The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-01-15

cisms and a lively discussion of the
characters. The club is doing excellent
| work in English history.
The day is gone by when it is fair or
safe to arraign men for conditions
which hedge in a woman; by which l
mean that the men of the country are
ready and willing to extend a helping
: hand to women who really want any
thing. When the women of this country
or any part of it rise up and declare in
body that they want the ballot, for
instance, they will get it; for it is not
the men who are keeping it from us.
When the women of America come for
ward ready for concerted action on any
subject, the men are with them as a
! rule. OF course, this refers to man
| kind collectively, not individually, and
| leave it to any clubWoman if the men
| of her household are not, as rule, quite
in sympathy with her club interests and
club work. The thinking man and the
one who sees below the surface in this
restless, changing, hopeful age goes
farther and recognizes that with all our
| shortcomings and superticialities we
have at heart an unquenchable desire to
| do our part of the worlds work; more
| over, that there is a tremendous psych-
| illogical significance in the banding to-
gether of 100000 women, all actuated
| by the same purpose, even if the move
| ment be slightly chaotic and not al
ways we'll directed.
We began in club life by study
! ing literature, present and past. Then
we took up history, and from compar-
ing causes and effects in the past we
naturally came to studying the economic
conditions of to-day. Once take up this
question and we become powerful fac
tor in its evolution. Women can create
and maintain public sentiment and it is
the thinking women who usually become
clubwomen. The new political economy
which means the care and culture OF
mankind, to-day demands our atten-
ton. There are many phases of it, but
most of our club studies bear upon it II
one form or another.
! There We're some phases of it present.
| ed to the clubWOmen of MaSSachuSett Is
at the Boston meeting that We're worthy
| of serious thought In considering the
industrial conditions of the age some
plain truths were brought home to us
1t is not pleasant, for instance, to heal
about women who make shirt waists fcl
As cents a dozen and ruffled skirts fol
| 19 cents apiece, and thankful, poor crea
| lures, to get even that. Ii is heart
breaking to hear of the girls who work
| in laundreS t So to Sc week and at
risk of having hand or foot crushed il
| the mangle. 1t is quite heartrending tt
be told of the hardships that hefall {
girl who has lost her hand and mus
find some way to earn her scanty living
| But when we are told how we can hell
| these conditions, the matter become
practical. When We are shown that b,
patroniZinS bargain counters and buy
ing the cheap shirt waists and petit
coats we encourage these conditions
and it is explained how we can improv,
matters for laundry girl, then our feel
lhSS nave not been narrowed in vain.
When we come to realize that it rest
with us to create a demand for bette
conditions, we are ready for our part G
the work. We may deplore the exist
ence of the yellow journals" but
we buy them we encourage the sal
and contribute to their support. W
) may believe the sweat shop to be pc
institution of Satan, but if we buy il
products, we are encouraging the me
who keep up it's existence.
One of the most hopeful augurie
5 for the future of the General Fedora
! ton, is the fact that it has definitel