The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1910-10-13
BY w. G. SHEPHERD.

NEW YORK, Oct. 13.--Mollie Ham
er. leader Of the 10000 necktie makers
Of New York who are on strike, has a
wonderful grasp Of the problem Of
women at toll.
Mollie Hamer was born In the East
Side. Her parents were SO poor that
she was taken from school when she
was fourteen. She went into a neck
tie factory to work.
Speaking Of the strike she said:
There are many big necktie man.
ufacturers In lSew York who furnish
most OF this countrys neckties. There
are many men who make a living by
manufacturing neckties for the manu-
facturers. These men are called con-
tractors. They don't make any legiti-
mate profit or the neckties. They
simply coin into goiu for themselves
the toll of women and children. The
cheaper they can secure labor, the
more money they make.
They rent cellar Easements. They
do not furnish electric power for the
sewing machines. They hire women
and girls because they will work for
less than men, and make them oper-
ate the machines with their feet. II
is almost like running a loot race all
day. They are cruel and obscene Of
tongue because they think that they
can brighten the women and girls into
doing more work.
I'm this they have succeeded. They
make the hours OF work as long as
they can, without actually making the
tasks of their employees impossible to
be performed.
THE men who cut the silk for
neckties get $21 a week. They are
striking for $24. You see they are
men. and they have been able to get
better wages than women.
But now comes the worst part OF
making a necktie. II has to do with
the girls and the women.
Just study your necktie, as I tell
you about 1t. After the silk is cut,
II has to be sewed into tube form
and edges hemmed. The girls and
women who do this get from u
cents to IL cents a dozen for the work.
They make from IS to 50 week,
working from IL to Is hours day.
Nov IL you open your tie. you Will
find that a white lining runs through
II.
Girls must turn 1t rightside out and
draw the lining into 1t with tape
needle. They are called turner's and
they work all day. just turning and
tapping, turning and tapping, tie after
tie. for from ga TO cents a dozeL.
They make from 50 to 81 week.
Then come the pointers-girls who
sew by hand and make points In the
end of your tie. They get from Ia
to s cents dozen.
After that, the tie goes to the
presser. They get from liz to 6
cents q dozen for ironing the ties fla'.
Then come the examiners, who
work with scissors and cut of the
ends of threads.
Small girls who are prevented by
law from working on machines do th'
work and they get from $3.50 to 50
week.
Much Of the work is done in tene-
ment homes, by whole families. 81
toll far into the night, crouched over
heaps of neckties.
This has been going on for years,
but now we're going to stop 1t. Some
of the largest manufacturers have
come to our terms. We've told them
that we won't work for any wages In
the unsanitary cellars or under cruel
or foul.mouthed contractors. The con-
ditions must be made right before we
will talk about money at all
There must not be any more blood
in neckties. After we got to talking
together among ourselves. we found
that most OF us would rather die
quickly, starving than slowly grind
our lives and souls out.
IT think that the time will come
when the clothes We wear and the
glasses we drink from, and the coal
that warns us, will be spotless OF hui
man blood.
1T must be a fight. but We must be
willing to starve and die quickly,
rather than lose It,"