The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1910-09-03

ton of. the Chicago working girl lis /
much better than that of her New
York sister. She is stronger, she
hasn't got the hungry, ragged look of
the shop girls Of New York, and she
lis, better fitted to cope with the
! struggle of life. So declares Mrs Ray
mond Robbins. president of the Ma
tional Women's Trade Union League,
who has: an intimate. knowledge of
the subject of which she speaks
| through her long study of industrial
problems and a broad sympathy for
| the less fortunate sisters.
1t was Mrs. Robbins who recently
spoke in the street outside Sherry's
from the rung of a stepladder, while
fashionable throng hurried to and
fro. She was speaking in the inter-
est of girl workers. She had come
here to organize the girls who have
gone out on strike from the corset
! making establishments, and who went
back to work after they had lost the
battle.
T Mrs. Robbins explained why she
thought the Chicago shop girl, al
| though the conditions under which
! she earns her bread are by no means
Auedl, As DeLtSi OIL t1ldu Tie WOIklHS
girl of New York. Few Of the girls
| in the west start to work at the ages
of II and Is years, as they do here,
she said. I'VE have our child labor
problems, but none like you have.
The girl workers Of your city belong
to. the second and third generation
a generation Of which the mothers
have been ground down by machine
! labor. In Chicago the sapping pro-
cess has not got beyond the first
! generation. In consequence the
women workers Of Chicago have
| more vitality. If emigration to this
country should be shut off suddenly
she continued, lit would only. be a
short time before we should feel Our
great physical loss: The strong peas
ant woman comes over here and
transmits her strength to her chill
dren, and that is why our girl work
ers have more vitality than yours,
| for it is in the west that the peasant
Try of Europe settles. But we be-
lieve we are at the turn of the tide.
!. think that better times are coming
| for our women workers. The queS~
ton is whether the Intelligent women
of our country will join with US in
making the tide rise higher and hurry
on that better day."
| Mrs. Robbins said that one reason
why she spoke in Fifth avenue was
! that she wanted to get the ear OF
the wealthy women who trade in the
shops there and who do not under
stand conditions as. they are. They
are stupid,' she said. Il do not
mean naturally stupid. They are
surrounded by high wall over which
they can not look and to the top Of
which they cannot climb. 1t is these
women we. want to-: teach. 1t isn't
that they have lack of sympathy or
that they wouldn't help if they knew,
I for 1 think they would -..-
Mrs. Robbins said that in Chicago,
while there is much room for i'm
provement, the lot of the garment
workers is not so hard as in this city.
Take the case. of the corset makers"
she explained. The young women
have been Obliged to pay for the
thread which they sew other persons
garments, and even for the needles.
The purchase of the thread meant
an expenditure of $3.50 a week. AS
their wages were small this meant
| |
wage of the woman worker is $270
a year, and you must remember that
average means below as we'll as
above. In the textile industry some
think like two-thirds of the workers
are getting Sc a week. Deduct room
rent and the price of meals from So
week and what have you left?"
"Is it not difficult for a girl to
lead an honest life under >such con-
ditions?' Mrs. Robbins was asked.
Yes, and the marvel is that so
many thousands of them are good
women, as I know they are replied
Mrs. Robbins. "Why, 1 have known
girls to live on nothing but bread and
olive oil in order to scrape together
enough money to buy new hat or a
new dress. And, as many girls have
starved themselves in that way in
Chicago, suppose that thousands are
doing it in New York"
What is the remedy for such a
condition of affairs?'
Zone remedy is trades unionism
Organize the women and teach them