Denver labor bulletin., 1918-12-21
WOMAN STREET
CAR CONDUCTORS
OPPOSITION TO THEM BY
TRADES UNIONISTS.
Cleveland Street Car Company Mis-
represented the Employment of Fe-
males as a War Measure, but
Refused to Discharge Them.

The strike of street car men against
the Cleveland Railway Company, be-
cause of the employment of women
conductors, has ended by the COM
pany's promise to the union that it
will release the women as fast as pos
sible and that none will be employed
after March l, next.
This controversy has been taken ad-
vantage of by sensationalists, senti-
mentalists, anti-unionists and low
wage advocates, who have shed
oceans of tears over denial of wom-
ems rights" The street car men
have stood as adamant against this
plea, which they contemptuously refer
to as efforts to drive women into COM
plete squawdom"
Last August the company installed
women conductors on the ground that
the war had produced a shortage of
male workers. The men denied this
claim and threatened to strike, but
both sides agreed to refer the matter
to the United States department of la
Dor and accept The award Two in
vestigators-a man and a woman
appointed by the department, made a
survey of the labor situation in that
city and decided against the company.
I'VE have found" the report stated,
that the situation obtaining in Cleve-
land does not demand the employment
Of women on the cars of the Cleveland
Railway Company, and therefore de-
eide that no woman should be en-
ployed on the cars of the company
after November l, 1918.
mo special inducements of any kind
have been offered to men. On the con-
trary, special consideration shown
women applicants has deferred men
from applying to some extent, and in
duced others to quit the service of the
company. If male applicants will be
allowed a remuneration for the ten
day training period and schools of in
struction, which have proved a sue
cess with women applicants, will be
introduced for men, and the COM
pany's employment agent will make a
more determined effort to recruit men
from the fair labor market in Cleve-
land, there is no reason why the short
age should not be filed with men"
The company repudiated its agree
ment to accept the award of the de-
partment of labor and the men sus-
pended work. Then Representatives of
the women conductors, with a woman
lawyer, whom the strikers charge was
furnished by the company, journeyed
to Washington and asked the national
war labor board to force the men back
to work and rule that they were en-
titled to hold their positions. The
women alleged that the investigation
of the department of labor was not
'fair."
The war labor board devoted a day
to the hearing. The strikers showed,
by reports of the city employment
agency and the company's employ
ment bureau, that the claim of a short
age of male labor was not true and
that the company, therefore, had lost
the one prop to support its case. On
the broader question of whether this
work is suitable for women, the strik-
ers registered vigorous dissent. James
II. Nahey of Boston, attorney for the
unionists, declared that street car
work is not for women. He called
attention to a report by a Brooklyn,
N. Y, grand jury that frightful i'm