Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1898-12-03
TYPEWRITER GIRLS PLANT.
Some Of the Woes that She and Others Like
Her Have to Endure.

TN tell You 1t doesn't pay" she said,
taking the pencil from behind her ear.
and closing the machine. 1t doesn
pay. The salaries are betting lower
every year. Five dollars a week is
paid to some glrs. and they are glad to
get it. Here I've been for six years,
and | am caly getting sl42. l tell you
the work is too hard for the pay The
hours are from to $50. with a half
hour for lunch. A chorus girl, with
nothing to do but to walk around and
smile from to IL and make out she's
singing, gets as much. / stick to this
machine all day. trying never to be idle
for minute. merely out of considera-
ton for the firm. who look jointly and
separately miserable if l am unoccu-
pied. and Immediately set themselves
to finding something for ME to do
She had got over to the wash stand
by this time and was brushing her hair
While her friend stood waiting.
Il tell YOU, it's the way they treat us
women she continued. No man
would ever do as much for the same
pay. ana I'm sure they're right when
they say we've brought down salaries
Look at that friend of mine down the
street. She's been in an insurance Of
flee for six years and she has more
control over it than anybody else in
the business, and what do they pay
her? Something like S25 a week No
body would understand that Of
course. she has men over her. But it's
she that runs the business, and the
President would take her word before
anyboiy's else connected with the
business. But he doesn't raise her
salary. They've got SO much conf
dence in her that what she says is
what they believe. Some of the men
who get several thousand dollars a
year have got out when she gave the
tip to the president. But they never
raised her salary for all that What
man would ever do so much work for
that little money. Men who 90 that
sort of work would say they We're in
positions of trust or use some such
high sounding word. But it is oniy as
a stenosrapher that she gets paid. For
that little money she has to co more
work than anybody in the office ex-
cept the president and secretary"
Her hat was straight by this time and
the two girls had got to the elevator be-
IuIt tEe story OF the Stenogra pi1er was
finished. These lamentations over her lot
and the complaint against the fate of her
associates had been heard by her friend
with many manifestations of sympathy,
There were some who said" she Went
on, that lily couldn't spell and was not
much of a hand at the machine But +
never saw her work. She kent an eve on
the office and wrote to the president WHAT
was going on. and you would not expect
a girl to do more than that Maybe sh,.
did spell words wrong once in a while
and run lot of them together. She hal
too much on her mind to be thinking
about these things all the time. How
could she was she was accustomed 10
having men discharged who were the
leading employees in the firm and all that
for S25 a week, and she one of the best
paid girls downtown--the one were all
trying to equal? What man would do SO
much for that? Then only to think that
after she was sick one they suspended
her, She and some girls went to Koster
4 Balls one night and Lilly was in bed
for three weeks afterward. Then they
actually suspended her for three more.
The president heard about it, so she
got her. salary all right that time, and
she really had nothing to do but to stay
home and rest. They're better to her
now, and she stays away whenever she's
sick since the president interefered that
time and took her part. She's only doing
what any man would do when he was
sick. and she's getting only half the
money. It's not square to us girls. Here |
down seven. Get on. Mary"