Page:The Feminist Movement - Snowden - 1912.djvu/123

 a practice which, more than anything else, spoils the peace of households, and brings men and women to poverty and despair.

Thousands of women are labouring amongst the poor in one way or another. University women of the greatest gifts are giving up time and comfort to live amongst them in Settlements, seeking to bring a little joy into their bleak lives. Others, like the women of the Salvation Army, themselves frequently very poor, are seeking through religious channels to lift up the fallen and the despairing. These women are not afraid to go into the filthiest attics in the most dangerous neighbourhoods if they may do something to help and save the lost and degraded, and no words are too strong in which to express one's admiration for the unselfishness and tirelessness of these sisters of mercy. Other women are seeking to organise working girls and women into Trade Unions. Miss Mary M'Arthur is secretary of the Women's Trade Union League, and from her comes the news that there are now over 300,000 organised working girls in the country out of the total of 5,500,000 women and girls engaged in industrial occupations. Out of the powerlessness of the individual to command a decent standard of life for herself has grown this tremendous organisation, of which more must be said later. The Schools for Mothers which are now, happily, becoming