It is true there is an essential difference between the loose and momentary1 co?peration of unorganized workers aiming at the remedying of special grievances2, and disbanding their association whenever that particular struggle is over, and a permanent organization representing the workers' side all the time and holding them in a bond of mutual3 helpfulness. Most of the strikes of women during the first half of the last century, like many today, sprang from impatience4 with intolerable burdens, and the "temporary union," often led by some men's organization, merely dissolved away with the ending of the strike, whether successful or not. But altogether apart from such sporadic6 risings as these, there were, as we have seen, from a very early period, genuine trade unions composed of working-women.
The Women's Trade union League is the first organization which has attempted to deal with the whole of the problems of the woman in industry on a national scale. As we have seen, there have been, besides the many women's unions, and the men's unions to which women have been and are admitted, the large body, the Women's National union Label League, and a number of women's auxiliaries7 in connection with such unions as the Switchmen, the Machinists, and the Typographical union. The Women's union Label League has, however, devoted8 most of its energies to encouraging the purchase and use of union-made products. The women's auxiliaries have been formed from the wives of men from that particular union. They have often maintained a fund for sick and out-of-work members and their families, and have besides furnished a social environment in which all could become better acquainted, and they would besides take an active part in the entertainment of a national convention, whenever it came to their city. But except indirectly9, none of these associations have aided in the organization of women wage-earners, still less have taken it for their allotted10 task. Perhaps earlier, the formation of such a body as the National Women's Trade would have been impracticable. But it certainly responds to the urgent needs of today, and is, after all, but a natural development of the trade-union movement, with especial reference to the crying needs of women and children in the highly specialized11 industries.
The individual worker, restless under the miseries12 of her lot, and awakening13 also, it may be, to a sense of the meaning of our industrial system, learns to see the need of the union of her trade. When she does so, she has taken a distinct step forward. If an extensive trade, the local is affiliated14 with the international, but neither local nor international, as we shall see, as yet grant to the woman worker the same attention as they give to the man, because to men trade unionists the men's problems are the chief and most absorbing. So what more natural than that women belonging to various unions should come together to discuss the problems that are common to them all as women workers, whatever their trade, and aid one another in their difficulties, co?perate in their various activities, and thus, also, be able to present to their brothers the collective expression of their needs? Upon this simple basis is the local Women's Trade union League formed. Linking together the organized women of the same city, it brings them, through the National League, into touch and communication with the trade-union women in other cities.
While it is true that organization can neither be imposed nor forced upon any group, it is no less true that when girls are ready such a compact body, founded upon so broad a basis, can bring about results both in the line of education and organization which no other branch of the labor15 movement is equipped or fitted to do. And many labor leaders, who have sadly enough acknowledged that the labor movement that did not embrace women was like a giant carrying one arm in a sling16, have already gratefully admitted that such a league of women's unions can produce results under circumstances where men, unaided, would have been helpless.
For the origin of the Women's Trade union League, we must go back to 1874, when Mrs. Emma Patterson, the wife of an English trade unionist and herself deeply impressed with the deplorable condition of women wage-earners everywhere, was on a visit to the United States. The importance of combination as a remedy was freshly brought home to her through what she saw of the women's organizations then most prominent and flourishing in New York, the Parasol and Umbrella Makers18' union, the Women's Typographical union, and the Women's Protective union. She returned to England with a plan for helping19 women workers to help themselves. Shortly afterwards she and others whom she interested formed the Women's Protective and Provident20 League, the title later on being changed to the bolder and more radical21 British Women's Trade union League, a federation22 of women's unions, with an individual membership as well. It is known to the public on this side of the water through the visits of Mary Macarthur, its very able secretary.
This body had been in existence nearly thirty years before the corresponding organization was formed in this country. About 1902 Mr. William English Walling had his attention drawn23 to what the British Women's Trade union League was accomplishing among some of the poorest working-women in England.
He mentioned what he had learned to others. Among the earliest to welcome the idea of forming such a league was Mrs. Mary Kenney O'Sullivan, a bindery-worker of Boston, long in touch with the labor movement. In the fall of 1903 the American Federation of Labor was holding its annual convention in that city. The presence of so many labor leaders seemed to make the moment a favorable one. A meeting of those interested was called in Faneuil Hall on November 14. Mr. John O'Brien, president of the Retail24 Clerks' International Protective union, presided. Among the trades represented were the Ladies' Garment Workers, the United Garment Workers, the Amalgamated25 Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen, Clerks, Shoe Workers and Textile Workers. The National Women's Trade union League was organized and the following officers elected: president, Mrs. Mary Morton Kehew, Boston; vice-president, Miss Jane Addams, Chicago; secretary, Mrs. Mary Kenney O'Sullivan, Boston; treasurer26, Miss Mary Donovan, Boot and Shoe Workers; board members, Miss Mary McDowell, Chicago; Miss Lillian D. Wald, New York; Miss Ellen Lindstrom, United Garment Workers; Miss Mary Trites, Textile Workers; Miss Leonora O'Reilly, Ladies' Garment Workers.
The one main purpose of the new league, as of its British prototype, was from the first the organization of women into trade unions, to be affiliated with the regular labor movement, in this case with the American Federation of Labor, and the strengthening of all such organizations as already existed. While, as in England, the backbone27 of the League was to consist of a federation of women's unions, provision was made for taking into individual membership not only trade unionists, but those women, and men too, who, although not wage-earners themselves, believed that the workers should be organized and were unwilling28 that those who toil29 should suffer from unjust conditions.
A branch of the National Women's Trade union League was formed in Chicago in January, 1904; another in New York in March of the same year, and a third in Boston in June of the same year. With these three industrial centers in line, the new campaign was fairly begun.
The first three years were occupied mainly with preparatory work, becoming known to the unions and the workers, and developing activities both through the office and in the field.
Early in 1907 Mrs. Raymond Robins30, of Chicago, became National President, a position which she has held ever since. To the tremendous task of aiding the young organization till it was at least out of its swaddling clothes she brought boundless31 energy and a single-minded devotion which admitted of attention to no rival cause. Being a woman of independent means, she was able to give her time entirely32 to the work of the League. She would be on the road for weeks at a time, speaking, interviewing working-women, manufacturers or legislators, all the while holding the threads, organization here, legislation there.
