WOMEN AND PENNY PHONES
By Mrs. John C. Kennedy.
Women who work for a living, women whose husbands work for a living, women who believe in justice for the workers, should sign the petition of the Penny Phone League, should ask their neighbors to sign the petition, should agitate for it in the parlor, in the kitchen and over the-back fence. They should demand their alderman's position on the question; they should watch the procedure of the committee of the city council on gas, oil and electric light. They should do this because Chicago will have its own telephone system if the women of Chicago demand it, because a municipal telephone system would mean a telephone in every working man's home at one cent a call; because it means that 50,000 men and women in the electrical trades of Chicago, who cannot now organize into labor unions, will have a chance to organize; because it means that these 50,000 men and women will have higher wages and better working conditions than they now have under the rule Of the Bell Telephone Trust; because if these men and women become organized they can help thousands of other workers in the city to organize; because municipal ownership of the telephone system is an entering wedge to municipal ownership of the gas plant, the street railways and all the public utilities of Chicago. Women throughout the city are enlisting in the fight. What are YOU going to do?
By Mrs. John C. Kennedy.
Women who work for a living, women whose husbands work for a living, women who believe in justice for the workers, should sign the petition of the Penny Phone League, should ask their neighbors to sign the petition, should agitate for it in the parlor, in the kitchen and over the-back fence. They should demand their alderman's position on the question; they should watch the procedure of the committee of the city council on gas, oil and electric light. They should do this because Chicago will have its own telephone system if the women of Chicago demand it, because a municipal telephone system would mean a telephone in every working man's home at one cent a call; because it means that 50,000 men and women in the electrical trades of Chicago, who cannot now organize into labor unions, will have a chance to organize; because it means that these 50,000 men and women will have higher wages and better working conditions than they now have under the rule Of the Bell Telephone Trust; because if these men and women become organized they can help thousands of other workers in the city to organize; because municipal ownership of the telephone system is an entering wedge to municipal ownership of the gas plant, the street railways and all the public utilities of Chicago. Women throughout the city are enlisting in the fight. What are YOU going to do?
- The day book. (Chicago, Ill.), 02 Sept. 1914. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045487/1914-09-02/ed-1/seq-12/>
