The Washington times., 1912-09-12
WHAT SOCIAL JUSTICE MEANS.

Candidate Wilson in mis- Labor Day speech at
Buffalo poked fun at that plank Of the Progressive
party platform which reads
We pledge ourselves to work INCREASINGLY in State
and nation for minimum wage standards for
working women to provide living wage in all indus
trial occupations.
That plank of the Progressive party platform was
not written by politicians neither by schoolmasters.
II was written by men and women who have spent
their lives working among the submerged tenth, who
know life as the other half lives it. These social
workers have been face to face with the misery and
suffering and sins of the multitude, not to satisfy
curiosity but to Hnd the cause and to find cure.
Answering Candidate Wilson's academic criticism
of this plank, Theodore Roosevelt in his Seattle
speech said:
Now, Mr. Wilson has in general terms praised our
platform but the only specific thing he has noticed has
been this and he out very strongly against this
minimum wage proposition the ground that II we
established minimum wage, employers would reduce
all of their employees to that minimum wage.
Now, think that is objection Of the school room.
academic objection and do not think that any man
who has actually studied the conditions of life among
the working girls the working in great Cities
who, for instance has attended in New York city the
Jefferson market night court for womenI do not think
that any will be Influenced by such objection
do not know any more fruitful source OF misery In
whole municipal life than the giving to women OF
starvation wageswages such that the girls the women
keep body and soul together under decent con-
ditions. 1t starvation, 1t means crime, immor-
atty 1t untold suffering, and when people say
that not trying prevent such actual suffering
and misery, because maybe some difficulty would come
the future through doing it, all can answer is tha
do not believe any such difficulty would arise; but In
any event l would rather have, would rather suffer
the dangers that do not know OF than supinely
acquiesce in the hideous misery that we dc know or
Tuesday in his testimony before the adermanic
investigation of police affairs of New York city,
Mayor Gaynor was asked why. he had not stopped the
social evil in New York, and he replied the social
evil could not be stopped by law or police laws, but
"by educating our merchants and employers to pay
Young girls and women living wages, rather than by
arrestng those underpad souls who have sold their
virtue
The report of the Chicago Vice Commission,
composed of the most eminent people of that city,
representing all creeds, all political affiliations and
all kinds of business sets forth the low wages paid
to working girls and women as one of the greatest
contributory causes of the social evil. Other vice
commissions making surveys OF the social evil have
found the same thing to be true.
There are so many very important planks in the
Progressive party platform that it is impossible to
place ones finger on any particular plank and say
This is the most important but surely there is no
plank of greater social import and more worthy OF
the support of every respectable citizen than this one
which insists that girls and women thrown upon their
own resources in the industrial world should be guar
anteed living wage-a wage that would make II
unnecessary for them to sell their souls in order to
get for themselves the food clothing and shelter that
are the necessities OF life.
What is there about anything pertaining to social
justice and betterment of the people that appeals
tine Democratic. candidate practical If guarantee
ing women living wage strikes him as preposterous