The Voices

The Voices is an American novel by Mrs. I. Lowenberg (San Francisco, Harr Wegner Publishing Company, 1920), which contained much matter on the necessity of political reforms. Described as a novel for the 1920 United States presidential election, it revolves around a present-day Joan, not of Ark, but of one who listened to small voices within and became, in consequence, a leader in industrial and political happenings. A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, the heroine secured a position in an iron and steel plant and took part in the questions which arose there between capital and labor. Romance and love-interest are also a part of the story which introduces personalities on both sides of the issues of industry. "Equal rights to all — unions and non-unions, organized and unorganized labor", declares the heroine, her intelligence stimulated by the mystic voices that speak to her from out the impalpable air. Overview A purposeful novel in which the author tells the story of Joan Lynn, who was born into the world, as she herself thought, with a mission to accomplish. The girl had a fashion of listening to voices that seemed to talk to her after the fashion of voices that spoke to Joan of Arc. Born in San Francisco, the heroine was educated at the University of California and became a stenographer in one of the plants of the San Francisco Bay region. Following the voices to which she listened, she became an important factor in the settlement of troubles between capital and labor. At the great mass meetings, held in the Civic Auditorium by this San Francisco woman of public wisdom and private honor, both sides of the picture are presented to her audiences. She tells them that employers cannot be forced to respect their contracts and employees allowed to violate them at pleasure. Both sides must obey the law. She deprecates the class complaint that professional men are highly paid, by telling of the years it requires to become a doctor. In his student days, he receives no pay while the mechanical apprentice gets wages in learning his trade. She proves to her audiences that labor and capital are mutually dependent; that inventions of machinery have increased production and helped humanity. She informs her hearers of the expedients resorted to by Solon the wise man of Greece to prevent evils that still exist.