Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-12

which has been especially noticeable in
! the shoe trade recently, it was pointed
put. makes for an uncertain market and
unstable employment conditions in the
/ clothing industry.
| IT think the time has come" said
Miss Herstein, "for women to ask
whether these frequent and radical
changes in styles are in the interest of
esthetic value in clothing, or are mere
ly VagarieS with no sound basis"
The opinion was expressed by several
delegates that the employer can not
guarantee stability or continuity of en-
ployment because he can no longer be
assured Of a steady market for his
product, If it has aught to do with
current fashions.
Miss Mary Anderson, chief of the
Women's Bureau of the Department of
Labor, took issue with several delegates
who had criticized the presence OF mar
ried women in industry as influencing
wage standards unfavorably and taking
the place of the woman working for her
own living.
In our surveys we have found that
in the majority of cases the married
woman is in industry because her labor
ing husband makes too low wages to
support the family in decency and that
she is as much in need of work as her
unmarried sister," declared Miss An
derson. Don't talk about the compe-
tition of the married-women group In
industry Talk more about the COM
petition Of workers under 16 years OF
age, of girls working overtime for low
wages. of workers who labor under I'M
desirable working conditions and there
by bring down the entire standards OF
labor"
OF all the reports given on labor
" conditions in the country relating
especially to women, the most reveal
ing was that of Miss Margaret Bowen
of Elizabethton, Tenn, who told the
vivid story of the conditions in the
rayon mills at Elizabethton which led
to strike of $500 workers and the
formation Of q branch Of the United
Textile Workers with membership OF
1853 who are still on strike. Miss
Bowen was the supervisor of the group
whose walkout precipitated the strike
and is now secretary-treaSurer OF the
Elizabethton local union. She was
brought to the convention together
with other textile workers from the
South, to relate conditions existing In
their respective centers.
Miss Bowen gave the delegates, and
later repeated to the Senate committee
considering the Wheeler resolution for
an investigation of labor conditions in
the textile industry of the CarolinaS
and Tennessee, the details Of condi-
tions leading up to the strike, which,
she said, was in general protest against
the fact that the average wage OF the
rayon workers was 1920 week; the
wages of rs per cent of woman workers
being even lower than this.
Out of the workers weekly wage had
to be paid minimum rent OF IS
week for "shacks" owned by the COM
pany and operated as real estate VEN
lures: a dollar a week for Transports
ton from the town, where the workers
all live, to the factories some distance
away, and, in addition, expenses OF
food, clothing and laundry.
After the first strike occurred in
March, she said, increases were granted
to some of the workers groups, but
determinations in these increases led
to the second strike, which Is still on,
although the two factories have re-
sumed operations.
Miss Bowen, as head of the inspection
group of girls who first protested
against a wage of $S.47 q week, led the
walkout last March which soon at
tracted the support of the entire body
of workers and was responsible for the
organization of the local union. She
told about the fling Of numerous in
functions against the strikers; asserted
that two girls under IS had been put in
Jail for failure to pay board bill OF
$40; and that many children 10 years OF
age have been employed in the rayon
mills at Elizabethton.
Miss Matilda Lindsay, Southern field
Of the league, and direc-
tor of the convention symposium on the
Southern situation, pointed out that the
Elizahethtan strike came aaDollt through
the voluntary action of the employees,
and was In no way due to agitation from
the outside. Employment of a large
number of deputy sheriffs on the de-
mand Of citizens and employers and the
issuance of numerous tnjunctionS were
resented by the workers. Men had been
working for $12 a week, paying exorbi-
tant rents for small shackS owned by
the employers, and trying to support
their families on the bare level Of sub
Miss Lindsay declared.
She declared that, in many Southern
States, the advantages of cheap labor
are held out as an inducement to North
ern manufacturers, but declared that
the Southern workers are awakening to
the fact that they have been exploited.
Miss Mary Anderson, chief of the
United States Women's Bureau OF the
Department of Labor, who presided at
the forum discussion on the Southern
industrial situation, pointed out that
there are 2,398,748 wage earning women,
the majority Of them in industry in 10
Southern States.
There is tremendous labor unrest in
the South" said Miss Anderson. What
Southern labor needs above all else is
Mrs. Raymond Robins Of Chicago.