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That would keep women out of the business. They were willing to endorse the 54-Hour Law for women because they thought that fewer women would be hired. The employers said that they wouldn't employ any women if there was any regulation of their hours, and the unions thought that was so. So that was fine. They were always for child labor laws, because that keeps children out of the industry and keeps them from competing with grown men for the jobs.

I never was able to rouse the impulses of social justice and humanitarianism in unions in general. Oh yes, there were some devoted people who had got a vision. John Flynn, the head of the metal polishers, was always all wrought up about it. He was always for every law we wanted, every advance and so forth. He'd appear at hearings. He wasn't always coherent, but what he said was fine. He was for it. He'd stand right by you. I said to him once, “Really, it's wonderful. You understand these things, and you're so in favor of these things; that is wonderful.”

“Oh,” he said, “I heard Mrs. Florence Kelley make a speech once. By George, ever since then I see it! You got to have law or there'll be lots of abuse of women, children and poor weak people who can't defend themselves because they haven't got a union.”

He had hard Mrs. Florence Kelley make a speech.