The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1902-12-17
FACTORY GIRLS
LIVING HIGH
Having a Months Vacation at
the Waldorf Astoria.
EMPLOYERS PAY TIE BILLS.
They Are Investigating How Women En-
pIOyss Fare and Will Tell Experience
In Magazine.

New York. Dec. l7.--rhece are four
toria. who are on months vacation, em-
bracing the principal cities Of the east
and whose mission In life Is TO up,'it. IN
noble and better the condition 81 wo.k-
ing girls. They are themselves working
girls. each being a forewoman in cash
registry factory in Dayton. o.
The four young women are the Misses
Ella NJ Haas, Mary j. Haas Flora Pike
and Ida J. Boroff. The Haas women are
sisters. All four are prepossessing. and
IN their faces shines the resolve OF noble
endeavor.
They are very much I'm earnest, these
women. In their determination Ia do all
possible toward making the lot of their
sister workers more enjoyable Seated
In parlor OF the Waldorf they told their
plans 10 reporter yesterday. Miss Ella
n. Haas said
HAVE A MONTHS VACATION.
''The company for which we worked
sent us ON a montu vacation, telling us
20 see everything worth seeing I'm the big
cities OF the east. The president called
us to his Office one morning told us we
the company. that our work had greatly
benefited the concern. and that, In appre-
ciation of our services. he wished US TO
take four weeks off to see how good
time we could have and that we were not
20 think of the expense.
HE said the company wanted the ptNl-
lege of paying all our expenses and
wished these expenses to be as high as
possible That is the way he put H.
Well. and so here we are in choice suites
In the Waldorf. going TO the theatre in
the evening. and to the opera. and going
sleigh riding in the afternoons
But while we are having such a good
time we are not forgetting our less for
tunate sisters. To tell the truth. we have
only been riding one afternoon, and we
spend the daylight In going TO factories
snd shops to see how the women en-
ployes there are treated.
"In our town where we work the COM
pany pays us such big wages and makes
our work so delightful that we feel dread
fully sorry for most of the working wom-
en- that we see. In the engraving de-
partment at Washington we saw women
employees working under extremely un-
sanitary conditions.
ut seems strange that our great gov
ernment permits this. In the lace fac
tory I'm Philadelphia we cried as we saw
the dreadful conditions under which lit
tie girls were forced TO work. But the,
worst place of all was a factory In Pitts
burg. where we saw young girls seated on \
a filthy, greasy floor eating their scart
luncheon. And they were employees OF one
OF the biggest factories in the country.
There must be something radically
wrong with the economic conditions of a
country that permit such wretchedness
10 exist The company that sent us on
our vacotion did not know that we were
going to do any investigating. but we
want to publish magazine containing
our discoveries. and we shall send copies
to the five great 'Ps.' as we call them
the preachers, pedagogues, press, politi
clans and proprietors.
I'VE now Issue a magazine called the
Advance. published edited and circulated
entirely by the girls employed in our fac
tory. There are $50 OF us and some OF
the girls write really well. The maga-
Hine consists OF so pages and contains all
reading matter--not line OF advertising.
When we publish the result OF our in
vestigstions | expect we shall have 10 en-
large the volume In order to give the girls
n fair chance at writing their poetry and
stories and incidents. They wouldn't
want these crowded out.
I'VE only arrived I'm New York Friday
night IL was so stormy on Saturday
that we di" not go far only visited de-
partment stores. mostly along Sixth ave-
nue.. We found sanitary conditions most
excellent.
GIRLS HAVE A CLUB.
The girls OF our factory have organ
lied the Woman's Century Club The
company gives us an extra quarter OF an
hour At luncheon time, and we take
half an hour OF our luncheon hour and
enjoy music. literature and art for the
three-quarters of an hour right in the
midst Of our days work Some of the
girls play the piano, and others read aloud
from standard works or from compost
tons, and tell vacation and travelling ex-
perlences.
Ten minutes before the regular hour
for stopping work the women OF the fac
tory are dismissed. In order that they
may have the trolley cars practically to
themselves going home.
so contagious has the rather Arcadian
manner in which our factory Is conduct
ed proved that four other factories In
our city are following our example and