But the first opportunity for the Women's Trade union League to do work on a large scale, work truly national in its results, came with the huge strikes in the sewing trades of 1909-1911. To these a separate chapter is devoted. It is sufficient here to say that the backing given by the National League and its branches in New York, in Philadelphia and in Chicago was in great part responsible for the very considerable measure of success which has been the outcome of these fierce industrial struggles. On the whole, the strikers gained much better terms than they could possibly have done unassisted. Almost entirely foreigners, they had no adequate means of reaching with their story the English-speaking and reading public of their city. The Leagues made it their particular business to see that the strikers' side of the dispute was brought out in the press and in meetings and gatherings33 of different groups. It is related of one manufacturer, whose house was strike-bound, that he was heard one day expressing to a friend in their club his bewilderment over the never-ending publicity35 given to this strike in the daily newspapers, adding that it was a pity; these affairs were always better settled quietly.
To win even from failure success, to win for success permanence, was the next aim of the League, and nowhere has this constructive36 policy of theirs brought about more significant results than in the aid which they were able to give to the workers in the sewing trades. In New York it was the League which made possible the large organizations which exist today among the cloak-makers, the waist-makers and other white-goods-workers. The League support during the great strikes, and its continued quiet work after the strikes were over, first showed the public that there was power and meaning in this new development, this new spirit among the most oppressed women workers. The attitude of the League also convinced labor men that this was no dilettante37 welfare society, but absolutely fair and square with the labor movement. The Chicago League, after helping in the same way in the garment-workers' strike which is now in its fifth year, contributed towards bringing about the agreement between the firm of Hart, Schaffner and Marx, Chicago, and their employés, an agreement controlling the wages and the working conditions of between 7,000 and 10,000 men and women, the number varying with the season and the state of trade. The plan of preference to unionists, which gives to this form of contract the name of the "Preferential Shop," had its origin in Australia, where it is embodied38 in arbitration39 acts, but in no single trade there had it been applied40 on such a huge scale. The Protocol41 of Peace, which is a trade agreement similar to that of the Hart, Schaffner and Marx employés, and which came into force first in the cloak and suit industry in New York after the strike of 1913, affects, it is stated, the enormous number of 300,000 workers.[A]
[Footnote A: In May, 1915, the Protocol was set aside by the cloak and suit manufacturers. A strike impended42. Mayor Mitchel called a Council of Conciliation43, Dr. Felix Adler as chairman. Their report was accepted by the union and finally by the employers, and industrial peace was restored.]
Just as sound and important work is being done all the time with many smaller groups. For instance, the straw-and panama-hat-makers of New York tried to organize and were met by a number of the manufacturers with a black list. A general strike was declared on February 14, 1913. The League members were able to give very valuable aid to the strikers by assisting in picketing45 and by attending the courts when the pickets46 were arrested. This strike had to be called off, and was apparently47 lost, but the union remains48 and is far stronger than before the strike took place.
But better results even than this were gained in the strike in the potteries49 in Trenton, New Jersey50. The Central Labor union of Trenton and all the trade-union men in the city gave splendid co?peration to the strikers. They handed over the girls to the care of Miss Melinda Scott, the League organizer, and under her directions the inexperienced unionists did fine work and helped to bring about a satisfactory settlement. This success gave heart of grace to the girls in certain woolen51 and silk mills of Trenton. Wages there were appalling52. They varied53 from two dollars and fifty cents to eleven dollars. Many children, nominally54 fourteen, but looking very young, were employed. The owner of the factory at length consented to meet the workers with the League organizer in conference at the New York headquarters, and after several weeks the strike was settled on the workers' terms.
The New York organizer also helped the Boston League in the strike of the paper factories of Holyoke, Massachusetts. The cause of the strike here was an arrangement under which eight girls could be got to do the work of twelve. Here the workers actually stood up for a share of the profits under the new arrangement, or else that the discharged girls should be reinstated. The manufacturers chose the latter alternative.
The Candy Workers' union in Boston was also formed through the Women's Trade union League. The girls had walked all over Boston for two days asking policemen, carmen and anyone else who would listen to them how to form a union. They had no umbrellas, and their shoes were dripping with the wet. They were Jewish, Italian and American girls. As a result of the organization formed they obtained a very material raise in wages, the better allotment of work in the slack season and the taking up of all disputed questions between the manufacturers and the union.
From experience gained during these gigantic industrial wars, the National League has laid down definite conditions under which its locals may co?perate with unions in time of strike. These take part only in strikes in which women are involved, and then only after having been formally invited to assist, and on the understanding that two League representatives may attend all executive meetings of the strikers' union. It has been found that the lines in which the aid of the Women's Trade union League is of most value to any exploited group are these: (1) organization and direction of public opinion; (2) patrolling the streets; (3) fair play in the courts; (4) help in the raising of funds through unions and allies; (5) where workers are unorganized, help in the formation of trade-union organization.
The League workers thus make it their business to open up channels of publicity, at least giving the papers something to talk about, and reaching with the strikers' side of the story, churches, clubs, and other associations of well-meaning citizens, who are not at all in touch with organized labor. Allies, in particular, can do much to preserve traditions of fair play, in regard to the use of the streets for peaceful picketing. By providing bonds for girls arrested, lawfully57 or unlawfully, and by attending in person such cases when these come up in court, they are standing56 for the principles of democracy.
In addition, the local leagues are willing to take charge of the arrangements under which girls are sent to other unions, asking for moral and financial aid. Men trade unionists long ago discovered how irresistible58 a pleader the young girl can be, but they are not always equally impressed with the need of safeguarding the girls, often little more than children, chosen for these trying expeditions, and sent off alone, or at best, two together, to distant industrial centers. The working-girl needs no chaperon, but equally with her wealthier sister, she does require and ought to receive motherly care and oversight59. She is perhaps leaving home for the first time, and there should be someone to see to it that when she arrives in a strange city a comfortable and convenient lodging-place has been found for her. She should be shown how to conserve60 her strength in finding her way from one locality to another in following up the evening meetings of unions, and she should have some woman to turn to if she should become sick. Points, all of these, the busy secretaries of central labor bodies may very easily overlook, accustomed as they are to deal with mature men, in the habit of traveling about the country, who may surely be left to take care of themselves.
