The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1906-02-03

and act as g. clog on all our worthy
endeavors- j.. Mcguire, in American
F ederationist.
SHOULD THE WIFE HELP
TO SUPPORT THE ::
FAMILY. -.
49, -. ---- : -
(By Samuel Gompers in the American
- Federal ionist.)
In undertaking to answer the ques-
tfons as to whether the wife should
help to support the family, I take it
that what is meant is the wife Of a
mechanic, a laborer, warkman not the
well-to-do or the fairly well-to-do, for
among the later there is not even the
false pretense Of necessity Taking
then, my conception of what is implied
by the question:: have no hesitancy In
answering, positively and absolutely,
NO. I take it, ALSO that the inference
from the question is that the help which
finds It's expression in work for wages,
and, to that with added emphasis,
again answer, NO. - <<,- 80 -,-
Modern industrial conditions have
any great amount Of work to be done
other than In factories, workshops or
other Industrial " plants. where steam
and electric power are used and the best
and most highly developed machinery
is Employed; in which labor in it's Diff
ferent branches is so divided, sub
divided, and specialized that each work.
er performs a very small part of the
complet product The workers in each
case are dependent and wait upon those
employed in the preceding branch, so
that it. requires constant application,
Immediate Gattenti6n and the ,::4G2; close
proximity of all. = This requires that the:
workers must generally begim and close
the days work together. It therefore
necessarily requires the worker to leave
home early in the morning absent him.
self or herself from the home during
the working hours and the time necea-
sary to go to and from the place Of enng
plOyment. Imagine the wife leaving
her home and children unprotected and
uncared for during the working hours;
which among women generally, by rea-
son Of their comparative lack or or
ganization, are much longer than the
days work of men.
In some of the factory towns I have
seen-and it can easily be seen even
now-wives and: mothers have: taken
their nursing babes with them to the
factory and mill, with all: the hum
drum of machinery, and in their highly
nervous state undertaken to nurse their
babes, A friend informed me that re-
Gently a woman, hiding from the FORE
man, let herself down on a rear ele-
! vator, that she might rush home and
see the children, whom she had left
ill in the morning. Who can tell the
awful agony the mother endures from
the uncertainty of her unprotected, I'M
cared for children ~;.' : = - !
Nor do I. wish to. be understood to
be opposed to the full and free oppor-
tunity of woman to work whenever and
wherever necessity, requires. It has
been the policy Of my associate and
myself to throw open wide the doors Of
our organizations and invite the work.
| ing girls and working women to MEM
bership for their and our common pro-
lection It Is in the unions Of labor that
the full rights Of the, working women
| are proclaimed and many O. contest has
ben waged by union men to secure for
! women equal wages and conditions for
! equal work. performed.
! 1t is not for any" real preference for
their labor the unscrupulous employ
| err gives work to girls and boys and
women, but because his guilty know
! ledge that he can easily compel them
to work longer hours and at a lower
| wage than men. It is the so-called
competition OF the unorganized, de-
| fenseless woman worker, the girl and
the wife that often tends to reduce the
wages Of the father and husband, SO
that frequently in after years, partic-
ularly in factory towns, the combined
wages Of the husband and wife, the
father and daughter have been re-
| been the policy Of my associates and
earned by the father or husband in the
beginning: f..'5 - ~ >'-a. "a.
I contend. that the wife or mother
duced to the standard Of the wages
makes the greatest contribution to the
support Of the family. The honor
glory and happiness that come fran 3
beloved wife and the holiness OF moth.
erhood are a contribution to the support
OF the future welfare of the family
that our common: humanity does not
yet fully appreciate. Isl Sc III, ST. 4: ~. =
! It is with keen qualification that OBJ
servers have noticed IN recent years
| :thatsthe wife OF thu. wa Garner where
the husband has been d fair bread
winner for the family has taken uI
5beautifulS eedleWork en- broidery, and
the cultivation Of her better. but hehe:
tofore latent yalents, :s u
There in no reason why all the oppor
t,lniti LED Tor devoid pnent of III
best that wof1ai No cas1ss do should 81 az
i5nied losia4 else
lyvhere snterta Ia no doubt but TINT