The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1886-04-09
WOMEN As nREADwINNERs.
Toiiin. in Tencmenfs on Long Hours
and Starvation PAY.

and Starvation Pay.
/ The report Of Labor Commissioner Peck,
of New York, is an interesting and in
/ structive document. a large part Of the
/ report is devoted to the condition of the
workingwomen of the State, and gives
some startling details in that connection
| 1t reveals an amount Of suffering almost
1 beyond conception. Il will attract gen
eral attention. The report was not gotten
up for sensational or sentimental effect,
but is a calm, clear statement of facts that
came under actual observation.
In the last century, so far as can be as
certaincd, women's employments in towns
We're chiefly of domestic nature. Young
persons went cut from the parental roof
either from choice or necessity to do do
nestle service for the neghbors When
steam machinery was first introduced and
! factory towns grew up, the young women
Went to work at a greater distance from
home; they received very good wages for
those simple days, aud the 'Lowell young
| ladies" became almost a stereotyped ex-
preston in books of travel written by yisi-
tors to the United States The war brought
a great change in the condition of women
The large number of men who left home
| (some never to retum), to take part in that
struggle Obliged large numbers of women
to seek their own living, and for the thou
sands Of positions left vacant by the absent
soldiers, women became substitutes. The
majority Of them remained in employment
after the war
To-day women are employed in the fol
lowing trades:
Artificial flowers and leaves, awnings,
bedd ing supplies, blank books, paper
boxes, collars and cuffs, boys clothing
brushes, buttons canned goods caps
cards, carpet sewers and weavers, cases
for jewelry, cigars and cigarettes. cloaks
and suits, clothing confectionery, copy
lists. cords and fringes, eorsets, dressmak-
ing, embroidery, envelopes, essences and
extracts, fancy boxes and fans, feathers.
flannel, flags, fringes, firs, gimps, gloves,
gold leaf hairdressers, handkerehiefs, hat
sweats and trimmings, labels, laces.
laundrics, lead pencils, linen and ladies
underwear, mats, mattresses, medicines.
morocco goods, miliners, neck ties, paper
bags, parasols. patterns, perfumeries,
pocketbooks, pearl work, preserves. print
ing offices. quilters, rags, ribbons and
RIFLES, shirts, silk factories, soaps, Slip
pers straw goods, spices. tags and suits.
suspenders, tassels, teachers, tickings, to-
baeeo, toys, trimmings twines. umbrellas.
upholstery, watch cases, wax work,
weavers, white goods, wigs, willow ware,
window shades, wooden goods, wrappers,
worsted yarns, telegraphers, saleswomen,
washers and ironers
There are some professions in which
women receive equal pay for equal work
with men; but in nearly all such eases the
women are organized. as for instance
printers and hatters.
The inferiority of women's wages in
measure is attributed to the ordinary laws
of supply and demand, not that there are
more women actually seeking employ
ment than men, but that the number of
women running to particular trades may
be greater Another reason is that the
men have their organizations to fix wages
in nearly every branch of trade.
Employers say that females are prefer
able to males in that they are more steady
to time and more persistent in work and
generally more manageable this latter quail
ity having reference to their monogram
ization Of strikes.
The women workers who suffer most
from low wages are sewing women. They
have to compete with their own sex. y
case is cited. The female inmates of sew
eral charitable institutions were found Gro
chcting ladies' shawlS for Sc dozen An
expert could finish one in two days, there
by earning 12l cts. day. THAT. Of course.
does not pay their board" said the lady
superintendent, ''but it is all Blank & Co.
Will pay and we arr glad to get that rather
than nothing
The firm explain that competition is 50
great that they are compelled to get the
work done at the lowest possible figures,
and that the number Of farmers wives and
daughters living in the surrounding coun-
try v no are not obliged to work for Il liy-
ing yet do 50 to earn pin money is so great
that they are enabled to get this partie-
plar class Of work done for almost any
price.
Formerly Hoods Song Of the Shirt
gave sentimental celebrity to the wrongs
OF the sewing women, but it is not the
shirt now. but the womens cloaks and the
men 5 coats or trousers that draw tears and
groanS from the over-worked sewing
women The wages of women are be-
ing reduced until now full days pay
on a cloak only brings in from 80 to GO cents
1t may be retorted that that is more than
can be made IN London or Paris; true, but
the boast of New York is that it is neither
London nor Paris that its style Of living is
higher, its prices better and lis general
well-bcing in all respects superior
Dir. Pray, of the Northern Dispensary
gives his ideas OF the effects of the differ
ont kinds of labor on female employees. In
tobacco factories women are affected with
nervous and historical complaints, con-