The Connecticut labor news., 1922-03-03
If. National WOmen's Party Has Its Way All Benefits Now AfOrd- ed Female Workers Will Be Endangered, Says One of Them.

Perhaps p6 legislation, either pro- posed or 4enacted in the last decade has been more fraught with danger to work CTS, and especially to women workers, than the prQposed so-called blanket amendment" t6 the Federal Constitu- tion which the National Wornan's Party has prepared and expects to have intro duced i'll the Congress in the near fu ture. It reads:
 Section l. No political, civil, or legal disabilities or inequalities, on ac- count of sex or on account of marriage unless applying alike to both sexes, shall exist within the United States or any State or territory within their jurisdic- tlOD.
 Section ?. Congress shall have power to enact necessary laws for en- forcement of this act"
 The National Womans Party is what may be termed the extreme wing of the National suffrage movement. It was members of this group who picketed the White House, burned former Presi- Fdent Wilson's pseeches, went on hunger strikes, heckled public speakers and per formed all sorts of spectacular "stunts" h1 the years just prior to the adoption Fof the 1oth,-the equal suffrage amend ment Immediately that this amendment became effective, this spectacular sister hood of direct action claimed all the credit. blithely ignoring the fine work of the noble women who had striven so hard, though perhaps, not so theatrically, for equal suffrage for many years before the National W oman's Party was heard Of.
 No sooner had the 18th amendment been adopted ard ratified than the Ma tioral Won1an's Party sought new worlds to conquer and after a survey, hit upon thiS ''blanket amendment as the most worthy object of its efforts. As soon as this became known, working women and all associations of women interested in legislation favorable to women in in- dustry, became alarmed and at meet ing held December 4th, 1921, in Wash lngtoil, D. C., 1t was pointed out to Miss Alice Paul, acting President of the Ma tional Woman's Party, that if this blanket amendment" were to become part of the Constitution it would endan- ger, If not entirely destroy, all social well fare laws, Federal and State, enacted for the protection of women workers, such as mothers pension laws, laws protect ing wage earning women by prohibiting sweat shop conditions, laws prohibiting work in factories immediately before and after child birth, laws providing seats while at work i'll factories stores, and elevators, laws giving women i'll indus try an eighr-hour day and living wage But in spite of this explanation,-or per- haps because of 1.-the plans of the Ma tional Wo1nan's Party to further this proposed blanket amendment" were ad- hered to.
 December 11th the Wonan's commit tee on industrial legislation, joint com lnittee comp posed of the legislative repre- sentatives of nine large organizations of League, General Federation of Women's s Clubs, National League of Women Vo- ters, National Women's Trade Union League, Young Wo1nen's Christian As sociation, American Home Economics Association, National Council of Jewish Women, American Association of Uni versity Woman and the Girls Friendly Society, met at the headquarters of the Women's Trade Union League in Wash ington and voted to report to their or ganizations their consensus of opinion l that this proposed blanket amendment twill endanger the existence and at the ! very least will throw into the courts l for years of litigation, the Federal and State legislation women have secured for | the protection of wage earning women ' January 10th, women representing B l organizations in the Eastern States met
 in conference on women in industry at I the Young Womens Christian Associa- ton at Newark, New Jersey, and by reso-
 lution called on the National Worlan's
 Party to declare its position whether for or against protective labor laws for
 women. About the same date Miss Ethel
 Smith, Legislative Representative of the Wo1nan's National Trade Union League,
 wrote an open letter to Miss Paul mak- l ing a similar request.
 1 Neither Miss Paul nor the National Woman's Party made reply to either the