The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1909-01-27
What the Emblem Of Union
ism Stands For.
FAIR PAY AND LIVING PAY
Proclaims That Article 1t Adorns Is Not
Product of Child Slavery--Means No
Difference in Wage on Account
Of Sex.


cent address at WATERFOWL, Wis, salt
In part:
| The trades union movement hai
done more toward the elevation o
mankind than all other agencies com
bined. This has been accomplished b,
increasing the wages OF the worker
thereby establishing higher STANDARD
of living and by shortening the hours
Of labor giving the worker an oppor
tunity for mental improvement And
stu greater good will have been &C
c0mplished when we shall have abol
ished the system of child slavery and
of discrimination against the female
| workers.
We know that woman must toll, but
we protest against her being com.
PEELED to toll for mere pittance Just
because she is woman. In union
printing Offices, union cigar factories,
union tailor shops--in fact, In all union
shops-we find men and women work.
ing side by side and receiving equal
pay for equal work. Now. we don't
have to go into the factories to see the
other side Of this picture. Go into our
public schools and you will find the
entirely capable female teacher COM
PEELED to work for from 90 to 20 per
cent of the wages paid to her mascu-
line colleague for the same work. II
these educated women have to work
under these conditions, what must be
the condition OF their uneducated and
unorganized sisters? Perhaps you will
be able to realize something of their
conditions when tell you that in the
city OF Baltimore women are making
shirts at "a cents per dozen, that they
are working from o'clock in the
morning until IL O'clock at night In
their so called home workshops for
six days each week and then receive
So for their weeks pay. In a cigar
factory at Perth Amboy, N. j., women
are Working ffty-four hours per week
for So, and their product is brought
into direct competition with the prod
uct OF the union shops
The system Of child slavery exists
In all sections of our country. We
find the little children of tender years
working from dawn until dark In the
sardine canneries OF Maine, in the cot.
ton mills of New England and the
south, in the coal breakers of Pennsyl.
vania and in the sweatshops OF all our
great cities. have seen sights which
would cause your heart TO ache and
expect to see them again unless yop
end this nefarious system.
The convicts In our state prisons are
being used for the purpose OF dragging
down the free and law abiding workers
TO lower level. And we have not the
doubtful advantage Of purchasing the
products OF these convicts at lower
price. have followed this matter w
carefully and have always found that
we had TO pay the same price for the
products of prison labor that we have
to pay for the product Of free labor.
The sweatshop exists in all our
great centers Of population, and 1t il
here that the great white plague has
It's inception. II is difficult for you
here In the pure bracing air OF wis
consin, here In your beautiful city OF
happy homes, to imagine the conditions
of the sweatshops. just try 10 pic |
ture dingy, unventilated room OF
about ~ by IL and then imagine that |
room packed with workers Of all ages
and both sexes toiling in that vitiated
air. We can describe the physical filth
In the sweatshop, but the ROral filth |
Is indescribable. We have found part.
" made clothing in the sweatshops
Of New York and Brooklyn used to
cover children suffering from scarlet
fever, whose sickbed was In enc corner
Of the sweatshop. We frequently find
the consumptive. who has contracted
the disease In these pest holes, work.
ing in the sweatshop, expectorating
and his germ laden product
Is scattered ever the land, carrying its
burden Of disease and death into our
homes. We are spending vast sums to
fight this dAsease, but 1t will accom-.
plish little until we abolish child slav.
.ry and eliminate the sweatshop. The
power to abolish these conditions is in
-FOUR hands. VIII you use itg Are you
going to make this world a better place
o live In than you found or are you
yoing to try to make 1t worse7 You
AN easily make It better by using
FOUR purchasing power intelligently
insist on the union label on every ar
icle you purchase and thereby pro.
ect the working woman and emancis
,ate the child slave.
No labor organization will permit
heir label to be used on the product |
# any manufacturer unless all of his
product is made in clean, sanitary |
Workshops, by fairly paid adult labor
nd with equal pay for equal work to
10Th eexes.
Chicago Labor Getting Busy. {
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