The activities of the local leagues vary in detail in the different cities. In all there are monthly business meetings, the business run by the girls, with perhaps a speaker to follow, and sometimes a program of entertainment. Lectures on week evenings, classes and amusements are provided as far as workers and funds permit. The first important work among newly arrived women immigrants in the Middle West was done by the Chicago League, and this laid the groundwork for the present Immigrants' Protective League. Headquarters are a center for organizing, open all the time to receive word of struggling unions, helping out in difficulties, counseling the impulsive61, and encouraging the timid. When a group of workers see for themselves the need of organization, a body of experienced women standing ready to mother a new little union, the hospitable62 room standing open, literally63 night and day, can afford the most powerful aid in extending organization among timid girls. If courage and daring are needed in this work, courage to stand by the weak, daring to go out and picket44 in freezing weather with unfriendly policemen around, patience is if possible more essential in the organizer's make-up. It often takes months of gentle persistence64 before the girls, be they human-hair-workers or cracker-packers, or domestic workers or stenographers, see how greatly it is to their own interest to join or to form a labor organization. Many locals formed with so much thought and after so much pains, drop to pieces after a few months or a year or two. That is a universal experience in the labor movement everywhere. But it does not therefore follow that nothing has been gained. Even a group so loosely held together that it melts away after the first impulse of indignation has died out is often successful in procuring65 shorter hours or better wages or improved conditions for the trade or shops of their city. Besides each individual girl has had a little bit of education in what co?peration means, and what collective bargaining can do. The League itself is a reminder66, too, that all working-girls have many interests in common, whatever their trade.
But besides aiding in the forming of new locals, the Women's Trade union League can be a force strengthening the unions already established. Each of the leagues has an organization committee, whose meetings are attended by delegates from the different women's trades. These begin mostly as experience meetings, but end generally in either massing the effort of all on one particular union's struggle, or in planning legislative67 action by which all women workers can be benefited.
In New York and Boston, Chicago and St. Louis and Kansas City the local leagues have in every case had a marked effect upon industrial legislation for women. They have been prime movers in the campaigns for better fire protection in the factories in both New York and Chicago, and for the limitation of hours of working-women in the states of New York, Massachusetts, Illinois and Missouri, and for minimum-wage legislation in Massachusetts and Illinois.
In every one of these states the Women's Trade union League has first of all provided an opportunity for the organized women of different trades to come together and decide upon a common policy; next, to co?perate with other bodies, such as the State Federation of Labor, and the city centrals, the Consumers' League, the American Association for Labor Legislation, and the women's clubs, in support of such humane68 legislation. Much of the actual lobbying necessary has been done by the girls themselves, and they have exercised a power out of all proportion to their numbers or the tiny treasury69 at their disposal. No arguments of sociologists were half so convincing to legislators or so enlightening to the public as those of the girls who had themselves been through the mill. "Every hour I carry my trays I walk a mile," said Elizabeth Maloney of the Waitresses' union. "Don't you think that eight hours a day is enough for any girl to walk?"
When we turn to the National League itself, if there is less to record of actual achievement, there are possibilities untold70. Never before have all the work of this country had an organization, open to all, with which to express themselves on a national scale.
Early in 1905 the Executive Board of the League appointed a committee with Mary McDowell chairman to secure the co?peration of all organizations interested in the welfare of woman in demanding a federal investigation71 and report upon the conditions of working-women and girls in all the principal industrial centers. Miss McDowell called to her aid all the forces of organized labor, the General Federation of Women's Clubs and other women's associations, the social settlements and church workers. So strengthened and supported, the committee then went to Washington, and consulted with President Roosevelt and the then Commissioner72 of Labor, Dr. Charles P. Neill.
Miss McDowell, more than any other one person, was responsible for the passing in 1907 of the measure which authorized73 and the appropriation74 which made possible the investigation which during the next four years the Department of Commerce and Labor made. The result of that investigation is contained in the nineteen volumes of the report.
The first gatherings of any size at which League members met and conferred together were the interstate conferences, held simultaneously75 in Boston, New York and Chicago, the first in the summer of 1907 and the second in 1908. The former was the first interstate conference of women unionists ever held in the United States, and it was therefore a most notable event. Especially was it interesting because of the number of women delegates who came from other states, and from quite distant points, Boston drawing them from the New England states, New York from its own extensive industrial territory, and Chicago from the Middle West. Inspired by what she heard in Chicago, Hannah Hennessy went back to found the St. Louis Women's Trade union League. It was at the first interstate conference, also, that a committee was appointed to wait upon the American Federation of Labor Executive Board, during the Norfolk Convention in November, 1907. The Illinois State Committee of the Women's Trade union League, whose fine legislative work helped to secure the passage of the present ten-hour law for women, also grew out of the discussion which came up in the Chicago conference.
The lines on which the League is developing can be observed through the work done and reported upon at the biennial76 conventions of which five have been held. The first, at Norfolk, Virginia, in 1907, was an informal gathering34 of but seven delegates, women who had been attending the convention of the American Federation of Labor of that year. Subsequent conventions have taken place every two years since then. These have been held in Chicago, Boston and St. Louis and New York respectively. On each occasion about seventy delegates have reported. They are certainly a picked lot of girls. They are trained, trained not in fancy debate, but in practical discussion. They have met with employers in trade conferences where an error in statement or a hasty word might mean a cut in wages or an increase in hours for two years to come. They have met with their fellow-workers in union meetings, where, if a girl aspires77 to lead her sisters or brothers, she has to show both readiness of wit and good-humored patience in differing from the others.
These women are growing too, as all must grow who live on life's firing line, and shrink not from meeting the very hardest problems of today. The working-woman, in her daily struggle comes up against every one of them, and not one can be evaded78.
Industrial legislation, judicial79 decisions, the right to organize, the power to vote, are to the awakened80 working-woman not just academic questions, but something that affects her wages, her hours. They may mean enough to eat, time to rest, and beyond these home happiness and social freedom.
