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

Now as to the wedding out process
to protec the moral girl against the
immoral girl We agree that the girl
in industry should be shielded as
much as possible from communicating
influences. But how about the girl
you weed out? What becomes of her
after her discharge? You send her out
with the mark of the Magdalene upon
her? No other employer in her indus
try wants her if you follow up this
wedding out argument to its natural
sequence. You send her into an in
dustry of which she knows nothing
and by reason of which her earning
power is still further curtailed or you
bar her from honest employment
What choice of life do you leave her?
We hear much about reforming the
fallen woman" In Gods name how
are you going to reform anybody if you
bar them from honest employment?
But the moral girl must be protected
| absolutely agree but | contend that
there is but one way to protect her
and that is by making a wage and
working standard which will permit
the girl or woman to follow her natural
inclination to be pure. | believe that
the average girl is inherently pure and
that if she goes wrong it is through
environment, not because she is inher-
emily bad. To believe else is to insult
the sex.
But says my critic, "how about
the girl who is sheltered in the home
nest, who is not subject to the grind
of industry, but still goes wrong?" An
economic question again, my friend.
How much of the neglect and indiffer-
ence shown in the upbringing of chill
dren by their parents is due to the
grinding industrial lives of the par
ents of those children? This is an
age of sitting competition. The day
laborer, the business man, the profess
sional man, are equally victims of an
abnormal age in which the struggle
for existence for prestige, for position,
has crowded out the finer instincts of
the race The times are out of joint,
are reflected in the home life of the
nation. We need slowing up, more
equal distribution of wealth, restored
opportunity to the individual to pro-
gress along rational, healthy lines,
You can't deal with the social prob
lem, or the industrial problem, with
out finding the economic problem
lurking always in the background.
What was the minimum wage law
enacted for? I'll tell you organized
labor's position on that law. We sup
ported it, not to benefit the moral girl
at the expense of the immoral girl,
nor the immoral girl at the expense of
the moral girl, but for every girl or
woman engaged in industry EQUAL
LY ALIKE, without regard to their
character, habits or anything else. We
believe that when you relieve the ne
cessity for turning to questionable
habits we have solved half the battle.
Give to every girl and woman engaged
in industry living wage. Then if the
girl goes wrong the responsibility will
rest elsewhere than upon the should
ers of society because of inhuman in
dustrial conditions imposed by mer-
cenary employers and stood for by So
ciety as a whole.
Through all this controversy can
not help but recall the fact that while
organized labor was in Olympia fight
ing for the eight-hour day for women,
the minimum wage law, and other
measures designed by labor to improve
industrial conditions for female work
ers. many of the directors who now so
strenuously cry for burnt offering
upon the altar of morality" were
safe in their comfortable homes, no
voice raised to plead, no arm to sue
cor. And remembering that, l confess
to lack of patience with those who
now cry morality in stentorian
tones