The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1894-06-08

men. by what principle OF justice Is IL
that women in many of our cities get
only two-thirds as much pay as men,
and i'll many cases only half? Here is
the gigantic injustice-that for work
equally well if not better done woman
receives far less compensation than man.
Start with the national government.
For a long while women clerks in Wash
ington got 5000 for doing that for which
men received 81, $780,
To thousands of young women in our
cities today there is only this alternative
| starvation or dishonor. Many Of the
largest mercantile establishments Of our
cities are accessory to these abomina-
tons, and from their large establish
ments there are scores of souls being
pitched off into death, and their en-
ployers know it!
The Wall of womanhood.
Is there a God? Will there be judg-
ment? l tell you, if God rises up to re-
dress woman's wrongs, many Of our
large establishments will be swallowed
up quicker than South American
earthquake ever took down city God
will catch these oppressors between the
two millstones of his wrath and grind
them to powder!
l hear from all this land the wall of
womanhood. Man has nothing to an
swer to that wall but batteries He says
she is an angel. She is not. She knows
she is not. She is human being, who
gets hungry when she has no food and
cold when she has no fire. Give her no
more batteries. Give her justice!
There are about so, 900 sewing girls
in New York and Brooklyn Across the
darkness of this night I hear their death
groan. 1t is not such cry as comes
from those who are suddenly hurled out
of life, but a slow, grinding, horrible
wasting away. Gather them before you
and look into their faces, pinched, ghast-
ly, hunger struck Look at their fingers,
needle pricked and blood tipped! See
that premature stoop in the shoulders!
Hear that dry, hacking, merciless coughl
At a large meeting of these women,
held in hall in Philadelphia, grand
speeches were delivered, but needle
woman took the stand, threw aside her
faded shawl, and with her shriveled
arm hurled a very thunderbolt of elQ-
quence, speaking out the horrors of her
own experience.
A Pathetic Picture.
Stand at the corner of a street i'll New
York in the very early morning as the
women go to their work. Many of them
had no breakfast except the crumbs that
were left over from the night before Or
crust they chew Oh their way through
the streets. Here they cOme--the work
ing girls Of the city! These engaged in
beadwork, these in flower making Ill
millinery, enameling, cigar making,
bookbinding, labelling, feather picking,
print coloring, paper box making, but,
most overworked Of all and least
compensated, the sewing women. Why
do they not take the city cars on their
way up? They cannot afford the
5 cents. If, concluding to deny herself
something else, she gets into the car,
give her scat. You want to see how
Latimer and Ridley appeared in tlIsfss4e.
Look at that woman and behold more
horrible martyrdom-a hotter fire,
more agonizing death.
One Sabbath night, in the vestibule
of my church, after service woman
fell in commissions. The doctor said she
needed medicine not so much as some
thing to eat AS she began to revive,
in her delirium she said gaspingly:
eight cents! Eight cents Eight cents
1 wish I could get it done! am so
tiredl wish could get some sleep,
but L must get it done! Eight cents
Eight centsW We found afterward
that she was making garments at s
cents apiece, and that she could make
but three of them in a day. Hear it
Three times s are 24 Hear it, men
and women who have comfortable
homes!
Some of the worst villains of the city
are the employers of these women.
They beat them down to the last penny
and try to cheat them out of that. The
woman must deposit 81 or So before she
gets the garments to work ON. When
the work is done, it is sharply inspected,
the most insignificant flaws picked out
and the wages refused, and sometimes
the 81 deposited not given back. The
Women's Protective union reports a
case where one of these poor souls, find
ing place where she could get more |
wages, resolved to change employers and
went to get her pay for work done. The
says, 81 hear you are going to |
leave me?" Eyes," she said, "and I
have come to get what you owe me-"
He made no answer. She said, Are |
you not going to pay me?" Eyes, he
said, 81 will pay you, and he kicked
her down stairs.
Women Against Women.
How are these evils to be eradicated? |
What have you to answer, you who sell
coats and have shoes made and con-
tract for the southern and western mar
zets? What help is there, what panacea,
what redemptionP Some say, Give
the ballot. What effect such
ballot might have ON other questions /
I'M not here to discuss, but what would
be the effect of female suffrage upon
wages? do not believe that