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THE STORY OF AN
EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT

Give back to the women who work
The Spirit of Life
Designed by Daniel Chester French for the Trask Memorial at Saratoga, and
through the courtesy of Mrs. Katrina Trask, used for the leaflets of the Con
sumers' League.
THE STORY OF AN EPOCH-
MAKING MOVEMENT
BY
MAUD NATHAN
Honorary President of the New York
Consumers' League, and Vice-
President of the National
Consumers' League

With Brief Forewords by
HON. NEWTON D. BAKER
Former Secretary of War, and former President of
the National Consumers' League
MARY ANDERSON
Chief of Women's Bureau, Department of Labor,
Washington, D. C.
EDWARD A. FILENE
Senior member of the firm of William Filene's Sons,
of Boston, Mass.
>
GARDEN CITY
NEW YORK
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
1926
028 697
697 012
1
& COMPANY.
COPYRIGHT, 1926, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES AT THE
COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y.
FIRST EDITION
T
DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF
::
G
MY FRIEND
JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL
THE LADY OF THE LAMP"
"C
WHOSE VISION, WISDOM, AND
SYMPATHETIC UNDERSTANDING
MADE POSSIBLE THIS EPOCH-
MAKING MOVEMENT
-
;
į
Sociology
Wehr
2-11-27
14432
And for success, I ask no more than this
-to bear unflinching witness to the
truth. All true, whole men succeed; for
what is worth success's name, unless it
be the thought, the inward surety, to have
carried out a noble purpose to a noble end.
G
- JAMES RUSSell Lowell
1
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
To the friends who so kindly encouraged me by
the helpful suggestions, I wish to extend my thanks.
MAUD NATHAN
FOREWORD BY NEWTON D. BAKER
IN
N THE following pages Mrs. Nathan tells the story
of the Consumers' League from the genesis of the
idea through the days of its development to its present
days of power.
The idea upon which the League is based is now an
accepted part of our industrial philosophy while the
League itself is relied upon by legislatures for accurate.
information as to industrial conditions and by execu-
tives for sympathy and support in the enforcement of
regulations profoundly affecting the health and welfare
of the republic.
We are a humane and just people. In recent decades,
as science and invention have facilitated our exploita-
tion of the boundless natural resources of our virgin
continent, our wealth has increased in a sort of dizzy
geometrical progression, but it is a happy circumstance
that our disposition to benevolence has kept pace with
our growing ability. I shall not multiply words in
proof of this thesis, but I summon the four corners of
the earth to testify how American effort has bound up
the wounds of the world, pouring in oil and wine, until
the advent of catastrophe has come to be but the herald
of the approach of American sympathy and relief.
The industrial advance, however, has entailed prob-
lems all its own. In the surging, congested masses,
xi
xii
FOREWORD BY NEWTON D. BAKER
notably of unorganized and inarticulate women and
children workers, summoned to create wealth in mass
production, it is increasingly hard for us to find our
neighbours! The Providence which lay in the intimacy
of small neighbourhoods is lost in the mazes of the tene-
ment, and charity becomes unintelligent and futile as a
mere casual grace between strangers. For such reasons
the factory and workshop, as they grew, became more
and more impersonal, conditions in them became no-
body's business, and their social consequences eluded
the knowledge of the consumers of the products until
the exhaustion of long hours, the degradation of in-
adequate wages and the diseases of the sweatshop stood
out as evils which not only deprived defenceless women
and children of a fair chance in life, but menaced the
vitality and morality of the race.
The attention of Miss Woodbridge was attracted to
some of these problems through the Working Women's
Society, an organization dictated, no doubt, rather by
the consciousness of suffering on the part of the working
women than by any appreciation of the social conse-
quences of the condition in which they and other
women found themselves.
However that may be, a Cause had finally found a
Prophet. By the steps which Mrs. Nathan details,
the Consumers' League developed at first locally, then
nationally. It assumed, and rightly, that the American
consumer would not willingly profit by the cheapness
of wares where that cheapness resulted from oppression
and injustice. Happily, from the very beginning, how-
ever, the Consumers' League has proceeded upon sound
Any
FOREWORD BY NEWTON D. BAKER
xiii
principles. Its motto has been "Investigate, record,
agitate." Accordingly, it has sought first-hand accu-
rate information, subjected its data to scientific analysis.
and generalization, and laid before a thoughtful public
the results of its inquiries, through the printed and
spoken word, in such fashion that well-disposed people
have been able to bring to bear the pressure of the con-
sumers' purchasing power to induce voluntary better-
ment of conditions on the part of employers. It has
been able also to present before legislative committees
conditions ripe for statutory remedies, and to hold up
the hands of factory inspectors and sanitary authorities
by surrounding their acts with an atmosphere of in-
telligent criticism.
The full story of the work of the Consumers' League
is not told in Mrs. Nathan's pages, nor will it ever be
told anywhere. Before local and general legislatures
of every state, and committees of Congress, in the
offices of mayors, governors, cabinet officers, and Presi-
dents, the voice of the League has been lifted in the
interest of better conditions of life and work, notably
for women and children. The impression it has created
has become a part of the elevation of the social con-
science of America and far transcends even the great
ethical gains which can be enumerated as embodied in
legislation.
In a peculiar sense the Consumers' League is an ideal
voluntary agency evolved in an industrial democracy.
For the most part, laws are needed only for recalci-
trants. Spontaneous good behaviour, dictated by good
will and enforced by common consent, makes up the
PORAD
xiv
FOREWORD BY NEWTON D. BAKER
larger part of the sanction of civilized life. Such spon-
taneous good behaviour can rest only upon knowledge
of the implications of conduct, and knowledge can only
be acquired, under modern conditions, when high-
minded and disinterested inquirers investigate and tell
us what they find. This sort of work the Consumers'
League has done supremely well in a field in which it
was a pioneer.
There is a certain reassurance, too, in the story Mrs.
Nathan tells. A small and obscure beginning grows by
the very vis inertia of our democratic institutions into
a great social agency as the need for it develops. We
are not likely to become a mere materialistic society,
however much the complications of modern life may
thwart our ability as individuals to practise the charit-
able virtues, so long as associations like the Consumers'
League can develop and thrive among us and help us
to do on a large and collective scale, in a collective way,
that which we so delighted to do as individuals under
simpler conditions.
Find
#
FOREWORD BY MARY ANDERSON
N READING Mrs. Nathan's book, I have lived again
the hard, lean days, with their long hours and low
pay, which women have had to endure through the ages.
And the end is not yet.
Three things must strike forcibly the readers of this
book. One is the deplorable condition of women work-
ers in retail stores, which led to the founding of the
Consumers' League. Another is the progress recorded
-progress so gratifying that the Consumers' League
and its members may well be proud of having had so
large a part in the work. And though much has been
accomplished, much remains to be done. The third is
the unbounding faith and untiring effort of women who
had nothing to gain and-I suspect-frequently were
misunderstood, both by those they were trying to help
and by the employer, the latter too often of the type
which considers that the business, including the human
element, is his to do with as he likes.
•
A book such as this of Mrs. Nathan's, which gives us
the history of a constructive movement, is very helpful
in the review of our industrial life. In the dark days
we need a clear vision and a well-grounded hope, and
that calm courage which takes no account of hardships
by the way. The times through which we are passing
are affording to many of us a confirmation of our faith.
XV
xvi
FOREWORD BY MARY Anderson
We see that many things are evil, and through that
knowledge we know more definitely than we ever did
before the direction in which we must move if a better
world is to come. The Consumers' League has had and
will continue to have an important part in forming our
industrial democracy.
FOREWORD BY EDWARD A. FILENE
HE history of the Consumers' League is a record of
real achievement. The League has accomplished
in large measure the fundamental purposes for which it
was organized, and it would be difficult, if not impossi-
ble, to find in any department store to-day the deplor-
able conditions that Mrs. Nathan has so graphically
described.
Two conclusions may be drawn from her book. The
League's success shows that the consumer can exert a
decisive influence over business, if he will take the trou-
ble. And it shows that the time has come to discard
some of our present more or less lawless business meth-
ods and to adopt the sort of policies that will give us an
increasingly better social order.
Mrs. Nathan's book is the description of a long and
successful struggle. But Mrs. Nathan and her asso-
ciates will agree with me that the work of the Con-
sumers' League is not yet done. I believe that there is
more work for it still to do and, if anything, a greater
work than it has already done.
The League has effectively fought one set of abuses
affecting a limited class of workers. It should now set
itself to eliminate the wastes in production and distribu-
tion of our modern business system. Despite the fact
that science is daily making life more livable and inter-
xvii
xviii
FOREWORD BY EDWARD A. FILENE
esting, daily devising ways and means for shifting bur-
dens from the backs of men to the backs of machines,
daily widening the range of men's interests by rapid.
transportation and communication, and broadening the
scope of existence generally, the time of the majority of
mankind is still occupied almost entirely in the business
of providing food, clothing, and shelter, with little time
or training for lifting life to a higher level-even if the
means were at hand.
According to Mr. Hoover's Board of Engineers in
their report on "Waste in Industry," the average pre-
ventable waste in American production reaches 50 per
cent. Distribution conditions are equally bad. The
average product doubles in price from the production
cost to the ultimate consumer. These wastes are inde-
fensible if they are to be accepted as the inevitable result
of the business system. A system that does this cannot
escape indictment and assault. And yet I am con-
vinced that the social progress of the future will be
achieved not by the destruction of the business system,
but by its further and finer development. The pressure
of necessity during the next ten or twenty years will
enforce its reform, but the Consumers' League and the
consuming public which it represents can exert an im-
portant influence in hastening these developments.
As an instance of the consumer's influence on distri-
bution, let me point out that if consumers will make it a
rule to shop before they purchase, so as to make certain
they are getting the best values-that is, the best arti-
cles at the lowest prices-they will save their own
money and they will help to better the methods of pro-
FOREWORD BY EDWARD A. FILENE
The
duction and distribution in American business.
distributor's best and most real service consists in
selling goods of reliable quality, made under just condi-
tions, at increasingly lower prices. There is a prevailing
idea that there is something petty in trying to find the
best for the lowest price, and that it is an evidence of
superiority to buy without questioning whatever is
shown. But to do that is to lend support to those
costlier methods of production and distribution which
are so largely responsible for the high cost of living, so
largely responsible for making food, clothing, and shel-
ter take up so large a share of the average income that
there is little left for education and the other spiritual
values of life.
XIX
If the Consumers' League can bring home to its mem-
bers and the buying public in general the idea that when
they insist on the best value each time they buy, they
will be performing one of the services our country needs
most, the League will add a new field to its usefulness.
They will show that their work has a direct and impor-
tant bearing not only on the economic progress, but also
on the political and social progress of the world, and
even on its spiritual progress.
In the final analysis beauty is the greatest objective
of the world. But we cannot teach spiritual truths
effectively to starving people. One great way to make
more beauty in this world is to make the obtaining of
a living-the obtaining of the necessary food, clothing,
and shelter, and the necessary minimum of luxuries-
so mechanical and so little time-consuming that we all
shall have time for avocations-have time to work for
XX
FOREWORD BY EDWARD A. FILENE
and search for better things-to search for beauty.
This can be accomplished by saving of waste, by more
economic justice, by invention and better organization
of production and distribution, by better training of
workers and leaders.
Because Mrs. Nathan's book points out how effective
the work of the Consumers' League has been in the past,
I believe that a greater work awaits them in helping
to make the modern business system an instrument
of social progress. It is that idea which I have sought
to emphasize in these few lines.
}
FOREWORDS BY HON. NEWTON D. BAKER
MARY ANDERSON.
EDWARD A. FILENE.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I. LOOKING BACKWARDS
II.
•
HOW THE CHANGE CAME-CONCEPTION OF the
IDEA
APPENDICES
INDEX
III.
DEVELOPMENT of the IDEA
IV. EXPANSION of the Movement
V. FOREIGN EXPANSION
VI. PRESENT-DAY CONDITIONS
VII. LOOKING FORWARD.
•
PAGE
xi
XV
xvii
I
15
33
60
89
104
120
129
237
THE STORY OF AN
?
EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
THE STORY OF
AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
CHAPTER I
LOOKING BACKWARDS
I heard a trumpet blown beyond the hills
And, riding forth, I found a host of men
Roused by summons.
I lifted up my hands to find
A lamp amid the darkness.
-BERNARD DREW.
OMAR KHAYYÁM.
TH
HIRTY-FIVE years ago the traveller arriving
on a Saturday afternoon in July or August in the
great metropolis of the greatest republic in the world,
would have found a great, throbbing, pulsing crowd
wending its way in and out of the huge hives of industry
which opened wide their inviting doors on Broadway,
along Fourteenth Street, Twenty-third Street, and on
Sixth Avenue between these two streets. Not all the
people were bent on making purchases; a few of them
may really have been looking for articles which they
required; many, however, were searching in a desultory
way for some article which at some future time they
might possibly require; a large majority were amusing
I
2 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
themselves by wandering about looking at the pretty
wares displayed, and enjoying themselves with no
expense involved. But was there no expense involved?
None, apparently, for the shoppers; the clerks, however,
were paying, perhaps, with their flesh and blood for
the innocent amusement. For from seven forty-five
in the morning until after eleven at night, with only
a short time allowed for meals, they were expected to
stand behind counters, smile on would-be customers,
and cajole them into buying what they didn't want,
if the article asked for didn't happen to be in stock.
In the evening the lights in the stores made them more
alluring than ever to the passersby, who were out stroll-
ing to get a breath of fresh air; many would walk in one
door, swell the crowd, exhaust some of the vanishing
oxygen of the air in the store, handle the goods, ask
prices (ignorant of the old Talmudic adage that to
price an article with no intention of buying it was a
crime),¹ and then proceed to walk around and out of
another door.
When the closing gong finally sounded, the loiterers
had to be almost pushed out of the stores. Then
counters had to be cleared and covered, stock put in
order, and at last weary limbs automatically carried
the clerks down to sub-basements, where, after some
confusion in the dimly lighted partitions, hats and wraps
were found. To be accurate, they were not always
¹Claude Montefiore, in his book, "The Old Testament and After," quotes
from the Mishnah to show that "One must not ask the price of an article
if one does not intend to buy it"-"If one has no money one must not look
at the goods in a shop."
LOOKING BACKWARDS
3
found; scarfs and gloves, umbrellas and rubbers, and
occasionally a good sontag mysteriously disappeared.
There were no individual lockers, and when an article
was stolen, the only result seemed to be that the girl
who made the complaint lost her position as well as the
article. The girls considered themselves lucky if they
were able to find all their belongings and pass out into
the street without being told to return the following
morning (Sunday) to "take stock" or to help rearrange
stock which was to be moved to another department.
There were always some youths and older men
waiting at the back doors of the mercantile establish-
ments to escort the girls home or to entice them else-
where. There may have been a few girls so fatigued that
their morale being weakened they more easily succumbed
to temptation, but the vast majority of them went
directly to their homes. There was housework or
laundry work to be done, and not until this was ac-
complished could they crawl into bed, to rest their
aching feet and backs, even though the heat might
prevent them from sleeping. Many of the workers
lived in the congested districts, where there seemed
to be great waves of humanity which, on hot nights,
surged backwards and forwards, climbing fire escapes
to roofs, clambering back to stifling little rooms, gasping
for air, tossing about in search of slumber that they
were eager to snatch before starting another day of
discomfort.
C
During the periods of scorching days in July and
August in New York, the sun rises red and torrid, piti-
less in a cloudless sky; bricks and stone pavements seem
4
STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
almost to sizzle under its blazing rays, and there is no
respite from the glare and humidity for several succes-
sive days. Yet the shop-girl, thirty-five years ago,
didn't ask for a vacation, for vacations in those days
meant vacations without pay, and those who needed
them most were those who received the lowest wage and
were therefore ill-nourished and anæmic. Vacations,
shady lawns, cool breezes, surf bathing-these were
luxuries to be enjoyed only by the residents of the up-
town districts where row after row of closed brownstone
houses proclaimed the owners to be away.
But was the vision of a summer outing the only
thing that haunted the imagination of the salesgirl?
What were the working conditions of other seasons?
The heat and oppressiveness of the stores in midsum-
mer were more easily borne than the vitiated air of
basements in midwinter. Added to this discomfort were
the confusion, the impatience, the rudeness of the dense,
pushing throngs of shoppers during the rush, the
hurry of the so-called holiday season: Christmas, the
season of cheer and good will! At this period hours
were prolonged until close on to midnight. "Extra
Junior Salesgirls"-often employed only during this
season of stress-were seen time and again shivering
and weeping at street corners after midnight, waiting
for a street car to take them to their homes in outlying
districts. Hours on Saturdays throughout the year
were intolerably long. Stores were kept open late at
night to enable the wife of the working man to do her
shopping after her husband had taken his weekly pay
envelope to her. Workers in various industries were
LOOKING BACKWARDS
5
also enabled to do their purchasing after their own
working hours were over.
It is not so many years since the proprietor of a
small store in Saco, Maine, had the temerity to engage
a "female clerk." It created quite a stir among the
gossips of the village. Some of the more conservative
element refused to condone such a scandalous procedure.
They said it was unethical to place a woman in such a
public position, where she was obliged to converse with
any stranger who saw fit to enter the store; indeed, it
would give the store a bad name, and men of evil re-
pute would flock to it. So the respectable women
clutched their skirts and crossed the way, preferring to
make their purchases elsewhere.
Years later hundreds of girls worked in stores. It
took a long time to adjust matters to meet the new
conditions. No one had thought of providing seats
behind counters for male clerks; they were considered
strong enough to stand on their feet all day; yet the
exigencies of salesmanship did not require this undue
strain. When, instead of men, women, generally
conceded to belong to the frailer sex, began in larger
and larger numbers to serve as clerks, even then em-
ployers saw no necessity to provide seats. Customers,
although only in the stores for a short period of time,
were provided with stools, but these were screwed to
the floor in front of counters and so could not be utilized
by the saleswomen. Indeed, clerks were not permitted
even to bring up boxes from basements to sit upon.
If they did this surreptitiously, the boxes were removed
the following day. If they pulled out a drawer at the
6
STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
back of the counter, and sat on its edge, they were re-
buked by the floor-walker; if they leaned on the front
counter, they were told it looked unbusinesslike and
that a straight posture was required.
Girls were known to faint occasionally; when this
happened they were stretched out on the concrete
floor of the retiring room, and if they did not recover
rapidly, they were sent home and their pay envelopes
suffered in consequence. For in those days there were
no well-equipped rest rooms or trained nurses to attend
to their needs. No consideration was paid to aching
feet and aching backs; a smiling face to greet the custo-
mer and a pleasant remark were expected, no matter
what the physical discomfort might be.
It was an unwritten law that a saleswoman who did
not stand erect all day long, but who was occasionally
seen slouching or leaning on something, should merit a
rebuke. When there was no customer to be served, if
she did not simulate occupation, such as arranging
stock, dusting the counter, or making the display of
goods look more attractive, she would find before long
that her services would be dispensed with. Indeed, a
saleswoman's duty was to persuade a customer to
buy something else, should the article she asked for not
be in stock; if she permitted a customer to leave the
counter without making a purchase, she would receive a
reprimand.
There was no special duration of time accorded for
the luncheon hour; twenty minutes was supposed to be
the rule, but during the rush season saleswomen were
advised to take but ten minutes for their frugal repast,
LOOKING BACKWARDS
7
•
in order that they might return as quickly as possible
to wait on customers. Each saleswoman was supposed
to have a specific time for luncheon, but if one happened
to be busy waiting on a customer, she was obliged to
postpone her lunch hour. However, if she remained
away from the counter after the time she was due to
return, she was apt to be rebuked by the floor-walker.
For instance, in a department where there were but two
or three clerks and one absent for any cause, the
luncheon time might be so encroached upon that often
a salesgirl would be unable to snatch a bite before three
o'clock; it was not unknown for her to skip her luncheon
entirely, because of the rush of custom and the lack of
sufficient saleswomen.
Floor-walkers in the old days were veritable tsars;
they often ruled with a rod of iron. Only the girls who
were "free-and-easy" with them, who consented to
lunch or dine with them, who permitted certain liber-
ties, were allowed any freedom of action, or felt secure
in their positions. Rules in regard to leaving the
counter were in some instances so rigid that the health
of the saleswomen was apt to be impaired. Some-
times, rather than ask permission of the floor-walker to
retire, they would use repression which involved physi-
cal suffering. In some instances permission to leave
the counter was denied. A complaint lodged against a
floor-walker or against the head of a department-
superior officers-was almost invariably followed by
dismissal of the one who had made the complaint.
So little trust was placed in the ethical behaviour
of saleswomen that, in some of the large department
P
8 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
stores, no privacy was accorded them in their retiring
rooms. Doors were taken down from toilets, and not
even a curtain was put up to replace them, the explana-
tion being that if the saleswomen were concealed, they
might remain away from their work an inordinately
long time. The women's toilets were often adjoining
those of the men, with very meagre partitions between
them. The doors were frequently side by side. In
some of the smaller stores, there was but one toilet for
both sexes. Often the dressing rooms were partitioned
off from the lunch rooms, and these were found in
dark basements, without sufficient light and air, and
with plumbing conditions so appalling as to endanger
the health of the employees. In one department store,
the so-called lunch room was merely a corner of the re-
tiring room in a sub-cellar. There was no window,
and flickering gas jets were consuming whatever little
air was there. Leaking pipes from the toilets made the
concrete floor so wet that planks were laid on the floor;
a large packing box in the centre of the space was uti-
lized as a table, and smaller wooden boxes served as
seats. Permission was given for the employees to go
out for luncheon, but this meant consumption of time
and money; it was cheaper to bring their lunch from
home.
The two great holidays of the Christian year Christ-
mas and Easter-imposed upon the workers hardships
which to-day seem incredible. If the hours for sales-
girls and cash girls seemed long, what can be said of the
hours for cashiers, packers, and delivery clerks? The
cashiers were often young girls recently graduated
LOOKING BACKWARDS
9
from high schools. Their work entailed a great deal of
bookkeeping and the making out of many detailed ac-
counts. Long after the stores were closed, they could
have been seen (had shades not been carefully drawn)
poring over their books, in order to have bills correctly
made out by the beginning of the month. In the
basements the huge mounds of gifts purchased had to
be packed and delivered even at a late hour, in order to
avoid too much congestion during the last overcrowded
days. On each delivery wagon there was a small boy
with the driver, so that his young, lithe limbs could
enable him the more nimbly to run up and down steps
and deliver bundles the more rapidly. Christmas
gifts had to be delivered before Christmas no matter
how dilatory the purchasers had been. On Christmas
Eve there were always a large number of deliveries to
be made, some of them at a great distance from the
stores. For suburban deliveries, there were relays of
horses for the wagons, but no relays of drivers or of
delivery boys! It was known that one little fellow was
so exhausted when the last package had been delivered
in a home (where the inmates had retired for the night
and had to be aroused in order to receive it) that he fell
asleep before the trip was over. When the driver
returned to the barn at 3 A. M. to unharness the horse,
he pulled a horse blanket over the little fellow, and in
pity heeded his plea to let him sleep on. The next
morning the driver returned to the barn and found the
little chap frozen to death. The joyous Christmas
chimes pealed his funeral dirge.
Life's little ironies were also enacted at Thanksgiv-
IO STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
ing time. In one of the department stores where
delicacies were sold for Thanksgiving feasts, a young
fellow in the packing department was kept steadily at
work from 8 a. M. until 4 A. M. the following morning
(a working day of twenty hours), with only sufficient
time off to enable him to get something to eat and
drink. He had to return at 8 A. M. to complete the
packing for the feast which occurred the following day.
Surely he was able to give thanks from the depths of
his heart for the legal holiday which permitted him to
rest at home for twenty-four hours. Legal holidays,
however, were not a cause for rejoicing, as a rule, to
store employees; for their pay envelopes were reduced
whenever these occurred.
At the Easter season, it was not the saleswomen who
dreaded that holiday, since in olden days Easter gifts
were not so customary as at present; it was the girls
who worked in the millinery and dressmaking depart-
ments who realized that hats and gowns had to be
completed, no matter how late the orders had been
given, and no matter how late they had to stay to
complete them.
Wages were low because salesmanship in the old
days was considered unskilled labour. Girls without
experience were placed behind counters and expected to
learn, from the other girls, selling tactics and the
method of keeping their books. There were no schools
of salesmanship and no standards of employment.
Wages were so low that some firms refused to employ
young girls unless they lived at home, for they knew
full well that no one could afford to pay for board and
LOOKING BACKWARDS
II
.
lodging on the meagre salary received. So, many an
applicant, in order to obtain a position, pretended to
live at home, and in reality half starved herself so as to
be able to pay for a roof over her head. It was the
policy of one well-known firm with branches all over the
country, to pay their salesgirls two dollars a week.
When an applicant for a position stated that she could
not possibly live on such a small sum, she was told by
the manager of the store where she had applied that
there were other ways of eking out her income!
In the old days there were no special hotels or board-
ing houses for working girls; when a girl was obliged
to seek a very low-priced room, she was forced either to
go to a disreputable locality or take unsanitary, dark,
shabby quarters, or else go to the suburbs and pay extra
carfare, or share her room with one or two others.
Nearly all the leading stores had a system of fines
which frequently reduced the already extremely low
wage to a still lower level. For instance, whereas
stock-taking and rearrangement of stock had to be
done after store hours without pay for overtime (a
light supper was sometimes given, by way of compensa-
tion), yet if salesgirls were more than five minutes late
in arriving the next morning after such extra duty, they
were fined. In some stores and factories, if they were
more than fifteen minutes late, they were obliged to
lose a half day's pay. The chief hardship consisted in
the fact that in some establishments the doors were
closed on the girls; they were not allowed to enter until
after the noon hour. This rule necessitated their walk-
ing the streets, often in stormy weather, as tardiness was
12 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
frequently caused by snowstorms and poor traffic condi-
tions, or by ferry boats being delayed. Many of the
girls lived too far away to return home and did not
wish, moreover, to pay double carfare. Fines were
also imposed for infraction of other rules, and for
damaging, losing, or breaking articles in stock. One
little cash-girl was fined for knocking off a vase which
had been placed too near the edge of a counter. Her pay
envelope at the end of the week contained, therefore,
but twenty-five cents-not sufficient for the carfare
she had expended in order to reach the store before
8 A. M.
Thirty-five years ago there were few opportunities
for the girls to get to the country. Moreover, since no
vacations were granted with pay, the mere thought of a
vacation was a nightmare. They dreaded being told
that they could take a vacation; it meant practically
a suspension of salary, and that meant that they
would have to look for a temporary job in order to keep
body and soul together. Vacations without pay were
accorded lavishly; for the employer it meant a cutting
down of expenses. Many customers went away for
the entire summer and fewer employees were required.
The girls who worked in the millinery departments
were frankly told that they were "laid off." The milli-
nery seasons were very short-a few weeks in the
spring, and again in the autumn. Milliners found it
necessary to learn two trades in order to keep the wolf
from the door. More than once, clerks in mercantile
establishments endeavoured to form a union in order
to protect themselves against exploitation, but em-
LOOKING BACKWARDS
13
ployers were very much opposed to this, and threatened
to dismiss any clerk who joined any union.
In the old days the interests of employers and em-
ployees were considered antagonistic; there was no
spirit of coöperation; employers had not learned that
even for selfish reasons it is wiser to give their employees
good working conditions; that for their own benefit, for
the sake of securing better service, it is good policy to
raise industrial standards.
As for the general public-the customers who fre-
quented the stores-they were indifferent and selfish.
They were entirely oblivious of the needs or discomfort
of those who served them from the other side of the
counters. It was not that women thirty-five years ago
were cruel or inhuman: they were merely thoughtless
and careless. The New York society woman drove up
and down Fifth Avenue and Broadway; then, before
going up to take a turn around Central Park, dropped
in casually at Arnold, Constable's or Lord & Taylor's
to see what novelties were displayed on the counters.
If, after having bolt after bolt opened for her to look
at, she found some material which pleased the eye, she
had sufficient for a gown sent home. If the family
dressmaker disapproved, or if she happened to find
something she liked better in some other store, she knew
she could return it and have it credited to her account.
The firm might charge her for a quarter of a yard, and
then sell the goods as a remnant. If Milady looked at
mantillas or bonnets, she would have them sent home,
copied, and then ask the firm to send for them and
have them credited. She would boast of her shrewd
14
STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
economies and show with pride the garment or the
headgear which she had copied from an imported article
and through the efforts of the home dressmaker had
secured at a bargain price! This was not considered
unethical, it was astute. What would clerks do all
day in a store if patrons didn't keep them occupied
showing their wares? What were merchants for, if not
to cater to customers who had accounts at their stores?
Milady lolled back in her victoria, with never a thought
of the saleswomen standing all day behind counters, or
for the merchant trying to earn an honest living, greatly
hampered by competition that was sometimes unfair.
Milady had no conscientious scruples, no regrets, no
compunctions. The shopping public had not been
educated; the social conscience of the general public
had not yet been awakened. How was the shopping
public educated? How was the social conscience of the
general public aroused, developed, and crystallized?
It is with the view of answering these questions that
the telling of this story has been undertaken.
CHAPTER II
HOW THE CHANGE CAME-CONCEPTION OF THE IDEA
A high end in the community is an impulse which in-
dividuals can hardly withstand. Whatever the com-
munity demands will be done.
-WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING.
TH
HE Working Women's Society was the forerunner
of the Women's Trade Union League. The mem-
bers met in a dingy room in an old-fashioned house in
Clinton Place, New York City. This house had been
one of the fashionable residences in earlier days. Here
were discussed some of the abominable conditions
under which women wage-earners were obliged to work.
The secretary of the society, Alice Woodbridge, was
somewhat older than were the majority of the members,
and her experience had been varied and interesting.
She was slender, pale, anæmic-looking; her blue eyes
held an expression of timidity and fear. The glowing
mass of her Titian red hair served to emphasize the pal-
lor of her face and the depth of expression in her eyes.
This startling effect brought to her many offers from
artists to pose as a model. These offers, however, she
always declined, because in those days the profession
of a model was considered questionable. She had held
at various times positions in offices; these positions
had promised to be lucrative, but because of insulting
15
16 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
¦
proposals from employers she had been obliged to give
them up; she had been buffeted about for many a year,
trying to earn an honest living and trying to live on the
low wages offered her.
Alice Woodbridge was the moving force and guid-
ing spirit of the Working Women's Society; it was her
purpose to endeavour to shield other working girls
from the hideous experiences which had been hers, in
her efforts to live an honest, upright, independent life.
Many of the members of the Working Women's Society
had been recruited from department stores; they talked
of the abuses they were forced to put up with; they told
of incidents which occurred from time to time.
Alice Woodbridge realized how helpless were the
working girls themselves to remedy conditions. She
had the vision to perceive that these abuses could be
abolished only if the women who patronized the stores
knew about them. The supply of girls eager to serve
behind counters-even at a wage which in reality was
but pin money-was far larger than the demand.
Therefore, whenever a girl complained about some spe-
cific abuse, she was told that if she did not like condi-
tions as she found them, there were plenty of other girls
ready to fill her place.
So, during the winter of 1889-90, Alice Woodbridge
and some of her co-workers decided to make a careful
study of the leading department stores; a report of
the facts obtained by the investigation was written.
Then Miss Woodbridge cast her eyes about for some
public-spirited women who would listen to the reading
of the report. She knew that Mrs. Josephine Shaw
HOW THE CHANGE CAME
17
Lowell was active in relieving the distress of the
poverty-stricken and unfortunate. Mrs. Lowell had
been widowed young, her husband having been one of
the early victims of the Civil War. Her brother,
Robert Gould Shaw, had been the colonel of the first
coloured regiment which had enlisted. She spent her
days trying to lessen suffering and distress. The spirit
of her New England ancestors dwelt within her.
Whenever a grievous wrong was brought to her atten-
tion, she felt impelled to do her share to have it righted.
To have such a character at the head of a humani-
tarian movement was to insure its success. Mrs.
Lowell's sense of civic duty and responsibility was a
source of inspiration to those who worked with her.
Her example of zeal and unstinted energy compelled
others to endeavour to do their share of the work to be
done. Moreover, her sweet simplicity, her rigid code of
ethics, her lack of self-aggrandizement endeared her
to those who were fortunate enough to have been
brought within her circle.
Mrs. Lowell was the founder and guiding spirit of
the Charity Organization Society; she was the first
woman to become an active member of the State
Board of Charities, having been appointed by Governor
Tilden in 1876, and remaining on the board thirteen
and a half years. She had borne a leading part in
securing the separation of charities and corrections;
in promoting state reformatories for women, state
custodial care for adult idiots, state asylums for feeble-
minded women and girls; municipal lodging houses for
men; and later she was instrumental in placing matrons
18 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
in police stations. She gave much time to the care
of dependent children, and worked to promote means
leading to the suppression of the social evil. She was
interested in trying to bring about industrial concilia-
tion and arbitration.
It was to this woman that Alice Woodbridge made her
appeal; to her she went with her story, and found a
sympathetic listener. Notwithstanding her many ac-
tivities, Mrs. Lowell did not turn a deaf ear to Alice
Woodbridge's pleadings. Mrs. Lowell realized at once
that here was another wrong to be righted. Without
considering whether she could possibly spare the time
and strength from her other duties, she took up the
task at once, with the spirit of a crusader. Upon learn-
ing of the unsanitary conditions which prevailed in
some of the stores, she suggested that Dr. Mary Putnam
Jacobi be also shown the report.
Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi was the daughter of the
well-known publisher, George P. Putnam. She was
one of the most distinguished women physicians, and
was as well known professionally as her distinguished
husband, Dr. Abraham Jacobi. She was the first wo-
man to become a member of the New York Academy of
Medicine, and was sent as a delegate from that body
to a congress of the State Medical Association. She
was also the first woman admitted to the École de
Médicine, Paris. She had won the Boylston prize at
Harvard University, and had been for ten years a
professor at the Woman's Medical College of the New
York Infirmary. She was also later known as one of
the prominent leaders of the woman suffrage movement.
HOW THE CHANGE CAME
19
Mrs. Lowell and Doctor Jacobi called a small group of
women together to discuss the survey and report of work-
ing conditions in retail stores as presented by Alice
Woodbridge. They met in the room on Clinton Place,
the headquarters of the Working Women's Society.
Mrs. Lowell asked me to go with her; she no doubt
felt impelled to arouse the interest of younger women
in the problems of life which would be theirs to solve at
a later day. I went with Mrs. Lowell to this meeting
with an unprepared mind, not knowing what I was to
hear. I was but a young married woman at that time,
leading the normal life of the average young woman of
the leisure class of thirty-five years ago. I was in-
terested in my husband, my little girl, my home.
Only in relation to them and to the wider family circle
did I recognize any duties or responsibilities. I had no
conception at that time of the wider knowledge which
came to me later, that a woman's duty and responsi-
bility are not bounded by the four walls of her home.
If she be capable of performing these duties with cour-
age and initiative, of bearing the responsibilities with
fortitude and poise, these strong forces belong not alone
to herself to be used solely for the benefit of her loved
ones, they also belong to the world outside the shelter-
ing walls of home, and must be used for the benefit of
others in the community. Every department of the
home is but a reflection in miniature of the broader
departments of the municipality and the world beyond.
This thought did not come to me until later, and at the
time I attended the meeting I might well have been
the prototype of the careless, conscienceless society
20 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
woman whose picture I tried to give in the preceding
chapter.
Alice Woodbridge, with her fawn-like eyes, her halo
of golden-red hair, sat facing the group of strange,
aloof women. She told them of the wearily long hours
of work, of the lack of compensation for work done
after the working day was supposed to be over; she
described the unsanitary surroundings; she touched
upon the pitifully young children who were sometimes
employed at tasks far beyond their physical strength;
she related how fidelity and length of service often
met only the reward of dismissal; she spoke of the low
wages reduced by a system of excessive fines; she told
of the physical collapse of many girls after two years
of steady work, because of the long hours of standing.
These facts proved startling. None of the listeners
had ever dreamed that women and children working in
retail stores were often obliged to work under con-
ditions injurious to health and morals.
The reading of that report¹ seemed to open up a new
vista of life for me. Heretofore, when I had shopped
for a bit of lace, I had not realized that the saleswoman
had been on her feet all day long, lifting heavy boxes;
when I had run into a store at a quarter before six,
to purchase some trivial toilet accessory, I had not
considered that I was keeping the saleswoman from
arranging her counter for the closing hour, and thus
detaining her unnecessarily. It flashed through my
mind that I had often been inconsiderate, unsympa-
thetic, impatient.
¹See Appendix A for extracts from Report.
HOW THE CHANGE CAME
21
Alice Woodbridge's simple, straightforward recital
of facts aroused us all to sympathetic indignation.
After a heated discussion she had the satisfaction of
seeing her object accomplished, for we decided to call
a mass meeting. Miss Woodbridge was asked to con-
dense her report, omitting all names of firms, and read
it at the meeting. This mass meeting was held on the
evening of May 6, 1890, at Chickering Hall, corner of
Fifth Avenue and Eighteenth Street, under the auspices
of many leading clergymen of various denominations
and many prominent men and women. The public
was invited to meet "to consider the condition of
working women in New York retail stores." The
response was greater than we had dared anticipate.
The New York Times, in its report of the meeting
printed in its issue of the following day, mentioned
that the attendance was "gratifyingly large." Hon.
Everett P. Wheeler, the prominent lawyer and publicist,
presided, Archibald Sessions acting as secretary.
Reverend Doctor Huntington of Grace Church spoke
on the long hours of labour; Reverend Doctor Faunce
of the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church spoke on the lack
of sanitary conditions. The other speakers were
Reverend Doctor Alexander, Presbyterian Church, Fifth
Avenue and Tenth Street; Reverend Father Elliot,
Monsignor Ducey of St. Leo's Church, and Reverend
D. de Sola Mendes of Congregation Shaaray Tefila.
As I write, that picture of thirty-five years ago comes
vividly to my mind. The sensation of the evening was
the reading of Alice Woodbridge's report. When the
chairman called upon her, she came forward quietly,
22 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
timidly, and faced the large, fashionable, and repre-
sentative audience. There was a hush in the audi-
torium; there was almost a gasp, as the frail,
ethereal-looking woman began, in a subdued voice, the
reading of the indictment which was destined to start
an epoch-making movement.
To-day we are accustomed to hear the pleas of work-
ing women from the platform, or through the press,
but thirty-five years ago it was unheard-of; as I think
of it now I am amazed at the courage, the self-confi-
dence, the sense of wrongs to be righted, which im-
pelled this humble little woman to be the pioneer of a
cause. After the report was read, resolutions were
passed. The Board of Health was asked to take cog-
nizance of the bad sanitary conditions in some of the
big stores in New York. The legislature was asked to
take action to fix the hours of saleswomen. Clergymen
and editors were called upon to help the salesgirls
improve their conditions of employment. Then fol-
lowed the important resolution which was the fore-
runner of the Consumers' League:
Resolved that a committee be appointed to assist the Working
Women's Society in making a list which shall keep shoppers in-
formed of such shops as deal justly with their employees, and so
bring public opinion and public action to bear in favour of just em-
ployers, and also in favour of such employers as desire to be just,
but are prevented by the stress of competition, from following their
own sense of duty.
i
Thus was launched a movement in the new world
which was destined to mould public opinion all the
world over, and which, in the estimation of Professor
HOW THE CHANGE CAME
23
Cummings of the Department of Economics at Harvard
University, was one of the most important movements
of the day. It was in line with the thought of the lead-
ing economists of the time. Hobson, author of "Evo-
lution in Capitalism," had proclaimed that the wealth
of a nation could be increased far more rapidly by
educating consumers than by increasing the work of
producers.
