people, Susan now turned
her attention to the workingwomen of New York, whose low wages, long
hours, and unhealthy working and living conditions had troubled her
for a long time. Women were being forced out of the home into the
factory by a changing and expanding economy, and at last were being
paid for their work. However, the women she met on the streets of New
York, hurrying to work at dawn and returning late at night, weary,
pale, and shabbily dressed, had none of the confidence of the
economically independent. They had merely exchanged one form of
slavery for another. She saw the ballot as their most powerful ally,
and as she told the factory girls of Cohoes, New York, they could
compel their employers to grant them a ten-hour day, equal opportunity
for advancement, and equal pay, the moment they held the ballot in
their hands.[220]

As yet labor unions were few and short-lived. The women tailors of New
York had formed a union as early as 1825, but it had not survived, and
later attempts to form women's unions had rarely been successful. A
few men's unions had weathered the years, but they had not enrolled
women, fearing their competition. Women were welcomed only by the
National Labor Union, established in Baltimore in 1866 for the purpose
of federating all unions.

When the National Labor Union Congress met in New York in September
1868, Susan saw an opportunity for women to take part, and in
preparation she called a group of workingwomen together in _The
Revolution_ office to form a Workingwomen's Association which she
hoped would eventually represent all of the trades. At this meeting,
the majority were from the printing trade, typesetters operating the
newly invented typesetting machines, press feeders, bookbinders, and
clerks, in whom she had become interested through her venture in
publishing. She wanted them to call their organization the
Workingwomen's Suffrage Association, but they refused, because they
feared the public's disapproval of woman suffrage and were convinced
they should not seek political rights until they had improved their
working conditions. She could not make them see that they were
putting the cart before the horse. They did, however, form
Workingwomen's Association No. 1, electing her their delegate to the
National Labor Congress.

Next she called a meeting of the women in the sewing trades, and with
the help of men from the National Labor Union, persuaded a hundred of
them to for