Part 43 (1/2)
as a certain combination of business men in St Louis is known?
Naturally they refused to print a line You never step on your own toe, do you, or hit yourself in the face--if you can help it?
One irls who raced at machines all day, who had neither ish, corrupt city to the ed body and soul to the manufacturers? How could they waken the public to woman's bitter necessity for shorter hours? The case looked hopeless, but Mrs Knefler ot busy--decidedly busy
She planned a can that no other St Louis woe to tackle Mrs Knefler is a member of the club that is the St Louis clubwomen's ”holy of holies” They have a club-house that just drips art, and they steep theroup their consciousness of the city's industrial probleht in which Mrs Knefler's work round of self-culture wo around preparatory to taking their first cold plunge in the suffrage pool
In such an atest, thewoe state It was done simply because her heart was filled with the need of the thousands of helpless, unorganized girls for protection froanized capital
There are ives vision and raises us head and shoulders above our group So it ith Cynthelia Knefler, brought up in this conservative city, educated in a prunes-and-prisirls'
school, steeped in the Southern idea that no ”lady” would ever let her picture or her opinions get into the newspapers, and thatpublic speeches was quite unthinkable!
The press was silent, but at least Mrs Knefler could speak to the labor unions She and two other women appealed to every labor union in St
Louis with a speech against EJ Troy They fought hi interests” Mrs Knefler made seventy-six speeches in that onefro two speeches, and so white et the cool of the evening
Mrs Knefler'sways and loue was scarce There are no rich es and out of raffles and entertainue had a small reserve Part of this they used to print sixty thousand cards So that when you went in to get a shave your glance was caught, as the barber turned your head, by this red ticket ”Scratch EJ Troy” When you stopped in for a loaf of bread, a red ticket behind the glass of the case advised you to ”Scratch EJ Troy”
When you went in for a drink, there leaped into sight dozens of little red tickets: ”Scratch EJ Troy”
There are always sos of life Only Schneider's band sounds like music to them; only ”Twenty Buckets of Blood, or Dead Man's Gulch” appeals to them as literature; and the only speaker is theIn a political can the little red ticket is lost on that kind of e posters in high, wood-block letters screamed from billboards and the walls of saloons and barber shops and labor halls: ”Unionand bill-posting was expensive for working girls They careat, but your funds are better,” they said
”You've tackled too big a job,” the Labor leaders told the girls, with a benevolent air ”He's the candy around this town--EJ Troy is It would take a mint of money to beat EJ Troy”
However, the Central body instructed the legislative coood service But the Central Body didn't instruct the Coo down very far into the treasury
July earing on The League hurled itself upon the press onceand bill-posting the editors would accord thenition merely as news Silence--absolute silence in the next day's papers, and the next
How did they accomplish the next one, the silence of the press had crushed the sense of helplessness, but nevertheless they turned the trick They reached the upper and middle class readers of the South Side District, Troy's district, which the papers were deterht, silent, swift- men whipped the paste across the billboards of that section and slapped on huge posters, so that when Papa S Mr Jones and Banker Green ca on their way to business, they neglected their papers to find out why they should ”scratch EJ Troy”
The day of the primaries was almost come Now to reach the dull felloho hadn't seen the cards and the huge posters, who use their eyes only to avoid obstacles One night, as the factory whistles blew the signal of dismissal, the men in the lines of operators who filed out of shop andthis ticket handed theone off their job a bit early and had their wages docked in order to work for the larger good
The Committee of the Central Body was now openly active in their behalf
Men as well as wo out the tickets
Then cairls who had already done ten hours' ere going over EJ Troy's district, with its sections of rich and poor and well-to-do Throbbing feet that had carried the body's weight ten hot, fatiguing hours hurried up and down the blocks, cliht of stairs, and stood at door after door
”Say, kid, ain't it the liirl too another after they had finished the one hundred and forty-fifth faoted ”head of the house”
On theof the primaries Mrs Schurz, as she took the coffee off the stove, rehter, Minna ”Vat, Minna, you ain't goin' to stay out of de mill today and lose your pay?
”Yes, I be, _Mutter_,” retorted Minna, with a tightening of the lips and a light in her eyre ”I'oin' I don't care if I lose my job even”
”Oh, Minna, dat is bad, and me wid four _kinder_ to eat de food Where is de _fleisch_ and de _brot_ widout your wages?” Mrs Schurz's heavy face wore the anxious despondence so coirl hesitated, then tightened her lips once ht--it's got to Do you want the rest of the children workin' ten hours a day too? Look at o out of a Saturday night