Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-21

two decades Some years the yail-up
membership will run below the minimum
mentioned. Through firmly and always
successfully resisting the attempts of the
manufacturers association from time 10
time TO reduce wages and to impose unjust
conditions upon lie workers 1t has maiu-
tanned wage for women which is regarded
by other manufacturing populations as lii
tie snort of miraculous, and it has insured
a sanitary and hygienic condition Of fac
tory and shop which is model Of It's kind
But IL Is in its social aspects that the
work OF the Hat Irimmers Association is
most far reaching III its influence as we'll
as interesting to the sympathetic observer
1t Is fact that in all the twenty-one
years of its existence this wonderful
womans organization has been directly
under the leadership OF it's original organ
lzer and initial president, Mrs. Ellen Foote.
NOT only does 1t presuppose extraordi-
nary amount OF diplomacy and executive
ability on the part of the presiding officer,
but it speaks volumes for the solidarity,
physical, mental and moral, of the Dam
bury workingwomen
AS has already been said working in
the shops brings no social obloquS upon
the head of the Danbury girl. She exer-
cises all the functions of social life such
as only the laughter of well-to-do parents
is ordinarily wont to exercise in large
urban populations. She takes a prominent
part in the church and charitable work of
the vicinity. she gives the incest parties
Imaginable in her home or her boarding
house parlors. and she goes to the incest
sort of parties in other peoples homes and
boarding houses. She dresses not only we'll
but very frequently handsomely The Dan
bury church parade will compare favorably
with that of any fashionable avenue in any
city ten times the size, and the observer
can lay down any wager he wants to that
nine out of every ten of the modishly
dressed well-groomed women and girls are
members of the Hat Trimmers Association.
And as to socety-that is, society spelled
with large S-here again the student of
social science must encounter the effects
OF this all-powerful woman's trade union
For Danbury's social register is filed with
the names of matrons who before their
marriage earned their livelihood in the
shops, and who are, moreover, proud to be
still allowed the privilege of membership
in the union.
''3ut 1t is not always fun and social gay
ETY. and romance with the girls of the Hat
Trimmers Union. That is only one side
of the picture the pleasant side. Like
other and less prosperous trades unions
they have had their struggles and their
dlsappointnients their strikes, their lock-
outs and their long winters of discomfort.
These they have suffered a-plenty and
the conditions they enjoy today are but
testimony to the bitterness of the fight they
have waged from time to time throughout
the existence of their organization One
of the greatest lockouts in the history of
the trades union movement was instituted
against these same girls some twelve years
ago. 1t lasted thirteen weeks. and in that
period every one of DanburyS thirty-two
factories was shut tight against them
'ln those weeks the girls knew as they
had never known before what the pinch of
poverty was, but they never finched nor
wavered a hairs breadth from their con-
ception of duty toward their organization
1t was in this time of warfare between the
girls and their employers that the latter
characterized the doughty Mrs Foote as
Queen Ellen a sobriQuet which has stuck
to her to this day
The United States makes more than one
third of the worlds entire production OF
steel G. p. Blackiston, iron and steel ex-
pert In the Technical World says:
1.-THE United States makes more than one
third of the worlds production OF steel
1900 600 out of total OF 36, zoo 600 tens;
1t is the richest and most prosperous among
the nations. The two statements are COM
Elementary Germany comes second, with
an annual production of O00,0OO tons, and
England third, with 5000, OsO tons.
1.-THE $50 steel works scattered through
out the United States represent t5tal in
yestment of over $442, 000. 600 and pay sI03-
OO0.OO0 annually in wages. These figures
cover only the actual production of steel in
it's crude form, process in which man has
rapidly been superseded by the marvellous
and all but human machines. The nlagni-
tude of the industry in Its entirety repre-
senting a capital of billions and employing
millions of wage earners, may therefore, be
imagined
In letter from New York city to the
New Brunswick IN. J.) Weekly Fesera-s /
ZIONIST, concerning the printers eight-hour
strike in the metropolis. the following two |
interesting items appeared: Two dear and