National Affairs: Picketer

Wives of some great men remind us that we can make our lives sublime. The enthusiasm with which Anna Eleanor Roosevelt Roosevelt throws herself into teaching, baby-culture,* charity and social crusades is rivaled by pistol-toting Cornelia Bryce Pinchot’s fervor on behalf of working women & children. Early one morning last week at Northampton. Pa. a State car rolled up to the D & D Shirt Co. factory and out stepped Pennsylvania’s First Lady, clad in a red corduroy coat, red hat. Pinned on Airs. Pinchot’s coat was a streamer labeled: STRIKER. At the head of a cheerful crowd of factory girls she marched round & round the D & D plant, out of which the girls had walked several weeks ago because of low wages (3¢ an hour for cutters) and “immoral conditions.” At a meeting from which men were barred, Mrs. Pinchot talked with 15-year-old girl workers who told her they had worked six days a week, ten hours a day for wages of 57¢, 98¢, $1.25 and $2.50. Also they told of “week end trips to New York with their bosses” which, it was understood, were compulsory on pain of losing their jobs. Leaving Northampton. Mrs. Pinchot sped to nearby Allentown where a similar strike was in progress at the Morris Freezer shirt factory. Again Picket Pinchot. waving her hat to encourage her followers, led a band round & round the plant. The walls did not fall but Morris Freezer appeared, invited Mrs. Pinchot inside to meet some of the girls still at work and “talk things over.” Mrs. Pinchot hesitated, then decided: “I couldn’t be on both sides at once.” “Is it lady-like to picket?” one of the strikers asked the Governor’s lady. “Well, it’s a matter of noblesse oblige.” observed Mrs. Pinchot. “You are obliged to do it out of consideration for the many others who are suffering from low wages if not for yourselves. Our ancestors fought their revolution. We must fight our economic revolution now.” Mrs. Pinchot did not picket in vain. That afternoon, in the closing hours of its session, the Pennsylvania General Assembly adopted a resolution to investigate the conditions under which the State’s children work.

*Last week Macfadden Publications announced suspension of Babies: Just Babies, edited by Mrs. Roosevelt.