Huntsville gazette., 1892-01-02
INi WCMAN'S BEHALF.
CLUBS FOR THE WORKERS.
ric Class of Vcmen and Girls Who Need
the Aid Of Such an Organization.


had included from the beginning,
organization for men. This was ac-
cepted as necessary and inevitable, and
the worxmen, even when the most dis
contented and unreasonable, had come
torepresent something firm, self-reliant
and loyal to his class. The conscious
ness of his manhood and his rights as a
man were ingrained facts, but since the
knights of labor sent out the 'Pream-
able" woman had no share in the
scheme. Under the old regime, all
workers had been part of the family.
The apprentice system included this,
but the sudden broadening of all
avenues to wealth, brought about by
the enormous growth of the country,
and the improved machinery which met
the new demand for production, ended
the old and brought in the new. In
evitably in this new, the individual
dropped out of sight. Workers became
simply hands," and remain SO. That
bodies owning souls and brains are also
to be included, forms no part of the con-
sideration. Society has long concen-
trated its work principally on the
criminal and thus mass of hard
working patient women and girls who
also must earn, and who began the
work unframed, undeveloped, and gain
ing their knowledge of both life and
work through sharp experience, walked
in our midst unregarded and uncared
for. In the great cities a portion lived
at home, but the the larger part were
lodged in tenement-houses or if little
higher class of worker, in narrow hall
bedrooms of cheap boarding houses,
or dubbed together in a larger one.
The report of the Massachusetts, Bu-
reau of Labor for 1884, on the working
women of Boston, their wages, lives
and general conditions, was one of the
first strong impulses toward better
ment. AS in all suddenly defined need
of action, the movement began almost
simultaneously at different points,
Philadelphia taking the lead. The
Working Woman's Guild of that city,
an offshoot of the New Century club.
owes its life as does also that of the
parent stem, to the wisdom and energy
of a woman who has always ignored
recognition, and gone her quiet way,
bent only upon accomplishing her pur-
pose, Mrs. Eliza S. Turner, the first
president of the New Century club. It
was to her that New York workers
turned when the thought came also to
them that the dreary lives of shop girls
and general workers might be tighten
ed, and there are points in the Phila-
delphia system still to be attempted in
New York. There is small occasion
for criticism of methods. All know the
untiring energy and devotedness of
Miss Dodge and her work, and the con-
vention of working-girls' clubs held in
New York in April, 1890, demonstrated
the extraordinary change that six
years of work had brought about.
For every city where the experiment
had been tried, hundreds had learned
two things that underlie the formation of
any such organization. First, that there
are means of happiness and of growth
within the reach of all workers, and
second, that out of such organization
grows feeling of mutual trustfulness,
power of concentrated action, which
will enable the worker to make effect
ual claim to larger and juster share of
the product of her labor Seventy
five societies banded together to these
ends met at the New York convention,
and gave three days to general discus
sion of what had already been done,
and of methods of enlarging the work.
One of the most vital phases of effort
connected with the movement is the
White Cross society, and the special
talk to girls, hundreds of whom have
received from this source their first les
son in the laws of life. Classes of ev-
cry variety, from languages to cooking,
have been formed, and the Philadel-
phia Guild, an absolutely unsectarian
one, has included light carpcntering
and other features of industrial train
ing. Further detail Of the practical
side is unnecessary, since he who runs
may read. That there is sometimes too
evident an attempt to wipe out dividing
lines, and reach the level of the lowest
worker, is at least venial fault At
best it is task filed with difficulties.
The sense of perfect equality-the Pm
as good as you are" feeling, is strong
in every one. How to guide this per-
sonal independence SO that it may keep
the soul of wholesomeness within, yet
learn that there is no equality save as
souls seek the same things and those
the highest is the problem to be solved
A myriad questions arise which only
experience can answer. But one thing
is certain. OF all the clubs forming on
every hand, none are of such vital
power, or essential to any growth for
women, as a whole, as these for the
worker. Her wage at best for the
whole United States is, as given in the
report of the United States Bureau of
Labor for 1883, entitled, Working
Women in Large Cities" a trifie under
five dollars a week The actual figures
are S4.s4 These mean sharp limita
tions: so sharp that when their possi-
bilities are summed up one has hardly
words to praise, in just measure, the
patience, the fidelity of the mass of
these workers. Every influence from
without tends to force them to dead
level and to keep them there. 1t is,