The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-05-28
WOMEN WAGE-WORKERS
ABOUT THE NEW YORK WORKING
wOMEN-S SOCIETY.

the wages ana improve Ine Copol-
ton of Working Women - Some
Things Which 1t Has Done and 9th
ers Which 1t Hopes to Do-Rescuing
the Tenement Bondslaves.
New YORK, May 26-"Working women,
organize your trade!"
How, for what and do we dare?
This is what the Working Women's So
cety of New York is saying and what the
tenement house bondwomen are querying
in reply.
'Organize for living hours, living wages;
stand together for release from hunger,
degradation and dirt; there is hope in union,
outside there is despair"
Hope" and without shade of mockery
in the tone; there is progress to begin with
The lately formed Working Women's So
ciety is the only organization of its sort in
the country, and it is making the first thor
oughly intelligent effort ever made to bet
ter permanently and radically the condition
of the working women of the city. The
Knights of Labor have organized local as
semblies of women and have admitted
women to mixed assemblies: the trades
unions have organized unions Of women or
admitted women in mixed unions, but the
knights of Labor and the trades unions are
essentially mems unions organized to adj
Vanced the interest of men and admitting
women to self-defenSe, mainly in those
trade in which the unorganiZed labor of
women cuts down the wages of men. The
Working Women's Society is the first labor
organization formed Independently by
women, limiting its membership to women
and working in the interest of women.
And how will it succeedg
Bravely, if it goes on as it has begun 1t
has organized four of the most important
trades employing women during the spring
and it has plans for a vigorous summer
campaign 1t has pressed bill for the APP
pointInent of women as deputy factory in
spectors and lost 1t only because the State
Senate failed to reach it in the rush of the
last days of the Legislative session. 1t has
been requested by one of the large manu-
facturers of mems overals and jumpers to
furnish him workwomen, to organize his
city factory and to draw up satisfactory
regulations by which employer and en-
ployes should be bound, to which he has
subscribed. 1t has opened headquarters In
Lafayette place, under the rooms of the
New York Cooking School, which are open
every evening and are becoming the rem
devious of the working women as well as
the center of information about working
ings monthly and it has organizers at work
who endeavor to reach the scattered and
starving needlewomen and tenement house
laborers who would never come forward of
their own accord to place themselves in line
with any movement. 1t has governed it
self in its initial enterprises so wisely that
newspapers which are not too friendly to
trades unions have opened their columns to
it, and some of the wealthIest, best known
a M hhRrnl- p1inHa1 Of hn oft
have asked to have their names enrolled ON
its books. Mrs. c. P. Huntington has fur
nished the society's rooms. Mrs. Court
landt Palmer Is an active helper. Mrs.
Hewitt usually attends the meetings and
Bishop Potter's daughter desires to join.
The spirit in which some of the rich women
join hands with the working women is
something in its way beautiful. They I'M
deTStand from the start that the society is
not candidate for any Lady Bountiful
philanthropy, that it is a regular labor or
ganization proposing TO use the same means
as oJher labor organizations, that it is not
anxious to elect lady patrons to Office that
it is and is likely to be controlled by bona
1ide working women. But they believe in
its ohjecs, they recognize the universal sis
terhood and testify their sincerity by invit-
ing the working girls to their homes.
The specific objects of the Working
Womens Society as laid down in the pre-
anlble to its constitution are these
To found trade organizations in such
trades where they do not exist, and to en-
courG &c and assist existing labor organiza-
tions, to the end of increasing wages and
shortening hours.
BY using all the means in our power to
enforce the existing laws relating to the
protection of women and children in shops
and factories; investigating and protesting
against all violations of said laws: also,
whenever possible, promoting legislation on
this subject.
The abolition Of tenement house manufac-
ture, especially in the industries of cloth
ing and cigars.
To investigate and protest against all
cases that are creditably brought to our no
tice Of cruel and tyranical treatment on the
part of employers aud their managers open
robbery by withholding pay, or underhand
theft in imposing fines and docking wages
on trivial grounds, shameful indecency in
the arrangement of shops. and abusive or
insulting language to the helpless and
women employees
To found a Labor Bureau, for the purpose
of facilitating the exchange of labor be-
tween the city and country, and thus re-
lieving the overcrowdod occupations now
filed by women.
To publish a journal in the interests of
working women.
10 secure LOT DOM sexes equal pay Tor
equal work.
1t was with Miss Ida NJ. Van Etten, the
writer and lecturer. whose addresses on tie
industrial condition of women in Madison
Square Iheater year ago this past winter
attracted general attention that the idea of
the society originated. Miss Van Etten is
IN enthusiastic KnigJt of kabor, and the
success Of the women organized in the
stitching rooms of the shoe factories in con-
trolling their wages and hours of work in
spired her with the belief that thorough
and intelligent organization was tho only
remedy for the deplorable condition of the
mass of the city working women. She took
council with Father Huntington, the good
priest who works among the very poor on
the east side, and call for a series OF meet
lngs, beginning last October, ''to bring to-
gether women and girls who work for their
living and encourage them TO consult as to
how they can organize more thoroughly for
their own improvement and protection and
how they can gain the same consideration
from employers and factory owners that
men have gained by their unions and
ORDERS" was the result.
Miss Mary Mckinley, a feather curer and
q Knight of Labor; Miss Mary G. Andrews,
a type-setter who has worked hard to get
women type-setters into the Typographical
Union; Miss Leonoro O'Reilly, a shirtmaker;
Father Huntingtons sister, Miss ARIA
Huntingdon Miss Gabrielle Greeley, a
daughter Of Horace Greeley, and some 9TH
ers were among the pioneers One or two
II. -. H