Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1900-04-25
THE TWO EXTREMES.

ldppeal 10 hedsOu.I
Not long ago the Kansas City Star
printed pathetic story about the
striking factory girls at Swofford's
wholesale clothing house. It told or
the long hours they had to sit at the
steam sewing machines to make $3.50
and $500 week and how the ''straw
boss" oversaw their work and fined
them for infringing the rules. 1t also
told of the pitiful little upstairs room
in which one of the girls, whose par
ents lived in the country, made her
home and how she had to skimp in or
der to live on her wages.
On another page of the same edition
was 2-cOlumn story with cuts, de-
scriblng the offices of millionaire bust
ness men in New York City and their
luxurious and princely appointments.
One of the cuts represented conceal
ed'' sideboard filled with the costliest
Dresden china with a uniformed porter
or footman in waiting ready to serve
his master with tea between meals.
Another money prince had a private
elevator" to his Office with series of
servants stationed so as to ward off all
callers who were not millioEaires.
A sad commentary on our social sys.
tenn. Girls wearing their lives out for
bare living on one hand, and on the
other, merchant princes 1.-THE men who
profit by their drudgery) living as even
dukes and earls do not live in Europel
Get Star of November 26 and read
for yourself. One story is headed:
Factory Girls on $4 a Week." The
other head is: Working Amidst
Luxury" Reading farther down you
find: Unless the girls are given At
cents apiece for making Overalls they
will strike tomorrow In the other:
"One young millionaire has mahog-
any cupboard, a wine vault and refrig-
orator in his work work room, where he
gives teas to his women friends.'
In one story you read: The girls
are getting As cents dozen now and
they declare the amount is not enough
| for them to live on" Then reading on
farther you find that the reporter went
to interview one of these girls and he
says: "She saw the reporter looking
at her hands and quickly hid them I'M
der her apron. They were black hands
with ridges where the thread had cut
into them; hard, stiff hands that
showed the effects of heavy work. AL
most any woman with woman's pride
| would hide them" Now turn to the
other page and read this: 1T is pretty
safe to assume, in view of some of the
modern improvements and ornamental
ton introduced in the big up-to date
office buildings that the American busl-
ness man has the most luxurious work
rooms of any bread winner III the world.
London nor Paris nor Berlin nor Ham
burg are likely for many years to show
anything to compare with the offices in
New York, Boston, and Chicago where
our commercial geniusus sit and pull
the wires that make the world of
finance go round. Solomon in all the
glory of administering the wealth OF
Jerusalem. never labored in more con-
genial surroundings than these; with
cat-foOted servants in gold-bralded
livery passing in and out to offer visitors
cards on silver trays, the pens, ink
wells, blOtters, ETC., upholstered in the
heaviest repOusse metal, and cupboard
concealed behind tapestry curtains
containing every appointment fol
spreading hasty but thoroughly effec.
tive meal at any moment"
And yet, some people can't see that
there is an unequal distrlbutation OF
: wealth. They can't see why one per.
son hasn't as good chance as
another. If those factory girls would
just save their pennies they could soon
be living in such an Office too, eh?
The truth is the millionaire is the
complement of the factory girl, and his
luxurious apartments are responsible
for the poor girls pitlful, goods box
room. Figure it out and you'll see
Bread winners" indeed! They, (these
commercial geniuses') deprive thous.
ands of hungry poor people of tnen
very bread in order that they may have
their "cat- footed" servants in 'gold
braided livery"
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