The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-03-19

work too long to be or become good mothers or citizens. realize that we women have no hold upon you, that we cannot make any demands, but must come to you and ask yon to show that you ara generous and kind-hearted.
 Twenty per cent of the working women of the state are married They have a double labor to perform and for their sales, if for no other, the bills should be passed.'
 Mrs M. Toscan Bennett, treasurer Of the association, spoke on the biu as it anected children who leave schooa at an early age and work in trades during the years of their adolescence fattening the profits Of men whose industries are built upon child labor. She thought the children should not be allowed to work at all. but that they ought at least to work for shorter hours.
 Fred Oldsworth of Norwich cor responding secretary of the textile union. introduced a large number Of working women in the. textile indus try. The speakers included Miss Alb bic OsConnor of W1l1imantac, Miss Catherine Moran of W111imantic who said that the women in the mills now do twice as much work for the same pay as they did a few years ago.
 
 said that 1t might seem strange for him to speak on the labor side Of this question when he was a. naanu- facturer and employer, but that he had been a working man himself and knew what ~heH wanted and need ed He thought the employers and employees did not get together enough to understand each other thorough- Iy. but that if they did there would be little difficulty in getting proper laws passed He thought there ought to be a differentiation between the hours oe labor in different indus tries
 Professor Willard c. Fisher of Middletown said he believed that the reduction of hours could be accom- pIished without damage to any in
 1ustry.
 .tOne consequence of the present sftuation, he said, ttis the expIoita-
 eion Of women that it brings about. The Prudential Life Insurance Go. I has. given statistics Of the effect of 1 such work among women. The sta
 tistics show larger proportion of
 deaths from tuberculosis among the
 women of New England than among 1 the men and attributes it to tho large I number of young women employed
 in the unhealtt ful textile mills The l work fmpairs the capacity Of women to bear children and causes a large rate of infant mortality. There are I efghty-one large employers in Con I necticut who have voluntarily 1-educ-
 ed their hours of employment for wo- men to fifty-four hours a week and are prospering. Reductions Of hours to eight and nine hours a day have I proved successful even from an en- players point of view in the past and
 have shown that the output has con l tinued as great or greater than un-
 der the old hours. Among the scores of measures oG this kind passed in l the United States, only one has ever
 been repealed and that one was ac- cfdentaIly repealed in the reorga.niza- l tton of a labor bureau.
 Miss Mary c. WeT1es Of Newington representing the Consumers League. l appeared in behalf Of Senate Bill No. I 1eS and House Bill No. 7s6. She
 said the former aimed to include small stores under the mercantile law, to remedy a technical defect in the law, so as to allow prosecutions of employers who keep their ern- 1 p1oyes at work after technically clos l Ing, and to Emit the hours of work to fifty-fve hours week.
 Some Of the larger stores would like to close every night except Sat