The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-02-06
WORKING WOMEN OF AClTY
Ptsburgs $4,000 Women Workers Are Probably Typical
the Toilers of Other Large Commercial Centers


purpose is to gauge the trend of modern
industry.
Elizabeth B. Butler, who made the in
quiry as to women and the trades, LIVED
in what is known as the hill district
of Pittsburg, but her Investigations car
ried her everywhere from the candy
factories of THE Point" TO the glass
skirts, and to the homes Of miners wives
who do out work for the garment man.
ufacturers. The major elements in the
conditions described are probably true OF
every other commercial center of the size
OF Pittburg -.
She does not merely picture the worst
sweatshops or the. .model factories.
which are so familiar in magazine ar
ticles, but presents a general view of
the possibilities which work at wages
opens up to this generation of working
girls in Pittsburg.
These women range in years from IA
to so. Ten per. cent of them $500 women)
live away from their homes. Less than
Q per cent are in touch with social agen-
cies for recrea tion-such agencies as Jane
Adams has proclaimed Indispensable
English-speaking girls hold the positions
for which few months training and
some intelligence are needed. italian girls
hndered by tradition. scarcely figure
though in a limited circle of Industries
immigrant Jewesses hold positions beside
girls of native birth. Inferior and I'M
plea SAINT work is yielded to Slavic, lmml-
grants, and these newcomers, sometimes
by sheer physical strength and sometimes
by personal Indifference and low stand
ard, compete on a basis OF lower wages
for mems work. which otherwise would
never have been given girls to do. The
place for the Slav Is that of the woman
who is fighting her way.
Women workers in Pittsburg fail INTO
great groups of comprehension produc-
ton needle industries. stogy making.
lamp and glass making and the metal
trades. Little by little as industries
passed out from the home, the women
followed them. Others have gone farther
into Industries which had left the home
so long that the line OF descent seemed
broken. if it ever existed. They have gone
into cork and soap and paint factories.
They have learned to grind and melt and
paint the edges OF glassware, to bore and
riyet metal, to sort the corn for brooms.
to put the threads on screws and bolts
and nuts, to wind coils for electric mo-
tors and to tear apart the sheets OF tin
still faint red from the. furnace heat.
Into these Industries Miss Butler fol-
lowed them.
In an exclusive sense, these women
ployers of an earlier generation would
not have hired, for they had not the in
struments to use it economically nor
would they have had social sanction for
doing so. This report brings together for
the first time, the experience of employers
in many Pittsburg industries. 1t supplies
a record of labor adjustments and tech
nique in factory work such as neither
mechanical nor business training affords
the individual manager. 1t is a long step
in advance in supplying the need for an
interchange OF such working knowledge.
For, If a conference were called of
those who have dealing with working
girls In Pittsburg there are in the city
PICKLE Gamers. cracker makers electrical
manufacturers. laundry owners, depart
ment store managers. a good company OF
them who could contribute methods and
experience. which,, il. combined into a
standard would put a. new meaning into
the days worok-a standard which physi-
clans, educators and social economists no
less than the general public could set
their seal upon; as today they cannot in
conscience nor In thrift.
The report states that many Of these