Montana news. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1904-191?, 1909-01-21

make them capable of exercising a vote
and now the same argument is being
spplied to the women.
1 have been asked many times since
landing in this city when the move
ment for the enfranchisement OF
women is going to succeed. That
cannot say, but this much ] can say
with certainty: that the agitation now
being conducted is Of q kind to make
IL impossible for any party TO much
longer withhold the vote from the wo.
men Of the country. (Applause.)
When 1 was in India one Of the in.
spectors of schools in the United Pro.
vinees told me this incident. He was
examining mission school in bible his
tory in India and the subject was the
creation of woman. And one little In
dian boy gave this version: "In the
beginning God got some clay and made
a man. Then he made the man sleep
and took out his backbone and made a
woman" (Laughter.) The way things
have been going of late at home, some
what inclines me to believe that the
boys version WASH I so far out.
The Ideal Of the Labor Movement.
Now / come to the ideal which un-
derlies the labor movement. The re-
forms have spoken of are in the main
of the Red Cross Brigade order reforms
which are necessary, and yet the pro-
duet Of, or rather necessiated by, some
deep underlying cause. The object of
industry, we are told, is to enable com
munities to supply themselves with the
neeessaries of life. If that be the OBJ
ject of industry il has lamentably failed
Of its purpose in Great Britain.
The late Sir Henry Campbell. Banner.
man made himself responsible for
statement which has never been serious
ly questioned, to-wit, that there are
within the British Isles thirteen mil
lions Of people who are always living
on or under the poverty line" Thir-
teen millions of people; one-third of our
entire population.
The Disgraceful Poverty Line"
And what it meant by the "poverty
linef" II means that when the head Of
she family and such of his children as
are able TO work, are in full employ
ment-and this is the point to be borne
in mind-when they are in full employ.
ment the income of the family is not
sufficient to enable them to maintain
physical efficiently, and every penny
that is being earned is being spent on
food, raiment, fuel and house aeeommo.
dation. They are not able TO live up
to the standard of efficiency that they
would be able to do as papers in the
workhouse.
That condition of things is a dis
grace. 1t would be disgrace to a saw.
age community. 1t is doubly so to
civilized and progressive people. And
the difficulty is that situation is not
improper. The number of our paupers,
the number of our poor, the numbers
Of our unemployed are not being dimin.
ished, despite our yearly progress in
the accumulation of wealth.
The slums Menace.
1t is not only what is called the
Submerged tenth" with which we are
concerned now. The most efficient of
the working class, the skilled artisan
Is finding that employment has be.
come more and more irregular. The
higher education which now obtains, the
increasing intelligence of the people is
quickening within them the desire for
larger and freer life than is possible
under existing conditions.
A british, ignorant, unenlightened
people will submit TO conditions against
which your more enlightened man rises,
and rightly 50, in open revolt. Our
labor movement finds its support chief
ly among the more intelligent, the more
sober and more highly skilled artisans
and tradesmen Of the country.
There is a popular impression abroad
that a movement such as ours gets its
chief support from the slums, from the
loafers, from the wastrels of society.
The one part of an electoral district
which we fear in our labor contests is
the slum area. Where we get our votes
and support from is from the better
paid, the better organized, the more in.
telligent sections Of the community.
And the reason for that is not far to
seek.
Take the case of the average man,
whatever his trade or occupation. He
realizes now as he never did before
that he has no established right as a
workman. When trade is good he is
employed; when trade becomes depres-
sed he is turned out of work and for
weeks and months he finds himself
walking the streets and trudging the
biphways yainly bepuinp his brOthers