AMERICAN WOMEN.

Otago Witness, Issue 3755, 2 March 1926, Page 75

AMERICAN WOMEN.

CONDITIONS OF LABOUR. (From Our Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, February 25. Miss Alice Henry, of tho American National Women’s Trade Union League, is at present in Wellington. In 1924 she attended the Intel national Labour Conference at Geneva, and she is now making an extensive tour to study conditions abroad. In an interview she said that wages in America were not fixed by law as was the case in. New Zealand, there being no Arbitration Court there. Any agreements reached between the employers and the employees were the result of private arbitration. Certain States had fixed minimum rates of pay for women, but the validity of such legislation had been questioned, and a blow had been struck at the minimum wage. At present it was, therefore, very much In the background. The American Federation or Labour had never desired that such legislation should be made to apply to men, ana probably this was a reflection of the American idea of individualism. Women had greater scope In America than they appeared to have in other parts of the world, and Miss Henry declared that not only were they given a place on boards and other public bodies, but they were also appointed io important paid positions.