Chalfant: In Sedalia visit, reformer urged minimum wage

The first two decades of the 20th century were called the Progressive Era because of the many improvements and social reforms accomplished during the time.

Governments at all levels — city, county, state and federal — worked to improve the lives of residents by building roads and bridges, adding water and sewer systems, landscaping cities, and expanding electric and telephone service.

Private donors such as Andrew Carnegie built libraries; others built hospitals and community centers. Schools created curricula better suited to students in an industrial age.

Local organizations such as women’s clubs, Chambers of Commerce, church groups and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union encouraged the efforts to improve individual lives by creating better living and working conditions.

These organizations were aware of the efforts of social workers who examined current situations, often by going incognito into tenements, hospitals and factories to see what conditions were really like for the residents, patients or workers.

Social reformers then encouraged improvements through legislation. Some of the issues the reformers tackled included crowded housing, inadequate health care for the poor, child labor, inadequate wages, and unsafe working conditions in mines and factories.

Representatives of the National Consumers’ League, a group advocating safer working conditions in factories, adequate wages for workers and safer goods for consumers, traveled throughout the country working with local organizations.

Jeanette Rankin, a well-known social reformer, visited Sedalia in April 1922 as a representative of the National Consumers’ League.

Rankin was born in Montana in 1880 and graduated from the University of Montana before attending the School of Philanthropy in New York. She worked in the western states promoting women’s suffrage, and was instrumental in Montana’s decision to extend voting rights to women in 1914. The first woman elected to Congress in 1916, she angered many by voting against U.S. participation in World War I.

After the war, despite participation in efforts to establish world peace and secure the right to vote for American women, labor issues occupied much of Rankin’s time. She unsuccessfully challenged western mine owners on behalf of striking workers. Her efforts on behalf of child labor were more successful, however, and resulted in laws prohibiting child labor.

In Sedalia, Rankin spoke at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon. Nearly 200 Sedalians crowded into the banquet room of the Hildebrandt Cafe for her presentation. The Sedalia Democrat noted that both men and women came to hear her. Dr. Nancy Hain, of Sedalia, presided over the meeting, as Chamber of Commerce President Roy Rucker was absent.

Rankin began her presentation by noting that many Montana residents had formerly lived in Missouri, including Montana’s Senator Henry L. Myers, who was from Sedalia.

Women in the U.S. had gained the right to vote in 1920. Many men were concerned about legislation that might be affected by women’s votes. Rankin addressed the issue by noting that one of the first measures Congress addressed was passage of a maternity bill. This bill provided money to individual states that would then create local legislation “of a practical nature” to benefit mothers. In addition, the bill established a commission to investigate each state’s work and proposed work on behalf of mothers before releasing funds to the state.

Another issue Rankin and the National Consumers’ League tackled was the minimum wage. They successfully lobbied for the creation by Congress of a minimum wage commission that would look at individual communities, find the basic cost of living in those communities, and determine what the minimum wage should be based on the cost of living.

Rankin went on to explain that a minimum wage could be created by pressure from labor unions, by voluntary agreement of the employers, or by government legislation. She pointed out that the lack of a minimum wage actually cost the public more, as tax money and private contributions had to be used to supplement housing, food and health care for workers, particularly working women.

Rankin closed her presentation by encouraging Sedalians to question candidates about their positions on minimum wage legislation before voting.

While in Sedalia, Rankin also visited the Regional Conference of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union meeting at the First Methodist Episcopal Church.

The Democrat praised Rankin as “a woman of pleasant personality and address, a fluent talker [who] presents her subject in a clear, concise, and convincing manner.”