The joint committee appointed by the Working
Women's Society and the chairman of the mass meeting
decided to form an association similar in principle to
one which had been organized in England during the
same year. The London society had issued a statement
which in its essentials expressed succinctly the motives
and objects of the founders of the New York com-
mittee. The English society did not thrive, however,
as I shall relate in a succeeding chapter.
1
It was felt that conditions could only be changed
through enlisting the sympathy and interest of the
shopping public. Indirectly, we, the shoppers, were
the employers of these girls, who were paid to stand
behind the counters and serve us. Therefore, we had
a direct moral responsibility toward them. We felt
we could do no better than use the name already
adopted by the London society (formed a few months
previously): "The Consumers' League." This name,
while it expressed our ideals and object, apparently
created confusion in the minds of the public. Some
of the merchants feared that the prime object of a
consumers' league was to obtain goods at a discount;
¹See Appendix B for statement.
24
STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
later on, when I made speeches in the interest of the
League, and used the words, "production, distribution,
consumption," some of my hearers were known to ask
how a league interested in "consumption" had for
its champion such a robust, vigorous-looking leader!
It was suggested that we call ourselves "The Buyers'
League," but we felt that this name might conflict
with a commercial organization.
In the early years we were constantly called upon to
explain what a "consumers' league" meant, whereas
to-day it would be difficult to find any one of ordinary
intelligence who has not some knowledge, however
vague or slight, of the movement.
In 1898, we considered it advisable to become an
incorporated body, as other organizations with entirely
different aims were using our name to further their own
purposes.1
This initial meeting, as I have before said, was held
May 6, 1890, but it was not until January 21, 1891,
that the committee had actually completed its work of
organization. For during the months immediately
following the mass meeting, the members of this newly
formed committee had scattered for their summer
holiday, and while they could not be considered hard-
hearted or callous, they did not feel a sufficient urge
to impel them to renounce their holiday in order to
hasten the instituting of contemplated reforms. The
girls could swelter in stifling shops, they could pant
for a cooling breath of salt air or an invigorating moun-
tain breeze, or long to rest their tired eyes on a bit of
1See Appendix C for list of incorporators.
f
HOW THE CHANGE CAME
25
mossy green, while we, who were enjoying all this
unthinkingly, taking this refreshment of body and soul
as a matter of course and as merely incident to the sea-
son, postponed all action until the bracing autumn days.
After spending many weeks in the work of organi-
zation, the committee finally elected its officers. Mrs.
Josephine Shaw Lowell accepted the presidency; Mrs.
Charles A. Spofford was elected treasurer, Miss Louise
Caldwell secretary, while I was asked to serve on the
Board of Directors.¹
The committee adopted a constitution which em-
bodied the following articles:
PRINCIPLES
(1) That the interest of the community demands that all work-
ers should receive, not the lowest wages, but fair living wages.
(2) That the responsibility for some of the worst evils from
which wage-earners suffer rests with the consumers, who persist in
buying in the cheapest market, regardless of how cheapness is
brought about.
(3) That it is, therefore, the duty of consumers to find out under
what conditions the articles which they purchase are produced,
and to insist that these conditions shall be at least decent, and
consistent with a respectable existence on the part of the workers.
(4) That this duty is especially incumbent upon consumers in
relation to the products of woman's work, since there is no limit
beyond which the wages of women may not be pressed down, unless
artificially maintained at a living rate by combinations, either of the
workers themselves or of consumers.
OBJECT
Recognizing the fact that the majority of employers are virtually
helpless to improve conditions as to hours and wages, unless sus-
tained by public opinion, by law, and by the action of consumers,
1See Appendix D for first published list of officers and governing board.
26 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
the Consumers' League declares its object to be to ameliorate the
condition of the women and children employed in the retail mer-
cantile houses of New York City, by patronizing, so far as practica-
ble, only such houses as approach in their conditions to the "Stan-
dard of a Fair House," as adopted by the League, and by other
methods.
WHITE LIST
The Advisory Board shall be required to prepare a list of retail
mercantile houses which, in their opinion, should be patronized by
the members of the Consumers' League, which list shall be known
as the "White List," and shall be published at stated intervals in
the daily papers.
MEMBERSHIP
The condition of membership shall be the approval by signature
of the object of the Consumers' League, and all persons shall be
eligible for membership excepting such as are engaged in retail
business in New York (either as employer or employee).
The members shall not be bound never to buy at other shops.
The names of the members shall not be made public.
The first step to be taken was to establish our White
List. Our Standard of a Fair House had been drafted
by the Working Women's Society and modified by us
after seeking advice from those firms which had the
reputation of treating their employees the most fairly.
Fourteen hundred letters were sent to all the retail
dry goods and fancy goods shopkeepers in the city,
as listed in the directory, with copies of the following:
Standard of A FAIR HOUSE
Wages
A fair house is one in which equal pay is given for work of equal
value, irrespective of sex. In the departments where women only
are employed, in which the minimum wages are six dollars per week
HOW THE CHANGE CAME
27
for experienced adult workers, and fall in few instances below eight
dollars;
In which wages are paid by the week;
In which fines, if imposed, are paid into a fund for the benefit
of the employees;
In which the minimum wages of cash girls are two dollars per
week, with the same conditions regarding weekly payments and
fines.
Hours
A fair house is one in which the hours from 8 A.M. to 6 P.M. (with
three quarters of an hour for lunch) constitute the working day, and
a general half-holiday is given on one day of each week during at
least two summer months;
In which a vacation of not less than one week is given with pay
during the summer season;
In which all overtime is compensated for.
Physical Conditions
A fair house is one in which work, lunch, and retiring rooms are
apart from each other, and conform in all respects to the present
sanitary laws;
In which the present law regarding the providing of seats for
saleswomen is observed, and the use of seats permitted.
Other Conditions
A fair house is one in which humane and considerate behaviour
toward employees is the rule;
In which fidelity and length of service meet with the consideration
which is their due;
In which no children under fourteen years of age are employed.
Letters were sent to shopkeepers asking them to sign
an enclosed agreement as follows:
AGREEMENT TO BE SIGNED BY HEAD OF RETAIL MERCANTILE
HOUSE
I, the undersigned, hereby express my desire to conduct my
business upon the principles laid down in the Standard of a Fair
House, as adopted by the Consumers' League.
28 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
I further agree to allow a committee appointed by the Consumers
League to visit any part of my business premises and question my
employees, and I agree to answer to said committee inquiries as to
the following points (the Consumers' League pledging itself that
such information shall not be published in detail): Rate of Wages,
Holidays, Overtime, Fines, Hours Worked, Meal Times, Sanitary
Conditions.
i
The recipients of the letters were informed that if they
felt unable to sign the agreement in its present form,
the League would be glad to have them modify it
until it met with their approval, and then return it
signed.
Thirty papers, out of fourteen hundred, were signed
and returned to the secretary of the League. Members
of the Governing Board at once visited all the stores.
represented by these signatures, but they were amazed
to find, after investigation, that only four of the thirty
who responded actually conformed to the League's
Standard of a Fair House. In many of the stores most
of the conditions were favourable, but one or two un-
favourable ones prevented their being included in the
White List.
The principal bugbear seemed to be the non-recog-
nition that overtime existed. Merchants claimed that
employees were engaged to work until 10 P.M. on
Saturdays, and until the same hour for two to three
weeks during the holiday season. These hours, the
employers claimed, were taken into consideration when
the Wage scale was fixed. The merchants admitted
that it was often eleven o'clock or later before customers
could be coerced to leave the store, but they saw no
necessity to increase wages on that account. Finally,
HOW THE CHANGE CAME
29
after many consultations and investigations, we pub-
lished our first White List; it had but eight names:
Aitken, Son & Co., Broadway and Eighteenth Street.
B. Altman & Co., Sixth Avenue and Nineteenth Street.
Arnold, Constable & Co., Broadway and Nineteenth
Street.
Lord & Taylor, Broadway and Twentieth Street.
James McCreery & Co., Broadway and Eleventh Street.
E. A. Morrison & Son, Broadway and Nineteenth Street.
The other two stores, to the best of my recollection,
were:
The New York Exchange for Women's Work, 329 Fifth
Avenue.
The Society of Decorative Art, 28 East Twenty-first
Street.
Unfortunately, the record of that first White List
seems to have been lost. The second list, published in
1892, contained eleven additional names, as follows:
Best & Co., 60 West Twenty-third Street.
Denning & Co., Broadway and Tenth Street.
Mme. N. G. Felicie, 361 Fifth Avenue.
Harlem Exchange for Women's Work, 40 West One
Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street.
L. P. Hollander & Co., 290 Fifth Avenue.
Japanese Trading Co., 18 East Eighteenth Street.
Geo. F. Langenbacher, 820 Broadway.
30 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
LeBoutillier Bros., 50 West Twenty-third Street.
Madison Avenue Depository and Exchange for Wo-
men's Work, 628 Madison Avenue.
P. A. O. Schwartz, 42 East Fourteenth Street.
A. A. Vantine & Co., 879 Broadway.
This White List was distributed by circulating it in
pamphlet form among the members, and also by paying
to have it appear as an advertisement in the leading
newspapers. What was the reaction of the shopping
public and of the merchants? Many of our members
who had accounts with firms whose names did not
appear on the list visited them and expressed themselves
as unwilling to patronize any stores not on the White
List of the Consumers' League. But the White List
meant little to the general public as yet. The large
army of shoppers were unaffected; they continued to
hunt their bargains in the same irresponsible manner.
If they noticed our advertisements, it meant nothing
to them. The reaction, however, of the merchants,
was sharp and quick. They did notice our advertise-
ment and resented it. They treated the matter lightly
at first; they pooh-poohed the absurd attempts of a
handful of "busybodies" who were trying to revo-
lutionize business methods. It never could be done;
merchants who gave their entire time and thought
to their business knew better how to conduct that
business than sentimental, visionary women who had
no business training, and who allowed their hearts to
run away with their heads. The Consumers' League,
they contended, could not survive a year. Women
HOW THE CHANGE CAME
31
would continue to buy where they found bargains or
novelties; they would not be interested in the wages or
working conditions of the store employees. Besides,
what would housekeepers think if a band of men went
about asking questions as to how many hours their
housemaids worked, or how late at night they were
obliged to continue their service, or whether they were
given vacations with pay? Would housekeepers care
to answer inquiries as to what kind of food they gave
their servants, or what kind of beds they furnished?
These specious arguments cooled the ardour of many
members of the Consumers' League. They were not
so eager to have an investigation conducted of con-
ditions for household domestics. No better answer
to this course of reasoning could be found than the
following:¹
The fallacy is in placing a household in the same category as an
industrial enterprise. The function of the industrial business is the
creation of wealth; the function of the household is the fulfilment
of personal satisfactions, the creation, if possible, of happiness.
The business makes money; the household spends it. Labour in a
household is personal service; work in a business is industrial in-
vestment. Recompense for the first is a fixed stipend calculated
upon the income of the person benefited and served; recompense
for the second consists in a share in the profits which the work
secures is therefore not fixed, and should not be, but varies with
the success of the business.
This is not a sentimental, but an economic classification; it is
that of the census, which ranks in one class the professions and
domestic servants; physicians, lawyers, clergymen, architects,
soldiers, teachers, with manicures, nurses, coachmen, gardeners,
cooks. The common bond of union between the different members
¹From the address of Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi, given at the annual
meeting of the Consumers' League of New York, 1895.
32
STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
of this class which seems so heterogeneous is the fact that the work
in each case is directed toward the personal welfare of some individ-
ual who is relatively helpless and often unable to test or estimate
the intrinsic value of the service; that is, to know whether it is
well done or not, or at all events, how it should be done; and further,
that the pecuniary reward of such work can rarely be much more
than the living expenses of the worker-cannot, unless invested in
strictly industrial enterprises, procure wealth. Hence, as a sub-
stitute for wealth, the special rewards of personal service are per-
sonal affection, appreciation of fidelity, trust, social honour.
Every detail of this situation is in contrast with that of the in-
dustrial enterprise. Almost at the outset of the growth of this the
element of personal contact disappears, and at the maximum of
expansion, in huge conglomerations of factory labour, personalities
themselves are swamped. The servant, whether domestic or pro-
fessional, contributes nothing to the income of the person he serves
and out of which he is paid. The employee is constantly helping
to create the fund which is partly returned to him in wages.
Despite the opposition, the specious arguments, the
indignation of the merchants; despite the indifference,
the irresponsibility, the carelessness of the general
shopping public, we did survive our first year. By
the end of the second year, 1893, we were able to
publish a White List of twenty-four names, three times
as many as appeared in the original list.
The courage and determination of one frail woman
of humble origin had succeeded in raising the standard
of industrial conditions for thousands of working girls.
CHAPTER III
DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEA
It is not enough to know, we inust also apply;
It is not enough to will, we must also do.
-GOETHE.
To do, to strive, to know, and with the knowing,
To find life's widest purpose in our growing.
-CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILman.
HOW
OW did we succeed within the short space of two
years in putting twenty-four names on our White
List? This story presented many phases of social,
educational, and economic problems. In the meeting
and solving of them, there were many amusing as well
as tragic incidents. Whenever a new name was added
to the White List, competitive jealousy was aroused.
The merchants whose stores were omitted from the
White List scoffed and jeered at it and asked their
inquisitive customers in what way their conditions
differed from their neighbours' conditions. The cus-
tomers were not always able to answer these questions,
but passed them on to the Consumers' League. Then
details and specific facts were reported by those who
had investigated, and the result usually was that
members of firms not on the White List would finally
send to the League for a committee to call to talk mat-
ters over. Amicable discussions would ensue. The
33
34
STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
great impasse seemed to be the mooted question as
to whether 6 P. M. should be considered the legitimate
close of the working day. The firms that catered to a
fashionable public were not obliged to keep their
stores open of an evening; their customers never
shopped after daylight hours. However, it did not
seem fair to those merchants who catered also to
working men and women, and who were forced to a
realization of the fact that these customers were not
free until evening, that they should be debarred from the
White List because they felt obliged to have longer
hours. We appreciated this distinction and sought
to coöperate with the merchants by agreeing to educate
the shopping public to shop earlier in the day if the
merchants would agree to give "time off" to saleswomen
during the early hours of the morning, in return for the
extra time demanded of an evening.
This concession was made by several firms, the extra
time being given in lieu of extra pay. We considered
this a great triumph, as it marked the recognition of the
fact that for stores, as well as for factories, 6 p. M.
was the legitimate closing hour. In those days the
working day began at 8 A. M., ten hours being considered
a working day. Those firms which kept open of an
evening for ten days to two weeks during the holiday
season were asked to give "time off," later on, for
as many extra hours as the saleswomen had worked dur-
ing that period. The opening wedge in giving wage com-
pensation for overtime work came when a certain firm,
owning a large department store, gave to the sales-
women a percentage of the sales made during the
DEVELOPMEnt of the IDEA
35
Christmas holiday season. A newspaper article, com-
menting on this interesting experiment, mentioned
that it not only served to stimulate sales, but improved
the quality of the service by causing the employees to
be more attentive and polite to customers. It was
stated that this feature was so marked that it was
frequently commented upon by patrons of the estab-
lishment.
In 1895 the Consumers' League made an interesting
computation of the number of hours of unpaid work
given by the employees to their employers, in sixteen
of the largest dry goods houses in New York City.
By multiplying the number of employees of each firm
by the number of days at the holiday season, during
which the stores were kept open of an evening (testified
to by their own advertisements), and this number again
multiplied by four (the number of hours from 6 to 10
P. M.) the result was amazing. It showed that in the
aggregate these sixteen firms exacted, during the one
holiday season, 600,200 hours of free labour, or 60,020
working days of ten hours each, which by actual
calculation amounted to 191 years and some months.
This was the Christmas present made by the employees
to their employers! The cost of this gift to those who
gave it may be judged by the following excerpt from an
issue of St. George's Chronicle, published in 1895 and
signed by the rector of St. George's Church, Rev. W. S.
Rainsford:
1
A BLACK LIST
On Christmas Day, when in the homes of many of us life is at its
brightest, it seems unnatural and almost wrong to indulge in careful
!
36 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
or sorrowful thoughts. Yet, if we would obey Him who has brought
Christmas and all it means into our lives, we must be careful to
look on the things of others as well as our own things. Many such
there are who need our help. Life cannot be made tolerable or sweet
without that help. I know of scores in our own church, who,
through no fault of their own, but by the harsh circumstances and
drudgery of their lives, must find Christmas a mockery. Let me
only, by way of example, mention two or three of these that I
know:
Lily B-
works at M———'s. For the ten days before Christmas
she worked till 10:30 P. M. every week night, and from nine in the
morning till five on Sunday. No food was provided while the young
girl endured this strain. She gets four dollars a week as regular
wages. When she got home on Christmas Eve she fainted from
exhaustion.
Lillie L—————, at L-
at L-'s. Kept until eleven o'clock several days
before Christmas. On Christmas Eve kept until 12:30 midnight.
Nothing to eat. No extra pay. Wages, three dollars a week.
These are young girls. Such work as this simply destroys their
youth and prepares them, aye, and many thousands like them, for a
faulty and decrepit womanhood. What are we going to do about it?
We should not deal at these stores.
This closing sentence of Doctor Rainsford's is an
indication of how our propaganda was beginning to
find its way into the consciousness of groups of people
who were naturally conscientious, but had not yet
awakened to the fact that the Hebrew word Tsedakah
stood for justice as well as for charity. One of the
firms mentioned in St. George's Chronicle is no longer
in business; the other firm secured a place on our White
List eight years later.
One of the reactions from some of the merchants con-
stituted a very interesting phase of the development;
it will serve as a good illustration of the fairness and
justice of the League's attitude toward both merchant
DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEA
37
and public. Some firms were so scornful of our White
List that they refused to permit any investigations,
even where their standards would have warranted
their names being placed on the list. Mrs. Lowell
had such a keen sense of justice that, after having gained
the required information through the Working Women's
Society and through the firms' employees, these stores
were placed on the White List without the firms'
consent or approval. It is interesting to note that,
once included, these firms never asked us to remove
their names.
The Governing Board of the Consumers' League
asked its members to hold parlour meetings in their
homes, in order to enlist the interest of their friends.
Meetings were also arranged to be held at church
guilds and neighbourhood settlements. Speakers were
also sent to address groups of women at their club
meetings. In this way, an ever-increasing membership
was obtained. It was always pointed out at these
meetings that the responsibility for existing evils in
industrial conditions lay, in a large measure, upon
the shoulders of the consumers. If hours were long
in stores, it was due primarily to the fact that the
shoppers shopped at a late hour; if stores were kept open
late during the holiday season, it was because shoppers
left the purchase of their Christmas gifts until the last
moment, and instead of shopping early in the season
and early in the day, they were adding to the pressure
of exhausting days prolonged far into the night. We
showed that if shoppers did not pay their bills when
presented, they were often the means of preventing
38
STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
employees from getting their wages paid promptly.
This was true of small stores, where the employer
depended upon the cash received from sales for the
payment of weekly wages. We asked for fair treatment
of merchants as well as for fair treatment for working
girls. We tried to raise the standard of ethics in
money-spending as well as in money-making. We
pointed out that merchants were forced to include
in the price fixed on goods the cost of delivery and the
cost of sending for them to be credited when returned.
This custom of sending home hats, garments, and all
kinds of articles which were constantly returned to be
credited within a few days was an abuse of a privilege
indulged in by many shoppers with apparently no
conscience at all. It was known that prominent
wealthy women would have handsome opera cloaks
sent home "on approval," and after wearing them, would
return them to be credited the following day. Indeed,
on one such occasion an initialled handkerchief was
found in the pocket by the saleswoman when it was
returned. We asked shoppers to shorten the working
day of delivery clerks by refusing to receive packages
after six o'clock at night. We asked them to specify
when making purchases that packages could be sent
the following day; when there was immediate need of
the article, it could be taken by the purchaser or else
purchased early in the day. We showed that careless-
ness in giving addresses for packages to be sent often
resulted in real hardship to saleswomen. For if clerks
took down wrong addresses and packages were lost,
the clerks were blamed and were fined for the first
DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEA
39
offence and apt to be dismissed the second time it
occurred. Then we showed how much power to remedy
conditions consumers really had. We related how the
wife of one of the ex-Governors of New York State was
passing a counter in one of the high-class department
stores, and happened to see one of the saleswomen
faint. She followed her to the retiring room in the
basement, where she was laid on the concrete floor.
After she recovered, the ex-Governor's wife took her
home in her carriage. She learned that she had been
nursing a sick mother and had had little or no sleep
the previous night.
'But why didn't you sit down," the lady asked,
"since there were no customers to be waited upon?"
"There are no seats provided," the girl responded,
"and besides, one of the rules of the store is 'No sitting
down on boxes or on ledge at back of counter, and no
leaning against each other!""
The kind-hearted lady was horrified. The next day
she paid a visit to the private office of the head of the
firm. Her ultimatum was: "Seats behind counters for
salesgirls or I withdraw my account!"
Her account was sufficiently important to seem de-
sirable of retention. The following day a consignment
of three-legged stools, such as are used by milkmaids,
were distributed behind those counters which were
presided over by the weaker sex. They were not
wasted on salesmen, who were considered sufficiently
strong physically to be immune from weariness. A
legend relates that when the girls saw the stools, they
all fainted, one after another!
40
STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
It is one thing to provide stools and another thing
to permit the use of them. It did not take long for
investigators of the Consumers' League to discover that
sometimes, where plenty of seats were provided, it was
an unwritten law that whosoever used them was
dismissed, or at least reprimanded. It was found that
in many instances it was the floor-walker of the depart-
ment in question who was the strict disciplinarian, and
that the members of the firm were oblivious of the fact.
The League found, upon investigating, that there was a
city ordinance providing for seats behind counters, but
as it had been so loosely drawn and there were no in-
spectors to enforce it, it was a dead letter.
The story of the fainting girl stretched out on the
concrete floor awakened the League to the necessity
of rest rooms as well as seats behind counters. The
need of this innovation was brought to the attention
of merchants. How did the merchants respond to our
request? The majority scoffed at the idea. A few of
them were wise enough to realize that a short, needed
rest might enable the worker to finish her day's work,
whereas without it, the firm might lose a half day's
service.
This might be considered as a nucleus of the idea that
efficiency could be increased through good working
conditions. These first rest rooms could hardly be
deserving of the term, yet they were a step forward.
For instance, in a certain department store the rest
room was far from being what its name denoted. It
was in the sub-basement, where it was so dark that
flickering gas jets were necessary; it was partitioned
DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEA
4I
off from the packing department, where the sound of
hammering of heavy boxes and dragging them about
was heard all day. There was no fresh air or proper
ventilation. A strap and pulley from some machinery
was winding itself noisily above the cot which had been
placed in the partition for any employee who suddenly
felt ill. An appeal had been made to one member
of the firm to provide a better space for the rest room,
but he contended that there was no other place avail-
able. So we sought some ruse to bring about the de-
sired end. I invited this merchant's wife to take a
drive with me one day, and during the course of the
conversation I asked whether she had ever seen the
"rest room" in question. She had not; she never
interfered in her husband's business. She felt that he
knew best how to conduct it. A description of the
room and a suggestion as to women understanding
these particular matters better than men, sufficed to
arouse her interest. Not long afterwards the rest room
was moved to another part of the building and was
fitted up with a cabinet containing all that was needed
for first aid to the injured.
Our campaign against delayed Christmas shopping
forms an interesting story in itself. It seems almost
impossible to-day to realize how difficult it was at first
to arouse public interest. We were told that the
crowded stores just before the holiday and the brilliant
illumination of' them at night added to the Christmas
spirit and portrayed cheer and good fellowship.
Besides, how could shoppers make a selection of gifts
when articles were not displayed until a few weeks
42
STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
before the holiday and attractive, marked-down sales
occurred only a few days before? We addressed groups
of women at their club meetings, at their church guild
meetings; we told them some of the stories which had
come to our notice of salesgirls and cash-girls who had
broken down under the strain. Our listeners were made
to realize the evil effect of extreme fatigue and ex-
haustion. We told of girls who were obliged to go to
hospitals immediately after the holidays, in order to
regain their strength and health. It often required
months for them to recover so that they felt their
old-time vigour. We endeavoured to secure the
coöperation of merchants by asking them to display
their Christmas gifts earlier in the season. We found
that just as soon as the demand for these gifts was
made, the supply was forthcoming.
We succeeded in getting one of the largest department
firms to place a leaflet in every package delivered during
the first weeks of December. This leaflet set forth the
necessity for shopping early in the season and early
in the day. In a few concise statements appropriate
to this admonition, it gave briefly the aims and prin-
ciples of the Consumers' League. The Survey magazine
coöperated in endeavouring to extend the early
Christmas shopping movement throughout the country.
Later on, several storekeepers aided in spreading
the propaganda by placing cards in packages delivered
during December.
Another interesting feature of the League's propa-
ganda was the urging of educators and of the clergy
to hold a "Consumers' League Week-End" just after
DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEA
43
Thanksgiving. We asked the principals of the schools
to direct the attention of their pupils to the necessity
of early Christmas shopping, and we gave leaflets to be
distributed. We asked the clergymen to give this
subject consideration in their sermon of that week.
From the pulpits of the churches and the synagogues
went forth the plea for the observance of Consumers'
League principles. In some of the church vestibules
our leaflets were distributed.
At last we created so much interest in the movement
that we were able to hang a huge banner across Twenty-
third Street, then the centre of the shopping district,
reminding women to do their Christmas shopping
early. We secured permission from the city authorities,
and we also had the good will of two firms on opposite
sides of the street, who permitted us to use their win-
dows for attaching the ends of the rope from which the
banner was suspended. This was the first time any
banner, not used for political purposes, was seen to
stream conspicuously above the populace in New York
City. It made quite a sensation, and gathered crowds
of people, some of whom learned for the first time that
a consumers' league existed and had its headquarters at
the United Charities Building, 105 East twenty-second
Street. This knowledge spread among the working
girls, and from that time we had many communications
from them, some of them signed, and some sent
anonymously. One young woman to whom an inquiry
was addressed across the counter said: "Oh, yes, now
we have seats and the floor-walker sees us sitting on
them and doesn't tell us to get up. And we are no
44
STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
longer told to hurry our luncheon and return to the
counter in ten minutes, as we used to be told. There
is a bunch of society women working for us now, and
they'll never know the amount of good they've done!"
This was a tribute which was encouraging to the
members of the League. For our work was never com-
pleted. Our White Lists had to be gone over every
year; we were obliged to visit each store on the list at
least once a year, in order to ascertain whether stan-
dards were maintained; at that time, there was no law
authorizing legal inspectors for retail establishments,
although the Working Women's Society had been
trying for some years to get such a bill passed. The
Consumers' League, therefore, constituted itself a body
of volunteer inspectors. We considered ourselves
official, the merchants termed us officious; nevertheless,
they were compelled to recognize the force of public
opinion.
Sometimes it happened that a firm which had made
an effort to reach our standard, in order to be included
in the White List, would slip back after having attained
the desired goal. When this was brought to our
attention, if our pleadings for genuine reformation
were unsuccessful, we were obliged to drop the de-
linquent firm from our list. This did not happen
frequently, as it gave to the Board that crushing sense
of failure which a mother feels when her erring child
strays from the path of virtue and fails to uphold the
standards she had taught him. And again, when,
like the prodigal son, such a firm mended its ways and
DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEA
45
returned to the fold, there was much rejoicing among
the members of the Board.
The printing of all these White Lists constituted a
great expense, especially as black-listing was illegal,
and therefore we were not allowed by law to draw a
line through a name already on our list. So, if we were
compelled to drop a firm, we were obliged to destroy
all the old lists and print new ones, leaving out the
delinquent firm. With all this expense, we found we
could no longer depend upon voluntary contributions;
we decided to tax our members $1 a year. Up to this
time there had been no annual dues; attaching a
signature to our principles and aims had constituted
membership. The reaction to this innovation would
have been amusing had it not seemed so tragic to us.
Our long membership list, of which we had been so
proud, shrank visibly and rapidly. Some of the
members who had been most importunate about re-
ceiving large quantities of pamphlets for distribution
resigned when they found they could no longer get them
without a small fee; others gave as excuse their projected
absence from town; a few preferred to die! However,
although the membership list was smaller, those who
remained with us were earnest, faithful workers, with
a strong sense of responsibility, and as the new member-
ship list grew it was women of this calibre who followed
our banner.
Another great expense was the advertising of our
White List in the newspapers. As the list grew and
as we required more space, the expense mounted.
46 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
I
Then arose another interesting development in regard to
the advertising of this White List. Whereas at first
the merchants were disdainful of it, it was not long be-
fore they came to feel the force and power that lay
behind that small, apparently insignificant advertise-
ment. Firms which advertised in the daily papers
whose names did not appear on the list, objected to its
publication and threatened to withdraw their daily
costly advertisements if the editors continued to insert
our modest notice. One newspaper editor after another
felt it was necessary to refuse our advertisement; they
could not afford to let their advertising business go to
their rival papers. The editors of one paper only, the
New York Evening Post, stood out against the pressure
brought to bear, and I am glad of this opportunity
to pay my tribute to their courage. A well-known firm
owning a large department store withdrew its full-page
advertisement for one year, thus causing the editors
a large financial loss. During this time our small
notice appeared with regularity. It was a matter
of high principle with the editors of the Post; they
maintained that their large advertisers could not con-
trol their policy. The Consumers' League came to
realize that these principles were being upheld at too
great a sacrifice on the part of the editors, so we with-
drew our advertisement. This did not mean that we
ceased to publish the White List. Our Board had
indomitable will, plenty of originality and initiative,
and we soon found other methods of getting our propa-
ganda before the public. We advertised in theatre
programmes, in omnibuses, in subway and elevated
•
DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEA
47
trains. We had White Lists framed and placed in
waiting rooms of hotels, and we were permitted to
place them in a few of the White List stores. The
members of the League distributed them widely when
travelling.
Perhaps no better example could be given of the
development of the public conscience and the growth
of public opinion than the story of how we finally
obtained the necessary legislation to improve the
working conditions of women and children in New York
State. For five years we had been supporting the
Working Women's Society in its effort to get legislation
enacted at Albany which would bring about better
working conditions in the stores. Each year, the
bill which had been carefully drafted failed of passage.
Finally, it passed the Assembly, and in the Senate was
referred to the Rhinehart Commission-a committee
which had recently been appointed "to investigate the
conditions of work for female labour in New York
State," with Senator Rhinehart as chairman of the
Commission. Indeed, this Commission had been ap-
pointed because knowledge of working conditions had
been brought to the attention of Senators through
the investigations of the Consumers' League. There
fore, the Commission naturally turned to us for help
in their investigations. They called upon us for a large
share of testimony which our officers and directors
gladly gave. This testimony in regard to existing con-
ditions found in stores, workrooms, and sweatshops,
was all given under oath. The following are a few ex-
tracts from the report of the Commission:
48
STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
WAGES
There is no doubt that low wages prevail in these establishments,
and that the wages are not as an average adequate compensation for
the work done or the hours of labour employed.
HOURS
After stating that numerous houses are open only
from 8 A.M. to 6 P.M. six days each week, the report
proceeds:
Other places keep their employees at work the same number of
hours on all days except Saturdays, and on Saturdays keep their
stores open until 8, 9, and even 12 o'clock at night. Others were
found which kept open every night until 9, 10, or 11 o'clock, and on
Sundays from two to four hours.
After a full consideration,
the Committee is of the opinion that the limitation of ten hours a
day applicable to other days in the week should not be extended to
Saturday. The employee, even though Saturday is excepted,
will not be compelled to work more than sixty hours a week; while
the employer, if he desires to have the labour of the employees on
Saturday night any number of hours over ten hours for that day,
must arrange the employment of his employees so that the excess
number of hours of labour on Saturday shall be deducted from the
number of hours of labour on some other day or days of the week.
This provision can entail no hardship upon either the employer or
the employees, because the distribution of the hours of labour
throughout the week can be readily and easily arranged. In cal-
culating the hours of labour, the lunch time should be included and
credited to the employee.
SEATS
The Committee is satisfied from personal investigation that this
law (Chapter 298, Laws of 1881) has been constantly evaded, and
that in many retail establishments suitable seats are not main-
tained, and that the female employees have not the right to use
such seats at reasonable times. The importance of providing
proper seats and of permitting their use at reasonable times cannot
be overestimated.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEA
49
The Committee, from the testimony had before it, and the per-
sonal visits made to mercantile establishments, is of the opinion that
the proper proportion should be one seat to every three female
employees, and these seats should be placed where it is possible and
convenient for the employees to use them, that is to say, behind the
counters, tables, or desks where the women work. In order to guard
against evasions of the law, a seat
should be permanent
in character, that is to say, attached to the floor or counter, or wall,
or shelving, so that employers may not, as many of them have done
in the past, provide movable wooden and paper boxes and contend
that they are "suitable seats."
•
BASEMENTS
It appeared from the testimony of some of the employees, and
from personal visits of the Committee, that some of the basements
of the retail mercantile stores were not properly lighted or ventilated,
and that work therein was injurious to the health of the employees.
Practically all of these basements are lighted by artificial light, and
ventilated by artificial means of ventilation, and women, girls, and
boys work for ten hours a day with only an intermission for lunch
time, without seeing the sunlight, in places ventilated by fans or
other contrivances.
CONCLUSION Of Report
The contention was repeatedly made before the Committee that
many of the mercantile houses were being carried on in the same
manner as if there was a law forcing them to comply with the above
specific provisions, and that those mercantile establishments which
were not carrying on their business in that way would be forced
to do so by the demands of the public and the ordinary laws of
competition. The Committee therefore arrived at the conclusion
that those employers who are now carrying on their business the
same as they would if there were a law, instead of being affected
disadvantageously by such a law, would be benefited, by reason of
the fact that all other establishments would be required to conform
with the standards established by such a law; and as to those em-
ployers who are not conducting their business places as it is intended
they should under the proposed law, the Committee believes that
such a law is necessary and indeed imperative in the interests of the
public welfare.
50
STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
As a result of these findings the Mercantile Inspection
Act was passed in the spring of 1896 and went into
effect the following September. It applied to towns
of more than 3,000 inhabitants, to all places where
goods were sold. It contained many of the provisions
for which the Consumers' League had been working
six years to procure. It embodied, briefly:
A sixty-hour-a-week clause for young women under
twenty-one and boys under sixteen, and provided for a
working day of ten hours, not to begin before 7 A. M. or
to last after 10 P. M. (Unfortunately this provision did
not apply to the holiday season from December 15th to
January 1st.) It prohibited employment of children
under fourteen and demanded for children under
sixteen a certificate of age, health, and school attend-
ance. The bill also demanded proper sanitary arrange-
ments regarding retiring rooms, lunch rooms, and
basements, and also required the placement of one seat
behind counters for every three saleswomen. The en-
forcement of the bill was placed under the supervision
of the local Boards of Health. Firms were required to
post a copy of the bill in three conspicuous places in
each establishment.
It was scarcely more than six years since Alice
Woodbridge had roused us to action by the reading
of her startling report, and this recognition of the facts
she had presented, by the law-making body of our state,
was a triumph so great that all the struggle and strain
of the past years were forgotten in the inspiration that
we found for wider fields. The nature of the insidious
obstacles which we had to overcome in order to arouse
DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEA
51
the public to a realization of facts can be exemplified
by what took place when we gave our testimony before
the Rhinehart Commission.
It was very noticeable that the newspapers, when
reviewing the testimony which created quite a sensation
at the time, only printed the names of firms which were
not large advertisers, whereas the firms which had
full-page or half-page advertisements were singularly
protected from the prying eyes of a too curious shopping
public. The portion of testimony referring to them
was either totally excluded from their columns, or else
the name of the firm was omitted. For instance,
on one occasion I gave testimony as to the lack of seats.
in a well-known store on Fourteenth Street; I related
an account of the conversation held with a member
of the firm and repeated his picturesque and profane
language in refusing to install seats for saleswomen.
A reporter told me that it would make the best “story
of any testimony given during that day, but it would be
impossible to get it into the papers, as the firm in
question was among the largest advertisers. As a
matter of fact, all mention of the firm's conditions
was suppressed. However, a full report of the testi-
mony given in regard to an insignificant neighbourhood
store on upper Columbus Avenue was printed with the
name and address of the firm, since, obviously, they
had never advertised. This proprietor's reply, when
asked whether he would be willing to place seats behind
counters and permit saleswomen to use them when not
engaged in waiting on customers was characteristic
of the sentiment expressed by most employers at that
">
52 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
time: "My store is not a hospital," he said. "I would
dismiss any clerk who dared to sit down during working
hours. I pay them to stand behind counters and sell
goods." When this appeared in cold print the following
morning, it seemed heartless and unsympathetic even
to the proprietor himself. He wrote letters denying
that he had ever made such a statement, and he threat-
ened to sue me for having testified falsely. This letter
was handed to Senator Rhinehart who, after reading it,
announced that witnesses would be protected by the
state and that they need not be alarmed by any threats
of damage suits because of giving testimony. I never
heard any further from the store proprietor in question.
These facts prove that advertisers-statements of
editors notwithstanding-did control to a very large
extent the news columns of our daily papers, as I have
previously asserted.
In drafting the Mercantile Bill we had asked to have
the responsibility for the supervision of stores and the
enforcement of the law placed upon the state factory
inspector. Instead of this, the local Departments of
Health were given the supervision and enforcement of
the new law. It was explained that it would increase
the State Tax Budget too much to increase the force of
state factory inspectors required for the additional
supervision of stores, so the directors of the Consumers'
League, fearing that the bill would not be passed at all
if they did not yield this point, yielded, and the bill was
passed.
When the new law went into operation the sanitary
inspectors of local Boards of Health were expected to
DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEA
53
include retail stores in their inspections, but it soon
developed that this additional work was considered
unimportant compared with larger fields of work, and,
moreover, the inspectors claimed that this new duty
overloaded their department. We found that although
we had finally succeeded in getting the law placed
on our statute books, it was constantly being evaded
and was most difficult of enforcement; this was largely
due to lack of proper inspection.
In 1902, Dr. Ernst Lederle, the Commissioner of the
Department of Health, appointed me as a special in-
spector, without salary, and furnished me with the
shield of the department which gave me the official
authority to investigate and question. My findings
were reported to the department. By this time my
position as president of the New York Consumers'
League was so well recognized that several of the mer-
chants resented the power that had been given me,
and made a formal protest to the Commissioner against
my appointment. Doctor Lederle's reply was to the
effect that, if they were obeying the law, they had noth-
ing to fear; if they were violating it, he wished to know
the facts. The New York Consumers' League, realiz-
ing the necessity of regular inspection, bent its efforts
toward getting the Board of Estimate and Apportion-
ment to appropriate a specific sum for the purpose of
adding to the corps of inspectors in the Department of
Health. These additional inspectors were to be given.
charge of retail stores. We succeeded in getting a few
mercantile inspectors appointed, but the number was in-
adequate.
