Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-03-19
WOMEN'S APPEAL
MOVES SENATORS
Workers Demand for g.
Hour Day Makes Impress
sion on Committee
REPORT ON BILL SOON
Those Interested in Passage of
Measure to Keep Tabs OH
Its Progress
REPORT ON BILL SOON
By a Sto6 Correspondent

voice of the women in industry shown
at yesterdays hearing on the labor law
amendment fixing an eight-hour day for
Pennsylvania women workers has i'm
pressed itself upon the Senate committee
having the bill in hand
Never before have women appeared in
such strength or spoken so forcibly in
favor of a bill affecting their interest
In Pennsylvania. In other years the
part of the women in industry was
taken by the men of the labor world
with the assistance of scattered women's
organizations.
But the hearing yesterday brought 10
the Senate caucus more than 100 women
representing thousands Of workers,
many of them new in industry because
of the war And these women in their
appeal to the Senator'S showed that they
knew what they wanted and their de-
Termination to get that thing.
There was the little woman in the
sombre brown dress who but two years
ago was a clerk in a department store
her She pulled off er kahki oVeralls
to come to Harrisburg yesterday to fight
that other Pennsylvania women can get
the eight-hour day that she now has.
She was Anna Sauerlne. a car cleaner
for the Pennsylvania Railroad She APP
peared before the committee TO tell them
that she and the women car workers are
doing as much work in eight hours now
as they formerly did in ten hours.
Cleans Two Cars a Day
I'VE scrub and clean two cars a day.
she said. Until the government took
over the railroads we scrubbed two cars
in a ten-hour day. Our work is done as
we'll. and yet those two hours make all
the difference in the world in my life.
Under ten-hour day ! had to get UP
at 4.30 every morning SO as to reach
the yards at :. | got home just about
s O'Clock in the evening. have two
hours day to live now, and l work just
as much"
Then there were the two white haired
old ladies who were presented to the
committee as strikers. They looked like
grandmothers, but quite careworn grand
mothers. They were there TO tell the
committee that they will not work any
more ten-hour day in the woolen mills, |
where for years they have labored.
Mrs. Mary Foster, one of them is now !
out on strike. II won't go back 10 work +,
in the mills again until We have an /
eight-hour day. That is what we have |!
been striking for, and we will get it. !
Why cannot the state help US"
Sitting near her at the hearing was |
a contrasting pipctpure. A pretty !
young girl with the bloom of eighteen on !
her cheeks shaded by the new wide |
brimmed hat. She is a cigar factory
worker.
Why do we want an eight-hour day.
she quered. Don't you think We girls
who work long hours in the odor of
tobacco should have shorter hours. We
are on our feet all day long nhaling
the odor of tobacco. 1t is not good for |
us. And a girl has so many things !
TO do at home. | want to go to night /
school. but how can I when I get home |
late and am dead tired With an eight |
hour day things l have been hoping for !
will be possible. /
Not Stronger Than Men
What the women of America want |
they will get" Mrs. Florence Kelley !
told the Senator's. And from all over
the state women are sending their de-
mand that these more humane hours be
given women workers. Men in thou
sands of factories and other employ
ments work but eight hours. Are women
stronger that they must be at the mercy
OF long hours of industry
Across the caucus room from these
women appealing for better conditions
of living, which they contend their work
in the war entities them to- was the
gallery of opponents, all of them men.
Some of them expressed their humani-
tartan sympathies with what the women
were contending for, but they protested
that II will cost them more money to
run business If shorter hours are given.
A Pittsburgh merchant made the wo-
men laugh when he proposed operating
the stores of his city in such way
IL the short-hour day goes through that
the women will have no work in the
evening so late that they will be unable
TO go to DANCES or moving picture shows.
Senator Mcconnell. chairman OF the
Judiciary Special Committee which has
the bill, was unable to predict today
when the committee will act on il.
There is possibility that 1t will be re-
ported out next week.
To Keep Tab on Bill
A representative of the women's
Trade Union League will go to Harris
burg next week to watch the progress
- VIC "phicll . ill-ilOul Dlll, "Ilci
was argued yesterday before the Senate
Judiciary Special Committee.
Miss Pauline Newman, organizer of
the Philadelphia women's Trade Union
League, sponsor for the bill, expressed
herself today as we'll pleased with the
Hearing in Harrisburg, and confident
that the bill would be reported out of
committee in the near future.
= We are taking no chances, however,
Of losing the fruits of Yesterdays splen-
did hearing" said Miss Newman in an
interview. I'VE have wired to Wash
ington to get the services of Miss Ethel
Smith, national legislative secretary of
the Women's Trade Union League and
member of the Federal Employees
Union. Miss Smith is thoroughly
familiar with legislative procedure, and
IL was she who had charge of the
women in industry bill when it was be-
fore Congress.
I'VE hope to get Miss Smith to go
to Harrisburg in the interest of the
wonlen's eight-hour bill. She will stay
there until the bill is reported out OF
committee and during it's progress
through the Legislature. II necessary
perhaps Miss Florence Sanville, legisla-
tive secretary OF the National Consumers
League. will come over from New York
10 aid in getting the bill through at
Harrisburg. and some of the women
from this city probably will go there