The morning call., 1891-06-24
WORK FOR WOMEN.

In yesterdays CALL appeared a detailed
interview with fruit-growers which gave
utterance TO suggestions which are well
worth thought Throughout the fruit cOun-
try every one makes the same complaint:
there is no help to be got for love or money.
simultaneously in the city there are scores
of well-grOWn children who are idle and
scores of women who are earning bare
pittanee by sewing or working in stores.
and are leading really miserable lives.
Thus far the attempt to bring the supply
into contact with the demand has failed.
Here and there boy or girl tries to get
work in the orchards, but as a general rule
there is no place where they can secure a
contract; and on the other hand. the fruit
growers who come here in quest of help do
not know where to find it. What is wanted
is organization. The Cinnamon are organ
lied. There are men in Chinatown who
have been used to contracting to supply ten,
twenty or thirty workers to a ranch.
II the women workers in the city would
form themselves into associations for Or
chard work, they could readily establish re-
lations with fruit-gTOwers which world be
advantageous to both classes. If there
we're any bureau here where a fTuit-groWer
could hire dozen boys or girls for two or
three months work he would probably be
only too willing to pay dollar day and
found, and the result of the arrangement
would be that the fruit crop Of the State
would be greatly increased, and that sew
eral hundred young people would come back
to the city in the fall with improved health
and something like a hundred dollars each
in their pockets.
The objections which have been made to
this system arise from matters of detail 1t
is said that the ranchers do not provide suit
able quarters for their hands. Those Of
whom this can be truly said should go with
out workers. 1t costs little 10 provide a
couple of rough buildings or a few tents
with straw bedding. 1t is said that the food
supplied is not of good quality. This should
not be the case in a State ike this. where
food, both animal aud vegetable, can be
raised at a slight expense. A man who
wants to get good work ont of his hands
must feed them properly. No one does his
work best wien he is snarting under q
sense Of wrong. On the other hand, it is
said by the ranchers that they cannot get
good work out Of city boys and girls; that
they no sooner find themselves In the coun-
try than they want to frolic, and that the
boys run away on slight pTOvOcation. This
is merely saying that the boys and girls Of
San Francisco are like the rest of the
human race, prefer play to work, and at
first find discipline irksome. Bat, as other
workers, who feel the same impulses, learn
to overcome them under the pressure of ne
cessty, so our young people will buckle to
their task when they have learned thas
steady work is the price Of future comfort
and enjoyment
What is wanted now is an exchange where
the employer can find the laborer-fnd him
or her in such numbers as to ensure the
harvesting of the crop be has raised. 1t is
no good to the fruit-grOSer to pick up boy
here or girl there What he wants is a
! dozen or score all together, and he wants
them under such conditions that he can be
sure that they viii stick to their work till it
is done. To organize this machinery is
naturally a wOman's work. There are a
number Of energetic, level-headed women
in this city who could organize gangs of
fruit plckeTs under a foreman or fore
woman, and deliver them according TO con-
tract But somebody must take the matter up.
There are ladies in the Women's Exchange
| who are competent to frame plan on which
the idle labor or the ill-paid labor Of the
city could be drawn off in the direction OF
the orchards, which are now going to waste
for want of labor. 1t would be agreeable to
hear that some of them were at least consid-
eIiDg the subject.