54
STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
After twelve years of this more or less desultory and
sporadic supervision by officers of Health Depart-
ments, the Mercantile Law was amended so as to place
the responsibility for its enforcement where it really
belonged, upon the chief factory inspector. In 1908,
the Department of Labour was reorganized and the
chief factory inspector became known as the State
Labour Commissioner. The special work of enforcing
the Mercantile Law now devolved upon a chief mer-
cantile inspector with a small staff of inspectors.
The Labour Commissioner was appointed with a
view to pleasing the labour leaders, but he had to be a
man also who would not antagonize employers. At
first, labour leaders were suspicious of the Consumers'
League movement, not having much faith in our altruis-
tic motives; they felt that no reforms could be accom-
plished unless started and carried out by the workers
themselves. Later on, however, the wiser ones realized
that results warranted their coöperation, and whenever
the Consumers' League officers and directors went to
Albany to plead for necessary amendments of laws,
we were reinforced by one or two speakers from the
Federation of Labour.
And now, although I am getting ahead of my story,
it seems pertinent to relate the following incident:
Governor Altgeld of Illinois had been sufficiently pro-
gressive to appoint in 1893 a woman as chief factory
inspector-Mrs. Florence Kelley. His choice had been
so admirable that she failed to secure a reappointment
because she had enforced the factory laws so fairly
and impartially that a protest went up from those
DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEA
55
manufacturers who did not wish to have the law en-
forced. There could not have been a finer or more
subtle tribute. In 1899, the National Consumers'
League was organized with headquarters in New York
and Mrs. Kelley was asked to be the general secretary.
Mrs. Kelley's previous experience and the knowledge
she had gained through her work in connection with
the Consumers' League seemed to us to make her
peculiarly well fitted for the post of factory inspector.
The appointment for this post was just then being
canvassed. I went to Albany to interview Governor
Roosevelt, feeling confident that he would see the wis-
dom of appointing one so well equipped for the post.
But while the Governor was entirely in sympathy with
the aims and ideals of the Consumers' League, and
recognized Mrs. Kelley's ability, he was quite frank in
pointing out to me that the time was not ripe for the
Governor of New York State to appoint a woman as
factory inspector; he said that his constituents would
not stand for it; they were urging him to appoint a cer-
tain man and nothing would be gained by opposing their
wishes in this matter. I learned later that the man in
question ran an elevator in the Capitol, at Albany; he
had succeeded in ingratiating himself with the legisla-
tors, and when, through their influence, he secured the
appointment, his ignorance of the duties involved neces-
sitated his going to Boston to learn from the Mas-
sachusetts factory inspector what was expected of him.
As the work of the League became known, working
girls began to send us communications, telling us of
evils which ought to be abolished, of infractions of the
56 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
law, of unprincipled floor-walkers who were trying to
corrupt young girls. The League always endeavoured
to protect the writer of a complaint. We kept the
original document on file and copied the complaint on
our own stationery, refusing to divulge any facts which
would lead to the discovery of the identity of the writer.
In one instance, however, notwithstanding our care,
the case of a complaint was sifted by the employers
who were engaged in the making of Bibles. They de-
cided that the complaint had been made by one of three
girls; not being sure which was the guilty one, they
were considering dismissing all three. Thereupon, the
one who had written the letter, not wishing her com-
rades to suffer on her account, confessed and was
promptly discharged. Yet her complaint had been
warranted; the firm had not complied with the exist-
ing law, and the League had, after investigation, con-
sidered that she had been fully justified in writing to us.
The directors of the League were fortunate in being
able to secure another position for her.
The League frequently found itself in the position of
a Court of Arbitration. For instance, an employee in
the dressmaking department of one of the leading
department stores was strongly advised by her physi-
cian to take a vacation; she had an invalid mother
whom she was supporting, and she was on the verge of
breaking down under the care and responsibility. She
feared that if she asked for a vacation she might not be
able to hold her position. Her physician and her
clergyman, therefore, appealed to her employers to
grant her a leave of absence of four weeks and to
DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEA
57
promise to take her back at the end of that time.
They agreed. They told the young woman that they
would not engage any one else in her place, and that
when she returned she could have the same position
again. During her absence two of the other employees
in the department worked harder and did as much as
had been previously done by three. So the firm de-
cided to pay them a little more and abolish the position
of the third. The employee who had taken the vaca-
tion gained so rapidly in strength that she returned at
the end of three weeks, instead of remaining away the
full quota of four weeks allowed her. When she was
informed that her position had been abolished, she was
staggered. The firm contended that they had not
broken their word, because no one else had been taken
in her place; they had merely done away with that
particular position. The shock and the dread of per-
haps not being able to secure a remunerative position
elsewhere at once sent her to bed, where she was kept
under the doctor's care for some time. The Consumers'
League received its information about the case from the
girl's clergyman, who was indignant that the firm in
question was on the White List of the League. We
wrote a letter to the firm, asking for an interview; we
received no reply. We decided to call without an
appointment. We bearded the lion-the head of the
firm-in his sanctum sanctorum-his private office,
which we were not supposed to enter without first
being announced and receiving permission. But we
did not stand on ceremony, we swept aside the various
watchdogs at the entrance and stalked in, taking the
58
STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
gentleman unawares as he was about to leave to enjoy
his luncheon. He was much annoyed at first, telling us
that he didn't give a hang whether he was on the White
List or not; indeed, he preferred to have his name taken
off. The Directors of the League were a group of busy-
bodies who poked their noses into people's private busi-
ness affairs, and they thought they knew better than
the business men themselves how to manage their
business! But he calmed down after a while and ad-
mitted that the firm's code of ethics in dealing with
customers was on a higher plane than when concerned
with the employees. He admitted that the employee
in question had not had a square deal and he handed
us a check of $40 to pay for her vacation. He even
expressed a willingness to take her back, but we had
already placed her with one of his competitors, and she
was getting a slight advance in wages. As we were
leaving his office an hour or more beyond the luncheon
hour, he snatched up his hat, and remarked that he
hoped we were not as hungry as he was. Then, with a
twinkle in his eye, he said, "And mind, don't you take
me off the White List, and don't report this incident
in your year book!" We handed the check to the vic-
tim of the “misunderstanding," and we were sufficiently
magnanimous to refrain from boasting of our achieve-
ment in behalf of the down-trodden working girl, one
of
many who would have frequently been exploited had
the League not come to the rescue.
These stories serve to illustrate the Consumers'
League's attitude in its effort to prevent the exploita-
tion of the helpless working girl unprotected by legis
DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEA
59
lation. However, it cannot be too strongly emphasized
that we never sentimentally put the rights of the em-
ployee above the rights of the employer. We recog-
nized that, while he must act justly and fairly to his
employees, they owed him a very positive duty, and
this duty we tried on all occasions to uphold by address-
ing groups of working girls. We drew their attention
to industrial laws and the penalties for violation, but we
emphasized the necessity of their giving faithful service
in return for a fair remuneration and just conditions.
I cannot dwell too strongly upon the fact that the
work of the Consumers' League lay along the lines of
true economics. Although our sympathies may have
been aroused, we were not guided by a false sentiment;
we tried to adjust fairly the differences between em-
ployer and employee, through the power of the third
factor, the consumer.
The passage of the Mercantile Bill in Albany in 1896
and the proper enforcing of the laws marked an era for
the Consumers' League. Before that, our work had
been formative, in a sense, experimental. We had suc-
ceeded in arousing the public conscience as to the exist-
ence of certain evils and the sense of responsibility for
these evils. We had created a public opinion which
finally crystallized in legislation. We were no longer a
doubtful experiment; we were a force and a power,
and we had to be reckoned with.
CHAPTER IV
EXPANSION OF THE MOVEMENT
No one of us can make the world move on very far, but
it moves at all only when each one of a very large number
does his duty.
-THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
D
URING the first five years of our work we were so
absorbed endeavouring to better local conditions
that we did not realize that the news of the movement
was spreading rapidly to other cities. In the year
1896, Mrs. Lowell having resigned as president, I was
elected to fill the vacancy. About this time requests
began to come from Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Bos-
ton, and other cities for help in organizing similar
leagues to ours. It was considered my duty as presi-
dent of the parent league (the New York City League),
to assist in the creation of these new groups, and these
proved to be the nucleus of what was destined to be-
come a national movement. Brooklyn and Philadel-
phia were the first two leagues to be organized outside of
New York City. It is interesting to recall the charac-
ter of the people who started the movement in the
various communities. In Brooklyn, Mrs. Sessions,
sister of Rev. Dr. Huntington, of Grace Church, New
York, was the organizer and first president. In
Philadelphia, the initial meeting at which I was invited
60
EXPANSION OF THE MOVEMENT
6r
to speak was held under the auspices of the Ethical Cul-
ture Society of which Mr. William Saltus was the leader.
In Boston, many of the professors of Harvard Univer-
sity, of Wellesley College, and members of the Massa-
chusetts Federation of Women's Clubs crowded the large
Y. M. C. A. hall on Boylston Street at a meeting which
was presided over by Dr. John Graham Brooks, who
afterwards became the first president of the National
Consumers' League. When, later, Doctor Brooks gave
a course of lectures in Chicago on Industrial Conditions,
a group of women, some of whom had been doing social
service work at Hull House, formed the Illinois League.
In the meantime, our local activities did not lessen,
they increased. In 1898, there was trouble in the
ladies' tailoring industry in New York City. The
heads of the industry called it a strike. The em-
ployees called it a lockout, and the workers appealed
to the Consumers' League to investigate and to help
them in their difficulties. We found that nearly all
the fashionable ladies' tailors, while they provided elab-
orate showrooms and fitting rooms for their custom-
ers, gave many of their garments to be made up in the
tenement homes of the workers. If women pay high
prices for clothes, it would seem proper to ask as an
equivalent, not only stylish and well-fitting tailored
suits, but suits made in regularly inspected sanitary
workrooms and not in the living rooms of the workers.
It is claimed that the original cause of the agitation in England,
that led to the passage of the Act requiring the making of govern-
ment goods in factories, was the sad death of the daughter of Sir
Robert Peel, twice Prime Minister of England. It was learned,
62 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
upon investigation, that she had been stricken with typhus fever,
as a result of wearing a germ-infected riding habit, which, although
ordered and fitted at a fashionable and expensive Regent Street
tailor's, had been made in the tenement rooms of the worker. This
poverty-stricken workman had two children suffering from this
contagious disease, and when he saw them shivering from the cold,
he had thrown the skirt of the habit over the bed as an extra pro-
tection.1
Upon looking into the merits of the controversy that
was going on between the New York ladies' tailoring
establishments and their employees, we found condi-
tions existed that were similar in character to those
that had existed in England prior to the passage of the
Act referred to. No doubt, unknown tragedies had
occurred from the same cause in our own midst. It was
our duty to acquaint the public with the result of our
investigation, and to create a sentiment against the
buying of wearing apparel made by underpaid workers,
under unsanitary conditions. We found that there
was a law on the statute books prohibiting the manu-
facture of clothing in the living rooms of the workers,
except when made by the immediate members of the
family living in the rooms. This law was constantly
evaded, and the factory inspectors were forced to
devote a great deal of their time to seeking out and
exposing such evasions. The sympathies of the Con-
sumers' League were not always with strikers; on other
occasions, we had thrown the weight of our influence
with employers, but in this instance we felt that the
workers employed had a real grievance. The health
¹From the report of the president of the Consumers' League of the City
of New York, 1898.
EXPANSION OF THE MOVEMENT
63
and welfare of the community demanded that this
grievance be remedied. For this grievance was like a
two-edged sword: it cut deep into the lives of the con-
sumer as well as of the worker. As workers could not
afford a rental sufficient to cover separate workrooms,
the work had to be done in bedrooms and kitchens; the
tools of the trade, machines, needles, thread, scissors,
had to be supplied by the workers themselves; the irons,
too, as well as the fuel to heat them; in the dark after-
noons of winter the extra gas used was added to their
expense. In calling for and returning the work, the
workers lost, not only much valuable time, but also
had the additional expense of carfare. In the elegant
fitting rooms of a high-grade ladies' tailoring establish-
ment, the proprietor would superintend the fittings,
but the little unknown tailor from the tenement hovel
had to be present, if not to do the actual fitting, at
least to see what alterations were required. When a
customer was late or broke an appointment, little did
she realize the hardship that her carelessness inflicted
upon the little unknown tailor. He had to pay double
carfare and lose double time. Through the working of
this sweatshop system, the proprietor of the establish-
ment saved the rental of workrooms and their equip-
ment, he saved on fuel and on light, and also paid a
lower wage than he would have done had the workers
been employed to work under his own roof. It was a
system that entailed hardship on the worker and was a
direct menace to the health of the community. Our
sympathies were aroused to such an extent that some
of the officers of the League turned their parlours into
64
STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
fitting rooms. They asked their friends to place orders
with the locked-out workmen, so as to provide them
with the wherewithal necessary to support their fami-
lies. The newspapers made a great deal of this inci-
dent, which advertised us to such a degree that many
women came to our office to ask where they could have
their tailored suits made without having the goods.
sent into tenement homes. This demand resulted in
our compiling a White List of ladies' tailors. This
list was never published because of the impossibility of
investigating every such establishment in the city; in all
fairness this would have been necessary before such
publication. What we did was to investigate every
firm whose name was brought to us by customers seek-
ing information. If a customer found that her tailor
gave out his goods to be made up in tenement rooms,
she either forced him to change his methods or she gave
up her custom. The list thus compiled was kept on
file at our office and was shown at the request of any
one who desired to have her suits made on the premises
of the tailor.
As a result of the attitude of the Consumers' League
toward the situation which was brought to light
through the strike, and to the publicity given to the
matter, many of the leading ladies' tailors changed
their methods. Some of them moved into larger quar-
ters, in order to have commodious, well-lighted work-
rooms. A few advertised that all their work, including
embroidery, was done on the premises. Again the power
wielded by the consumer was felt in the community.
We found that the ladies' tailoring trade was not the
V.
EXPANSION OF THE MOVEMENT
65
only one that was underpaid and in which conditions.
were a menace to the public health. Nor did we find,
as had often been claimed, that it was women's demand
for bargains that forced manufacturers to underpay
workers. The League found that, in many instances,
consumers paid high prices for goods, yet the actual
producers received but a very small percentage of the
amount. For example: for hemstitching fine batiste
collars which sold for $1 apiece retail, workers received
from the retail merchants 25 cents per dozen for the
work. The price paid for making boys' reefers with
broad sailor collars trimmed with braid was 25 cents.
per dozen; for making girls' aprons with ruffles and
sashes trimmed with edging and sometimes with inser-
tion, 25 cents to 45 cents per dozen; for making night-
gowns with embroidery and tucked yokes-thread
furnished and embroidery cut out by the workers—$1 a
dozen; silk waists 98 cents a dozen; women's wrappers,
49 cents a dozen. Contractors were paid for children's
jackets 6 cents apiece, and for knee pants from 4 cents
to 8 cents apiece, the workmen receiving less, as the
contractor was entitled to his profit. Because of these
incredibly low prices, which might be termed dying
wages rather than living wages, workers were forced to
live huddled together in crowded rooms which served
as workrooms as well as living rooms. We sent a copy
of the report of our investigations to Theodore Roose-
velt, who was at that time Governor of the State of
New York; whereupon he, with his usual virile courage
and his broad sympathies, decided to attack the prob-
lem at once. He came from Albany especially to visit
66 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
some of the sweatshops, to see for himself actual condi-
tions, stopping first at the office of the Consumers'
League in order to get a guide and a list of the worst
sweatshops. After his tour of investigation, Governor
Roosevelt incorporated into his message to the Legis-
lature a plea for better enforcement of existing labour
laws, and suggested further legislation, looking to the
ultimate abolition of "the uneconomic, unwholesome,
and un-American sweatshop system from our indus-
trial life."1
The public began to respond to the efforts of the
League to change conditions of production. Retail
dealers were quick to feel the pulse of the shopping
public. One prominent firm placed tags on their gar-
ments, marked: "Sanitary, non-sweatshop make." In
connection with an advertised sale of underwear by
another equally prominent firm, a notice in the show
window read: “Made by clean, contented, and well-
paid people, with plenty of time. No 'song of the
shirt' horrors are stitched into our garments.' An-
other leading firm paid to have the following advertise-
ment published in the newspapers:
>>
Baby clothes safe to wear. It is a well-known fact that many
garments offered for sale at low prices, and sometimes even the
better grades, are manufactured in tenements or other unwholesome
places, under conditions that make it hazardous to wear them,
especially for infants and small children.
We cannot tell where these goods are to be found, but we can tell
you about the other kind-made in light, clean workrooms.
¹See Appendix E for extract from Governor Roosevelt's message, pub-
lished in the report of the Consumers' League of the City of New York, 1898.
EXPANSION OF THE MOVEMENT
67
A Sixth Avenue firm advertised that "nearly all"
the underwear found on their counters was made in their
own factories; they did not point out, however, how
shoppers could distinguish these garments from the
others that were evidently made in sweatshops. The
League engaged the services of a former factory inspec-
tor to investigate factories where women's and children's
underwear was made, with a view to ascertaining
whether the manufacturers who made these garments
under the best conditions on their own premises would
use a label authorized by the Consumers' League, thus
standardizing their product and suggesting that it be
known as the "Consumers' Label." In this way, the
shopping public could distinguish these goods from
those made under conditions which could not be en-
dorsed by the League. It was found that seventeen
out of twenty-two manufacturers interviewed were
willing to use a Consumers' League label, if a demand
for it were created. Such a demand could not be merely
local, since the product of factories was distributed
throughout the country. With a view, therefore, to
creating a widespread demand for such a label, at the
suggestion of the Massachusetts Consumers' League,
the New York City League invited those leagues which
it had helped to establish to send delegates to a con-
vention to discuss the feasibility of forming a national
federation of consumers' leagues, one of the duties of
which would be to issue a label to standardize conditions
in underwear factories.
At this point it might be well to make clear the slight
difference in the plan of organization between New
68 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
¿
York and other states. Our League, the pioneer league,
was known as the Consumers' League of the City of
New York, and as other leagues throughout New York
State were organized, they took the name of the city or
town in which they were formed. In 1898, these vari-
ous leagues all united under the banner of the New York
State Consumers' League. When leagues were formed
in other states, they took the name of the state, and
all the local leagues organized were considered branches.
of the State League.
The proposition of the New York League to call a
convention met with instantaneous approval. A suc-
cessful convention was held on May 17 and 18, 1898,
representatives from the Brooklyn, Syracuse, New York
City, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Illinois leagues
being present.
Through the kindness of Rev. J. Lewis Parks, the
business sessions were held in Calvary Parish House,
where at that time, through Doctor Parks's hospitality,
the Governing Board of the New York City League
was holding its regular business meetings. The public
meeting was held in Assembly Hall, 156 Fifth Avenue,
and was largely attended. As president of the Hostess
League, I presided and gave an introductory address.
Short addresses were made by the presidents of the
Pennsylvania and Massachusetts leagues, and for the
Illinois League by Mrs. Florence Kelley of Hull House,
Chicago. Prof. E. R. A. Seligman of Columbia Uni-
versity, and the late Colonel George E. Waring, Com-
missioner of the Street-Cleaning Department, New
EXPANSION OF THE MOVEMENT
69
York City, also addressed the meeting. A resolution
was passed recommending a federation of the existing
consumers' leagues into a national body.
The newly formed National Consumers' League be-
gan its existence with Dr. John Graham Brooks of
Cambridge, Massachusetts as president.¹ It opened
an office in New York City in May, 1899, and engaged
Mrs. Florence Kelley as executive secretary. The
secretary was expected to organize new leagues and
inspect factories. For more than twenty-five years
Mrs. Kelley has been the great driving force behind
the manifold activities of the National League. She
has veritably become the human embodiment of its
aims and principles. In every crusade against vicious
national or civic conditions her coöperation has never
been lacking. Under the pressure of her energy and her
marvellous vitality, her keen intelligence and her
power of eloquent expression, local and state consum-
ers' leagues sprang up all over the country, from the
State of Washington in the North to Louisiana in the
South, from Maine in the East to California in the
West. As president of the pioneer league and as first
vice-president of the National League, I also had the
privilege of helping to sow the seed of many of these
new leagues. Whenever I travelled, meetings were
arranged and groups of citizens were urged to form a
local league to be affiliated with the national body.
Each local league was expected to do the work nearest
¹See Appendix F for the first published list of officers and directors of the
National Consumers' League,
70
STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
at hand to remedy local conditions¹ and was asked also
to coöperate in the support of the National League in
its endeavour to abolish the sweatshop and its attendant
evils.
Some of the trades unions had realized the need of a
label in order that their members could distinguish
articles made by trade unionists in the "closed shop,"
but their labels had stood primarily for the fact that
all the workers employed in the making of the article
were members of the union. The label did not rep-
resent necessarily a high standard of conditions, other
than those demanded by unions in regard to wages
and hours. This label did not guarantee a sanitary
environment; indeed, much of the product bearing
the union label was known to have been made in tene-
ment rooms. The National Consumers' League felt,
therefore, that what was needed was a label that would
not only come up to the union standard of wages and
hours, but one that would also insure to the purchaser,
Ist: sanitary conditions in the production; 2d: a living
wage and a fair working day to the producer; 3d: good
workmanship; 4th: the elimination of child labour;
5th: the indorsement of the factory inspector; 6th: the
privilege of its use by all manufacturers who could prove
that they fulfilled the necessary conditions.
It required a great deal of propaganda to create a
public opinion which would demand goods bearing our
label, and it required as great an effort to induce the
manufacturers to place such a label on their garments..
1See Appendix G for detailed reports of state and local consumers'
leagues.
EXPANSION OF THE MOVEMENT
71
The executive secretary of the National Consumers'
League toured the country in order to get the label
adopted. I, also, as president of the pioneer league and
vice-president of the National League, was invited to
address the large gatherings of federated clubs. In
my capacity as chairman of the "Committee on Indus-
try of Women and Children" of the General Federation
of Women's Clubs, I had the opportunity of bringing
the facts before the organized women of the country.
The work was strenuous and arduous, but the enthusi-
astic response that we met was our great encourage-
ment. Finally the White Label was accepted by a
few of the manufacturers of women's white under-
wear. This branch of industry, we found, had the
largest percentage of underpaid, undernourished work-
ers, so we decided to begin our work with this particular
branch of the needle trades. A contract was drawn up
between the manufacturers and the National Con-
sumers' League¹ which covered what we considered the
salient points. The first list of recommended manu-
facturers published contained the names of fifteen
firms. During the first year, the economic value of
this label was so strongly felt that other groups of manu-
facturers asked to be permitted to sign the contracts
and use the label. These groups included makers of
corsets, sheets, and pillow cases, curtains, skirt and
stocking supporters, shirt waists, and children's wash
dresses. The factories using the label were scattered
through the following states: Maine, Massachusetts,
2
¹See Appendix H for agreement.
2See Appendix I for first White Label List.
72 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
..
Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. This
product found its way into every corner of the country,
and our label was found in Mexico City and in Juneau,
Alaska. Our list grew rapidly; we met with the same
experience with which we had formerly met in the growth
of the White List of New York retail stores. Factories
had to be investigated each year to see whether they
maintained the required standards; a few had to be
dropped occasionally, new names were added until,
in 1914, we had a list of sixty-eight firms. Some of
these manufacturers turned out 20,000 garments a
day.¹ In 1901, there was such a variety of garments
being sold which bore the Consumers' League label,
that Mrs. Henry B. Sleeper of Worcester, Mas-
sachusetts, conceived the idea of making a collection of
sample garments which could be purchased with the
label attached.
The first exhibition of labelled goods, held in Wor-
cester, created sufficient interest to warrant its being
followed by an exhibition held during three days at the
Women's Educational and Industrial Union of Boston
some months later, after which it was sent to Wellesley
College.
This was but the beginning of a series of exhibits
held all over the country, being sent actually into
1In 1918, the Consumers' League discontinued the use of the White Label.
Legislation in many states, through the pressure of public opinion, had
secured standards even higher than the requirements established by the
League for the use of the label.
The Joint Board of Sanitary Control has recently adopted a "Prosanis
label, which is placed on women's dresses and coats, indicating a high stan-
dard of manufacture.
"
EXPANSION OF THE MOVEMENT
73
twenty-eight states, under the able chairmanship of
Mrs. Charles E. H. Phillips. The exhibit contrasted goods
made in model factories with those made in tenement
sweatshops. The New York League did a large part
of the work in collecting samples of sweatshop goods,
and the Massachusetts League furnished many samples
of labelled underwear.
Placards in the exhibits showed the wages, hours, and
conditions of sweatshop workers, as well as of workers
in factories.
The exhibit of the National Consumers' League was
constantly being enlarged, specimens of foods being
added to the list of garments and fancy articles. One
specimen of so-called strawberry jam was found not to
contain a single strawberry.
I must relate here two incidents which will illustrate
the value that the manufacturers in general placed on
our label. A firm using the White Label called our
attention to the fact that one of his competitors,
whose standards fell far below his, was yet permitted
to use the label and, because of these low standards, was
able to undersell him. We investigated and found that
the firm in question, not having been authorized to use
the label, had forged it. A lawsuit followed, and the
offending firm was forced to abandon the illegally ac-
quired label. Another firm, known all over the world
for its 57 varieties, wrote and asked why, in view of
the fact that their work was done under conditions.
that came up to the required standards of the League,
they should not be permitted to place the label on their
products. The answer was obvious. Though pickles
74
STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
might be as dear to the heart of the American woman
as white underwear, by no stretch of the imagination
could even one of these 57 varieties be construed to come
within the category of the needle trades! Although
we treated this request as a laughing matter and were
obliged to refuse it, the incident gave us a new idea of
the value of the label and of its force in the economic
world. We refused it to "pickles," but the time came
when the placing of our label on a milk bottle was the
means of saving the lives of hundreds of babies.
Two of the local leagues, one in the Middle West and
one in the Far West, used their influence and the power
of their organizations to compel dairymen to raise their
standard of hygiene and sanitation. They conducted
such a spirited and vigorous campaign that they were
able to get the support of the general public. When
dairymen found that the public would only purchase
bottles of milk and cream which bore the Consumers'
League label, they were soon impressed with the im-
portance of cleaning up their dairies and improving
their conditions. In this campaign, the Consumers'
League in one city had the staunch support of one of
the leading newspapers. It published an article stat-
ing that 618 babies less than a year old had died during
the year, and that tuberculous or dirty milk had been
the cause of nearly every death. Because of the
strong public opinion aroused, a city ordinance relating
to the inspection and maintenance of dairies and the
regulation of the sale of milk and cream was passed,
in spite of the opposition of the Dairymen's Association.
Thirteen years later, there were in that city but seven-
EXPANSION OF THE MOVEMENT
75
teen deaths from diarrhoea and enteritis, of infants less
than two years of age.
Another striking and dramatic illustration of the
power of the consumer to change conditions was shown
in another Western city. The telephone girls asked for
higher wages, shorter hours, and better general condi-
tions. The telephone company refused to grant their
demands. The girls then went on strike. The com-
pany secured temporary help from near-by towns.
The newspapers gave publicity to the working condi-
tions of the telephone girls and to their demands.
These demands appealed to the public as being just
and fair. One morning, through concerted action, the
telephone company received notice over the wires from
one subscriber after another that, if the demands of the
telephone girls were not acceded to, the subscriber
wished the telephone removed and the service discon-
tinued. The situation was so startling and unlooked-
for that there could be but one response-the girls were
taken back on their own terms.
Through our investigations of tenement-made gar-
ments in New York we found that not only were
germ-laden garments being widely distributed, but also
certain processes in food products were being carried on,
to the menace of the health of the community, in these
same tenement hovels. Nuts were being picked by
diseased workers and piled on dirty floors; poisonous.
chemicals were being used to colour delectable-looking
candies; ice cream was being made from impure milk
in corroded tins; macaroni was being made in a small
room where the worker's child lay sick with diphtheria.
'76 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
Cellar bakeries, conducted at night in order that fresh
loaves might be sold in the morning, were often used in
winter as warm sleeping quarters, the kneading-boards.
serving as beds for the tired workers. While on one
tour of inspection we even found a cat snugly reposing
on a cushion-like mass of soft dough.
1
Eleven years after, a law was passed prohibiting
cellar bakeries. Three thousand and seventy-seven of
these were still flourishing in New York, and this
number did not include basement bakeries. The legal
differentiation between a cellar bakery and a basement
bakery being that the former is more than half under-
ground and the latter less than half underground.
Committees were formed in the various leagues to
investigate further into the matter of prepared-food
production, and these committees coöperated with
other organizations which were specially interested
in this branch of work. It was found that in New
York City alone there were 1,360,824 pounds of food
seized and condemned within thirteen weeks of the
year 1904.
Up to this time, in the licensing of tenements for
purposes of manufacture, only wearing apparel had
been considered, but, as a result of these investigations,
the New York Labour Commissioner introduced a bill
into the State Legislature which included food prepara-
tions among the articles permitted to be manufactured
only in licensed tenements. It was not until February,
1906, that the United States Senate passed the Heyburn
Pure Food Bill, which aimed to secure to the people of
¹From report of Committee on Region Plan of New York and its environs.
EXPANSION OF THE MOVEMENT
77
the country the prevention of "the manufacture, sale,
or transportation of adulterated or misbranded or
poisonous foods, drugs, medicines, and liquors and
regulate traffic therein."
The relating of our investigations in regard to the
preparation of food products brings me naturally to
the story of restaurant waitresses, who had neither the
protection of the factory laws nor of the mercantile laws.
In 1916, the New York Consumers' League made an in-
tensive study of the conditions under which these girls.
worked. More than a thousand women were inter-
viewed, and it was found that fifty-eight per cent. of
the girls employed in restaurants worked more than
fifty-four hours a week, the legal hours for factories and
stores. There was an extreme case in which a girl of
twenty years of age worked 122 hours a week. Twenty
per cent. worked twelve hours a day and 4 per
cent. were employed at night. One third did not have
one day of rest in seven, and the majority were not
allowed time off for their meals. Work in restaurants,
as in stores, entailed almost continuous standing or
walking, and serving many customers caused nervous
strain. The waitresses began their day at 7 A. M.,
walked many miles during the day, carrying heavy
trays, and reached their homes not earlier than 8 P. M.
Usually, there was laundry work to be done in prepara-
tion for the next day's service.
Based on the findings of our investigation, we de-
manded legislation to protect these girls from exploita-
tion. We carried on a vigorous educational campaign
urging enactment of a measure which, through our
432
78 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
41
initiative, had been introduced. In 1917, the bill
passed both houses and received the Governor's signa-
ture, thus emancipating from a species of industrial
slavery a group of women who, through broken-down
health, would probably have been thrown upon the
community for care.
The method employed by the Consumers' League to
better conditions invariably followed this rule: obtain
facts through investigation, acquaint the public with the
facts, and after educating public opinion, secure legis-
lation. We began by interesting ourselves in sales-
women, we enlarged the scope of our work gradually,
making not only the investigations already cited, but
also in the artificial flower industry, public laundries,
silk factories, telephone operators, and hotel employees.
The National Consumers' League also made a study of
the standard of living of the average factory worker
and saleswoman not living at home.
It also played an important rôle in preparing the
defence to uphold labour laws declared to be uncon-
stitutional. Out of fifteen cases argued before courts of
last resort, there were fourteen decisions favourable to
the Consumers' League. Of these, nine were in regard
to hours of labour. The League had the valuable assist-
ance of Mr. Louis D. Brandeis, who generously gave
his services as counsel to the League until he was ap-
pointed to the bench of the United States Supreme
Court. After that Mr. Felix Frankfurter was equally
generous in contributing his services. Miss Josephine
Goldmark, who was one of the staff of the National
EXPANSION OF THE MOVEMENT
79
League, did magnificent work in preparing the briefs
for the arguments.
The New York League coöperated with the Russell
Sage Foundation in carrying on an investigation of the
cannery industry. Some of the conditions were found
to be deplorable: children under ten years of age shelling
peas at an hour close upon midnight; in one instance,
a little tot had actually fallen asleep with the peapod
clutched in his little hand; abnormally long hours during
short seasons of work, women sometimes working until
4 A. M. and reporting again for work at 8 A. M. the same
day. The canners claimed that it was not possible to
secure enough workers in order to enable them to have
two shifts; they contended that, as their products were
seasonal and perishable, they could do nothing to
shorten hours or lengthen seasons of work. So, when
protective legislation was enacted, certain exceptions
were made in favour of the canning industry. Thus,
rather than allow material for manufacture to deterio-
rate and let the manufacturing interests suffer, women
and children were exploited. Dr. Abraham Jacobi, in
his plea before a committee hearing in the Capitol at
Albany, said sarcastically: "The freshness of the straw-
berry must be preserved, even if the children of the
next generation perish!"
In the investigation of the artificial flower industry
it was found that a large percentage of the workers were
young
Italian children who worked in their homes with
their mothers. They worked before and after school
hours, sometimes late into the night. and also on
80 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
Saturdays and Sundays. Their small fingers could
often shape the flowers less clumsily than their elders
could.
An interesting story is connected with the New York
City League's investigation of public laundries. In
order to obtain accurate information, Carola Woerishof-
fer, one of the Governing Board and also a member of
the Committee on Investigations, gave up a summer
abroad with her mother and took a position, instead,
in a laundry; as soon as she had learned, from personal
experience, what the conditions were in one laundry,
she would leave and secure a position in another. She
found the hours very irregular and often very long;
she worked sometimes seventeen hours in a day, remain-
ing at work occasionally as late as 2 A. M. and returning
at seven o'clock on the same morning. Most of the
work had to be done standing; the washroom floors were
wet and many of the rooms filled with steam. In the
rooms where the machine ironing was done, the heat
was excessive. Dangerous machines were left un-
guarded; wages were low and were paid on a regular
weekly pay-day. If a worker left a laundry before
this pay-day her wages were not given her; she was
obliged to wait for the regular pay-day before receiving
them. This often involved great hardship; not only
was the money needed, but the worker lost valuable
working time in going to collect what was due her.
Too much cannot be said in appreciation of Carola
Woerishoffer's devotion to her ideals of altruism. She
was a Bryn Mawr graduate, a girl whose life had been
surrounded by every comfort and luxury; she had had
EXPANSION OF THE MOVEMENT
81
all the opportunities of education, travel, and culture;
she felt so strongly the call to devote these advantages
to helping others that she deliberately chose, in place
of a summer of pleasure and ease, one of intense heat
and hardship, unlovely surroundings, uncongenial
companionship, and a strain of physical endurance
that nothing but the crusader's spirit that flamed within
her would have enabled her to live through. But she
did live through it, and the detailed report¹ which she
submitted to our Governing Board was the lever that
raised the standards of conditions for this branch of
workers. The League invited the presidents of the
Manhattan and Brooklyn Laundrymen's Associations
to a conference in order to frame a fair standard of re-
quirements for a White List of laundries. This White
List was to include only those laundries which had
guarded machinery, adequate fire protection, proper
sanitary conditions, paid not less than $6 a week (for
employees eighteen years of age or over and who had
had one year's experience), and exacted not more than
ten hours' work a day.2
The zeal of the Governing Board of the New York
City League can be measured by the story of how an-
other member became a factory worker in order to ob-
tain positive knowledge as to the working conditions.
of a certain silk factory. The factory inspector re-
ported that no evidence of violation of law could be
found, yet we had received information to the contrary
'This report was published in collaboration with Edith Wyatt, in McClure's
Magazine, issue of February, 1911.
*See Appendix O for full text of requirements submitted.
82 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVement
from employees. Louise Lockwood volunteered to
secure the evidence. Very early on a cold winter's
morning, dressed in the shabbiest skirt she could find,
in an ill-fitting thin jacket, a tam-o'shanter cap on her
head, no furs, no gloves, she applied for work at the
factory. The manager's sympathies were aroused by
the appearance of this shivering, poorly clad creature,
and she was given a job at once. It did not take this
inexperienced "factory hand" long to discover why the
factory inspector was unable to find any evidence of
violation of law. For when the signal was given that a
factory inspector was about to make the rounds of the
floors, many ingenious ruses were openly employed
to throw dust in the eyes of the credulous inspector.
The factory in question had a very bad reputation
among working girls; the machines were not kept in
good repair and therefore did not turn out a smooth
product; yet whenever there was a flaw in the material
woven, the girls were heavily fined. They were actu-
ally made to pay for a certain amount of goods, although
the goods were not given to them. Because of unfair
treatment and unfair regulations, the firm was unable
to keep employees for any length of time. Perhaps
that was one reason that the manager was only too
glad to employ an applicant who stated frankly that
she was inexperienced. This firm obtained a medal
at the Pan-American Exposition held in Buffalo in 1901.
The display of silks was unusually attractive; the
quality of the goods was admirable, but that a firm
which had been known to have been prosecuted by the
state factory inspector for violation of state laws was
EXPANSION OF THE MOVEMENT
83
permitted to purchase valuable space at the Exposition
and was awarded a medal aroused my indignation.
When I was invited to speak at the New York State
Building in the Exposition Grounds, I took as my
theme the desirability in the future of refusing medals,
and even refusing space at exhibits, to firms who vio-
lated state laws and who were known to treat their
employees unfairly. I pointed out that expositions
were futile and a mere waste of energy and money,
unless it could be shown that the industrial activities
of a nation were carried on in a way to produce, not
only good material, but good citizens as well. Of
what avail was it to boast of the growth of the commerce
and industry of a nation if one could not also be proud
of the progress of working conditions, which enabled
the people of a democracy to live according to a high
standard?
This meeting was attended by many prominent resi-
dents of Buffalo, some of whom became so interested in
the work of the League that other meetings were ar-
ranged, with a view to organizing a Buffalo local
league, and the women managers of the Exposition
tendered a reception in the Woman's Building to the
speakers and members of the New York League.
The Consumers' League of New York was greatly
disappointed at being unable to secure a booth at the
Buffalo Pan-American Exposition. We wanted to
exhibit sweatshop-made articles, showing prices paid,
the working hours, unsanitary conditions, etc., side
by side with an exhibit of the White Label underwear
made in model factories, according to the League's
84
STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
standards of work. We were ready to pay for such
space, but the Director General of the Exposition re-
fused to grant us the space, as some of the exhibitors
protested. They claimed that our exhibit, with silent
eloquence, would emphasize an invidious discrimination.
So we were obliged to content ourselves by merely dis-
tributing pamphlets and leaflets describing the League's
aims and principles. This we were enabled to do from
Wisconsin, Illinois, and Ohio buildings, because of pres-
sure brought to bear by the consumers' leagues of those
states. In the Liberal Arts Building we had the co-
operation of the Wellesley College exhibit, and from
the New York State Building our literature was dis-
tributed on the day of our public meeting. It is a
notable fact that, although the Consumers' League
met with opposition and was refused space for its
exhibit at the Pan-American Exposition, the National
Consumers' League exhibit had been accepted one year
previously at the Paris Exposition and a gold medal
awarded it by the jury. This award had been made
because the League exhibit had shown so clearly and
dramatically what it had accomplished and what it
was aiming to accomplish.
