St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-04-01
Sewing Mid Clouds Of Dust
Hardships Hand in Hand
With Small Wages.
Employers Who Provide Nee
essapy Conveniences and
Others Who Do Not.
Girls Compelled to "Stand for
Their Health"--MattreSs
Works Employees. I

r.. o }5M Wy lone of the girls re-
AgdfMN " Unmarked that she
<tTSsNybA y ]Ashad worked in a
NMSasM NJ bag factory where
r. ~ X$fC the wages were
wv low and the rules
very severe. Hearing several stories
about those factories from girls who
had formerly worked in them, and being
of an investigating turn of mind, l visit
ed two bag factories, and incidentally
two where mattresses were made, in
order to see for myself how the girls
were treated and if the reports of low
wages were true.
Morrison, Anderson & Butchart's bag
factory, on First street and Third ave-
nue. south, was the scene of my first
The work-room is about 3Ox50, rough
finished with brick walls and board par
titions. A large printing press, where
the sacks are lettered, stands near the
door. A few men are employed, but the
work, especially sewing and folding, is
mostly done by girls. The machines,
which are quite large, are run by steam
power.
On first entering, the air seemed
so THICK WITH DUST
and Int from the bags that I could
scarcely see. AS one of the girls re-
marked: lyon have to get used to the
dust" The floor was in keeping with the
other appointments OF the shOp-that is,
were sewing burlap sacks for flour at
what seemed a lightning rate of speed.
"How many of these sacks do you
make in day?" | asked of girl who
paused to adjust her work.
"TWenty-tWO hundred a day."
"Why?"
Because we have to average 1900 a
day to earn 81 for them"
/ saw that the sacks as received from
the cutters hand had to be sewed along
one side and end. The sacks She re-
ferred to would hold 40 pounds.
Are you paid by the piece?"
"Nope, by the day."
"Of course you can earn more than 81
day when you get used to the work, !"
l said.
mo. we don't never earn no more
than 81 a day." said another.
"Why|'
because we can't average more than
1900 day no matter how long we work,
and to do that we have to work every
minute as hard as we can run the
machine for ten hours a day."
"We used to get paid dollar a day if
we could sew 1000 sacks, and that was
called good days work." was re-
marked by another.
"How much pay do you get when you
start IMP" 1 asked.
"Oh. you get about $3.50 week until
you can sew fast"
strolled along, watching the girls at
work, and concluded that / could be-
come an expert In about two weeks, at
the most, SO asked girl if she didn't
think [ could.
"H'm, two weeks" she said, scorn-
fully. "You couldn't learn that quick,
and 'sposin' you did-if you get more
than $3.50 week when you're here
three months you do we'll"
concluded that l wouldn't try to
learn.
The windows were on the side of the
shop next the street, but the lower half
of each was painted. Climbing on box
and peeping out over the paint, / saw
that the windows commanded pleas
ant view of the shores of the Mississippi,
and was puzzled to know
WHEREFORE THE PAINT.
Finally, in my innocence, [ said to
some of the girls:
"Do you have the windows painted so
the light won't hurt your eyes?"
A general laugh was the response. I
couldn't see where the laugh came in
until one said:
''Those windows are painted so the
girls won't waste any time looking out.
When they were painted we leased the
foreman not to have it done, but he told
us that Rev. James McGolrick said that
Women ought to be kept where men
couldn't see them" and he was afraid
the men passing by the windows would
look at us unless prevented by the
paint"
l wondered if the reverend gentleman
was aware of the comical application of
his remarks. Also, as certain fixed
amount of work was eXacted before
giving full days pay, what difference
it made to the foreman if girl Occa-
sionally glanced out of the window.
There was large stove in the shop,
but the spring breezes, sweeping in
from various directions, made me
shiver.
'Isn't it cold here in winter, or do you
have more stoves?" l asked.
swell, | should remark! We
PRETTY NEAR FREEZE
here in winter; our hands and feet get
numb with the cold and we can't get
warm," was the prompt reply.
"Why don't you complain about it?''
"Oh, we do, and get told to work and
keep ourselves warm" said bright
girl.
"Just the same, we have to make our
average f2,200 day whether it's cold
or xuarr, or cleo we don't oat onr &c a