The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-01-29
Frances A. Kellor.

STdnceS A. hellOr.
 Director Intermunicipal Research Com mittee, New York City.
 Exclusive Service The Survey Press Bureau.)
 The white slave agitation before Con- gress which resulted in the passage of the West Bill on January F, is one phase of a great group of special problems of immigrant women. These need concerted action, led by Ameri- tional committee.
 Many of the general conditions in- vestigated By both the New York and Federal immigration commissions bear with more hardships upon women than upon men. With the increasing num- Der of the young unmarried women who come here to work and have no family ties or at best remote ties, a situation is created which cannot much longer be ignored Let me illustrate some of the special problems involved. One organization which distributes many families and men yearly through out the country, when asked about sending immigrant girls out of the city replied, we cannot distribute girls. The responsibility of sending them out
 
 tries outside of New York city are in need of labor, are willing to pay as good wages as are paid in the city, and offer living conditions, but there are no facilities for safeguarding the girls on their journey or on arrival.
 A similar peril confronts the girl who wishes to learn English. Eng fish is taught the adult only in the night schools, and many parents are not accustomed to have young girls out in the evening and do not consider it safe for them to go alone to the school buildings in some neighbor- hoods.
 The lack of English in many in- stances seriously affects their earn ing capacity and ability to protect themselves. Many immigrant women are employed as domestic workers and have no homes of their own. The loss of a position, which frequently oc- CUTS at moments notice, means the loss of shelter and board as well, and employers do not often inquire if a girl has a place to stay over night. If her friends are also domestic work CTS their homes are not open, and she often has recourse only to the em- ployment agency lodging house. Immi- grant homes sometimes make provi- sions, but if immigration is heavy they are not always available and are wholly inadequate to meet the need.
 The lack of any record whatever in the state of the alien children who come here to live falls with especial hardship on the girls. The factory in- spector may find some, but what of the hundreds of little girls entitled to some education under our compulsory education law, who are put to work as household drudges, nurse-girls and family helpers whom no one ever To- cates and sends to school.
 The recent report on the immigra- tion camps of New York shows that the state guarantees to it's laborers on public works an eighthour day, but it also shows household drudges who work sixteen hours a day and have in addition the care of little children.
 It has been found that immigrant girls are easily the victims of the learner system. In their ignorance of American working conditions" they not infrequently spend weeks "1earn- ing a trade'' which requires but a few days For this time they receive nothing or a few cents, and they are dismissed and another green one taken on when they object or can no longer afford to work in this way.
 The lack of regulation of employ ment agencies throughout the state bears especially hard on women, for