The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1886-03-18

The annual report of the labor corr
missioner of New York, recently issued,
is an interesting document. The facts
and figures it presents showing the con-
dition of the working-women of the
state, and especially those employed in
trades in the metropolis, are decidedly
suggestive, and reveal the existence of a
pauper-labor problem al home of suffi-
cient magnitude to demand the most
careful study of our political economists
and social reformers. 1t is not at all
necessary for them TO 90 abroad to find
destitution and misery among the work
ing classes: there is enough of it in New
York to afford the fullest play to the
most sympathetic nature.
According TO the estimates of the la
Dor commissioner, more than 100000
females are engaged in the various
trades in New York city. As rule
their work is hard and their wages low
much lower than is paid to men for the
same quality and quantity of work.
There are some exceptions to this rule,
but they are not numerous or important.
In the printing, hat-making, and cigar
making trades the pay of the two sexes
other industries of any magnitude in
which this is the case.
The commissioner report shows that,
as general thing, where male and fe-
male labor is paid at the same rate the
work is of low order, and the COM
pensation wretchedly small. For in
stance, women who are employed in the
manufacture of cigars are mostly en-
gagged in such work as stripping and
binding, which commands the very
lowest wages. But the most deplorable
condition of affairs appears to exist IN
the clothing industry, which gives em-
plOyment to more women than any
other. Their work is hard, their pay
beggarly, and the conditions by which
they are surrounded are simply intoler-
able. They are obliged to compete not
only with the great army of their own
sex to whom needle and thread are the
sole resources for keeping body and
soul together, but with sewing-men,
who get better wages for the same
amount of work. The lot of the aver
age sewing-woman IN New York ap-
pears to be in no way preferable to that
of the average African slave in the
south thirty years ago. Her life is SIM
ply one continued round of toll, oppres-
sion, and misery, with scarcely ray of
sunshine to relieve its profound gloom.
In the New York system of slavery the
"middleman," or sweater" takes the
place filled by the overseer in the south
under the old regime, and right faith
fully, it appears, does he discharge the
functions of his office. His mission is
to oppress the sewing-girls and give to
the world practical demonstration of
the fact that life can be sustained and
daily tasks performed upon an incred-
IDLY small amount of nourishment I'm
der his skillful manipulation the price
paid for making a dozen pairs of trous-
ers has been brought down to $1.50,
while fer turning out waistcoat COM
plete the sewing-woman is paid the
muniticent sum of ID cents The wo-
men do this work at their own homes,
thereby saving rent to the sweater"
1t is estimated that one-quarter of their
earnings is absorbed in rent; the cost of
their sewing-machines is another heavy
charge, and by an atrocious system of
fines and ''dockingS" the miserable
compensation allowed for their work is
still further reduced.
The report of the labor commissioner
gives the results of visits of inspection
paid to a number of rookeries in which
these unfortunate women are domiciled
On the attic floor of one tall tenement
house six women were found working
with four sewing machines in a room
not more than ten feet square. 1t was
filed with cloaks ready to be put to-
gether. They were elegant garments,
retailing at from $50 to S75 each, and
two of the women, working assiduouslt
sixteen hours each, were just able to
complete one of them. For this work
they were paid 81, 80 cents each, or
about cents per hour The atmos-
phere in which they labored was sitting.
md all their surroundings of the most
repulsive character. The labor COM
missioner declares that this was by no
means an exceptional case, but says that
similar sights are to be seen every day
i'll hundreds of tenement-houses in New
York. The want, misery, and degrada-
ton of these women are reported to be
utterly beyond description-and almost
beyond conception. Chicago Times.