The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1918-06-29
DANGERS TO WOMANHO0D,
(From the Garment Worker)

The investigation by the Kings
county grand jury as to the alleged
immortality and unsavory working
conditions to which women conduc-
tors have been exposed on the car
lines Of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit
company has revealed facts which go
to show that such service has in it
moral and physical dangers for it's
women workers which deserve not
| only public attention but remedial &C
ton of a most drastic nature.
That the scarcity of male labor has
made essential the employment of fe-
male labor in the operation of the cars,
as stated by the officials of the
transit company, is not borne out by
| facts. The company did not seek
honestly to secure male labor to man
its cars. That was because it was un-
willing to pay wages which such
workers would demand. The company
therefore sought female labor mainly
for two reasons: to prevent wage in
creases which the male workers were
demanding and to weaken the move
ment for the organization of the en-
ployes into strong union.
The statement of James M. Lynch,
a member of the New York Indus
trial Commission, shows how little
effort was made by the management
of the transit company to secure male
labor. Their declared effort to do so,
and as announced without avail, was
nothing more than a pretense to de-
cefve the public and to reconcile pub
lie opinion to the employment of
women in an occupation entirely un-
suited to their moral we'll being and
to their physical strength.
This demand for female labor on
the part of large employers at the
| present time we do not believe is war
ranted by the situation. Its chief aim
| is to secure cheap labor and to have a
force of employees that will be free
! from the influence of organized labor.
If the time should ever come when
such labor is essential to our national
strength we should not be disposed to
offer any objection. But we do not
believe that that time is now here, and
we are opposed to the employment Of
women in industries in which they
are confronted with danger to their
| lives and character that in the long
run cannot fail of having a deteriorat-
ing effect on the character of tie
American people.
We want our womanhood strong in
all those qualities that make for ma
t1onal greatness-strong in physical
endurance, elevated in moral concep-
tions and the mothers of a race that
will rear sons and daughters to hand
down to posterity the highest ideals
and the very best that has come to
our country as the heritage of noble
and virile ancestry.
The safety and perpetuity of ou1
institutions rest on the basis of oul
womanhood and every influence, be
it industrial or social or political
which undermines it's moral and phys
ical stability should be fought with
all the energy essential to the perser-
walton of our national life.
Our foes are not all foreign. Within
our own borders Turk insidious forces
that for material gain would sap the
very basis of manhood strength by the
subjugation of women to toll that
would unfit them to be the mothers of
strong and brave people. This foe
must be guarded against with the ut
most vigilance if our people are to be
kept from moral and physical deterio-
| ration.