan at the 1903 meeting: “Resolved, That the best interests of labor require thé admission of women to full citizenshin as a matter of justice to them and us a necéssary step toward insuring and raising the scale of wages for all.” The labor organizations have dis- covered that the princivles of union- ism are as applicable to consumption as to production: they are trying to influence the demand for the finished product, as well as the conditions un- der which it is made. They hope to do this by means of the unfon label In the recently published prize essay on the Subject Macarthur says: “The union label enlists and arms in labor’s cause those elements which detegmine the issue of every cause in civilized society, namely, the women and chil- dren. “The instincts of woman and the interests of labor are conjoined in the union label. Both stand for cleanli- ness, morality, the care of the young. the sanctity of the home; both stand against strife and force. The union label makes woman the strongest. as she is the gentlest of God’s creatures. In many places there are women union label leagues organized to pro- mote the demand for union-made goods. Their -work has not only re- celved the hearty indorsement of the American Federation of Labor but the national organizers have been instruct- ed to give special attention to this effort to enlist the active co-operation of the women. ‘While we cannot claim that the at- titude of the American trade unionist toward women ' is chivalrous in the older sense of the word, yet it is fair t> assert that the complete equality conceded will resuit in a far saner re- lationship of mutual assistance and protection. This is, after all, more worthy of respect, as it demands loy- alty, courage and perseverance on the part of both men and women. What the women lose of ease and romange they gain in character and self-respect. Where is the woman who would not gladly exchange the empty worship of the past for the real companionship of the present, with its sharing of life’s problems and struggles! One has only to look over the records of the American Federation of Labor to realize, that the labor organizations are unqualified in, their condemnation of child labor- Over ten years ago Presidént Gompéts decla “the dam- nable system which permits young and innocent children to have their very lives worked out of them in factories, miils, workshops and stores is one of the very worst of labor grievances, one which the trade unions have protested against for years, and in the reforma- tion of which we ‘shall never cease our agitation until we have rescued them and’ placed them where they shouid be, in the schoolroom and the play- ground.” Since then the president and delegates have repeated and indorsed these sentiments so often that they are now looked upon as axiomatic, the last committee on the president’s report re- marking, “that the child belongs in the school and on the playground instead of in the workshop and factory is as well known and recognized by those not blinded by personal interests as is the multiplication table.” That thé efforts of the federation have not been confined to resolutions is shown by President Gompers’ re- port in 1902, He says: “We have had _representatives in nearly every Statd m which no law- of this char- acter obtained. Both by their work and that of our organizers and offi- cers a sentiment of the people has been arouged that bids fair to result PHOTO BY i i, S UEOSIOGE smita T APAN T 1Y, T R T MR AIAS . o e oo VAUGHAN & KEITH. in the adoptic distant day of benefic es in all the of the U Largely as a of this ac y of the labor child labor laws hage been xo States of the majo of these States adopted s the age when ay go vork. In many of them this age rest ion is coupled with education ments which prevent i1l shildren working un< il they are or even 18 iyears old. mit“the num- per week which minors. Some work, as well as deréd physic- of required so prohibit night certain occupations ally or morally injurie R While these successes are’encourag- ing they by no means leave nothing for future effori. The last census shows nearly two million children be- tween 10 and 14 years of age out of school. Some of the great industrial nations of Europe are far ahead of us in their legislation Iinsuring the development of vigorous and intelli- gent citizens. In the German empire a child cannot enter the faptory un- der the age of 15, while Switzerland not only has a 16-year limit, but also pensions g#hool childven who have no means of support. It is doubtful whether this country is ready for such Padical measures. We have not yet educated public opin- jon to the full support of the existing laws. This educational work need not Ne' cotih to the emnloyers of chil- dren. Carroll D. Wright, after years “Continued on Next Page.