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If she does not directly depend, by her work alone, on a livelihood secured by the legislation and governmental administration of these states, the person or persons, who support her work -- however indirectly -- are dependent upon it. And so, though she may not be fully aware of the struggles going on in her behalf, or feel interested enough to take her share of responsibility in them, she will sooner or later be subject to the laws and amendments to laws at present being debated...

Among the thousands of women all over the world who are aware of this, there is one in America who has fought many of the battles, survived the defeats and -- most important of all -- used the victories of this long campaign. She is here today with us, and will discuss and interpret the different aspects of the aims she represents -- aims that every civilized person -- man or woman -- will agree are desirable to fulfill.

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She is Mother Bloor -- and I feel the impulse to pause here until the applause dies down -- I have heard it rise so often in a devoted roar when she is visibly presented to an audience!-- who has fought steadfastly through fifty of her seventy-five years, (she is often referred to as seventy-five years young!) to establish justice, equality and a decent life for the people who work for our living -- the workers of America -- men and women both. Her fighting strength is a rightful heritage from ancestors who fought in the American Revolution.....

It has taken her into the very heart of the laboring sections of America where these problems are real life and death problems,-- to the picket line, to prison, to the platform -- She has waged this struggle through the written and the spoken word, as well as through the unflagging courage of her acts-- and has been one of the great educational forces in the life of American working women.

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in the ranks of the Socialist-Democratic Party formed by Eugene Debs, as one of its earliest members, and, by the most logical development of her experience and wisdom, became a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, where she is now chairman of the Women's Committee. None of those activities have prevented her from loving, marrying, giving birth to a large family and bringing them up to maturity...

Mother Bloor has recently returned from a trip to the Soviet Union, and I am going to ask her to tell us first what is being done there, under a Socialist Government, to secure the full opportunities for education, work, livelihood and physical welfare of women, which all women in the civilized world so greatly desire --

Mother Bloor ...

Mother
Bloor

It is a remarkable fact that the women of The Soviet Union, who were so backward in the Czar's time, women who were not allowed to go to school, women who

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even wore veils in places like Baku and other Mo-
hammedan territories of Russia, have, after only 20
years of the Workers' and Farmers' rule secured ab-
solute economic security, equal political rights, and
are now taking equal responsibility in the government.
184 women were elected to the Highest body, the Nation-
al Congress, at the last elections.

Perhaps one of the most outstanding achievements
has been their cultural development. All over Russia
we heard them sing in great operas, play in the large
theaters. They excel in all creative work, and have
also become aviators, engineers, pioneers blazing the
trail for women in all kinds of occupations, and at
the same time caring for the children of their country,
protecting motherhood, helping with scientific care of
the babies in their earlier years and on up to their
youth. In every city laws are passed to protect

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women and children. Thousands of creches or day
nursuries, modern in equipment with trained motherly
murses are available to all mothers. There are
kindergartens and an encreasing number of schools
everywhere. They cannot understand why we haven't
all these advantages for children in America, cannot
believe us when we say that 150,000 women die in child
birth in our country because of lack of funds to insure
necessary care of the mother in child birth, or in some
isolated parts of the country like the prairie country
the women are too far from doctors or hospitals.

Muriel Draper

And how much of this kind of legislation do you
think can be implemented through the administration of
our American Democratic Government?

Mother Bloor--

We can in America secure much of this legislation.

If all kinds of men and women would get together to
arouse public opinion as to the startling facts of the

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mortality of our women and children, we could build better, cleaner day nurseries especially in every industrial town. Some of our textile workers in a New Jersey town united in interesting the city fathers and mothers in building and maintaining day nurseries for the children whose mothers were compelled to work in the mills. The final method of persuasion was picketing the city hall with a large number of baby carriages full of babies.

As to social security legislation everywhere maternity protection is now being included. The necessity of this has been emphasized by a recent national conference called in Washington, January 11, 1938, by the National Child Bureau of our government. Many well known physicians, nurses, and social workers united in urging community legislation and practical action to save our mothers and children with more hospitals in small communities, more education as to public health

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generally, and especially more community nurses. The alarming facts brought to our notice by this conference should be wide spread. Katherine Lenroot, Chief of the Children's Bureau National Dept. of Labor is helping tremendously to arouse public opinion and a better understanding of the actual conditions affecting mothers and children in America.

Muriel Draper-- Do you think the Equal Rights Amendment, / will help in this direction? Isn't there a danger that even if it were granted, it would not be achieved? After all, is modern life organized to permit women to achieve full security?

Mother Bloor-- As to the Equal Rights Amendment, which recently had a well publicized hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington which resulted in a tie vote of the Committee, It is important to make clear that the Defenders of Equal Rights for women for many years, are still upholding those rights that we have

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fought for all these years, and demanding many more,
but the so-called Equal Rights Amendment you mention,
Mrs. Draper, all of us who have a clear understanding
of the extreme exploitation of women in the industrial
world are opposing. We know that the laws we have
struggled in putting on the statute books, and that have
even been declared Constitutional by a Supreme Court
decision would be wiped out by the proposed amendment.

Minimum wage laws, which have been secured by some
states in the past, fought for by many unions, have not
only raised the wages of women, but in so doing raised t
the standards of men workers. We know that thousands
of women are handicapped today because of lack of
protective legislation referred to in your previous
question. We therefore not only wish to hold the equal
rights we have gained, but we wish to use those rights
to help women who not only have to make their own living,
but in thousands of cases have many dependents, and the

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added burden of the present day conditions of the high
cost of foods, rents and so forth. The standards we
have achieved by protective legislation must be main-
tained......

Muriel Draper--

You do believe, then, it is still necessary for
women to promote their claims for equality in their own
interests while waiting for them to be realized by
society as a whole.

Some people fear that to admit the physical differ-
ence, and the fact of the discrimination against women
because of sex, is to admit an inferiority. This does
not necessarily follow, does it? Though of course, the
handicaps imposed by custom and tradition because of
physical difference must be taken into consideration.

—I can see that there is a grave danger of getting
an equality that will be merely identity—in other words
that certain re-actionary forces will seize upon the
opportunity to press women into identical positions

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with men, with identical physical risks and hours, but
no protection.

As far as I can discover, those in favor of the
Equal Rights Amendment feel <u>fairly</u> convinced that the
equal minimum wage would be paid -- that the manufact-
urers are honestly whole-heartedly with them in this
campaign, and will not resort to the "kickback" and
other familiar devices, playing on the fears and
despair of those women who have so many laws on the
Statute books against them already. <u>But</u> it is under-
standable that they may wish to cling to what protective
legislation they have, until they can feel more certain
of the co-operation of their employers and society as
a whole, until they have the means and the leisure to
educate themselves to fight for their rights.

Mother Bloor--

It is true that women have already been forced to
undertake exactly the same hard jobs as men with the
same physical risks, but are receiving much less pay.

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Muriel Draper--

I can see that the women who support the Equal Rights Amendment would agree with your fundamental aims, but would - and do - differ in the choice of ways and means. It is, as Walt Whitman wrote, "not the superficial shades of difference, but the mass-shades of a joint nature" that are worth fighting for.

Mother Bloor, do you find a greater unity -- an increasing co-operation between women who are working for these objectives, or do you find them splitting up in sectional strife?

Mother Bloor--

I go all over America and I would say that there is an increasing disposition on the part of women to yield certain long nurtured opinions and prejudices. I don't mean principles -- but opinions that have no basis in fact. There is an increasing move forward, a united progressive movement to secure political, economic and legislative rights and protection for women.

Mr. Draper on Mother Bloor, all your information and wisdom makes me feel equal to anything.