The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1910-05-18

and lodging-for less than thirty-five
or forty dollars a month. The Y. w.
c. A. has done a great deal for these
girls, especially in providing the cafe
terra lunch at noon. So valuable has
the association work proved that
thinks steps should be taken at once
to provide it with larger quarters. The
capacity ''Dr serving noon lunch should
be doubled at once. A building should
be secured that will provide sleeping
rooms at as nominal a price as posi-
BILE The young men are so splendidly
provided for in their magnificent
building. now let the women of the
city take mp the needs of the working
girls and women Of the city and pro-
vide through the Y. w. c. \. such en-
vironment as shall protect, educate
and build up the young womanhood
of the community into strong useful
characters"
Legislative Measures.
As a result of her Investigations in
to the conditions of working women
in the state Mrs. Mason has decided
upon a number of Legislative measures
which she will try to have passed by
the next legislature. Among them are
q shorter working day. the present
law allowing 10 hours. She also wants
a limit to the weeks work, a noon
hour of not less than 60 minutes, I'M
less permitted by the commissioner
of labor the prob bition of the use of
basement for workers, on the ground
that they are unvcntilated. unlighted
by the sun and breeding place for
Ipe in
North Yakima that one employer con-
templated utilizing hole in the
ground back of his place for some of
his girl workers, and put a stop to it,.
Good Plumbing Ordinance.
She wants a law providing separate
toilets and dressing rooms for men
and women in all buildings where
women are employed. North Yakima
has a plumbing ordinance which calls
for separate toilets, but the existence
of the ordinance is apparently unsus-
peCted, she says, and it is certainly
not enforced. She has LETT a list with
DR.. Nywenning of places here where
changes are needed. She wants the
educational limit made sixteen instead
of fifteen and the re-enactmCnt of the
messenger service law which forbade
the employment Of any boy under
nineteen by any telegraph or telephone
company. without a special permit.
Mrs. Mason wants the women of the
state to help her to get these laws en-
acted. She thinks it would be a good
idea, too, for the women of North
Yakima to use what influence they
have toward the establishment of the
talked-ot child bureau under the
United States department of labor.
The purpose of the bureau is to look
into the condition of children en-
ployed through the country and to pre-
vent if possible the degenerating of
the race through the stunning and
varying of children in the factories
She took up the matter of prOvid-
ing seats behind the counter for clerks
with several merchants who were not
complying with the state law, and
found them ready to agree to the re-
nUiremcntS. At her request, too, the
business Mems association will take
up the matter o. a uniform closing
hour in order that employers may ar
+ nge their clerks in relays so that no
one is required to work more than ten
hours. She thinkS~it would be a good
idea. too. n some one got busy along
consumers league lines and saw that
the girls employed in the stores got a
saturday half holiday through the
hottest summer months.