The Point Pleasant register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, W. Va.) 1909-1939, 1909-11-17
WORKING GIRLS
TEMPTATIONS
The PROBLEM EA SERIOUS QUE AND
SHOULD RECEIVE LOTS OF THOUGHTS.

The PROBLEM lSA SERIOUS 9NE AMI
SHOULD RECEIVE LOTS Of THOUGHTS
The pittsburg Gazette Times has
the following editorial upon the sub
ject of girls temptation that IS wor-
thy the deep consideration of the
thinking and the philanthropic pub.
lie:
The low wages and the tempta-
ton of the working girl are discussed
by Florence Kelley, secretary of the
National Consumers League, in the
Ladies Home Journal. She cites
many new instances of the familiar
fact that factory girls. and girls in
stores are paid wages that often
make existence just possible. She
tells of one girl who received Sc a
week for tending an envelope ma
chine, and who had topay ssa week
board to an aunt. She tells ofanoth-
er girl who received the same wages
in a department store, and had to
save nearly Is weeks to get few
clothes, amounting to ss6.64. Many
other cases just as significant are de-
scribed, with the inference that these
girls will easily drift or be driven in
to evil ways because of the difficulty
of making ends meet.
The problem is a serious one. 1t
will not do to lay the blame upon en-
ployers, many of whom have done
and are doing their best to improve
the condition and compensation of
the girls. The greedy, grinding en-
ployer, we believe, is the exception,
and would not survive long because
he could not keep his employees. Yet
an effort to raise the wages of the
sils by advancing prices would meet
with determined ifsilent opposition
on the part of the buying public,
who, with execrations against the
grasping trusts, . would make their
purchases at some less philanthropic
store. The law of supply and de-
mand is memorable, and it fixes the
prices of commodities as well as the
wages of labor.
while the effort of the consum-
ers' League to cQunteract this econ
omic law with ethical ideas is one to
be highly commended and sustained,
it may be that another society could
do more for the amelioration of the
factory or shop girls condition, by
working with the law. We mean
Society to Revive the Dignity of Do
nestle Service. incidentally such a
society would also solve the servant
problem. 1t is fact that girls who
live out as servants have much easier
work than those in stores and factor
les, can get just as good wages, and
receive food and shelter free-which
ire the heaviest item of expense in
che working girls budget. A good
cook can demand salary that would
make perfectly elegant saleslady
green with envy. Keeping house
is clean work, it is also more digni-
fed and less monotonous, than max
ing paper boxes or selling shoestrings.
No girl need expose herself to star
walton or temptation while compe-
tent domestic service is at a premium.
And she can help her under paid as
sociates to secure higher wages by
lessening competition The law of
supply and demand is such that ifso
per cent of the girls in mills and
stores were to go into homesNwhere
employment is offered them, the
wages of the remaining girls would
inevitably raise to level go per cent
higher. Such is economic law.
Let US have revival of the dig
nifty of old-fashioned work Let US
emphasize the fact that she is the
truest lady who does the most nee