Leonora
O'Reilly, the daughter of Irish immigrants,
was
born in New York City in 1870. The family
were poor and at the age of eleven she began working in a collar factory.
Five years later she joined the Knights
of Labor.
O'Reilly
became active in trade union activities and
eventually helped form a female chapter of the United Garment Workers
of America. She also continued her academic education by attending
the Brooklyn Pratt Institute. Later she taught at the Manhattan Trade
School for Girls (1902-09).
O'Reilly
was also involved in the formation of the Woman's
Trade Union League. The main objective of the organization was
to educate women about the advantages of trade
union membership. It also support women's demands for better working
conditions and helped to raise awareness about the exploitation of
women workers.
The Woman's Trade Union League received support
from the American Federation of Labour and
attracted women concerned with women's suffrage
as well as industrial workers wanting to improve their pay and conditions.
Early members included Jane Addams, Lillian
Wald, Margaret Robins, Mary
McDowell, Mabel Gillespie, Margaret
Haley, Helen Marot, Mary
Ritter Beard, Rose Schneiderman,
Alice Hamilton,
Agnes Nestor, Eleanor Roosevelt,
Florence Kelley and Sophonisba
Breckinridge.
O'Reilly
played a leading role in the garment workers dispute (1909-10) and
led the investigation into the fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company
that resulted in the death of 146 people. O'Reilly, who campaigned
for woman suffrage and the Wage Earners'
League and was active in the Henry Street Settlement House, was also
a member of the Socialist Party of America
and
National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People.
Leonora O'Reilly died
in 1927.
(1)
New
York Call (1st
March, 1909)
In accordance with a request made by the national committee, the Socialist
party all through the country yesterday afternoon gave demonstrations
to the woman suffragists, and held many meetings at which the principles
of equal rights were explained and votes for women were demanded.
In this city the principle meeting was held at Murray Hill Lyceum,
at 34th street and Third avenue, with an enthusiasm that foretold
an active and energetic campaign and successful results. The two wanting
numerically, but the two thousand people who were present were alive
to the principles of equal rights and gave much spiritual encouragement
to the workers in the movement. The speakers were frequently applauded,
and the arguments were greeted with a boisterous approval. There were
four women and two men speakers, and each spoke with a sincerity that
filled the audience with enthusiasm and appreciation.
The one who made the strongest
appeal for her sisters was Miss Leonora O'Reilly. She was introduced
by the chairman of the meeting, Mrs. Meta L. Stern, whose literary
name is "Hebe," as "the woman who went to Albany with
the suffragists, and who was responsible for the phrase 'We do not
want the ballot, we need it.' A phrase that will become the slogan
in the working woman's ballot for the right to vote," said Mrs.
Stern.
Miss O'Reilly was simply
attired, modest in appearance and unassuming in her manners. But no
sooner did she begin to speak when her voice, her face, her very personality,
told of a sincerity that won admiration. She gained the audience with
the beginning of her first sentence. In addition to her sincerity
she is eloquent and humorous. In simple words but in a decided tone,
she hit hard at her opponents, and said words that impressed the most
obdurate.
She began her address by
telling of the hearing in Albany last Wednesday. She did not know
what to call that meeting. She was not sure whether it was a comedy,
a tragedy or a farce. She quoted one anti as saying that what was
wanted was not an extended franchise, but a restricted one.
"Now, is it not time
for you men," said the speaker, "to consider the significance
of these words? This demand will be made and carried out as soon as
it will be realized that you want more than they care to give. The
restrictions will be made. First it will be an educational qualification,
then a property qualification, until the workingmen will be disfranchised
and only the idiots who support the ruling class will be left to do
the voting."
"One woman,"
she said, "spoke on the fallen woman, and called the attention
of the Senators that she would vote. But she did not mention the fact
that her companion is allowed to vote."
After reviewing the political
situation of today she said in a low voice: "You men made a mess
of it, and you know it. Your political house needs cleaning and a
man is not earthly good when it comes to housecleaning; let us do
it."
Speaking of the suffragists who are jailed, she said she wished they
would jail her.
"But then there would
be so many jailed with me," she said, "that all the jails
would be packed. Nay, you would have to build new ones. In such event
I would like you men on the outside to see to it that the jails be
equipped with modern improvements so that they be fit for schools
when we get the vote."
