St. Paul daily globe., 1888-05-14
A SCATHING REBUKE.
Shall Business Interests Be
Reared on Woman's Suffering

Shall Business Interests Be
Reared on Woman's Suffering
and Virtue?
To the Editor of the Globe.
The Tribune editorial of Sunday, on
the report of the jobbers' committee ap-
pointed to investigate the strike at Shot
well, Clerihew & Lothman's, is mas
terly piece of absurdity and falsifi-
cation. The editorial begins by as
serting that the jobbers' report is a
| remarkable document. In so stating,
the Tribune seems to have staggered
onto the truth. but without knowing it.
of course. The report is remarkable
document, considering the fact that it
was given to the public as an impartial
! investigation; but the remarkable quail
| lties of the report pale into insig-
| nifcance when compared with the re-
markable character of the editorial.
1.-The report" says the Tribune, sis
made by body of men who could not
bo trifled with, and in language too plain
to be misunderstood" If we were a
member of an association, and the presi-
| veStigate an affair of his, and publish
our report, solely upon basis of infor-
nation and statements furnished by
himself, we would consider it trifing
with US.
1t is amusing to hear the Tribune say
! that the language is too plain to be mis-
understood, and to note, few lines fur
ther on, that the Tribune has misun-
derstood it. The committee did not
| mean to say, as the Tribune asserts, that
| 903 women, working three consecutive
weeks in March, averaged S6.29 each
| per week; neither did they say that
| fhn nd fha
| highest wages paid. 1t is absolutely
| false that 303 girls were at work for
three consecutive weeks in March, and
| earned S6.29 each on the average.
The girls made no complaint about
| the condition of the Workroom: yet it is
/ fact that the improvements which the
| jobberS' committee Saw-painting, cal
| Ginning and new blinds-have all been
put in since the girls quit work.
To say that the GLOBE is responsible
for the strike is mere silly clap-trap.
mercial instinct for which the Tribune
| is notorious. 1t is gall and worm
wood to the Tribune to know that
there is a morning daily in this city,
which dares to give the facts on both
| sides of a case, and maintains a posi-
| tion of absolute fairness between labor
and capital. 1t is gall and wormwood
to the Tribune to know that the GLOBE
| cannot be made the instrument to per-
vert justice and smother truth. No,
! the GLOBE is not itching for
preteXt to jump at the conclu-
! sion that working girls are not
| truthful, or that business men are, of
necessity, more honest and impartial
| than women VINO work for their bread.
! There is nothing to justify such con-
clusion except interest or prejudice.
| The GLOBE, we take it, desires to see
the manufactures of Minneapolis built
up and sustained by every proper
| and legitimate means, but if
commercial prosperity must be built up
by crOwding the wages of working girls
! down to the starvation point, the GLOBE
will respectfully decline to become
party to the transaction. The argument
of the Tribune is substantially this:
"Let the people of Minnesota sustain
every commercial house in crowding
down the wages of their employees to
the Eastern level, in order that we may
compete with the East. Let US have
business at any cost. There are
millions of wretched. demoraliZed
women in the East. If business re-
quire it, let US have them in the West
and let us encourage the making Of
them. by low wages"
The Tribune says: "The manufactur-
ing firms of this city are either to be
sustained in their efforts to compete
with Eastern cities, or Eastern cities
will do the manufacturing for this city
and the Northwest" What! sustain
firm in reducing the wages of women