vate opinions are, as long as he makes a good district attorney!' But
there is an issue that we _can_ go to the mat with, and so far it hasn't
been raised at all. There hasn't been a peep." She reached over and laid
a hand on Betty's arm.

"Do you know what the fire protection laws for factories are? And do you
know that it's against the law for women to work in factories at night?
Well, and do you know what the conditions are in every big mill in this
town? With this boom in war orders, they've simply taken off the lid.
Anything goes. The fire and building ordinances are disregarded, and for
six months the mills have been running a night shift as well as a day
shift, on Sundays and week-days, and three-quarters of their operatives
are women. Those women go to work at seven o'clock at night, and quit at
six in the morning; and they have an hour off from twelve to one in the
middle of the night.

"Now do you see? It's up to the district attorney to enforce the law.
Isn't it fair to ask this defender of the home whether he believes that
women should be home at night or not, and if he does, what he's going
to do about it? Talk about slogans! The situation bristles with them!
We could placard this town with a lot of big black-faced questions that
would make it the hottest place for George Remington that he ever found
himself in.

"Well, it would be pretty good campaign work if he was the hypocrite
I took him to be, from his stuff in the _Sentinel_. But if he's on the
level, as you think he is, there's a chance--don't you see there's a
chance that he'd come out flat-footed for the enforcement of the law?
And if he did!... Child, can you see what would happen if he _did_?"

Betty's eyes were shining like a pair of big sapphires. When she spoke,
it was in a whisper like an excited child.

"I can see a little," she said. "I think I can see. But tell me."

"In the first place," said E. Eliot, "see whom he'd have against him.
There'd be the best people, to start with. Most of them are stockholders
in the mills. Why, you must be, yourself, in the Jaffry-Bradshaw
Company! Your father was, anyway."

Betty nodded.

"You want to be sure you know what it means," the older woman went on.
"This thing might cut into your dividends, if it went through."

"I hope it will," said Betty fiercely. "I never realized before that my
money was earned like that--by women, girls of my age, standing over a
machine all night." She shivered. "