After a painting by Carl Marr, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York.
]
“Union Is Power.”
“Our present object is to have union and exertion, and we remain in
possession of our own unquestionable rights. We circulate this paper,
wishing to obtain the names of all who imbibe the spirit of our
patriotic ancestors, who preferred privation to bondage and parted with
all that renders life desirable—and even life itself—to produce
independence for their children. The oppressing hand of avarice would
enslave us, and to gain their object they very gravely tell us of the
pressure of the times; this we are already sensible of and deplore it.
If any are in want of assistance, the ladies will be compassionate and
assist them, but we prefer to have the disposing of our charities in our
own hands, and, as we are free, we would remain in possession of what
kind Providence has bestowed upon us, and remain daughters of freemen
still.
“All who patronize this effort we wish to have discontinue their labor
until terms of reconciliation are made.
“Resolved. That we will not go back into the mills to work unless our
wages are continued to us as they have been.
“Resolved, That none of us will go back unless they receive us all as
one.
“Resolved, That if any have not money enough to carry them home they
shall be supplied.
“Let oppression shrug her shoulders,
And a haughty tyrant frown,
And little upstart Ignorance
In mockery look down.
Yet I value not the feeble threats,
Of Tories in disguise,
While the flag of independence,
O’er our noble nation flies.”
In 1843 the girls in the cotton mills of Pittsburg, Pa., whose working
hours had been from five o’clock in the morning till a quarter of seven
in the evening, rebelled also, when their employers attempted to
increase the time one hour each day without extra pay. Two years later
they co-operated with the factory girls of New England, concurring in
the proposal to “declare their independence of the oppressive
manufacturing power” unless the work day was limited to ten hours.
The policy of these fighters for better conditions is outlined in the
constitution of the “=Lowell Female Labor Reform Association=,” which
had been organized in 1845. Article IX says:
“The members of this association disapprove of all hostile measures,
strikes and turn-outs until all pacific measures prove abortive, and
then that it is the imperious duty of everyone to assert and maintain
that independence which our brave ancestors bequeathed to us and sealed
with their blood.”
The spirit of these working women is likewise shown in the preamble
adopted at the annual meeting of the association in January, 1846. It
reads:
“It now only remains for us to throw off the shackles which are binding
us in ignorance and servitude and which prevent us from rising to that
scale of being for which God designed us. With the present system of
labor it is impossible. There must be reasonable hours for manual labor
and a just portion of time allowed for the cultivation of the mental and
moral faculties, and no other way can the great work be accomplished. It
is evident that with the present system of labor the minds of the mass
must remain uncultivated, their morals unimproved. Shall we, operatives
of America, the land where democracy claims to be the principle by which
we live and by which we are governed, see the evil daily increasing
which separates more widely and more effectually the favored few and the
unfortunate many without one exertion to stay the progress? God forbid!
Let the daughters of New England kindle the spark of Philanthropy in
every heart till its brightness shall fill the whole earth.”
Not satisfied with securing thousands of signatures of factory
operatives, who petitioned the legislature for a ten-hour day, prominent
members of the union went before the Massachusetts legislative committee
early in 1845 and testified as to the conditions in textile mills. This
was the first American governmental investigation of labor conditions,
and it was due almost solely to the petitions of the working women.
About the same time the union appointed a committee to investigate and
expose false statements published in newspapers concerning the factory
operatives. Nor was this all. In their work of publicity they did not
hesitate to call public men to account for assailing or ignoring their
movement.
The chairman of the legislative committee, before whom the working girls
had testified, was the representative from the Lowell district, and
should, therefore, have shown special interest in the complaints of the
girls. Instead, he had treated them in a high-handed manner, withholding
at the same time from the Legislature some of the most important facts
presented by the Lowell girls. The latter expressed their just
indignation in the following resolution, which was circulated before the
elections of that year:
“Resolved, That the Female Labor Reform Labor Association deeply deplore
the lack of independence, honesty and humanity in the committee to whom
were referred sundry petitions relative to the hours of labor,
especially in the chairman of that committee; and as he is merely a
corporation machine, or tool, we will use our best endeavors and
influence to keep him in the “City of Spindles,” where he belongs, and
not trouble Boston folks with him.”
That the “endeavors” of the girls met with full success is evident from
a second resolution published after election day:
“Resolved, That the members of this association tender their grateful
acknowledgments to the voters of Lowell for consigning William Schouler
to the obscurity he so justly deserves for treating so ungentlemanly the
defense made by the delegates of this association before the special
committee of the legislature, to whom was referred petitions for the
reduction of the hours of labor, of which he was chairman.”
