New-York tribune., 1908-01-29
IDA ATiRBELL A CONVERT
RockcfeIIer's antagonist Tells Why
She Joined Consumers League.

The decisions Of the United States Supreme
Court are worthy Of all respect but they are not
infsllihIe. The Golden Rule and the Ten Com
Tnandnents take precedence. Ida Tarbel1
Nobody can live the ordinary tenement house
life and he good American citizen en-''-Professor
Charles Zuebiin
IF the Supreme Court declares the law limiting
the working hours Of women unconstitutional. an
appalling vista Of work opens up before us We
shall have to amend the Constitution for Ne can
afford 10 stay in the same rank with Patagonia
kamschatka and the isles of the sea-'-Fsorence
Kelley.
You ask the working girl do or the hard
est things in the world-become a self-respecting
wealth producer. and YOU ask her 10 do it without
any preparation. .''-Leonora O'Reilly.
DO Ne wish go doing our shopping in
where for the shopper there is every com
snd luxury. and for the employe inhuman
trea tulcnt Mrs. Frederick Nathan
These were some Of the sparks that shot from
the platform at the annual meeting Of the New
York Consumers League yesterday at David Be
lasco's Stuyvesant Theatre. 1t perhaps. the
chance Miss TarbeI the famous feminine
antagonist % the Standard oil Company. that
packed the theatre with enormous crowd of
women. At least. there much inspection Of
those seated the platform TO identify the star
Of the day, and a buzz Of interest when she was
finally introduced by Mrs. Nathan with the hope
That she would pour oil upon the troubled
of our conscences Miss Tarbeh told Of
her recent conversion TO membership.
4 had always" said she, in "A general kind Of
vay. tried GET my Christmas shopping done UP
three weeks before Christmas I had tried. in a
general way. 10 keep of shops where they had
ro seats for the clerks or gave them Saturday
half holidays But q few weeks ago Mrs. Nathan
sent me bundle of reports. and L rose from the
reading Of them with my head in q whirl In a
whirl from the thought that I could make my
money. which I had always thought passed through
my fingers merely for my comfort, agent
the securing Of justice for others
The Consumers League says there is such thing
- tainted money. II may be tainted in the spend
ing well in the making. 1t says, Take care
YOU don't tairf your money in the spending while
you're crticising somebody else for tainting his in
1he making
1t is cruel thought that Indifferent
10 their fellow beings that only the fear OF harm
themselves their children viii make them inter
lerc with so inhuman q thing the sv-eatshop.
Il have no patience with the theory that nothing
he done 10 abolish things, that they must
themselves and result in the survival Of the
mttesf If that principle had been consistently act
Cd upon always the whole human would have
Terisled time with famine pestilence- We
have wiped out most vicious forms of slavery
Nc have swept piracy from the high seas if not
from Mall Street The principle of the Consumers
League. If sufficiently extended and acted upon,
WOULD he powerful enough to sweep out the sweat
shop all other forms of cruelty and inhumanfty
;n the Industrial world l but think that the
Consumers League label IS the efficient in
stIunent Yet devised that end The label says to