In 1905, when the Liège (Belgium) International
Exposition awarded a gold medal to me as president of
the New York City League, I realized that the award
was a recognition of the work accomplished by the
League I represented. I cite these instances as mark-
ing a strong contrast to the policy of the directors of
the exposition held in our own state.
In 1906, the League sent an exhibit to the Lewis and
EXPANSION OF THE MOVEMENT
85
Clark Exposition in Portland, Oregon. Later on, we
had exhibits at other expositions in our country; at
the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, at St. Louis, we
received Honourable Mention. In 1915, the National
Consumers' League exhibited twenty-one screens at the
Panama-Pacific Exposition held in San Francisco.
The following year the exhibit was shown at the
Southern Sociological Congress. The League also
received a medal for the exhibit shown at the Safety
Exposition, because of its work in having protected
and saved the lives of so many thousands of working
girls. These awards came as a climax to the campaign
of education we had been carrying on for some time,
by installing exhibits wherever opportunity was afforded
us. We placed them in vacant stores, when progres-
sive landlords allowed us to use them while they were
untenanted; we showed the relationship of our work to
tuberculosis by exhibiting at the International Tubercu-
losis Exhibition. Our relation to problems of over-
crowding and of housing was shown by the exhibit
we prepared for the Exhibit of Congestion of Popula-
tion. The New York Consumers' League exhibit
had been sent throughout the state, to schools and
colleges, to county fairs and to conventions of welfare
organizations, and conventions of the Federation of
Labour and of women's clubs. Requests for the exhibit
came from other states, and it was because these re-
quests became so numerous that it was found neces-
sary for the National Consumers' League to have its
own exhibit for interstate and international purposes.
It is a pedagogic truism that knowledge acquired
86 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
through the medium of the eye makes a deeper impres-
sion than knowledge acquired through the medium of
the ear.
But it has only been of recent years that the
public has come to accept this. The Consumers'
League was quick to adopt this new method of teaching.
Lantern slides, exhibits, and moving pictures were
gradually utilized to supplement speeches and distri-
bution of literature. The public conscience was being
quickened, stimulated, and made more sensitive along
many lines. We in America have criticized and con-
demned the system by which the absentee landlord of
England's great landed estates can sit in the House of
Lords and draw his large income from homes on his
estate that are almost uninhabitable. He dispenses his
largesse with a generous hand while his tenants suffer
from leaky roofs and ill-kept drains. Some of the
directors of the National Consumers' League were
startled into a realization that the position of the
stockholder drawing his large income from industrial
dividends with huge "melons" cut semi-annually is
analogous to that of the English landed gentry. These
industrial dividends are frequently all the higher, and
the melons cut all the larger, because of low wages and
unfair working conditions. That the investor, drawing
income from such dividends, has the power vested in
the consumer, can be forcibly illustrated by the follow-
ing incident:
The National Consumers' League received a request
from one of its members asking that it issue a White
List of industrials having their stocks or bonds on the
market. This correspondent pointed out that many
EXPANSION OF THE MOVEMENT
87
people did not wish to invest their money while in
ignorance of the working conditions under which divi-
dends were produced. It was suggested that industries
should be listed by the League in regard to working
hours, wages, sanitary surroundings, heat, light, venti-
lation, etc. The writer of the letter sent a check for
$1,000 as an earnest of his conviction that the Consum-
ers' League was adequate to the task. This incident
sets forth the power of the investor and shows how the
propaganda in the education of public opinion had
brought forth the conviction that, if high standards
were demanded, conditions could be changed.
While the National Consumers' League never pub-
lished a "White List of Industrial Investments," it
considered that its White List of manufacturers using
the label, while limited in scope, served as an index and
opening wedge in this direction. Several instances came
to our notice in which stockholders in large corpora-
tions demanded that standards of working conditions
be raised to the level of Consumers' League princi-
ples. In other instances, those imbued with the ideals
of the League declined to become stockholders in certain
Southern cotton mills, where dividends were high but
working conditions notoriously low.
Into the busy, swirling whirlpool of New York's social
and industrial life an idea was flung-a pebble which
seemed scarcely to ruffle the surface of the current.
Yet it took the usual natural course; in reality, it
plumbed the depths and the resulting circles widened
and ever widened, until at last the opposite shore was
reached.
88 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
From one City Consumers' League to ninety local
leagues; from one State Consumers' League to twenty
state leagues; from one college branch to thirty-five
college and school branches; from one auxiliary Con-
sumers' League to thirty-five auxiliary leagues; from a
National Consumers' League to an International Con-
ference of American and Foreign Consumers' Leagues
was but a natural expansion.
CHAPTER V
FOREIGN EXPANSION
Vivre, c'est acheter; acheter, c'est pouvoir; pouvoir,
c'est devoir. (To live means to buy, to buy means to have
power, to have power means to have duties.)—Maxim of
the First International Conference of Consumers' Leagues.
TH
HE ideals and principles of the Consumers' League
originally came to us from England, but tradition
and conservatism are forces against which it is difficult
to battle, and the League languished in the country
which had given it birth. In 1899, it was practically
non-existent. However, the Women's Industrial Union
of England, an association identical in its aims with
the Working Women's Society of New York, was en-
deavouring to remedy certain abuses in industry. Its
attention had been called to the working conditions
of "shop assistants." Their hours were long, they had
no seats behind counters; the invariable rule which
compelled employees to wear black silk or satin dresses,
the cost of which they were obliged to defray from their
low wages, constituted a hardship. A bill to regulate
these conditions had been introduced into the House of
Commons and had passed that body. When the bill
reached the House of Lords, it was held up, this august
¹Saleswomen in England are termed “shop assistants.”
89
90
STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
body declaring solemnly that if such protection were
given shop assistants, the next step would be a demand
to regulate household service. The committee con-
sidering the bill also claimed that such a bill was not
practical because it was not possible of enforcement.
Miss Clementina Black and other leaders of the Wo-
men's Industrial Union knew that a law protecting
saleswomen had been passed in New York State and
was being enforced. This information was given to
the aforesaid committee. The chairman of the com-
mittee, the Marquis of Salisbury, asked Joseph H.
Choate, who was at that time the United States Am-
bassador at the Court of St. James's, if he could secure
for him a copy of this law and a statement of its working
practicability. Mr. Choate, having no data at hand,
asked Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell, who happened to
be in London at the time, if she had a copy of the Mer-
cantile Law of New York State. He also wanted in-
formation as to the enforcement of the law.
Mrs. Lowell did not have the required data with her
and referred Mr. Choate to me, saying: "If you cannot
procure a copy of the law from Mrs. Nathan, who is
also in London, I fear you will have to send to New
York for it." I was abroad that year, having been in-
vited to address the Quinquennial Congress of the
International Council of Women, which was to be held
in London that spring. I had brought with me vari-
ous data, records, etc., to be used as reference in mak-
ing my address, and a copy of the Mercantile Law was
among these papers. I was very glad to be able to
place it at Mr. Choate's service. The Marquis of
FOREIGN EXPANSION
91
Salisbury, upon asking for further details as to its en-
forcement, was referred to me. I was invited to appear
before the Committee of the House of Lords to state
what I knew as to the feasibility and practical enforce-
ment of this law. I was thrilled at the wonderful op-
portunity that opened before me, I felt the necessity of
presenting my facts well in order to lighten the burden
of the British shop-girl as we had succeeded in easing
it for the New York shop-girl. I felt that the responsi-
bility was tremendous, and perhaps my excitement
and nervousness, added to the fatigue of a strenuous
London season, may have been one of the causes of an
acute attack of tonsillitis which prevented me from
presenting my case personally. However, I wrote a
very full and detailed report, which I sent to the Chair-
man of the Committee. Shortly afterwards I had the
supreme satisfaction of reading in the London Times
that the Shop Assistants' Act had passed in the House of
Lords and was to go into effect the following Septem-
ber. I had the further satisfaction of seeing the Act en-
forced in Glasgow, before I sailed for home. Apropos
of this incident, Mr. Choate, whose epigrams were
famous, said to me: "I congratulate you, madam: you,
an American, are the first woman to have knocked on
the doors of the historic House of Lords and to have
had them opened for you."
I have already referred to the Quinquennial Congress
that was being held in London during the spring of 1899.
This international body was made up of delegates from
national organizations of women throughout the world,
who were interested in educational, social, civic, and eco-
92
STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
nomic problems. The spirit of these conferences, which
were held in different capitals of the Old and New worlds
every five years, was one of mutual helpfulness and edu-
cation along the lines mentioned, with a view of finding a
solution for some of these weighty problems. My ad-
dress, given at an evening session of the convention held
at Westminster Town Hall, was on "The Ethics of
Money-Making and Money-Spending." The meeting
was presided over by Lady Aberdeen, the Marchioness of
Aberdeen and Temair, who was at that time the presi-
dent. I remember that Beatrice Webb also was one of
the speakers at that session. It was a rainy evening,
and I predicted that there would not be many present.
Much to my surprise, when we arrived at the hall, it
was so crowded that the police told us we could not get
in. Only my delegate's badge and the assurance that
I was one of the speakers procured us an entrance.
The overflow crowd was so great that it was decided to
throw open the smaller hall in the same building, and
the speakers were requested to repeat the addresses
there. Mrs. MacDonald presided at the overflow
meeting. As soon as the doors were opened, the seats
were at once filled and the police had the same difficulty
in keeping the crowd outside from overflowing the aisles
-or the gangways, as they are called in England-as
they had had outside of the larger hall. I mention this
to show how much public interest was evinced in the
congress, for even on a rainy evening, when the subjects
for discussion pertained to what was considered a dry
topic-Economics—the crowd was almost unmanage-
able. This crowd was made up, not only of people
1
FOREIGN EXPANSION
93
interested in the congress, and their immediate friends,
but scattered through the throngs were seen many lead-
ing men of affairs. A few years before, men would
have scoffed at the mere suggestion of attending a
women's meeting, but now they came to listen, to
learn, and we hoped to teach. As I stood up to give my
address and looked out over the throng that filled the
vast hall, I could not help but recall that the message I
was bringing from the New World was but the flowering
of the seed that had first been sown in the mother coun-
try, and on being successfully transplanted across the
sea, its growth had not been hampered by traditions
and conventions. Among my listeners was a well-
known French writer, the editor of a French revue; I
think her name was Madame Blanc. She was so im-
pressed with the facts which I presented in the course of
my address, relating to the principles and aims of the
Consumers' League, that she took copious notes and,
translating them into French, published them in her
revue. The following winter the New York Consumers'
League received requests from Paris for our reports,
leaflets, etc. These were translated and published in
the French revue. However, it was not until the
summer of 1903, when I was "taking a cure" at Aix-les-
Bains, that, following a correspondence with Professor
and Madame Jean Brunhes, they decided to visit me,
in order to talk over the feasibility of starting a French
consumers' league. Professor Jean Brunhes occupied a
chair at the University of Fribourg, and he and his wife
travelled for several hours at night in a day coach for
two nights in succession, in order to have a long inter-
94
STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
1
view with me and return to Fribourg the same day.
The interview lasted two and a quarter hours. The
following winter "La Ligue Social ed'Acheteurs"—as the
French league was called-was organized with head-
quarters in Paris. The directors felt that their most
important work lay in regulating the abuses relating to
overtime work and Sunday work in the "établissements
de couturières, modistes, et lingères." "La Ligue Sociale
d'Acheteurs" of Paris issued White Lists (des Listes
Blanches) of those firms which agreed in writing: Ist:
Not to work their employees normally later than 7 P. M.,
and never, even in rush seasons, later than 9 P. M.,
2d: Not to give work to their employees on Sundays.
The League called upon its members, 1st: Not to give
any orders without satisfying themselves that the
carrying out of the orders would not entail overtime or
Sunday work; 2d: to avoid giving orders at the last
moment, especially during rush seasons; 3d: To refuse
all deliveries made after 7 P. M. or on Sundays, so as not
to be indirectly responsible for prolonging the working
hours for delivery clerks, employees, or apprentices;
4th: To pay their bills regularly and promptly.
The American consumers' leagues were called upon to
coöperate with their new French sister league, and
bundles of Listes Blanches were distributed among the
fifty-seven leagues which at that time had been or-
ganized in the United States, so that any members who
contemplated going abroad would know at what es-
tablishments in Paris they could conscientiously pur-
chase their gowns, their hats, and their underwear.
¹See Appendix J for first published list of officers and directors.
FOREIGN EXPANSION
95
These lists were also distributed on some of the trans-
atlantic steamers. It was a well-known fact that much
of the overtime and Sunday work in Paris établissements
was caused by the thoughtlessness of American shop-
pers, who persisted in giving orders within a few days
of their sailing for home. They often insisted upon
having completed in a few days what would take them
as many weeks to have made at home. The Paris
League related that it had received a pathetic letter from
a dressmaker's employee, stating that she and the other
girls were forced to work until midnight to complete a
dress hurriedly for an American lady, and that their
mothers had been distracted when they did not reach.
their homes until I A. M., knowing the danger of Paris
streets at night. Moreover, American women, who,
when at home, would not think of shopping of an eve-
ning or on Sundays, when abroad went, with light hearts,
souvenir-hunting without regard to hours or the custo-
mary day of rest. They did not realize that they were
the means of preventing storekeepers of small stores.
from closing early or from granting even one day of rest
to their employees.
While there is no necessity to enter into the growth
of the French Consumers' League from its beginnings
in Paris until it had twenty-eight branches throughout
France, its inception is an interesting chapter in the
history of our expansion. However, one story which
will illustrate the force of an educated public opinion.
may well be told here. Professor Maurice Deslandres
of the University of Dijon was vice-president of the
French Consumers' League. He awoke one Sunday
96
STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
morning to find that no bread had been delivered in
Dijon that day. There was a strike of bakers' delivery
boys. The boys had felt that it was an imposition not
to have one day of rest a week. The proprietors of
the bakeries protested that because their customers de-
manded freshly baked bread and rolls on Sundays, it
was impossible for them to give the delivery boys a day
off. Professor Deslandres at once began educating
the public at Dijon. He insisted that the boys were
entitled to their one day of rest, and proclaimed that
consumers should demand that their bread for use on
Sundays be baked and delivered on Saturdays. He
suggested that the power and influence of the French
Consumers' League would be behind the striking em-
ployees. So, although there was but a handful of
League members in Dijon, the realization that a body
of well-known men and women was interested in their
welfare was sufficient to enable the boys to win their
strike. The educational campaign led by Professor
Deslandres was the means of arousing public sentiment
to such a degree that a large number of people joined
the League and agreed to have their bread delivered on
Saturdays, or else call at the bakeries for the loaves,
themselves, on Sunday mornings.
Another interesting piece of work accomplished by
the French League was the opening of workrooms for
the benefit of the many working girls who were without
employment during dull seasons. In these workrooms
candle shades were made, lamp shades, and other
articles which did not go out of style quickly. Lace
curtains were repaired, and members of the League
FOREIGN EXPANSION
97
were asked to send their curtains there before leaving
Paris for the summer.
The little seed sown at the convention in London in
the spring of 1899 was destined to reap a further har-
vest. Madame Jean Brunhes spent part of each
year in Switzerland with her husband, therefore, she
was also interested in the welfare of Swiss working girls;
she was the secretary of the French League, and its
most ardent worker, yet she decided to help form a
Swiss league as well. She became the inspiring genius
of both leagues. No one was more zealous, more con-
scientious, more devoted to the cause. Her untimely
death in 1914 was no doubt due to some extent to the
burning up of her stamina and vitality through the
inextinguishable fire of her enthusiasm, and her desire
to abolish unjust conditions for the weak and oppressed.
Truly, those who fight the enemy with shot and shell
in times of war are not the only heroes, and those who
succumb are not the only martyrs. Those who, like
Henriette Brunhes, battle for the right in campaigns
waged between capital and labour, in times of peace,
with many obstacles to overcome, show heroic fortitude,
and when at last their weakened bodies succumb, their
spirits live to inspire others to take up the weapons and
wield them in defence of the cause.
I
The Swiss Consumers' League¹ concerned itself first
with trying to raise the standard of conditions in fac-
tories. It investigated chocolate factories and pub-
lished a list of those where standards of conditions met
with its approval. From the manufactured product
¹See Appendix K for first list of officers and directors.
98
STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
back to the methods employed to secure the cocoa bean
was but a natural step. The Swiss League accom-
plished a wonderful piece of educational work in arous-
ing public opinion in regard to cruelties perpetrated in
the West African Islands of San Thome and Principe
in the employment of slave labour. These islands pro-
duced about one sixth of the world's cocoa crop. The
Swiss League also placed a white label on knitted goods
made in model factories, and asked the coöperation of
other leagues in creating a demand for these garments.
The Swiss League, with headquarters in Berne, suc-
ceeded in organizing ten branch leagues in the various
cantons.
It was at the Quinquennial Convention of the In-
ternational Council of Women, held in Berlin in 1904,
that I gave an address in German on "The Consumers'
League." As a result, I was able to interest a group of
German delegates who realized the necessity of forming
a similar organization in their own country. They
translated our name literally, calling the Association
"Der Liga von Konsumenten," afterwards changed to
"Der Kaüferbund." I went with the leaders of the
movement to visit some of the Berlin department
stores, and the League started its work by trying to
raise standards in all stores to the level of the few which
were placed on its White List. The German League
also endeavoured to abolish child labour in cottage in-
dustries and to regulate these cottage industries in
such a way as to shorten the very long hours of work for
women, and prolong the short working seasons.
See Appendix L for first list of officers and directors.
1
FOREIGN EXPANSION
99
One of the earliest foreign leagues to be formed was
The Dutch Consumers' League,¹ but it was only in ex-
istence a few years.
In 1908 the French League conceived the idea that
it would be mutually helpful to hold an International
Conference of Consumers' Leagues. So the National
Consumers' League of the United States, concurring
in the idea, delegated its general secretary, Mrs.
Florence Kelley, and its first vice-president, myself,
to attend the conference, as the National League's
official representatives. It is interesting to note that,
having decided to hold this conference in Geneva,
Switzerland, the University of Geneva through the cour-
tesy of the Superintendent of Public Education, threw
open wide its doors and invited us to hold our meetings
within its halls. This was in September, 1908. Mon-
sieur Auguste de Morsier, deputy of le Grand Conseil
from the Canton of Vaux, presided at the meetings. At
this conference there were delegates from France,
Switzerland, Germany, England, Belgium, Italy, Aus-
tria, Spain, and the United States. This does not mean
that consumers' leagues had been formed in all the
countries named, but it does mean that there were
groups of people in all these countries sufficiently in-
terested to warrant their sending delegates. From
England the delegates came from the Anti-sweating
League; from Italy came delegates from a consumers'
league which had been organized the previous year
and was still feeble; from Germany came not only dele-
gates from the German Consumers' League but also
¹See Appendix L for first list of officers and directors.
V
100
STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
from the German Home-workers' Union. The keynote
of the Conference was struck by the motto which was
printed on all the literature distributed by the Confer-
ence: "Vivre, c'est acheter; acheter, c'est pouvoir; pouvoir,
c'est devoir."
The National Consumers' League and the League of
New York City coöperated in the preparation of a spe-
cial exhibit which was taken to Geneva for this In-
ternational Conference. We had signs attached to all
the articles showing in three languages the conditions.
under which they had been made in sweatshops and in
approved factories. There were similar exhibits which
had been prepared by the French, Swiss, and German
leagues, and the prices paid the workers for some of
these articles were even lower than those paid in the
United States. This was due to the fact that the cost
of living was lower in those countries. Although our
conference had been preceded earlier in the season by
several other international congresses held in Geneva, it
had the largest attendance of any, and claimed the
largest number of members. Among the distinguished
men and women who took active part in the discussions
were members of the French Academy and of the
French Institute, professors of the College of Social
Science of Paris, professors of the Universities of Paris,
of Dijon, of Rennes, of Fribourg and of Lausanne, mem-
bers of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences,
Counsellor of State and Chief of the Department of
Labour, Paris, one of the inspectors of labour from
Bourg-la-Reine, the vice-president of the Society of
Agriculturists of France, and two members of the
FOREIGN EXPANSION
IOI
Anti-sweating League of London. The Bureau of
Health of the Canton of Geneva officially joined the
congress. At the opening session the chief of the De-
partment of Public Instruction, and the state and ad-
ministrative councillors extended, in the name of the
canton and city of Geneva, a cordial welcome to the
delegates and members of the congress.
Notwithstanding the success of the congress, no
international league was organized, as it was considered
more important that each national league should work
for the betterment of industrial conditions and for the
education of consumers in its own country, along what-
ever lines of reform seemed most desirable. It was
hoped that at some future day, not too distant, we
might succeed in establishing good conditions, good
labour laws, and a high standard of ethics for consumers
in all countries, by helping each other maintain the
highest standard of conditions the world over. We
were widely separated, scattered over two continents,
but with our present commercial relations, with our
great steamship travel, our world newspapers, our sys-
tem of wireless telegraphy and telephony, and our air-
ships, we felt that we were drawing closer and closer
together, and that less than ever ought there to be
any desire to exploit the workers of neighbouring na-
tions.
Resolutions¹ were passed at the Conference, with a
view to promoting the moralization of industry and the
hastening of the day when work would no longer spell
drudgery, darkness, disease, despair for many, but
¹See Appendix M for a free translation of the resolutions passed.
102 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
through enlightenment and progress, would become the
hope, the benefaction, the redemption of humanity.
One of the direct results of the International Con-
ference was the organization of the Belgian Consumers'
League, with headquarters in Antwerp.¹ The guiding
spirits of the Belgian League were: Madame la Baronne
T. Osy de Zegwaart, Madame H. Belpaire, Madame
la Duchesse d'Ursel, and Madame Neuckens. The
League became very active and, early in 1913, sent an
invitation to all the other leagues to meet in conference
in Antwerp a second time the following September.
In response to this invitation Mrs. Kelley and I were
again delegated to represent the National Consumers'
League of the United States. It was felt that these
international conferences gave impetus to the younger
leagues and that all the leagues derived profit from an
interchange of views and experiences. Again Monsieur
de Morsier was elected the presiding officer. There
were representatives from the French League, which, at
that time, was composed of twenty-five sections, the
Swiss League, composed of eleven sections, the German
League, of six sections, and the Belgian League, which
already boasted of four sections. Reports were sent
from leagues in Italy and Spain, which were not finan-
cially strong enough to warrant them in sending dele-
gates. The delegates from the United States again took
an exhibit to the Conference. The public evening
meeting was largely attended. All the speeches were
delivered in French, except one given in Flemish by
a priest. Among the interested listeners were the
¹See Appendix N for published list of Provisional Committee.
FOREIGN EXPANSION
103
Governor of the Province, the Mayor of Antwerp, and
several of the city councillors. Unfortunately, the
following year brought the terrible war which, among
the rest of the havoc, shattered the Belgian League and
rendered its fine work useless. Since then, the world has
been in such a restless state that no further Inter-
national Consumers' League conferences have been
called. In recent years there have been many world
conferences on treaties, on armaments, on the right of
self-determination, on the best means of abolishing
war, but the fundamental economic law of "live and
let live" has not been sufficiently emphasized. This
simple axiom has been the guiding principle of the
Consumers' League idea, and until its force is recognized
by the nations, there must always be the spirit of revolt
which leads to wars. Some philosopher has said that
the key to the solution of all the economic problems of
the day is "to make our personal wants at one with the
supreme good of the entire universe." It is the con-
sumer who holds the key.
CHAPTER VI
PRESENT-DAY CONDITIONS
Nothing is done in which there yet remains something to
be done.
-NAPOLEON.
Nearly all the value of life comes from the esteem in which
we hold our fellow men.
-Shaler.
IN
N MY opening chapter I have tried to show what the
traveller of thirty-five years ago would have seen
upon arriving in New York on a hot Saturday in July or
August. Let us imagine another traveller, a New
Yorker returning to his native city after an absence of
thirty-five years. He, too, arrives on a hot Saturday
in midsummer. What does he find? Driving up the
broad thoroughfare of Fifth Avenue, to him once famous
for its fashionable and exclusive residences, he might
think that he had reached a dead city; at least, a city
dead to the universal need and pastime of womankind
the world over. For the shutters of all the great de-
partment stores, as well as the world-famous specialty
shops, which line the Avenue are drawn tightly, doors
are barricaded, and a strange air of quiet and stillness
pervades the scene. Fifth Avenue, Broadway, and
Sixth Avenue-the great, throbbing, pulsing arteries.
104
PRESENT-DAY CONDITIONS
105
of the city-do not pulsate with life, the same sense of
stillness and calm which pervades a cemetery seems to
hover over these great palatial, sartorial, and artistic
markets which, during five days of the week, are veri-
table beehives of activity.
This strange condition, however, does not signify
that the merchant princes are dead. On the contrary,
it denotes that they are very much alive-alive to the
exigencies of the day; that they have acquiesced in the
demand of the workers for a fuller, richer life, for a life
that includes a week-end in the country during the
heated season; that they have succumbed to the power
wielded by a conscience-awakened and discriminating
public, which recognizes the beneficence of maintaining
high standards in industry as a need of the community.
The apparent death-like inactivity and stillness of the
shopping area of the greatest city in the New World
is in reality but the symbol of an awakened public
conscience which has been the means of procuring for
thousands of nerve-racked beings the opportunity to
refresh their bodies and souls, communing with nature
in God's open spaces. It is but an illustration of the
truism that the symbols of inactivity and death are but
the tokens of greater fulness of life elsewhere. If this
bewildered New Yorker, who found his erstwhile famous
residential Fifth Avenue turned into an equally famous
shopping mart, could have delved a little further into
the causes of the death-like stillness that pervaded it,
he would have found that side by side with the upward
march of business from the lower realms of the city had
stalked the upward trend of business ideals.
106 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
The Consumers' League was not only educating the
purchasing public, its spirit was invading the conscious-
ness of employers as well. No longer were we obliged to
plead for much-needed reforms. Merchants began to
vie with each other in giving more humane attention to
the needs of their employees. In the old days sales-
women thought of vacations with a sense of dread.
They were days without pay. The employers con-
sidered a reduction of the force of clerks a necessary
economy during the dull season, whilst priding them-
selves upon granting a vacation to their employees.
To-day, no self-respecting merchant juggles with his
conscience in this wise. A week's vacation with pay
is the rule in all first-class establishments, and two
weeks with pay are frequently given. The modern mer-
chant considers the welfare of his employees.
A new position has sprung into being: The "Social
Secretary" has been ensconced in some of the stores.
It is difficult to define her duties; she stands in the re-
lation of "Store Mother" to the girls.
In the old days a working girl could feel no assurance
that faithful service and increasing efficiency would re-
ceive their due meed of recognition. As an illustration
of this I may well tell of an incident which came to the
knowledge of the Consumers' League. A department
store, moving into larger and showier quarters, adver-
tised for saleswomen, offering what was then considered
a weekly wage beyond that of its competitors. Many
girls, tempted by the larger salary, left their assured
positions and entered the new establishment. After a
PRESENT-DAY CONDITIONS
107
few weeks, when the éclat incident to the opening of the
new store had subsided, these girls were dismissed and
cheaper labour employed. This was in the middle of
the dull season, when it was difficult to find other em-
ployment, and their former positions had been filled by
others. To-day a young woman entering a mercantile
establishment does so with the reasonable confidence
that "if she makes good" and desires to make this her
life work, she has every opportunity afforded her for
advancement. The progressive merchant of to-day
appreciates the value of efficiency in his business and is
willing to pay for it. He carries this even to the point
of a form of coöperation. A few firms throughout
the country have established profit-sharing and have
inaugurated a policy of self-government. Employees
as well as employers are represented on the Board of
Directors of such establishments.
Those who, in recent years, have secured positions
in any of the large department stores consider them-
selves fortunate, for they are able, without deduc-
tion of salary, to leave the hot, dusty city on a
Friday evening to seek the shelter of green trees in
near-by country resorts; to get a dip in the cool surf of
the ocean, or to nestle under the protecting wing of some
mountain. For department stores as well as all
stores claiming the prestige of being considered first
class-have been closed during July and August from
Friday at 5 P. M. until Monday at 9 A. M. for the last
few years. As in former years, the palatial houses and
apartments are closed for the summer months-their
108 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
owners away: over the seas or at seashore or mountain-
side. Now these vacations have a zest which had been
lacking in the old days, for to-day these dwellers in
luxurious homes, whose wealth and position spell
power, have used this power in order to secure for their
less fortunate neighbours the opportunity for refresh-
ment of body and soul.
It requires no vivid imagination to depict the enor-
mous difference this one portentous fact of a week-end
vacation during two months of the year makes in the
lives of thousands-literally hundreds of thousands-of
working girls. Although I have specially stressed the
benefit of the working girls, it must not be overlooked
that, when an industrial establishment closes its doors
for a week-end holiday, every employee connected with
the business benefits. To-day business men realize
that the benefit of these week-end holidays accrues not
only to the workers, but to their employers, as well; for
the employees bring to their work on Monday morning
a freshness and zest which make for efficiency and
better service. No longer is salesmanship considered
"unskilled labour"; there are schools of salesmanship
in many of the department stores, and wages, although
still low in many stores, considering the rise in the cost
of living, yet are considerably higher than the mini-
mum wage demanded by the Consumers' League in
its first Standard of a Fair House. Thirty-five years
ago it would have been impossible for a society girl to
become a shop-girl without feeling that she had lost
caste; the conditions of her work were such that she
would have been subjected to mortification and humilia-
PRESENT-DAY CONDITIONS
109
tion; the physical strain for one gently bred would have
been unendurable. To-day, young women of good
family and high social position are often found taking
such "jobs" in order to gain experience. Employers
are glad to engage such young women, realizing that
their charm, refinement, and family connections attract
custom. No longer are little children seen trudging
wearily through the stores, answering the constant cry
of "Cash, cash," being paid $1.50 and $2 a week as in
former days; to-day there are mechanical contrivances
installed in the stores which do the work more rapidly
and more economically and efficiently. Legislation
enacted prevents any children under sixteen years of
age from working in stores without a working certi-
ficate, and these certificates are given only to children
between the ages of fourteen and sixteen, and only when
they have had the required amount of schooling.
When youths are employed for errands which cannot
be satisfactorily done by machinery, or for messages
which cannot be transmitted by telephone, continua-
tion schools are conducted in many department stores,
giving these young people opportunity for further edu-
cational advantages. No longer is it necessary to drag
soap boxes up from a cellar and hide them behind a
counter in order to have something to drop upon when
overcome with fatigue; now there are seats behind
counters, attached to the fixtures so that they cannot.
be removed. And no longer do floor-walkers consider
it "unbusinesslike" to have saleswomen seated until a
customer approaches the counter. No longer need a
fainting saleswoman be stretched on a concrete floor of
IIO STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
a sub-basement. To-day, in the leading department
stores, the firms show with pride their fine rest rooms.
(often on the top floor, with open-air loggia on the roof)
including rooms where their employees' teeth can be
attended to by a good dentist, their feet cared for by a
pedicure, a physician's office where they can consult a
good physician, and a trained nurse to care for them if
they feel tired or slightly ill. In some stores there are
basketball, a piano, magazines, papers, and every
luxury. Indeed, such rooms might not unfittingly be
compared with the lounge of a social club. There is
to be found a well-appointed restaurant in charge of a
competent woman where, for a trifling sum, a hot or cold
luncheon may be procured, or a beverage served with
the luncheon brought from home. These luncheons.
need not be gulped down, standing with anxious eye
fixed on a clock, lest the ten or fifteen minutes be ex-
ceeded; to-day there are chairs and tables, and the girls
can enjoy their luncheon leisurely, knowing that they
have from forty-five minutes to an hour for their meal.
Alice in Wonderland could not have been more sur-
prised at some of the things she observed than would
be an investigator of the stores who had visited them
thirty-five years ago, and who saw them a second time
as they are now-such a metamorphosis seems incredi-
ble. Indeed, I had such an "Alice in Wonderland-like"
experience, myself, when Colonel Michael Friedsam,
president of B. Altman & Company, telephoned to
me inviting me to visit their new Fifth Avenue store,
in all its departments, before it was thrown open to the
general public. I accepted the invitation, Colonel
PRESENT-DAY CONDITIONS
III
Friedsam personally escorting me through the splendid
establishment. I was amazed and delighted at what
I was shown. Altman's standards had always been
high, and the firm had been among those on our first
White List, but the present provision for the comfort,
the well-being, the safety of the employees, went far
beyond the most optimistic dreams of the Consumers'
League. The firm had come to recognize the economic
value of the Consumers' League's standards. In asking
me, as the president of the League, to inspect the
rooms set aside for the comfort and welfare of the
employees, it was with the expressed desire for criticism
and suggestion. We felt that this was a high tribute
to our years of effort, and I am glad of this opportun-
ity to acknowledge our appreciation. It was a further
satisfaction to receive a letter from this firm on the
occasion of the New York League's twenty-fifth anni-
versary dinner, requesting the privilege of participating,
and asking that a table for ten covers be reserved in
the name of the firm. To those of us who remembered
the way in which our organization was met in the early
days by some of the well-known retail establishments,
and the fateful prophecies uttered, this generous rec-
ognition of our work came to us as a triumph, and
seemed a fitting climax to our twenty-five years of
effort.
It is not only the retail firms that have felt the im-
petus directed by the Consumers' League for better
working conditions for employees. Manufacturers
also have responded to the new attitude towards those
who turn the wheels and tend the machines of their
112 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
!
industries. The trade unions have played their part
to accomplish this. I recall having heard the story of
what has been termed the first working girls' strike in
our country. In a certain factory the "hands" worked
during an excessively hot summer in the loft of a build-
ing where the sun's rays beat upon the roof and
streamed through the shutterless windows. The girls
pleaded for awnings or for some protection from the
intense heat. None was given. One girl after another
was overcome by the sizzling atmosphere, became ill,
and was obliged to lose some days' work, which meant
loss of pay as well. Finally, the girls all agreed to stop
work at the same hour, march out of the factory, and
refuse to return until awnings had been put up at the
windows. The factory owner then realized that through
stalled machinery he would lose more than the awnings
would cost, so he yielded, grudgingly, to the demands of
his workers.
K
To-day, it is a cause for rejoicing that it would be
almost impossible to find a parallel situation. Our
factories are not all model factories with the gardens.
and playgrounds which surround so many of them, but
manufacturers do feel a sense of responsibility and duty
towards their employees. An effort is made through-
out the country to provide good working conditions
even beyond those required by law and exacted by
trade unions.
The experience of the Consumers' League of New
York City led it to realize that factory inspectors should
have preliminary training for their work. Through its
influence there has been established at Columbia Uni-
PRESENT-DAY CONDITIONS
113
versity a course of study, and the executive secretary
of the New York League has been appointed instructor
of this branch of the Economic Extension Department
-the course for labour inspectors. During the first
term the students represented eight states of the
Union, which clearly shows the widespread demand for
experts.
When the Consumers' League began its campaign
for early Christmas shopping, we sometimes met
women who said: "Oh! my few purchases cannot
exhaust or break down the health of the shop-girls;
besides, I never can determine upon the choice of gifts
until I feel the Christmas spirit!" But to-day one
woman's club after another has adopted the League's
slogan of "Do your Christmas shopping early!" and at
the meeting held the first week in December, the presi-
dent of the club often calls on all those members pres-
ent to rise if they have finished their Christmas shop-
ping. No member wishes to hurt the reputation of her
club by being delinquent, so the individual members
have developed the group conscience, and most of these
organizations stand as a unit for early Christmas shop-
ping, the various clubs vying with one another in pro-
claiming their civic virtue. In some of our large
cities the traction car companies display on their cars.
conspicuous placards urging early Christmas shopping.
These placards appear immediately after Thanksgiving
Day. They are a reminder which cannot be over-
looked. These cars running into far-outlying suburbs.
carry their message to the less alert members of the
communities. No longer do shoppers feel that they
114 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
must wait until the last hurried days before the holi-
day. To-day early Christmas shopping is recognized
as an integral part of the ethics of the mercantile
world, by both merchant and consumer. Each year
holiday goods are displayed earlier and earlier to meet
an ever-increasingly early demand.
It was to us a great source of satisfaction that our
point of view became eventually the point of view of
our great public carriers-the express companies and the
post-office authorities. I have pointed out how, in
former days, men were overworked delivering packages
during abnormally long hours on the last days of the
Christmas holiday season. Our educational campaign
asking members, not only to shop early in the season,
but also to send their packages well in advance, was
taken up later by the express companies in a wide-
spread plea to the general public, with the warning
that they could not guarantee delivery of parcels if not
sent at an early day. They even supplied customers with
"stickers"-"Do not open before Christmas"-to place
on packages, giving them gratis, as an inducement to send
such packages weeks ahead. When the Consumers'
League first appealed to Uncle Sam to allow senders of
parcel-post packages to write this plea -"Do not open
before Christmas"-on parcels sent in advance of the
holiday, it was contended that such an inscription
would necessitate sending the package by first-class
mail at an extra cost. Later, however, another ruling
was obtained, and the following notice was placed, in
1924, in all the city post offices, and as early as Novem-
ber 10th:
PRESENT-DAY CONDITIONS
115

CHRISTMAS
MAIL!
Cards-Parcels-Letters
SHOP
and NOW
MAIL
WRAP PARCELS SECURELY
Address all mail plainly-include street and number
SUPPLY RETURN ADDRESS
Mail may be marked "NOT TO BE OPENED UNTIL
CHRISTMAS”
Postmaster please place conspicuously
JOHN H. BARTLETT
First Assistant Postmaster General.
HARRY S. NEW
Postmaster General.
The Post Office Department realized that efficiency
was gained by avoiding the swamping of the Post
Office by enormous quantities of mail pouring in during
a period of a few days a week at the most. It had
always been necessary to employ extra service or pay
extra for overtime work, so the new régime of handling
this mail over a period of several weeks, rather than
having it concentrated within a few days, has resulted
in economy as well as efficiency. The demand to-day
for these "stickers"-"Do not open before Christ-
116 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
mas"-is so widespread that a well-known manufac-
turing company makes a specialty of fancy labels and
tags to meet this demand.
It is only a few years ago that the Post Office ad-
vertised that there would be extra deliveries on Christ-
mas Day, in order to facilitate the distribution of
Christmas mail. To-day the postmaster advertises:
No mail will be delivered on Christmas Day.
The Post Office is not the only department of the
United States Government that has recognized the
standards of the Consumers' League. In 1917, Hon.
Newton D. Baker was president of the National Con-
sumers' League. He was at that time in President
Wilson's Cabinet, serving as Secretary of War. When
the United States was forced into the great conflict,
Secretary Baker was determined that the War Depart-
ment should not repeat the mistakes in regard to the
making of uniforms that it had made during the time.
of the Spanish-American War of 1898. The uniforms.
at that time were given out under the contract system
and made in sweatshops. Disease among the soldiers
was traced to this fact. During the recent war, Secre-
tary Baker appointed a committee of three (one of
them being the General Secretary of the National
Consumers' League) to study and control conditions.
governing the manufacture of army uniforms. The
Committee was created in order to uphold and maintain
the industrial standards which had been established
by the Consumers' League. Secretary Baker knew the
dire results that would follow the lowering of stand-
ards, even during such a crisis. He had the rare vision
PRESENT-DAY CONDITIONS
117
which led him to insist that the high standards endorsed
by the League should be maintained in regard to the
work done under his department for the Government.
