Wichita eagle., 1888-01-17

against what class of employers do you
receive most complaints!'
against dressmakers, / think. Why,
know of one doing business now who has de-
frauded thirty girls at least, for we have that
many judgments against her. She has a
large nouse elegantly furnished with turni-
ture obtained on the installment plan, and
that we can't touch till the installments are
paid She is a very slrewd woman, and has
fixed all her property so we cannot get a. it, )"
The female employers, explained the super
intendent, always cause the union the most
trouble There is section Of the code where
by man against whom judgment has been
obtained for unpaid wages to female en-
ploye. and who has no property in sight to
attach, can be arrested and imprisoned for
fifteen DAYS Necktie makers, glove makers
and little manufacturers are continually de-
frauding their girls, but the wise girls who
take their claims to the union generally get
their money.
One class of these swindlers Of women, after
SO many operations in one city as to make a
continued residence warm for them, remove
to another city and begin the same business.
But there are other unions in other cities.
Recently man, well known milliner and
dressmaker in Philadelphia, swindled lots Of
his girls, and the Philadelphia Women's Pro-
tectiye union took proceedings against him.
He picked up his property and came to this
city. The girls claims were turned over to
the union here, and judgment was obtained
against him. But the swinder, though very
shrewd, didn't know of the clause in the code,
and so paid no attention to the judgment.
When he was told about that clause by an
officer of the law, he whistled, and then paid
the full amount with costs.
No claim is too small for the union to take
up. Suit for twenty-five cents has been
brought several times, and after going
through the usual process the money has
been collected
The excuses invented by these sharks of the
workshop are very numerous and many Of
them amusing. A common one il that tho
work which girl has performed is unsatis-
factory, though the work is taken just the
same. This excuse didn't pass the other day
with a nimble fingered girl, skillful at fancy
work. She had undertaken the embroidering
Of daisies on felt, at the magnificent pay of
one and quarter cents each. She had
finished PCS of the daisies, when she asked her
employer, woman, who kept fancy work
store, for pay for them. The employer had
bad habit of finding fault with glrls' work,
and then deducting q certain amount from
their wages.
1t costs no girl anything to enlist the SER
vices of the union. That is one of the princi-
pies on which it was founded. 1t is society
that docs great deal of good with a very
little money, not to protect idling, frivolous
women, but women who work. According
to the secretary's report, the union has an
swered since its establishment in the time Of
the civil war and up TO January, 1887, 800
4l5 applications, furnished 4S, I07 employ
mentS, prosecuted 10, l23 complaints of fraud,
recovered and paid to workingwomen $685.
37257, in sums averaging So. 40.
Girls of all sorts of vocations 60 to the
Office to lodge their complaints. Typewriters
and stenegraphers so often to complain that
the lawyers for whom they have been work
ing won't pay them. But the lawyers do pay
after they receive that little opening letter,
which is simply an announcement that they
will be dragged into court and imprisoned il
they don't Day. Actresses who can't get
their pay fl an managers of travelling COM
panies, washwomen who can't get at TIE peo-
pie they have washed for to collect their
dues. walters in restaurants who get on an
average of So 80 week when they get it at
all, fan and necktie makers who more often
than others work for nothing, and sewing
girls in many different branches of trade are
constant patrons and beneficiaries of the Wo-
meas Pr elective Union-New York Sun