New-York tribune., 1912-01-28
MISS HELEN TAFT.
GFrom the Tribune Bureau.l

Washington, Jan. 4.-"We are fighting
that sen-righteous idea on the part Of de"
partment stores that they can employ
whomsoever they please. pay what they
please and demand that their employees
shall live at home. Tell me what is to be-
come OF the young girls who have no
homes and receive only 80 or So week. 1t
is this condition of affairs which Is send
ing our girls to the bad"
In these words Miss Constance Leupp'
daughter Of the former Commissioner OF
Indian Affairs and vice-president OF the
new Consumers League Of the Dlstrlct OF
Columbia lately defined the object OF one
of the biggest movements ever initiated IN
the District TO better the conditions or
manufacture and sale and to secure living
wages for all it's workers, but more es-
pecialy for it's women and children.
Although youngest born Of all the branches
OF the National Consumers League, which
is organized now in every large city OF the
United States the Washington Organlza-
ton. located as it is in the National Capt.
2 tai. with such men and women for leaders
as Miss Mabel Boardman, whose work for
the American National Red Cross is known
by the entire world; Mrs. Harvey w.
Wiley, wife Of the pure food expert; Miss
Helen Taft. daughter of the President;
Miss Constance Leupp, whose words have
lust been quoted; DR.. Charles p. Neill,
~ United States Commissioner of Labor; the
ftRt. Rev Alfred G. Harding, Episcopal
VBishop OF Washington, and the Rev, Dr.
William J. Kerby, of the Catholic UniYer-
sity. promises to have an influence more
rarreacning than any Of its predecessors.
The o:Tufal literature of the league states
its object in words less appealing than
those of Miss Leupp, but more concisely'
as follows:
/ To promote a sentiment in the COM
munity, among producers and consumers
TO secure a fair. living wage for all work.
ers in the District of Columbia.
2. To urge the enactment and enforce
ment of laws bettering conditions Of en-
ployment. and especially protecting women
and children who are ware earners.
3. To encourage the production and con-
sumption of Consumers League laDel
goods by securing their introduction and
demand in the stores of the city.
4. To give moral and commercial support
20 merchants and manufacturers who pro-
vide humane and sanitary conditions OF
employment and who refuse TO profit by
the sweating system and the labor Of
young children.
The members pledge themselves to make
a practice of asking for goods bearing the
Consumers League label, to interest as
many people as they can in the work Of the
league, to lend their influence to further
legislative reforms which deal with indus
trial problems, to try to do their Christmas
shopping before December 10, and TO try
not to shop after o'clock, or on Saturday
afternoons They look forward to the total
abolition Of the sweatshop and believe that
women have only TO exert their powers to
attain this end AS the president, Mrs
Harvey w. Wiley, explained:
1T is especially in women's lingerie and
hand made blouses that one encounters the
product OF sweatshops and tenement house
labor The high price and daintiness of an
article are by no means a guarantee that it
has been made under proper conditions.
Again and again the buyers and heads of
department stores have told us that their
goods are high grade and made in clean
factories
What they do not stop TO consider is that
the goods are finished by the factory hands
at night-ln their own kitchens and bed
rooms-in filthy, verinin-infested tenements
which are hotbods OF disease infection.
Half of the ready-made clothing Of Amer
ica Is made on the lower East Side Of New
York. and every epidemic that has broken
out there in recent years has been traced TO
distant cities where the ready-made clothes
have gone
Then, too. all tenement work is pitifully
underpaid for the invalids and children
compete with the able-bodied i'm keeping
down wages. The child labor laws cannot
protect the children who work in tenement
homes
The Consumers League label on clothing
Is q guarantee against unfair conditions, FOR
II signifies that the factory where the goods
are made is clean and safe that no work
Is given oct to be done at night, that there
Is no overwork or employment Of children.
The National Consumers League, OF which
OURS IS a br ach, inspects these factories
regularly and grants the label.
We are trying TO persuade the Wash
ington merchants to carry q lot of these
labelled goods. II means a hard fight be-
cause the merchants think we are inter
fering with their business. and the indif-
ferent shopping public goes right ahead de-
manding bargains without considering the
elements In the low price, As matter of
faet, the labelled goods do not average
higher in price than the others"
Inc labei agitation has already been
crowned with considerable measure OF
success, for one of the largest department
stores In the capital has not only put ready
-~~As clothing bearing the. Consumers