Part 20 (2/2)

But at first, in the same way as the average workingman is apt to have an uncomfortable feeling about the woman entering his trade, even apart from the most important reason of all, that she is wont to be a wage-cutter, the average trade-union man retains a somewhat uneasy apprehension when he finds women entering the union. As they become active, women introduce a new element. They may not say very much, but it is gradually discovered that they do not enjoy meeting over saloons, at the head of two or three flights of grimy backstairs, or where the street has earned a bad name.

Woman makes demands. Leaders that even the decenter sort of men would pa.s.sively accept, because they are put forward, since they are such smart fellows, or have pull in trade-union politics, she will have none of, and will quietly work against them. The women leaders have an uncomfortable knack of reminding the union that women are on the map, as it were.

It is at a psychological moment that she is making herself felt in the councils of organized labor. Just as the labor movement is itself being reorganized, with the modern development of the union and of union activity; just as woman herself is coming into her own; just as we are pa.s.sing through the transition period from one form of society to another; and just as we catch a glimpse of a distant future in which the world will become, for the first time, one.

From the very fact that they are women, women trade unionists have their own distinct contribution to make to the movement. The feminine, and especially the maternal qualities that man appreciates so in the home, he is learning (some men have learnt already) to appreciate in the larger home of the union.

In speaking thus, I freely, if regretfully, admit that the rartk and file of both s.e.xes are far indeed from playing their full part. We have still to depend more largely than is quite fitting or democratic upon the leaders as standard-bearers. It is also true that there are women who are willing to accept low ideals in unionism as in everything else. Their influence is bound to pa.s.s. If women are to make their own peculiar contribution to the labor movement, it will be by working in glad cooperation with the higher idealism of the men leaders.

And when the day comes (may its coming be hastened!) that women are even only as extensively organized as men are today, the organization of men will indeed proceed by leaps and bounds. It will not be by arithmetical, but by geometrical progression, that the union will count their increases, for it is the ma.s.ses of unskilled, unorganized, ill-paid women and girl workers today, who in so many trades today increase the difficulties of the men tenfold. That dead weight removed, they could make better terms for themselves and enroll far more men into their ranks. What increase of power, what new and untried forces women may bring with them into the common store, just what these may be, and the manner of their working out, it is too early to say.

But the future was never so full of hope as today, not because conditions are not cruelly hard, and problems not baffling, but, because, over against these conditions, and helping-to solve these problems, are ranged the great forces of evolution, ever on the side of the workers, slowly building up the democracy of the future.

APPENDIX I

This doc.u.ment, which is the contract under which a union waitress works, is typical.

AGREEMENT

Between the Hotel and Restaurant Employes' International Alliance Affiliated with the American and the Chicago Federation of Labor.

This contract made and entered into this 10th day of April, 1914, by and between the H.R.E.I.A. affiliated with the American and Chicago Federation of Labor of the City of Chicago, County of Cook and State of Illinois, party of the first part, and:

Chicago,

Illinois, party of the second part.

Party of the first part agrees to furnish good, competent and honest craftsmen, and does hereby agree to stand responsible for all loss incurred by any act of their respective members in good standing while in line of duty.

The Business Agents of the allied crafts shall have the privilege of visiting and interviewing the employes while on duty, their visits to be timed to such hours when employes are not overly busy.

The second party agrees to employ only members in good standing in their respective unions, of cooks, and waitresses, except when the unions are unable to furnish help to the satisfaction of the ... which choice shall be at the discretion of the above company. Then the employer may employ any one he desires, provided the employe makes application to become a member of the union within three days after employment.

Chefs, and Head Waitresses must be members of their respective craft organizations.

WAITRESSES

RESTAURANTS

Steady Waitresses, 6 days, 60 hours $8.00 per week Lunch and Supper Waitresses, 7 days, 42 hours or less 6.50 per week Dinner Waitresses, 6 days, 3 hours 4.00 per week Extra Supper Waitresses, 6 days, 3 hours 4.00 per week Night Waitresses, 6 days, 60 hours 9.00 per week Extra Girls, 10 hours a day 1.50 per day Extra Girls, Sundays and Holidays 2.00 per day Head Waitresses, 6 days, 60 hours 10.00 per week Ushers, 6 days, 60 hours or less 9.00 per week Ushers, dinner, 6 days, 6 hours or less 5.00 per week Dog watch Waitresses, 6 days, 60 hours 9.00 per week

BANQUETS

Three (3) hours or less, $1.50.

Any waitress working extra after midnight serving a banquet, dinner, etc., shall receive 50 cents per hour or fraction of an hour, except the steady night and dog watch waitresses.

<script>