The Labor enquirer., 1886-05-01
The Old story-aEconomy."

For The Enquirer.
The old insult is revived about every
80 often, with some changes in the form.
but always under the guise of Charity,
kindness to the poor" or "friendliness
to the laboring man."
Societies are being formed in the
larger cities to teach poor working
women how to use their small wages to
the best advantage. Economy reduced
to SYSTEM" is the panacea urged by
these short-sighted mortals. :.
What mocking nonsense! Can
woman making shirts at 90 cents
dozen be anything else bnt stingily eco
nomical, to save her life?
Can man on 81 day-and a scant
number of days in the year at that
with q wife and three or four children be
anything else but niggardIy in economy,
if he does his worst?
He may be foolish and lay out the pit
tance for more beer than bread but the
fact that he has precious little to be ex-
travagant with remains the same.
Think of a man who spends small
fortune year on cigars and perfumery,
teaching economy to a man who hasn't
had chance to earn cent for six
months!
The worst workingman could do
would be to fling away few dimes at a
time-for he never has more at once
which might in years time amount to
what the gentleman" would spend
treating his friends in one evening.
I think some Of our poor working
women and girls could give these
would-be philanthropists lessons in
economy that would make their eyes
open. l know busy little woman who
makes trimmed calico dress es at 81 25 a
dozen and keeps herself and two little
girls neatly dressed in calico, her one
little room bright and clean, and nearly
enough food of some kind 10 keep them
going. But her once bright eyes are los
Ing their luster, her cheeks are growing
sunken and pale with the toll that lasts
without cessation from daylight until
eleven or twelve at night.
She is famishing, body and soul, for
her food is not of nourishing kind and
she has no time or opportunity for men
tai or social enjoyment. She rs com
PEELED to send her little girls away with
tears in their eyes when they plead fer
the penny" so dear to every childish
heart, for she cannot indulge in the least
luxury, either for herself or them.
A lady living within q stones throw
of her, spends more on flowers and
gloves for one evening than the sewing
woman's wages are for whole week
And this lady is a great advocate Of
economy as remedy for poverty. She
herself imagines she is economical when
she makes a street dress cost less than
$50, and does not spend more than 500 a
month for nick-nacks. With what ill.
grace does advice on economy come from
such woman, to woman like my
friend
The truth is working people-working'
women especiqliy-have economy down
to fine point; so fine point that en-
ployers are finding out that they can be
hired for less and less every year, and
they are not slow to push their advan,
tage; 50 fine that stores and warehouses
are overflowinC with unconsumed but
needed products, and shallow politica,
economists are crying lover produc,
ton" while lean and haggared labor
goes without.
The most arrant noneense as we'll as
the most heartless insult is this smooth
talk of the well-fed and well satisfied
bourgeois about economy.
With full stomach and pleasant sur
roundings it is an extremely easy thing
to let some other mau be saving. With
every want curtailed and barest neces-
saries already cut down to the lowest
point, economy then means calamity,
suffering, death.
Rob a man of what he produces and ls
honestly his own. and then persuade
him that his own extravagant use of the
pittance you have left him Is all that
ails him! Oh the morality hich this
great civilization has developed
LIZZIE NJ. SwANE.