The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-09-19
WOMEN on PROTECTION.
Female Workers Testify TO the Advantages OF
the Protective System.

Female Workers Testify TO the Advantages or
the Protective System.
WAsHISoToS, Sept 1s.-The proceedings OF the
Senate subcommittee on the tariff this morning
were In refreshing contrast with the average of
the last two months. About ffteen well-dressed.
freshlooking ladies made their appearance ut
the doors Of the committee-room at IL o'clock.
headed by MIRA J. Ellen Foster, president of the
WoGens' Christian Temperance Union, Of Iowa,
and we're introduced by Senator Allison tc his
fellowmembers as a delegation who wished t.
be heard in respect TO woman's especial interest
in the protectivs tariff. Mrs. Foster addressed
the committee eloQuently, and at considerable
length. She described her experience io Eu-
rope, year ago, whittier she went in connection
with tbs philanthropic work In which she has
spent her life, setting forth the steps which led
her to the belisf that the incomparably
superior advantages enjoyed by Amer
lean women as wife, mother. or
self-supportsr. to her European sister, were
due TO the American protective system.
She contrAsted the manufacturing and farming
localities OF Germany. England. Scotland aud
Ireland. with their women harnessed, some
timss. like boasts OF burdens 10 the fields, leav-
ing their little ones without q mothers care.
earning the barest pittauce necessary to suppert
life, with the conditions OF life here, declaring
that on ber arrivalin Massachusetts, on her return
she could hardly escape the conviction that the
occasion WAS gala day. She did not profess TO
be specialist In regard 20 the tariff, but had
read the debates in Congress and noticed that
whenever the wage-worker was referred to
it was the workingman who excited the
sympathiss of the legislators. Would
not society, she asked herself, ap
pear for the working women of Americal
She warned the committee that IL was IN all
history the condition of womankind which had
contributed most to the upbuilding pulling
down Of nations, and told them that wherever
the condition Of men was degraded, there the
women won't . little lower. One-third the self
supporters in America were women, and for
these she had sought this hearing. She had
been into the mills and workshops of New York
and New England and had. with the consent OF
employers, invited some OF the female employees
to come TO Washington with her ana tell the
committee how they were situated These
were the ladies present She assured the COM
mttse that they were in no wise superior to
their fellow workers, had not been picked out
for greater intelligence ability, and were sur-
prised themselves that the choice should have
fallen on them rather than on others.
Her companions wore then briefly questioned
by members of the com nittee. Mrs. Bohner, q
German lady who has worked in factories in the
fatherland, had been employed In Rockville,
Conn, in weaving cloth for mems clothing. Her
weekly wages were from 50 to $40, compared
with two marks IN Germany. She laid up money
here. and had three times visited her birth
place, paying the expenses frcm her savings.
Miss White, Miss Pitts and Mrs. Stansfed,
ell born in England, were also EN- ployed in mills
at Rockville, Conn, but no two were in tho
Same mill. They told similar stories to that Of
Mrs. Bonner Of the superior wages and superior
advantages Of their present condition to that in
which they lived in the old country, and declared
themselves with enthusiasm to have become
Americans in the fullest serse of the word.
Miss Gallagher and Miss Dempwolff were
from Amen's ciothing house, In New York city
Miss Jennie Cheever, Mrs Studd and Miss
Clark were from the mills of Ware, Mass.
There was bat little variety in the stories briefly
and modestly told. Their positions were those
OF the average in their respective localities, and
they were earning comfortable ivelihoods by
the work of their own hands.
The appearance of the ladies was, however.
the most convincing part of the evidence re-
ceived by the committee, part of which car.
ried conviction quite irrespective of the tariff
views of the committeeman. Senator Harris,
who represented the tariff-reform doctrine on
the committee. gallapty contented himself in
developing the fact from each of the Rockville
witnesses that the foregn-born element largely
predominated among their fellows. and from the
Others that It about eoualed that of native birth
In the Now York shops and the Ware mills.