Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-06-11
The WOmen,s Protective Union.

Cof' HdTV0r6 ItnieS.
The WOmen's Protective Union.
THIS society was established in New
York some sixteen years ago, to pro.
mote the interests of women who OBJ.
tain a livelihood by other employments
than household service, and especially
to provide them with legal protection
from the frauds and impositions of un-
scrupulous employers. In making shirts
at fifty cents a dozen there may not
seem to be scope for fraud; but little as
some working-women are paid, it is di-
minished by a variety of tricks of the
trade, and sometimes it is withheld al
together. There are employers who are
never able to make the exact amount of
change on payday, and who deduct a
few cents from week to week, until the
total loss to the unfortunate employees
is many dollars. There are other en-
ployers who find no little profit in ex-
acting a deposit from the women to
whom they give work, ostensibly as Sc
curity, but practically as a premium,
the depositor never obtaining her money
again and another way of still further
imPoverishing the fagged-out women is
to deduct something on the ground that
their work is not as good as the sample,
or that it is delayed in delivery.
The sewing machine frauds are pretty
familiar. Every woman who lives by
sewing must have machine, and ma.
chine is a costly article. But there are
hosts Of accommodating agents who
supply the desfderatum on easy, even
generous, terms.
"Here is a silent, lock-stitch, fully
improved article. Take it home, mad
am, and pay for it in installments OF
five dollars week. Nine fives are for.
ty-fiye; in nine weeks it will be
yours. More than this, will give you
work to the amount of five dollars a
week, and you need not put your hand
into your pocket once"
Who can say that it is bleak, faith
less, and merciless world when such
men as these aboundP The woman
signs paper, almost invariably without
reading it, as, the greater part of it be-
ing printed, it has every appearance Of
authenticity; and the machine, with all
its improvements, is delivered to her.
Not unlikely, unless she is shrewd,
worn-out article, regilt and reburn-
ished, has been foisted upon her; and
in this case she will be allowed to hold
II when the installments are complete.
But if it is a valuable machine, the in
tention of the agent is to eventually de-
prive her of it. Perhaps he assures her
that he has the fullest confidence in her,
that she need not be over-punctual with
her installments, and she, perhaps, be-
lieving him, delays payment for two or
three weeks, when she is within a few
dollars of her last installment. On the
pretext that she has not fulfilled her part
of the contract, she is dispossessed of
the machine: and when the document
that she has unwittingly signed is ex-
amine1, it is found to be so constructed
that the seizure is legalized. In nearly
all cases the price put upon the machine
is more than its value, and the sum is
increased if the woman pays for it by
her own work, the employer deducting
various amounts on the plea, before
mentioned, that her work is not up to
the standard.
1t is against such mean swindles as
these that the Protective Union exerts
itself, and to prevent which it was
founded. Left to themselves, the women
imposed upon are often too ignorant to
know how to seek the recovery of their
machines, or too poor to prosecute.
They appeal in vain for consideration,
scold the agent, and then subside in the
sympathy of their neighbors, unless
they find the Union, which is an inn
placable litigant for them, carrying
their cases from court to court, and em-
ploying the most capable counsel, if
necessary, to secure justice. The mere
fact of its existence represses much
wrong, and it has contested its cases
with such persistence that few default
ing employers are willing TO defend a
suit brought by it; but at the same
time it should be said that it does not
proceed to law until it is convinced of
the validity of its cause, and it does not
Immediately take for granted all the er
pdrte testimony brought to it.
Once week a lawyer attends the
rooms of the Union in Bleecker Street,
and the persons complained of are sum-
moned to meet the plaintiffs. If the
former do not appear, and also ignore a
second summons, the case is taken into
court at once; but usually the employer
presents himself to answer the charges
made against him, and sometimes he
proves that it is he who has been in
jured--sometimes-by no means often.
- William II, RideiHg, IN Hdrper'S for
June.