St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-09-17
ANIDEAL BLIGHTED.

1t is painful surprise to find the in
spector of factories in Pennsylvania,
state agent and the creation of the po-
litical forces of which WANAMAKER is
an influential part, singing out the
great store in Philadelphia that has
been recognized IS almost part of the
administration, at least department of
the postal bureau, for depreeatory pict-
uring, This vast retail establishment
has in its varied departments a greater
number of girls and women than any
other establishment in the country, and
their condition is unfavorably depicted
by this inspector, whose official duty it
is to visit all such establishments. The
man. MI. MARTIN, is of the same poll
tics as the postmaster general, or he
could not hold position under the state
administration of Pennsylvania, but is
evidently dangerously impartial in his
Investigations. The wages of the female
employees range from 81 to IS per week,
an average of So of which at least 60
cents in most cases must go for car fare.
Out of the remainder they must live and
dress in such style and taste as to please
the most faStidiouS customers. So tar
the statement is not more applicable to
WANAMAKER than to most of those
who operate similar establishments in
the great cities. But the official in
Spector asserts that the women are not
afforded the comforts and alleviations
that are frequent at such large eStab-
lishments. He further uses this Ian
guage:
l regard WANAMAKER's establishment as a
great halfway house on the road that leads
TO gilded denS of vice. The law cannot
remedy this. The only remedy is for en-
ployers to pay fair wages TO women for their
work. AT WANAMAKER's men and women do
the same kind of work at the same counters,
and the women do 1t as well as the men, if
not better; yet they are paid from 81 to S.
per week, while the men are paid $40.
That this is harsher picture than
might be given of other establishments
that employ large numbers of women
need not be supposed. In the fierce
competition of trade or the heartleSs-
ness of greed, human instincts often
disappear; but to lmpute such course
to WANAMAKER is shock not easily
endured. 1t destroys an ideal and re-
duces an exalted nature to the common
level. He has been presented to the
90 q ouO CulDOul-
ment of ali the Christian graces. Not
only has he inculcated precepts on
Sundays,bu let his moral light blaze
through the other six days. He was
instrumental couple of years ago in
raising some 100000 to enable Mr..
QUAY. Mr.. DUDLEY and other devoted
people to purchase public reforms; and
still later he was accessory to the be-
stowment of a home at Cape May upon
an estimable woman. Can this be the
man represented by this official
agency as aging young women such
inadequate wages as to imperil their
personal rectitude in the struggle for
existence. That he has acquired much
wealth, as result of the economical re-
gard for the women employed, shows
that the business will allow him to pay
them better. There may be some justi-
fication for the payment of but half as
much to women as to men for equal
service, but it is not remembered what
it is. Perhaps Mr.. WANAMAKER knows
and makes it plain to his Sunday school
classes. There is great reluctance to
abandon any featureof the ideal that he
filled, and it is to be hoped that the in
tegrity of the cherished picture may be
preserved, even at the expense of the
official who reports so luridly.