Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1909-01-08

live? The ready suspicion crosses your
/ mind. the yellow suspicion of yellow So
! GEOLOGY. Don't adopt il too lightly.
| W atch that girls struggles See her set
! Ting down 10 pass her S6-a-week novice
period in girls club house.
! She sleeps IN room with three other
/ girls. She pays S2.T5 n week for her
bed. her breakfast and her dinner. She
! gets two sandwiches and an apple for
- cents when she leaves the club i'm the
l morning. and she consumes them mt noon
( IN a store muchr0om along with a cup
u Gohee. She doesn't send many of her
clothes 10 public laundry. She washes
| Dfeh IN the club laundry at n tub-rental
eL > cents an hour.
W hen her absolutely unavoidable ex-
PehdltureS for room, board, carfare. and
iduuaFy have been met, she has 81 20
For new clothes, she hunts bargains in
I materials and does her own maunfac-
turing, after working hours on the club
sewing machine. For books. magazines
ana newspapers, she uses the club read
lliS room and the circulation department
Oh a iree public library. For amuse-
HiehtS, she Joins a singing society and
attends the free concerts and lectures
win which the winter season Of every
large S city is plentifully sprinkled
These really self-supporting girls, sub
Iected to the Severest economic pressure
on an the girls on the street. are like
wise the most commercially successful,
tAe most morally impregnabie
Much sympathy has been claimed for
mem because they can't live Except by
sil SIM on 81 a week The real sympathy
they deserve is because they do
Mrs. Fanny i. Ames, factory in
speetor for the state of Massachusetts,
gave courageously truthful testimony on
lhlS point before the United States in
dqstrlal commission She was asked:
do You think factory work tends TO
replied:
No, l do not On the contrary | think
It has very definite effect of ,lisciplin-
ing the moral faculties. Such women
learn TO defend themselves and to take
care OF themselves. / consider it a very
UNJUST implication to assume that fac
tory women are immoral. They are gen
orally an exceedingly moral class. ac-
cepting very hard lot in life with coLr-
age and constancy."
Mr. Ratchford of the commission then
questioned Mrs. AmeS further DO YOU
think. he said that the employment
or women in mercantile establishments.
has the same good effect on moralsg'
Il think, said Mrs. Ames, that what
l have said is equally true of women in
mercantile establishments. One evildoer
Will furnish grounds for an adverse
judgment of all. You have all heard the
story of the young women who. apply
ing to a mercantile establishment for
employment and being told what wages
she will receive, replies that she cannot
live on those wages. Then she is asked
if she has not some gentleman friend
who will take care of her. | have tried
to trace this story to the applicant and
TO the person making the evil suggestion,
but | have tried in vain though | have
questioned woman after woman. These
same things that l have said may be
said about a great many other kinds of
employment. The women in them take
a hard lot in life aud bear it bravely."
Mrs. Ames will be found, in the long
run, to be absolutely, everlastingly right.
Industrial work, with all it's hardships
and heartaches if it has in any way af-
fected the moral character of women,
has strengthened it.