You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Wednesday November 4, 1914
From Life Labor: Report on Chicago Conference of Women Trade Unionists, Part II
Today we conclude the report on the first ever conference of Chicago Trade Union Women. The report was written by Alice Henry for this month's edition of Life and Labor. Attending the conference were 63 delegates from 21 locals, not including representatives from the Women's Trade Union League, the organization which sponsored the conference. Committees were appointed by Miss Agnes Nestor after she had reminded the girls of the history of women in the early years of the American trade unions.
Agnes Nestor
Alice Henry
From Life and Labor of November 1914:
Chicago Conference of Women Trade Unionists
Alice Henry
[continued]
Miss Nestor reminded the girls that trade unionism is not new, and in proof pointed to the historical charts, illustrating the history of women in the early trade unions of this country, which decorated the walls. She outlined the work of the various committees,which she was about to appoint, and linked up each one with the need which had given rise to it, whether it was the Health Committee to prevent members from becoming sick, or the Legislative committee, which had to decide upon what laws the working women felt were needed most urgently, or the Citizenship Committee, which would make recommendations upon the responsibility of the recently enfranchised women voters.
Miss DeBray during the evening sang two groups of songs.
There seated sixty-three delegates, representing twenty-one locals, besides the League itself.
Delegates.
Bindery Women's Union No. 30:
Mary McEnerney, Kittie Carroll, Anna Petru,
Boot and Shoe Workers' Union No. 94:
Mary Anderson, Agnes Johnson, Martha Czeklinski.
Broom Makers' Union:
Alvina Frylick, Paulina Patka, Jennie Paufel.
Cloak Makers' Union No. 44:
Beekie Schwartz.
Glove Operators' Union, Local No. 18:
Elizabeth Christman, Mary Butler, Margaret Blake.
Garment Workers' Local No. 23:
Jennie Johnson.
Garment Workers Local 33:
Mamie Halverson, Anna Molloy, Nellie O'Rourke.
Garment Workers' Local 39:
Mrs. Sarah Dubow, Fannie Wolfsohn, Rose Eeinberg.
Garment Workers' Local No. 144:
Jennie Bardas, Carrie Sternfield, Bose Miller.
Garment Workers' Local No. 152:
Bessie Abramovitz, Mrs. Mary Anderson, Annie Wagner.
Garment Workers' Local No. 193:
Sadie Finkelstein, Laura Zeller.
Household Workers' Association Local:
Lillie Brummerhof, Anna Lindgren, Selma Sonnefeld.
Nurses and Attendants' Union:
Anna Millikan, Mary McNichols, Mrs. Wm. Sherman.
Necktie Workers' Union:
Celia Abramovitz, Celia Wallk.
Office Employes' Association No. 12755:
Olive Sullivan, Mary Nestor, Lulu M. Holley.
Suspender Workers' Union, Local No. 10093:
Tillie Garfinkle, Mrs. Caroline Orr, Mrs. Beesiger.
Tailors' Industrial Union No. 5:
Mrs. Carrie Ruther, Mrs. Jennie Loughridge, Gertrude Stoetzel.
Federation of Women High School Teachers:
Ethel M. Beers, Hedwig Hochbaum, Florence S. Hall.
Teachers' Federation (Grade Teachers):
Lavinia Ritter, Anna Waldschmidt, Frances E. Harden.
Typographical Union No. 16:
Mrs. Mary Browne, Mrs. V. M. Heath, Isabel McAlpine.
United Embroiderers' Union No. 14648:
Kate Kennedy, Catherine Schultz, Hanna Newman.
Waitresses' Union, Local No. 484:
Christine McComb, Sophia Dreislein, Mollie Leu.
Women's Trade Union League of Chicago:
Mrs. Raymond Robins, Agnes Nestor, Emma Steghagen
All through the session was felt the splendid sense of co-operation among the women workers, wherever their daily duties took them. This meant that each group had some contribution to make to the strengthening of the trade union movement, and to the common good of all. It also meant that each group was to take away from the conference encouragement and stimulus to enable them to face their own problems in the weeks and months ahead.
To the Women's Trade Union League in particular came a sense of peculiar satisfaction in the large number of women's unions represented, several for the first time, and in the opportunity given to welcome the new young leaders thus received into full fellowship.
`
Citizenship.
The first committee to report was that on citizenship. This brought home sharply to all present the new responsibilities of women as citizens, to the exercise of which we are still as a whole so unaccustomed. The recommendations made and adopted included bringing home to all working women the importance of registering, not only for our own sakes but because upon the result of the registration of the women of Chicago will depend in great measure the fate of the seven states now in the balance.
All trade union women were invited and urged to become members of the Wage Earners' Suffrage League and to form ward branches in order to reach the working women. This is the more important as most of the existing suffrage organizations of Chicago meet at hours inconvenient for wage earners to attend.
