The Irish standard., 1886-06-12
WoMEN AS BREADw1NNERs.
.Toi;tns In ,renements ON Long Houra
and Starvation Pay.

1 .Toi,tns In Ten ements ON Long Hours
and Starvation Pay.
| The report OF Labor Commissioner
Peck, of New York, is an interesting and
instructive document. A large part Of
the report is devoted to the condition of
the worl1ingwomen of the State, and gives
some startling details in that connection.
It reveals an a,nount of suffering almost
beyond conception. 1t will attract general
attention. The report was not gotten up
for sensational or sentimental effect, but
is q calm, clear statement OF facts that
came under actual observation.
In the last century, SO far as can be as
certained, women's employments in towns
were chiefly of domestic nature. Young
persons went out from the parental roof
either from choice Or necessity to do do
mestic service for the neighbors. 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, and the Lowell young
ladies" became almost stereotyped ex-
preston: in books OF travel written by yisi-
tors to the United States. The war brought
great change in the condition OF women.
The large number of men who left home
(some never to return), 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,
bedling supplies. blank books, paper
boxes, collars and cuffs, boys clothing,
brushes, buttons canned goods caps,
cards. carpet sewers and weayers cases
for iewelry, cigars and cigarettes cloaks
and suits, clothing, confectionery, copy
lists, cords and fringes, corsets, dressnlak-
ing, embroidery, envelopes, essences and
extracts fancy boxes and fans, feathers
flannel flags. fringes, furs, gimps, gloves,
gold leaf, h;,irdressers, bandkerchiefs hat
swe;ats and trimmings, labels, laces,
laundries, lead pencils. linen and ladies'
underwear, mats, mattresses, medicines,
morocco goods, milliners, neck ties, paper
bags, parasols, patterns, perfumeries,
pocketbooNs, pearl work, preserves, print
ing Offices. quiiters. rags, ribbons and
rufties, shirts, silk factories soaps. slip.
pers, straw goods, spices, tags and suits,
suspenders, tassels, teachers, tlclllngs, to-
bucco, toys, trimmings, twjnes, umbrellas,
upholstery, watch cases, wax work,
weavers, white goods wigs, willow weas,
window shades, woolen goods, wrappers,
worsted yarns, telegraphers sa1esWomen.
washers and ironers.
There are some professions in which
women receive equal pay for equal work
with men; but innearly AL such cases the
women are organized, as for instance,
/ printers and hAtters.
The inleriority of women's wages in 81
measure is attributed to the ordinary
laws Of supply and demand, not that there
are more woman 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 Tx wages
in nearly every branch of trade.
Employers say that females are prefer
able to males in that they are more
steady to time, more PERSISTENT iE
work and generally more manageable,
this latter quality having reference to their
nom on-organizations of strikes
! The women workers who suffer most
from low wages are sewing women. They
have to com pete with their own sex. A
case is cited The female inmates of
several charitable institutions were found
| Crocheting ladies' shawls for 50 Il dozen.
Au ex pert could finish one in two days,
thereby earning 12 1-2 cents day. "That,
of course, does nor pay their board, said
! the lady superintendent, but it is all Blank
& Co. will pay and we are glad to get that
rather than nothing"
The firm explain that competition is so
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
country VINO are not obliged to work for
living yet do so to earn pin money is so
great that they are enabled to get this
particular class of work done for almost
any price.
| Formerly Hoods stSong of the Shirt"
gave sentimental celebrity to the wrongs
Of the sewing women, but it is not the
shirt now, but the womens cloais and the
| mems coats or trousers that draw tears
and groans from the oyer-Worked sewing
women. The wages Of women are being
reduced until now full days pay ON
cloak only brings in from SO to 90 cents
1t may be retorted that that ls 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 it's style Of
| living 10 11iSASA, I'D PiASSo oSeIoA c"i1Sa A'o
general well-being in al respects superior.
| DIR. Pray, of the Northern Dispensary,
gives his ideas of the effects of the differ
erent kinds of labor on female employees
In tobacco factories women are affected
with nervous and hysterical complaints
consumption and chest ailments, attributed
to smell, dust and nicotine Laundry
girls are subject to heavy colds, from ex-
posure and wet, and going from hot into
cold rooms. Shop girls are generally
healthy from the exercise they take in
going to and from work.
| The Commissioner, in estimating the
percentage of women induced to enter on
life of shame from various causes, finds
that 525 women in 1900 are forced to enter
this life from sheer destitution, 513 from
inclination and the balance from various
causes personal and general. Destitution
and starvation, however, brought about
by low wages, are responsible for the lar
gest number of victims.
| How to Raise Fallen Mule.
The other morning a mule attached to
one OF George B. Newton's coal wagons
fell on Chestnut street above Sixteenth.
The cars were blocked for at least half an
Il