Part 42 (2/2)

There she glireat worldindustry as machinery takes it out of the hoanized, helpless to cope with the conditions offered by organized capital The vision fired this Irish girl to a pitch of enthusiasm peculiar to the Celtic temperament

Back she came to St Louis with the spirit of the Crusaders, her vision ”the eight-hour day, the living wage to guard the home”

For the first time she saw the broken physical future of women who label three thousand five hundred bottles of beer an hour, and accept their cuts and gashes fro bottles as inevitable; of women who put eyelets on a hundred cases of shoes a day, twenty-four pairs to the case; of women who must weave one thousand yards of hemp cloth a day to hold their job in a mill where the possible speed of woman and machine is so nicely calculated that the speediest person in the factory can weave only twelve hundred and sixty yards a day; where the lint from this hemp fills the air and is so injurious to eyes and throat that the company furnishes e task of organizing these thousands of St Louis woy Hannah's return ulfed in the vast roarmachines, into one of which she sewed her vitality at dizzy speed ten hours a day Vision she had, but training, tiy--no!

It was at this point that sheworipped by a sense of the unevenness of the huh the maze of settlement activities to an appreciation of their relative futility in the face of long hours, loages, and unsanitary shops

Then the idealis women, born on the one hand of hard experience, on the other of a gentle existence, fused, and burned with a white light whose power is beginning to touch the lives of the woreat Southwest

Both women possessed fire and eloquence Hannah's special contribution was first-hand experience; Mrs Knefler's the knowledge of econo of our complicated labor problems Wise, sane, conservative, Mrs Knefler not only helped Hannah to organize branch after branch of the Woue in the different industries, but set out at once to train strong, intelligent leaders She stimulated them to a critical study of labor laith the evolution of industry for background

Night after night for two years Mrs Knefler and Hannah were out organizing groups of girls Mrs Knefler's friends finally stopped reetful despite ten hours a day in theher mother protested anxiously, but Hannah, heedless of her own interest, would eat her supper and hurry across the city to help groups of new girls--American, Russian, Rouether

One Junein 1910 the papers announced that the Manufacturers'

association and the Business Men's League had decided on EJ Troy as their candidate to the State Legislature for the First District His candidacy was also backed by the Republican machine The papers went on to say that EJ Troy was one of ”our ablest and rown up in his district, had a host of friends, andat the weekly dinner of the officers of the Woue at the Settlement, Mrs Knefler hurried in: ”Girls, have you seen the ot EJ Troy to contend with again?”

At the sa out, ”Girls, they're goin' to put Troy on the carpet again!”

To both speeches came half a dozen excited replies that that's just what they were talking about!

Over the potatoes andthe situation was discussed in detail

”Yes, 'twas hiht up et our Nine-Hour Bill before,” reflected a wiry, quick- a second's pause

”Don't it just an another, ”when you think how he riled 'em up at every four corners in Missouri! He had every old country storekeeper standin' on end about that Nine-Hour Bill He had 'em puttin' on their specs and callin' to mother to come and listen to this information the manufacturers had sent hiet a Nine-Hour Bill for woirl, Bessie, fro in the store when the farht; and hoas a blow at Aot to be squenched at the primaries,” said a third, quietly and decisively

”But how?” asked a ot into action There never was a wo tonic quality The business irls' first o before the Central Labor Body and ask them to indorse their objections to EJ Troy Definite action beyond indorseot

One day a little later, when Mrs Knefler's ca to take form, a representative of EJ Troy called Mrs Knefler on the telephone The voice was bland, smooth, and very friendly Wouldn't she--that is--ah--er--wouldn't her organization confer with Mr EJ

Troy? He felt sure they would co

Mrs Knefler explained to the mouthpiece (take it either way) that it would be quite useless; that the stand of the League was taken on Mr

Troy's previous record and on the ”interests” he represented; that while they had nothing against him in his private capacity, as a public servant they must oppose him All this in Mrs Knefler's suavest fashi+on She feels intensely, but she never loses her self-possession

That's why she is such a foronist

It was the last week in June--they had just a month before the primaries in which to rouse public opinion The newspapers must help, of course

Mrs Knefler went to the editors They were polite, they admitted the justice of her stand, but they were evasive Mrs Knefler opened her paper the next le word about the danger to the working woman's interests

What could the papers do? Weren't they in the hands of the ”big cinch,”