Brief biographies of the suffragettes and Socialists speaking at a Rhode Island Women’s Day event in 1915.

‘Speakers at the Women’s Day Celebration’ from The Labor Advocate (Providence). Vol. 3 No. 27. February 27, 1915.

MISS ELIZABETH DUTCHER. If you remember the splendid work done last year in New York by the group of women in their work of organizing the department store girls, you will be interested in hearing Elizabeth Dutcher, Sunday evening in Carpenters’ Hall. Miss Dutcher was one of the most active women engaged in that group of workers, which included the most prominent Socialist, Suffrage and Trade Union women in the city. Day after day they circularized the large department stores, and night after night they held meetings outside the stores. They were arrested repeatedly, but the work went on, and thousands of girls, overworked and underpaid, risked discharge to stand and listen to the arguments as to why they should organize. The proprietors resorted to every known method to prevent the street meetings, and to keep the girls from attending. The employees were forced to leave by doors far removed from the speakers’ automobiles, but they walked around the block to get literature and listen to the speakers. This fine work carried on by the Socialist and other women was bound to succeed, and the Retail Clerks’ Union was formed. Miss Elizabeth Dutcher is Treasurer of the organization. She is also a member of the Minimum Wage Committee of the Consumers’ League and a Socialist. Miss Dutcher understands well the needs of the working women. She sees every day the misery and wretchedness endured by working women and children under the present system of society. She knows that much of the misery must endure while a system based upon profits exists, but she feels that a woman organized in her trade is several steps further advanced than one unorganized and is readier to assist in the final overthrow of the capitalist system. Don’t fail to hear Miss Dutcher speak Sunday evening, Carpenters’ Hall, 152 Weybosset Street, at 8 o’clock.

MRS. CARL BARUS. There is no woman better known in Rhode Island for work in social reform than is Mrs. Carl Barus. As a member of the National Child Labor Committee, her work has spread far beyond Rhode Island. Her tireless efforts to conserve the children of Rhode Island have made her universally respected and loved and feared. Mrs. Barus is one woman who can always get a hearing at the State House. The “busiest” legislator is never too busy to listen to what she has to say. And what she has to say is almost always something about the young children, although the women and young girls who have benefited by the 54-hour bill owe much to Mrs. Barus’s persistent work in getting the law put upon the statute books. Mrs. Barus will be one of the speakers at the Women’s meeting Sunday evening, Feb. 28, Come and hear these three women Each has a different message, but it is a message to all women, the conservation of the life and health of women and children, the participation in the world of progress, and the ultimate goal of freedom and economic independence of women.

MRS. SARA M. ALGEO. Of the three suffrage associations in Rhode Island, The College Equal Suffrage League, The R.I. State Association and The Woman Suffrage Party, the latter is by far the largest, having a membership of several thousand. Organized along regulation political lines, into wards and districts, each district has a leader, these leaders in turn forming the State Committee of the Suffrage Party. Neighborhood and district meetings are held regularly, so that the work of education goes steadily on, Mrs. Sara M. Algeo is Chairman of the Woman Suffrage Party, and it is owing to her hard work for the suffrage cause that the party has grown so rapidly and has become so successful, Mrs. Algeo will speak on Woman Suffrage and the situation in Rhode Island at the Woman’s Meeting Sunday evening. Be sure and hear these three women speakers! Each of these speakers has attained a prominent place in her particular field of activity and a meeting addressed by all three is bound to be a rousing success.

PDF of full issue: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn92063933/1915-02-27/ed-1/seq-1/