The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1907-02-28
WOMEN ARE HELPLESS
WITHOUT ORGANIZATION
In No Other Way Can Women Toilers
Obtain Justice--Freedorn Of Contract
Fallacy--No Chance for Indi-
vidual Workers.

Charitable societies would scarcely
be necessary if employers paid their
employees SUFFICIENT wages Mrs. Ray
lnond Robins declared in an address III
a recent meeting OF the philanthropy
department Of the Catholic Women
league Of Chicago. Her subject was
Conditions Of Working Women
''There Is little chance for the work
ing women, she said. unless they or
ganize ana work collectively. There Il
no assurance Of the continuation Of
good conditions ia any factory where
there is no union among the employee
One woman alone might be afraid te
face the foreman and demand hes
rights, but acting as the representative
OF 500 she Ii strong. Help them organ
lie 80 strongly that they can demand
better conditions from the employers
THE working women nust have jus
tiee," asserted Mrs Robins, land %
my mind they can only get 1t throug5
organising themselves into unions.
at has been difficult to get Laws
passed regulating the hours and condi
tions Of labor which the courts wiz
hold are constitutional. The courts
urge the freedom OF contract Theg
20 on the assumption that tTo person.
are free to bargain and sell If they
we're free the theory would not have
q nav. But when a woman goes to a
factory asking for employment can
she ask for certain wage and certain
conditions? Ne. TT she could say she
represents 500 wsmcn, then she might
be free to bargain. There might then
be some equality between the enplsyer
and the woman. There is ne freedom
Of contract Row. and the working wo-
man cannst get 1t under the present
industrial csAdltieAE.
"In New York | found women who
were working for Slit week They
worked seven days in the week and
eighteen hsurs every day They are
eyerwsPked. unSerpald and too worn
ont in mind and body to protest
Girls working in box factories re-
ceivs SIS a week, surely an increase
over S1.17 week. But consider, is 1t
enough to live on? The trouble is that
we Go not seem to realize the full value
OF human life.
''The charitable societies, mnde nee
essary because of the poorly paid en-
ployees. really benefit the employer ia
the cad. We give these people some
thing which we call charity. Now,
when we give them this something
called charity. which is their due, it Is
not charity.
"A girl cared fer By some charitable
organization does not care to remain
there long. Often she leaves before she
is well. She returns to the factory and
is surrounded by the same insanitary
conditions. Who gets the benefit Of
her sddea health and vitality? Why,
the employer.
when we try to get improved sani-
tary conditions and shorter hours FOR
our women workers the courts decide
that our action is Unconstitutional and
therefore Illegal.
The freeaom Of contract is a mere
fallaey A woman who works from ten
to eighteen hours q day has no time TO
improve her condition. she is too worn
out TO protest"
Are the conditions worse here than
In New York; she was asked.
Yes, In this way. New York's sweat
shops now have the second generation
OF women, while Chicago has but its
Erst.p
She told Of two girls who worked in
the steckysrds for so cents week and
who subsisted on rye bread and water.
But they were born Of women whs
were raised in the open air and were
strong and robust" she added. The
children Of sweatshop victims are not
robust and cannot live long. They are
too susceptible 10 tuberculosis.
these industrial conditions exist be.
cause of the ignorance OF the public.
We can only remedy the conditions
when we have the public opinion 50
strong that nothing can stand in lts