In two directions especially can the growing importance of the women's trade-union movement be observed: on the one hand in the incessant81 appeals, coming from all over the continent, to the National League, for advice and assistance in organizing women into the local unions of their trade; on the other in the degree in which it is gradually coming to be recognized by public men, by politicians, by business men, as well as by students and thinkers, that it is to organized women they must turn, whenever they want an authoritative82 expression as to the working-women's needs and desires.
Two sets of resolutions discussed and passed by the fourth biennial convention of the National Women's Trade union League, held in 1913, were afterwards published broadcast over the country, and have been of marked educational value. The one pleaded for the speedy enfranchisement83 of women for these reasons: because the most costly84 production and the most valuable asset of any nation is its output of men and women; because the industrial conditions under which more than six million girls and women are forced to work is an individual and social menace; and because working-women as an unenfranchised class are continually used to lower the standards of men. The League in particular protested against the ill-judged activities of the anti-suffrage85 women, "a group of women of leisure, who by accident of birth have led sheltered and protected lives, and who never through experience have had to face the misery86 that low wages and long hours produce."
This stirring, appeal made a profound impression on suffragists and anti-suffragists alike, in the labor world, and amid the general public. It was of course hotly resented by that small group of women of privilege, who think they know better than working-women what are the needs of working-women. Its deep significance lay in that it was a voice from the voiceless millions. It gave many pause to think and catch, as they had never caught before, the vital meaning underlying87 the demand for the vote.
The other series of resolutions expressed no less forcefully the women's consciousness of the intimate connection between education and labor, and pressed home the fact that organized laboring-women are watchful88 of the work being done in our public schools, and are anxious that it should be brought and kept up to the level of present-day needs. As is mentioned elsewhere, these resolutions laid special stress upon the necessity of making all courses of industrial training coeducational, of including in them the history of the evolution of industry, and the philosophy of collective bargaining, and of insuring that all boys and girls, before they leave school to go to work, have a knowledge of the state and federal laws that exist for their protection. These resolutions were sent to 1,075 boards of education in the United States. Replies have been received from twenty-six boards in fifteen states. Of these fourteen already have vocational training in their schools, two are planning such training, and six referred the resolutions to committees. Of those having training in the schools, thirteen have courses open to both boys and girls, and one has courses for girls exclusively, but is planning to open a school for boys.
The National League for four years published its own magazine, Life and Labor, with a double function; on the one hand as the organ of the League activities, and the expression of the members' views; on the other as a running diary of what was happening in the world of working-women, for the information of students and of all interested in sociological matters.
In the chapter on The Woman Organizer allusion89 is made to the efforts of the League to train women as trade-union organizers. Miss Louisa Mittelstadt, of Kansas City, and Miss Myrtle Whitehead, of Baltimore, belonging to different branches of the Brewery90 Workers, came to Chicago to be trained in office and field work, and are now making good use of their experience. One was sent by the central labor body, and the other by the local league. Miss Fannie Colin was a third pupil, a member of the International Ladies' Garment Workers, from New York City.
A word in conclusion regarding some of the typical leaders who are largely responsible for the policy of the League, and are to be credited in no small measure with its successes.
After Mrs. Raymond Robins, the national president, already spoken of, and standing beside her as a national figure comes Agnes Nestor, of Irish descent, and a native of Grand Rapids, Michigan, upon whose slight shoulders rest alike burdens and honors. Both she bears calmly. She is a glove-worker, and the only woman president of an international union. She is both a member of the National Executive Board of the Women's Trade union League, and the president of the Chicago League, and she has served as one of the two women members of the Federal Commission on Industrial Education. She has done fine work as a leader in her own city of Chicago, but neither Chicago, nor even Illinois, can claim her when the nation calls.
Melinda Scott is English by birth, belongs to New York, and has achieved remarkable91 results in her own union of the hat-trimmers. It is not during the exciting stage of a perhaps spectacular strike that Miss Scott shines; it is during the weary time when only patience and endurance can hold the girls together, and afterwards, when, whether the strike is lost or won, enthusiasm is apt to flag, and when disputes bid fair to break down the hardly won agreement.
Initiated92 at sixteen into the Knights93 of Labor, Leonora O'Reilly took the vows94 that she has ever since kept in the spirit and in the letter. After many years spent as a garment-worker, she became a teacher in the Manhattan Trade School for Girls. She was one of the charter members of the New York Women's Trade union League and has always been one of its most effective speakers. Leonora and her Celtic idealism have made many converts.
Russia in America is embodied in Rose Schneidermann. She is the living representative of the gifts that the Slavic races, and especially the Russian Jew, have contributed to American life. Coming here in childhood, her life has been spent in New York.
As an example of her achievements, for four years she worked untiringly among the white-goods-workers of New York, until they were strong enough to call a general strike, a strike which was so successful that they won a great part of their demands, and ever since have held their union together, seven thousand strong. Penetrated95 with the profound sadness of her people, and passionately96 alive to the workers' wrongs, Rose Schneidermann can stir immense audiences, and move them to tears as readily as to indignation. For her all the hope of the world's future is embodied in two movements, trade unionism on the one hand and socialism on the other.
[Illustration: IN A BASEMENT SWEATSHOP
Women picking rags collected from households. These rags have neither been cleaned nor disinfected and give off dust at every handling.]
[Illustration: GIRL GAS BLOWERS. KANSAS CITY]
The New York League owes much of its success to Mary Dreier, the sister of Mrs. Raymond Robins. She was its president for several years, and by her perseverance97 and devotion, did much to build up the organization in its early days.
The rest of the League leaders must be summed up even more briefly98. Mary Anderson, a member of the Boot and Shoe Workers' International Board, is of Scandinavian origin, and has all the steadfastness99 of the Swedes. Another very excellent organizer and much-loved trade unionist is Emma Steghagen, also of the Boot and Shoe Workers, and for seven years secretary of the Chicago League. She may be called the League veteran, for her association with trade unionism began with the Knights of Labor. Others are Mary McEnerney, Mary Haney, Hilda Svenson.
