The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1914-02-14
.DEvL|N SPEAKS TO
WOMEN WORKERS
Women Wage Farmers of Belfast
Hear Plea Made in Their
Behalf
Ulster Ascendancy Scored---Women
Declared to be Duped by
Unionists
Irish and Not English Laws Needed
to Right Matters--No Aid
from Westminster


Mr.. Joseph Devlin was most enthu.
siastically received when he appeared
at Belfast recently to speak for the
women wage earners. He said it was
a genuine pleasure to him to have that
opportunity of meeting the women
workers of his division, sto whom he
was under SO many obligations for the
splendid support they had given him,
not only at election times, but at all
times, and whom he admired, not only
for the courage and grit they had
shown in working late and early, at
anything but adequate wages, to main
tain themselves and their families in
decency and responsibility, but also
because he knew that nowhere in Ire
land were there hearts more loyal and
true and devoted in the cause of Irish
Nationality than amongst the women
workers of the West Division. All Ire
land was proud of the women of West
Belfast, and rightly so, because 1t was
largely owing to their self-sacrif1ce
and zeal in the cause that the flag of
Home Rule was waving today over the
ramparts of the West Division, and
that it would continue to wave there
until Home Rule had been won.
He brought them message of good
cheer that would gladden. their hearts
and fill them with joy, and that mes
sage was that all was we'll with Home
Rule, and that the next time he came
to address them it would be to tell
them that the struggle was over. and
that their cause was triumphant.
Home Rule would be for them and for
their relatives and those who came
after them the realization of a cher
ished and passionate ideal, and 1t
would. be the beginning of new era
of hope for the women workers of Bel
fast, and for workers of every class
and creed and section In that dear old
motherland to which they were all de-
voted and which they all loved zap.
plause). He had done what little he
could in the British parliament to bet
ter the condition Of the workers in the
mills and factories and workshops in
their great city cloud applause). But
what had taken him years to effect at
Westminster, they would be able to
effect in months, or weeks, in their
own parliament in College Green. II
the poor dupes of workers who fol.
lowed the beat of the Carsonite drum
in Belfast had any sense they would
realize that it was not against Catho-
lie Ireland or their Catholic comrades
and fellow-workers that they had any
grievance. but rather against the sys-
tenn and those responsible for the sys-
tenn which compelled them to work
long hours for wages which were in
most cases not enough to maintain
themselves, let alone those who were
dependent upon them, and which Of
fered them no hope of rest or relief or
betterment in this world, apart from
old age pensions and the insurance
act, both of which the Unionist party
had vehemently opposed, Sir Edward
Carson actually singing himself out
in his opposition to old age pensions,
for the bruised and broken and beaten
men and women of Belfast at seventy
years of age. And that was the man
who had the audacity to come forward
and ask the sweated workers Of Bel
fast-the sons of the women whom the
linen lords compelled to sew 1874 dots
for penny-to shoulder their an
tique Italian rifles and march under
fussy and equity old armchair military
curiosities to do battle for him and
the gang of place.hunting lawyers and
landlords and ex-landlords who for
generations had fooled and fattened on
the ignorance and the sweat and blood
of the Protestant workers of that great
city.
1t was not Catholic intolerance that
the Craigs and the Carsons and the
linen lords feared. What they feared
was that, under Home Rule, their as,
cendancy would be at an end, and the
Catholic and Protestant workers would
join together in the Irish parliament
in demanding at least a living wage
out of the millions of big dividends
which were wrung out of their ill.paid
labor every year. The women work
ers knew that when he (Mr. Devlin)
tried to do something for the'out-work-
ers in the linen trade not a single Gov
enanter or Carsonite came forward to
help him. On. the other hand, he was
denounced by the: Unionist Press as
an enemy Of the city. There were
some eight thousand Of these out-work-
ers, and what was the rate paid to
them? According to- the report of DR..
Bailie, the Medical Officer of Health,
a Conservative. the various kinds of
badly-paid work included Children's
pinafores, flounced and braided, at
AID. per dozen;9 women's chemises, at
It'd. per dozen; women's aprons at
21kd. per dozen: mems drawers, at
100. per dozen; mems shirts, at 1Od.
per dozen; bloases at Sd. per dozen;
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