Sugar planter. [volume] (West Baton Rouge [i.e. Port Allen, West Baton Rouge Parish, La.]) 1856-1925, 1857-04-18
How TaE SEwISG WOMEN ARB TREAT.

stakes "
How TIE SEwING WOMEN ARB TREAT
ED.-LittIe tqrants are always the most
tyrsnnicai. 1t is generally received
opinion that the laborer .s worthy OF hrs
hire, and worthy, too. u a due degree OF
consideration and respect with it. Yet
/; is on undeniable fac. that there are
men IN our largo clothing stores, 'clsd in
little brief authority, who exercise con>
tenptib,e speoes Of petty tyranny over
the women who depend on their work
for their daily bread, which is strangely
at variance wjtn Difference aud courtesy
Of which poets delight to sing. It's
certain that the mass OF The women who
depend on their needle fora substance
are forced TO submit to enough inso-
ence, harshuess and coarse familiarity to
weaken their seIf-pspect and blunt the
finer feelings OF their nature. One wo-
man. who has left hard earned dollar AZ
s.culity ior the work she had underta>
ken TO make, IS coollg informed that 1t
doesn't suit, and that her ! ledge is for
tsted for some pretended fault in it
Another sees the earnings of weeks
swallowed up in some feignsd p'etext.
Another is sent home with a huge bum
die Of work BY the superciIlou- clerk,
who scarcely knows seam from but
tonhoie, to make some alteration ,sug-
,essed by his caprice, regardless Of her
time and trouble.
The lot Of a swing woman IS hard
one. Size must work at the lowest rates,
submit to insoleu. treatment from fe!-
o.e, who are OF 90 possible consequence
outside their workshops, and then run
the risk of being deirauded out OF her
hard earnings There are now twenty
thousand women in our Christian me-
tropolis whose average earnings do not
exceed three dollars per week. How
nauy OF the comforts and Iuxur'es OF
III. can be bought with such sum, our
housekeepers can judge.
There IS system, .oo.ofsendiog work
into country places where living is cheap
and money scarce, which weighs heavily
upon our needle women. We have An
establishment now in our eye, in which
the proprieto-s pay fvseeu1s each fof
making a shirt, ten cents ~ psEts, and
twelve cents per dozen forssollars. thus
reduci the cost Of making Up to- =
nominal item in the price Of > garmest
And the fact that hundreb Of wofksls !.
accept these prices, proves The ssxt1ss1i.ts
ties to which they must be reduced.
Then there are many who fail to Oh
tain work at any price. 'Fis scarcely I
year since two women deliberately con-
nitted suicide in this city because they
could not obs ain bread. 1t is but few
months since a woman WAS brought be-
fore our police COURT, who had assumed
male attire because she could not earn - 4
honorable livelihood as wornan.F
There are thirty thousand women znew
in New York who hold tn heirs - ne
b, the tenure ola needlA and the work
Of the whole might easily be done BY
ten ;huosand. TIE -essing machines are
rapidly reducing this estimate, and whae
is 10 be done with the uIamploJed -
There can be no direct legislatiS ont " !.
subject, except the legislation Of public
opinion; and we know If no other msth>
cd Of meeting this exigency, than to open
new avenues Of industry to women and
to give them fair remuneration tor ,he'r
work. We are fully persuaded that there
is no moro etfectual measure for farther~
ing moral reform than that of giving our
working women every facility tor earn
ing an honorable subsistenee,-N. I.
Times,