Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1923-11-09

%. I..sfpational Labor News Service.
" .5ington. d. c.. Nov. 6.-Why
45gy.fet Bondfeld, chairman OF the
Cz=srai Council of the British Trade
5..r Congress- has been called La
-. -. saint is told by William Bolitho,
s0pcial despatch from London
~ - sew York World. In telling
~ Niss Bcndfield's life, Mr.. Bolitho
i..'Tbis means a lot for women.
...4 Nargaret Bondfield when the
-. I'D her she was elected Chair
- - 4 the General Council of the
ps.f.s Trades Union Congress In
Ias5on. September 20. She spoke
.absrly. looking round as If TO read
tss syes of each member OF this SUI
..s,-s cabinet Of British labor.
.T5e moment was the greatest one
e.. ssr lie, and in her way of think
- the greatest of all possible hon
'ss and Of all possible moments. she
,.art ND and took her seat at the
mead Of the table, in the President 5
cbsir now hers by right OF election.
YOU men have shown that labor
hsI.syes in the equality of women.
Tbai vas all. The grave, hard faces
,ann5 her relaxed little. Margaret
Ran4feId is a tidy, stout little woman
= fftv with the most charming voice
that has ever been heard on plat
fofm in England.
Devoted Life to Labor.
Then. opening her black, business
ike handbag with snap as if to dis
miss the matter. she began the
agenda for the day. 1t was disposed
al saw the delegates, in record time.
That is Margaret Bondfield. She
is the most unsentimental woman in
the world, outwardly. Yet she has
devoted the whole of her life to the
betterment of her fellow workers.
1T is a queer ambition for a wom-
an. after all, to direct this cold as
sembly of grave, elderly men, occu
pied with highly abstruse and dull
subjects Of wages and contracts, sit
ting behind closed doors in a severely
furnished office room.
But ever since she went to work,
a quiet, profoundly serious little girl
Of thirteen, she has steered her course
toward il with the same passionate,
convinced desire that other girls have
bestowed on any of the worlds more
obvious prizes.
Began as Teacher.
"She began as a supply teacher for
a boys class in a public school in a
poor quarter Of a Somersetshire town,
where she was born, in 1878. Leav-
ing this she was apprenticed by her
mother to one Of the worst trades in
l0ndon--Sewing cheap garments for
export to the Colonies.
In 1894 she joined the Shop As
sistants' Union and two years later
was the first woman delegate to at
tend the Trades Union Congress as a i
representative of that union. She
had seen the black side of the wom- |
ans industrial life, knew every |
Granny of its bad working conditions,
its sweated labor, its hard bosses, |
who believed themselves above the
law, has counted every hour of slav-
cry in the thirteen that were then |
expected Of all women in shops in
London.
"She had lived in with them
all, and was one of them for
ever. With her brain and ability
she could easily have cut herself
out of the business and tried to
forget it. Margaret Bondfield-
preferred to go on working for
the rest.
I'm 1898 she left shop work and
took up the paid position of Assist
ant Secretary to the Shop Assistants
Union, and in the same year she
showed that she was not going to be
merely specialist in the interest of
one small section of women's works
by running for election and winning
the post Of member of the West Ham
Trade and Labor Council.
Her experience of the Trades
Union movement is more complete
and varied than that of any man.
Sae Is at present secretary of the
National Union of General Workers.
a member of the executive of the
Woman's Trades Union League, and
member of the National Admins !