It is also interesting to note that the United States
Government, during the war, adopted the Christmas
early-shopping idea, originated by the Consumers'
League of the City of New York. By the use of enor-
mous billboards and other signs, it requested people to
shop early as a measure of industrial adjustment.
A
Again the Consumers' League, in conjunction with
the Child Labour Committee, influenced Uncle Sam.
The pressure these two organizations brought to bear
in the interest of child welfare resulted in the establish-
ment of the Federal Children's Bureau in Washington
with Julia Lathrop in charge. Ida Clyde Clarke says
that "Uncle Sam needs a wife." In the Consumers'
League he has found a suggestive and useful helpmate.
It is interesting to note the authoritative status of the
League's publications. Because of many requests
received, the Consumers' League of New York has sent
its reports to the Department of Economics of the
leading universities. Three of the publications of the
National League have been included in the curricula
of some of the leading colleges in our country. Two
of the annual reports of the National League have been
published as a supplement to the annals of the American
Academy of Political and Social Science.
The fundamental idea of the Consumers' League was
to arouse a public conscience, with a view to creating
a public opinion that would become a dynamic force
for good in the community. We started the movement
118 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
with zeal and enthusiasm to correct certain specific
evils which had been brought to our attention. But
not one of that small group of women who started the
movement dreamed of the enormous power that they
were setting in motion. We educated merchants to
see the wisdom of granting vacations. If working
girls were to have vacations, where were these vacations
to be spent? The vacation houses which have sprung
up all over the country, by sea, by lake, by mountain-
side, are the answer to this question.
We educated merchants to demand efficiency and
skill. If efficiency and skill are demanded in industry,
where are the workers to obtain the necessary comfort
and seclusion which would give them the rest and re-
freshment for the next day's work? Like magic,
working girls' hotels have been founded to meet this
new need. In New York, the Association to Promote
Proper Housing for Girls has made a special study of
this problem, inaugurating community clubs for the
girls.
While the Consumers' League has been responsible
for pioneer work in many directions, it has always been
glad to have other organizations formed for the purpose
of carrying on any special piece of work. In this way,
an influential group of men and women formed the
National Child Labour Association, with branches in
several states, in order to concentrate on the abolition
of child labour. Another group of men and women
organized to promote legislation looking towards the
furtherance of better labour conditions-the Associa-
tion for Labour Legislation. A third group, consisting
PRESENT-DAY CONDITIONS
119
of well-known captains of industry and labour leaders,
coöperated under the name of the Civic Federation,
with the view to a better understanding between capital
and labour and to further their common interests.
We aroused the federations of women's clubs and the
woman suffrage organizations to the importance of
appointing committees on the industry of women and
children, to study local conditions, and to coöperate
with the Consumers' League in our work to better these
conditions.
It has been left for me to tell the story of the Con-
sumers' League. In looking back over the thirty-
six years that have passed since the movement was
first started, I am impressed with the entire change of
attitude of mind of all the constituents that form the
industrial world. I do not claim for the Consumers'
League credit for the many remedial agencies organized,
or for all the welfare legislation enacted; but I do feel
that I am not claiming too much in asserting that to the
Consumers' League must be paid the tribute of having
aroused a dormant public conscience. It has made
clear a sense of personal responsibility in the economic
world, and it has created and crystallized a public
opinion in the community which makes for high stand-
ards. Because of this, I feel justified in calling it an
epoch-making movement.
!
CHAPTER VII
LOOKING FORWARD
One who never turned his back but marched breast forward,
Never doubted clouds would break,
Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph,
Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, sleep to wake.
No, at noonday in the bustle of man's work-time
Greet the unseen with a cheer!
<<
Bid him forward, breast and back as either should be,
'Strive and thrive," cry "Speed,—fight on, fare ever
There as here."
-Browning.
N THE previous chapters I have shown how the
Consumers' League idea came into being, how it was
nurtured, and how it developed and expanded. Has
this expansion reached its peak? No movement can
stand still; it must either go forwards or go backwards.
If it remains static, it is no longer a movement. It
would seem wise to determine, first of all, whether
there be any reason for the further development of the
fundamental principle of the Consumers' League idea.
Has the Consumers' League done the work that it set
out to do, and is there any special work now to be done
which could not just as well be undertaken by some
other organization or group of persons? In what way
does the Consumers' League differ from the ever-
increasingly lengthy list of educational, philanthropic,
120
LOOKING FORWARD
121
or social organizations? It seems to me that no other
association has awakened the dormant sense of re-
sponsibility in the individual as has the Consumers'
League, and the quickening of this individual conscience
has developed the group conscience. It is only through
this group conscience that wrongs can be righted and
that industrial conditions can be changed.
If this be true, then the work of the Consumers'
League is peculiar to itself and is but in its infancy;
its potential power has no limit. Other organizations
are created in order to reach a specific goal, whether
it be the establishment of a church, a school, a hospital,
a community centre, or to accomplish some remedial
or welfare work. The goal of the Consumers' League
is deeper than this. Primarily, it fosters spiritual
growth. It is the affirmative answer to the question,
Am I my brother's keeper?"
As I look back upon the former exploitation of
children and of young girls in industry, I am amazed
at the progress that has been made in our country
within a half century. The problems of child labour,
the low wage, and the long working day are still to be
wrestled with in certain sections of our country; though,
as compared with conditions thirty-five years ago, the
standard has been raised. The "truck system" has
been abolished; child labour has been lessened; the
number of sweatshops has been diminished; the forty-
eight-hour week is gradually becoming the standard;
the standards of the week-end holiday and of vacations
with pay have been established. It cannot be said
that there is no more work to be done. There are
122
STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
still many abuses to be righted, still many evils to
overcome. But the public has had its dormant con-
science aroused and is alert to aid in improving working
conditions.
As I review the past and envisage the future, it ap-
pears clear to me that the force of the Consumers'
League idea is yet to be felt in the economic world.
In the solving of industrial problems, there must be a
triple alliance. Heretofore, there have been usually
but two factors considered-labour and capital. To
these there must be added the third-the consumer.
The consumer has a wonderful opportunity to influence
human relations in industry. When the small store
was tended by the owner and by one or two assistants,
usually members of the family, this human relationship
was not lacking. When the department store replaced
the small store, and large armies of clerks were employed,
this personal relationship between employer and em-
ployee was lost. In the same way, when machinery
replaced hand work, and factories grew to enormous
proportions, the old personal relationship ceased.
Those who tended the machines were considered as
part of the machinery and were treated accordingly.
It is only comparatively recently that capital has
realized that this former personal relationship must
be restored. Not only in order to raise standards of
conditions for employees and make their lives less sordid
and gray, but also because such personal intercourse is
bound to make for better understanding and consequent
better workmanship, resulting in greater efficiency.
Many industrial corporations have been experiment-
LOOKING FORWARD
123
ing with various plans to secure the point of view of
their employees, in order to obtain these results.
One such notable experiment has been made by the
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. This experiment might
be said to mark an epoch in industrial progress. This
corporation has recognized the trinity of Capital,
Labour, and the Public in its effort to bring into har-
mony the rights of these three factors. What are
these rights? Capital has a right to demand a fair
return for its investment of money. Labour has a
right to demand a fair wage, good working conditions,
and a voice in the control of those conditions, in return
for its investment of time and strength used in helping
to build up the industry. The public or the consumer
has the right to demand good service at a reasonable
rate in return for its investment in taxes, confidence,
and good will, through which it creates the market for
the industrial output.
The president of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, Mr.
Daniel Willard,¹ does not hesitate to express his satis-
faction with the plan developed by that company.
The plan of coöperation gives equal consideration to
capital, labour, and the public. In an address given
by Mr. Willard on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee
celebration of the city of Garrett, Indiana, in October,
1924, he said:
¹It is interesting to recall the fact that, at a dinner attended by the mem-
bers of the Council of the National Institute of Social Sciences, as guests
of Mr. Austin Fletcher, in 1921, I had the privilege of sitting next to Mr.
Willard. We discussed the Consumers' League movement, and he asked
me to send him the League literature. I did so and received a letter from
him thanking me for the pamphlets which he found most interesting.
124 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVement
I feel certain that the friendly and sympathetic efforts of both
parties will suggest new methods and new practices that will not
only make for economy and thereby enable the railroad to pay good
wages, and at the same time maintain satisfactory working condi-
tions, but will also contribute towards giving to the public the lower
rates for transportation service, which they desire.
First
of all, it is our duty
to give the public “adequate service
at reasonable rates."
Another notable experiment, but in an entirely
different field of industry, has been made by a well-
known Boston firm: William Filene's Sons. In this
instance, it was also sought to reconcile the divergent
points of view of the employer, the employee, and the
consumer. In the firm's plan of coöperation a special
board of arbitration was formed, consisting of a repre-
sentative of the management, a representative of the
workers, with a third member elected by these two,
this third member to represent the public or consumer.
These instances are merely typical of the new trend
of thought in modern industry that is gradually making
itself felt and becoming with increasing force the ac-
cepted standard.
To those interested in economic problems these
facts are most encouraging. They are the index fingers
that point the way to a better time coming.
To my self-imposed query, "Has the Consumers'
League reached its peak?" my answer is: The work of
the Consumers' League will never be fully accomplished.
It is an educational work which, in its very nature,
must be progressive. The League must continue to
encourage consumers to throw their weight and power
constantly on the side of justice and fairness. Consumers
LOOKING FORWARD
125
must recognize their own power and, through the force
of public opinion, must not only insist upon high stan-
dards in industry, on the part of both capital and
labour, but must maintain their own rights in regard to
good service, free from the exploitation of either of the
other two factors. At the risk of repetition, I feel
that it cannot be too strongly emphasized that the
rights of consumers are to be respected equally with the
rights of capitalists and workers.
The consumer is the lever which controls the bal-
ancing rod of the two great forces in the industrial world.
As the consumer throws the weight of public opinion
to the one side or the other, such force is weakened
or strengthened accordingly. When a point of issue
arises between these two forces, which must of necessity
affect the well-being of the public, it is then that the
consumers must wield their power and refuse to be
victimized. They must insist upon conciliation and
arbitration.
The public complains when it is inconvenienced
through the deprivation of the necessities of life, as,
for instance, coal, milk, transportation, when a conflict.
of opinion arises between employer and employee.
The public complains, but what does the public do?
Nothing. The public is supine, it is patient and long-
suffering; it waits upon the exhaustion of one side or
the other to remedy its condition.
When consumers organize, as capital and labour have
organized, their power will be greater than either of the
other two forces. The consumer will then be in a
position to dictate terms.
P
126 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
Professor Gide has said, "The consumer is king in the
economic world." He can be more than king, he can
be dictator. This dictator need not be arbitrary, he
can be fair-minded and beneficent, coöperating with
labour and capital in such manner as to bring about the
complete democratization of the economic world.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Since my manuscript has been in the hands of the
publishers, Dr. Edward T. Devine's book on coal has
been published. I have been interested to notice that
this well-known authority on economics has stressed
the point that forms the very cornerstone of the Con-
sumers' League idea.
The American Review Service Press in calling atten-
tion to the book, brings out this fact so clearly that I
consider that it adds to the force of my own book to
quote the following paragraph:
Doctor Devine points out in "Coal"-the Consumers more
than any other class must bear the responsibility of settling the
coal problem. Consumers must be educated regarding the proper
production, marketing, and distribution of coal-Consumers must
coöperate to prevent wastes, to minimize accidents in the industry,
and maintain peace between operators and miners.
In other words, it's up to us (THE CONSUMERS). And why not?
We CONSUMERS pay the bill!
APPENDICES
APPENDIX A
Extracts from the Report of Alice Woodbridge, read
at the Meeting of the Working Women's Society, in 1890.
First: We find the hours are often excessive, and
employees are not paid for overtime.
Second: We find they work under unwholesome
sanitary conditions.
Third: We find numbers of children under age em-
ployed for excessive hours, and at work far beyond
their strength.
Fourth: We find that long and faithful service does
not meet with consideration; on the contrary, service
for a certain number of years is a reason for dismissal.
It has become the rule in some stores not to keep any
one over five years, fearing that the employees may
think they have a claim upon the firm, or, in other
words, that they will expect to have their salaries raised.
Fifth: The wages, which are low, are often reduced
by excessive fines.
Sixth: We find the law requiring seats for saleswomen
generally ignored; in a few places, one seat is provided
at a counter where fifteen girls are employed; and in
one store, seats are provided and saleswomen fined if
found sitting.
In all our inquiries in regard to sanitary conditions
and long hours of standing and the effect upon the
129
130 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEment
health, the invariable reply is that, after two years,
the strongest suffer injury.
APPENDIX B
Statement Issued by the Association Organized in
London in 1890
This association is an attempt on the part of persons
who are themselves buyers, to make it easier for buyers,
who wish to do so, to avoid injustice in their dealings.
We recognize that each of us is responsible for the con-
ditions under which work done for us is done, and that
the employer is virtually powerless to improve these
conditions so long as the customer persists in buying
in the cheapest market, regardless of how cheapness is
brought about.
But no buyer has time to find out for himself what the
conditions actually are under which those things which
he purchases are made. He needs a sort of register
similar to the list of "fair houses" published by some
trade unions. This register should be the result of
systematic inquiry, should be easily accessible, should
be constantly kept up to date, and should contain the
names of those employers only whose workers are
proved to be receiving fair payment, and to be working
under fair conditions.
To draw up such a register is one of the purposes of
the proposed Consumers' League.
We shall appeal to employers to allow inquiry into
the conditions of their work people, and we believe
there are many who would gladly help to make public
APPENDIX C
131
the actual conditions in their trade. We shall be ready
to include in our list any employer who desires to be
placed upon it, and who, after investigation, is found to
fulfill the required conditions.
We are well aware that the task before us is a large
and difficult one. We are taking it up in no spirit of
animosity towards any class, and shall be always anx-
ious to rectify any errors which are shown to us.
Whether we succeed or not in doing any real good
will depend upon the number of buyers who show their
wish to deal justly by joining themselves to us, and
giving their custom to those whose names appear on our
lists.
We are asserting, in regard to individual buyers, the
principle which has already been asserted in regard to
corporate bodies by the London School Board, the
London County Council, and many other public bodies,
that not the lowest wage, but a fair wage, should be
paid. We believe that the great majority of our fellow
citizens desire to carry out this principle, if they could
but see a way of doing so. To show them such a way
is the object of this association.
APPENDIX C
List of Incorporators of The Consumers' League of
the City of New York
Maud Nathan (Mrs. Frederick Nathan)
Margaret B. Dewees (Mrs. H. M. Dewees)
Annie Stone
Louise S. Caldwell
Josephine Shaw Lowell
132 STORY OF AN EPOCH-Making Movement
APPENDIX D
List of Officers and of the Advisory Board of the
Consumers' League of the City of New York, 1891.
President: Mrs. Charles Russell Lowell
Treasurer: Mrs. Charles A. Spofford
Recording Secretary: Miss Louise Caldwell
Corresponding Secretary: Mrs. Robert V. McKim
Advisory Board
Mrs. Lyman Abbott
Mrs. Mornay Williams
Miss Mary E. Vinton
Miss Louise Caldwell
Dr. Rosa Welt Straus
Miss Margaret Finn
Miss Lenora Smith
Mrs. Charles A. Spofford
Mrs. Charles R. Lowell
Vice-Presidents
Mrs. Edward Lauterbach
Mrs. D. M. Stimson
Mrs. F. C. Barlow
Miss F. J. Pomeroy
Miss Annie Stone
Mrs. Helen Campbell
Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi
Mrs. Frederick Nathan
Mrs. Richard Irvin
Miss Louise Watson Clarke
Mrs. H. Ollesheimer
APPENDIX E
133
List of Members of the First Governing Board of the
Consumers' League of the City of New York, from the
Report Published in 1895.
President: Mrs. Charles Russell Lowell
Treasurer: Miss A. Stone
Recording Secretary: Miss Caldwell
Corresponding Secretary: Miss F. J. Pomeroy
Mrs. George F. Canfield
Mrs. H. M. Dewees
Mrs. Bolton Hall
Mrs. Harmon D. Hull
Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi
Mrs. Edward Lauterbach
Mrs. Seth Low
Dr. Dorothea Lummis
Miss Mary Lusk
Miss Edith Minturn
Miss S. A. Moller
Mrs. Frederick Nathan
Mrs. Emmett R. Olcott
Miss M. Slade
Mrs. C. A. Spofford
Miss H. P. Stokes
Mrs. C. W. Watson
Mrs. G. C. Wilde
APPENDIX E
Extract from the Message of Governor Theodore
Roosevelt, Published in the Report of the Consumers'
League of New York, 1898
The development in extent and variety of industries
has necessitated legislation in the interest of labour. . . .
At present the enforcement of the law regulating
the hours of labour of minors under fourteen years of
age and of women employed in mercantile establish-
ments, and the sanitary condition of stores and build-
ings used for similar purposes in large cities, is left to
Madag
134 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
}
the Board of Health. If the city government fails to
furnish the proper appropriation and appoint the
necessary officers to carry out the law, as is at present
the case in New York City, it is practically a dead
letter.
In various trades the relations between labour and
capital have frequently been adjusted to the advantage
of both by conferences between intelligent employers
and reasonable workingmen. Such mutual under-
standing is in the highest degree desirable; it promotes
industrial peace and general prosperity. Where dis-
turbance exists, and before it has gone too far, the
Board of Mediation and Arbitration should seek to
secure a fair settlement of the difficulties and a re-
establishment of harmonious relations. It should also
constantly endeavour to promote the extension of in-
telligent methods of settlement of labour disputes,
so that, through the recognition by each party of the
just rights of the other, strikes and lockouts may yield
to wiser and more peaceful measures.
In order that the desire of the people, definitely
expressed in this wholesome legislation, shall be made
effective, I recommend that the enforcement of the
entire body of legislation relating to labour be placed
under the Board of Factory Inspectors. This would
simplify the whole question of labour legislation and
place the responsibility for its enforcement where it
properly belongs, and would also give the maximum
efficiency of service with the minimum cost to the
state. With a slight increase in the general force of
factory inspectors, this work can be done for the whole
APPENDIX E
135
state, and the object of the legislation be satisfactorily
secured to the people. I recommend that the Legisla
ture provide for additional factory inspectors, so as to
bring the total number up to fifty, and also that the
Governor be empowered to appoint unsalaried dep-
uties.
Another very important phase of this subject is the
sweatshop system, which is practically the conversion
of the poorest class of living apartments into unwhole-
some, pest-creating, and crime-breeding workshops.
Laws have been enacted by the Legislature to suppress
this vile phase of industrial life in our large cities by
prohibiting the use of dwellings for the purposes of
manufacture. Although the law is quite explicit, and
the intention of the Legislature obvious, great difficulty
has been experienced in its effective enforcement. It
is everywhere agreed that this tenement-house, or
"sweatshop" system is degrading to the unfortunate
individuals engaged in it, and to the social and moral
life of the community in which it exists. How to en-
force the law on this subject has perplexed the states-
men of other countries and states as well as our own.
The most effective and uninquisitive means yet
devised for accomplishing this end is that recently
adopted by Massachusetts, viz.: providing that build-
ings used for manufacturing purposes must have a
permit or license, such license or permit to be granted
only on condition that the appointments of the building
fulfill the requirements of the law for manufacturing
purposes. These permits or licenses ought to be granted
by the Board of Factory Inspectors, who should be held
$
[
136 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
responsible for the proper inspection of the buildings
and the enforcement of the law.
There are several reasons why this simple method
would be effective. It would at once classify buildings
used for manufacturing purposes, as a building so
used without a permit would be violating the law.
It would prevent much friction, because all require-
ments of the law would have to be fulfilled before the
building was used. This would be a great advantage
in the erection of new buildings, as proper conveniences,
including accessible fire escapes, guarded elevators,
and other appointments would be required and easily
furnished when new buildings were being erected or
when old ones were being changed for manufacturing
purposes. Nor does this involve any radical innova-
tion. It is simply applying the recognized principle
upon which Boards of Health now everywhere act in
requiring that the plans for erecting new buildings or
alterations of old ones must be submitted to the Build-
ing and Health Department, and a certificate of ap-
proval granted, before the building can be erected,
alterations made, or the premises occupied. Legiti-
mate manufacturers will not object to this, because
they are desirous of furnishing safe and wholesome
appointments for their employees. Only those who
desire to evade the law and disregard the common
demands of sanitation, domestic decency, and whole-
some industrial methods will object, and it is these the
law desires to reach.
I submit this to the serious consideration of the
Legislature, and suggest that an amendment to the
APPENDIX F
137
law embodying this idea be adopted, to the end that
the uneconomic, unwholesome, and un-American sweat-
shop system shall disappear from our industrial life.
APPENDIX F
First Published List of Officers and of the Executive
Committee of the National Consumers' League
Officers
President: Mr. John Graham Brooks, 8 Francis Avenue,
Cambridge, Mass.
Ist Vice-President: Mr. Robert H. Gardiner, 1 Joy
Street, Boston, Mass.
2d Vice-President: Mrs. Charles Henrotin, 65 Bellevue
Place, Chicago, Illinois.
Treasurer: Mr. John Seely Ward, 1 Broadway, New
York City.
Recording Secretary: Miss Watmough, Pelham, Pa.
Corresponding Secretary: Mrs. Florence Kelley, 105
East Twenty-second Street, New York City
Honorary Vice-Presidents
Pres. Arthur T. Hadley, Yale University
Prof. W. J. Ashley, Harvard University
Prof. E. R. A. Seligman, Columbia University
Prof. J. W. Jenks, Cornell University
Prof. H. C. Adams, University of Michigan
Prof. C. R. Henderson, University of Chicago
Prof. S. McCune Lindsay, University of Pennsylvania
138 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
Executive Committee
Mrs. Frederick Nathan, 162 West Eighty-sixth Street,
New York City
Mrs. V. Simkhovitch, 248 East Thirty-fourth Street,
New York City
Miss Helen M. Starr, 103 Cliveden Avenue, German-
town, Pa.
Miss Juliette Wall, 1509 Ridge Avenue, Evanston, Ill.
APPENDIX G
Reports of the State Consumers' Leagues
The following reports of the various State Consumers'
Leagues have of necessity been condensed, yet in no
instance has any important piece of work been omitted.
It has been my endeavour to let each local group tell
its own story as far as possible, thus emphasizing the
special need of its particular locality. Each league
has had its own obstacles to overcome, its own special
weaknesses to conquer.
It has been difficult to vary these histories. Each
league has necessarily undertaken approximately the
same plan of work: investigations, publicity of facts,
education of consumers, arousing of public opinion,
campaigns for enactment of legislation and law en-
forcement. Some of the leagues have ceased to func-
tion. This does not necessarily mean that the com-
munity has lost its interest: it may be that the work
APPENDIX G
139
has been taken over by official bodies or by other organ-
izations. There has been a noticeable lack of self-
seeking on the part of the leaders of the Consumers'
League movement. The spirit that has guided and
hovered over them all has been one which might well
be emulated by every association, educational, philan-
thropic, or social in character.
In mentioning the names of some of the leaders,
there has been no desire on my part to make any invid-
ious distinctions. It has happened that the work of
these particular women has been brought to my special
attention. It has, therefore, been a pleasure to accord
to them the recognition which is their due. There are
doubtless many others who are equally deserving of
being included in this list of honour, but their work
has been of such a character that their identity has
been lost. I would like, nevertheless, to pay my
tribute to these unknown soldiers without whose
staunch and faithful help our industrial battles could
not have been won. In the winning of these battles,
I am glad to record the valuable coöperation of many
merchants and manufacturers. The merchant or
manufacturer may be as public-spirited as the social
worker, but he is often as much the victim of a perni-
cious system as is the submerged worker. It cannot be
said too often that an indifferent, selfish, exacting public
is in reality responsible for evil conditions. Nor must
it be forgotten that the "public" is made up of in-
dividual units. As Professor Smart well says: "We
can all clear up our own little corner of creation." In
140 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
the clearing up of these little corners, it is significant
to find that the work of the Consumers' League has
been twofold. It was organized primarily in order to
enrich the life of the working girl, whose daily grind
seemed unnecessarily monotonous and nerve-racking,
and whose outlook on life was gray and narrow. It
was undertaken so that she might enjoy the fruits of
her labour, experience more deeply the fullness of life.
Yet the Consumers' League workers were uplifted
from depths of ignorance and selfishness in which they
had previously been unwittingly plunged, and they
experienced a sense of exaltation and inspiration from
the work.
The chairman of an important committee of the
National Consumers' League once confided to me that
the principles and aims of the League had become for
her the solace and religion of her life. The Consumers'
League has in reality been even more beneficial to
the so-called "idle rich" than to the industrious poor.
Understanding and sympathy are prerequisites in
order to bring contentment and peace to a world of
strife and turmoil.
Dr. Richard Ely of the University of Wisconsin
begins his opening chapter on "Studies in the Evolution
of Industrial Society" with these words: "The history
of ideas is the history of man. Ideas distinguish man
from all lower animals, and all that is significant in
human history may be traced back to ideas."
The Consumers' League idea—the idea of bringing
home to the consumer a sense of responsibility for many
of the deplorable and unnecessary evils in industry-
APPENDIX G
141
is the revolutionary idea which differentiates the Con-
sumers' League from all other philanthropic, educa-
tional, and social organizations.
MAUD NATHAN.
CALIFORNIA
The California Consumers' League was organized in
1902 by a group of women who belonged to the San
Francisco Centre of the Civic League, with Mrs. John
C. Swift as leader. The decision to form a league was
brought about as a result of an address given by the
president of the New York City League, Mrs. Frederick
Nathan, at the San Francisco Civic Centre. Mrs.
Nathan was visiting California as a delegate and speaker
at the Biennial Convention of the Federation of
Women's Clubs which met that year in Los Angeles.
Following the addresses given by her in Los Angeles,
Santa Barbara, and San José, groups of women in these
cities formed local leagues. In Santa Barbara, the
League was sponsored by the Normal School. In
Pasadena, it was a group of women who were members
of the Shakespeare Club who worked quietly and
modestly for ten years for the establishment of the
Saturday half holiday, early Christmas closing of
shops, and sale of labelled garments. Requests for
literature were received at the Headquarters of the
National Consumers' League in New York from other
parts of California as, for instance: the University of
California at Berkeley, San Luis Obispo, Watsonville,
Long Beach, and from the Juvenile and Adult Proba-
tion Office of Santa Clara County. A committee at
:
142
STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
the Leland Stanford University was formed to promote
the cause of some sort of standardized dress for women,
and this committee requested the coöperation of the
National Consumers' League. The National League,
however, pointed out that it could only coöperate by
helping the committee to choose a manufacturer who
met the standards of the League. The Los Angeles
group of women continued their activities longer than
did the San Francisco group. The group of women in
San Francisco, however, appreciated the work of the
Consumers' League, and at an exposition held in the
auditorium of the Civic Centre it awarded a medal of
honour and a diploma to the National Consumers'
League. This group of Consumers' League disciples
was followed by another group which centred about the
University of California.
In July, 1909, Mrs. Florence Kelley, the general
secretary of the National Consumers' League, addressed
a meeting of the Association of Collegiate Alumnæ at
the Home Club in Oakland. The women present
voted to form a Consumers' League. Mrs. Dane
Coolidge was elected temporary president and Miss
Elizabeth Herrman temporary secretary. The follow-
ing November the League was organized at a meeting
held at the St. Francis Hotel. It was decided to call
it the Bay Cities Consumers' League, as the directors
wished to interest all those who resided in the neighbour-
ing towns.
The first president of the Bay Cities Consumers'
League was Mr. Fred G. Athearn, Superintendent of
Railway Clubs and Welfare Secretary of the Harriman
APPENDIX G
143
railroads. The vice-president elected was Mr. Harris
Weinstock, a well-known merchant of Sacramento,
who had the reputation of carrying on his business.
according to very high standards. Mr. Weinstock
had but recently returned from a trip around the world;
he had been commissioned by the Governor of Cali-
fornia to study labour conditions. The secretary
elected was Miss Julia Tolman Lee, student of eco-
nomics, University of California. A strong board of
directors was also elected, which included Professor
W. C. Mitchell, Dr. Jessica Peixotto, Reverend Brad-
ford Leavitt, and Reverend E. L. Parsons.
The directors secured the coöperation of college
women, who investigated department stores by obtain-
ing positions as welfare secretaries in the stores. They
also investigated the street trades of children.
The
campaign for minimum-wage legislation was a feature
of the political progressive movement during the years
1910-15.
In 1912, Mrs. Katharine Phillips Edson became a
member of the Bureau of Labour; she realized that it
was necessary to raise the standards of conditions for
women in industry in the State of California. She
got in touch with the National Consumers' League and
with the Oregon Consumers' League. Mrs. Edson
and her fellow members of the Bureau of Labour
framed a bill to present to the California Legislature,
along the lines of a similar bill which had been passed
by the Oregon Legislature, upon the initiative of the
Oregon Consumers' League. This bill provided for
the establishment of a minimum wage for women and
144 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
minors and was passed in 1913. The Industrial
Welfare Commission was formed and given the author-
ity to establish from time to time minimum wage
standards for various fields of work. The Commission
also set standards for hours and conditions of employ-
ment of women and minors and prohibited night work.
in the manufacturing and laundry industries. Moreover,
it established one day of rest a week and succeeded in
limiting the previous long working day in fish, vegetable,
and fruit packing and canning industries by the en-
forced payments of increased rates after eight hours of
work.
The Industrial Welfare Commission endeavoured to
secure the observance of its standards by obtaining the
coöperation of the heads of industries and by routine
inspection of plants, with a view to correcting low
standards. When these methods proved unsuccessful,
the Commission resorted to legal action for the en-
forcement of its orders.
M
From July 1, 1922, to June 30, 1924, the Commission
collected more than $20,000 due employees from the
enforcement of the minimum wage standards. These
sums came from mercantile houses, manufacturers,
laundries, hotels, restaurants, fruit, vegetable, and
fish canneries, general and professional offices, and
unclassified occupations.
Because of the unflagging activity of Mrs. Edson and
the Industrial Welfare Commission, the Consumers'
League of California did not feel the urge to investigate
and consider industrial problems. Gradually, the
League ceased its activities, and at the present time
APPENDIX G
145
all the work that is being done in California to maintain
high standards in industry is accomplished by the
State Industrial Welfare Commission.
CONNECTICUT
The Consumers' League of Connecticut was organ-
ized in 1902, and shortly afterwards formed local
leagues in Bridgeport, Hartford, Middletown, Southing-
ton, and Waterbury. Later on, leagues were started
in New London, Fairfield, Colchester, New Haven, and
Stamford.
At the present time, however, all the local leagues
have consolidated with the state league. It was con-
sidered that better work could be accomplished that
way. In the smail towns of Connecticut, industrial
questions do not come to the fore, as in the larger cities,
where there are great industrial centres. The directors
of the state league have been drawn from various cities,
and the directors' meetings, as well as the Annual
League meeting, are held in different parts of the state.
In 1907, the Connecticut League was fortunate in being
able to secure as general secretary a graduate of
Smith College, who had also the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy from Yale University, and whose scientific
training had been further augmented by a semester at
Leipsic University and a season at the American School
of Archæology in Athens. Thus Dr. Mary Crowell
Welles brought to the work of the League a mind
trained in accuracy and an ability to accept all evi-
dence at its real value-in short, a scientific mind.
Under Dr. Welles's able guidance, the League has
146 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
made studies of various industries and investigations
of actual labour conditions; it has drafted bills for the
Legislature and has been responsible for the enactment
of twelve statutes since 1909. There has never been
a demand for the repeal of any one of the twelve, and
the only demands for amendments have come from
the Consumers' League itself. This is sufficient proof
that the manufacturing and mercantile interests have
been satisfied with the results of the League's achieve-
ments in regard to legislation. Besides this record,
other bills, perhaps to the number of a half dozen,
have been presented and passed, through the efforts
of other organizations which had secured data from
the League, and had been urged by the League to bring
about these reforms.
The League's first efforts were directed towards
getting existing laws enforced. When it found that
the law limiting the hours of women and children in
factories and stores was very generally violated, the
League appealed to the factory inspector. He main-
tained that there was nothing in the phraseology of
the measure which made it imperative for him to enforce
the law. The League pointed out that his office had
been created and financed for the sole purpose of carry-
ing out the labour laws. The factory inspector's reply
was to the effect that he had enough to do without
assuming any responsibility not definitely laid upon
him. Therefore, the first bill introduced in the Legisla-
ture by the Consumers' League was one placing the
responsibility of enforcing the employment law defi-
nitely and absolutely upon the Department of Labour.
APPENDIX G
147
This resulted in the factory inspector's declaration:
"This law has teeth in it!" The enforcement of labour
laws in Connecticut is very different to-day from what
it was fifteen years ago, and it is not too much to say
that this result is entirely due to the determined efforts
of the League.
In order to bring about reforms through legislation
and enforcement of law, public opinion had to be
educated, and this was accomplished through the usual
channels: published reports, lectures, lantern slides in
theatres, posters in public places, exhibits held, and
interviews given to reporters, in order to obtain pub-
licity through the newspapers.
To sum up the League's legislative work, it secured a
state investigation of the conditions of labour of women
employed in factories in 1911, and a state investigation
of the conditions of the labour of women employed in
stores in 1913; secured the Saturday half holiday for
women factory workers and the eight-hour day for
factory children; abolished night work for women and
children employed in factories and stores; provided
for the installation and maintenance of sufficient
sanitary toilets for employees of both sexes;¹ secured
the proper enforcement of the labour laws protecting
women and children; doubled the number of women
deputy factory inspectors; drafted a bill and assisted
1After the passage of the bill providing for sanitary toilets, some twenty-
five manufacturers gathered at the Capitol, on the invitation of the Labour
Commissioner, and drew up a very advanced sanitary code on the basis of
the bill, putting into the code what the League had felt obliged to omit
from it. This code is now used as an interpretation of the law and is what
was first introduced the year previously.
148 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
in its passage to shorten the hours of employment of
women in restaurants, cafés, etc.; took children out of
injurious occupations and off dangerous machines;¹
raised the age at which boys are permitted to operate
fast-running elevators; regulated the employment of
boys in bowling alleys; prohibited the employment of
boys under eighteen years of age after ten o'clock at
night in the messenger service; secured the enactment
of a good and enforceable employment certificate law
through the agency of the State Board of Education,
in 1911; secured a still more effective one in 1921; and
through the same agency secured the extension of the
scope of the Trade-school Law, so as to permit the
state to organize vocational schools for girls, and after-
wards secured the passage of a bill to permit the estab-
lishment of vocational guidance as a part of the school
system.
The League is at present working for the nine-hour
day for women factory workers, and the completion
of the eighth grade, for children, when practicable,
who wish to leave school under sixteen years of age.
It has failed thus far to secure the passage of a minimum
wage bill for women workers.
The Connecticut Consumers' League can well be
proud of its legislative record, since it accomplished
these results notwithstanding much determined op-
position and an exhibition of bitterness manifested at
first by some of the opponents of the measures.
One of the attorneys of the Etna Insurance Company prepared a
pamphlet on "Dangerous Trades for Children," which was of very material
help in securing the passage of this bill.
APPENDIX G
149
Some manufacturers were sufficiently far-seeing,
however, to coöperate with the League in its effort
to bring about better industrial conditions through leg-
islation. It was largely through the help of two leading
manufacturers: William C. Cheney of Cheney Brothers,
and George Landers of Landers, Frary and Clark, that
the Senate passed the Fifty-five-hour Week Bill.
The Manufacturers' Association of Connecticut sent
a representative to one of the hearings, who spoke in
favour of a rest period for women factory workers,
from 10 P.M. to 6 A.M. However, there were some
manufacturers who evaded the law. For example,
there was one firm in New Haven that employed women
and girls in polishing and buffing rifle barrels for war
contracts. The day shift stopped work at 6P.M. The
night shift, composed of approximately seven hun-
dred women and girls, worked from 6 P.M. to Io
P.M. The law did not permit them to work after 10
o'clock at night. So the girls were sent into a neighbour-
ing dance hall, where they ate supper and amused
themselves until one minute after midnight. As it
was then the next day, they were put at work again
until 7 A.M.
The League recognizes that there are five causes of
poverty and ill health among labouring people: child
labour, lack of training, unsanitary conditions of
labour, and the overwork and underpay of wage-
earning women and girls. In order to do away with
these causes, the policy of the League has been to strike
at the root of the evil, endeavouring to secure the
coöperation of powerful agencies outside of the League.
150 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
*
Under the auspices of the League, the general
secretary made an investigation of international scope
of vocational training for children under sixteen years
of age, and published a book on the subject which as a
book of reference has been widely in demand. The
League has also issued some important leaflets in re-
lation to the industrial situation in the state and the
progress of the League's work, and has published
three pamphlets entitled: "The Department Store
Girl and Her Friend in the Five and Ten," "Child
Laborers in the Shade Grown Tobacco Industry in
Connecticut," "Child Labor Brief."
Professor Henry W. Farnam of the Economics De-
partment of Yale University is first vice-president of
the Consumers' League of Connecticut, and has been
for many years a valuable member, preparing one of
the League's pamphlets, contributing generously to
its funds, and offering the hospitality of his home for
meetings of the Board of Directors.
It is always easier to get a following for palliative or
ameliorative work than to get encouragement for work
which is experimental but which strikes at fundamental
causes. The Consumers' League work may be slow
in its processes, but those who have worked for the
cause have found it so fundamental and vital as to
impel them to continue in its activities, realizing with
Herbert Spencer that, however little comparatively
can be done, "we must find it worth while to do that
little, so uniting philanthropic energy with philosophic
calm."
¹From Report of president of the New York City League, 1903.
APPENDIX G
151
COLORADO: 1903-07
No data of work obtainable.
DELAWARE
The Consumers' League of Delaware developed
from the Philanthropic Committee of the Wilmington
New Century Club and was organized in April, 1907,
and incorporated thirteen years later.
Its first efforts were directed towards raising the
standard of conditions in local stores. The Standard
of a Fair House was adopted and a White List of
stores issued.
Consumers' leagues everywhere did the pioneer
work for children in industry, which later on was
undertaken by the Child Labour Committee. In
Delaware the League, in coöperation with the state
factory inspector and the authorities of the public
and parochial schools, made provision for night schools
for children between the ages of fourteen and sixteen,
who could not meet even the low educational require-
ments of the law at that time. Two years after the
League was formed, it secured amendments to the
Child Labour Law. In spite of its vigorous protests,
however, a provision in the new law permitted children
otherwise ineligible for a general working certificate
to be employed if "the labour of such child is necessary
for the support of itself or to assist in the support of
its family."
In order to prevent such permits from being given
and also in order to prove how very few children rela-
152 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
tively were put to work because of extreme poverty,
the League established a scholarship fund for needy
children, which it has continued to the present time.
The provision is still in the law, but permits are rarely
given.
