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times suffered imprisonment. Practically all of the women present had been in prison more than once under the old government, and several had just recently escaped from the invading Roumanian Armies.
"The digging labourers were paid very badly under the old régime," said Maria Chober, "The men were paid three crowns a day and women one and a half crowns a day. The revolutionary spirit was strong under these circumstances, especially as institutions where women could get aid for their children were lacking. Many children were born on straw in stables, and in spite of the discoveries of the Hungarian physician, Semmel Weiss, thousands died without help. The hours of labour for these earth workers were so long that it was extremely difficult to teach the women, but we organized along socialist party lines. We had an enormous number of meetings wherever there was a new piece of work undertaken in small towns and villages, and our literature was distributed very thoroughly. Under capitalism women had worse jobs than men, as they were forbidden to organize, and they were terribly exploited. The proportion of payment for men and women was, for unskilled labour, twenty crowns a week for men, and six, eight, ten and twelve for women doing the same work. Skilled workmen got thirty to fifty crowns a week, while skilled women got twenty to twenty-four."
EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK.
"Under Communism," said Adel Spady, "Women are paid exactly the same wage as men, and the hard physical worker is placed in the highest paid rank. Scrub women and washer won? en now get 160 crowns a week and board, and household employees are now in the first class of workers also. How^ever, while the Soviets, in principle, make no difference between men and women, in reality women have to battle still against some people's ideas, and especially we have to combat the ecclesiastical influence which would keep women back We find little opposition to our proposals and bills when they are once brought to the attention of the men.
"In spite of the prohibition in the old days, women organized into trade unions, and even household women were of a revolutionary spirit. We had an underground press and a
