Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1909-07-30
FOR THE LADIES.
msanuess

,;.tfa hands. that weak or strong
80 ,-s stfU TO serve or rule so long,
no usre still so long to give or ask:
i3Tbe 50 much with book and pen
Il If,ra r9iled among by fellow-men,
Am weary, thinking of your task!
. ,ietIa hearts! fiat throb and beat
Wjrh such impatient, feverish heat,
"STeb imitless and strong desires:
Mine that so long has glowed and burned,
Win nassions into ashes turned
Novy covers ana conceals its fires.
n ,;t4Io souls! as pure and white
And crystalline as rays Of light,
nirect from Heaven. their source divine;
pafracfed through the mist Of years,
Iog red my setting sun appears,
How lurid looks this soul of mine.
Henry W. Longfellow.
1850
Women on Starvation Pay.
poor little seamstress attempted sur
eide in London recently. She jumped
into the Thames and was ANONYMOUSLY
fshed out. not drowned and not in the
least repentant When questioned as to
reasons for her act she had only one to
give. She simply could not keep body
and soul together by working her hardest
at her trade and in utter fatigue she
had decided to end her struggles.
There was nothing very new in her
story. but when she explained that she
aivays had plenty of work to do. the
only difficulty being TO live on the prices
maid for her labors, London was reused
from its apathy long enough to protest
against the sweating" of women thus
revealed.
The House of Lords once defined
sweating as a condition under which
-
roundings and for low wages. There
are those who would add that it is
condition Of labor which does not give
the labor II. in return for a fair days
work enough to maintain himself and
his family il decency and comfort.
In Eli gland i is women who are the
greatest sufferers from sweating. Their
average wage, taking it all the year
round and allowing for sickness and
slackness, is not much more than S1.15
week. The Lancashire textile trade
average is 1915 and in some districts as
much as Sc; but this comparatively high
rate is pulled down by the east end home
worker, who earns anything from 81
cents to S1.10 a week.
In the unskilled w0mens trades there
is no standard by which wages are COM
puted. For instance, one famous firm
of cocoa manufacturers pays women for
filling bags with cocoa % cents a thou
sand bags. and exactly the same work is
done for 16 cents for another firm. In
East London there is a firm whose girls
earn $3.50 a week by packing tea. In
the same locality there is another firm,
the head of which is wei. known
sportsman and yachtman, where the
earnings of the girls average only $1.S7
a week.
The manager of a tinplate factory re-
Gently fixed time rates at $1.5O a week
for his women workers and he openly
gave the reason that they had taken
advantage of piecework rates to make
too much. Some had earned $4i
The average wage paid to mattresses
in tea shops or restaurants throughout
the country does not exceed $3.50 a
week. On this the girls must keep up
a neat and we'll dressed appearance.
q Then wages are likely to be interfered
with and even if necessary" reduced.
Il Many firms don't pretend to pay their
e girls living wage. The head of a large
N company was asked recently how he
"a expected the girls in his employment to
M 1--we on S1.50 a week.
81 I don't expect it." he answered. I'm
81 meiiately we hear that a girl has lost
I'd her father or that she has no outside
means OF support she is discharged"
This same firm employs what it calls
half day Mattresses" They work from
ll30 a. IN. till $3.50 p. m. for 81 a week.
4 AL tips are forfeited.
The lot of the house worker is the
worst of all. Miss Mary Macarthur.
secretary Of the Women's Trade Union
league, gave a picture of the home work
ef IN the east end in an interview.
30 terrible is their fate that | wonder
t4dl they take the trouble to exist at
aIL she said. Here is a single room
"a a Stepney Stun. The furniture con-
sisls OF table. a chair and a bed. The
u4nnlshed trousers at which the woman
STITCHES serve as a blanket at night
she slaves from daybreak until her
eyes tail, and she never earns more
t taan i've shillings a week. She sus-
lains herself mainly, almost entirely,
upon weak tea. Some days she drinks
iIourteen cups, making the same tea
raves DO service again and again. That
Is 9ne OF the women slaves of England
'ld mere are thousands in similar plight
know many women who make
Lltu SHIRTS at Is. or Cd. a Dozen
nave even found the actual worker max
lug az Sd, dozen shirts which had orig
'u any been given out at Is. a dozen.
Anere is girl in Woolwich. She has
ole enid, aged 2 years, entirely depend
euI upon her. She is a shirt finisher
IIu does buttoning and buttonhoIing by
n p1' She is paid 5s a dozen for collars
NiSVLs tulS is HtgH class WORK. Got
.yA costs her from Sd to 4d a week. Her
average earnings are As Cd a week,
VI rom I'D to $4d an hour.
Every day she has to spend an hour
aug aug a half in fetching her work, as it is
yI.y gwen out in small quantities. Some
S aneS she has worked with hardly any
ogeak tor twenty hours, from s a. m.
TTItlu a.. m. the following morning.
ne .', rent of the room is Is Sd a week.
All this she told the Parliamentary
IDAAittee The members of Parliament
.TpsEe aghast. Some were incredulous.
a naI low do You live. you and the child%
asAel one NJ. 2. We don't live the
oman replied with a passion in her tone
oal never heard before. Often we have
4l TODD at all'
bliss Macarthur contends that goods
5e not sold any cheaper when made
~ sWeated labor. She tells of a fur
,,1sA motor coat marked at S105 which
MlS made for S1.SS by sweated labor
S54l Of a Y5.25 night dress for which the
~ a1'a worker who made it got ) cents
W. sea[s for a dozen of these night dress
, ne employer of the girls who made
-se night dresses said he could not
rlJ more, as there was no profit in his
mere are many uarSnnr vrhn ora z4r,,c-