More Public Opinion

The reaction of women's organizations throughout the country to the decision of the Supreme Court which invalidates the District of Columbia Minimum Wage Law for Women was immediate and violent. A chorus of protest went up from women leaders in many organizations: the National Women's Trade Union League, the National Congress of Mothers, the National League of Women Voters, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, the Women's Bureau in the Department of Labor.

Practically the only praise of the decision came from members of the National Woman's Party. This organization is glad, not because the minimum wage is declared unconstitutional, but because women can no longer be discriminated from men legally in regard to wages. The stand of the party is:

" An employer who has to choose between a woman with restricted legal limit in the hours she works and the wages she gets, and a man with no corresponding limitation, will naturally choose the man." Therefore, it disapproves of all sex discrimination in labor.

Said Mrs. Alice Paul, vice president of the National Woman's Party: " We do not disapprove of minimum wage legislation. We do disapprove of its being put on a sex basis."

In other quarters the decision is spoken of as " the destruction at one blow of 20 years' work for the improvement of women," " a decision which leaves out of consideration the social point of view, the public interest and the human element," " a calamity to the women workers of the country," " slavery for women who earn their own living."