A consumer-education organization, the National Consumers League was founded in 1899 on the belief that consumers would not purchase products, even products that cost comparably less, if they knew that the goods were produced under exploitative, unsafe or unsanitary working conditions. Individual states organized their own consumers leagues under the national umbrella. Florence Kelley, who had been chief factory inspector for the State of Illinois, was asked at the League's inception to be General Secretary, a post she held until her death in 1932. Behind it all lay the perception that labor and consumption were inextricably linked as part of a single continuum. To put it baldly, the consumer needed to be aware of what was injurious to labor and, conversely, ills in the workplace, such as unsanitary conditions, could result in a product injurious to the consumer.
One way in which the League attempted to advance its cause was by devising labels to be affixed to garments that were produced under working conditions approved by its representatives, who inspected factories and financial records of manufacturers. Throughout the 1920s, the League worked to have its own label and the Prosanis label of the Joint Board of Sanitary Control of New York City's garment industries accepted -- by manufacturers, merchants, and consumers. The so-called "Prosanis" (pro sanis) or sanitary label had begun as a project of the Label Division of the Joint Board of Sanitary Control of New York's International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU); the board was a cooperative venture, jointly financed and managed by manufacturers and the union. Consumers from coast to coast were asled to buy only garments bearing these labels.
In addition to the National Consumers League, many women's national and civic organizations, including the YWCA, joined the Prosanis crusade against sweatshop manufacture. Pressure was brought to bear by distributing "white lists" of industries with unfair labor practices and unsatisfactory working conditions. The
The National Consumers League also turned to legal and legislative action to implement its goals. It focused on the exploitation particularly of children working in textile and garment factories and sweatshops, and fought for more humane working conditions for saleswomen and girls working in department stores. In addition to child labor and working conditions for women, the League lobbied for legislative reform in the areas of minimum wage and the eight-hour work day. Other interests of the League included protection for the consumer from dirty and adulterated foods, occupational health and safety, and migrant workers. The League's muckraking expose,
Other National Consumers League material in the Coolidge-Consumerism collection deals with the "honest cloth" and truth-in-fabric legislation. (DETAIL NOTE Truth-in-Fabric Legislation)