HOME AND EDUCATION
Hunt, Caroline L. & Follette, Belle Case La
HOME AND EDUCATION The home is the real seat of government, and the Wise Men of all nations bring their gifts to the cradle. Conducted by BELLE CASE LA FOLLETTE and CAROLINE L. HUNT A Good...
...I worked two weeks as a nurse girl, but not finding that satisfactory I tried to get work in a factory, but none would take me on account of being so young—12 years...
...Miss Hunt and I are very much interested in the suggestion of our friend from Kansas and will discuss it in future issues of the magazine...
...Among the girls was Lulu M. Holley of the Laundry Workers...
...These should be wider than the mattresses or they will go on with difficulty...
...The woman who is too busy to read is often growing more than the woman who has nothing to do excepting to read...
...Debates, literary programs, dramatics, concerts, lectures, library books, educational games, physical training, basketry, sewing and dressmaking, classes in music, both instrumental and vocal, and classes for the adult blind, offered all possible incentive for individual advancement...
...From the report we learn that "during the season of 1908-09 two fully equipped recreation centers, and one having three rooms under supervision, were opened five evenings each week from the first week in October to the first of June, with a total average nightly attendance of 525...
...New School Activities in Milwaukee THE report of the Board of School Directors of Milwaukee, which was issued on June 30, 1909, shows that the city has entered upon several new and valuable educational activities...
...Wholesome Entertainment ARE we all listening, as Jane Addams says we should, to the appeal of youth for its share in the joys of life and watching for examples of wholesome entertainment which we can approve and follow and possibly improve upon...
...That in itself is encouraging, but the thoughtful man expresses his confidence further...
...HINTS TO HOME-MAKERS Find a farmer in the country who will sell you cream, butter, eggs or curds...
...And they were given a live bill...
...When La Follette's wrote to Miss Holley asking her for her events in her life which led up to her appearance before the legislature and her active support of the eight-hour bill, she replied in a letter so full of human interest that it is reproduced here in full...
...When I was six years of age, we moved to Xenia, Clay County, Illinois, where I attended the public school until I was eleven years old, when we moved to Salem, Marion County, Illinois...
...It was in an open pavilion on the shore of Lake Mendota...
...Walk out and get your supplies two or three times a week, rain or shine and in spite of social engagements...
...A Consolidated Rural School THE State Federation of Women's Clubs in Kentucky offered a prize last year for the rural school that would do the most to make itself a model public school...
...Baseball, like dancing, may become a form of dissipation but in itself it is the best game ever played...
...In order to secure the use of these libraries, it is only necessary to have an association of ten responsible citizens, with a secretary who may act as librarian and take charge of the books...
...I was glad of the opportunity of helping with the ten-hour bill (The bill was finally changed to a ten-hour bill and became a law, in this form putting the legislature on record as in favor of restricting hours—the important point.—Editor) and I wish it might include Hotel and Restaurant employees, also Domestics, and provide for the proper housing of same...
...It is not the aim of the Social Center to tempt children away from well-ordered homes and interfere with the family life, but rather to provide a place for study and congenial occupation during the evening, for those less fortunate in home surroundings...
...Since then I have worked in a waist factory...
...These washable covers are particularly desirable for use when mattresses are moved...
...it was live because it was to be the means of putting the members of the legislature of Illinois on record for or against the legality of restricting the hours of women's labor...
...The spirit in which the campaign before the Illinois legislature was conducted indicates that these voices will speak for peace rather than for war, and are for this reason to be welcomed into the labor movement...
...I finally secured a position as errand girl in a hand laundry and when 1 wasn't busy delivering or calling for bundles I learned to iron...
...It provides a room for manual training and a playroom to be used in bad weather...
...Then I heard that the Laundry Workers were being organized into a union...
...They look forward to and will probably look back upon these Saturday evenings as delightful occasions...
...And yet the busy woman's life would be happier and better-balanced if she found time for books and study...
...My father was a country merchant...
...This team rents the pavilion for a series of summer Saturday evenings and their manager is invested with authority to say who shall and who shall not enjoy its privileges...
...Often, as suggested by the writer of this letter, lack of incentive is the cause of the failure to use and to profit by books...
...This letter and the fact that the testimony of the representatives of the women's unions was received by the legislators with marked sympathy and interest and was much more effective than the testimony of philanthropists, even well intentioned and well informed ones, could have been, are significant...
...Basement bedrooms increase the white plague faster than sanitoriums can stamp it out...
...They have seven acres of school grounds, a portion of which is laid off in school gardens...
...Those who attend these informal parties are mostly from the surrounding neighborhood...
...It was a refined, orderly party which dispersed at an early hour...
...The only expense incurred is the freight charges...
...The coming together of a few women at a specified time for a course of reading would give the necessary stimulus to many women who feel they have no time to read...
...Conducted by BELLE CASE LA FOLLETTE and CAROLINE L. HUNT A Good Suggestion AGENTLEMAN from Kansas writes that "being a subscriber I have been reading with interest your Home and Education Department of La Follette's...
...Traveling Libraries THE State of Wisconsin maintains a system of traveling libraries containing from thirty to sixty selected popular books—fiction, history, travel, biography, science and literature, for adults and children...
...Not being acquainted with that business he failed to make a success of it and the following spring we moved to Chicago...
...I joined them, became interested in the principles of unionism and marched in the labor day parade of 1903...
