The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1913-10-31

ING In COLUMNS OF DAILY
NEWSPAPERS.
In view of the fact that the press of
the state has accepted and widely pub
lished erroneous statements which
were recently printed by the Everett
press, concerning certain remarks
made by us during the several confer
ences of the Industrial Welfare Com
mission, of which we are members,
and which were held at Everett on
the 22nd inst, some of these state
ments attributed to us are absolutely
false, while the others have been dis
torted and misconstrued to such an
extent that we feel our moral integrity
has been maliciously attacked and be-
lieve it our duty to the public to make
a clear statement of facts so that the
fair-minded people of the state may
not be misled in their judgment. Our
individual statements follow
FLORENCE H. SWANSON,
THERESA S. MCMAHON.
The newspaper reports of the Indus
trial Welfare Commission at Everett,
report me as having expressed the
views that the morals of employees are
no concern of the employer. The Ev-
erett Herald's statement is, Both Mrs.
Theresa Mcmahon and Mrs. Florence
Swanson, members of the commission,
asserted emphatically that the en-
ployer has no right to be concerned
about the morality or immortality of
girl and women employees, provided
they reported for work and performed
their tasks efficiently" This state
ment is garbed and untrue represen-
tation of a general discussion on the
relation of morals to wages in which
Mr.. Winslow told how he had weeded
out the immoral girls from his force.
/ raised the question of his right to
do this if the wages being paid was
a cause of the immortality. I pointed
out that the wages might be a cause
of the immortality but I readily agreed
with Mr.. Winslow that the wedding
out of the immoral was necessary to
protect the others who were not i'm
moral. I distinctly stated he had a
right to eliminate the immoral girls
on humanitarian grounds but ques-
toned the employers right to elimin-
ate girls in order to protect him from
an interested public associating a
girls downfall with her inadequate
wage.
The sentence quoted above is in no
sense an expression of the views of
myself or Mrs. Swanson. 1t is a de-
liberate misrepresentation of them
based upon a mistaken impression of
the purport of the questions, and a
total ignorance of the context.
THERESA s. MCMAHON.
Herewith I reproduce the written
question which l answered at the girls
meeting at Everett, same now being on
file with the commission:
IF you were a woman with two
babies to feed, would you refuse to
sell your physical self to your employ
er when such thing is hateful to
you, or leave your babies to starve."
To the above question l replied that
was a mother myself, that motherly
instinct is the strongest force the
world knows and that mothers will go
to any length in protecting the child.
In some extreme cases. a mother is
goaded very far, indeed and I do not
know but what a mother might make
a fatal mistake to keep her children
from starving, but there is no neces-
sity in this state for so doing because
we have a mothers pension law to
take care of such cases. If you are
destitute and have two children you
are entitled to SIS per month for the
first child and IS for the second child.
have also been quoted as saying
that the girls should pick their own
fun" can not help but feel that this
charge has been made deliberately
with malicious intent. What l did say
on this subject was that women en-
Moved in industry had a right to recre-
alton and amusement Society has no
right to place them under industrial
conditions which would prevent them
from seeking amusement and recrea-
ton"
FLORENCE H. SWANSON,