The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1899-01-14
WORSE THAN SLAVES.
Women Who Toll in the Sweat
Shops Of Austria.
The Terrible Conditions Under Which
They Work Their Miserable Lives
Out - Inhumanity of the
commissioners.

-
It was known that the condition of
women labor in the Austrian capital
was wretched enough, butt question if
the best informed ever credited that SO
appallingly low depth of misery had
been reached as that revealed in semi
official report of commissioner of in
quiry just published. The investiga-
tions have been held during the past
three weeks in the hall of the Austrian
chamber of commerce here; but the eff
forts of the commissioners have been
deprived of nearly all their value by the
suppression of the names and addresses
in the report of the labor-sweating en-
ployers. The trades inquired into were
bookbinding, photographic printing and
pasteboard making. Wages, declared
the labor experts examined, have a
gradual tendency to decrease. In the
bookbinding trade the skilled female
hand, after six years experience, re-
ceives shillings pence to shillings
2 pence weekly. The normal hours of
labor are ten daily. New hands are
chiefly girls from IL to IA years old,
who go from factory to factory seeking
employment. In certain factory
10-year-old child works ten hours daily.
Wages of new hands average from 9
shillings 6 pence to 8 shillings pence
weekly; after one years service shil-
lings weekly are paid. Many receive
better wages than this. For several
months in summer, during the dead sea-
son, wages of expert hands drop from
shiIlings weekly to 3 shillings pence
and shillings pence. If these girl
workers have parents who can allow
them during this period a little none
tary aid-which is rarely the case
their condition, naively remarks the re-
port, is somewhat bettered. The ex-
perts bitterly complain of the fines and
reductions from wages. In the large
factories, if a female hand chats when
at work with another she is fined 4
pence, or, when discovered putting a
piece of bread into her mouth, or ar
irving minute after time, the fine
amounts to 10 pence. In one establish
ment the female hands are sometimes,
as punishment, kept at work an extra
half hour, justas children at school. No
extra pay is then allowed. In another
factory mistake had been made in the
binding of certain book. The
wretched woman had to pay for the
whole edition at trade prices What
becomes of the fines the female workers
have no idea. A socialist artisan at the
factory had once the hardihood to de-
mand look at the "fines book" He
was at once dismissed.
Great sensation was experienced by
the commissioners when the conditions
of living were inquired into. One ex-
pert said that, as rule, out of shil
lings 8 pence weekly wage shilling 8
pence was paid for lodging; the re-
mainder went on food and clothing The
hands each bring small flask of
coffee-which is very frequently not re-
warmed-and this, with la small piece of
black bread, constitutes the daily meal.
Some can afford to buy at midday
farthings' worth of boiled sour cabbage,
or pennyworth of horse sausage, in
addition. For supper, also coffee and
bread. On Sunday they enjoy potato
soup. Sometimes few can afford the
luxury of horsefesh steak costing 8
pence, but on Monday they are usually
i'll, because ''the stomach is not accus
toned to digest fat and fesh."
The workshopsare often underground.
damp, evil-smelling and dark is the
condition of many. In one, where gas
is burned all day long, the workers have
to shade their eyes when they come in
to daylight again. In one room where
30 work there is only one basin to wash
the hands in, and one towel, which is
changed once weekly. AS rule, wom-
en- in these factories dry their hands
with paper OF shavings. A case was re-
ported where the workers had them
selves to purchase brushes and rags and
clean the factory floor during the din-
ner hour. In another factory the room
was only cleaned out once every year.
One workshop floor was SO full of holes
that walking about was almost impos-
sible; another was previously used as
barracks, and water was continually
oozing from its old walls, and in winter
it was full of smoke. In such dens
women toll ten hours daily; in the
busy season sometimes from seven in
the morning until midnight. On Sum
days. Notwithstanding the laws to the
contrary, work is often continued till
one in the afternoon without further
pay. Naturally under such frightful
conditions general health suffers. Rare
ly is female worker over 80 years of
age. Two-thirds of their number are
attacked with consumption. Even the
hour brings little rest to their
weakened systems. In many factories
those far from their lodgings are not
permitted to have their meals in the
workshops, but must in all weathers
knock about the neighboring streets or
seek shelter in a peoples cafe, where /
pence per glass for coffee is demanded.
All the experts examined, with one ex-
ception, complained bitterly of the
coarse treatment the female hands ex-
perience from the male overseers.
Oaths and rough pushes are general. 1t
is very doubtful, indeed. if the kind eff
forts of these commissioners of inquiry
will have any good effect. The inter-
ests of capital are all-powerfm in
and, though there are inspect
ors of factories, their duties are very re-
miss. Mall Gazette.
---- ---
An UnaRected Princess.
OF all members of the royal family
the duchess of Fife is the one who dis