The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-11-12
HOW To AID WORKING PEOPLE.


BOSTON, Nov. 1.-THE following letter
from Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell to Miss
Frances Willard will be read at the national
w. c. T. u. convention which assemblies
at Cleveland Nov. 16:
Dear Miss Willard-You ask me to ad-
wise the women of the Womens Christian
Temperance Union how they can best help
the working people, and / am very glad
to give you my views of the matter, for
/ believe that they can make themselves as
strong power for good in this direction as
they have in their own special field; but
to accomplish this they must themselves
desire justice in the relations between the
employers and employees and must create
a public opinion which will demand it, In
this country, with rare exceptions, justice
is seldom found in these relations. AT some
times and in some places it is the labor
oranizations which are dictatorial, while
the employers cringe and relinQuish all
their rights to maintain peace, but more
tyrannicai, asserting loudly that they In in
tend to manage their own business as they
choose and will net be interfered with by
their workingTen.
Here is the weak point: There will never
be justice between employers and employees,
consequently there will never be a lasting
peace until the employers recognize the
claim of the employees to a voice in the
settlement of questions relating to making
the hours and conditions of labor. All
these questions of vital Importance to
the employees, and do in fact more rearly
concern them than they do the employers,
business success or their living which is
involved, while with the employees. their
living. their health and In1eed the happi-
ness of their whole lives are at stake. 1t
can scarcely be expected that American
citizens who have been born and bred with
to system which places their welfare
entirely in the hands of others. This sug-
gestion, that the employees have q right
TO a voice in what lis called their employ
ers' business. will be new to many and
will at first seem to be unreasonable, but
the more it Is considered the more Just il
will show itself TO be, and IL will finally
be acknowledged to be true.
many large industries in England all
questions of wages. hours and conditions
of work have been settled without strike
or lockout by joint boards boards of con-
ISOLATION arbitration boards of which
the associations of employers and employees
chosen and empowered to legislate for their
constituents, and on these boards the em-
ployers and employees have always had an
equal representation. In our country also
met with equal success. but the practice of
justice with US has been neither so long
nor so widely extended as In England
and. strangely enough. employers here, in
stead OF instinctively recognizing that thi;
Is the only solution of the difficulties of
the labor question. assume tone of arb
frary ownership and proclaim their right
to issue orders which must be obeyed
II believe that II Is by the study OF this
phase OF the labor question and the ad-
venting disputes and of arbitration as a
means Of settling them that the members
OF the Women's Christian Temperance
Union can best help the working people.
'JosEPHiNE SHAW LOWELL"