The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-09-13
LiVelyHandling of
Vital Problems in
'WOrkingWoman
THE WORKING WOMAN, Septem-
Der issue, published at so E. 18th
St, New York City. Sc.
Reviewed by
ESTHER LOWELL

ES uEh LOtg ELL
WHAT gets the women? That's the
Wproblem of every magazine that
sets out to capture women readers.
Look through the run of women's
magazines, from the dime-store' S
Home" to the fossy Ladies Home
Journal" Each aims to hit the
womans heart with love stories,
offering some sort Of escape enter
tsinment from the b-ead-and- butter
problems that fill household. Each
tries to touch the vanity of women,
suggesting beauty hints and fashion
frills. Each tells new trick with
food for wSmen to appeal to manly
appetites. These are the magazines
that try to win the dollars of mid
dle-class housewives for their adj
Yertisers.
Workers and farmers wives read
these magazines, too, when they can
get hold of them. They copy pat
terms in the cheap materials they
can afford or adapt recipes to their
meager budgets. But great many
working class and farm women can
not pay 10 cents to % cents a month
for these journals.
Many working girls are caught by
these journals but probably even
more read True Story" Screen
land" and Love Story" magazines.
They dream of themselves as Greta
Carlos or Janet Gaynors and long
for a John Gilbert to be their fairy
prince.
Now Of course the modest little
16-page fiye-cent Working Woman
magazine cannot set itself up
against these fat, picture studded
rivals in variety and attractiveness.
And yet there is no reason why this
paper cannot be made into a lively
go-getter that will make working
women and workers and farmers
wives eager to see it.
We understand that this is the in
tention of the reorganized staff, with
the aid of a fairly large and repre-
sentative advisory council. While
never losing its clear revolutionary
direction, the Working Woman will
aim to win the masses of women by
brightly written working class f1c-
ton, fashion flutters, household
hints. 1t will aim to develop mill
tant action among working women,
workers and farmers wives by
printing inspiring heroic true sto-
ries from their own ranks.
THE September issue is small be-
ginning toward making the
Working Woman hit the nail on the
specific head. Such fine stories as
No More Helling"-of a successful
strike by woman paper sorters, who
cannot read or write-and Myra
Pages Leave Them Meters Bel"
are far more interesting than pages
Of congratulations on the struggle
for higher wages and the fight Of
the unemployed. Sasha SmalPs
Love Bows to the Dollar" tackles
the movie interests, debunking the
decency campaign.
The caricature of Fanny Perkins
queen Of the New Deal phoney
deck, is good However, we prefer
pieces finished on the page. not
chopped unnecessarily and carried
over. Makeup elsewhere in the is
sue is uneven. We find two-col-
umn pages, especially the I'M
crowded and sprightly written
You're Telling Me-" feature of
Grace Hutchins, easier to read than
the very narrow three columns.
For the Working Woman to be-
come truly a mass paper, however.
many women workers, farmers and
workers wives, will have to pitch i'll
with stories of their lives, their
struggles, and how the magazine
can help them make their organ
izations and fight more effective.