Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1890-08-02
A COMMON SIGN.
EThe Cheapest UnIaundered Shirt In thu


City.
You see this sign In the windows of
all gentlemen's large furnishing stores.
You 60 In, examine the bargains pre-
sented, and you buy half-dozen of
these cheap shirts, and congratulate
yourself on the low price you have paid,
and you tell your neighbor about it,
and You and she together declare that
you will never make another shirt as
long as you both shall livel
You can buy them at the cost of the
material, and you get the work for
nothing!
1t is very satisfactory thing to think
of getting something for nothing, and
we all enjoy it. 1t means Just so much
saved. 1t means just so much the more
of this worlds good things.
But did you ever consider what cheap
shirts mean to the wretched slave who
makes them at fifty or seYenty-fve cents
a dozen?
Did you ever think of the long, long
hours of toll, of the loss of needed rest
and sleep, of the aching muscles, and
the weary, pricked fingers, and the
throbbing brain of the seamstress' who
makes the shirts which are sold at fifty
cents each?
Did you ever put yourself in her
place, and try to think how you would
like to work ten or fifteen hours for
money enough to keep soul and body
together?
All over the country men of different
trades are clamoring for nine, even for
eight hours of work daily. Strong,
healthy, courageous men, with muscle
and Drawn; and yet these same men
will purchase shirts for half dollar
each, and never think the reason why
they get them so cheap is because the
woman who made them is compelled to
work twice the hours men are willing
to work, and for starvation wages!
And when the hastily sewn seams rip,
and the stitches break, and the buttons
come off, indignation fires the bosom of
the wearer of the cheap shirt, and he
says he wishes this "sale-work" were
not such a cheat!
And why is it cheat? Simply be-
cause no more time could be spent on it
by the seamstress, if she would not die
of WEAKNESS and want at her machine,
or with the needle in her hand.
Think of these things, young man;
think of them, men high in power and
influence; think of them, philanthropy
lists who are working for the good of
the heather at the other side of the
world-the heather who, though they
may be spiritually starved, have at least
food enough to keep their physical
nature from suffering; think of it, be-
nevolent capitalists who are endowing
colleges already so wealthy that they
have become, in certain sense, gigan-
tic syndicates where poor youth has
little chance of being received; think
of it, eminent divines who are straining
every nerve to raise your church steeples
little higher than that of the rival
church across the way! Think of it,
men who lavish thousands on needless
Injuries; think of it, women who roll
In your carriages, and who screw your
seamstress down to the last penny, and
then ask her to wait till you have the
money for her!
1t is worth while to think OF it in
other ways than in the philanthropic or
sympathetic point of view. If we
would lessen crime in the community
we must see to it that everybody has
food and raiment. How many good
and pure women have been driven to
vice and destruction by their utter in
ability to earn wages enough to sustain
life, only the recording angel can tell,
and he is silent. We cannot get access
to his statistics.
The newspapers-even the Sunday
papers, which some good moral people
60 bitterly condemn-have spoken many
a word for these poor sewing women
with which all our large towns and
cities abound, and we trust they may
speak many more.
If ever it is justifable to boycott the
fruits of any industry, it would be
iustifiable to boycott the cheap shirt
Let every man of honor and humanity
refuse to buy shirts that are made at
starvation prices. 1t is only right and
Just to these women who strive to earn
an honest living that they should have !
some sort of protection; for if ever any
class of wage-workers needed it, they
do.
And may God speed the day when the
fact that ~the laborer is worthy of his
hire" shall be recognized in all classes
of society, and when the women who
make shirts for fifty cents or dollar a
dozen, shall be paid the money they
earn, and not the miserable prices
which make it possible for every house
wife to say, ooh, no, never make any
of the family underwear; it is so much
cheaper to buy it."-Kate Thorn, IN
NelU York Weekly.
Safes That Did Not Work. |
Enk lnnnr arrn O firm r-nnfnd q man 70 |