Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1912-05-23
e. OF Interest To Women !. $

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market and the same tragedy of I'M
employment. But besides bearing the
same burdens as the working man,
the working woman has still few
special burdens of her own to bear;
the age-long burdens of her sex. If
the mans working hours are long, the
woman's are still longer. If the man 5
wages are low, the woman's are still
lower If insanitary conditions
threaten the mans health. and life, in
the woman's case these Sans insani-
tary conditions threaten the health
and life of generations still unborn.
Thousands of women today are work
\ ing under conditions unfit for human
beings. At unguarded machinery
they are risking their nimble fingers,
the only source Of income they pos
sess. In fire-trap buildings they are
risking their lives. Badly ventilated
work roms, filled with particles of fly
ing dust, weaken their lungs and make
them susceptible to tuberculosis.
Long working hours sap their strength
and vitality.
Dangerous occupations make them
physical wrecks in few years and
rendert hem unfit for wifehood and
motherhood. In the case Of married
women workers, an appalling infant
mortality is a concomitant Of woman
labor But with all thees sacrifices
even the woman who performs
mans work does not get mans
wage. Everywhere We find unequal
paw for equal work. The voteless sex
is cheap.
i If the woman have always worked
and always insult work, why shoul9
their work be accompanied by SO
many wrongs and horrors? Because
our social conditions have not been
adjusted to the great economil
change; because industry, although
too largely depends upon the work OF
women, is not adapted to the needs OF
women; because women themselves
have no voice in shaping the condi-
tons under which they must work.
Women of leisure may demand the
ballot for abstract reasons, justice
and equality. But working women
NEED the ballt They need it as a
! means of self-defense in the terrible
competitive struggle that marks our
present industrial system. They need
it to protect their very health and
life and the future of their children.
We are living in an age of social
awakening. 1t has long since been
recognized that the welfare OF the
workers can not be entrusted to the
good will of individual employers
Therefore the State exercises its rignl
of control and by labor legislation
seek to regulate to some extent work
ing hours and conditions Of employ
ment.
Workingmen, by the right of suf-
+ frage, are Die to exert a powerful in
fluence upon labor legislation. They
are able to elect men TO office who
will represent their interests and
Thereby can compel the enactment OF
flaws that will improve their condition,
But working women are politically
helpless. 8They cannot voice their de-
mands at the ballot box. They are not
represented in the lawmaking bodies.
They cannot compel the enactment OF
laws that would tighten their burdens.
While working men have two Wea-
pons for self-defense, the labor union
and the ballot working women are
only just learning the use OF one and
entirely lack the other. Industrial or
ganization and political activity con-
stitute the two powerful arms of the
labor movement. Men are free to use
both their arms. Women are strug-
Cling with one arm tied.
Give working women votes, and you
will give them an opportunity to help
I themselves as. no charity or welfare
work or middle class attempts at re-
fore can ever help them. Give
working women votes, and they will
legislate child labor out of existence.
Give working women votes, and they
will shorten their long work day and
establish a decent living wage, there
by combating prostitution more eff
fectively than all your moraliz!ng
could combat it in hundred years.
The Socialist Party is the political
representative of the working class.
Since the working class consists Of
women as we'll as men, since women.
in fact, form a large and ever increas-
ing proportion of the working class,
the Socialist Party stands prepared