(2)
New
York Times (20th
December, 1909)
Maud Malone appeared yesterday afternoon as the champion and supporter
of Mrs. O.H.P. Belmont at a meeting of the Socialistic women of New
York at the Labor Temple on Eighty-fourth Street, where that energetic
organization had gathered in a conference to repudiate, as far as
their support is concerned, the "bourgeois suffrage movement"
because it is "by its very nature antagonistic."
The repudiation of the
suffrage women by the Socialistic women in refusing to accept the
invitation of the National Woman's Suffrage Association to cooperate
with it was apparently cut and dried before the opening of the conference.
It was so far decided that the suffragists, in their headquarters
at 505 Fifth Avenue, had news of it the day before. But that did not
prevent the women Socialists from having three different resolutions
up, and they discussed the matter pro and con from 2:30 in the afternoon
to 7:30 at night. The resolutions refusing to cooperate with the suffragists
was passed when a large part of the members had left, and then almost
unanimously.
The women Socialists declared
themselves with one voice to be woman suffragists but they say the
organized woman suffragists belong to the capitalistic class and can
never have anything in common with them. They do not believe in the
millionaire women who are assisting the suffragists.
"You make a mistake
if you think you can work hand-in-hand with the suffragists,"
said Mrs. Theresa Malkiel. "When I was down helping the strikers
a man in Mrs. Belmont's employ came to me and said: 'My dear lady,
this is a great cause and if you wish to help in it Mrs. Belmont will
be glad to pay you.' But I will never organize the girls into clubs
to suit Mrs. Belmont. I was a suffragist before Mrs. Belmont ever
dreamed of it. There is lots of work we can do, but why take the work
on Mrs. Belmont's platform? Why not take it on our own?
"Mrs. Belmont, Miss
Shaw, and Mrs. Blatch are only interested in us because they think
through us they can get the working girls."
"I want fair play
and want to give fair play," said Miss Leonora O'Reilly. "If
this is an educational work and these other women say, 'Come on our
platform,' why not go and use it as a school for educating older people.
Sometimes you have to close your ears to the name of a school you
don't like. If you can get work done with money why not let them do
it? If you go on their platform you gain a stanch heart."
"I don't know why
we should educate Mrs. Belmont and Miss Morgan," said Dr. Anna
Ingerman, a Russian woman. "If there is any educating to do we
had better do it among our own people. The Suffragists ask us to go
to a mass meeting and sit in a box we pay $10 for and put our banner
outside it, but they don't ask us to speak.
"I'm ashamed of those
poor girl strikers, taken up among the Four Hundred with Mrs. Belmont
on one side and Miss Morgan on the other. It is enough to demoralize
them. Poor girls who only know enough to scream when they are hurt.
When it is said that Mrs. Belmont pays for the meeting places of the
strikers that is enough to blind the working classes."
"I was responsible for taking those girls to that meeting said
little "Comrade" Rose Schneiderman. "Just as I think
it will do good when the girls tell the reporters what has happened
to them so I think it was good to have them talk to the people. You
can't limit their education."
Here is where Miss Malone
came to the rescue of Mrs. Belmont. "I don't believe in attacks
on an individual woman," she said. "You are taking a lower
stand when you do that as was done in our recent political campaign.
And the regular suffragists are not capitalists. Their interests are
not distinct from those of the working woman and I am not a Socialist.
The suffragists have always been kept back because of the need of
money, which is a great help.
"You should not condemn
the whole suffrage movement because a few people do not live up to
the ideals. All people do not live up to the ideals. All people do
not think alike. I believe in militant methods and others do not but
there is no reason for disagreeing."
"This is a special
woman's problem," said Mrs. Meta Stone, a German newspaper woman.
"We lay too much stress upon the millionaires among the suffragists
and forget that we have them in our own party. If there is a Mrs.
Belmont in the suffrage party there is also a Leonora O'Reilly. If
we take sides against the suffragists our common enemies, the 'antis'
, who go around to 'scab' workmen and speak of 'freedom of contract'
will use it as a weapon against them."
"The suffragists don't like us; they hate us," said Mrs.
Carrie W. Allen. "I happen to know that when Emma Goldman came
out as an anti-suffragist the other day one suffragist wrote to an
'anti' friend, saying: 'You accused us with mixing up with the Socialists
and now you are hobnobbing with an Anarchist.'"
The resolution which was
adopted said that the beliefs of the women would undoubtedly bring
them "into frequent conflict with the organized suffrage movement,"
and that the work of the Socialistic women for suffrage "must
be carried on along separate and independent lines."
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