The evening times., 1899-10-04

of all this is that the working girl who
earns from four to six dollars week must
either ext a cold sandwich and piece OF
cake for her midday meal. buy five c:nts'
worth CT fruit or cakes at the nearest
peanut stand, or pay ten cents for coffee
and rolls. If she does the latter it means
an expense of sixty cents a week, and that
reduces her salary TO a point below liv-
ing wages, or at best cuts OFF her allow
ance for dress and amCsements She Is
usually required to dress well, and she can
'some fecreation; so she usually gets along
with the cold bite, and saves her fifty or
sixty cents toward other things. 1t might
very we'll happen that where many women
are employed, a lunch room somewhere
in the building, il which coffee, tea, sand
witches. and a few other simple taings
could be had without expense, would pay
for itself in the increased efficiency of the
employees. Aside from the actual physi-
cal benefit. there are many gir.s who would
have toward an employer considerate OF
their comfort very different feeling from
that entertained toward mere capitalist.
And what applies to women applies also,
in slightly different way, to men.
There is another side to this, OF course,
and it ought to be considered. The provi-
sion of free lunches and other comforts for
the employed may extend TO the establish
ment of a village like Pullman, in which,
under the guse of beneficence, the en-
ployer screws an extra profit out of the
workman II is a good thing for the en-
ployer, with his larger opportunities, to
keep a storeroom for mining camp, where
the miners can obtain the necessaries OF
life without paying any middleman, but this
sometimes results in that monstrous evil,
the company store" which eats up all the
margin of profit which the miner gets over
and above his living expenses. Again, it is
charged. and with some reason, that in
some places in which extra comforts are
provided for employees, the money for these
IS taken out of their wages, so that the
wOrkingman is simply taxed for things
which he may or may not want. Like most
other good ideas. this one must be handled
with extreme discretion or it becomes a
very bad idea indeed.
In some ways, society is tending in this
| direction. There are many businesses in
which the employer now provides for eX-
penses which used 10 be borne by the en-
ploye. and on the other hand. the working
man is independent in many ways, where
he used TO be dependent The apprentice
is no longer a drudge of all work in his
masters family, nor do all the servants
and laborers of a plantation-owner eat in
! his house. This is, of course, a move in
the right direction. Every human being is
| the better for having a home of his or heI
own, even if il be but one small room
| The whole matter viii doubtless adjust it,
self in time, and the only really important
| thing is that every employer should, so faI
as he can, do what is best for those de-
/ pendent on him. In order to do this he
| must, Of course, look after his own interests
TO a certain extent, or he will have nc
sinking fund" for an emergency. But he
must not attempt TO make money out of the
necessities of his workmen, nor require
them 10 assume expenses which should
| properly be borne by him.