It is sad to record that through no fault of their own, the girls’ organization met an early downfall.  It passed out of existence after the stockyards’ strike of 1904, being inevitably involved in the defeat of the men, and going down with them to disaster.

The Irish leadership that produced such splendid results, is now, in any case, not there to be called upon, as the girls now employed in the packing-plants of Chicago are practically all immigrant girls from eastern Europe.  When the present system of unorganized labor in the trade is abolished, as some day it must be, it will only be through a fresh beginning among an altogether different group, that it will be possible to reach the women.

But the spirit that permeated Local 183 has never wholly died in the hearts of those who belonged to it, and it springs up now and then in quarters little expected, calling to remembrance Maggie Condon’s reason for pushing the union of which she was a charter member and the first vice-president.  “Girls, we ought to organize for them that comes after us.”

IV

THE WOMEN’S TRADE UNION LEAGUE

One of the least encouraging features of trade unionism among women in the United States has been the small need of success which has attended efforts after organization in the past, especially the lack of permanence in such organizations as have been formed.  In the brief historical review it has been shown how fitful were women’s first attempts in this direction, how limited the success, and how temporary the organizations themselves.

It is true there is an essential difference between the loose and momentary cooeperation of unorganized workers aiming at the remedying of special grievances, and disbanding their association whenever that particular struggle is over, and a permanent organization representing the workers’ side all the time and holding them in a bond of mutual helpfulness.  Most of the strikes of women during the first half of the last century, like many today, sprang from impatience with intolerable burdens, and the “temporary union,” often led by some men’s organization, merely dissolved away with the ending of the strike, whether successful or not.  But altogether apart from such sporadic risings as these, there were, as we have seen, from a very early period, genuine trade unions composed of working-women.

The Women’s Trade Union League is the first organization which has attempted to deal with the whole of the problems of the woman in industry on a national scale.  As we have seen, there have been, besides the many women’s unions, and the men’s unions to which women have been and are admitted, the large body, the Women’s National Union Label League, and a number of women’s auxiliaries in connection with such unions as the Switchmen, the Machinists, and the Typographical Union.  The Women’s Union Label League has, however,