The day book. [volume], November 19, 1912, Image 24

About The day book. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1911-1917

Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

                
I'ff
M
fl
,ifs clue for action. There has
never been a human brute to
whom she was afraid to talk and
talk with forceful plainness.
Or it may be a girl worker in
the packinghouse with some
cause for complaint, and Mary
McDowell marches up to thcbig
.stockyards' superintendent and
"gives him a piece of her mind"
just as fearlessly. A
She organized the first wom
an's trade union ever attempted
in the stockyards and insisted
upon better working conditions
for the girls and women, and she
attends the meetings of the men's
union, too.
She opened her settlement in a
small storeroom 14 years ago.
Soon she expanded to three
rooms over a feed store. Now
she is at the head of a $50,000 in
stitution, libraries, assembly halls,
music rooms, gymnasium and
school rooms, physicians, nurses
and teachers.
Chicago used to dump garbage
5n holes in the pavements in the
stockyards district. The street
commissioner said that garbage
made fine pavements after it had
been down a year or so, but in the
meantime the odor made the
stockyards smell like a perfume
factory. One .bright morning
Miss McDowell .appeared at the
mayor's office. Bringing up" the
rear was a troop of foreign wom
en. Through Miss McDowell
they kicked about the garbage
The mavor patiently explained
vhat nice pavements garbage
made.
, "All right, we want the rest of I
it dumped on Lake Shore drive.
If it's good for the stockyards it's
good for the drive, too," said
Miss McDowell. Very fashion
able folks dwell on that drive, you
know, and so garbage was not
used for paving purposes there,
and after that talk it was not
used in Packingtown any more
either.
Once in a while Miss McDow
ell skips to another city and talks
to crowds of working girls. Her
favorite address is "The Help
less in Industry.'' It is worth any
person's time o hear it.
Miss McDowell is about fifty."
Her only recreation is trimming
hats. She really enjoys it. "If
the working girls and the work
ingmen's wives and children
didn't need me," she explains, "I
would spend all my time trim
ming the prettiest and most ex
pensive hats ever seen."
o o
WON BY DEFAULT
(5siL
"At the party the other night I
won the prize for being the home-
Jiest man."
"Well, you chump, what did
you want to attend for and take
Such a chance ?"
"Because I thought you were
going to be there."
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