St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-04-08
Eva Gays Visit to the Girl
Workers in Minneapolis
Shirt Factories.
Some Of the Dark, Dank and
Disagreeable Shops Of
the Shirt Workers.
Girls Must Furnish Their Own
Machines, as Well as the
Sewing Materials.
Starvation Wages for Hard
Wopk--GiplS TerroriZed by
Their Taskmasters.

It seems that large proportion of
working girls earn their living by sew
ing at various kinds of work. For, in
addition to those classes already re-
ported, trip through four large shirt
factories of Minneapolis reveals many
more toiling at the same sort of work.
AS far as comfort or cleanliness were
concerned, it seems to be "six of one
and half dozen of the other;" two fac
tories were clean and bright, the other
two dirty, damp and unhealthy. 1t is a
fact worthy of note that in the two
shops where sunshine and good air
were plentiful and whose floors were
swept occasionally, the girls seemed
bright and healthy, most OF them earn
ing fair wages, while in dirty, badly
ventilated factories, the girls were
Railways tired" chad to quit on account
of sore eyes, chad headache and rheu-
matism," and on account of ill health
did not earn as good wages as they
could have made in good quarters:
Wages averaged about the same in all
the factories.
FOUND A NEW SCHEME
being worked on the employees in the
shirt factories. The girls are obliged to
furnish both machines and thread. By
the law of evolution, girls will next be
required to provide the material, also,
In order to get chance to put in ten
hours a day at hard labor. My first visit
was to the factory of Ely & Hambright,
In the basement of brick building, 16
Third street south. A flight of stone
steps lead down from the sidewalk to
the factory below. The steps were mar
row and icy. "Look out there, you'll
fall" came warning voice, but too
late. had already arrived at the foot
of the stairs with more speed than
grace. l picked myself up, feeling like
Pete Jones in the Hoosier Schoolmaster,
"considible shuck up like"
"When the steps are icy-they are
most of the time-you don't want to try
one step to the other until you get to the
bottom" said one of the girls.
clearly saw the wisdom of her adj
vice, but smarting from my recent ex-
perience, groaned: "Why don't you
have those steps cleaned Off"
"Oh, the proprietOrs, when they come
down, always say: we must have those
steps cleaned, some girl may fall and
get hurt You see they do not have to
climb up and down the steps several
times a day like we do, so they go Off
and forget all about it, and we girls
crawl up and down the same old way"
"Come in and see US, anyhow, now
you've got down stairs" was the cordial
invitation.
The light was so dim, after coming
from the sunlight above, that for few
moments / could hardly distinguish one
object from another,
Apparently the factory was neatly
finished, but all light and air were pro-
Vided by windows below the level of the
sidewalk. The girls crowded close to
the windows to get light enough for
their work.
eyes" said one in answer to my
questions, sit is damp and cold here in
the winter, but that's because we're
in basement"
'sCan you see to work here?'
sit is hard work, the windows are
splashed with dirt all the time and it
SPOILs A PERSONS EYES
to work in such dim light"
''But the firm are always promising
us better quarters, and p'r'aps We'll get
'em some time" said one cheerfully.
White shirts of various grades are
made in this factory, the sewing ma
chimes being the ordinary sort run by
foot power.
''Why doesn't the firm put in steam
machines?" / asked.
"The firm don't furnish the machines;
we buy them ourselves"
You get extra wages to help pay for
your machines, don't your"
"Well, | guess not; we buy our ma
chimes out of our regular wages, and
move or repair them at our own eX-
pense."
what would you do if you wanted
work and couldn't afford to buy ma
chine?"
"Don't know"
"Pll tell you," said another, ''we can
rent a machine from the firm at $3 a
month"
''DO the firm have machines to sell?"
mo; they rent the secondhand ones
which they buy at half-price from girls
who leave. But then all the factories
do that"
"You can buy one on installments of
S. month"
"Can you bring any kind of machine
you wish?" said L.
"Ihe perpetrators insist on our buying
from one agent" said she.
Maybe you get them cheaper that
"Not much. we don't, but the firm
gets So commission from the agent for
every machine the girls buy"
In order to see how it was, | went to
the agent and asked prices. He would
sell me good machine for s35 cash,
but for some unexplained reason, if l
came from the factory and wished to
pay S. a month, the same article
WOULD COST ME S43.
SLOW much do you get day." 1
asked a girl.
"We're paid by the piece-make all
we can earn"
elbow much apiece?"
"These are the poorest quality. / get
sixteen cents apiece if they're well
made" she answered.
"How many can you make a day?"
"Four"
"Then you earn about Ga cents day."
"About that, if | work steady; but
the thread costs me about cents, so the
best can make is 1913 week."
| found that others received as high as
25 cents each for the finest shirts, and
an expert could make five or six day,
the sewing girls finishing the garment,
except buttonholes and initials. The
girls found it tiresome work to run a
machine all day steadily.
There were no harsh rules in this eS-
Enlistment, the girls being allowed to
do as they pleased so long as the work
was well done.
In answer to my questions as to why
they didn't insist on having better
workshop, one said:
"Why, you see the proprietors are al
WAYS real kind and OOlite to their helm