CONSUMERS' LEAGUE, an organiza tion of American housewives whose pur pose is to exercise their joint purchasing power on merchants and manufacturers in favor of labor conditions, especially for women and children. The idea orig inated in England, where the Women's Co-operative Guild, composed of the women members of the co-operative store societies, play a very significant part in influencing legislation in favor of women and children workers. In 1890 the Working Women's Society, of New York City, which was interested specially in conditions of employment for women, was conducting a thorough investigation into such conditions. It then called on the consumers for support, so effectively that in January, 1891, the Consumers' League of New York was organized. The new organization immediately took up the work of the Working Women's So ciety, though on a much more extensive scale. It also conducted investigations into labor conditions for women and children, more especially in department stores, but instead of merely publishing the results, set about to devise means to improve them. The organization was especially concerned about the environ ment of the young girls beginning to work for their livelihoods and not yet old enough to guard themselves against the evils and temptations of a big city. One of the methods employed to force the owners of department store establish ments to better the conditions of their employees is the "white list." The white list is composed of the names of those establishments which observe certain conditions of wages and hours of daily labor demanded by the organization. It
is printed and circulated among the mem bers, who bind themselves to give pref erential treatment to the firms on the list. Another method of enforcing its conditions on merchants employed by the Consumers' League is the "con sumers' label." This label is granted for use only to those firms which; (1) com ply with state legislation passed for the benefit of female labor; (2) which manu facture their goods only on their own premises, or procure their goods from manufacturers who manufacture only on their own premises; (3) which do not employ girls under sixteen years of age; (4) which limit the hours of employ ment to ten or under; and, finally, those which allow inspection of their establish ments by representatives of the League. Many of these provisions are now en forced in New York by law, but they are all still insisted upon by the National Consumers' League in other parts of the country, this more general body having been organized in 1899, with Mrs. Flor ence Kelley as secretary. The influence of the Consumers' League in bettering the working conditions of women in large mercantile establishments, espe cially in those which cater to the trade of the ultimate consumer, can hardly be overestimated, and in many cases has been more effective than legislation.