St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-05-06

StGc take Ills SIdnQ near the DOORWAY,
little book in hand.
What's he going to do now?' I asked
one of the girls.
Hes going to note those that come in
late.''
''Are you locked for that?"
mo, he just takes note of it, but if
he feels like it he will discharge a girl
for taking an afternoon Off"
1t was a pretty sight to observe how
rapidly the bright-colored silks and
woods were transformed by deft work
erS from raw material into finished I'M
derwear. / found that many sizes and
styles of knit underwear were turned
out at this establishment. the materials
used being wool, Isle thread and silk.
The garments are knit on machines,
thence passing to girls who finish the
edges with row or two of crocheting,
put on by hand; narrow ribbons are
sometimes added around neck and
sleeves of vests, and the garments are
steamed, pressed and folded into proper
shape for sale. 1t will be noticed that a
good deal of the work is
DONE BY HAND.
l was surprised to see that there were
more than 100 girls at here. us this
the usual working force?' asked.
mo; we are running slack just now.
Sometimes we have had as high as $50
working here" failed to see how any
employer having a regard for the health
or comfort of employees could pack 80
the necessary machinery. l concluded
that employers probably understood
those cOnundrumS better than /, so let
the matter drop. 800 you work by the
piece or by the Week?' l asked of a girl
at machine.
NEARLY every girl in the factory
works by the piece" she replied.
''Then why all those rules? If you
loose little time isn't it your own
loss?" questioned.
"Of course it is" she replied, shut
the proprietors say that we Western
girls are too independent and we need
these strict rules to show us our proper
place. They say one Eastern factory
girl is worth whole cart load of such
as we"
'sWell, what sort of pay can you
earn?'
.'Well, it's pretty hard to tell any
thing about wages here, because the
scale of prices keeps changing all the
time"
"How is that?"
"You see the girls that came in here
last fall during the rush got 81 or S. a
week, but l tell you they earned it, be-
cause they were crowded with work
from morning till night. Then about
Christmas, when work got slack, those
same girls were told they would be
paid by the piece"
"What's the injustice about that?
Won't good worker do better by the
piece than by the week."
''Oh, there is good deal of difference
here in the two systems. / will tell you,
the price per piece is so low that in
many cases girl could not earn over
So week if she had all the work she
could do"
Don't you have work enough to keep
you busy by the piece?"
"1ndeed we don't. You can ask lots
of the girls if they don't have to lose
two or three hours day waiting for
work to be given out. Girls to work by
the week never have to wait that way.
When machine breaks or gets out of
order the girl of course, has to lose her
time till it is repaired.
Z; WORKING FOR NOTHING.
Noticing girl mending a large rent
in a garment, l Inquired:
s'Do you mend old clothes, too?'
mo we DON'T" she Snapishly re-
plied. sometimes the machine drops
stitches in knitting, which causes big
hole. mend these holes"
"How much pay do you get for it?''
SIT don't make any difference how
much work there is on any of those
garments, | get eight cents dozen for
mending. Sometimes my back aches,
and / get tired out and don't do the
work as good as it ought to be; then the
forelady comes along, makes me rip it
out and do it all over again."
'sHow many dozen can you mend a
day?"
ssSome days I only can mend dozen,
and work hard. At the best 1 can mend
two dozen and half" GO cents day..
noticed one girl in charge of several
machines. She declined to answer any
questions. but the other girls claimed
that she was running six machines and
doing the work of three girls all for the
large sum of Sc a week. She was a
| stout, robust girl and looked as if she
could stand any amount of hard work,
but pitied her for not having business
ability enough to know what her work
was worth.
| ."Another way they have of making
our pay beautifully less every week, is
! to dock us good round sum for every
| little mistake we make. For instance,
ia girl in steaming the vests was careless
lsenough to let one get sOiled by the
water. She passed it on to the presser,
who pressed it the best she could and
| laid it aside until the proprietor came
along. He looked at it, sent it down tC
| the Office to be sold as slightly damaged
then docked the steamer 81 and the