The morning news., 1888-09-24

/ bring the women together fer excursions in
summe', concerts readings and tea drink
/ ing in winter, Each has its office, where
I ME .tlngs are held every Monday evening,
| and whicn, in some cases, is open as read
! ing room throughout the week. The Trades
| Union League makes it its business to sup
| ply the unions with Information as TO the
demand for working women in different
trades; Its keeps employment registers
open, manages a cooperative store, offers
defrauded women the services of a lawyer
to collect wages, uses its best efforts to pro-
mote arbitration in cases of dispute, loans
books to women from good circulating
| library, and last but not least works for
cleanliness and bodily exercise by employ
| ing swimming teacher and running a
wOmeu's swimming club
In London, as in New York, the efforts of
women 10 reap some OF the Dement'S whlch
men have gained from organization have
enlisted the cooperation of some OF the
| best known and most practical women OF
the day Mrs. Millicent Garrett Fawcett,
Miss Frances Power Cobbe, Mrs. Jacob
| Bright. Lady Louisa Goldslnid, Mis- Helen
| Taylor, Lady Dixie, the Rev. Stopford A.
| Brooke, and the Rev IL. r. Haweis are only
few of those who are active in the work
OF the Trades Union League. The Countess
| OF portsmouth has given money literally
| for the establishment of women's union
headquarters Lady Goldsmid has main
tanned seaside home for uniOnists' vaca-
tlons and Lady Dixie has kept the libraries
| well stocked with books
| Little has been accomplished, however,
in comparison with the efforts put forth.
| The size of London, and the difficulty for
worhlng women, whose wages seldom adj
| NIT of train fares, of coming far after
| dark, have kept the NUMBERS down. More
| than this, the women of London, in all
| trades, are paid such woeful pittanceS for
| their work and the competition for any
work at all isso despairing that hope is dead
III them, and they have no heart to combine
for their own help. Instead of uniting they
cat one another's throats by underwriting
| rates, until in many branches women are
working, both in factories and at home, for
less than penny an hour The more meI
| are thrown out of work the more essential
1t becomes for women to support themselves
and their families, and the more impossible
| it looks to them to sacrifice the chance of a
farthing now for doubtful penny by and
by. III ye've no q pence ahead, and the
mau's got naught to do, ye must work for
what ye can get or starVe, We can no wait"
said woman to me yesterday, woman
who is a fairly good tailoress, and who
works sixteen hours day for pence.
The average wages of working women
| over whole districts of London are, accord
ing to the agents of the Organized Chari-
| ties, less than 81 80 per week. A woman
who earns s. per week is supposed to be
able to support and pay school fees for two
or three children, and woman who earns
"a is reckoned by her neighbors opulent
At such prices it is impossible that unionism
should take easy root. Such workers have
no power to resist. Within the past week
have talked with women bDxmakers, fur
pullers, umbrella workers and needlewo-
men, who barely make pence a day, rs
cents week. Any trades union must seek
them. They have no time to seek it,
The most hopeful branch of the Trades
Union Leagues work just now is the pro-
posed consumers league. Parlor meetings
have been held by several wealthy women,
with the object of obtaining pledges from as
many buyers as possible to deal with houses
which will pay better rates for production.
| 1t has been the policy of the league for
some time past to publish monthly lists of
shirtmaking, dressmaking and millinery
firms which pay fair wages to seamstresses.
1t is now proposed to extend this plan by
| getting sufficient number of promises
from rich buyers whose trade is valuable to
warrant a direct appeal to the shops to raise
the rates of needlewomen. The plan is in
every respect similar to that prof scted by
Miss Ida NJ. Van Etten for the w orklng
| Women's Society of New York, and is one
which will put the sympathy of women for
their working sisters to II practical test.
The action of the match girls has put new
| life into trades unlouism for women and it
is hoped to see many other organizations
spring up in their track AS Miss Black put
1t in her talk with me: "The employer is
not always an ogre, and while one man in
competition with others cannot raise wages
there are many, who, if women combined
and pressed an advance all along the line,
would be glad TO make it.n
An advance is sadly needed here to bring
the working woman up TO the meat stage
of civilization. At present the London
working girl is not a carnivorous animal
She feeds on slops.
ELIZA PUTNAM HEAToN.