The Labor enquirer., 1884-06-21
Err, COLORADO. SATURDAY, JUNE 81 1884.

shirt-makers $40. and typemakers 81
and $l2, shoe sewers $l4 and $15
According to this, WORKING. women mus
be quite comfortable. supposing all wit
want it get plenty Of work 70 do, Blu
how are such statistics Obtained I Stats
ticians go to employers and ask what ht
pays his hands. He shows the account
of one or two best hands who get tbe
best paying and easisst work and sayi
that is what his hands average. Or some
worker may be interviewed, who
through pride and reticence common te
all of them, says she earns much more
than she does, or will give them no in.
formation whatever.
Most statisticians do not take the pains
to find out that seventeen girls out Of
twenty do not earn 81 day, nor con-
slider the, fact that from two to four
months of every year these girls are
idle; SO, it's an easy matter to strike .
high average, The majority Of workers
obtain less than sM 3 week the year
round. and live ons too,
b When cultured gentlemen talk SO
.glibly tof women's tenderness" and
need of protection" they are thinking
of their own white-fingered daughters
and dainty wives, forgetting that many,
very many, hard working, hard handed,
washwomen, scrubwomen, cooks, dress
makers, seamstresses, shoe-sewers, etc,
must exist to make their Luxurious lives
a possibility. .>ha sa4g&o Iars5Rz
All the smooth advice, the platitudes,
the nice-sounding phrases about
"woman's sphere" and her ''kingdom of
home," etc., relate only to the few we'll
cared for, well-to-do wives and mothers,
as though they represented woman-kind
in general. ~.hr:.a. ,.al~ b.
The fact of the existence of any other
class is utterly ignored. - Don't they
know that of all the women living, not
one out of twenty is a protected and
supported woman with home to reign
overt Don't they know that the unjust
systems make it impossible for the ma
jority of women to have any home ?
Don't they know that most women are
allowed no play for such attributes as
tenderness, sensitiveness, womanliness =?
Talk of tenderness keepinga a woman
from asserting her rightsl She soon
finds she has no business with tender
ness" under the systems society sets up
for her. -. ..
A few good men and women have be-
come cognlzant of the fact that there are
some working women, and that they
don't get paid very we'll, and have to live
rather poorly. They want to institute
"homes" for them. If only wealthy peo-
pie could be induced to subscribe, and a
few influential persons got interested In
working women's "homes," where work
ing women could find all needed COM
forts and luxuries for about S. per week,
the question would be settled and all
would be lovely. No matter how small
the wages are, or how many women can't
get work at all; these "homes" will be
a sovereign remedy.
But the good people. will find that
''homes" will never be even an anchor
ative measure they will utterly fail in
every sense.
First because the plan does not strike
at single existing evil. In the next
place girls couldn't afford SS a week, the
lowest estimate of "home" board. The
problem is not how to make little
money 60 a great way the girls have
learned in their one-roomed attics, much
better than wealthy folks can tell them.
In the third place the women of America
will never give up the little measure of
freedom and independence their own
humble privacy gives them. The work
ing girl can close the door of her one
poor room after the long days toll is
done and be mistress of herself and sur
roundings. Her poverty, her struggles,
her sorrows, her thoughts are secure
from the gaze of the curious, the naughty,
the charitable. She is safe from pity.
And when upon the streets neat as tired
hands and small means can make her, it
is no ones business how poor she is, how
or where she lives, or how she uses her
wages. She will never willingly adver-
tlse her poverty and inability to take
care of herself, bv becoming an inmate
of "home," to be over-seen, advised,
regulated, patronized and classed Off,
forever and irretrIevable as working
woman. Call this false pride ifyou will,
it is there, and it is human nature.
Would you, gentle lady, feel differently
All ameliorative measures it seems to me
are as inconsistent and impracticable as
this. They never fit in with everything
else. The whole system of private own
ershlp of natural products and means OF
life with its accomplishments of profits
on labor, competition, interest and rents
must be overturned and new system
founded on Justice and natural rights
established in its place, before any per
manent relief can come. 1t may seen
impractieahle and far off. care not. Il
it right? Is it just? This is all I ash
myself, and knowing that it is. l vii
work f0rit with my last breath.