The result of all this agitation against long hours of work was that in
1847, 1848, and 1851 the first ten-hour laws were passed in New
Hampshire, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
The success, won by the textile workers, inspired women workers in the
tailoring and sewing trade, in the manufacture of shoes, cigars, and
other necessities to similar efforts. In the tailoring and sewing trade
wages were extremely low, as sweat-shop conditions existed from the
beginning, and the trade was overcrowded.
In 1845 New York City alone had over 10,000 sewing women, the majority
of whom worked from twelve to sixteen hours a day to earn only from two
to three dollars a week!
As similar conditions prevailed in other occupations, the number of
poorly paid women wage-earners in New York City in 1865 was between
50,000 to 70,000, of whom 20,000 were in a constant fight with
starvation, and of whom 7,000 lived in cellars. Their situation grew
from bad to worse, as at the same time that they were falling into a
state of physical and mental deterioration, the improvements in many
machines made greater and greater demands on the capability of those who
were operating them.
Thus the situation became such as was sketched by W. I. Thomas in an
article written some fifteen years ago for the “American Magazine,” in
which he said:
“The machine is a wonderful expression of man’s ingenuity, of his effort
to create an artificial workman, to whom no wages have to be paid, but
it falls just short of human intelligence. It has no discriminative
judgment, no control of the work as a whole. It can only finish the work
handed out to it, but it does this with superhuman energy. The
manufacturer has, then, to purchase enough intelligence to supplement
the machine, and he secures as low a grade of this as the nature of the
machine will permit. The child, the woman and the immigrant are
frequently adequate to furnish that oversight and judgment necessary to
supplement the activity of the machine, and the more ignorant and
necessitous the human being the more the profit to the industry. But now
comes the ironical and pitiful part. The machine which was invented to
save human energy, and which is so great a boon when the individual
controls it, is a terrible thing when it controls the individual.
Power-driven, it has almost no limit to its speed, and no limit whatever
to its endurance, and it has no nerves. When, therefore, under the
pressure of business competition the machine is speeded up and the girl
operating it is speeded up to its pace, =we have finally a situation in
which the machine destroys the worker=.”
The rapidly increasing misery among such exhausted women workers aroused
public attention and led to the formation of a number of woman’s
organizations with the purpose to investigate abuses among such women
workers, to teach them the value of trade unions, to agitate equal pay
for equal work, to shorten the number of working hours, and to abolish
child labor and prison work. The first national women’s trade union,
formed in the United States, was that of the “=Daughters of St.
Crispin=.” It held its first convention on July 28, 1869, at Lynn,
Massachusetts. The delegates represented not only the local lodges of
that state, but also lodges of Maine, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois,
and California.
With the organization of the “=Knights of Labor=” in 1869, and the
“=American Federation of Labor=” the position of woman in the American
labor movement became more firmly established, as both federations made
it one of their principal objects “to secure for both sexes equal pay
for equal work.” They also appointed special committees to investigate
the conditions of working women, and to organize them for concerted
action.
Other potent factors arising in this line were the “=National Consumers’
League=” and the “=Women’s Trade Union League=.” The founding of the
first federation was due to efforts to better the conditions of women in
department stores. In 1890 a group of saleswomen of New York City
pointed to the fact that girls in fashionable department stores were
receiving wages too low to allow them a decent living. They also
complained that these girls were forced to stand from ten to fourteen
hours a day, and that sanitary conditions in the cloak and lunch rooms
were such as to endanger health and life. While the plan of these
saleswomen, to unite all women clerks of the city into a labor union,
failed, their complaints, however, attracted the attention of a number
of influential ladies interested in philanthropic efforts. They
investigated the charges against the department stores, and what they
discovered made them resolve that conditions demanded radical changes.
In May, 1890, they called a mass meeting of prominent women and proposed
a constructive plan for raising the standard in shop conditions, not by
=blacklisting= any firm guilty of bad conduct, but by =white-listing=
those firms which treated their employees humanely. “We can make and
publish,” so the presiding lady said, “a list of all the shops where
employees receive fair treatment, and we can agree to patronize only
those shops. By acting openly, and publishing our White List we shall be
able to create an immense public opinion in favor of just employers.” In
other words, it was by the spirit of praise rather than condemnation
that these ladies sought to stimulate stores to raise their standards.