Later, in order to give employment and support to
needy families upon whom the Child Labour Law
worked a temporary hardship, a committee on the
cultivation of vacant lots was appointed by the League.
This committee functioned as a part of the League's
work for several years, and then became an independent
organization, which did valuable work during the war.
The League's early Christmas shopping campaign
was so successful that, after ten years' effort, it was no
longer needed. The merchants and newspaper editors
conducted it themselves. During the first year of the
movement, prizes were offered to children for the best
scrap-book collections of early Christmas shopping
cartoons and advertisements. Six years later, a prize
essay contest was conducted, in which one hundred
and seven essayists competed.
The Delaware League, as did all its sister leagues,
coöperated with the National League in endeavouring
to create a demand for the White Label; it held exhibits,
from time to time, of labelled goods, and in 1910 had
a large exhibit in a store on the main business street in
Wilmington.
The League in 1911 introduced into the Legislature
a woman's labour bill providing for a ten-hour day,
sanitary regulations, and for the guarding of dangerous
machinery. The bill passed both houses, with little
APPENDIX G
153
or no opposition. However, adverse influence was
brought to bear on the Governor, and he failed to sign
the measure. The opposition centred around the
provision for a woman factory inspector at the modest
salary of $750 a year, and the granting of power to
label as dangerous any piece of machinery not guarded
according to certain specifications.
The League, with the view of protecting the interests
of consumers as well as producers, started an agitation
for the proper protection of foods. In 1914, it directed
its efforts towards securing a better milk supply for
Wilmington. The League gained much publicity
through the fact that one of the most prominent milk.
dealers threatened to bring suit against the League
president. Up to that time, the city's milk had been
tested only for butter fats, but the League succeeded
in securing bacteriological tests, and a system of more
careful handling and distribution.
The League's endeavour to secure a weekly half
holiday for workers in stores, as well as in factories,
succeeded better among the smaller establishments
than among department-store firms. Only one
department-store firm yielded to the League's solicita-
tion, yet among grocery stores, markets, men's tailoring
establishments, furniture and jewellery stores, business
stationers, and miscellaneous stores, the half holiday
in summer has become general.
Another result of the League's efforts has been the
closing of stores at five or five-thirty in summer. None
of the better class stores keeps open of an evening,
even during the holiday season.
154 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
In 1913, the League had the satisfaction of seeing
the Ten-hour Law for women pass, with an amendment,
however, which weakened it considerably, allowing
for one twelve-hour day a week. Even to secure the
passage of this conciliatory measure, the League was
obliged to conduct a spectacular campaign, and the
victory was largely due to the splendid leadership and
untiring efforts of Miss Margaret H. Shearman, who,
at two different periods, served the League as president.
For this campaign, too, the League had its first paid
secretary, the work previously having been done by
volunteers. Again, two years later, the League was
forced to conduct a campaign to prevent the repeal of
the law it had fought so hard to get enacted, and again
it won. Two years afterwards the League secured the
passage of amendments to the law, extending its pro-
visions to include women in hotels, restaurants, and
offices, and the prohibition of night work in certain
establishments.
The League found a great need for an industrial
placement bureau in Wilmington and while making
an investigation prior to the establishment of the
bureau, it discovered that better sanitary conditions
were requisite in places of employment. So the follow-
ing year (1917), the League secured the passage of the
present Sanitary Law for Female Workers.
A mothers' pension bill, introduced by another
organization, was found to be extremely faulty, and
the League was permitted to redraft the measure,
whereupon the two organizations coöperated and
secured its passage. In 1919, the Delaware League
APPENDIX G
155
launched a campaign for a minimum wage bill; the
measure was defeated, but the attention of the public
was drawn to the principle involved.
The League next endeavoured to secure hot lunches
in public schools, coöperated with other civic bodies
to try to reduce the cost of living in Wilmington, and
at the League's suggestion a survey was made of the
housing situation, as it affected women employees.
It started an agitation for a business girls' hotel, but,
owing to business depression, a large number of busi-
ness women left the city and the situation was thus
relieved. As a result of the League's interest, a coöper-
ative association was formed in Wilmington, but did
not meet with success.
No association constantly endeavouring to raise the
standard of industrial conditions can hope to meet
with continuous success; there are always many
obstacles to overcome and some defeats to record. It
is pleasant, therefore, to be able to relate that the
Delaware Consumers' League not only scored a trium-
phant victory in its campaigns to secure and maintain
the Ten-Hour Law for women, but it also was victorious
in securing in 1923 amendments to the Child Labour
Law which gave further protection to working children.
Among the provisions are: an eight-hour day and a
forty-eight hour week, the raising of the age from
fifteen to sixteen years for certain enumerated danger-
ous occupations, and requiring street traders to wear
badges.
At the same time, through the League's efforts, the
Wilmington Board of Education raised the standard
AN
156 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAking Movement
of compulsory school attendance from the completion
of the fifth grade to that of sixth grade, and a few
months later to that of the eighth grade, or the age of
sixteen.
The Delaware League has at all times coöperated
with the labour commissioner, has endeavoured to
improve the administrative policy and to secure the
best available inspectors. Because of the meagre
salaries provided, the League has helped to secure
salary increases.
The League's policy has been to keep in close touch
with the various social welfare organizations throughout
the state and with the state commissions, and it has
joined the recently created Delaware Council of Social
Agencies.
THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
The Consumers' League of the District held its first
meeting in January, 1912. Mrs. Harvey Wiley was
its first president. The League was extremely active
for a number of years, counting among its achievements
the following:
(1) Enactment in 1916 of the first eight-hour law
for women in the East (except in Massachusetts).
(2) Initiation of cost of living inquiry by U. S.
Bureau of Labour Statistics, showing necessity for
minimum-wage legislation.
(3) Enactment of a minimum-wage law in 1919.
This law unhappily was declared unconstitutional by
the U. S. Supreme Court, April 9, 1923.
APPENDIX G
157
(4) Support with other organizations of the Federal
Maternity Bill which became law.
(5) Support with other organizations of improved
child labour and compulsory education law for the
District, a measure which raised age limit for going to
work to fifteen years, required completion of the eighth
grade, abolished poverty permits, required vacation
certificates from fourteen to sixteen years, badged
newsboys for these years.
(6) Came to rescue a number of times of girls'
dormitories in Washington, first securing their com-
pletion, and then their retention, in order to relieve
serious shortage of adequate accommodations for
working girls.
(7) Inaugurated early Christmas shopping, Saturday
half holiday throughout the year, and early closing
of stores.
(8) Gave active support to proposed bills to regulate
the packing industry, appearing at the hearings, and
giving wide publicity to the need for government con-
trol of the monopoly. This activity of the League,
initiated by Miss Jessie Haver, League secretary for a
number of years, was noted everywhere in the press,
and was later carried on by a sub-committee of the
National League of Women Voters.
(9) Actively supported bill establishing bureau of
women in industry in the Labour Department, a bill
which became law.
(10) Directed public attention to the use of young
girls as messengers, and urged raising the age limit for
158 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEment
this occupation to twenty-one, and forbidding their
work at night.
(No data available for this League since 1920, al-
though it is still in existence.)
GEORGIA: 1904-09
The local interest was in shortening the hours of
white women in Atlanta stores. Nothing spectacular
ever occurred. It was faithful educational work, but
as it was impossible to raise money for national work,
or for any considerable amount of free distribution of
printed matter, the League was soon disbanded.
ILLINOIS
The Illinois Consumers' League was organized in
February, 1897, by the Collegiate Alumnæ of Chicago.
A standard was adopted and a provisional constitution
drawn up. A permanent organization was effected
in November, 1898, at a meeting held in Hull House,
and Mrs. Charles Henrotin was elected president.
Besides engaging in the usual work of creating a de-
mand for labelled goods, encouraging early Christmas
shopping, securing the Saturday half holiday for store
clerks in summer, the League, in 1900, supported the
journeymen tailors in their strike against home work
and their demand that their employers provide work-
rooms.
The Illinois League was extremely effective for a
number of years in amending and securing adequate
enforcement of child labour laws. For these years,
the League secretary investigated all children applying
APPENDIX G
159
for work papers to the Cook County Court, and thus
put a stop to false testimony by parents regarding the
age of their children. Through the League a helpful
relationship was established between public and paro-
chial schools and the Labour Department. At Christmas
time, the League was especially vigilant to see that the
law was enforced which sent young children home
from work at 7 P.M. Young children were also ban-
ished from the Chicago stockyards where hundreds
had formerly worked under dangerous and brutalizing
conditions.
The League, in coöperation with the Women's Trade
Union League, aided in instigating the monumental
investigation by the United States Department of
Commerce and Labour of working conditions of women
and children throughout the country. The Illinois
League made studies of conditions in department stores
(written up in the Journal of Sociology), tenement
home work, employment of stage children, candy
impurities, child labour in glass factories, and the
placing of the factory inspection department under
civil service.
In 1916, the League was merged with the Juvenile
Protective Association. The Illinois Consumers'
League felt that while the work of the League was done
theoretically from the general assumption of the respon-
sibility of the consumer in its working programme,
its efforts had been along the lines indicated by the
aims of the Juvenile Protective Association. So a
reorganization took place and the merger was accom-
plished.
160 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
In reorganizing, the following general purposes were
determined upon:
Shortening hours of labour for women.
Prohibition of night work for women.
Extension and enforcement of child labour laws.
Legislative establishment of a minimum wage.
Endeavour to secure Saturday half holiday and
Sunday closing.
INDIANA
During the years 1911-17 the usual League activities
were carried on for labelled garments and Saturday
half holiday for store clerks in summer. In Indianap-
olis conditions were reported to be extremely unsatis-
factory as to hours and sanitary arrangements. The
Indiana League carried on a vigorous campaign to
educate the shopping public in regard to the evil
practice of returning goods, especially from homes
where contagious disease existed.
IOWA: 1902-09
Branches or correspondents reported for several
years in Des Moines, Clinton, and Humboldt College.
In 1913, a league was reported from Coe College.
There are apparently no data regarding activities of
any of these branches.
KENTUCKY
In 1900, the General Federation of Women's Clubs
met in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where Mrs. Florence
Kelley and the president of the New York Consumers'
APPENDIX G
161
League gave addresses on the work of the Consumers'
League. The delegates from the Woman's Club of
Louisville were impressed by the story of the move-
ment, and the following year the Consumers' League
of Kentucky was organized.
The League's first undertaking was to urge the pur-
chase of goods bearing the White Label, and, to this
end, it held an exhibit of "labelled" garments and
endeavoured to get the leading department store firms
to place the labelled underwear on their counters.
Because the label at that time was only placed on the
cheaper grade of garments, it was difficult to get a
large purchasing public to buy them. Four years
later a booklet was widely distributed listing the
prices of labelled garments on sale in Louisville stores.
The Kentucky League was successful in its campaigns
for early Christmas shopping and for a five-thirty
closing hour during five months of the year: January,
February, June, July, and one half of March and
August. The Retail Merchants' Association of Louis-
ville, having heard that the Consumers' League had
one thousand names to a petition for shorter hours,
voluntarily closed their stores at the earlier hour and
also advertised, asking shoppers to do their Christmas
shopping early. In 1907, however, the Association
left the matter to individual firms, so that the closing
hour varied according to the standards of individual
merchants.
Finding that many children who should have been
at school were working in factories and stores, the
League assisted in getting Child Labour and Compul-
162 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
·
:.
sory Education laws passed, securing amendments at
later sessions of the Legislature. It coöperated in the
enforcement of these laws by working with the truant
officers, visiting the homes of the truants and, when
necessary, supplying shoes and clothing to enable them
to return to school. When advised by the Associated
Charities that families of these children were in dire
need, the League, through the scholarship fund it had
established, was enabled to pay the family a pension in
order to permit the children to continue their studies.
In 1910, the League made a survey of women's
work in Louisville, covering three thousand cases.
Realizing, however, the need for more complete in-
formation, it petitioned the Governor to appoint a
volunteer commission, empowered to make an official
survey. This was done the following year, and the
president of the Kentucky League was asked to serve
as secretary of the commission. A pamphlet was
published showing the results of the survey, and the
following year (1912) the Kentucky League secured
the passage of the Ten-Hour Law for women, the only
law governing the work of women in the state. It pro-
vided for a ten-hour day, a sixty-hour week, seats for
women workers, when they did not interfere with work,
and exacted toilets separate from those of men. The
bill was not as inclusive and progressive as the League
would have liked, but it served as a basis upon which
discussions could be carried on between the League
officers and employers and employees, as to hours,
wages, and working conditions in general.
The League aided in the enforcement of the law, and
APPENDIX G
163
also coöperated with merchants and grocers in educating
consumers to avoid unreasonable requests for goods
to be sent on approval or by special delivery.
The first vocational school in Louisville was estab-
lished in 1914 through the coöperation of the Kentucky
Consumers' League and the Board of Education, after
a committee from the Consumers' League had worked
for eight months acquiring information and selecting a
proper instructor. The Consumers' League paid the
necessary $2,000 for the salary of the trade teacher.
Only those children in greatest need of vocational
training were admitted. The experiment was so success-
ful that the Board of Education took over the school
the following year. For seven years, however, the
League continued to contribute some financial assist-
ance. To show how popular the school became, the
attendance grew in ten years from 32 children in 1914
to 1,194 students in 1924, including those who attended,
not only the day school, but the afternoon continuation
school and the night school. Vocational work having
been undertaken two years later (1916) in Mayes-
ville, Kentucky, the Consumers' League contributed
seventy-five dollars to the cause. In 1916, the League
contributed $400 and, in coöperation with the Board
of Education, conducted a vacation school.
The Commissioner of Agriculture, Labour, and
Statistics invited the Consumers' League to send a
representative to serve on the Advisory Board in order
to assist the woman labour inspector to enforce the
State Child Labour and Ten-Hour laws. The Con-
sumers' League was instrumental in securing the open-
<
Katego
164 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMent
ing of the first office for the department of labour and
assisted in organizing the department's first records.
The chairman of the Industrial Committee of the
League visited factories and took children out of street
trades, while another member of the League kept the
records of work done, filed all prosecutions, as well as
noted the cases requiring financial aid, and helped to
secure the sums needed.
During the years of the World War, the president
of the League represented Kentucky on the Committee
of Women in Industry, Council of National Defense,
where standards for women workers were recommended
to government departments and were adopted.
Through the information received from the Washington
conferences of this committee, work was facilitated
throughout the entire state. The League president
was also the representative of women employees on
the War Labour Community Board for Kentucky.
Owing to the fact that the Secretary of War, the
Honourable Newton D. Baker, was also the president of
the National Consumers' League, it can readily be seen
that suggestions made by the officers of the Kentucky
Consumers' League were usually acted upon favour-
ably and maintained during the period of the war.
The Minimum Wage Commission bill prepared by
the Kentucky Consumers' League was presented at
two sessions of the Legislature, in 1920 and 1922, and
notwithstanding the help rendered the League by Miss
Jeannette Rankin, who spent a month speaking in
favour of the bills and lobbying for them, they failed
to pass. In 1921, the League assisted to its utmost
APPENDIX G
165
the Woman's Bureau which was making a survey of
hours, wages, and working conditions of working
women in Kentucky. The report made by the Woman's
Bureau of the low wages paid to Kentucky working
women was used largely in the minimum wage cam-
paign of 1922, but without avail.
The League prepared a bill for the reorganization
of the State Labour Department, for presentation to
the 1924 General Assembly. The object of the measure
was to secure better trained labour inspectors by Civil
Service examination, a chief labour inspector, higher
salaries, permanent records, the printing of educational
pamphlets on industrial health, safety devices, and
sanitation so that working conditions might be improved
through education. This bill, approved by both
labour representatives and employers, was passed
unanimously. Since then the League has been coöper-
ating with the Labour Department in collecting Civil
Service material. An industrial sanitation code is at
present being prepared by the League, adapted from
the standards of the United States Public Health
Service and the codes of other states as a reference for
voluntary acceptance by employers.
Mrs. R. P. Halleck, who has been the able and
devoted president of the League since its inception,
has been largely responsible for much of the success
of its undertakings. No history of any great move-
ment can be complete without touching upon the
personal side, suggesting the intense thought given,
the energy expended, the sacrifices made, by those
who have sponsored the movement from the beginning.
166 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
LOUISIANA
In 1915, Miss Jean Gordon, formerly factory in-
spector of New Orleans, was appointed Consumers'
League secretary for the Southern States. She was
also secretary of the Louisiana State Commission for
the Investigation of the Condition of Working Women
and Children appointed by Governor Hall in 1914.
This commission was created at the instigation of
Miss Gordon. It made an investigation of wages paid
to women and girls in New Orleans. The report
covered thirty-four establishments and showed that
wages were below the level of subsistence.
1 Miss Gordon's work for child labourers bore such
fruit that, when photographs of working children of
the South were displayed at the National Conference
of Charities and Correction in Memphis, those alone
from New Orleans showed children as large in stature
as in the same occupations in the North or in Western
states.
The League concerned itself with conditions in stores
and endeavoured to bring pressure on firms to open at
8.30 A. M. instead of at 8 o'clock. The League was
active in endeavouring to create a demand for labelled
garments; it also conducted an early Christmas shop-
ping campaign and succeeded in getting all first-class
stores to close at 6 P. M. up to Christmas Day.
The Christmas Savings Bank clubs were appealed to,
and the directors consented to make payments the
following year (1917) during the first week in December
instead of waiting until December 15th. The bank
APPENDIX G
167
directors agreed to this most eagerly, so as to remove
one of the obstacles to early Christmas shopping. All
the students of the H. Sophie Newcomb College joined
the Louisiana Consumers' League in observing Child
Labour Day. A branch of the Consumers' League had
been organized at the college in 1912.
The Louisiana League is still in existence, but all
efforts to obtain reports of recent activities have been
unsuccessful.
MAINE
During the years 1904-13 a league existed in Maine, but
apparently sent no reports of its work to the National
Consumers' League.
MARYLAND
The Maryland Consumers' League was organized
at a meeting held at the Arundel Club in Baltimore, in
1900, after an address given by the president of the
New York City League
Some members of the philanthropic section of the
Woman's Club of Roland Park at once formed a
committee and undertook to secure the coöperation
of Baltimore merchants in an endeavour to get Con-
sumers' League labelled garments into the stores. A list
of the garments so labelled with the announcement
as to where they could be purchased was prepared,
printed, and distributed.
In 1902, the Consumers' League idea was brought to
the attention of the Maryland State Federation of
Women's Clubs, and a committee was appointed to
168 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
consider the advisability of organizing a state con-
sumers' league. This was accomplished the following
year.
Until March 8, 1918, when the Council of the Na-
tional Consumers' League decided to abandon the label
and to use other methods in order to raise standards
in factories, the Maryland League conscientiously and
consistently pushed the demand for labelled garments
among the women of the state. It succeeded in getting
seventeen Baltimore merchants to carry labelled goods.
Not only were these firms progressive in this particular,
but the majority of them responded favourably to other
requests of the League for improved conditions in stores,
with the result that seats were provided behind coun-
ters, separate lunch and dressing rooms were arranged,
the Saturday half holiday granted, and later on, the
whole day during July and August, and a shorter work-
ing day was inaugurated for the summer months.
The Maryland League had a powerful ally in His
Eminence, Cardinal Gibbons, who was one of the
League's honorary vice-presidents; he delivered more
than one sermon from the pulpit of the Cathedral,
calling attention to the work of the League and the
necessity to support it. The Maryland League also
had the coöperation of Dr. Jacob Hollander and other
professors of Johns Hopkins University, and for several
years, beginning with 1911, the League claimed as its
president Hon. Charles J. Bonaparte, who was the
chief supporter of minimum-wage legislation.
The Maryland League is justified in claiming that
the passage of the Child Labour and School Attendance
APPENDIX G
169
laws and other laws of a similar character was largely
due to the systematic educational efforts in which the
League engaged for many years. In 1906, the legis-
lative campaign to restrict child labour was conducted
and the bill was passed.
The Russell Sage Foundation appreciated the valu-
able work undertaken by the Maryland League in
making a special investigation of conditions surrounding
the working women of Baltimore and helped to finance
the illustrated report which was published in 1910 in
book form under the title "Saleswomen in Mercantile
Stores," by Elizabeth B. Butler.
It was not until 1912 that the Maryland League
introduced into the Legislature a bill limiting the hours
of working women in certain industries throughout
the state to ten in one day. After a thorough investi-
gation of existing conditions, it carried on a vigorous
educational campaign; it won a great triumph in
securing the passage of the Ten-Hour Law in mechan-
ical, mercantile, manufacturing, baking, and laundering
establishments.
Under the provisions of the law, a bureau was created
for its administration and the League was asked to
select the administrator. Miss Sarah Martin was
chosen, and she was given two inspectors. As the
League believed in a fair wage, it helped to finance the
bureau, which was inadequately financed by the state.
In January, 1915, an amendment was added to the
League constitution, "providing that the League shall
have a council of not less than twenty-five members
to conduct all the business of the League and have
170 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
power to add to its members at any time." This
insured awakening and sustaining the interest of a
larger group of citizens.
The League started in 1916 a welfare department to
improve conditions in regard to the leisure hours of
working girls. Each store was assigned to a committee
of League workers who were able to deal sympathet-
ically with the industrial girl and her many problems.
It was especially the new employee or the stranger
in the city, away from her home town and associates,
who appreciated the efforts of the League workers.
This particular branch of the Maryland League's work
was continued for four years.
The League had a booth at the "Made in Baltimore"
Exposition at the Fifth Regiment Armoury, September,
1916, showing a picturesque contrast between con-
ditions in a Baltimore factory which was using the
Consumers' League label and those in a sweatshop
from which an unlabelled garment might have come.
As county merchants were permitted to employ
women for twelve hours on six consecutive days before
Christmas, besides on every Saturday throughout
the year, "Shop Early" cards were printed and widely
distributed, especially in rural districts.
In 1917, an investigation was made into the vacation
and early closing policies of the various mercantile
establishments, and a bulletin was issued asking the
shopping public to make purchases at the stores where
conditions were best for the workers.
During the period of the war, the Maryland League
coöperated closely with the Committee on Women in
APPENDIX G
171
Industry of the Women's Section of the Maryland
Council of Defense, its executive secretary becoming
also the executive secretary of the Committee. Infor-
mation was collected for the War Department in
reference to unemployment in the needle trades;
reports were also secured from forty-two industrial
plants, with a view to rendering aid to the Federal
Director of Employment in Maryland. Investigations
were carried on in regard to the new occupations for
women which developed as a result of the war; statistics
were gathered and ways of improving conditions were
considered.
The League worked with the Community Service
Organization of Roland Park in establishing a com-
munity kitchen, where work could be carried on with
greater facility and under better conditions than under
the individual housework system.
The League's Standard of a Fair House was published
in 1918, and before the leaflet was sent to the printer, it
was submitted for consideration to eight leading mercan-
tile firms, all of whom gave it their unqualified approval.
ļ
The Maryland Consumers' League points out that
many of the Baltimore firms have now of their own
initiative adopted the standard upheld by the League
in its early days, and many firms who at that time
lagged behind in progressive management have now
reached the goal of the progressive ones of former
times. Thus we again have proof of the good results.
from educating public opinion.
In 1920, the League for the third time brought a
bill before the Legislature for a minimum-wage com-
172 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVement
mission for women and minors. Notwithstanding the
vigorous campaign conducted, and the fact that the
League had the coöperation of many business and
professional men and women, not only in Baltimore,
but from states in which the minimum-wage laws were
already in operation, and that it had the active support
of speakers of national reputation, the bill was un-
favourably reported by the Senate Committee and
failed to pass.
In an investigation made to determine the actual
cost of living of working girls, 160 students of Goucher
College coöperated by filling out blanks to show the
cost for the average college girl in regard to items
concerning the care of health.
The Maryland League has aided in raising scholar-
ship funds for working girls to attend the Bryn Mawr
Summer School, and has enabled four working girls to
attend Johns Hopkins Summer School.
Thus, it can be readily seen that the Maryland
Consumers' League has become a real force in the
community and has earned the respect and consider-
ation, not only of those who constantly work to further
the community's welfare, but also of employers of
labour, who, though realizing the existence of certain
evil conditions, have felt powerless to overcome them,
because of the relentless and terrible world grind of
competition.
MASSACHUSETTS
In 1897, a meeting was arranged by Dr. John Graham
Brooks and held in the Y.M.C.A. Hall, on Boylston
APPENDIX G
173
Street, Boston, at which the president of the New York
City Consumers' League was asked to give the principal
address. She spoke on the aims and principles of the
League and told of the work already accomplished by
the New York League.
Less than a year later, the Consumers' League of
Massachusetts held its first public meeting, adopted a
constitution, elected its officers, and formed a Com-
mittee on Label.¹
As early as 1898, the Massachusetts League engaged
as an investigator of Boston stores, J. McKenzie King,
who in 1924 was Premier of Canada. It was due to the
publication of Mr. King's pamphlet on hours of work
in stores that a bill was introduced in the state legis-
lature by the Federal Labour Union extending the
Fifty-eight Hour Law, already protecting textile workers,
to women and minors in mercantile establishments.
The following year some of the large department-store
firms of Boston initiated the eight-hour day.
After hours had been shortened, the League found
that conditions in the retail establishments of Boston
were better than they had been in New York when the
League was organized; therefore, it bent its efforts
towards securing better conditions of production of the
articles sold over the counters of the stores. It was,
therefore, through pressure exerted by the officers of
the Massachusetts League that the National Con-
The committee on` organization consisted of Mrs. C. G. Ames, Mrs.
Schlesinger, Mrs. Kehew, Mrs. Deland, Mrs. Staigg, Mrs. Davis R. Dewey,
Miss Lucia T. Ames, Miss Warren, Miss Rose Lamb, Mr. Brooks, Mr. R.
A. Woods, Mr. John O'Sullivan, Mr. Robert Ely.
174 !
STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
sumers' League took up the work of endeavouring to
abolish the sweatshop.
It was decided to begin with women's white under-
wear, since the needle trades were the notoriously
sweated ones, and an appeal could be made to women
throughout the country to create a demand for under-
wear made in high standard factories. A label was
designed by one of the partners of the George Frost
Co. (manufacturers of Velvet Grip Hose Supporters,
one of the first firms to use the White Label of the
Consumers' League), and slowly one manufacturer
after another was prevailed upon to use this label on
all the output. It was only after a thorough investi-
gation had been made, including inspection of factory,
examination of the records of state factory inspector,
and interviews with employers and employees, that a
contract was signed and the label awarded. Labels
were given only to those manufacturers who had light,
sanitary workrooms, who had all their product made on
the premises, and gave none out to be made under con-
tract; who demanded no overtime of workers, employed
no children under sixteen years of age, and conformed
in all respects to the state factory laws. Later on,
another clause was added "that when a strike occurs
and arbitration is refused by employers, the contract is
automatically cancelled." In 1916, there were sixty-
eight factories using the White Label of the National
Consumers' League. It was evidently considered
of commercial value, for a New York manufacturer
was found using it illegally, and the National Consum-
ers' League was obliged to bring suit.
d
APPENDIX G
175
The Massachusetts League was always in the van-
guard, creating the demand for labelled garments,
and upholding the National League in its work in this
direction. It aided in inspection of factories by
donating the services of its executive secretary, Miss
Mary C. Wiggin, who investigated and reinspected
many of the Massachusetts factories. Because of her
intelligent assistance and her devotion to this branch of
the work, she was appointed by the president of the
National League, chairman of the Committee on Label.
The Massachusetts League, in coöperation with other
organizations, brought about many industrial reforms.
It helped to secure shorter hours of work for women
and children, reducing them to fifty-eight hours a
week and ten hours a day, then later to fifty-four hours
a week, and finally to forty-eight hours a week and
eight hours a day.
It procured protection for minors from dangerous
trades and the prohibition of the employment of
children under fourteen on the stage. It assisted
in securing changes of administration of labour laws,
by transferring the supervision from the District Police
to the present unified system of the State Department
of Labour and Industries.
In 1908, the Massachusetts Consumers' League
formed as a sub-committee, a Joint Child Labour
Committee in order to restrict child labour; the fol-
lowing year seven members of the League's Board of
Directors formed the nucleus of the Executive Com-
mittee of the new organization: the Massachusetts
Child Labour Committee. In 1914, the Massachusetts
V.
176 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMent
League was incorporated. During that year the League
helped to form a joint committee on Industrial Con-
ditions for Women and Children in Massachusetts.
This was done to forestall any move which might be
made to set aside labour laws during the war. The
Committee is still doing active work to-day, fourteen
organizations being represented besides sixteen indi-
viduals. The Massachusetts League, through this
agency, did valuable service in the community, and its
advice was constantly sought in dealing with industrial
problems. Through its committees on food it gained
the coöperation of large groups of men and women
who stimulated the Boards of Health throughout the
state to action.
At the instigation of the Women's Trade Union
and the Consumers' League, a Minimum-Wage Com-
mission, in 1918, was empowered to fix the minimum
wage for various trades. Representatives of employers
in the industry, employees, and the public served on the
Commission. The Commission has no authority, how-
ever, to compel manufacturers to pay this minimum
wage, it is only empowered to publish the names of
those who refused to comply with the standard fixed.
While this form of minimum-wage legislation was not
deemed sufficiently drastic at first, it has stood the
test of constitutionality before the Supreme Court,
so that other states are now introducing legislation
based on the Massachusetts plan. The Massachusetts
Supreme Court rendered a decision recently that
newspaper editors may not be compelled to publish
the names of recalcitrant firms, but it reaffirmed the
Fin
APPENDIX G
177
validity of the measure on other points. All the
leading papers but one in Boston therefore continued
to accept the notices for publication.
The Massachusetts League kept up its early
Christmas shopping and its early closing campaigns until
they were taken over by the retail firms, who spread the
propaganda themselves among their clientèle. It pub-
lished White Lists of tailors who had all their garments
made on the premises, of bakeries which were found to
be sanitary and were not in cellars, and of restaurants
where employees worked under good conditions.
The League published from time to time bulletins
on: "The Minimum Wage," "The Administration
of Law," "Post Office Service," "Conditions in Food
Establishments," "Fire Risks in Industrial Establish-
ments," and "Unemployment." The League was
constantly called upon to furnish speakers for meetings
and clubs throughout the state.
The League in 1915 provided relief for impoverished
custom tailors by opening workrooms where 2,500 dress
skirts and 45 suits were made and sent to Belgian refu-
gees.
The Massachusetts League has been preeminent
in its close contact with the State Labour Department.
It has led in the movement to keep the Department out
of politics, and it has had measures amended and
methods corrected until to-day Massachusetts has the
reputation of having the best system of law enforce-
ment in the country.
Miss Mary C. Wiggin has been for many years the
able executive secretary of the Massachusetts League.
178 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
MICHIGAN
From 1900-09 there were four branches of this league
more or less active, in Detroit, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids,
and Jackson. During the first year, the League intro-
duced a bill providing for a woman factory inspector.
By the end of the second year, two women inspectors
were appointed. The League was also effective in Grand
Rapids and in Detroit in introducing labelled goods,
and in improving shopping habits. It conducted a
campaign for early Christmas shopping and to obtain
a half holiday in summer for store clerks, etc. Many
educational meetings were held throughout these
centres to discuss League principles, and much literature
distributed. In 1905, the Child Labour Law was
amended through the League's efforts.
MISSOURI
The Consumers' League of Missouri has for more than
twenty years upheld the traditions of the National
League. The League, through its efforts, succeeded in
securing the passage of the law restricting the working
day for women to nine hours and aided in its enforce-
ment when it discovered violations; it also aided very
materially in securing the enactment and enforcement
of the bill to restrict the labour of children to eight
hours a day and prohibiting their working under
fourteen years of age. It assisted in getting the
Juvenile Court Bill and the Mother's Pension Bill
passed. Members of the Social Legislation Commission
representing various organizations active in the legis-
APPENDIX G
179
lative campaign agreed that these laws could not have
been passed but for the effective work of the Consumers'
League. The League found that the law required no
inspection of factories in cities of less than 10,000
population, and it has been endeavouring to have the
inspection extended to cover rural towns where many
factories were located after the passage of the law
requiring inspection of city factories. The League
conducted training classes in factory inspection, and
the attendants were afterwards made deputy inspectors.
The League, in its constant endeavours to protect
workers, discovered that the new building code of
St. Louis omitted to require that exits to fire escapes
be constructed of fireproof material. No other organi-
zation or individual had noticed this serious omission.
The League drew up a new ordinance, requiring outside
iron fire escapes, which was passed, thus helping to
protect thousands of factory workers.
The Consumers' League of Missouri was the first
agency to bring to the attention of employers and
employees the importance of definite training in
salesmanship in order that employers might demand
higher standards of efficiency and employees obtain
higher wages. The League had a booth at the House-
hold Show held at the Coliseum. It held, from time to
time, exhibits of labelled garments from St. Louis
stores, publishing the names of the firms where these
garments could be purchased. Side by side with the
labelled underwear were the graphic and interesting
exhibits of the National Consumers' League, showing
articles made in sweatshops and tenement rooms.
180 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVement
The League worked unceasingly to secure a half
holiday on Saturdays during the summer months, and
succeeded in getting four of the principal department
stores to close at I P. M. on Saturdays during July and
August.
The Consumers' League of Missouri, through its
active Food Committee and in coöperation with the
State Food Inspector, conducted widespread inspections
of food shops, including six hundred bakeries. In
order to raise the standard of cleanliness, light, and
ventilation, it issued the following White List certi-
ficates to those which were good enough to be graded
95 per cent. or above (100 per cent. being considered
perfect):
We are on the
White List
of the
Consumers' League
Issued to
These certificates were displayed in the shops where
they were awarded, and members were asked to deal
only with those butchers, bakers, grocers, and confec-
tioners who could show them. The League conducted
this campaign in coöperation with the State Food and
Drugs Department.
The League also conducted a fly-exterminating cam-
paign, working through schools in coöperation with the
Health Department. The League distributed 70,000
fly swatters in the public schools, together with pamph-
lets explaining the importance of exterminating flies.
The Missouri League conducted a vigorous Christmas
APPENDIX G
181
<<
Shop Early" campaign; the merchants coöperating
by enclosing early shopping notices with the bills sent
out to customers December 1st. In 1914, the Associ-
ated Retailers of St. Louis carried on their own Christ-
mas "Shop Early" campaign, along the same lines
formerly pursued by the Consumers' League.
The Consumers' League of Missouri has always
sought the coöperation of other bodies in endeavouring
to raise industrial standards, and has shown a willing-
ness to participate in bringing about better civic condi-
tions. The League has been represented on the com-
mittee of the Mayor's Conference, in St. Louis, the
Central Council of Social Agencies, the Social Service
Conference, and the Advisory Committee to the Mul-
lanphy Board. The League helped in the preparation
of ordinances to better conditions in police courts and
dance halls.
At the time of the World War, when the General
Secretary of the National Consumers' League was a
member of the Board of Control of Labour Standards
for Factories making uniforms, the Secretary of the
Missouri League received an official commission to
inspect local factories making army supplies. It was
thus possible to correct promptly any undesirable condi-
tions. Because of the wide experience of the secretary
of the Missouri League, she was asked by the War
Work Council of the National Young Women's Chris-
tian Association to look into the welfare work under-
taken for women munition workers in France. This was
done at the request of the French Government.
The Food Committee of the League did specially
182 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
valuable work during the war. It was commended for
its systematic and effective work in conservation. It
established community kitchens for selling cooked foods
at cost, to be eaten either at the kitchens or to be taken
home in containers; it also inaugurated a wagon service
for near-by factories and conducted the feeding of
undernourished school children. The kitchens were
afterwards taken over by the St. Louis Chapter of the
American Red Cross as part of their public health
work. When the National Board of the Young Wo-
men's Christian Association decided to establish an
industrial service centre for employed girls and later
determined to make a survey of conditions affecting
working women in St. Louis, its field worker consulted
the secretary of the Consumers' League, who was glad
to coöperate in accomplishing these tasks.
The Missouri Consumers' League was able to render
assistance to the Red Cross Home Service Department
in regard to cases in which returned soldiers were given
industrial positions. Not only did municipal and state
organizations turn to the League for advice and help,
but welfare workers in factories also came to the
League office with requests for suggestions in developing
plans for working girls. The indefatigable and efficient
secretary, Mrs. Harry January, has been associated
with the League since its inception, and a large share of
the progress of its work is due to her untiring zeal.
NEW JERSEY
The New Jersey Consumers' League has accom-
plished some remarkable achievements. Before it
APPENDIX G
183
was organized, in March, 1901, there was little or no
legislation regulating the industry of women and
children. The only two laws which affected working
women were practically dead letters. The provision
requiring seats behind counters in stores had no penalty
attached for violation; consequently, the law was not
observed. The Factory Act limiting the hours of
women working in factories to fifty-five a week was not
enforced. Only in one instance was its enforcement
attempted; the matter was contested but the case was
never brought to trial.
Under the law existing at that time, boys of twelve
and girls of thirteen years of age were permitted to
work all night in glass factories. One little child of
seven was so exhausted after working all night in one of
these factories, that he stopped on his way home, fell
asleep near the railroad tracks, and was killed by a
passing train.
Children under legal age were able to secure work-
ing certificates from the chief factory inspector, if the
parents claimed to be in need of this extra income and
wished to put the children at work. No educational
qualification was required in order to obtain the work-
ing certificate. There was so little inspection by the
State Factory Department that its function was
looked upon as a farce.
The New Jersey Consumers' League started at once
to make an investigation in regard to hours of work.
The investigators found women and children working
in factories from 7 A. M. to 9 P. M. There was no limit
to the working hours of women in any industry before
184 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
the passage of the Ten-Hour Law (which granted
exemption for the two weeks before Christmas). At
the time that the project to organize a consumers'
league was being considered, the mercantile establish-
ment in Newark which had the best reputation as to
conditions of work was advertising: "We keep open
fourteen hours on Saturday."
When the stores had the greatest crowds and the
work was the most exhausting, hours were unlimited;
young children as well as women were often found
working until after midnight. The League's first action
which brought it into public notice was its attack
on the inefficiency of the Factory Department. Arti-
cles were published in newspapers and magazines, and a
petition was sent to Governor Voorhees asking him to
appoint a woman factory inspector.
It took nearly four years of persistent effort to educate
public opinion and get conditions remedied. Finally,
in 1904, the old Factory Department went out of exist-
ence and was succeeded by a new Labour Department,
supervised by a Labour Commissioner.
The Commissioner of Labour was sympathetic to-
wards every effort of the Consumers' League to improve
conditions for women and children. The Labour De-
partment became a model for every state in the Union.
In order to secure better protection for children in
industry, the Consumers' League called a meeting of
all organizations interested in their welfare, the out-
come of which was the formation of the Children's
Protective Alliance, which later on developed into the
Child Labour Committee.
APPENDIX G
185
Every bill for improving conditions of children in
industry up to the year 1915 was introduced by these
allied organizations, and several bills were enacted into
laws through their efforts, with the result of restricting
considerably the work of children.
