The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1919-08-09
Will Use Their Votes to I'm.
prove Their Position
in Industries
EQUALIZATION OF ;
WAGES TO BE SOUGHT
Miss Weston, Prominent Trade Union
Worker, Tells What Labor Women
Hope to Secure-Have Proved Eff
fective In Unions.

hope TO Secure-Have Proved Eff
fective In Unions.
CHICAGO, Aug. 9.-When the women
|of the country get the ballot they win
have something that will help substantial
ly in improving the working conditions
and the wages of women in industry,
where such improvement is necessary,
said Miss Agnes Nestor, one of the fore
most trade union women workers in
America.
Miss Nestor observed that she had re-
Gently been through a session with the
Illinois legislature where not single
measure that the trade women asked for
had been passed She said that she found
the official representatives of the employ.
ers maintaining the same position they
held before the war. I'VE had to talk
to legislators for whom we could not
vote remarked Miss Nestor. 1--WE were
group without representation in the law.
making body. And we got nothing.
NV hen the women in industry get the
ballot believe they will also receive bet
/ er treatment than they frequently ge:
Today IN their labor difficulties. There
have been some very unfair injunctions
gwen by judges sympathetic to EMPLOYERS
| and unlustited arrests made by the police
who OF course, we've only serving political
/ Influences higher up The labor vote will
be strengthened by the addition of the
hvomen's labor vote
Miss Nestor was member Of the won
! ms committee of the Council of National
Defense, representing the working women
| OF the country, and was the only woman
member of the advisory council to the
secretary of labor that formulated the
plans for the war labor administration
She is president of the Chicago Women's
Trade Union League and a member of the
executive committee of the Cook County
labor party. BY trade she is a glove max
er. being first vice president of the Inter.
! national Glove Workers Union OF Amer
ca.
!, The word that spells success for the
Z women workers, however. as Miss Nesto,
Sees Il, Is xsr<anszation. That is the puf
pose of the Nomen's Trade Union League
UfgInfzarfDT --Uf HE women IS gong
strong, said Miss Nestor She said they
were accomplishing both local and ma
tiona1 organization. that women were
good organizers, and that they were stick
Hers. Looking back over the past Is years
IN Chicago, for illustration. she said that
womens unions had come through as well
as the mems and that where they had
apsed III this period it was generally due
to conditions in the industry which had
] similarly affected the mems unions in the
/, same trade.
It was only by organization in the in
dustry that Standardization of wages
thronqh the small as well as the large es
! adjustments could he attained Miss Mes
tor continued, and standardization in wag
es, she insisted was most necessary. be
cause of the many women employed il
small eoncerncs.
The minimum wage for women she he'll
good step. sout not something which
| could take the place of organization.
! Now as to women's wages themselves
| Miss Nestor takes the position that tn,
| worker, regardless of whether man OF
+ woman, should be paid for the work done
! II the work a woman does is of highe,
| grade than that done by man. then oh
viously, she holds, the woman should re
ceive the larger pay.
| 1t all the women were merely selfsun
! porting, as so many of the budgets made
| out for them have taken for granted. said
Miss Nestor. the problem OF wages paid
them would be much simpler But in
! tact. many of the women workers have
dependents on them. as have the men and
they generally consider fortunate that Cir
who has only herself to support.