The
National Women's Trade Union League was organized and the following
officers elected: president, Mrs. Mary Morton Kehew, Boston;
vice-president, Miss Jane Addams, Chicago; secretary, Mrs. Mary Kenney
O'Sullivan, Boston; treasurer, Miss Mary Donovan, Boot and Shoe
Workers; board members, Miss Mary McDowell, Chicago; Miss Lillian D.
Wald, New York; Miss Ellen Lindstrom, United Garment Workers; Miss
Mary Trites, Textile Workers; Miss Leonora O'Reilly, Ladies' Garment
Workers.
The one main purpose of the new league, as of its British prototype,
was from the first the organization of women into trade unions, to
be affiliated with the regular labor movement, in this case with
the American Federation of Labor, and the strengthening of all such
organizations as already existed. While, as in England, the backbone
of the League was to consist of a federation of women's unions,
provision was made for taking into individual membership not only
trade unionists, but those women, and men too, who, although not
wage-earners themselves, believed that the workers should be organized
and were unwilling that those who toil should suffer from unjust
conditions.
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