The League also endorsed the two women candidates for County Commissioner. Miss Mary McDowell and Miss Harriet Vittum as especially qualified to care for the poor and infirm.
Health.
The next committee brought out in detail the great value and importance of the work done by the Health Committee of the Women's Trade Union League. Trade unions with women members can affiliate with this committee upon paying a per capita tax of 25 cents upon their women members. This entitles the girls to the best office medical attendance at very inexpensive charges. The League has found, as a result, that in innumerable cases a talk with the doctor has helped the girl for the first time to take the question of her own health seriously. League workers know, none better, that under present industrial and economic conditions, too many of the causes of ill health are beyond removal by either doctor's advice or worker's care. And yet if the relation between bad working conditions and ill health is clearly seen, it is easier for the workers to band together for the removal of one and the cure of the other.
Some of the unions which have benefited most largely by the Health Benefit are among those who think that its terms ought to be modified by abolishing the free visits, charging 25 cents each for the first ten visits, and arranging for part payment for hospital residence, the same to be collected by instalments after recovery.
Education.
The recommendations of the Committee on Education dealt both with questions of public education and with the special plans of the League for their own members and other working women. Most emphatically was it recommended and endorsed by all that the unit system as against the dual system of vocational education receive the support of the conference and all organizations represented in it. Only thus can we have a vocational system which regards the interests of the workers and which is controlled by the community. The fact that the dual system is advocated by the capitalist interests is in itself suspicious. The only system of vocational education that workers can support is one which is a normal outgrowth from the present public school system, not something separate and answering only to the say-so of employers. Other points brought forward and carefully discussed by delegates were the need of a Board of Education elected at large and paid; and the raising of the compulsory school age limit to sixteen.
The chief suggestions in regard to the League's own work were that its special committee on education should endeavor to circulate books from the League library, in English and in foreign languages, including copies of "Life and Labor," among the women workers, through the shop stewards. The committee urged also the opening of classes in English for foreign speaking girls, advanced English and literature for English speaking girls, parliamentary law, the history of trade unionism and labor laws.
The Chicago Board of Education is also to be asked to introduce the study of labor laws enacted for the protection of the worker, not later than the fourth grade, the lessons to be illustrated with stereopticon pictures. In conclusion the committee drafted and presented a resolution on world peace which was passed with enthusiasm. In this connection it was also resolved to appoint a permanent peace committee to co-operate with the Chicago Federation of Labor.
Legislation.
The Legislative Committee made its contribution toward the forthcoming campaign for an eight hour law by proposing that an investigation be made in regard to the hours prevailing in the various trades and industries, and that statistics be compiled therefrom. Also that leaflets on laws for women for agitation and information be prepared. The appointment of a special committee was asked, to look into the conditions of employment and distress and make suggestions for a practical plan for dealing with the problem. Very important recommendations were:
That the Chicago League put the plan with regard to the enforcement of laws as set forth in the National program* into effect immediately; and that each shop steward be furnished with a copy of the Labor Laws enacted for the protection of women workers; and that we cooperate in every way possible in establishing municipal Employment Bureaus and adequate Labor Exchanges. In addition to the program of legislative measures add "One Day Best In Seven."
*"Life and Labor," October, 1913, p. 339
All these recommendations were concurred in, and the report adopted.
`
Union Label.
The Union Label Committee's report was brief but to the point and was endorsed emphatically. It recommended:
That unions have a label committee to keep their members informed on all label agitation, and that the unions that do label work only be asked to furnish the Women's Trade Union League and the unions affiliated with lists of firms selling label goods, or any literature they might have which would make a greater demand for the union label.
Organization.
The summing up of the Committee on Organization deserves to be quoted in full as showing the difficulties that have to be faced and the variety of activities called for in forwarding the organization of women.:
Strikes.
The waitresses are striking at Knabe's, Powers' and Efting's restaurants. The strike is progressing well and they are determined to win. The W. T. U L.'s work, in this case, can be largely educational by visiting the girls both at home and at the restaurants, urging organization and more fraternity, asking for the union button and looking for the Union House card in the window.
The girls at the U. S. Broom Factory have been on strike for five weeks. This is the only factory in the U. S. where women are employed in making brooms. They are receiving one-third to one-half of the wages paid to the men for the same work. The moral side in this strike is one of great importance. One foreman has been arrested for using indecent language, and otherwise mistreating the girls. The trial was to come up early in October. Five men working in this shop did not go out on strike with the girls. After five weeks, they consented to strike and joined the Union, thereby completely tying up the shop. The strike is going on splendidly and strike benefits are being paid. Everyone is urged to do everything possible to assist the strikers. The W. T. U. L. receives all contributions for the strikers. When buying brooms, please see to it that the Broommakers' Union label is on the product.
