Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-06-25
Labor Leader Says More Than
Wages Involved in Telephone
Girls Strike.
Women Must Get Good Pay or
Be Tempted to Lead Lives
OF Shame.
Organized Labor Backing Their
Strike IS. Owners Should
Arbitrate.
Special to Times-Republican.

Des Moines, June 25.-The strike of
this week, while it affects only COM
paratively small number of women and
union that has only been newly or
ganized, threatens to attain statewide
Importance unless a settlement is ef-
fected this week. The strike is being
conducted with moderation and good
Judgment, there has been no violence
nor threat of such, no attempt at coer-
Cion, no move to override personal
OF any one. The conferences have been
spirited and plain words have been
spoken. but that is all. 1t is expected
that a settlement will be effected and
the union will be recognized and better
wages be paid the operators, but the
negotiations are still pending and this
result may not be attained. Mr.. A. E.
Holder of the State Federation of La
Dor, who has been interested only in
general way in the effort of the opera
tors to gain better wages, in speaking
Of the situation said:
There is more in this little contest
than appears on the surface. It is a
fight to determine whether those who
labor have any rights as against the
owners of franchises in this city and
state. Men band themselves together
into associations and organizations and
c1in for These orca 1jzntjopS ranoop;tjon
by the granting of franchises and they
are given the right to invade private
property and to trample on the rights
OF individuals in the conduct of their
business; and when they are asked to
pay living wages to overworked girls
and women they sit back and say they
have nothing to arbitrate. The time
is ripe here in Des Moines for deter
mining whether this can be tolerated
forever. The telephone operators have
made move which means more than
simply recognition for them alone, for
il means something to many other la
boring men and women. The telephone
managers say they will not be dictated
to. The operators have not sought to
dictate to them. They do not want to
say who shall be employed or even that
none but union laborers shall be en-
ployed, but they do insist that wages
shall be right and that the operators
have some share In maintaining the
wages. 1t is now not so much ques-
ton with the managers of giving the
wages, for they recognize the business
of the demands made as it is a cues
ton of yielding to the women. What
the managers really fear is the taunts
or those who will say they allowed lot
OF women to whip them. This is fool
ishness. The women ought to have the |
same right of organization as the men
who have organized the telephone COM
panies and demand recognition from
every customer But there are others
besides the women interested. All the
labor organizations of Des Moines are
backing up the women. Every union |
man in the city feels an interest in it. |
L necessary the women can have the
backing of the entire body of union
workers not only in Des Moines but in
the state. 1t is mistake to suppose
there are only few women interested
Ia the union movement. Besides the
telephone operators there are the
unions of bookbindery women and gar
ment workers, all composed of women,
and the walters, printers. cigarmakers.
retail clerks, rug manufacturers and
workers, all having both men
and women in their ranks. The wait
ers. printers and cigarmakers demand
and get equal pay for equal work re-
sardless of the sex. Organization of
women into the union movement is not
new nor novel and it is we'll founded.
This is really social question rath-
r. than an industrial one" continued
Mr. Holder 1T all resolves itself back
% the question of saving women from
ives OF shame by making the condi-
ions surrounding honorable emplov-
nent so wholesome and so renumera-
i've that women workers will not be
Why society as whole is deeply inter-
sted in this movement. Women as well
is men must have recreation in some
orm. Look at the conditions among {
heSe telephone operators. One woman
elated to us that for two weeks she
lad worked from in the morning until
at night. She did not have to do so, ,
,ut she did have to work these long ,
lours to earn sufficient money to sup ,
'ort her family. One of the operators ,
n a Des Mones Office had worked every +,
sunday except two in three years. ;
When women are earning $3.50 to 81
week they are living near the danger
inc all the time. One of the men con-
ected with a Des Moines company ex- i
ressed with brutal franllness the
hought that if the operators cannot ]
i've on what they get from the tele- {
hone companies they can earn more in
paths of vice and crime. That
5 just where the union movement steps
n and says that it is for society to pro- c
est against labor conditions which vir- q
ually force women to lives of shame. | I
IN not saying that this has been done a
n Des Mones or that the telephone /
perators have been unable to resist the d
thrown about them, but | d
o say that in this work and every 9TH e
I work where women are employed for /
mall wages they are constantly near Il
he danger line and this is a standing I
lenace to society that the labor unions e
lmost alone are trying to remove, and L
;e feel that we ought to have and will b