Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1900-03-12

grudge a woman the right to work
anywhere in any honorable calling!
go still further and say that wo.
man should have equal compensation
with men. By what principle of JUS
tice is it that women in many of our
cities get only two-thirds IS much pay
as men and in many cases only half?
Here is the gigantic injustice for
work equally well if not better done
woman receives far less compensation
| than man. Start with the national
| government. Women clerks in Wash
| ington get 5000 for doing that for
which men receive 1900. The wheel
of oppression is rolling over the necks
| Of thousands of women who are at this
moment in despair about what they
are to do Many of the largest mer-
camille establishments of our cities are
accessory to these denominations, and
from their large establishments there
are scores Of souls being pitched off
into death, and their employers know
it. Is there a God? Will there be a
judgment? [ tell you if God rises up
to redress woman's wrongs many of
our large establishments will be swa1-
lowed up quicker than a South Ameri-
Cdh cal udhC cFOI COOh OOWu d CITY.
God will catch these oppressors be-
tween the two millstones of his wrath
and grind them to powder.
Wholly Unjust.
Why is it that female principal in
a school gets only 1926 for doing work
for which male principal gets 81, $50?
I 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 a human be-
ing 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 a slow, grind
ing, horrible wasting away. Gather
them before you and look into their
faces, pinched, CHASTITY, hunger struck!
Look at their fingers, needle pricked
and blood tipped! See that premature
stoop in the shoulders! Hear that dry,
hacking, merciless cough! At a large
meeting of these women held in Phila-
de1phia grand speeches were delivered,
but a needlewoman took the stand
threw aside her faded shawl and with
her shriveled arm hurled a very thun-
derbolt of eloquence, speaking out the
horrors Of her own experience.
Stand at the corner of a 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 were 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 engaged in bead
work, these in flower making, III mil
linery, in paper box making, but, most
overWorked Of all and least compenSat-
ed, the sewing women. Why do they
not take the city cars on their way up?
They cannot afford the cents. If con-
Guiding to deny herself something else,
she gets into the car, give her seat.
You want to see how Latimcr and Rid
ley appeared in the fire. Look at that
woman and behold a more horrible
martyrdom, a hotter fire, a more ago
nizing death. Ask that woman how
much she gets for her work, and she
Will Tell you U CehlS 1OI 1IdhILI5 COdlSc
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! I wish I could get it done. I
am so tired. 1 wish 1 could get some
sleep, but I must get it done. Eight
cents! Eight cents" We found after
ward that she was making garments
for s cents apiece and that she could
make but three of them in a day. Hear
it! Three times eight are "a. Hear it,
men and women who have comfortable
homes! Some Of the worst villains Of
our cities 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 q
dollar or two before she gets the gar
mentS 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 dol
lar deposited not given back. The
Women's Protective union reports a
case where one Of the poor souls, find
ing a place where she could get more
wages, resolved to change employers
and went to get her pay for work
done. The employer said, II hear you
are going to leave me?' eyes," she
said, land I have come to get what you
owe me-" He made no answer. She
said, care you not going to pay me?"
"Yes,' he said; IT will pay you" And
he kicked her down stairs.
Oh, that Women's Protective union!
NIno Of