The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1900-03-14
Why is it that a female principal in

which male principal gets $3.50? !
hear from all this land the wall of wom-
anhood. Man has nothing to answer 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. Oh, the
thousands Of sewing girls! Across the
sunlight comes their death groan. 1t IS
not such a cry as comes from those who
are suddenly hurled out of life, but
slow, grinding, horrible wasting away.
Gather them before you and look into
their faces, pinched, CHASTITY, hunger
struck Look at their fingers, needle
pricked and bood-tipped See that pre-
mature stoop in the shoulders. Hear that
dry, hacking, merciless cough. AT
large meeting of these women held III
Philadelphia grand speeches were delly-
ered but needlewoman took the stand,
threw aside her faded shawl and with
her shriveled arm hurled very thunder
bolt of eloquence, speaking out the hor-
rors of her own experience.
Stand at the corner of street in some
great city at or o'clock in the morning
as the women go to work. Many Of them
had no breakfast except the crumbs that
We're left over from the night before or
the crumbs they chew on their way
through the street. Here they come. The
working girls of the cities. These engag-
ed in bead work, these in flower making,
in millinery, in paper box making; but,
most overworked of all and least compen-
stated, the sewing women. Why do they
not take the city cars on their way up!
They cannot afford the 5 cents. If, con-
Guiding to deny herself something else,
she gets into the car, give her seat.
You want to see how Latimer and Ridley
appeared in the fire. Look at that wom-
an and behold a more horrible martyr
DOM, a hotter fire, more agonzng
death. Ask that woman how much she
gets for her work, and she will tell you
6 cents for making coarse shirts and finds
her own thread.
Years ago, one Sabbath night in the
vestibule of our church, after service, a
woman fell in commissions. The doctor
said she needed medicine not so much as
something to eat AS she began to revive
in her delirium she said, gaspingly:
Eight cents! Eight cents! | wish L
could get it done. [ am so tired. | wish
/ could get some sleep, but | must get it
DONE Eight cents! Eight centsH We
found afterward that she was making
garments for cents apiece and that she
could make but three of them in day.
Hear it. Three times eight are "a. Hear
it, men and women who have comfort
able homes. Some of the worst villains
of our cities are the employers of these
han 10 20
last penny and try to cheat them ont of
that. The woman must deposit dollar
or. two 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 dollar deposited not
given back. The Women's Protective
Union reports a case where one of the
poor souls, finding a place where she
could get more wages, resolved to change
employers and went to get her pay for
work done. The employer said, Il hear
you are going to leave meT YES" she
said, "and l have come to get what you
owe me-" He made no answer. She
said Are you not going to pay me-"
YES" he said, Il will pay you," and he
kicked her down stairs.
Oh, that Women's Protective Unionl
The blessings of heaven be on it for the
merciful and divine work it is doing in
the defense of toiling womanhood. What
tragedies of suffering are presented to
them day by day. A paragraph from
their report Z" Can you make Mr.. Jones
pay me? He owes me for three weeks
at $3.50 week, and / can't get any
thing, and my child is very sick The
speaker, young woman lately widowed,
burst into a flood Of tears as she spoke.
| She was hidden to come again the next
afternoon and repeat her story to the at
torney at his usual weekly hearing of
frauds and impositions. Means were
| found by which Mr.. Jones was induced
to pay the $3.50"
| Another paragraph from their report
"a fortnight had passed, when she mod
| estly limited desire to know how much
| her services were worth. oh, my dear,
he replied, you are getting to be one of
| the most valuable hands in the trade.
You will always get the very best price.
| Ten dollars q week you will be able to
earn very easily And the girls fingers
! flew on with her work at q marvellous
rate. The picture Of $40 week had
almost turned her head A few nights
later, while crossing the ferry, she over
heard the name of her employer in the
conversation of girls who stood near:
What, John Snipes? Why, he don't pay.
Look out for him every time. He'll keep
you on trial, as he calls it, for weeks, and
then he'll let you go, and get some other
foolt' And thus Jane Smith gained her
warning against the swindler But the
union held him in the tolls of the law
until he paid the worth of each of those
days of trial
Another paragraph "Her modification
may be imagined when told that one OF
the two S. bills which she had just re-
ceived for her work was counterfeit. But
her modification was swallowed up with
indignation when her employer denied
having paid her the money and insulting
ly asked her to prove it, When the Pro
tective union had placed this matter in
the courts, the judge said: You will pay
Eleanor the amount of her claim, So SO,
and also the costs of the court"
Proposed Remedies.
! How are these evils to ha oradicato rod