...These dances furnish pleasure for a large number of young people most of whom are very busy during the week...
...Good character, good behavior, and the payment of fifty cents are the conditions of admittance which he imposes...
...All of the activities of the school were under the oversight of the supervising principal...
...In 1904, I tried to secure shorter hours for the workers through their organization but the majority of the workers were outside the organization then, having dropped out after the failure of the strike the previous spring, or to be more exact, after the failure on the part of the employers to arbitrate as agreed upon...
...This is indeed a model and an example...
...Others will come in and the group will grow...
...One Saturday evening recently I looked on at a little party that appeared to have none of these objectionable features...
...The workers were so intimidated that they were afraid to belong to the union for fear of being blacklisted...
...The start is really the only obstacle to overcome...
...A change of libiaries may be secured every six months...
...Every neighborhood has not a Lake Mendota nor a pavilion nor perhaps a baseball team, but it has young people in need of amusement...
...When I was convinced that it was useless to try to secure anything for them through organization, I quit and took a position in a family as a domestic, learned to cook and for the past four years I have worked as a cook in private houses, boarding houses and hotels, but had to quit last winter on account of my health...
...In the winter, parties conducted on the same plan are held in a near-by hall...
...We want to be of service and this letter gives us hope that we are making our purpose understood...
...At a critical moment she presented a calculation which she had made about the number of thousands of times she was obliged to tread the ironing machine in order to iron five hundred shirts,—her stint for a day...
...Any person interested can obtain full information by addressing the Wisconsin Free Library Commission at the Capitol, Madison, Wisconsin...
...Encourage the boys to organize a baseball team and to organize dancing clubs of the right kind...
...Laundering shirt waists for the first time in preparation for the market.—Editor...
...The tall, straight, clean-faced young man who stands at the door and calls for the tickets is the manager of the neighborhood baseball team...
...I think the factory girls are treated better than any other class of workers and I am sure it is due to the factory laws of the state...
...He is a gentleman and his sisters accompany him and the bars are never let down...
...In what was known as the International Reading Room— Sixth District School No...
...This section has had lectures in four languages...
...1 Center,—there were classes in English, American History and Civics...
...also study club libraries with outlines and programs for the study of different subjects...
...Because of its limitations the Free Library Commission favors the small communities first...
...Careful housekeepers who dislike to see their new or renovated mattresses hugged up against the dirty coats of delivery men sometimes insist oh having the coverings used when the mattresses are sent home from shops or mattress factories...
...Dancing in itself is the most beautiful and healthy exercise...
...This is a good time to make plans for a beginning...
...Three districts consolidated and are building a new school house...
...Often it is best not to try to get too many into a group...
...it was live because it was the first bill ever introduced into a state legislature by a woman's union, having been framed by the Waitresses' Union of Chicago...
...Education does not begin nor end at school, nor is it limited to the reading of books...
...Before you know it, you will be healthy...
...The dances furnish enough and yet not too much recreation to satisfy the normal desire of youth for social entertainment...
...The Civics class comprised two sections, the members of one section being unable to speak English...
...At the end of two years I took a position as body-ironer in a steam laundry, went from hand body ironing to starching, ladies' clothes ironing, machine body-ironing, and finally bosom machine ironing...
...A good way to keep mattresses clean and free from dust is to provide for them covers of coarse cotton cloth in the shape of bags...
...In compliance with your request for information about myself, and my experiences in the labor movement, would say that I was born in "Little Covington" Illinois—in Wayne County—¦ of American parents...
...WOMEN OF THE HOUR Lulu M. Holley AT the opening of the day's work in the Illinois State Legislature on April 21, 1909, one of the Senators said, "Give us a live bill...
...Late hours, badly ventilated rooms, elaborate dress, extravagant cost, often make it dissipation...
...He suggests that we outline a year's course of reading for small groups of neighborhood or otherwise congenial women, who do not have the advantage of social and intellectual improvement afforded by large communities with their clubs and libraries and entertainments...
...Dancing began at half past eight and stopped before twelve...
...It is an important fact that women workers have found their voices...
...it was live because there were present to oppose it 550 manufacturers and to support it eleven women, all but two of whom were representatives of trade organizations...
...An hour of piano and vocal solos preceded dancing in which over one hundred participated...
...The teachers are to have a cottage which is to be used also for teaching Domestic Science...
...Some come from town...
...It has been called by some "The Girls' Bill," and it provided for the limitation of the hours of labor of women in factories to eight in one day...
...After the bill had been introduced and information was called for, the girls were there to give facts about conditions in their own trades, not facts that they had gleaned from books but facts they had experienced in their lives...
...It was live because it concerned the most important issue before Congresses and Legislatures,—the question whether conditions in labor shall be determined by the demands of trade or by the demands of the human organism...
...The extra cloth can easily be basted down at the sides...
...At this Center also, a social club of young men and women gave entertainments, admittance being by card exclusively...
...Let two or three women decide in the right spirit to commence the school year, reading together once a week for six months and the rest will follow...
...The prize was won by a school situated on a country road five miles from any railroad station...
...The dress was simple and suitable, and the conduct natural and in all respects well bred...
...My father sold his store in Xenia and entered the Hotel business in Salem...
...Lectures were given on 'Municipal Ownership,' 'The Spirit of American Government' 'Our New Naturalization Laws' and on other subjects...
Vol. 1 • August 1909 • No. 31
