Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/313

 AIMS OF THE CONSUMERS' LEAGUE

299

Not only all the foods used in private families, but a very large proportion of the furniture and books, as well as the clothing for men, women, and children, is prepared with the direct object in view of being sold to women. It is, therefore, very natural that the first effort to educate the great body of miscellaneous pur- chasers concerning the power of the purchaser should have been undertaken by women, among women, on behalf of women and children. Having proved successful, within moderate limits, in that field, it is now extending among people irrespective of age and sex ; and is asking the cooperation of the institutions of learning, and of learned societies.

The first effort in this country was made by two ladies, Mrs. Frederick Nathan and Mrs. Charles Russell Lowell, in New York city, in 1890. They selected two stores in which the

CLEAN AND?

HEALTHF"ii

lUTMORlZED

OFFICIAL LABEL.

treatment of the employes seemed to them more than usually humane ; and, setting forth the good points of those stores as their standard, they wrote to 1,400 storekeepers on Manhattan Island inquiring whether they wished to arrange the work in their stores in conformity with the standard and have their establishments included in a proposed white list. Out of the 1,400 iwo responded favorably ; and from that modest beginning has grown the present " White List " of the Consumers' League of New York city, embracing nearly forty leading stores. For the two ladies proceeded to organize their friends ; to bring their growing constituency to the attention of the retail merchant; to circulate their White List, and the Standard upon which it is founded ; and to educate public opinion as to the power of purchasers to determine the conditions of labor in retail stores. The present principles, object, and Standard of the Consumers' League of New York city are as follows :