The Labor enquirer., 1884-07-05

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suspicious Of tolerably good people, that
all is not right.
/ The report has it that cloak and suit
makers earn from $12 to SIS per week
and have vacation every year without
loss of pay. Tailoress' SIS to Is, clerks
from IS to Se5, laundress' from $40 to $15,
kitchen girls from "a to 81 and found.
Work-rooms were generally well lighted
land ventilated, and employers and en-
ployes on the best of terms. No griey-
ances, wrongs or abuses were encoun-
tered in the whole round of calls.
The casual visitor, such as newspaper
reporter or statistician from the so called
labor bureaus can obtain information
in only one way. A few minutes con-
versation with the foreman and general
glance around large room full of girls
who are usually too brave and proud not
to look neat and cheerful. T..
To get at the real facts of the case one
must work with the workers. for at least
year, and possess ready sympathy,
tact, a keen perception. and a good
memory. / have served several months
in each of the prominent suit, establish
ments, and | have kept my eyes and
ears open. have made point Of TAX
ing notes wherever anything relating to
women's work comes up, for the last five
years, 80 1 know what l am talking
about.
will admit the very best that can be
admitted of the prominent factories and
still declare the girls are instantly
robbed and wronged. All laborers are
Systematically robbed of course, since
they create all wealth and get so little of
it, but these-the women and children,
are more shamefully cheated out of their
rights than any other class.
The work-rooms of some of the most
prominent firms are passably clean, large
and well-lighted. But there are $50 or
200 girls in one room breathing the hot
dusty air over and over again. They
must sit crowded, with machines, stacks
of cloaks, suits, bolts Of cloth, chairs,
rags and litter on every side of them.
They are generally forbidden to talk,
sing or laugh; the air is never pure in
consequence of water closets always
more or less filthy, opening directly into
the work-room. And thus they wear
away ten tedious hours out of every day
of their feeting lives, and receive IN
recompense an average OF 81 a day.
Now and then woman will be found
who, by working nights, earns $l1 or $l2
a week. Generally they earn from S4 to
81 week during the good seasons. The
Mail reporter says hands sometimes
make $25 per week. Well, this is how
they do it:
In the place where l last worked a
woman sat next to my machine. She
had three little girls working for her,
basting, hemming, pressing and doing
the necessary running about. They
were aged respectively, l3, II, and 10,
and she paid them $3.50, SIPS and Is
cents. She scoldcd and hurried the poor
tired little things from morning till
night, and at the end of one week paid
the youngest only 25 cents, because she
had spoiled something; the unhappy
child trudged home crying bitterly,
while the woman poCketed her $50 with
much satisfaction. So, you see the beau
tiful system of profit robs the real
producer from the top layer to the
bottom of society, and it is called by
the respectable name of enterprise"
As to vacations, most of the employees
have two, three or four months in
year, but their Salaries" are not con-
tinued by any means.
Some of the most experienced LADY
clerks" get $40 or $12 week; but most
of them get 81 or SIS a week. They must
stand from morning till night, eat their
dinners in dirty basement and be sub
ject to fine for everything.
And the poor cash boys and girls
Who ever stops to consider them, or
asks if they are tired? Hurried and
hustled about all day long, scholded for
mistakes, and shaken up If they tarry
one moment, they know little of the joy
and freedom of childhood. Half their
lives should be spent in the open air,
developing muscle, brain and mind
here they develop nothing but what is
bad. What will the next generation be,
made from such material?
These children toll for 50 and $3.50
per week, liable to fines for innumerable
petty offenses.
have been speaking, as did the Mail
reporter of the best establishments in
the city. He should 60 to some of the
hundreds of "slop-work" shops, situated
in easements and garrets, where one
wades shoe-top deep in mud and water
in the spring, is frozen with draughts
and snow drifts in winter, and melted
and choked with foul smells in the
the summer.
One girl, know, is dying in the hos
pital with consumption, contracted by
sitting with damp feet in cold work
room all winter. Another had severe
spell of sickness and heavy doctors bill
to pay from the same cause. There are
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