“Not everywhere the ladies met with success. In Cincinnati such a procession of women, including the wives of leading pastors, were arrested and locked up in jail; at other places dogs were set on the crusaders, or they were smoked out, or had the hose turned on them.”
The movement, wholly emotional, and in many cases hysterical, spread throughout the country like a prairie fire. In 1874 it led to the organization of “The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union,” and, in 1883, to the founding of “The World’s Women’s Temperance Union,” the members of which wear a white ribbon and have the motto: “Woman will bless and brighten every place she enters, and she will enter every place.”
Since the founding of this world’s union the movement has extended over many countries and has branched out into a multitude of organizations. Their influence has been widely felt in legislatures, and in all elections in which laws have been voted upon for the regulation of the production and sale of liquors.—
Another question in which women are deeply concerned is that of Child-labor, the reckless exploitation of children in the interest of industry. Evidences that in England the dreadful abuses, committed by unscrupulous mine- and factory-owners, as described in a former chapter, have continued to the present times, were submitted to the International Women’s Congress, held in 1899 in London. It was reported that at that time 144,026 children below the age of 12 years were employed in workshops, mines, factories and warehouses. Of these children 131 had not yet reached the age of 7 years; 1120 were under 8; 4211 under 9; 11,027 under 10, and 122,131 under 11 years of age. Miss Montessori, the Italian delegate to the Congress, described the hard work of the children employed in the sulphur mines of Sicily. As they have to carry heavy loads on their shoulders through low gangways and over steep ladders and stairways, they are compelled to walk in a stooped position, and therefore in time become deformed and crippled.
In the United States the question of child-labor is likewise a matter of deep concern to men as well as to women. As every State has its own Legislature, there exists a varied assortment of child-labor laws. Ten or fifteen years ago several states had none whatever. Others prohibited the employment of children under ten years, while still others had an age limit of twelve or fourteen years. The same diversity prevailed in regard to the hours of labor. Some states had no legislation in this direction, while others forbade any child to work longer than ten hours daily.
During the year 1890 there was a total of 860,786 children between the ages of ten and fifteen years at work in various occupations in the United States. A report of the Bureau of Mines of Pennsylvania for 1901 stated 24,023 of the employees of the anthracite coal mines in Pennsylvania were children.
In 1918 investigators of the children’s bureau of the Department of Labor reported that the number of minors employed in factories, mines and quarries has increased at a rapid rate since the U. S. Supreme Court, on June 5th, 1918, nullified the child-labor act of 1916 as unconstitutional. Not only are a greatly increased number of children employed, but they are kept at work longer hours than before. Since the future of such children as well as the future of the country depend to a very great extent upon what legislators do in regard to children, it is obvious that women are deeply concerned in this question.—
The need of women’s participation in government and of an “occasional house-cleaning” in the Legislatures as well as in the Municipal Administrations becomes evident, when we realize that one of the most revolting crimes is committed daily in our communities, quite often with the silent protection of corrupt officials and politicians. We refer to the White Slave Trade. As few people have any definite idea of its extent and terrors, some authentic facts are here given, which, at the same time, demonstrate men’s indifference as well as the urgent need of woman’s interference for its suppression.
As everybody knows, the traffic in young girls for purposes of prostitution is as old as humanity. It has flourished in all ages and in all countries. But it was during the 19th Century that it found its systematic organization and its most extensive development.
With alarming frequency, the papers report that some young woman or girl is “missing,” having stepped out of her home on some household errand, and from this moment having vanished as though swallowed by the earth. Such was the case of Dorothy Arnold, who some years ago left her cosy home in New York, to do some shopping in a department store. She never returned and no trace of her was ever discovered. This particular case attracted wide attention all over the United States, as Miss Arnold, a beautiful girl of eighteen, was the daughter of wealthy parents, who spent a fortune in desperate but futile attempts to recover their child.—