[Illustration:  In A basement sweatshop

Women picking rags collected from households.  These rags have neither been cleaned nor disinfected and give off dust at every handling.]

[Illustration:  Girl gas blowers.  Kansas city]

The New York League owes much of its success to Mary Dreier, the sister of Mrs. Raymond Robins.  She was its president for several years, and by her perseverance and devotion, did much to build up the organization in its early days.

The rest of the League leaders must be summed up even more briefly.  Mary Anderson, a member of the Boot and Shoe Workers’ International Board, is of Scandinavian origin, and has all the steadfastness of the Swedes.  Another very excellent organizer and much-loved trade unionist is Emma Steghagen, also of the Boot and Shoe Workers, and for seven years secretary of the Chicago League.  She may be called the League veteran, for her association with trade unionism began with the Knights of Labor.  Others are Mary McEnerney, Mary Haney, Hilda Svenson.

Elizabeth Maloney, she of the snapping eyes and fervent heart, marshals her waitresses through strike after strike against grinding employers, or she eloquently pleads their cause, whether in the state legislature, or with her own International, at the convention of the Hotel and Restaurant Employes, if the men show themselves a bit forgetful, as they sometimes do, of the girls’ interest.

Nelle Quick, bindery woman, has been transferred from her trade-union activities in St. Louis to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the state of Missouri.

From among clerical workers came into the League women who have left their mark, Helen Marot and Alice Bean, of New York, and Mabel Gillespie, of Boston, while Stella Franklin, the Australian, for long held the reins of the national office in Chicago.

Gertrude Barnum, who graduated into trade unionism from settlement work, and Josephine Casey, of the Elevated Railroad Clerks, are two who were long actively associated with the Woman’s Trade Union League, but of late years both have been organizers under the International of the Ladies’ Garment Workers.

Among the allies, the non-wage-earners, are Mary Dreier, president of the New York League, who was also the only woman member of the New York State Factory Investigating Commission; Mrs. Glendower Evans, notable for her service in advancing legislation for the minimum wage; Mary McDowell, of the University of Chicago Settlement, mother of the stockyards folk, beloved of the Poles and the Bohemians and the Ruthenians, who cross the ocean to settle on the desolate banks of Bubbly Creek.  Mrs. D.W.  Knefler, of St. Louis, did pioneering work for girlish trade unionism in that conservative city.

Miss Gillespie, the Secretary of the Boston Women’s Trade Union League, has been for years its main standby.  Working in cooeperation with the young president, Miss Julia O’Connor, of the Telephone Operators, her influence in the labor movement is an important factor in the Massachusetts situation.  She is a member of the State Minimum Wage Commission.