Elizabeth Maloney, she of the snapping eyes and fervent100 heart, marshals her waitresses through strike after strike against grinding employers, or she eloquently101 pleads their cause, whether in the state legislature, or with her own International, at the convention of the Hotel and Restaurant Employés, if the men show themselves a bit forgetful, as they sometimes do, of the girls' interest.
Nelle Quick, bindery woman, has been transferred from her trade-union activities in St. Louis to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the state of Missouri.
From among clerical workers came into the League women who have left their mark, Helen Marot and Alice Bean, of New York, and Mabel Gillespie, of Boston, while Stella Franklin, the Australian, for long held the reins55 of the national office in Chicago.
Gertrude Barnum, who graduated into trade unionism from settlement work, and Josephine Casey, of the Elevated Railroad Clerks, are two who were long actively102 associated with the Woman's Trade union League, but of late years both have been organizers under the International of the Ladies' Garment Workers.
Among the allies, the non-wage-earners, are Mary Dreier, president of the New York League, who was also the only woman member of the New York State Factory Investigating Commission; Mrs. Glendower Evans, notable for her service in advancing legislation for the minimum wage; Mary McDowell, of the University of Chicago Settlement, mother of the stockyards folk, beloved of the Poles and the Bohemians and the Ruthenians, who cross the ocean to settle on the desolate103 banks of Bubbly Creek104. Mrs. D.W. Knefler, of St. Louis, did pioneering work for girlish trade unionism in that conservative city.
Miss Gillespie, the Secretary of the Boston Women's Trade union League, has been for years its main standby. Working in co?peration with the young president, Miss Julia O'Connor, of the Telephone Operators, her influence in the labor movement is an important factor in the Massachusetts situation. She is a member of the State Minimum Wage Commission.
Young as is the League, some most heroic members have already passed into the unseen. Adelaide Samuels was a teacher in the public schools who, in the day of very small things for the New York League, acted as treasurer and chairman of the label committee. In her scant105 leisure she worked patiently towards the end that girls in the poorest trades should win for themselves the power of making the collective bargain. She died before she could have seen any tangible106 results from her efforts.
Hannah Hennessy, who carried away from the first interstate conference in Chicago a vision in her heart of a Women's Trade union League in every large city, a few years later laid down her life as the result of the hardships endured while picketing on behalf of the Marx and Haas strikers. Her youth had slipped away, and her strength had been sapped by weary years as an ill-paid garment-worker, so that exposure to cold and wet found her power of resistance gone, and a few weeks later she was no more.
At the other end of the social scale, but thrilled with the same unselfish desire to better the conditions of the girl toilers, stood Carola Woerishofer, the rich college girl, who, once she was committed to the cause, never spared herself, picketing today, giving bonds tomorrow for the latest prisoner of the strike, spending a whole hot summer in a laundry, that she might know first-hand what the toiler107 pays that we may wear clean clothes. And so on, until the last sad scene of all, when on duty as inspector108 of the New York State Immigration Bureau, her car capsized, and Carola Woerishofer's brief, strenuous109 service to humanity was ended.
From yet another group came Frances Squire110 Potter, formerly111 professor of English Literature in the University of Minnesota, who a few years ago became profoundly impressed with the unfair and oppressive conditions under which working-women live and toil. Thus was she led far away from academic fields, first into suffrage work, and later into the National Women's Trade union League. Until her health gave way, about a year before her death, she acted as official lecturer for the League. Through her unique gifts as a speaker, and her beautiful personality, she interpreted the cause of the working-woman to many thousands of hearers. She was also departmental editor of Life and Labor, the League's magazine.
Great have been the vicissitudes112 of the labor movement among men, but for many years now, the tendency towards national cohesion113 has been growing. This tendency has been greatly strengthened by the rapid development, and at the same time, the cheapening of the means of transport and communication between distant regions of the country.
In the advantages arising from this general growth of the labor movement, both in its local activities and on its national side, women workers have indeed shared. This is true, both on account of the direct benefits accruing114 to them through joining mixed organizations, or being aided by men to form separate organizations of their own, and also through the vast assistance rendered by organized labor in obtaining protective legislation for the most utterly115 helpless and exploited toilers, for example, the child-labor laws which state after state has placed upon the statute116 book, sanitary117 regulations, and laws for the safeguarding of machinery118 dangerous to workers.
Still, compared with the extensive movement among men, in which the women have been more or less a side issue, feminine trade unionism has been but fitful in its manifestations119, and far indeed from keeping pace with the rate at which women have poured into the industrial field. The youth of a large number of the girl workers, and the fact that, as they grow up, so many of them pass out of the wage-earning occupations, marriage, and the expectation of marriage, the main obstacles that stand in the way today in getting women to organize and to hold their unions together, furnish also the underlying causes of the want of continuity of the trade-union movement among women since it first began in the United States in the early part of the last century. The too frequent change in the personnel of the members, and therefore in the composition of the union itself, means an absence of the permanence of spirit which is an essential condition for the handing on in unbroken succession of standards of loyalty120 and esprit de corps121.
It is continuity that has rendered possible all human progress, through the passing on from all of us to our successors, of each small acquirement, of each elevation122 of standard. Where, but for such continuity would be the college spirit, that descends123 upon and baptizes the newcomer as he enters the college gates? Where, but for continuity would be the constantly rising standards of morality and social responsibility? Where, but for continuity would be national life and all that makes patriotism124 worthy125? Where, indeed, would be humanity itself?
The average man is a wage-earner, and as such a fit subject for organization. If extensive groups of men remain unorganized, the responsibility lies partly on the trade unions, and is partly conditioned by our social and political environment. But either way, a man is a trade unionist or he is not. The line is clear cut, and trade unions therefore admit no one not actually a worker in their own trade.
But it is not so with women. Outside the wage-earning groups there is the great bulk of married women, and a still considerable, though ever-lessening number of single women, who, although productive laborers126, are yet, owing to the primitive127 and antiquated128 status of home industry, not acknowledged as such in the labor market. Not being remunerated in money, they are not considered as wage-earners. (Witness the census129 report, which, in omitting those performing unpaid130 domestic duties from the statistics of gainful occupations, does but reflect the tragic131 fact that woman's home work has no money value and confirms the popular impression that "mother doesn't work.")
