New-York tribune., 1886-11-07
PRISONERS OF POVERTY. T
WOMEN WAGE-WORKERs, THEIR TRADES
AND THkIR LIVES.
BY HELEN CAMPBELL
SOME METHODS OF A PROSPEROUS FIRM

srho cuarcipation of women Is certainly we'll
under way when all under wear can be bought
more cheaply than il is possible to make IL ND
st home and simple suits of very good matera
make it hardly more difficult for woman 10
clothe herself without thought or worry, than II
has long been for a man."
This was the word heard at a womans club not
long ago. and reinforced within the week by two
well-known journals edited in the interests oi
women at large The editorial page of one held
fsrviI anreal for greater simplicity of dress and
living in general followed bv half column OF
entreaty TO women to huv ready made clothing ana
thas save time for higher pursuits and the attain
,nent of broader views With feeberplpe out 10
the same key sounded the second atSocate oil
simplihcatlon. adding: Never was there 0he
1vb.n women couId dress with much real elegance
IN ~ small an expenditure OF money. Bargains
abound. and there is small excuse for dowdiness.
IN. American woman is fast taking her place as
Tho host dressed woman in the civilized world"
Relieving very ardently that the right OF every
woman bern nclndes not only =" life liberty ana
the pqrsuit of happiness" but beauty al'o 1t oeing
one chief end of woman to inclnde In her own
personalty all beauty attainable by reasona"Ie
means am in heartiest agreement with one sde
of the views quoted. But in this quest we have
undertaken and from which. once begun, there is
no retreat strange questions arse and in this new
dawn Of larger liberty and wider outlook is seen
the little cloud which If no larger than mans
bapdr holds the seed of wild storm as has
ever swept over humanity.
For emancipation on the one side has meant no
corresponding emancipation for the other and as
one woman selects. well pleased, garment after
garment daintily tucked and trimmed and hnished
b.vond apy capacity of ordinary home sewing.
marveling little that few dollars can give such
lavish return. there arises from narrow attic and
dark foul basement and crowded factory, the crv
of the women hose life-bloOd is these garments
Thronc ch burning scorching days of summer; A;
through marrow piercing cold OF winter In munger
and rags with white-faced children at their knees
crv,ng for more bread. or. silent from long weak
ness looking with blank eyes at the hvlng needle
these women toll on. Twelve, fourteen, sixteen
bonrs even. before the fixed task is done. The
slice Of baker bread. and the bowl OF rank oacS
tea boiled TO extract every possibility of strength
are taken still at the machine. 1t is easier to SIT
there than in rising and movement TO lind what
weariness is in every limb There is always child
old enough to boil the kettle and run for Loaf OF
bread ana all share the tea which gives hctitious
strength laying thus the foundation for the fragile
anamic faces and figures to be found among the
workers in the bag-factories paper-oox manu-
factories. etc.
q WHY don't they 90 into the country ?" is often
osl,ed Why do they siarve in the city when
GOOD homes and ample pay are waiting for them
II not with the class TO HON this question Is
applirable that we deal to-day. OF the army OF
100000 who battle for bread. nearly third nave
no resour re but the needle and OF TINS third many
thousands are widows with children, to whom they
cling with devotion strong as wiser mothers
feel and who labor night and day to prevent the
scatterinr into asylums, and consequent destruc-
tiOn of the family family. Ihey are widcWs
through many causes that can hardly be SAID to
dor +,a haa1 Of eD0eSS
leans and the thousand accidents that ara born of
drunkennsess. but there are other methods arising
from the same greed that underlles most modern
civilization. The enormous proportion OF accldents
which If not killing instantly imply long disability
md often death the final result, come, nine
tenths of the time. from criminal disregard oi anY
ordinary means of protecting machinery. One great
CORPORATION, owning thousands of miles OF rairoah'
saw 500 men disabled in greater or less degree IN
ops year and still refused TO ADOPT n method of
counting cars which would have saved the lives
of the sixty-eight brskemen VINO were sacrlhceu 10
the instinct of economy dominating the superin-
tendent The same man refused TO roof over spo'
where a number Of freight-handlers we're employer
during a stormy season. rheumatism ana asthma
being the consequence for many, and MS reason
had AZ least the merit of frankness; merit often
lacking in explan atoms that even when most
plausible cover as essential brutality OF nature
aNen are cheaper than shingles" he said.
There's n dozen waiting to ill the place of one
that drops ont
In another case in a great saw-mill, the owner
had been urged to protect a ath-saw. swearing al
the pe1sistent request after the day when one
of his best men was lei ont TO the ambulance Ills
right hand hanging bv bit OF skin. his death
from 10 k-iav presently leaving one more widow
TO swell the number 1t is OF such men that a
stnrdv thinker wrote last year. " man is self
- ia
curse of the worker lies heaviest That they exist
at all j. hardly credited by the multitude who
believe that for this country at least oppression
and outrage are only names. Ihat tDey exist I'D
Numbers will be instantly denied. yet to one VINO
has heard the testimony gwen by weeping women
anl l-confrmed by the reluctant admissions OF en-
ployers themselves. there comes belief that no
words can fully tell what wrong is still possible
from man TO man. in this America, the hope Of
nations.
Ia this depression hardly 10 be pardoned in
naner on the trades and lives Of women a deliber-
orc ,urninc toward an issue which has neither
nlace nor right in such 'lmitsi On the contrary.
II il all part of the wretched story Inc chain
that binds humanity in one has not one set OF INKS
for men and another for women and the dow
aimed al one is felt also. not o1lv by those nearest
but by successive ranks to whom the shock though
orN ind rect transmission. is none the less deadly IN
effect And thus the wrong done on the huge scale
anproprlate TO a great corporation hnds It's counter
mart in a lesser but quite well organized
wrong born also of the spirit of greed and working
its will as ptIlessly.
@If you employed large scale YOU would
soon 6nd that you ceased to look at your men as
men" said an impatient iron-worker not long ago.
aThey are SIMPLY so much producing power.
don't propose to abuse them, but I've no time even
TO remember their faces-mucb less their names
Precisely on this principle rraSons the employer
of women who are even less 10 be regarded rs per-
sooalities than men, For the latter once year at
least the EN- -loyer becomes conscious of the fact
4hn, tha -. ,nasses nt 40 mnch nro lncing po over"