The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1903-06-06
WOMEN STRIKERS
AND PICKETING
Gertrude Rarnum Believes That Pick.
citing is JustifiabIe and Necessary
to Preserve.


to Preserve.
The only right accorded without pro-
test to women is that which the old
darkey minister must have meant when
he spoke on the subject, The Woman
Suffering Movement. We shudder at
the accounts of the hitching of Women
and children to coal carts in English
mines. Had women been as patient as
preachers urge they would even vet be
taking the places of mules in the mines.
Unorganized women to-day are still
harnessed to loads beyond human
strength to drag. The sewing operator
during busy season, runs foot ma
chine fourteen haurs a day till blood
spurts from her nose and she drops un-
conscious. The laundry girl stands III
the steam and clutter through the hot
August days IL and IA hours at
stretch and sinks fainting onto the
nearest chair at the union meeting in
the evening. The twine girl works in
the midst of the changing, deafening
machines till her nerves collapse and
her place is filed by fresh victim.
The picture frame bronzer inhales the
fume of her material till she is driven
to the consumptive hospital to die. The
little Italian knee pants finisher faces,
alone the sweater, the contractor, the
manufacturer, and the manufacturers
and mechanics associations. She car
ries the huge pile on her tired little head
to the miserable tenement room, crosses
her weary legs and stitches away with
no hope of redress, clutching her seven
cents for a dozen pairs of trousers with
out protesest.
. Women still in every trade are not
only victims themselves, but by their
ignoble patience are undermining the
work Of mems unions. The only hope
for the worker has been in the union
movement. So long as the employer
"can deal with the individual,' the
frail girl or moman need not hope for
mercy. If she does not care to be har-
messed to the mule car, other girls will
consent
The history OF. the growth of the
unions with all it's blots and blemishes,
is on the whole a record of Altruism
and persistent heroism. No one who
has followed the movement has any
conception of the struggle it has in
volved. A few persistent women have
met all opposition step by step con-
Quering internal and external difficult
ties, until at last their unions are rec
ognized and are forcing reasonable
concessions. :
Now the growing power and protest
of the outraged workers has alarmed
and embittered employers i These: are
attacking the. bel nnin4s Iof union iii
Vigilance and IKE ne Jas of
punishment. But steadily or boldly the
women make converts and their unions
are being valiantly defended. In the
factories where the laborers and sacri-
fice of union women have secured ad-
vnntages for workers, these ADVANTAGES
are jealously guarded, and it is well
they should be jealously guarded it is
social duty to keep up the standards
of life and work.
This prafseworthy social motive as
well as the motive of preservation,
leads to ''picketing" in times of strikes.
When "picketing' is prohibited by in
junction the only wea pom of the work.
er Is taken away. She is absolutely dis
armed before her powerful and unscrup-
ulous employer. and she must yield all
she gained through the union and once
more accept the old terms. She has of
course, the alternative Of resigning her
| position to another who will accept
those terms while she starves outside.
The right Of free speech is one of the
fundamental rights of American citi-
Gems. The woman enjoined from "pick-
eting' factory to make converts for
the union cause is being denied this
right. which is her only hope of sal
yatlon. Picketing is constantly and un-
rem1ttlngly practised by the managers
inside Of factories with a view to inti-
m1datlng workers and preventing the
growth of unionism. It seems that it
is only when the picketing is undertake
ell by the worker that the courts step
in to interfere. Let the girls continue
to picket" The manufa cturers do not
own the streets and they cannot deprive
American women Of their right of free
speech.-Gertrude Barnum in Boyce's
Weekly.