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Show Women Wage Earners Are to Form Union Seven Hundred in New York Pledge Themselves to This End. NEW YORK, March 27. Raising their hands as a. sign of fealty to the cause, 700 women havo pledged themselves, them-selves, at a conference of the Women's Trade Union league, to help organize all the" women wage-earners ot this country coun-try into trades unions. Samuel Gompers, Gom-pers, president of the American Federation Fed-eration of Labor, nnd Miss Jano Ad-dams Ad-dams of Hull House, Chicago, addressed ad-dressed the meetlns. Miss Addamn said: Reasons tor Union. "The essence of a trades union Is Its practical side. "When you can pool your services and offer them ln hundreds. Just as the man with hundreds of dollars dol-lars can employ or reject the demand, you must have the power of supply and demand. "We are inclined to think that the wage-earning woman's position Is not fair from the moment when she applies for a situation. She Is clearly at a disadvantage. dis-advantage. Her needs are immediate. Either she needs money for thc evening's even-ing's meal, or they need her money at home to pay thc rent Now, the trades union believes that, standing behind her. It can give her a little power to counteract the Influence of the capital which meets her at the door. We believe be-lieve that In pooling her Interests with others she will not stand at the door so awfully alone and so powerless." Effect of Organization. Miss May McDowell of Chicago explained ex-plained the conditions of the girls working at thc stockyards and elsewhere else-where In Chicago, pointing out that organization was doing n great deal there toward removing petty spites and class feeling among the working girls. The meeting was the public part of the first national convention of the Woman's Trade Union league, a private and exclusive meeting having been held earlier, at which officers for the ensuing j'ear were reported upon by thc nominating committee and announced nt the public meeting. Mrs. Ellen M. Henrotln of Chicago was chosen president. presi-dent. Besides representatives of the working work-ing women, there were present many persons well known ln society and a number of settlement workers, who pledged themselves to help along tho cause. |