Adopting the name “=Consumers’ League of New York=,” the society
organized on January 1, 1891, and published its first White List. It was
a disappointingly small one, as it contained the names of only eight
firms. Still more disappointing was the indifference of the many hundred
other firms toward this reform movement. But soon enough these firms
found that the League had also introduced into the New York Assembly a
bill which became known as the “Mercantile Employers Bill.” It aimed to
regulate the employment of women and children in all mercantile
establishments, and to place all retail stores, from the smallest to the
largest, under the inspection of the State Factory Department.
Of course the merchants took prompt steps to defeat this obnoxious bill,
and they were most complacent when their representatives in the Assembly
succeeded in strangling it. But the bill appeared again and again,
finally resulting in the appointment of a State Commission for the
investigation of the conditions. As Reta Childe Dorr in her book “What
Eight Million Women Want” graphically relates, “The findings of this
Commission were sensational enough. Merchants reluctantly testified to
employing grown women at a salary of =thirty-three cents a day=. They
confessed to employing little girls of eleven and twelve years, in
defiance of the child-labor law. They declared that pasteboard and
wooden stock boxes were good enough seats for saleswomen; that they
should not expect to sit down in business hours, anyhow. They defended,
on what they called economic grounds, their long hours and uncompensated
overtime. They defended their system of fines, which sometimes took away
from a girl almost the entire amount of her weekly salary. They
threatened, if a ten-hour law for women under twenty-one years old were
passed, to employ older women. Thus thousands of young and helpless
girls would be thrown out of employment, and forced to appeal to
charity.”
The Senate heard the report of the Commission, and in spite of the
merchants’ protests, the women’s bill was passed without a dissenting
vote. Its most important provision was the ten-hour limit which it
placed on the work of women under twenty-one. The bill also provided
seats for saleswomen, and specified the number of seats, one to every
three clerks. It forbade the employment of children, except those
holding working-certificates from the authorities.
But soon it was found that the smart representatives of the merchants
had succeeded in attaching to the bill a so-called “joker,” by which the
inspection of the stores was entrusted to the local boards of health. As
the officials of these boards, supposedly experts, proved, in fact,
ignorant of industrial conditions and their relation to health and
sanitation, the true objects of the bill could not be enforced. So the
Consumers’ League was compelled to wage another tedious war, until it
finally succeeded in convincing the Legislature that the inspection of
all department and retail stores should be turned over to the State
Factory Department. When this was done, there were reported in the first
three months of the enforcement of the Mercantile Law over 1200
violations in Greater New York. At the same time 923 under-age children
were taken out of their positions as cash girls, stock girls, and
wrappers, and sent back to school.
It was natural that the good results and the purely benevolent motives
of the Consumers’ League attracted wide attention. Similar Associations
were formed in many other cities and states. The movement spread so
rapidly, that in 1899 it was possible to organize “=The National
Consumers’ League=,” with branches in twenty-two states.
Encouraged by such success, the league now began to study the working
conditions of girls employed in restaurants. It was found that in many
cases these conditions were even worse than in the department stores.
Girls of twenty years were found working as cooks from 6:30 in the
morning to 11:30 at night, with no time off on Sundays or holidays! This
meant 119 hours a week, more than twice the time the law permits for
factory employees. Other girls, employed as waitresses, were serving
every day from 7:30 a. m. to 10:30 p. m., or 105 hours each week! In
going back and forth, they walked several miles a day, carrying heavy
trays at the same time. In rush hours they worked at a constant nervous
tension, for speed is one of their requirements. And they must not only
remember a dizzying list of orders, but must fill them quickly and keep
their temper under the exactions of the most rasping customer.
Based on such findings, the Consumers’ League of New York caused the
framing of a bill by which the hours of women in restaurants were
limited to 54 hours weekly, which gave the girls one day of rest in
seven, and prohibited their working between 10 p. m. and 6 a. m. In
October, 1917, this bill became a law. In a number of other states
minimum wage laws have also been secured.
The Consumers’ League of Philadelphia took pains to investigate
conditions in the silk mills of Pennsylvania. It was found that besides
overwork and underpay there were often other evils, due to an erring as
well as inhuman policy on the part of the employers. Like the owners of
the department stores many of these men were possessed by the idea that
the right to sit down would encourage slow work and laziness.
Accordingly the girls in these mills were forced to stand from early
morning till late at night, day after day, and month after month.