Yet another force to be reckoned with in estimating the difficulties which stand in the way of unionizing women is the widespread hostility132 to trade unionism, as expressed through newspaper and magazine articles, and through public speakers, both religious and secular133. The average girl, even more than the average man, is sensitive to public opinion, as expressed through such accepted channels of authority. The standards of public opinion have been her safeguard in the past, and she still looks to them for guidance, not realizing how often such commonly accepted views are misinterpretations of the problems she herself has to face today. In the middle of the last century, a period that was most critical for men's unions in England, a number of leaders of public thought, men of influence and standing in the community, such as Charles Kingsley, Frederick Denison Maurice and others, came to the help of the men by maintaining their right to organize. In the United States, during the corresponding stage of extreme unpopularity, Horace Greeley, Charles A. Dana and Wendell Phillips extended similar support to workingmen. We today are apt to forget that women's unions with us are just now in the very same immature134 stage of development, as men's unions passed through half a century ago. The labor men of that day had their position immensely strengthened by just such help afforded from outside their immediate135 circle. It is therefore not strange that women's unions, at their present stage of growth, should be in need of just such help.
To sum up, in addition to all the difficulties which have to be met by men in the labor movement, women are at a disadvantage through the comparative youth and inexperience of many female workers, through their want of trade training, through the assumption, almost universal among young girls, that they will one day marry and leave the trade, and through their unconscious response to the public opinion which disapproves136 of women joining trade unions.
It is then the lack of permanence, of continuity in spirit and in concerted action, produced by all these causes, working together, and the difficulties in the way of remedying this lack of permanence, which this young organization, the National Women's Trade union League of America, has fully17 and fairly recognized, and which, with a courage matched to its high purpose, it is facing and trying to conquer.
The Women's Trade union League, while essentially137 a part of the labor movement, has yet its own definite r?le to play, and at this point it is well to note the response made by organized labor in supporting the League's efforts. It works under the endorsement139 of both the American Federation of Labor and the Trades and Labor Congress of Canada, and has received in its undertakings140 the practical support, besides, of many of the most influential141 of the international unions, in occupations as different as those of the shoe-workers, the carpenters and the miners. The rank and file of the local organizations, in city after city, have given the same hearty142 and unqualified approval to the League's pioneering work, in bringing the unorganized women and girls into the unions, and in carrying on a constant educative work among those already organized. As an instance of this openly expressed approval, take the cordial co?peration which the Chicago League has ever received from the Chicago Federation of Labor and its allied143 locals. But, owing to the complexity144 of women's lives, the varied and inconsistent demands that are made upon their energies, the organization of the League has to be somewhat different from that of any body which labor men would have formed for themselves.
Locally the relationship varies. In St. Louis the League has never been represented in the central body by its own delegates, but by members representing primarily their own organizations, such as Bindery Women and Boot and Shoe Workers. In Boston, New York and Chicago each League is represented by its own delegates. In Kansas City, Missouri, again, not only are the delegates of the League seated in the central body, but every union of men in it pays a per capita tax into the funds of the Kansas City Women's Trade union League.
The National League receives a certain amount of financial support from the American Federation of Labor, and from a number of the international unions, several of the latter being affiliated with the League. State federations145, city central bodies, and local unions in different parts of the country give similar co?peration and money support.
As the labor movement is organized, it collects into suitable groups the different classes of wage-earners. But the average housekeeping, married woman, although both worker and producer, is not a wage-earner, although more and more, as the home industries become specialized is she becoming a wage-earner for at least part of her time. But, as our lives are arranged at present the largest proportion of married women and a considerable number of single women are ineligible146 for admission as members of any trade union. Are they therefore to be shut out from the labor movement, and from participation147 in its activities, no matter how closely their own interests are bound up with it, no matter how intensely they are in sympathy with its aims, no matter though as single girls they may have been members of a union?
We have noted148 already how much stronger the labor movement would be if the women and girls engaged in the trades were brought in through organization. Still further would organized men be advantaged if their movement were reinforced by this great body of home-keeping women, vast in numbers, and with their untouched reserves of energy and experience.
Again, it is only by making room for such women within the labor movement that women can be represented in sufficient numbers in the councils of labor. As long as there was no recognized way of admitting the home woman to even a tiny corner of the labor field, as long as entry was restricted solely149 to the wage-earning woman, there seemed no chance of women being ever in anything but a hopeless minority in either local or international union, and that minority, too, composed so largely of young and inexperienced girls. Is it any wonder, then, that the interests of the working-girls have suffered, and that, as a ready consequence, workingmen's interests have suffered, too.
The Women's Trade union League is also bringing into touch with the labor movement other women's organizations, and especially winning their increased co?peration in the campaigns for legislation. It is largely through the ally[A] membership that the Women's Trade union League has been able to reach the public ear as well as to attract assistance and co?peration, especially from the suffragists and the women's clubs. The suffragists have always been more or less in sympathy with labor organizations, while outside labor circles, the largest body to second the efforts of organized labor in the direction of humanity has been the women's clubs, whether expressing themselves through the General Federation, or through local activity in their home towns. An immense group of women thus early became committed to an active opposition150 to the employment of children either in factories, or under the even more dangerous and demoralizing conditions which await mere5 babies in the street or in tenement151 homes.
[Footnote A: An ally is a man or a woman of any class not a worker in any organized trade who believes in the organization of women and subscribes152 to the following League platform.
1. Organization of all workers into trade unions. 2. Equal pay for equal work. 3. Eight-hour day. 4. A living wage. 5. Full citizenship153 for women.]
There is a similar movement going on within the National Young Women's Christian154 Association. The reason for this stand being taken by women's organizations was characteristic. The impelling155 force that urged those women on was something far deeper than mere philanthropy. It was the acceptance by a whole group of women of the old responsibilities of motherhood, in the new form that these must take on if new conditions are to be met. It was as if the motherhood of the country had said in so many words: "Social conditions are changing, but we are still the mothers of the new generation. Society is threatened with this calamity156, that they will pass beyond our care before the needs and claims of childhood have been satisfied. As individuals we are now powerless. Let us see what co?peration will do to right conditions that are fast slipping beyond our control."
