Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/946

Rh one of its clas to be supported by contributions from all religious denominations in the country. Mrs. Plunkett always spoke of her own work with extreme modesty, remarking at one time, that she merely belonged, "to the great army of working optimists."

The history of Mrs. Stevens, industrial reformer, born in Parsonfield, Missouri, May 27, 1849, is, in many of its phases, an epitome of women's work in the labor movement in this country during her life. Mrs. Stevens fought the battle of life most bravely. When but thirteen years of age she began work as a weaver in a cotton factory. At eighteen years of age she had learned the printer's trade, at which she continued until she passed into other departments of newspaper work. She was compositor, proofreader, correspondent, and editor. In all these positions she acquitted herself well, and it was in the labor movement that she attracted public attention. In 1877 she organized the Working Women's Union of Chicago, and was its first president. Removing from that city to Toledo, Ohio, she threw herself into the movement there and was soon one of the leading members of the Knights of Labor. Later, she was instrumental in organizing a Women's Society, the "Joan of Arc Assembly, Knights of Labor," and was its first master workman, who went from that body to the district assembly. In 1890 she was elected district master workman, becoming the chief officer of a district of twenty-two local assemblies of knights. She represented the district in the General Assemblies of the hour and the conventions held in Atlanta, Denver, Indianapolis, and Toledo. She represented the labor organizations of Cleveland, Ohio, in the National Industrial Conference in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1892, and in the Omaha Convention of the People's Party that same year. She was always an ardent advocate of equal suffrage, and a capable organizer and untiring worker for the cause. For several years she held a position on the editorial staff of the Toledo Bee, later became sole owner and editor of the Vanguard, a paper published in Chicago, in the interests of economic and industrial reform through political action.

Much has been written in recent years of the relative rights and wrongs of capital and labor. But there have been few people who could discuss in private or from the platform these matters in an unprejudiced way. Yet such a platform speaker was Mrs. Cassie Ward Mee, labor champion. She was born in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, October 16, 1848. Her parents and ancestors belonged to the Society of Friends, and many of them were prominent accredited ministers of the society. She came with her husband, Charles Mee, to the United States in 1882 and settled in Cortland, N. Y., where she gained considerable prominence by her writings. She first appeared on the public platform in the