The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1910-08-12
EQUAL SUFFRAGETS ARE
SPREADING PROPAGANDA
Spokane Suffragists Spend Week Among
Everett Unionists to Good Purpose-Con-
stitutional Amendment Before the Voters
for Approval at the General Election in
November.

into professions but into almost every
walk of labor She worked side by side
with men, but for less money. And to-
day while you men are organized into
craft unions, for self-protection in your
industry, women generally speaking are
not organized. But they are not only
working but thinking and observing
and demanding equal chances with their
brother members. For you union men
have power in your hands. If you would
only get aroused to your own chances
for legislation and stand together as
craft uniOnists and work for your union
and individual good, realizing that your
needs were those of the class conscious
union man, and not your employer, who
has both union and non-union thence
scab labor. I cannot understand the
uion spirit that will permit union
craftsman to work side by side with
scab labor, nor have any conception of
organized union labor that will permit
an individual craftsman to work with
non union men and hence stultify the
spirit of uniOnism in the individual
member as well as of organized labor as
a whole. However we are not here to
talk unionism, however much we feel
you may need it.
"Only the wilfully blind and ignorant
deny the need of the ballot by women
in industry. Women are scabs in the
labor market, work more cheaply than
men because they are more helpless.
Child labor is cheaper than women Ia
Dor because children are more helpless
and the animals-the horses and mules
are cheapest of all because they are
most helpless. It is self-evident fact
| that men with the ballot get more con
sideration than women without it. We
women folk in Spokane found that out
to our entire satisfaction. Yeu will
pardon this allusion, but it is illustra
| tive of the point The Social Economic
department of the Woman's Club in
Spokane, took up the matter of having
three matrons appointed in the city Jail.
We formed committees and appeared
before the honorable councilmanic body.
We were granted our request but when
our backs were turned and we were
not there to protect Ourselves, that most
gntlemanly and honorable body turned
one of their famous flip-flops.' Again
we went down and the speaker told why
we wanted matrons and some other
rather pertinent things the councilmen
had not heard mentioned in public be-
fore. We were again given a 'flip-flop,'
and not until labor took up the fight
and went down 5000 strong and de-
manded matrons did we gain our issue.
Women were laughed at-they had no
vote and couldn't create vacancy in
the councilmanic hall. Labor had power
:. land the councilmen were forced by
that power to come through.
, "In four states where women have
the vote are best laws protecting wom
en- and children and wages and hours
of all workers. In fact, the very things
, YOU are organized togethdr for. In
all the other states in the United
, States women are forced to struggle
for their economic ends indirectly. The
, wage earners cannot influence directly
the conditions under which they work,
and which perhaps, will kill main and
undermine their health. If women are
not workers or otherwise financially
independent they must work even more
indirectly for economic survival. And
indirection is the most unhappy develop
ment in women's situation and nature.
, ''Therefore, we feel this problem
of ours is yours, as your problem must
, be ours And to you as labor organiza-
tions and individuals do we look for
support this fall. And may the days
when you and I go down to the polls
together to vote for the solution of our
, untried problem be not far distant. And
may they come from the shoulder to
shoulder solidarity of the Washington
State Federation of Labor"
4 Mrs Moore possesses also keen ana
, lytical mind and has studied, perhaps,
' more deeply than any other, the econo-
mic side of the question. She spoke
2 in general as follows:
ri 'What we need more than any other
8 one thing today is new social cons
n ciousness. A broader knowledge of the
{ existing conditions and broader I'M
h derstanding of the fundamental laws
r which control our social life. The time
!. is past when any reasoning human being
d will ever suggest that our social life is
$ not subject to change. The social idea
!. from being static has become organic
8 but social development is retarded by
;. an inertia and indifference of the in
$ dividuals who compose the social body
J. We are quick to grasp a personal in
! Justice, but our individualistic selfisl
d minds are slow to classify our i'll, an'
| frou4su,,ad IN para Eo,lr