The Dickinson press., 1891-03-28
A TELLING CONTRAST.
IN THEIR OLD LIMITED SPHERE
WOMEN ARE WELL PAID.

WOMEN ARE WELL PAID.
A Comparison Between the Condition OF
Women Who Do What Used to Be Called
Women's Work and Those Who Do What
Used to DO Called Mems Work.
The working woman's sphere used to
be confined chiefly to household work.
And it is a notable fact that in those
days the newspapers contained no stories
about women dying of starvation and
overwork in tenement houses. If any,
body died from these causes it was a
man.
Descriptions of the agonies of starving
workingwomen and their families are
now feature of tho penny papers. Only
few days ago Il woman in Jersey City
who had worked in big tobacco fac
tory and was thrown out of employment
by her advanced years and inability to
handle the tobacco leaf as deftly as the
younger generation locked herself up in
her room to wait till the lrangs of hunger
snapped the life cord. She almost sue
ceeded.
Such an occurrence twenty years ago
would have been commented upon by
the newspapers and statesmen all over
the country, and the philosophers would
have philosophical to the extent of
book on the subject; but so common
have such events become in these days
since ''the extension of women's sphere"
that they attract little or no attention.
Perhaps some newspaper may, for the
purpose OF advertising itself, get up a
subscription fund to buy few necessa-
ries for the support, but the average cit
izen reads the littlo story without emo
ton. 1t dist1lrbs him no more than a
view Of the dirty streets or a struggle to
get seat in an elevated train.
WHERE WOMAN NEVER STARvEs.
And right here it may be asked, in
view of the present condition of work
ingmen, elias any one ever heard of
woman, sticking to the old limited
sphere of working wonen-domestic
service-suffering for lack of the neces-
saries of life?' The newspapers record no
such instances. One would be such a
novelty that the ambition of the museum
men to secure unheard of curiosities
would be aroused.
The fact is that the only women de-
pendent on their daily work for subsist-
ence who are comfortably situated, with
a few exceptions, are the domestic serv-
ants. All the thrifty ones have their
bank accounts, and they don't know
what it is to want for food or clothes.
Moreover, their labor is comparatively
light, and they have real homes.
So thoroughly is this fact recognized
that the societies devoted to improving
the conditions of working women and
helping them in their difficulties with
employers exclude servants from their
range of work
Mrs. NJ. j. Creagh, superintendent of
the Working Women's Protective union,
gives the reason, as follows:
s'The working women in stores, fac
tories and Offices need all the assistance
the union can give, for they are thesuffer-
ers. Women who work as domestics
may sometimes have reasonable grounds
for complaint, but their condition is SO
far above that of the other working
women that they can always get along
comfortably. They can get places when
ever they want them, receive good wages,
don't know what hunger is, and are well
acquainted with the looks of bank
book. They dou't need help.
"lt is this poor saleswo1nan, the over
worked factory girl and the sewing wom-
an that has to be helped to live.
MRS. CFI1AGH's OPINION.
considering the board matter, they
do not get one-half or one third as much
as the servants and have to work longer.
Besides, they are often cheated out of
their scant earnings. If they are sick
for time they lose their little pay, and
perhaps their places are filed before they
recover. The servant girl, on the other
hand, gets her wages right along, and
if she is in a good family she receives
such medical and other attention as the
store girl cannot receive, She is, in fact,
settled, while her sisters in the world of
business depend on their weeks salary
for food and odging the following week,
and few days sickness means to them
starvation and inadequate attendance OF
q journey to a charity hospital.
Therefore this society gives all it's at
tention to women outside of domestic
service. AS women go further and fur
ther into the business world we have
more to do than ever. Every day we
have brought to our notice cases where
rich employers try to beat women out of
sums varying from twenty-five cents to
$50.
"The records here show, better than
anything know of, the slavery into
which women have been brought of late
years. Employers know that women
have not the money to pay lawyers to
sue for them, SO they take advantage of
their helplessness whenever they can. 1t
is remarkable, however, that they settle
up with great rapidity when the women
come here to complain. Our counsel
conducts worthy cases free of charge
and has got verdicts in the civil courts
for more than $50, 900 since the union be-
gan its work"
When Mrs. Creasgh was asked why the
wages of girls in factories, stores and Of
fees were SO small, she answered in al
most the same way as Miss Van Etten
did.
Women, she said, took the places of
men in many occupations without Or
ganizing themselves to obtain fair COM
pensation. They took anything they
could get. They expected to get married
some time, and their work was tempo
rary expetlient, at first, to obtain pin
money. Now many of them find that
they have really to support themselves,
and their lneager wages won't do it.
Still they bear their hardships, waiting
ever for the gay cavalier who is to come
along and relieve them. With some
work is necessity, with others it is not.
But few of them seem to consider that
men have suffered in consequence Of the
lower standard of wages-New York
CuSmcrcial Advertiser.