Evening star., 1937-11-07

the cause of decent wage for working
women. Fortune having placed her in
a position where she could give her
time to the work, she has given prac-
tical study to the labor situation af-
fecting women and children from the
standpoint of the employer and en-
ploye.
For 10 years she represented the
public in Wisconsin, at all hearings
affecting women's hours and wages
She travelled over the State at her own
expense, spending the best part of a
year studying the cost of living and
conditions surrounding working girls,
talking to groups of them separately
and collectively; seeing them in their
homes or boarding places; taking
count of their daily lives physically,
morally and religiously and consider
ing their problems from the viewpoint
of the situation as whole. Having
a good deal of the canniness of her
Scotch blood and the -toitiveness
Of those Highland forebears whose
lives were spent in the fastnesses OF
the mountains, but who at the sound
of the pibroch were up and ready tc
march into the open and give battle,
Mrs. Kittle seems to always study
the situation from different angles
and then selects the conditions she
thinks most necessary for correction
\ and also the point of vantage most
likely to be gained. She says she
does not consider it weakness, but
rather fair diplomacy to compromise
and take half loaf when there is
hunger, if she cannot get whole.
This was her attitude in the present
situation, when the District board held
out for a weekly minimum of Sl777,
and compromised for SIT.
Head of the Family
Is the First in Suffrage.
Sometime president of the Voteless
District of Columbia League of Won1-
en- Voters, Mrs. Kittle thinks it a
delicious joke that her husband es-
poused the cause of woman suffrage
before she did. Now, however, that
1t is fait accompli. Mr.. Kittle leaves
suffrage activities to his wife and
for sometime has been engaged in
writing on the political and historical
background of the Elizabethan period.
His studies along this line took them
to England, where he could have the
advantages of study and manuscripts
in the British Museum, and where
they lived for three years-taking
short trips on the Continent. where
Mr.. Kittle pursued his studies and
where she interested herself in work.
ing conditions for women. Their rea-
son for leaving Wisconsin and COM
ing to Washington to live was that
Mr. Kittle wished to have the sd-
vantages of the Library of Congress.
1t was during their stay in England
that Mrs. Kittle studied unemployment
in London, more especially, and made
a point of visiting all courts where
women appeared as plaintiffs or de-
PENDANTS. She frequently attended the
meetings at Toynbee Hall, and became
interested in those industries in Eng
land where women and children were
employed, and in white-collar jobs. She
visited Limehouse, the Whitechapel
district-not for slumming-but to see
the environments surrounding the
poorest population. BY the way, If
memory is correct, those neighbor-
hoods have given way to model hous-
ing and were visited on trips of in
spection by not only the late King
George and Queen Mary, but on sew
eral occasions by the then Prince of
Wales, now Duke of Windsor. After
Edward ascended the throne he
caused great CONSERVATION and un-
easiness by going alone with friend
or secreary through these districts.
Sitting before blazing log fire, after
q few cups of tea-Mrs. Kittle well ap-
preciates Sir James Barries old wom-
ems love for the cheering cup-she
said the District Minimum Wage Board
held out as long as they could rea-
sonably for the s1777 and then the
$17.50 as the minimum weekly wage,
but gave in and were willing to COM
promise for the lesser wage in order
that a unanimous decision might be
made by the conference between en-
ployers and employees. She smiled
when she said unanimous" as Mr..
Arthur L. Schoenthal, the labor rep
resentative on the District Board
voted present" instead of AYE" when
the conference finally decided the is
sue. Mrs. Kittle said they thought
this a fine piece of diplomacy on his
part.
1000 R0oming Houses
Visited by Committee.
Except those directly doing the work,
or the interested parties, it is won-
dered if there were many of the resi-
dents of the District who knew or
thought of the long hours of investi-
CATION and routine that were given by
the board voluntarily to the job of get
ting a fair wage for the 5000 en-
ployes. As an example: Mrs. Kittle
said the board had investigated 1000
rooming houses where the girls lived.
They went into the cost of clothes
Tor the shop girls, beauty parlor
expense, manicure, amusements,
church, etc., ETC., considering always