Strasser of the International Cigar-makers, and he
represented the advance guard of his generation, in his annual report
in the year 1879.

"We cannot drive the females out of the trade but we can restrict this
daily quota of labor through factory laws. No girl under eighteen
should be employed more than eight hours per day; all overwork should
be prohibited; while married women should be kept out of factories at
least six weeks before and six weeks after confinement."

But it is a man's way out, after all, and it is the man's way still.
There is the same readiness shown today to save the woman from
overwork before and after confinement, although she may be thereby at
the same time deprived of the means of support, while there is no hint
of any provision for either herself or the baby, not to speak of other
children who may be dependent upon her. In many quarters today there
is the same willingness to stand for equal pay, but very little
anxiety to see that the young girl worker be as well trained as the
boy, in order that the girl may be able with reason and justice to
demand the same wage from an employer.

II

WOMEN IN THE KNIGHTS OF LABOR

So little trace is left in the world of organized labor today of that
short-lived body, the Knights of Labor, that it might be thought
worthy of but slight notice in any general review.

But women have peculiar reason to remember the Knights, and to be
grateful to them, for they were the first large national organization
to which women were admitted on terms of equality with men, and in the
work of the organization itself, they played an active and a notable
part.

From the year 1869 till 1878 the Knights of Labor existed as a secret
order, having for its aim the improvement of living conditions. Its
philosophy and its policy were well expressed in the motto, taken from
the maxims of Solon, the Greek lawgiver: "That is the most perfect
government in which an injury to one is the concern of all."

The career of the Knights of Labor, however, as an active force in the
community, began with the National Convention of 1878, from which time
it made efforts to cover the wage-earning and farming classes, which
had to constitute three-fourths of the membership. The organization
was formed distinctly upon the industrial and not upon the craft plan.
That is, instead of a local branch being confined to members of one
trade, the plan was to include representatives of differe