But how unconscious the vast number of women of this type were, either of the true nature of the force they were obeying or the point whither they were tending, was graphically157 illustrated158 at the Biennial Federation of Women's Clubs in St. Paul, in 1906, when a woman protested from the floor against the appointment of a committee to deal with industrial conditions. She added that she was all in favor of the Federation working against child labor, but they had no call to interfere159 in industrial questions.
This is an illustration of how the rank and file of the clubwomen became committed to industrial reform as part of their program, and incidentally, although there were those among their leaders who well knew whither the movement was tending. The Women's Trade union League represents one of the forces that is leading on the most conservative among them to stand forth160 for industrial justice consciously and deliberately161, while the League's special aims are brought the nearer to accomplishment162 by the support of this other group of women.
The Women's Trade union League is, and as long as it fulfills163 its present function, will surely remain, a federation of trade unions with women members, but it finds a niche164 and provides an honorable and useful function for the wives of workingmen, for ex-trade-union women, and for others who endorse138 trade unionism and gladly give their support to a constructive work, aiming at strengthening the weakest wing of labor, the unorganized, down-driven, underpaid working-girls.
If the League is to be an organization open to, and aiming at including eventually the great majority of working-women, it must be so flexible as to admit the woman who works in the home without formal wages, as well as the woman who works for an employer for wages. Both are in many respects upon the same footing in relation to society. Both are earners and producers. Both require the help of organization. Both should be an integral part of the labor movement. Both therefore may be consistently received as dues-paying members into Women's Trade union Leagues, even although we are still too confused and puzzled to permit of housewives forming their own unions, and therefore such members have to be received as allies.
In thus leaving open a door, however, through which all working-women may enter the League, the founders165 were mindful of the fact, and have it embodied in the constitution, that the main strength must lie in the increasing number of wage-earning girls and women who are socially developed up to the point of being themselves organized into trade unions. The League has so far grown, and can in the future grow normally, only so far as it is the highest organized expression of the ideals, the wishes and the needs of the wage-earning girl.
As for the woman of wealth, I should be the last to question her right to opportunities for self-development, or to deny her the joy of assisting her sorely driven sisters to rise out of the industrial mire166, and stand erect167 in self-reliant independence. But if the League is to grow until it becomes the universal expression of the woman's part in organized labor, then the privilege of assisting with financial help the ordinary activities of the League can be hers only during the infancy168 of the body. No organization can draw its nurture169 permanently170 from sources outside of itself, although many a movement has been nursed through its early stages of uncertainty171 and struggle by the aid of the sympathetic and understanding outsider.
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1
momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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grievances
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| n.委屈( grievance的名词复数 )；苦衷；不满；牢骚 | |
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mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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sporadic
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| adj.偶尔发生的 [反]regular；分散的 | |
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auxiliaries
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| n.助动词 ( auxiliary的名词复数 )；辅助工，辅助人员 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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indirectly
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| adv.间接地，不直接了当地 | |
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allotted
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| 分配，拨给，摊派( allot的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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specialized
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| adj.专门的，专业化的 | |
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miseries
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| n.痛苦( misery的名词复数 )；痛苦的事；穷困；常发牢骚的人 | |
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awakening
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| n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的 | |
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affiliated
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| adj. 附属的, 有关连的 | |
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labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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16
sling
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| vt.扔；悬挂；n.挂带；吊索，吊兜；弹弓 | |
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17
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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makers
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| n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式） | |
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helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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provident
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| adj.为将来做准备的，有先见之明的 | |
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radical
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| n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的 | |
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federation
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| n.同盟，联邦，联合，联盟，联合会 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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retail
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| v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格 | |
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amalgamated
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| v.（使）（金属）汞齐化( amalgamate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）合并；联合；结合 | |
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treasurer
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| n.司库，财务主管 | |
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backbone
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| n.脊骨，脊柱，骨干；刚毅，骨气 | |
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unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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robins
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| n.知更鸟，鸫( robin的名词复数 )；（签名者不分先后，以避免受责的）圆形签名抗议书（或请愿书） | |
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boundless
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| adj.无限的；无边无际的；巨大的 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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gatherings
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| 聚集( gathering的名词复数 )； 收集； 采集； 搜集 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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publicity
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| n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告 | |
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constructive
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| adj.建设的，建设性的 | |
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dilettante
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| n.半瓶醋，业余爱好者 | |
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embodied
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| v.表现( embody的过去式和过去分词 )；象征；包括；包含 | |
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arbitration
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| n.调停，仲裁 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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protocol
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| n.议定书，草约，会谈记录，外交礼节 | |
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impended
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| v.进行威胁，即将发生( impend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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conciliation
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| n.调解，调停 | |
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picket
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| n.纠察队；警戒哨；v.设置纠察线；布置警卫 | |
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45
picketing
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| [经] 罢工工人劝阻工人上班，工人纠察线 | |
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pickets
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| 罢工纠察员( picket的名词复数 ) | |
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47
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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48
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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49
potteries
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| n.陶器( pottery的名词复数 )；陶器厂；陶土；陶器制造（术） | |
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50
jersey
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| n.运动衫 | |
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51
woolen
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| adj.羊毛(制)的；毛纺的 | |
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52
appalling
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| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
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53
varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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nominally
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| 在名义上，表面地； 应名儿 | |
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reins
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| 感情，激情； 缰( rein的名词复数 )； 控制手段； 掌管； （成人带着幼儿走路以防其走失时用的）保护带 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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57
lawfully
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| adv.守法地，合法地；合理地 | |
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58
irresistible
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| adj.非常诱人的，无法拒绝的，无法抗拒的 | |
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oversight
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| n.勘漏，失察，疏忽 | |
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60
conserve
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| vt.保存，保护，节约，节省，守恒，不灭 | |
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impulsive
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| adj.冲动的，刺激的；有推动力的 | |
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hospitable
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| adj.好客的；宽容的；有利的，适宜的 | |
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literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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64
persistence
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| n.坚持，持续，存留 | |
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65
procuring
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| v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的现在分词 )；拉皮条 | |
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reminder
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| n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示 | |
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legislative
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| n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的 | |
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humane
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| adj.人道的，富有同情心的 | |
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treasury
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| n.宝库；国库，金库；文库 | |
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70
untold
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| adj.数不清的，无数的 | |
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investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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72
commissioner
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| n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员 | |
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authorized
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| a.委任的，许可的 | |
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appropriation
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| n.拨款，批准支出 | |
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75
simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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76
biennial
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| adj.两年一次的 | |
