Two sets of resolutions discussed and passed by the fourth biennial convention of the National Women’s Trade Union League, held in 1913, were afterwards published broadcast over the country, and have been of marked educational value.  The one pleaded for the speedy enfranchisement of women for these reasons:  because the most costly production and the most valuable asset of any nation is its output of men and women; because the industrial conditions under which more than six million girls and women are forced to work is an individual and social menace; and because working-women as an unenfranchised class are continually used to lower the standards of men.  The League in particular protested against the ill-judged activities of the anti-suffrage women, “a group of women of leisure, who by accident of birth have led sheltered and protected lives, and who never through experience have had to face the misery that low wages and long hours produce.”

This stirring, appeal made a profound impression on suffragists and anti-suffragists alike, in the labor world, and amid the general public.  It was of course hotly resented by that small group of women of privilege, who think they know better than working-women what are the needs of working-women.  Its deep significance lay in that it was a voice from the voiceless millions.  It gave many pause to think and catch, as they had never caught before, the vital meaning underlying the demand for the vote.

The other series of resolutions expressed no less forcefully the women’s consciousness of the intimate connection between education and labor, and pressed home the fact that organized laboring-women are watchful of the work being done in our public schools, and are anxious that it should be brought and kept up to the level of present-day needs.  As is mentioned elsewhere, these resolutions laid special stress upon the necessity of making all courses of industrial training coeducational, of including in them the history of the evolution of industry, and the philosophy of collective bargaining, and of insuring that all boys and girls, before they leave school to go to work, have a knowledge of the state and federal laws that exist for their protection.  These resolutions were sent to 1,075 boards of education in the United States.  Replies have been received from twenty-six boards in fifteen states.  Of these fourteen already have vocational training in their schools, two are planning such training, and six referred the resolutions to committees.  Of those having training in the schools, thirteen have courses open to both boys and girls, and one has courses for girls exclusively, but is planning to open a school for boys.

The National League for four years published its own magazine, Life and Labor, with a double function; on the one hand as the organ of the League activities, and the expression of the members’ views; on the other as a running diary of what was happening in the world of working-women, for the information of students and of all interested in sociological matters.