Helen Marot
Helen Marot was a prominent labor reformer born into a distinguished Quaker family in Philadelphia in 1865. Educated at home and in local schools, she developed a strong sense of independence early on. Marot began her career in 1893 with the University Extension Society of Philadelphia and later became a librarian, where she organized a library focused on social and economic issues. Her work included significant investigations into child labor, leading to important legislative changes like the New York Compulsory Education Act of 1903. Marot played a vital role in the Women's Trade Union League of New York and was involved in significant labor strikes. A socialist and member of the Fabian Society, she contributed to radical journalism as an editor of *The Masses* and *The Dial*. Marot authored several influential works, including *American Trade Unions* and *Creative Impulses in Industry*, bridging the gap between labor activism and intellectual thought. She passed away in 1940, leaving behind a legacy of advocacy for workers' rights and social progress.
Subject Terms
Helen Marot
- Helen Marot
- Born: June 9, 1865
- Died: June 10, 1940
Labor reformer, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to an affluent, distinguished Quaker family. Her father, Charles Henry Ma-rot, a publisher and bookseller, and her mother, Hannah (Griscom) Marot, had five children; Helen was the fourth child and the youngest of four daughters. Educated at home and at Friend’s Schools in Philadelphia, she was encouraged to be independent.
In 1893 she went to work for the University Extension Society of Philadelphia and in 1896 became a librarian in the Wilmington, Delaware, library. In 1897 she and a friend organized a library devoted to works on social and economic questions. It soon a became a meeting place for liberals and radicals of various convictions. In 1899 she published a bibliography of the American labor movement, Handbook of Labor Literature.
Soon after she was hired by the United States Industrial Committee to investigate the custom tailoring trades in Philadelphia. The Association of Neighborhood Workers of New York hired her in 1902 as head of a committee to investigate child labor. Assisted by residents of settlement houses, teachers, and paid helpers, she accumulated more than 1,000 cases illustrating widespread evasion of the child labor laws. Florence Kelley and Josephine Goldmark took part in writing the committee’s report, which helped bring about the passage of the New York Compulsory Education Act of 1903. In 1904 she worked for the Philadelphia Child Labor Committee and in 1905 for the Public Education Association of New York.
In 1905 she became executive secretary of the Women’s Trade Union League of New York, which had been founded the year before. She was an able administrator, union organizer, and strike leader, playing a leading role in the strike in 1909-10 by the newlyformed International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union. Exhausted and convinced that league offices should be held by working-class women, she resigned in 1913. From 1914–1916 she was a member of the United States Industrial Relations Commission.
Marot’s early labor investigations had led her beyond liberalism to radical activism. She became a socialist and member of the Fabian Society. In 1916 she became an editor of The Masses, a radical journal that was suppressed during World War I. She then worked on The Dial, recruiting John Dewey and Thorsten Veblen as coeditors. She wrote American Trade Unions (1914), a call for socialism, and Creative Impulses in Industry (1918), a textbook widely used in college sociology and economics courses. She has been credited with helping to bridge the gap between left-wing labor and intellectuals.
Marot retired in 1920, living in New York until her death from a heart attack in 1940. At her request, her ashes were scattered over Long Island Sound.
The best biographical source is Notable American Women. See also N.Y. Women’s Trade Union League, Bulletin, September 1940. Particularly useful for her child labor reform and Women’s Trade Union League activities are “Child Labor Reform in N.Y.,” Charities, January 10, 1903; J. Goldmark, Impatient Crusader: Florence Kelly’s Life Story (1953); F. S. Hall. Forty Years: 1902-1942: the Work of the N.Y. Child Labor Committee (1943); N.Y. Women’s Trade Union League, Annual Reports, 1906-14; A. Henry, Trade Union Woman (1915). See also The New York Times obituary, June 4, 1940.