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aspires
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| v.渴望，追求( aspire的第三人称单数 ) | |
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78
evaded
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| 逃避( evade的过去式和过去分词 )； 避开； 回避； 想不出 | |
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judicial
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| adj.司法的，法庭的，审判的，明断的，公正的 | |
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80
awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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81
incessant
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| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
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82
authoritative
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| adj.有权威的，可相信的；命令式的；官方的 | |
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83
enfranchisement
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| 选举权 | |
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84
costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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85
suffrage
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| n.投票，选举权，参政权 | |
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86
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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87
underlying
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| adj.在下面的，含蓄的，潜在的 | |
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88
watchful
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| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
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89
allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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90
brewery
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| n.啤酒厂 | |
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91
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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92
initiated
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| n. 创始人 adj. 新加入的 vt. 开始，创始，启蒙，介绍加入 | |
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93
knights
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| 骑士； （中古时代的）武士( knight的名词复数 )； 骑士； 爵士； （国际象棋中）马 | |
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94
vows
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| 誓言( vow的名词复数 )； 郑重宣布，许愿 | |
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95
penetrated
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| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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96
passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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97
perseverance
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| n.坚持不懈，不屈不挠 | |
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98
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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99
steadfastness
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| n.坚定，稳当 | |
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100
fervent
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| adj.热的，热烈的，热情的 | |
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101
eloquently
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| adv. 雄辩地(有口才地, 富于表情地) | |
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102
actively
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| adv.积极地，勤奋地 | |
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103
desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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104
creek
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| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
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105
scant
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| adj.不充分的，不足的；v.减缩，限制，忽略 | |
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106
tangible
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| adj.有形的，可触摸的，确凿的，实际的 | |
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107
toiler
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| 辛劳者，勤劳者 | |
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108
inspector
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| n.检查员，监察员，视察员 | |
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109
strenuous
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| adj.奋发的，使劲的；紧张的；热烈的，狂热的 | |
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110
squire
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| n.护卫, 侍从, 乡绅 | |
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111
formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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112
vicissitudes
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| n.变迁，世事变化；变迁兴衰( vicissitude的名词复数 )；盛衰兴废 | |
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113
cohesion
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| n.团结，凝结力 | |
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114
accruing
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| v.增加( accrue的现在分词 )；（通过自然增长）产生；获得；（使钱款、债务）积累 | |
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115
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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116
statute
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| n.成文法，法令，法规；章程，规则，条例 | |
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117
sanitary
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| adj.卫生方面的，卫生的，清洁的，卫生的 | |
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118
machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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119
manifestations
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| n.表示，显示（manifestation的复数形式） | |
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120
loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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121
corps
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| n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组 | |
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122
elevation
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| n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高 | |
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123
descends
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| v.下来( descend的第三人称单数 )；下去；下降；下斜 | |
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124
patriotism
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| n.爱国精神，爱国心，爱国主义 | |
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125
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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126
laborers
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| n.体力劳动者，工人( laborer的名词复数 )；（熟练工人的）辅助工 | |
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127
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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128
antiquated
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| adj.陈旧的，过时的 | |
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129
census
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| n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查 | |
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130
unpaid
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| adj.未付款的，无报酬的 | |
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131
tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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132
hostility
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| n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争 | |
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133
secular
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| n.牧师，凡人；adj.世俗的，现世的，不朽的 | |
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134
immature
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| adj.未成熟的，发育未全的，未充分发展的 | |
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135
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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136
disapproves
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| v.不赞成( disapprove的第三人称单数 ) | |
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137
essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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138
endorse
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| vt.(支票、汇票等)背书，背署；批注；同意 | |
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139
endorsement
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| n.背书；赞成，认可，担保；签(注)，批注 | |
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140
undertakings
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| 企业( undertaking的名词复数 )； 保证； 殡仪业； 任务 | |
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141
influential
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| adj.有影响的，有权势的 | |
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142
hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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143
allied
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| adj.协约国的；同盟国的 | |
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144
complexity
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| n.复杂(性)，复杂的事物 | |
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145
federations
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| n.联邦( federation的名词复数 )；同盟；联盟；联合会 | |
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146
ineligible
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| adj.无资格的，不适当的 | |
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147
participation
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| n.参与，参加，分享 | |
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148
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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149
solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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150
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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151
tenement
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| n.公寓；房屋 | |
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152
subscribes
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| v.捐助( subscribe的第三人称单数 )；签署，题词；订阅；同意 | |
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153
citizenship
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| n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份) | |
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154
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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155
impelling
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| adj.迫使性的，强有力的v.推动、推进或敦促某人做某事( impel的现在分词 ) | |
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156
calamity
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| n.灾害，祸患，不幸事件 | |
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157
graphically
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| adv.通过图表；生动地，轮廓分明地 | |
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158
illustrated
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| adj. 有插图的，列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词 | |
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159
interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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160
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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161
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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162
accomplishment
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| n.完成，成就，（pl.）造诣，技能 | |
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163
fulfills
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| v.履行（诺言等）( fulfill的第三人称单数 )；执行（命令等）；达到（目的）；使结束 | |
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164
niche
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| n.壁龛；合适的职务(环境、位置等) | |
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165
founders
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| n.创始人( founder的名词复数 ) | |
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166
mire
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| n.泥沼，泥泞；v.使...陷于泥泞，使...陷入困境 | |
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167
erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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168
infancy
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| n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期 | |
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169
nurture
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| n.养育，照顾，教育；滋养，营养品；vt.养育，给与营养物，教养，扶持 | |
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170
permanently
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| adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地 | |
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171
uncertainty
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| n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物 | |
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