The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-07-13
MRS. REBA sTUTsoN HILL.


Granting that the educated, refined
and capable club woman needs the bal
lot. why does the working woman need
1t? For the same reason that the work
ing man needs ii, for protection Lis
ten 10 any campaign speech. In flow
cry terms the candidate eulogizes up
on the influence and strength OF the
laborer. II is a splendid idea to hold
elections so often. for then If at no
other time. this class of citizens re.
ceive some credit for their share in
the national prosperity. To be sure
most successful candidates forget all
about these fellows. nevertheless the
rights which organized labor claims
today have been obtained chiefly
through the ballot. So large is their
vote and so eagerly sought is il that
II is possible for them to so bind can
didate to work for their interests.
that he does not dare go contrary 10
their wishes. But. of course no one
ever considers women's trade and la
Dor unions Little is heard of them, for
women have no vote. They cannot ell
ect an officer They can have no rep
resentative in legislature or congress
so law makers give them no attention.
we'll known instance OF the help
lessness of working women occurred
during the shirt waist makers strike
in New York two years ago. They ask
ed for shorter hours, better pay and
ether considerations, After much oppo-
sitiOn, after suffering all kinds of
abuse: after being tauntingly told that
they could not make their demands
binding because there was no law back
of them, they finally obtained some
better terms and went back to work
But more than anything else their diff
| ficulties revealed the working womans
need of the ballot and gave a fresh
| impetus to the whole suffrage cause
What laboring men have been able to
accomplish in the way of shorter hours
higher wages, and liabilities for acct
dent, the laboring woman can secure
when they get the right to vote.
| Besides this protection of her rights
as an employee the working girl par
| ticularly, needs the ballot as a protec-
ton for her virtue. Today she is being
continually preyed upon by vicious
men and women who seek to lead her
ceitful methods, namely by pretending
to be her friends. Well dressed women
on shopping expeditions make her &C
quaintance at the bargain counters in
cheap department stores. Third class
boarding and rooming houses seize
upon her chastity. Often the women
who keep these places are of the low
est type and are paid for encouraging
friendships between their girl board
ers and new friends. Employment
agencies make a practice of sending
their good looking applicants to evil
resorts, on the pretense, of course, of
placing them in thoroughly respecta-
Bile families. Provided she escapes
these pitfalls she is almost certain to
be entrapped in her amusements For
what is offered to her in the way of
! pleasure? The park, the dance hall,
and the cheap theater, all of which
throng with scavengers of womanly
virtue. Her long hours of strenuous
labor, too often under conditions that
"ndangers her health, and her low
wages both tend to lead her into ex-
citing amusements that will stimulate
her weary body and yet not tax her
meagre purse.
1t is blot on Cur much boosted civil
lization that this wholesale traffic in
Woman's virtue has so long been al
lowed to go on unheeded 1t is a con-
elusive proof of the fact that men who
have been managing the affairs of the
world these many years have not sue
cessfully solved all the problems that
are Of utmost importance to humanity.
In this case it is the woman who is
sinned against, and it is she, who with
the help of her club sister has the
right to demand that the world be
made safe place for her to live in.
1t is not going too far to say that
at present there is absolutely no safe
place for the average working girl of
our cities. Born into wretched home
of parents too poor to support her be-
yond her fourteenth year. she is thrust
into the world, ignorant, unframed and
unskilled, to earn her living Her en-
ployer is Indifferent, her friends are as
poor as she, and she has not one to
help her. If she chances to live near a
social settlement she may find whole
some amusement there or she may,
one chance in hundred be picked
up by the Y. w. c. A. But the agencies
which seek her uplift are few compar-
ed with those that encourage her
downfall.
| But" one asks. why does this
abused creature not seek the arrest of
her malefactors? Why does she not
report to the police?" Too often these
men of whom she might appeal hold
| their positions not from merit or hon
esty, but from pull with corrupt poll
ticians. They are not always men of
the highest type. They perform their
tasks because the law compels them to