Twenty-two years after the League was organized,
a different picture is presented in regard to the indus-
trial field. No manufacturing or mercantile establish-
ment, no bakery, laundry, or restaurant is permitted
to employ women longer than ten hours a day or fifty-
four hours a week, with no exemption at the Christmas
holiday season. Canneries, however, are not included
in the law. In the Department of Labour, three wo-
men inspectors really inspect, and at the head of the
Bureau of Safety a woman functions. Sanitary laws
have been enforced, seats have been placed behind
counters in stores, and a penalty exacted for viola-
tion of this measure; night work has been prohib-
ited in factories and laundries after 10 P. M. and before
6 A. M.
Progressive employers, through pressure brought by
public opinion, aroused by the League, have granted a
Saturday half holiday to their employees in summer,
and many stores have closed all day Saturday during
July and August.
The New Jersey League brought to the attention of
the Commissioner of Labour the growing evil of home.
work, which seemed to be getting more and more ex-
tensive. Under the supervision of one of the deputy
commissioners, an investigation was made and the
deputy, in a letter to the president of the League, gave
186 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
entire credit to the League for having proved the need
of the investigation.
The League conducted a campaign for the enactment
of a minimum-wage commission law, which, in 1923,
passed the Assembly, but was lost in the Senate.
During the war the president of the New Jersey
League was appointed chairman of the Committee on
Industry for the National Council of Defense of the
State of New Jersey. She was also made assistant
commissioner for New Jersey of the Federal Employ-
ment Service; this required the cöoperation of the
Consumers' League, as the commissioner, Colonel
Bryant, also Commissioner of Labour, permitted no
drive for workers in industrial plants until these plants
had been inspected and met the standards issued by the
United States Department of Labour.
Mrs. G. W. B. Cushing has been president of the
Consumers' League of New Jersey since its organiza-
tion. Through her zeal and her untiring efforts, the
League has been one of the great moral and civic forces
of the state. She also served for many years as re-
cording secretary of the National Consumers' League
and is at present one of its vice-presidents.
The maxim adopted by the New Jersey League is well
worthy of consideration: "Social justice is the best
safeguard against social disorder."
NEW YORK STATE
Plans for forming the Consumers' League of New York
State were informally discussed in January, 1898, but it
was not until February 24, 1900, that the League was
APPENDIX G
187
organized, a constitution adopted, and officers elected.
This first meeting was held at the Friendly Aid Settle-
ment House, 248 East 34th St., Mrs. Vladimir Simk-
hovitch presiding. Mrs. Frederick Nathan was asked
to be the first president of this newly formed league,
but as she was already president of the New York City
League, she declined the honour. However, she was
elected vice-president, and served as acting president
until 1903, when Miss Sadie American was elected to
the office. The first secretary was Miss Rowena Buell,
and the first treasurer, Miss Florence Colgate.
i At the meeting held in February, 1900, there were
delegates from Utica, Syracuse, Yonkers, Flushing,
Ithaca, and New York. It was reported that leagues
were in the process of being formed in Rochester and
Brockport. In the constitution it was stated that the
special object of the New York State League was to
bind together for effective concerted action all leagues
to be formed in the state.
The Brooklyn Consumers' League had been or-
ganized in 1895 by Mrs. Ruth Huntington Sessions, a
daughter of Bishop Huntington. She was the first
president of the League and continued in office until
she gave up her residence in Brooklyn, and moved to
Massachusetts. Mrs. Lillian W. Betts succeeded her
and remained president of the League until 1907,
when it was decided to make the Brooklyn League an
auxiliary branch of the New York City League, the
president and one delegate attending the New York
City board meetings. The Brooklyn League has done
valiant work ever since it was first organized. After
188 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
it united with the New York City League, it continued
under the able leadership of its chairman, Mrs. Stephen
Loines, to conduct investigations, hold exhibits, assist
the Brooklyn Health Department in its work of issuing
working certificates to children, and was instrumental
in bringing about changes in the school system in con-
nection with this branch of work. The League co-
operated in early Christmas shopping campaigns, legis-
lative work, and enforcement of labour laws, and also
published a handbook of the state labour laws. One of
the most important pieces of work undertaken by the
League was an investigation of tenement homes where
manufacturing was carried on. At present, its principal
work consists in providing a scholarship for a Brooklyn
girl for the Bryn Mawr Summer School of Industrial
Workers.
During the years of 1907-08 the New York State
Consumers' League, under the leadership of Mrs.
Robert McVickar, engaged Dr. Mary Taylor Bissell, a
sister of President Taylor of Vassar College, as field
secretary. She travelled throughout the state or-
ganizing local leagues in various centres. Among
those organized were the leagues of Mt. Vernon, Hud-
son, Albany, Schenectady, Fayetteville, Olean, Au-
burn, Elmira, Kingston, Poughkeepsie, Watertown,
and Buffalo.
Later on, there were many school leagues organized,
as for example: the Albany College for Teachers, St.
Agnes School, Albany; Packer Collegiate Institute,
Brooklyn; Mechanics' Institute, Rochester; Syracuse
APPENDIX G
189
University, Solvay High School, Syracuse; and Vassar
College, Poughkeepsie.
Many of these local branches were only active when
aroused by speakers from New York or by the field
secretary, Doctor Bissell. The Buffalo League was the
strongest, having secured a large membership which
enabled it to have an office and an executive secretary.
The Buffalo Consumers' League did good work in in-
vestigating conditions and in working with girls en-
gaged in industry. The League participated actively
in all state investigations and legislative work. Miss
Sarah L. Truscott was president for a number of years.
In Rochester, the League had the active coöperation
of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union.
Under the leadership of Miss Caroline A. Whipple,
and later under Mrs. Campbell Macmillan, the Schenec-
tady Consumers' League did admirable work. It could
always be counted upon to assist with state investiga-
tions and to provide delegates for legislative hearings at
Albany. The League succeeded in getting the mercan-
tile establishments to grant a Saturday half holiday in
summer to employees.
In Utica, Miss Lucy Carlile Watson has been the
guiding spirit from its inception. In the spring of 1900
the president of the New York City League was asked
to address a mass meeting in order to arouse interest.
in the newly formed League. The state factory in-
spector, whose home was in Utica, was among her audi-
tors. He was surprised to learn that Mrs. Nathan had
that afternoon been inspecting some of the tenement
190 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
homes where clothing was being made in unlicensed
houses. After the meeting the factory inspector met
Mrs. Nathan and the officers of the local league and
promised his hearty coöperation. For a number of
years Mrs. J. T. A. Doolittle was president of the Utica
League, which has always responded effectively to the
demands of the State League.
Miss Emma Beard organized the League of Fayette-
ville, and from the very beginning of the work she has
been most assiduous in striving to accomplish the aims
of the League. For many years she was the president
of the New York State League, and her zeal and en-
thusiasm have never lagged.
The Syracuse Consumers' League has had for many
years the unflagging interest and enthusiastic leadership
of Mrs. Horace A. Eaton. It has taken an active part
in endeavouring to restrict child labour. It conducted
a successful campaign against permitting very young
children to peddle newspapers in the streets. An acci-
dent which crippled a small newsboy was the means of
arousing the public conscience through a mass meeting.
One of the results was that the League secured the ap-
pointment of a special attendance officer on the school
board, whose entire time was given to the enforcement
of the newsboy law. It was learned that the crippled
boy of fourteen had, according to his mother's state-
ments, scarcely spent a night at home since he had been
seven years of age. He had passed his nights in the
alleys waiting for the early morning edition of the
newspapers. The Syracuse League also conducted
campaigns to bring about the Saturday half holiday in
APPENDIX G
191
summer and the six o'clock closing of stores. The
League has been a pillar of strength to the State Con-
sumers' League and Mrs. Eaton is at the present time
the corresponding secretary of the New York League.
For about eight years the New York State head-
quarters were in Syracuse. The League constantly
coöperated with other state associations in its legislative
work. It kept in touch with the Women's Federation of
Clubs, the Parents' and Teachers' Association, the
League of Women Voters, and the Women's Christian
Temperance Union. The League also took advan-
tage of state fairs in order to spread its propaganda.
Two state-wide wage studies were conducted with
special investigators in charge.
In 1920 the State League coöperated with the Joint
Legislative conference, working for minimum wage
legislation and for the eight-hour working day for
women. Representatives attended hearings on the
recodification of the labour law and worked to attain
the Bureau of Women in Industry in the Department
of Labour. The State League also did its share of work
to attain a federal bill for the Regulation of the Meat
Packing Industry, for a health insurance bill, and for
the Sheppard-Towner bill.
In 1922, the New York State and New York City
leagues were merged into one league: the Consumers'
League of New York, with the office of the League in
New York City, Mrs. Percy Jackson¹ being elected the
first president.
¹As this book goes to press, information has been received of the death
of Mrs. Percy Jackson.
192 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
Among the many pamphlets published by the New
York Consumers' League are: "Women's Wages To-
day," "The Consumers' Coöperative Societies in New
York State," "Behind the Scenes in a Hotel."
All mention of the work of the New York City
League has been omitted from this state report, because
the New York City League, having been the pioneer
league, its work has been so closely linked up with the
history of the movement that sufficient details have al-
ready been given in the body of the book.
NORTH CAROLINA
In 1913 a branch of the National Consumers' League
was reported to have been formed in the State Normal
School in Greensboro. There seems to be no other
data available.
OHIO
One year after the National League was founded, the
Consumers' League of Ohio was organized with head-
quarters in Cleveland (April, 1900), and six years later
the Cincinnati League was started. A local league was
formed in Canton in 1911 and functioned for a couple
of years, but apparently had not sufficient vitality to
live longer. However, the Toledo League, which did
not appear in the field until sixteen years after the
parent League was organized in Cleveland, has been,
as well as the Cincinnati League, a tower of strength,
doing valiant work. The Ohio League has also had
the intelligent coöperation of the students of the
Western Reserve University, one of whom, under the
direction of the School of Applied Sciences of the
APPENDIX G
193
University, has recently made a study of the children
who took out part-time and vacation working certificates.
The Ohio League, through its various local leagues,
has accomplished much work; it has created an enlight-
ened public opinion throughout the state, thus paving
the way for legislation looking towards the betterment
of industrial conditions.
It increased the demand for goods made and sold
under right conditions to such an extent that manu-
facturers who had their plants in Ohio sent requests to
the League to send investigators to inspect their premi-
ses, with the view of being permitted to use the League
label. Within three years after the first League was
organized twenty-two stores in Cleveland were carrying
labelled goods, and eight of them were on the League's
White List, showing that they conformed to the Stand-
ard of a Fair House. This White List was abandoned
ten years later because none of the merchants was
willing to raise the minimum wage above seven dollars a
week, and the League felt that it could not conscien-
tiously recommend stores where such low wages were
paid.
Among the League's many activities may be men-
tioned the pressure brought upon merchants which
resulted in the early closing of stores, even during the
Christmas holiday season; the raising of the age of work-
ing boys and girls to sixteen; securing the passage
of an
ordinance which prohibited children under twelve from
selling newspapers in the down-town districts; establish-
ing the Saturday half holiday and the weekly half
holiday for grocery clerks; helping to secure the first
1
194 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
Child Labour Law in the state; taking the initiative in
securing legislation to regulate hours of labour for
women, and for reducing them from fifty-four to fifty a
week; bettering the sanitary conditions of soda foun-
tains, restaurant kitchens, and neighbourhood stores.
It made studies of clerks in retail stores, including drug
clerks, of women workers in factories, home workers in
the clothing industry, women employed in banks, rail-
roads, insurance, and other offices, and those operating
elevators. It also investigated hours and wages of
charwomen in office buildings and women workers in
hotels.
A unique piece of work which deserves mention in
more detail was the establishment, in 1909, of a coöpera-
tive employment bureau for girls, which was a pioneer
in this field. It was more than a mere employment
agency, it was "a constructive social agency working
towards the prevention of wasted lives, by making the
most of youth's possibilities"; it not only placed
workers, giving advice as to choice of occupation and
encouraging minors to remain longer at school, but
made trade investigations and coöperated with other
agencies; it also maintained a directory of boarding
places. It conducted a summer camp on Lake Erie,
within commuting distance of Cleveland. During
the summer of 1911, seven hundred and five girls visited
this tent colony and enjoyed the lake breeze, paying
only a dollar a week for a cot.
The League, through its experience in connection
with the Bureau, was enabled to secure the passage of a
bill regulating employment bureaus, and aided in es-
į
¡
APPENDIX G
195
tablishing the present City-State Free Employment
Bureau to which it turned over its work in 1914.
The League has coöperated with the Board of Educa-
tion, Vocation Bureau, and State Industrial Commis-
sion in bringing about reforms, and during the war was
prominent in the work of the Ohio Council of National
Defense, the president of the Cleveland League serving
as chairman of the Committee on Women in Industry
in the Council.
Realizing that the industrial workers were the third
line of defense, the soldiers depending upon them for
equipment of every kind, the League showed the neces-
sity of keeping workers in good condition, so that their
output would not be lessened. The League was called
upon to furnish speakers to explain the workers' point
of view, and many employers sent to the League office
for literature. The League was able to point out the
fact that in England it was found wiser to retain a short
working day in order to keep the output at a high mark.
The Public Library, at the League's request, dis-
played the best books on industrial questions; health
talks were arranged for factories and cooking classes
started, that working women might be taught which
were the most nourishing foods and how to prepare
them.
The League helped to prepare bills to keep women
out of the dangerous trades, the freight yards, and night
taxi service. However, the American public is fickle;
after the Armistice, public interest in working women
ceased, and many people objected to "stirring up"
labour, for fear workers might get more and more de-
196 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
fiant and arbitrary. It was considered unwise to en-
courage discontent among workers (even when condi-
tions obviously needed remedying), as it might lead to
strikes and the ruin of business. The ruin of the
workers' health, with the inevitable dire consequences
affecting future generations, was apparently unworthy
of consideration. It takes years of hammering to
convince a thoughtless public that when workers are
well treated profits increase and the entire community
benefits.
A
The League was obliged to put forth much effort to
educate the public to demand a bill to make the Women
in Industry Service a permanent bureau and to secure
a larger appropriation for the State Industrial Com-
mission, in order to increase the number of factory
inspectors. Few people were apparently aware of the
fact that these offices existed.
The Toledo League joined a round table of twenty-
four state-wide organizations interested in working
women and, under the banner of the Ohio Council of
Women in Industry, started a campaign for a minimum
wage. Through the League's persuasion, Miss Mary
Anderson of the Woman's Bureau, United States
Labour Department, sent her experts to cover the
state and thus secured up-to-date statistics and data
on wages and living costs.
The League has become an authoritative source of
information for students of economics. At the present
time, when, through the work of the League, the public
conscience has become more sensitive, it is difficult to
credit the facts which appear in some of the League
APPENDIX G
197
reports. Until the Consumers' League focussed the
attention of a careless shopping public on the consumers'
responsibility for the existence of certain evils, no one
gave a thought to little boys in knickerbockers deliver-
ing heavily framed pictures at half-past ten o'clock on
Christmas Eve, or boxes of candy at twenty minutes
past midnight, with more boxes to be delivered even at
that cruelly late hour.
The Cincinnati League presented its cause in a pic-
turesque and dramatic manner, through the medium of
two original plays, written especially for it, one a
comedy entitled: "Merry Christmas," giving the haras-
sed shopper's point of view; the other a touching
tragedy called: "The Shadowed Star," founded upon
actual conditions which showed the hardships of over-
burdened workers at the holiday season. The first
president of the Ohio Consumers' League was Miss
Belle Sherwin, who served until 1903, when Mrs.
Frederic C. Howe succeeded to the office. A few
A few years
later she was followed by Miss Myrta L. Jones, who
served in that capacity many years. She became so
identified with the work of the League, and was so
assiduous in promoting its welfare, that in 1910 she
was elected a vice-president of the National Consumers'
League and has held that office ever since. At the
present time, Miss Wilma C. Ball is president of the
Ohio League, and Miss Jones has been elected honorary
vice-president. Whatever may have been the results.
of the Ohio League's work, none has been more fruitful
¹Written by Miss Elizabeth R. Kellogg.
2Written by Miss Mary Louise McMillan.
198 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
than the embedding in the hearts of the founders the
firm faith in the righteousness of the cause, and the
belief that an ever-widening circle will eventually
wish to share in the working girls' heroic struggle for
equity and justice. To quote a member of the Toledo
League: "The work has been a glory in the lives of
those who were permitted through the League to under-
stand better the noble aspirations of thousands of work-
ing women.'
››
OREGON
In 1902, the president of the New York City League
was invited to speak in Portland, Oregon, on the aims
and work of the Consumers' League. The following
year, 1903, the Consumers' League of Oregon appeared
on the horizon, with Miss Mary Montgomery as its
first president. Its first piece of work was to secure an
amendment to the Ten-Hour Law for working women,
so as to extend its protection to retail-store workers,
these not having been included in the original bill.
The amendment was passed in 1907, but the act carried
exemption for one week preceding Christmas Day,
thus enabling firms to employ women twelve hours a
day during the holiday season. Two years later the
League secured a further amendment to the law,
abolishing this privilege.
The Oregon Consumers' League took the initiative in
endeavouring to secure sanitary conditions in the prepa-
ration, distribution, and storage of food. The Oregon
crusaders in the campaign, feeling that more could be
¹Olive A. Colton.
APPENDIX G
199
accomplished through an organization, joined the Con-
sumers' League and asked to be allowed to work as a
pure food committee." At that time, pure food was
not mentioned in the constitution or by-laws of the
National Consumers' League. The National Pure Food
Bill was before Congress. The Oregon League appealed
to the National Consumers' League to include pure food
as one of its objects of attainment. This was voted
upon favourably. The Pure Food Bill was passed and
became operative in January, 1907. The following May
an open meeting of the Oregon Consumers' League was
held, with addresses by representatives of the Board of
Health, City Health Officers, and the City Food In-
spector, illustrated by culture plates of germs secured
from food obtained in the open market and vigorously
commented on by the speakers. The meeting was
largely attended, and much interest was manifested in
the movement. Shortly afterwards, a campaign for
pure milk was inaugurated. The work progressed
slowly, owing to the lack of coöperation on the part of
the State Food and Dairy Commissioner, who had held
office continuously for a period of twelve years.
CC
The Dairymen's Association also opposed the Port-
land city ordinance relating to the inspection and main-
tenance of dairies and the regulation of the sale of
milk and cream. Despite this opposition, the ordinance
was passed. It was found during the summer of 1909
that deaths of children under two years of age from
gastro-enteric diseases were greater per capita in Port-
land than in Chicago. As there was no excessive heat
and the drinking water was pure, it was decided that
200 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING Movement
impure milk contributed largely to these results, and
statements to this effect were incorporated in many
death certificates.
With the support of the Oregon Daily Journal, the
campaign was pushed energetically. An article pub-
lished August 29, 1909, stated: "Six hundred and
eighteen babies less than a year old died in Portland
last year, and tuberculous or dirty milk was the cause
of nearly every death."
In response to a petition to the State Board of Health
to take active measures to improve dairy conditions,
the officials asked the League to arouse the public
conscience to the end that the State Board of Health
receive proper support in its efforts.
The League secured the coöperation of all organiza-
tions interested in public health: the Chamber of
Commerce, Oregon Tuberculosis Association, Oregon
branch of the National Health League, Visiting Nurses'
Association, the women's clubs, the City and County
Medical Society; and those associations bombarded the
State Board of Health with petitions.
Members of the State and City Boards of Health
made personal visits of inspection to dairies, under the
auspices of the Pure Food Committee of the Consumers'
League. The disclosures fully justified the reports
made by the Oregon Daily Journal and emphasized
the need of vigorous enforcement of the pure milk
ordinance. A new ordinance was passed calling for
two new inspectors, one to be a chemist and the other
a veterinarian. Thus, tuberculin test of milk cows be-
came effective
APPENDIX G
201
An appeal for advice was then sent to the United
States Department of Animal Industry; veterinarians
were sent to inspect herds throughout the state. The
result of this inspection proved that infection was
worse than in any other state. An appeal was then
made to the Governor of the State and, as a result of
an investigation of the office of the Pure Food and
Dairy Commissioner, this officer was impeached by
the Legislature for mismanagement of office, a deputy
being appointed to fill his unexpired term. The Pure
Food Committee went twice to the Capitol to give
testimony. Statistics show that from 1909, when
conditions were the worst, until 1914, improvement had
been so marked that at the Panama Exposition, held
in California, Oregon stood first in competition with
the world for pure milk and dairy products.
sue.
Inquiries from all over the country, as well as from
foreign countries, have been received by the Oregon
Board of Health, in regard to proper methods to pur-
The development has steadily gone on. The
value of the accomplishment may be seen at a glance
by the following abstract from the report of the Chief
Dairy and Milk Inspector:
Number of deaths under two years of age from diarrhoea and
enteritis, starting with the year milk inspection began in Portland:
i
Year
1909
1910
1911
1912
1913
1914
No. Deaths
100
73
57
38
29
15
Rate per 1000 Births
32.6
21.5
15.2
9.3
7.7
3.6
202 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
Year
No. Deaths
14
12
1915
1916
1917
1918
1919
1920
1921
1922
33
24
26
22
19
17
P
Rate per 1000 Births
3.4
3.0
8.2
5.I
9.5
4.2
ind
3.5
3.2
Thus it can be noted how readily consumers, when
organized, can change conditions in their community.
Instead of complacently permitting abuses, the source
of evil must be discovered and abolished, and drastic
measures pursued by conscientious citizens well or-
ganized, in order to bring about successful achievement.
An awakened public conscience makes evil conditions
unprofitable.
In 1913, the League secured the passage of a mini-
mum-wage law, giving to the Industrial Welfare Com-
mission jurisdiction, not only over wages, but also
over hours and conditions of employment of women
and minors. Since then, the various rulings of the
Commission govern instead of the statutes.
The Industrial Welfare Commission is composed of
three members, one representing the employers, one
the employees, and the third, the public. The Com-
mission set in motion machinery for formal conferences
among the following groups: mercantile, manufacturing,
laundry, restaurants, and office, all conferences being
open to the public. At each conference there were
three representatives of employers, three of employees,
and three of the general public. Decisions of the
J
APPENDIX G
203
Industrial Welfare Commission were based on the
recommendations made by each occupational group.
One of the first results of the mercantile conferences
was to close retail shops, in which women were em-
ployed, at 6 p. M. This applies only to the city of
Portland; in the state at large 8.30 P. M. is the closing
hour. This was an important achievement, as the
League had been endeavouring unsuccessfully for
several years to secure the coöperation of employers to
effect a voluntary closing at that hour.
The chief variations in recommendations as to wages
were due principally to the fact that women working
in factories and laundries did not require as expensive
clothing as women in offices or clerks in stores, who
had contact with the public. In practically every
case, recommendations were unanimous; the Com-
mission called public hearings on the recommendations
submitted and ultimately issued orders making the
provisions obligatory.
In 1917, owing to the agitation on the part of the
cannery interests and fruit growers, the ten-hour
statute was amended, exempting from the jurisdiction
of the Industrial Welfare Commission women em-
ployed in "harvesting, packing, curing, canning, or dry-
ing any variety of perishable fruit, vegetable, or fish
for more than ten hours in one day." The Commis-
sion, however, secured a provision that when women
were employed more than ten hours a day, they were
to be paid time and a half for all overtime, and this
clause protected the women from unduly long hours.
The legislation pertaining to the Industrial Welfare
204 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
Commission was attacked in the courts by a paper-box
manufacturer of Portland, who claimed that it inter-
fered with his constitutional rights. Assisted by the
National Consumers' League the Oregon League suc-
cessfully defended the suit and the law was upheld in
the Oregon Supreme Court. The case was carried
later to the United States Supreme Court. Mr. Louis
Brandeis, who had previously (with the assistance of
Miss Josephine Goldmark) prepared the brief showing
the necessity of regulating women's wages in the inter-
est of health and public welfare, had been appointed a
Justice of the United States Supreme Court, so Mr.
Felix Frankfurter appeared on behalf of the Consumers'
League. The law was upheld by a majority decision of
the Court. The Commission continued its work, in spite
of opposition. At each successive legislature a lobby
undertook to destroy its power, but without success.
The U. S. Department of Labour made a study of
the results of minimum-wage legislation in Oregon, in
which it was shown that the general standard of wages
had been raised, women had not been replaced by men,
and that industry had not been handicapped. As a
proof that the Manufacturers' and Merchants' Asso-
ciation and the Laundry Owners' Association had found
the minimum-wage commission beneficial, it must be
noted that when the United States Supreme Court
annulled the Minimum-Wage Law in the District of
Columbia, they passed resolutions calling upon all their
members to maintain the Oregon law then in effect, to
obey the rulings of the Commission, and not to challenge
the constitutionality of the law in the courts.
APPENDIX G
205
;
The Oregon League has taken an active part in
child labour legislation and has been identified with
campaigns conducted by other civic bodies, when the
object of attainment coincided with the aims and
principles of the League. Because of its conservative
policy, its influence has been valued and its authority
on industrial questions has met with the consideration
which it merited.
PENNSYLVANIA
The first league to be organized after the New York
League was the Consumers' League of Pennsylvania,
which was formed nearly seven years later. A con-
stitution was adopted and a governing board elected
on February 28, 1897, and its first charter was granted
about two years afterwards. When the Pittsburgh
branch was formed in 1912, the charter was amended,
its title being changed to the Consumers' League of
Eastern Pennsylvania.
As the organization in eastern Pennsylvania grew in
membership and consequent influence, the League's
scope of work was gradually broadened. It made
many investigations into the conditions of labour,
trade, and industry, in order to enlighten the commun-
ity and to suggest such changes as the public welfare
warranted.
At first the League had volunteer investigators, but
after the reorganization of the Department of Labour
in 1913, the passage of the Woman's Labour Law, the
Workmen's Compensation Act, and various other
statutes, more skilled officials were going in and out of
206 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
industrial establishments, so that the policy of the
League has necessitated more and more the services of
trained and experienced workers in research work and
investigation.
The Eastern Pennsylvania League followed the ex-
ample of the New York League by publishing the
Standard of a Fair House and a White List, and by
endeavouring to abolish overtime work on Saturdays
and during the holiday season. By 1910, the League
succeeded in securing the coöperation of all department-
store firms, for they signed an agreement to close of an
evening, not only at Christmas time, but throughout
the year, each agreeing to close when all the others
had signed. The League constantly coöperated with
the National Consumers' League in creating a demand
for goods bearing the White Label, and in holding
exhibits of "Label" goods. It also took an active
part in bringing about much-needed legislative reforms
in regard to the protection of working women and chil-
dren. It coöperated with the Women Workers' and
Child Labour committees and assisted in preparing a
bill which was passed in 1905 and known as the Factory
Act. In 1913, a Woman's Labour Law was passed,
limiting hours of labour to fifty-four a week, prohibiting
night work, providing for lunch rooms, separate toilet
facilities, seats in workrooms, pure drinking water, and
a midday lunch period of forty-five minutes. The
League was in a large measure responsible for the en-
actment of this law, as it was also for the pressure
brought to reorganize the State Department of Labour
and Industry. It has endeavoured, though unsuccess-
<
APPENDIX G
207
fully thus far, to establish the Civil Service system in
this department and bring the department under its
regulations. The League also introduced bills for mini-
mum wage and an eight-hour working day, but up to
this time these bills have not been passed. A represen-
tative of the League has been constantly on the watch,
at every session of the State Legislature, fostering
legislation in favour of better working conditions and
opposing those detrimental to the interests of public
welfare. During the stress of war, misguided employers
endeavoured to nullify the Woman's Labour Law by
asking for an abatement of the regulations in order to
increase production. The National Consumers' League,
however, having shown that in England the output
of munitions was actually decreased by lengthening
hours for workers, and increased when hours were again
shortened, the Eastern Pennsylvania League was able,
with the coöperation of other organizations, to prevent
all modification or abatement of laws, in spite of a
rising public sentiment owing to ignorance of facts.
The League has taken a prominent part in forwarding
a movement for a woman's bureau in the Department
of Labour and Industry, and in a campaign to demand
competent appointees for official positions, but these
goals have not yet been reached.
The League has coöperated with the Industrial
Board of the State Department of Labour and Industry
in suggesting rules and regulations for adequate protec-
tion of the life, health, safety, and morals of employees,
notably in prohibiting the employment of messenger
girls under twenty-one years of age.
208 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
The functions of the new Industrial Board, under the
recent reorganization code of the state, are materially
different from those of the former Board. In future,
the Department of Labour will make all its own rules
and regulations, and the Industrial Board will be merely
advisory.
The League's advice was sought in relation to the
preparation of the sanitary code, the laundry code, and
the industrial home work code.
Realizing the futility of laws without proper enforce-
ment, the League has been ever alert to aid in enforce-
ment. When it had evidence of violations, it went
directly to the employers concerned or else reported to
the Department of Labour and Industry.
In 1910, a branch of the League known as the In-
dustrial Betterment Bureau was started in coöperation
with other social agencies in Philadelphia to investigate
factory conditions and to supply a clearing house for
labour by which workers may be diverted from less
desirable to better conditions, also to supply workers
to the employer in time of need. In 1912, an “after-
care" committee was initiated in connection with the
Bureau, with the idea of following up the industrial
careers of applicants placed, and so to exert a beneficial
influence on their industrial future. In 1915, this
bureau was discontinued after the organization of a
free employment bureau for adults under the control
of the State Department of Labour and Industry. A
placement bureau for children in the Bureau of Com-
pulsory Education of the public schools was established.
Partly as a result of the accumulation of facts relating
APPENDIX G
209
to children, their trade opportunities and experiences, a
movement for a trade school was started. The Con-
sumers' League was represented on the committee.
fostering the movement.
In 1916, the League took a definite responsibility for
the Bureau of Boarding Houses for Girls. Its aim was
to maintain a registry of houses, inspected and super-
vised, where working women and girls without homes
in the city might be provided with living quarters among
decent surroundings, and to encourage the managers
of these houses to maintain high moral and sanitary
standards. This Bureau grew to such proportions.
that it became an independent organization in 1918,
and later disbanded to reorganize under the auspices
of the Y. W. C. A.
The Committee on Investigations, formed first to
investigate the conditions in retail stores, soon broad-
ened its activities to other fields of study and made
general trade surveys as well as individual factory
investigations. As early as 1907, it was realized that
there was no general knowledge of conditions of women
in industry in Philadelphia, so the Consumers' League
determined to collect this material and make it avail-
able for general use. Studies were made and published
of conditions in silk mills, hosiery mills, paper-box
making, millinery, book binding, telephone service,
and sweated industries, as well as the general living
conditions and wages of Philadelphia working girls.
A study of the wages and cost of living of women in
department stores in Philadelphia was made under
the auspices of the Department of Labour and Industry,
210 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
by Consumers' League investigators, and published as a
department document.
It has not been uncommon for industrial establish-
ments and employing groups to make requests for
information which has entailed research, sometimes
of considerable importance. Two of these subjects:
"Some Philadelphia Firms Closed All Day Saturday,"
and "Vacations With Pay For Factory Workers,"
appear in the list of publications given below. An
immediate tangible result of the former compilation
was the closing on Saturdays in summer of the firm
making the inquiry and of the firm printing the findings.
Since the study was initiated many firms have adopted
the principle; therefore, it seems fair to assume that
their attention had been directed towards early closing
in summer by the publicity given to the report.
Some of the more recent reports published by the
Consumers' League, based on research, are:
Vacations with Pay for Factory Workers.
Industrial Home Work in Pennsylvania. (Done in
conjunction with the Department of Labour and
Industry and Bryn Mawr College).
Digest of State Labour Laws.
Trailing Behind, or How Pennsylvania Compares with
Other States in Protective Legislation for Working
Women and Children.
Coloured Women as Industrial Workers in Philadel-
phia.
Some Philadelphia Firms Closed All Day Saturday.
Working Women and Children in Pennsylvania—An
APPENDIX G
211
Analysis of the Occupational and the Manufactur-
ing Sections of the Fourteenth United States
Census.
The Consumers' League has been represented on
various state and municipal committees, and through
its knowledge of facts has often been able to contribute
valuable information. For instance, on the Fair Price
Committee, in a campaign to buy cheaper cuts of meat,
the League was able to prove that the packers were
backing the movement for their own profit and not to
reduce the high cost of living (as their representative
had testified at a congressional hearing) and the whole
matter was abandoned.
The Consumers' League, since its organization, has
acted as a centre of information and maintains a library
on subjects pertaining to women and children in in-
dustry and the laws and code rulings relating to them.
Through its educational platform it has been enabled
to bring the pressure of a unified public opinion against
many of the crying evils of the industrial system, and
by so doing has benefited the consuming as well as
the producing public.
It has been fortunate in having a devoted group of
faithful and public-spirited women associated with its
movement. Four officers and directors who served on
the first governing board of the organization in 1897
still serve in official capacities. Mrs. Samuel S. Fels,
Mrs. S. Burns Weston, Miss Anna C. Watmough, and
Mrs. Walter Cope. To these names may be added those
of Miss Florence Sanville, and Miss A. Estelle Lauder
212 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
whose indefatigable work as executive secretaries for
many years has been invaluable.
WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
The Consumers' League of Western Pennsylvania, a
member of the National League, was part of the State
League, from its inception until 1912, at which time the
Western Pennsylvania branch secured its own charter.
Before the charter was received and the State League
was working for the passage of a child labour bill,
the State League coöperated with the National Child
Labour Association, and the western branch worked
with the Allegheny County Child Labour Association,
maintaining a secretary for the campaign.
For five years before the charter was received, and
for two years afterwards, Mrs. William J. Askin was
president.
The Western Pennsylvania branch has always fol-
lowed the programme of the National League, so it
has been active in all lines of legislation, both State
and Federal.
When the White Label was in use, the best merchants
of the city gave splended coöperation in having special
public displays of White Label goods and in using the
White Label stamp in advertising the annual sale of
white goods.
In inaugurating the "Shop Early" campaign, the
League offered prizes to high-school pupils for the best
essays on "Early Christmas Shopping." The response
was tremendous, and the task of reading and deciding
was heavy.
APPENDIX G
213
The next step was to petition the banks to release
the Christmas Savings fund two weeks earlier, that
the rush might not come at the last minute.
The National Sweatshop Exhibit was displayed at
the Pittsburgh Exposition.
The League put on an educational campaign by
asking the clubs, especially those in the smaller towns,
to have an Industrial Day on their programme, one
member to prepare a paper on some subject pertaining
to women and children in industry, the League sending
literature on the subject, or suggesting a line of reading,
this to be followed by an open discussion of the subject
led by the secretary of the League. Abstracts of the
law were distributed, with the request that violations
be reported to the League, the League in turn reporting
to the Department of Labour. This has been of great
value, not only in checking violations, but when pres-
sure is needed on State or Federal representatives, these
clubs answer our call.
Our affiliation with the Congress of Clubs of this
district affords many opportunities to spread the work.
The League has always worked in harmony with
other organizations, has had good service from the
Department of Labour, all reported violations having
been taken care of and reported back to the League.
From the beginning the League has had the endorse-
ment of the Chamber of Commerce.
Special speakers have been sent into the field in
behalf of the Sheppard-Towner bill, the Child Labour
amendment, and against the Equal Rights bill.
The National Consumers' League met in Pittsburgh
214 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
in 1911, the speakers being President John Graham
Brooks, Mrs. Frederick Nathan, First Vice-President,
Mrs. Florence Kelley, Secretary, Miss Florence Sanville,
Dr. John A. Ryan.
RHODE ISLAND
In December, 1901, the Rhode Island Council of
Women called a meeting in Pembroke Hall, Brown
University, to hear the president of the New York
City League give the theory and purpose of the Con-
sumers' League. At the close of her address, the Rhode
Island Consumers' League was formed, with an initial
membership of forty-six; its purpose was declared to
be "the formation of public opinion which shall lead
consumers to recognize their responsibilities." The
following platform was adopted:
(1) All goods should be made under sanitary con-
ditions for the protection of both worker and consumer.
(2) Good work should command adequate compensa-
tion.
(3) Employees should receive fair wages and humane
consideration.
In 1912, the membership increased to three hundred
and sixteen and the League was incorporated under the
laws of Rhode Island.
The first work undertaken by the League was to
create a popular demand for labelled goods through a
comprehension of the reasons for and use of the label.
The methods were the same as those employed by the
leagues of other states-investigation to see what
stores carried such goods, the advertising of the stores
APPENDIX G
215
and the goods, the endeavour to secure a varied line
of labelled goods in as many shops as possible, and the
arrangement of exhibits and sales of labelled goods.
This work continued until the label was discontinued
in 1918.
The next work of importance was for early Christmas
shopping, now so universally established in principle
and practice through the efforts of consumers' leagues
throughout the country. For years the Consumers'
League strove to induce people to shop early in Decem-
ber and early in the day. Then the editors of news-
papers came to the League's assistance by running
contests for the best cartoons on early Christmas
shopping. Posters were placed in street cars and
every conceivable means of advertising was used.
In 1916, the Chamber of Commerce coöperated with
the League in persuading the public to shop early.
By 1919, the merchants, having realized the wisdom
of the policy, undertook the advertising of the early
shopping movement themselves.
The campaign for the six o'clock closing of stores was
not so popular, nor has it been so universally accepted.
The League endeavoured to induce firms to close at
6 P.M. during July and August, hoping thus gradually
to extend the custom throughout the entire year. For
several months, in 1914, many of the stores in Provi-
dence closed every night at six, including Saturday.
Then the smaller specialty shops declined to follow
the lead of the department stores, so because of com-
petition, the latter were forced to reopen. The League,
after making a study of the question, was able to show
216 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING Movement
that Saturday is not the universal pay-day, and there-
fore Saturday-evening shopping is not imperative. A
statement of facts relating to early closing was sent to
the Retail Merchants' Committee of the Chamber of
Commerce, which impressed the merchants to such a
degree that, by 1919, practically all the Providence
stores had adopted six o'clock closing every night in the
week. Only one large store is defying the general
practice, and that is one of a chain under New York
management. Providence has by no means been the
only place in the state where progress has been notice-
able. In most of the other cities and in the larger
towns, it is only on Saturday evening that stores remain
open after six o'clock, but the new custom is spreading.
The merchants next considered the question of the
weekly half holiday to their employees during July
and August, and now this custom is in vogue in prac-
tically every large store in Providence. In 1923, one
firm gave, instead, a full holiday in the middle of the
week during these two months.
The League found that because retail stores were not
included under the Factory Act, which limited the
working hours of women and children, clerks in stores
were sometimes working as long as fourteen hours a
day. The League therefore set about having the pro-
visions of the Fifty-four Hour Law (passed in 1913)
extended to include mercantile and business establish-
ments. This was probably the greatest single achieve-
ment of the League during its early years.
The League has not been content merely to do
legislative work, it has also taken up law violations
APPENDIX G
217
with managers of stores, and if these were persisted
in, they were reported to the State Inspection Depart-
ment.
A committee on conditions surrounding employees
made painstaking investigations, and through the
committee's influence, individual establishments were
improved; rest rooms were provided, an additional
number of seats secured, as well as seats with backs,
steel lockers for cloaks and hats installed, hospitals
and fire drills organized, greater protection from fire
assured, and better sanitary conditions inaugurated.
These improvements which the committee was able to
secure in certain stores were also obtained by the
executive secretary in some of the factories.
