Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1888-11-22
BEAUTIES OF PROTECTION.

Protection is indeed a lovely(?) thing
to contemplate. The infant industries
Of the east, which have been struggling
for from fifty to seventy-five years to
gain manly proportions, butryhich still
require the milk of public protection to
enable them to 1--we; (?) these great
pets of the republican party are indeed
a wonderful boon to the woKking-man
and the working-woman Of America.
Protection to those fellows, you know,
enables to pay higher wages to people
employed in the manufactures, and
Mrs. Barry. in PAPER read before an
assembly Of knights of Labor at 1n-'
dianapolis Ind. on the 4th inst, tells
you something of the magnificent
wages paid women and children in the
protected" east.
She instances the following: Mems
pants that retail at prices from 81 to 81
per pair are taken by the contract at 10
cents per pair. Operatives are then
employed and huddled togather in a
close, sitting back room, where the ma
chine operatives furnish their own ma
lchines, and in most cases thread, and
do all the machine work on pants, with
out basting for cents a pair. They are
then passed over to finishers, who put
| on the buttons, make the button holes
and put on the buckles for 5 cents per
pair;six pairs is ali average days work.
ISupposing five operatives to be employ
led, and there are often more than less,
the contractor makes 80 cents head,
which nets him 81 80 per day, while his
lOr her victim gets 80 cents per day.
Mems vests are contracted oat at ten
cents each the machine operative re-
fceiving two and one-half cents and
finishers two and one-half cents each,
J making five cents vest for compile
tion. Twenty vests is a days work.
Here again, with the five operatives, he
/ or she nets one dollar per day for doing
nothing, while his unfortunate victim
has fifty cents for eleven hours Of her
life's energies.
These women are required by society
to meet all the requirements of nature
in All honest woman. Think of their
ability to do SO and under such opper-
ltunities. Oh! brothers of the Knights
Iof Labor, implore you by your love
for mothers, sisters, wives and daugh-
ters, those sweet little innocent girls
who to-day gladden. your heat and
brighten your hearthstene, unite us one
man on some course that will have a
tendency to remove this curse from our
fair land-this blot upon American
liberty and independence-ere the
tender feet of your loved ones are COM
PEELED to pass this life's pathway of
| thorns.
And in the manufacture of women s
underwear this hellish method is carri-
ed on with equal force. On Central
avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio, undergar-
ments are made for twenty-five cents
per dozen, trimed with either lace or
ruffles; white skirts, with ruff1es, lace
and tucks, fifty cents per dozen; the
average weeks wages of such employees
4
After speaking of her trips through
Pennsylvania, Mrs. Barry says: The
violation of every law in regard to the
employment Of women and children in
tPennyslvania is to be met with on
|every hand, and it is my sincere and
earnest request that every Knight Of
Labor in Pennsylvania will give his
support to the bill which have prepar-
ed and will have presented to the
session of the coming state legislature
for the establishment of factory in
spector law on behalf of the little ones
of this rich state, 10000 of whom are
deprived of the privileges of common
school education, and 125 900 of whom
are employed in the workshops, factor
les, mines aud mercantile industries.
There are many evils attendant upon
the emplyment of children, particularly
girls, which leads to misery, ignorance
and despair. A custom is rapidly in
creasing in this country which means
shame, dishonor and humiliation to
wonanhood, and hope, and now ap-
peal to every father within the sound of
my voice to be watchful and wary of
his little daughter if she be employed
in any large establishment, Or small
one either. where she is made to under
stand that the price of her position is
that she islands in with the boss"
Many may ask why l do not give
name and locality. First, because
those who resent such pernicions ap.
proachcs shrink from giving publicity
RI <l,o;y l,,,piliation md thoaf, WIN dO