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."