The secretary of the Consumers’ League, who, under an assumed name,
worked for some time in various mills, in order to study conditions,
wrote:
“The harmful effect of continuous standing, upon young and growing
girls, is too well established a fact to require any elaboration. In
addition to the permanent ill effects, much immediate and unnecessary
suffering, especially in hot weather, is inflicted by the prohibition of
sitting. I could always detect the existence of this rule by a glance at
the stocking-feet of the workers, and at the rows of discarded shoes
beneath the frames. For after a few hours the strain upon the swollen
feet becomes intolerable, and one girl after another discards her
shoes.”—
Another harsh and very common practice of employers is to cover the
lower sashes of the windows with paint, and to fasten them so that they
cannot be raised in hot weather. This is done “so that the girls don’t
waste time looking out.”
The cruelty of these unnecessary rules is often aggravated by a most
amazing lack of the common decencies and necessities of cleanliness.
One of the most difficult tasks of the Consumers’ League was to overcome
the absolute unwillingness of storekeepers to compensate their
saleswomen for overtime. If it would be possible to compute the amount
of such unpaid labor performed after the regular hours in many stores as
well as in the bookkeeping and auditing departments, especially during
the Christmas season, the sum would be startling indeed. A circular
issued by the Women’s Trade Union League of Chicago some years ago
stated that the 3000 clerks in only one department store of that city
had been required to work during the holiday season overtime to the
total amount of 96,000 hours, without receiving any compensation. At the
rate of only ten cents an hour these clerks suffered a loss of $9,600,
at the rate of 25 cents an hour a loss of $24,000.
* * * * *
The first “=Women’s Trade Union League=” was organized in 1875 by =Mrs.
Emma Paterson=, the wife of an English trade unionist. While travelling
in America, she had observed that women workers of various trades had
formed unions, among which the “Umbrella Makers’ Union,” the “Women’s
Typographical Union” and the “Women’s Protective Union” were the most
prominent. Convinced that the utility of such combinations could be
still more increased, Mrs. Paterson, after her return to England,
organized a federation of such women’s unions, the “=British Women’s
Trade Union League=,” which later on became the model for a similar
organization in America. It was founded on November 14th, 1903, for the
one main purpose to organize all women workers into trade unions, in
order to protect them from exploitation, to help them raise their wages,
shorten their hours, and improve sanitary conditions of the work shops.
Becoming affiliated with the “American Federation of Labor,” the league
gained a splendid victory during the years 1909 to 1911, when a series
of huge strikes in the sewing trades spread over the East and the Middle
West. Also an agreement was arrived at, that the principle of preference
to unionists, first enforced in Australia, should be acknowledged. Under
this plan manufacturers, when hiring help, must give to union workers of
the necessary qualifications and degree of skill precedence over
non-union workers.
At all times ready to express the sentiments and voice the aspirations
of those who toil, the “Women s Trade Union League” represents to-day
over 100,000 working women. While it has had a wonderful effect in
improving standards of wages, hours and sanitary conditions in what was
originally an underpaid and unhealthy industry, it also has become the
pioneer in another direction, that of education in the labor movement.
At the initiative of a group of girls an educational movement was
started which has extended into organizations including some half a
million workers, men as well as women. In public schools of New York,
Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and other cities educators
of national reputation are co-operating with teachers and delegates from
labor unions in giving lecture courses for adults on such subjects as
social interpretation of literature, evolution of the labor movement,
problems of reconstruction, social problems, trade unionism and
co-operation, etc. At the same time a movement for co-operative housing
has been developing. “The New York Ladies’ Waist and Dressmaker’s Union”
for instance has bought in 1919 at a cost of several hundred thousand
dollars a magnificent summer home for the exclusive use of its members.
This “Unity House” at Forest Park, Pennsylvania, has accommodations for
500 guests. Situated at a beautiful lake, surrounded by shady forests
and green lawns, provided with tennis courts, a library and reading
rooms, it is an ideal recreation ground of first order. The money for
this estate was brought up by the 30,000 members of the union, each
contributing one day’s wages.
In New York City also a co-operative “Unity House” has been established
with quarters for fifty girls. A great extension of this movement in the
city is planned. The Philadelphia group of the same union is following
these examples and has acquired a fine estate worth $40,000.
At present the various woman’s organizations of the United States as
well as of other countries aim at the following issues:
=1.= =To limit the working day for women to eight hours.=
=2.= =To demand for women equal pay with men for equal work.=
=3.= =To establish for all the various occupations minimum wage
scales, sufficient to grant all women workers an adequate
living.=
=4.= =To secure safe and sanitary working conditions, and clinics
for the treatment of diseases resulting from certain
industrial occupations.=
=5.= =To secure industrial insurance laws.=
=6.= =To secure for all women full citizenship with the right to
vote in all municipal and national elections.=
As woman’s future position will depend on the realization of these
demands, their discussion is of utmost importance.