The Embroidery Workers are on strike at the Chicago Embroidery Factory, Swiss Embroidery Company, The Hildebrand, Garden City, The Neff and the Bechseiner factories. This strike has gone on four weeks. The main reason for the strike was that the manufacturers denied the girls their right to organize. Since the strike started the organization have signed the union agreement with a number of manufacturers, not affiliated with the Manufacturers' Association. The W. T. U. L. is helping by picketing and sending speakers to meetings.
The Garment Workers at Schonfeld and Yather's are on strike because of refusal from the firm to live up to the Arbitration Agreement The firm had previously conducted a union shop for a number of years.
Employes In State Institutions.
The Women's Trade Union League is at present assisting the Laundry Workers' and the Household Workers' Unions and the State Hospitals' employes (nurses and attendants) organization.
Of the recommendations made and adopted, the first carried the work on in a field little touched as yet by organized labor, that of public employment. The chairman, Miss Mary Anderson, speaking on behalf especially of the nurses and attendants in the state institutions of Illinois, in a powerful address showed how more and more were large bodies of workers being drawn into public employment and here especially could responsibility for wages and conditions of service be brought home to the public, who, in the long last, are the employers of these people. Any democratic community, she urged, must recognize the right of such employes to organize. Public sympathy and approval were, however, of little avail, unless it procured through the legislature more money to go toward increasing the wages and, by enlarging or rearranging the staff, shortening the hours of the attendants. It was not solely the attendants who would benefit. The patients would receive vastly improved care from nurses and attendants working reasonable hours, with their energies unsapped and with contented minds. The recommendations, which the conference confirmed, were therefore:
1. That a resolution be drafted in behalf of the nurses' and attendants' union to be
presented to the next State Legislature, calling for a larger appropriation; this money to be applied to increasing wages and shortening working hours for the employes in the State Institutions.
2. In order to spread the knowledge of Trade Unionism that the League continue to call meetings of shop stewards.
3. That the president appoint an organization committee, a two-thirds majority of such committee to be Trade Unionists.
4. The work of this committee should be to hold regular meetings once a month and special meetings when there is a strike in progress, to assist the strikers in every way possible.
5. That Unions hold open meetings once a month, inviting non-union girls to participate. That speakers and entertainments be furnished by the League.
6. That the League take one day every month to distribute literature to a special unorganized workers.
7. To encourage Union Centers, such as the N. W. Branch.
8. To strongly urge the buying of union label goods, one of the most effective ways of strengthening the organizations.
9. We request the committee on Labor Building to carry on a strong agitation, as labor in Chicago is very much in need of its own home.
It was universally felt at the close of the conference that it had been beyond expectation successful in bringing together the women workers, helpful in centering discussion upon their common difficulties and valuable in the opportunity it afforded for carrying on
co-operative action throughout the year. It was therefore the unanimous feeling of delegates that similar conferences should be held once a year.
The conference adjourned after singing "To Labor."
SOURCE
Life and Labor
(Chicago, Illinois)
Nov 1914
http://babel.hathitrust.org/...
See also:
Tag: Women's Trade Union League
http://www.dailykos.com/...
The Trade Union Woman
-by Alice Henry
D. Appleton, 1915
http://books.google.com/...
IMAGES
Alice Henry
http://adb.anu.edu.au/...
Agnes Nestoration:
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
For images of Delegates, see source above
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From The Survey of January 3, 1914:
The incoming of women in the ranks of unionism has brought in a singing strain. The Women’s Trade Union League has, for example, for the last few years used as its motto the first verse of Swinburne's Marching Song, and circulates Mrs. Gilman’s verses to labor, which are quite as much out of the ordinary run of verse:
TO LABOR
SHALL you complain who feed the world?
Who clothe the world, who house the world?
Shall you complain who are the world,
Of what the world may do?
Chorus.
As from this hour you use your power,
The world must follow you.
As from this hour you use your power,
The world must follow you.
The world’s life hangs on your right hand,
Your strong right hand, your skilled right hand;
You hold the whole world in your hand,
See to it what you do!
Chorus.
Or dark or light, or wrong or right,
The world is made by you;
Or dark or light, or wrong or right,
The world is made by you.
Then rise as you ne’er rose before
Nor hoped before, nor dared before;
And show as ne’er was shown before
The power that lies in you.
Chorus.
Stand all as one, till right is done,
Believe and dare and do;
Stand all as one, till right is done,
Believe and dare and do.
CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN
Sadly, I have not yet been able to find the tune to which the poem was sung.
SOURCE
The Survey, Volume 31
Survey Associates, 1914
(search with "Gilman" & choose p. 412)
http://books.google.com/...
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She's the Rebel Girl, the Rebel Girl,
She's the working class, the strength of this world.
From Maine to Georgia you'll see
Her fighting for you and for me.
Yes, she's there by your side
With her courage and pride,
She's unequaled anywhere.
And I'm proud to fight for freedom
With a Rebel Girl.
-Joe Hill and Hazel Dickens
"The Rebel Girl" as written by Joe Hill
http://www.folkarchive.de/...
The Rebel Girl - Hazel Dickens