Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-05-13
LABOR FEDERATION
ENDORSES SUFFRAGE
CONTINUED from First page.l


of Mrs. o. D. Oliphant, an antisut-
fragist from Trenton. n. j., who, dis
satisfied with the audience given her
on the opening day of the convention
Clast Tuesday, tried again to get the
ants case before the delegates. Half
a dozen representatives of the unions
connected with the liquor industries
fought hard in her behalf, but the
chair ruled that only recognized dele
gates should be granted the privilege
of the floor to discuss the suffrage
resolution.
In rendering this decision. President
Maurer explained that both the ants
and the suffragists had been given the
opportunity to present their respective
cases before the convention on Tues
day and that further presentations
from either Mrs. Oliphant or Mrs. Ger
trude Fuller. who had represented the
~suffragists, were unnecessary. He was
supported in this stand by a majority
of the delegates. but 1t was not until
after a heated discussion led by dele
gates from Philadelphia that the mat
ter was dismissed and the vote on the
resolution calling for the Pennsylva-
mia Federation of Labor's support of
the suffrage amendment at the polls
this year. was taken.
Vigorous Arguments
Meanwhile. prior to the appearance
of Mrs. Oliphant, vigorous arguments
in favor of the convention supporting
the woman suffrage resolution. were
presented by Steve" Mcdonald, pres.-
dent of the Scranton Central Labor
Union, and Dave" Williams, of Allen
town. Both speakers urged the dele
gates to remember that it was the
working woman who needed the ballot
and that to renounce her right to 1t
would be disloyal to the basic prin-
ciples of organized labor.
NJ XTtIIfonoe otrYnH a ~raSnnnSiVn
chord when, in answer to the argu-
ment tina some women would not use
the ballot, he said: Let the society
women who want to give their monkey
dinners and their whist parties stay
at home and not vote If they don't
care to. But let the working women
who do want to vote, and who do need
lit, have it." Thunderous applause
greeted this plea.
.'Steve'' Mcdonald Speaks
Steve Mcdonald. the president of
the Scranton Central Labor Union. said
in part:
Il have been sent here by the Scran-
ton Central Labor Union and l speak
as the representative of its members
and the members of its allied unions.
They believe hat this union should
renew its endorsement of suffrage for
women.
Every crime, every infamy, every
injustice inflicted on the men and
women of this state can be directly
charged to the neglect and ignorance
of the men who have not fully eXer-
cised their right of the ballot. We
must blame the men, the voters, for
the laws that are at fault. They made
them.
IF we haze never vet been able to
establish laws that were just by the
voters of men. it is time we took our
mothers and daughters, our wives and
| Si Gfar into the nolifiCal aroma 60 that
we may see If their good influence will
not enable us to enact laws for the
benefit of mankind.
Laws for Hogs
d you believe the mothers who go
down into the valley of death to bring
each human atom into this world
would ever vote for a condition of
things which permits a man to apply
to the government and secure the serv-
ices of high paid experts to cure a sick
hog for him but denies the man who
asks the government to help him with
an expert to cure his sick child? He
is told there IN a law for hogs. but no
law for children.
IF that is equitable law, it is time
we had a change of opinion.
There are 5000, 900 children and
girls n women in our factories and
mills. You now hat they are simply
being fed to the jaws of criminal greed.
that their lives are being crushed out
because they are helpless.
You know that the children and
the wives and the mothers of the poor
arc deprived of all those chances for
ideal things which we should all strive
for.
As to Better Laws
d not believe anyone who tells
you the women's votes will not help
get better laws, for in the suffrage
states you will fin that they have
already enacted better laws. You will
find that their first move was to attack
the auction block on which our chill
dren were being sold into child slavery
and our women into white slavery.
1t was the frenzied appeal of the
mothers that secured these laws
against such things.
? Everything that is damnable, de-
spicable and lamentable in the laws
can be traced. as I said before, to the
neglect of the men who now vote. Let
us hear the plea of the girls who work
beside us in the mills and the factories,
the women whom we are so proud to
welcome into our labor organizations,
, the women who LAY brought us into
the world and who in many cases have
been forced to go out into the world
and labor to keep us alive. Let us
hear their plea and help get them the
vote"
Dave" Williams OH the Floor
Dave" Williams. of Allentown.
Spcdhllk LOT the resolution endorsing
suffrage. which had been introduced
by the committee of which he is a
: member. said in part:
Il am surprised to see any oppo-
sition to a resolution endorsing woman
suffrage in a convention of the Fed
! Grafton of Labor of Pennsylvania, that
state where working conditions are so
rotten and the interests are able to
: drive down wag by using underpaid
= women's and children's labor.
Those who say that woman's place
Is in the home and she should not in
terest herself in things outside of It
: should remember that as man claims
the vote. it is mans fault that these
bad b conditions exist.
Suffrage is one of the marks of
progress. One hundred years ago
, women were denied an education and
the first man to advocate their admis-
! sion to the public schools was arrested.
3 Think of IT..
Making Slaves of Wives
D "You who would make a slave of
the wife must expect that that wife
g will have stunted children. You are
, the ones to blame for the fact that
3 children are the prey of industrial
] greed. The women are helpless now.
All they ask is freedom to help them
1 selves.
e 1.-THE workinPmap of tha lohor