As early as 1903, the League began to arouse interest
in children engaged in industrial occupations, and
secured the passage of laws prohibiting night work for
those under sixteen years of age; nine years later an
act prohibiting messengers under twenty-one from
working after 10 P.M. was passed; and again, three years
afterwards, a Street Trades bill placed further restric-
tions upon boys and girls under sixteen years of age.
In 1923 the Children's bill was passed, which prohibited
the employment of children on specified dangerous
machinery and in certain hazardous occupations, re-
quired a standard physical examination for children
about to enter industry, raised the age at which children
can leave school for work from fourteen to fifteen, and
provided for special certificates for children of fourteen
to work when school is not in session.
It is generally conceded that practically all the
218 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING Movement
statutes for working children have been enacted through
the League's influence.
Legislation for women has met with strong opposition
because the state is industrial, and progress has there-
fore been slow. However, the League helped to secure
the reduction of working hours for women and minors
to fifty-four hours a week and ten hours a day, covering
manufacturing, mechanical, mercantile, and business
establishments without exception; secured the provision
of seats for women employees, the prohibition of the
common cup and towel in industry, and procured the
abolition of the "Kiss of Death" shuttle in textile
mills.
The Rhode Island League has had the true spirit
of the pioneer in initiating movements and then turning
over the work to the authorities to whom they properly
belonged. The establishment of the Coöperative Em-
ployment Bureau may be cited as one example. Realiz-
ing that the city was doing little to help find the right
kind of work for the boy or girl who must leave school
early, the League, in 1912, coöperated with seven other
civic organizations in order to give practical advice to
these children and to help them obtain suitable posi-
tions. Again the Chamber of Commerce assisted,
this time in convincing the Providence Public School
authorities that the work rightfully belonged to them,
and in 1918 it became the Bureau of Vocational Guid-
ance, under the public school system.
A unique movement fostered by the Rhode Island
League was the Governor Beeckman Prize Garden
APPENDIX G
219
Contest, which started in 1916. For years the League
had felt the need of encouraging the operatives in the
mill villages to raise their own vegetables and to sur-
round their homes with flowers and shrubs. The
state raised so little of its food that the matter was a
vital economic one in regard to the operatives; for if
food were costly and wages low, the result was in many
cases undernourishment. Therefore, the Consumers'
League asked the Rhode Island League of Improve-
ment Societies to coöperate in this movement and sent
a request to Governor Beeckman for prizes of silver
cups to be given the operatives who developed the best
flower gardens in the state. In order to retain the prizes
permanently, they had to be won three years in suc-
cession, so an additional gift of ten dollars in gold was
also awarded to the cup winners and five dollars in
gold for the second-best gardens. A prize was also
offered to the village which showed the greatest im-
provement during the spring and summer. The con-
test, carried on for four years, grew to such proportions
that nearly four thousand gardens were inspected the
last year. As the United States was at war and people
all over the country were being urged to raise their
own food stuffs, the contest gained in importance; it is,
therefore, significant that in 1918 more than five
hundred operatives received certificates of achievement
signed by the Governor for having substantially in-
creased the production of food.
The League has never undertaken any new work
without first pursuing a scientific investigation; as
220 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
many as five such investigations have been carried on
in one year.
One of the strongest features of the League's work
has been the education of the public through member-
ship campaigns, lectures, distribution of literatúre on
subjects of particular interest, and generally spreading
the knowledge of the League's purposes and ideals.
For six years the League held prize contests in the
public and private schools for the best essay on some
phase of the League's work.
Two other interesting experiments were successfully
tried. In 1919, a public course of lectures on economics
was held at a central meeting place. The League
also formed a committee of twenty-one, representing
capital, labour, and the public, to meet together in
order to discuss frankly the controversial problems
which so frequently caused friction between capital
and labour, as well as seriously inconvenienced the
consuming public.
It can readily be seen that investigation, education,
and legislation are the established principles of all
consumers' leagues.
In Rhode Island other organizations have been so
convinced, through the propaganda of the Consumers'
League, of the responsibility of each and every member
of society for the conditions under which the articles
they consume are made and distributed, that they all
now have committees on women in industry and on
child labour or child welfare. It is, therefore, difficult
to measure accurately the results of the work of the
Consumers' League. Without doubt its influence in
APPENDIX G
221
shaping the policies of the state affecting women and
children in industry has been and will continue to be a
momentous factor.
TENNESSEE: 1903-12
During the first two years of its existence the Ten-
nessee League distributed a quantity of literature, and
among the women's clubs it strove to stimulate discus-
sion of such topics as child labour, tenement home work,
and other subjects pertaining to the work of the Na-
tional Consumers' League. In Knoxville, it conducted
a campaign for labelled garments and early Christmas
shopping. Mrs. Joel C. Tyler was the president of
the League.
TEXAS: 1913-20
A local branch was organized in Austin, and through
its efforts a minimum-wage commission was temporarily
established. However, it seemed impossible to secure
reasonable wages for the mixed classes of white,
coloured, and Mexican working women and girls, and
so the task was abandoned.
UTAH: 1903-05
No data apparently available.
VERMONT: 1903-07
Two branches were organized-one in Burlington
and one in St. Johnsbury-but there seem to be no
reports of work accomplished.
222
STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
VIRGINIA: 1901-02
This league apparently died in its infancy.
WISCONSIN
The Consumers' League of Wisconsin was organized
more than seventeen years ago. Under the leadership
of Mrs. B. C. Gudden of Oshkosh, it established a pro-
gramme of work that has been continuous in its activi-
ties to the present day. During the first years, the
emphasis was placed upon the work of educating the
public in order that the demand be created for goods
manufactured under conditions favourable to the
workers. After the public conscience had been aroused,
the next step was to secure adequate protective legisla-
tion for workers. For the last six or eight years the
Consumers' League of Wisconsin has interested itself
almost exclusively in efforts to secure legislation pro-
moting the welfare of women and children in industry.
The League has initiated the following legislative
programme by preparing the bills, attending the hear-
ings, and lobbying for their passage:
(1) Minimum-Wage Law, which was passed and was
in effect when the League conducted a second investiga-
tion in order that the wage be raised. An increase in
the wage was secured.
(2) A bill asking that no child be given a permit to
work until he was fourteen years of age and had finished
the eighth grade in school or else completed nine years
outside of kindergarten. This was passed and is now a
law.
APPENDIX G
223
(3) A bill to include girls working in hotels, under
the State Fifty-five Hour Law, and also the supervision
of the Industrial Commission as to hours and wages.
This bill was defeated three times, but finally passed in
1922.
The League has also prepared petitions to the In-
dustrial Commission asking that:
(1) Night work be abolished in factories. This re-
quest was granted.
(2) The eight-hour day be given. This latter has
never been directly granted. Hence the law now is
fifty hours a week.
(3) A petition was submitted to the Supreme Court
asking for a rehearing of the case which caused a de-
cision to be rendered taking from the Industrial Com-
mission all power to regulate women's hours of labour.
The Court reversed its decision after securing the facts
as submitted in the brief which accompanied the peti-
tion. This was done without a rehearing.
The results of two minimum-wage investigations
conducted by the League have been published in pam-
phlet form. A report of an investigator, secured by the
League, on conditions in Wisconsin hotels, was pub-
lished in the Survey and reprints used in the 1922 Legis-
lation.
A Summary of Protective Laws for the Working
Women and Children of Wisconsin was published.
Librarians have sent for this summary and it has found
its way into twenty-eight different states of the Union.
224 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
1
APPENDIX H
Form of Agreement Between the National Consumers'
League and the Manufacturers
THIS AGREEMENT, made this
between the NATIONAL CON-
day of
,
in the year
SUMERS' LEAGUE, party of the first part, herein-
after referred to as LEAGUE, and
of the City
of County of State of
second part, hereinafter referred to as MANUFAC-
party of the
TURER
Witnesseth, Whereas, the aforesaid League has been
organized for the purpose of promoting intelligent and
effective coöperation among the purchasers in demand-
ing goods made under right conditions in preference to
the Sweat Shop product;
And Whereas, the said League has adopted the fol-
lowing label:

MADE UNDE
CLEAN
HEALTHFUL (= (CONSUMERS)))
LEAGUE
CONDITIONA
LIGEN.88
VALE
DAIGN
OF LABEL
^NATIONAL AUTHORIZED
NOV 135
AFTER
INVESTIGATION
which is registered to distinguish in the market goods
made under conditions in respect to age of employees,
hours of labour, and provisions for health and safety
approved by it;
And Whereas, the parties of the first part are ap-
pointed with full power to allow to manufacturers the
use of said label;
APPENDIX H
225
And Whereas, the said League is broadly advertising
to the public the use and significance of the aforesaid
label;
And Whereas, said Manufacturer is conducting his
factory under conditions that have been investigated
and approved by said League, and is desirous of secur-
ing whatever benefits there are to be derived by using
the aforesaid label on goods made in said Manufac-
turer's premises—
Now, Therefore, in consideration of the sum of $1.00
and the covenants contained herein, it is mutually
agreed as follows:
,
Ist. That this Agreement is numbered
and
that each and every one of the aforesaid labels used by
the said Manufacturer shall be marked License Num-
ber
2d. That the said League will furnish without charge
to said Manufacturer three electrotypes of each of the
several sizes of the aforesaid label that are required by
said Manufacturer for the various goods on which they
are to be used.
3d. That the said Manufacturer, at his own expense,
shall provide such duplicates of said electrotypes as
are needed for making rubber stamps or for printing
labels, and that all expenses for said labels shall be
borne by said Manufacturer, and that said labels shall
be attached in a manner approved by the League to
garments made by such Manufacturer.
4th. That said Manufacturer will not during the
continuance of this Agreement, or any time thereafter,
furnish the aforesaid label to any other party.
226 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
5th. That said Manufacturer agrees to maintain said
factory under conditions approved by said League,
among which conditions the following are especially
agreed to, viz.:
1. That all provisions of the State Factory Law
and rulings of the State Wage Commission are to be
complied with.
2. That the label is to be used by said Manu-
facturer only when all stitched goods, sold by the
Manufacturer, are made on premises previously ap-
proved by the League.
(a) Said Manufacturer agrees to furnish said
League with addresses of all premises where
any part or parts of stitched goods sold by him
are made.
(b) Said Manufacturer furthermore agrees
that no stitched goods nor any part thereof be
manufactured, altered or repaired in a room or
apartment any part of which is used as a dwell-
ing, nor in any room directly connected there-
with.
3. (a) That standards approved by the League
with regard to cleanliness, sanitation, lighting and
ventilation shall be maintained on the premises at all
times.
(b) That such physical conditions shall be
maintained on premises as will not give rise to fire,
and will minimize the spread of fire, and that safe
egress shall be provided to accommodate all workers.
4. That no girl under the age of sixteen years
APPENDIX H
227
shall be employed, or permitted or suffered to work
on such premises.
5. That no female shall be employed, or suffered
or permitted to work in said factory between the
hours of 10 P. M. and 7 A. M., nor longer than nine
hours in any one day, except for the purpose of mak-
ing one shorter work day, in which case the hours
shall not exceed ten in any one day, nor fifty-four
hours in any one week.
6. (a) That entrance to the premises for purposes.
of inspection shall be granted at any time to the
League's accredited investigator.
(b) That all records of hours and wages shall
be accessible to any investigator duly accredited by
the League, no information so gathered to be made
public in so far as it involves the name of the in-
dividual firm.
7. That said Manufacturer shall immediately
notify said League if a strike or lockout occur in his
factory, it being understood that the League reserves
the right to suspend the use of its label during such
strike or lockout.
6th. The license hereby granted to the Manu-
facturer by the League may be revoked by the League
whenever in its opinion the Manufacturer has violated
any of the conditions of this agreement or whenever,
for any reason or cause, the League desires such revoca-
tion. Written notice of such revocation of license shall
be given by registered mail to the Manufacturer at the
address given below, and all rights of the Manufacturer
228 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
to use the label shall terminate thirty days after his
receipt of such notice.
In case of revocation the Manufacturer hereby
agrees-
1. To return immediately all electrotypes of the
League label in his possession or under his control,
whether the same have been furnished to him by the
League or otherwise procured.
2. To destroy or return to the League at its
election all labels which the Manufacturer then has
on hand.
3. To discontinue forthwith using said labels or
attaching same to any goods manufactured or in
process of manufacture, or to any boxes, packages,
stationery, or advertising matter of any kind.
Should the use of said label be thus discontinued,
said Manufacturer shall have the right to dispose of
such goods as may be in stock in case said label cannot
be removed without injuring the appearance of the
goods.
7th. In the event of the failure of the Manufacturer
to comply forthwith with all of the above conditions,
upon receipt of notice of revocation as aforesaid, the
said Manufacturer agrees to pay within thirty days as
liquidated damages to said League or its authorized
agent the sum of One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) with-
out prejudice of the right of said League to enjoin the
further use of said label by said Manufacturer. The
said Manufacturer further agrees to pay as liquidated
damages for any violation by him of the factory main-
tenance conditions above specified in Paragraph Fifth,
APPENDIX I
229
the sum of One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) for each
failure to comply with said conditions.
8th. This agreement may be terminated by either
party by his giving to the other party by registered
mail thirty days' notice of his intention to terminate the
same.
In Witness Whereof, the said League has hereunto
set its hand and seal to this and to another instrument
of like tenor and date, by , its President, and
its Treasurer, and said Manufacturer by
in the day and year as above written.
>
Witness for
Witness for
Witness for
President of League.
APPENDIX I
Treasurer of League.
Representative of Manufacturer.
Address of Manufacturer.
First Published List of Manufacturers Using the White
Label of the National Consumers' League
George Frost Mfg. Co., Boston, Mass.
Worcester Corset Co., Worcester, Mass.
C. F. Hathaway & Co., Waterville, Me.
Wm. T. Burns Underwear Co., Worcester, Mass.
Fairmount Mfg. Co., Hyde Park, Mass.
230 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
Whitall Mfg. Co., Lowell, Mass.
Westboro Underwear Co., Westboro, Mass.
Israel Underwear Co., Worcester, Mass.
Natick Underwear Co., Springfield, Mass.
Keach & Brown, Valley Falls, R. I.
E. A. King, Valley Falls, R. I.
Cummings Mfg. Co., Philadelphia, Pa.
Samuel A. Murray, Jr., Philadelphia, Pa.
Jackson Corset Co., Jackson, Mich.
Paul, Enochs & Co., Philadelphia, Pa.
APPENDIX J
First Published List of the Officers of La Ligue Sociale
d'Acheteurs of France
Mme. Klobb, President.
Mme. Georges Brincard, Vice-President.
Mme. L. de Contenson, Vice-President.
Mme. Jean Brunhes, General Secretary, Hôtel des
Sociétés Savantes, 28 Rue Serpente (Bureau de la
Ligue).
M. J. Bergeron, Assistant Secretary.
Prof. Jean Brunhes, Assistant Secretary
APPENDIX K
First Published List of the Officers and Advisory Board
of Der Sozialen Kaüferliga of Switzerland, 1906
Mme. E. Pieczynska-Reichenbach, Berne.
Herr und Frau Jean Brunhes, Fribourg.
APPENDIX L
231
Fräulein H. von Mulinen, Berne.
Fräulein F. Schmid, Berne.
Frau M. Adam, Berne.
Fräulein A. von Rodt, Berne.
Fräulein M. Gabot, Berne.
Frau M. Von Steiger, Berne.
Fräulein A. Stettier, Berne.
Herr Filliol, Berne.
Corresponding Advisory Board
Fraulein Mathilde Koller, Zurich.
Herr Dr. A. Joos, Basle.
Mme. Eugène Pittard, Geneva.
Mlle. Rachel de La Rive, Geneva.
Mme. Pierre Bovet, Nuremburg.
M. le professeur Clerget, Fribourg.
Fräulein Julia Rothpletz, Aarau.
Frau Dr. Faas, Berne.
Frau Dora Elchfeld, St. Gallen.
APPENDIX L
First Published List of the Officers of Der Liga von
Konsumenten of Germany, 1905
President: Frau Staatsminister von Bethmann-Hollweg,
Exzellenz.
First Vice-President: Elizabeth von Knebel-Doeberitz.
Second Vice-President: Prof. Dr. Ernst Franke.
Secretary: Martha Meinecke.
Assistant Secretary: Dr. Heinrich Koch.
232 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
Treasurers: Adele Beerenson.
Else Lueders.
Business Office: Nollendorfstr 29-30.
The Consumers' League of Holland,
Officers and Directors, 1903.
President: T. Sanders, V. Zeghenstraat, 78, Amsterdam.
Secretary: H. S. Veldman, 20 Vloesdyk, Kampen.
Mr. P. A. Nicolaas, 30 Weteringstraat, Amsterdam.
Mr. J. Zody, Moddermolenstug, Amsterdam.
Mr. D. deClereq, Bloemendaal, Haarlem
Miss H. W. Crommelin, 21 Drift, Utrecht.
Miss H. Bahlmaun, Bussum.
Mr. H. Luken Jr., Zwolle.
Mr. J. Huizinga, 8 Veenestraat, Kampen.
APPENDIX M
Resolutions (Freely Translated) Passed at the First
International Conference of Consumers' Leagues,
Geneva, Switzerland, 1908
Overtime Work
Whereas, overtime work at night is a cause of the ut-
most physical and moral wretchedness,
RESOLVED, that consumers be requested never to
give an order without first stipulating that no
overtime work be permitted.
Whereas, all should strive persistently for the complete
abolition of overtime work at night,
APPENDIX M
233
RESOLVED, that this conference affirms
1. That in labour laws lies the surest hope of im-
provement,
2. That the liberty of working people should be
safeguarded against all unjust demands for over-
time.
Bills
RESOLVED, that the members of the Consumers'
Leagues should be absolutely prompt and scrupu-
lous in the payment of bills when rendered.
RESOLVED, that consumers shall as soon as possible
be enabled to recognize, by means of a label, goods
made under wholesome social conditions.
RESOLVED, that consumers neglect no opportunity to
be of service in the conflicts which continually
arise between employers and employees.
RESOLVED, that trade-union groups of home-workers
be developed increasingly; that investigations of
home work be conducted, and exhibits be held from
time to time; and that legislation be enacted to
control home work.
RESOLVED, that Consumers' Leagues in all countries
where there is no law regarding seats shall conduct
a legislative campaign on this subject, and in all
countries which have this law, shall keep watch
that saleswomen are allowed to use seats.
RESOLVED, that the first International Conference of
Consumers' Leagues, moved by the revelations of
the recent investigations of the method of recruit-
ing workers for the cocoa plantations at St. Thomas
234 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMent
and Principi, protest against the continuation of
such slavery.
RESOLVED, that all the chocolate manufacturers who
buy from St. Thomas, even in small quantities,
should join the English and German manufacturers
in their effort to suppress the existing evils.
APPENDIX N
First Published List of the Provisional Committee of
La Ligue Sociale d'Acheteurs of Belgium, 1910
MM. Le Baron Felix de Bethune
Prof. Adolphe Buyssens
Mlle. Ch. Ruegger
Mme. Van Vliet
Mlle. Emma Koenig
APPENDIX O
White List Standard for Laundries
Wages
(1) Equal pay is given for equal work irrespective of
sex, and no woman who is eighteen years of age or over
and who has had one year's experience receives less than
$6 per week. This standard includes piece workers.
(2) Wages are paid by the week.
(3) Wages must be paid not more than twenty-four
hours after a demand by the worker.
APPENDIX O
235
Hours
(1) The normal working week does not exceed fifty-
four hours, and on no day shall work continue after
9 P. M. or for more than ten hours.
(2) When working after 7 P. M., twenty minutes is
allowed for supper and supper money is given.
(3) A half holiday in each week during two summer
months.
(4) A vacation of not less than one week with pay is
given during the summer season.
(5) All overtime work beyond the fifty-four hours a
week standard is paid for.
(6) Wages paid and premises closed on the six legal
holidays, viz.: Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day,
New Year's Day, the Fourth of July, Decoration Day,
and Labour Day.
Physical Conditions
(1) Washrooms are either separated from other
workrooms or else adequately ventilated so that the
presence of steam throughout the laundry is prevented.
(2) Work and retiring rooms are apart from each
other and conform in all respects to the present Sanitary
Laws.
(3) All machinery is adequately guarded.
(4) Proper drains under washing and starching ma-
chines, so that there are no wet floors.
236 STORY OF AN EPOCH-MAKING MOVEMENT
(5) Seats adapted and adjusted to the machines are
provided for:
a. Collar ironer feeder.
b. «
c
catcher.
<<
d. "
cc
ع بن نون ف
C.
""
CC
dampener feeder.
catcher.
CC
straightener.
starch feeder.
cr catcher.
h. Handkerchief flat-work feeder and catcher.
i. Folders on small work.
j. Collar shaper.
k. "
seam dampener.
1. Straight collar shaper.
m. And all other machines wherever possible.
(6) Humane and considerate behaviour toward em-
ployees is the rule.
(7) Fidelity and length of service meet with the
consideration which is their due.
(8) The ordinances of the city and the laws of the
state are obeyed in all particulars.
THE END
INDEX
•
INDEX
Aberdeen and Temair, Marchioness
of, 92..
Advertising, Newspaper, 51.
Albany College for Teachers, 188.
Alexander, Rev. Dr., 21.
Altgeld, Governor, 54.
Altman, B., & Co., 110.
American, Sadie, 187.
American Academy of Political and
Social Science, 117.
American Federation of Labour, 54.
American Red Cross, 182.
American Review Service Press, 126.
Anderson, Mary, xv, 196.
Anti-sweating League, 99.
Army uniforms, made under sani-
tary conditions, 116.
Arnold, Constable & Co., 13.
Artificial flower industry, 79.
Askin, Mrs. William J., 212.
Assembly Hall, 156 Fifth Ave.,
meeting held at, 68.
Association for Labour Legislation,
118.
Association to Promote Proper
Housing for Girls. 118.
Baker, Newton D., 116, 164.
Bakers' delivery boys, strike at
Dijon, 96.
Ball, Wilma C., 197.
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, 123.
Beard, Emma, 190.
Beeckman, Governor, 218.
Betts, Lillian W., 187.
Bissell, Dr. Mary Taylor, 188.
Black, Clementina, 90.
Black List, 35.
Blanc, Madame, 93.
Bills, mercantile, 44, 47.
Board of Health, asked to improve
department store conditions, 22.
Bonaparte, Charles J., 168.
Brandeis, Louis D., 78, 204.
Breakage, penalties for, 12.
Brooks, John Graham, 61, 79, 172,
214.
Brown University, 214.
Brunhes, Mme Henriette, 97.
Brunhes, Prof. Jean, 93.
Bryn Mawr College,
Summer School, 172, 188.
Buell, Rowena, 187.
Butler, Elizabeth B., 169.
80, 210;
Calvary Parish House, meetings
held at, 68.
Cannery industry, 79, 185.
Cashiers, 8.
Cellar bakeries, 76.
Cheney Brothers, 149.
Chickering Hall, mass meeting,
May 6, 1890, 21.
Child Labour Association, 212.
Child Labour Committee, 117, 184.
Children's Bureau, Washington,
D. C., 117.
Children's Protective Alliance, 184.
Choate, Joseph H., 90.
Christmas labels and tags, manu-
factured to meet demand, 115.
Christmas season, computation of
unpaid overtime work, 35; de-
liveries, 9, 114; in the past, 4,
8; percentage on sales as bonuses,
34.
Christmas shop early campaign, 113;
methods, 43.
Christmas shopping, 41.
Civic Federation, 119.
Clarke, Ida Clyde, 117.
Colgate, Florence, 187.
Collegiate Alumnæ of Chicago, 158.
Colton, Olive A., 198
239
240
INDEX
Columbia University, Economic Ex-
tension Department, 112.
Congestion of Population exhibit,
85.
Consumer, necessity to organize,
125; power of, 39; third factor in
industrial problems, 122.
Consumers' League, attitude of mer-
chants toward, 30, 33; defence of
labour laws, 78; differentiation
from other organizations, 120,
141; exhibits, 72, 84, 100, 170,
179, 213; goal, 121; growth of,
69; idea, 140; leaflets in Christmas
packages, 42; medals awarded, 84,
85, 142; meetings, 37; member-
ship, condition of, 26; membership
dues, 45; methods employed, 78,
86; name, 24; object, 25; princi-
ples, 25; receives requests from
Paris for reports and leaflets, 93;
refused space at
at Buffalo Pan
American exhibit, 83; twenty-
fifth anniversary dinner, III;
white list, 26, 29.
Consumers' League (Belgium), or-
ganization, 192, 234.
(Boston), 60.
(Brooklyn), 60, 68.
(California), 141.
(Colorado), 151.
(Connecticut), 145.
(Delaware), 151.
(District of Columbia),
(England), 23, 89, 130.
(France), 94, first published list
156.
of officers, 230.
(Georgia), 158.
(Germany), organization, 98;
first published list of officers,
231.
(Holland), first published list of
officers and directors, 232.
(Illinois), 61, 68, 158.
(Indiana), 160.
(Iowa), 160.
(Kentucky), 160.
(Louisiana), 166.
(Maine), 167.
(Maryland), 167.
(Massachusetts), 68, 172.
(Michigan), 178.
(Missouri), 78.
(National), 55; first convention
for organization of, 68; first
published list of officers and
Executive Committee, 137;
form of agreement between
the League and the manu-
facturers (text), 224.
(Netherlands), 99.
(New Jersey), 182.
(New York), 186; merging of
city and state leagues, 191.
(New York City), 23, 68; first
list of officers, 25; Standard
of a Fair House, 26; incorpor-
ation of, 24; list of incorpora-
tors, 130; list of officers and
Advisory Board, 132; list of
members of First Governing
Board, 133:
(North Carolina), 193.
(Ohio), 192.
(Oregon), 143, 198.
(Pennsylvania), 68, 205; east-
ern, 205; western, 212.
(Philadelphia), 60.
(Pioneer League), see Consum-
ers' League (New York City).
(Rhode Island), 214.
(Switzerland), 97; first pub-
lished list of officers and Ad-
visory Board, 230.
(Syracuse), 68.
(Tennessee), 221.
(Texas), 221.
(Utah), 221.
(Vermont), 221.
(Virginia), 222
(Wisconsin), 222.
Consumers' League label, 67, 70; see
also White Label; exhibition of
labelled goods, 72.
Consumers' League, International
Conference of, 99; resolutions
passed at Geneva, 1908, 101;
text, freely translated, 232.
Consumers' Leagues (State), Re-
ports of, 138.
INDEX
241
Consumers' League Publications,
The Administration of Law, 177;
Behind the Scenes in a Hotel,
192; Child Labor Brief, 150; Child
Laborers in the Shade Grown
Tobacco Industry, 150; Colored
Women as Industrial Workers in
Philadelphia, 210; Conditions in
Food Establishments, 177; Con-
ditions in Wisconsin Hotels, 223;
Consumers' Coöperative Societies
in New York State, 191; depart-
ment Store Girl and Her Friend
in the Five and Ten, 150; Digest
of State Labor Laws, 210; Fire
Risks in Industrial Establish-
ments, 177; Industrial Home
Work in Pennsylvania, 210;
Merry Christmas, 197; The Mini-
mum Wage, 177; Post Office
Service, 177; Results of Minimum
Wage Investigations in Wiscon-
sin, 223; Saleswomen in Mercan-
tile Stores, 169; The Shadowed
Star, 197; Some Philadelphia
Firms Closed All Day Saturday,
210; Summary of Protective
Laws for the Working Women
and Children of Wisconsin, 223;
Trailing Behind, 210; Unemploy-
ment, 177; Women's Wages To-
day, 191; Working Women and
Children in Pennsylvania, 210.
Consumers' League Week-End, 42.
Contests, Garden, 219; school essays
i
on League work, 220.
Contests and prizes, 212.
Cope, Mrs. Walter, 211.
Council of National Defense, Ken-
tucky, 164; Maryland, 171; Ohio,
195.
Council of Women in Industry
(Ohio), 196.
Cummings, Prof., 23.
Cushing, Mrs. G. W. B., 186.
De Sola Mendes, D., 21.
Delaware Council of Social Agencies,
156.
Deliveries, department store, 9, 114.
Department of Health, appropria-
tions for additional inspectors of
retail stores, 53.
Department of Stores, abuses in the
past, 16.
Department stores, conditions in,
I-4.
Deslandres, Maurice, 95.
Devine, Edward T., 126.
Doolittle, Mrs. J. T. A., 190.
Ducey, Monsignor, 21.
Easter season, hours, 10; in the past,
8.
Eaton, Mrs. Horace A., 190.
Edson, Mrs. Katharine Phillips, 143.
Elliot, Father, 21.
Ely, Dr. Richard, 140.
Employers, rights of, 59.
Employment bureaus, 194, 218.
England, hours of work in, 207.
Evening Post, (New York), 46.
Exhibitions of labelled goods, 72.
Express companies, Christmas de-
liveries, 114.
Factories Act (England), causes
leading to passage of, 61.
Factory inspectors, 55; necessity for
preliminary training, 113.
Factory Inspectors, State Board of,
134, 135.
Farnam, Prof. Henry W., 150.
Faunce, Doctor, 21.
Fels, Mrs. Samuel S., 211.
Filene's Sons, William, 124.
Fines, system of saleswomen, II.
Floor-walkers, 7.
Food products, made in sweatshops,
75; condemnation of, 76.
Frankfurter, Felix, 78, 204.
Friedsam, Col. Michael, 110.
Frost Co., George, 174.
General Federation of Women's
Clubs, Committee on Industry of
Women and Children, 71.
German Home-workers' Union, 100.
Gibbons, Cardinal, 168.
242
INDEX
Gide, Prof., 126.
Goldmark, Josephine, 78, 204.
Goods sent on approval, 13, 38.
Gordon, Jean, 166.
Goucher College, 172.
Gudden, Mrs. B. C., 222.
Halleck, Mrs. R. P., 165.
Haver, Jessie, 157.
Henrotin, Mrs. Charles, 158.
Heyburn Pure Food Bill, 76.
Hollander, Dr. Jacob, 168.
Home work, prices paid for, 65.
Hours of work, 4, 50, 121, 184, 195,
207, 215.
Household domestics, comparison
with saleswomen, 31.
Howe, Mrs. Frederic C., 186.
Huntington, Rev. Dr., 21.
Industrial Betterment Bureau, 208.
Industrial stocks and bonds, White
List of, suggested, 86.
Industrial Welfare Commission
(California), 144.
(Oregon,) 202.
Industrial world, changed attitude.
of, 119.
International Council of Women,
Quinquennial Congress, (1899)
90, 91; (1904), 98.
International Tuberculosis Exhibi-
tion, 85.
Jackson, Mrs. Percy, 191.
Jacobi, Dr. Abraham, 18, 79.
Jacobi, Dr. Mary Putnam, 18.
January, Mrs. Harry, 182.
Johns Hopkins University, 168, 172.
Joint committee appointed by Work-
ing Women's Society and Chair-
man of the Chickering Hall mass
meeting, 23.
Jones, Myrta L., 187.
Juvenile Protective Association,
159.
Kelley, Mrs. Florence, 54, 68, 69,
99, 214.
Kellogg, Elizabeth R., 197.
King, J. McKenzie, 173.
Labour Commissioner, State, 54.
Ladies' tailoring industry, N. Y.,
61; white lists of, 64, 177.
Landers, Frary and Clark, 149.
Lathrop, Julia, 117.
Lauder, A. Estelle, 211.
Laundries, public, 80; White List
of, 81; standard, 234.
Laundrymen's associations, Man-
hattan and Brooklyn, 81.
Lederle, Dr. Ernst, 53.
Lewis and Clark exposition, Port-
land, 85.
Licensing of tenements, 76.
Ligue Sociale d'Acheteurs, La. See
Consumers' League (France.)
Lockwood, Louise, 82.
Loines, Mrs. Stephen, 188.
Lord & Taylor, 13.
Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St.
Louis, 85.
Lowell, Mrs. Josephine Shaw, 16,
90; resigns as president of League,
60.
Lunch rooms, 8.
Luncheon hour, in the past, 7.
McClure's Magazine, 81 n.
Macdonald, Mrs., 92.
Macmillan, Mrs. Caroline A., 189.
McMillan, Mary Louise, 197.
McVickar, Mrs. Robert, 188.
Manufacturers, new attitude of, III
Manufacturers' Association of Con-
necticut, 149.
Martin, Sarah, 169.
Meat-packing industry, 191, 211.
Mechanical contrivances in place of
human labour, 109.
Mechanics' Institute, Rochester, 188.
Mediation and Arbitration, New
York State Board of, 134.
Mercantile Inspection Act, attempts
to pass, 44, 47; passed, 50, 59;
enforcement, 50; enforcement of
placed under Department of La-
bour, 54; used as model for Eng-
lish Shop Assistants Act, 90.
INDEX
243
Messenger girls, employment of,
207.
Milk, White Label for, 74; Oregon
campaign for pure, 200.
Millinery, short seasons, 12.
Minimum-wage legislation in Ore-
gon, 204.
Montefiore, Claude, quotation from
Mishnah, 2 n.
Montgomery, Mary, 198.
Morsier, Auguste de, 99, 102.
"
Nathan, Mrs. Frederick, 214; ap-
pointed Board of Health special
inspector, 53; elected president
of New York State League, 187;
invited to appear before Commit-
tee of House of Lords, 91.
National Child Labour Associa-
tion, 118, 210.
National Council of Defense, New
Jersey, 186.
National Institute of Social Sci-
ences, 123 n.
Newcomb (H. Sophie) College, 167.
Overtime, concession made, 34;
non-recognition of in past, 28.
Parks, J. Lewis, 68.
Peel, Sir Robert, 61.
Packer Collegiate Institute, Brook-
lyn, 188.
Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo,
medal given to a firm violating
state laws, 82; Consumers' League
unable to secure booth, 83.
Panama-Pacific Exposition, San
Francisco, 85.
Paris Exposition, Consumers' League
exhibit at, 84.
Quinquennial Congress. See Inter-
national Council of Women.
Phillips, Mrs. Charles E. H., 73.
Pioneer League. See Consumers'
League (New York City).
Post-Office Department, change in
methods of Christmas deliveries,
114.
Public opinion, crystallized in legis-
lation, 59.
Pure Food Bill, 199.
Rainsford, Rev. W. S., 35.
Rankin, Jeannette, 164.
Region Plan, Committee on, report
of, 76.
Rest rooms, 6, 40, 110.
Restaurant waitresses, working con-
ditions of, 77; bill in behalf of, 78.
Rhinehart Commission, 47; extracts
from report of, 48.
Rights of capital, labour, and public,
123.
Roosevelt, Theodore, Governor, 55,
65; extract from message, 133.
Russell Sage Foundation, 79, 169.
Ryan, John A., 214.
Saco, Maine, first "female clerk”
employed in, 5.
Safety Exposition, 85.
St. Agnes School, Albany, 188.
St. George's Chronicle, quotation
from, 35.
Saleswomen, Christmas season, 4;
comparison with household do
mestics, 31; fines, 11; first em
ployed, 5; lunch hour, 7; resolu
tions in aid of, passed at Chicker
ing Hall meeting, 22; rest room.
for, 6, 40, 110; seats for, 5, 39,
109; social standing of, 108;
tenure of position, 106; wages,
10; see also Shop assistants.
Salisbury, Marquis of, 90.
Saltus, William, 61.
Sanville, Florence, 211, 214.
Saturday, hours of work, 4, 104.
Seats for saleswomen, 5, 39, 51, 109.
Seligman, Prof. E. R. A., 68.
Sessions, Archibald, 21.
Sessions, Mrs. Ruth H., 60, 187.
Shearman, Margaret H., 154.
Sherwin, Belle, 197.
Shop assistants in England, working
conditions of, 89.
Shopping public, attitude of, 13,
19, 20; attitude of Christmas,
244
INDEX
buying, 37; education of, 14; in
Paris, 95; late hours, 28; neces-
sity for education of, 23; post-
poned payment of bills, 37.
Silk factories, evidence of violation
of law in, 81.
Simkhovitch, Mrs. Vladimir, 187.
Sleeper, Mrs. Henry B., 72.
Smart, Prof., 139.
Social secretary in department
stores, 106.
Solvay High School, Syracuse, 189.
Southern Sociological Congress, 85.
Standard of a Fair House (Pioneer
League), 26.
Store mother, 106.
Summer closing of store, 107.
Survey magazine, 42, 223.
Sweatshops, 66, 135; food products,
75; see also Home work.
Syracuse University, 188.
Tardiness, penalties for, II.
Telephone operators, strike won
through consumers' coöperation,
75.
Thanksgiving season, hours, 10.
Tilden, Governor, 17.
Times, New York, 21.
Toilet rooms, 8.
Trade Union Label, 70.
Trade unions, coöperation of, 112;
in mercantile establishments, 12.
Truck system, abolished, 121.
Truscott, Sarah L., 189.
Tyler, Mrs. Joel C., 221.
U. S. Dept. of Commerce and La-
bour, investigation by, 159.
U. S. Government, adopts Consum-
ers' League principles as method
of industrial development, 117
University of Geneva, opens its
halls to meetings of Consumers'
League, 99.
Vacation camps and houses, 118,
194.
Vacations, with pay, 106; without
pay, 4, 12.
Vassar College, 189.
Violation of laws, complaints from
workers in regard to, 55.
Vocational guidance, 218.
Voorhees, Governor, 184.
Wages, for salesmen in the past, 10,
II.
Waring, Col. George A., 68.
Watmough, Anna C., 211.
Watson, Lucy Carlile, 189.
Webb, Beatrice, 92.
Welles, Dr. Mary Crowell, 145-
Wellesley College, 72.
Western Reserve University, 192.
Weston, Mrs. S. Burns, 211.
Wheeler, Everett P., 21.
Whipple, Carolina A., 189.
White Label, cut of, 224; discon-
tinued, 215; factories adopting it,
71, 174; first published list, 229;
see also Consumers' League Label;
forgery of, and lawsuit, 73; form
of agreement for use by manu-
facturers (text), 224; "pickles
vs. milk," 73.
White List, 26; advertising of, 45;
certificates, 180; expense of print-
ing, 45; first published, 29; cir-
culation of, 30, second year, 32;
of laundries, 81; of stocks and
bonds, suggested, 86; of ladies'
tailoring establishments, 64, 177.
Wiggin, Mary C., 175, 177.
Wiley, Mrs. Harvey, 156.
Willard, Daniel, 123.
Woerishoffer, Carola, 80.
Woman suffrage organizations, 119.
Women's Clubs, federations of, 119.
Women's Educational and Indus-
trial Union (Boston), 72.
(Rochester), 189.
Women's Industrial Union of Eng-
land, 89.
Women's Trade Union League,
forerunner of, 15, 159.
Woodbridge, Alice, 20; extracts
from report of, 129; reads report
at Chickering Hall meeting, 22;
INDEX
245
Working girls' homes, 11, 118, 209.
Working Women's Society, 15.
Wyatt, Edith, 81.
Y. W. C. A., 181, 182, 209.
secretary of Working Women's
Society, 15.
Working girls, exploitation of, 56;
first strike of, 112; workrooms for
unemployed, 97.

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