itil.

Ae
Tom.

Gutteridge’s

story os 8 &

| HAVE been a Socialist all
my life, first in the old So-
cialist Party of Canada and
later in the CCF, Over the
years I have belonged to a
wide variety or organizations
which campaigned for many
things that are now regarded
as part of “our way of life”’
but which, in their beginnings,
were often quite radical and
startling.

It is natural for people to
resist change yet it is a con-
tinuous process. Ideas when
they are first advanced may

- be accepted only by the few

but in time, if they are sound
ideas, they come to be accept-
ed by everyone. So it has
been with a lot of the things
I have worked for all my life.

Looking back, my greatest
recollections are of the battles
we fought, of the many
changes in our world in the
space of a few years.

Politics in B.C. have always
been a very mixed-up and
tumultuous affair and what
has happened here has been a
reflection and part. of what
has happened in other coun-
tries, a part of world-wide
movements and struggles.

When I look. back I keep
thinking of all the changes
since 1900, the growth of this
city and this province from
what it was then to what it
is now, and particularly of all
the social changes. that have
taken place.

I’ began my work in the
trade union movement by
helping to organise the wo-
men laundry workers, the
garment workers and others.
I was a delegate to the old
Vancouver Trades and Labor
Council and held several of-
fices before I was elected sec-
retary, a post I held for four
years.

For many years I was the
only woman present at meet-

-ings and. I.must. say that I

was always treated. courteous-

ly, though I have always said

pies cia a

as told to

Frances Gilstead

what I had to say whether
others agreed with it or not. -

The women workers we Or-
ganised were frequently timid
at first but as time went on
they became braver and more
outspoken in our fight to win
petter working conditions for
them.

Those were the days of the
AFL craft unions and the be-
ginnings of industrial unions
and the struggle was for the
right to belong to a union, for
the right of workers to organ~_
ise and bargain collectively.

I saw the unions grow. Many
of them I helped to organise.
I saw them grow, split into
the AFL and the CIO in the
U.S., and here into the Trades
and Labor Congress and the
Canadian Congress of Labor.
Now the split is nearly healed.
Most organised workers are
united again in one centre, the
Canadan Labor Congress. The
trade union movement has
gone the full circle, so to speak,
and gained new unity and
strength.

It is a long cry from the
old days when the divisions
and splits were often bitter
and groups were frequently
breaking away from the main

‘body to form new organisa-

tions.

The struggles I remember
are part of our history now —
the conscription fight in 1917,
the shooting of “Ginger” Good-
win and the vigilante raid on
the old Labor Temple on Duns-
muir Street; the Winnipeg
General Strike in 1919; a long
list of other strikes and occa-
sions when violence was used
against the workers.

We always fought by legal
means against injustices to the
workers. Sometimes we would
get discouraged, and sometimes
political differences of opin-
jon would become very sharp.
Now when I look back I think
of all the men and women I
worked with in those years,
some of them public figures
and some little known outside
their own organisations, and I
am saddened to think how
many of them are gone, But

they all added something to
the struggle.

In 1917 I helped to organise
the Minimum Wage League
among the women’s organisa-
tions through the meetings of
the Local Council of Women.
It was by sending representa-~-
tives from women’s organisa-
tions to the council that we
exchanged views, helped each
other in our various causes,
trained our speakers and
taught them how to organise,
and acquainted them with par-
liamentary procedure.

Through our efforts we
brought the plight of women
workers to public attention
and compelled government ac-
tion. ;

Exploitation of women had
intensified during the First
World War. The men were
away and it became patriotic
for girls, even “nice” girls, to
take paid work at what had
always been men’s jobs. Wo-
men became store clerks, clean-
ers, laundry workers and un-
skilled workers in munitions
plants and various manufac-
turing plants.

Timid, anxious for work, ig-
norant of industrial ways,
these women were an easy
mark for unscrupulous em-
ployers. Their low wages,
long hours and miserable
working conditions became a
threat to everything the unions
had won.

I brought these questions be-
fore the unions and the men
endorsed our demands. I saw
to it that they did!

Then I took the questions
to the women’s organisations
for action. The University

Women’s Club drew up pro- “

posed government regulations
for minmum wages for women,
later adding regulations for
working hours, and campaign-
ed for these demands. The
Minimum Wage League miss-
ed no opportunity to press the
demands on the government
and finally they were written
into law. :

Another thing I worked
very hard for was Workmen's

ry

HELENA GUTTERIDGE

On this International Women's Day

March 8, a pioneer of women’s

suffrage and labor in B.C. tells
of her early struggles

Compensation. At that time,
if a worker was hurt on the
job, hospital bills frequently
took all his savings or left him
hopelessly in debt. If he was
killed, his wife and family
were left without support.

When we did succeed in
1918 in establishing the prin-
ciple that injury or death on
the job must be compensated
by industry, it was a model
piece of legislation for North
America.

The Liberal government of
Premier John Oliver appoint-
ed a.commission to investigate,
the act passed the legislature
and Parker Williams, for’ sev-

~ eral years a Social Democratic

MLA for Newcastle, was given
a lifetime appointment on the
board named to administer
the act. *

The Liberals like to take
credit for much of the social
legislation gained in those
years, but the real credit be-
longs to the women’s organisa-
tions and the labor movement
which exerted the pressure on
the government to win it.

Year after year, the wo-
men’s organisations, the trade
unions and the Socialists peti-
tioned and lobbied the Conser-
vative government of Sir Rich-
ard McBride for reforms. They
held public meetings and org-
anised campaigns, but not un-
til the government was facing
defeat over well-founded
charges of corruption in build-
ing the PGE, did it concede
anything.

Then, in an attempt to curry
favor with the voters, it of-
fered a referendum to give
the women the vote.

The Conservatives went
down to defeat and the Lib-

erals formed their first gov-
ernment under Premier Har-
lan Brewster. Many of the
Liberals elected had supported
the reform legislation for
which we had been fighting
and we had high hopes we
would get somewhere.

Premier Brewster died in
office but under his successor,
“Honest” John Oliver, a Wo-
men’s Suffrage amendment
was enacted. This qualified
women both to vote in pro-
vincial elections and to sit in

the legislature on the same
terms as men.

The bill was passed on April
5, 1917, and it was a heart-
warming climax to 34 years
of struggle for the right of

women to vote and hold pub-
lic office.

In the provincial election of
1918, Mary Ellen Smith ran
and was elected as a women’s
candidate, the first woman to
sit in the legislature. (In the
39 years since, nine other wo-
men have been elected to the
legislature.)

When Mary Ellen Smith was
elected the Oliver government
adopted her election program |
in its entirety, and under the
guidance of the Mount Pleas-
ant New Era League with
Susie Lane Clark as its presi-
dent, the University Women’s
Club and others, Mary Ellen
Smith steered many fine
pieces of reform legislation
through the House. These later
became patterns for other
provinces.

The New Era League and
the League of Women Voters

Concluded on next page

MARCH 8, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 11