Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1911-01-04

Sx~ Within the past nve years.
and especially within the
past year, there has been
most remarkable move
uent In the United States toward q
Roneral stock-t taking Of women IN IN
tustry. The United States Census Bu-
ecau began by issuing large volume
Ia the census Of 1900, devoted to sta
(istics on women at work. The De-
bartment Of Commerce and Labor,
;arly in 1907, secured an appropriation
II $4,000 from somewhat reluctant
Congress for the purpose OF making
IN investigation into the CONDITION OF
women and children In wage-earning
pursuits. Several state bureaus OF
labor have supplemented this invest-
cation.
Soon we shall have q mass Of facts
which will enable us to solve the prob
lem propounded some time ago by Jane
Adams, Of Chicago, In regard to the
millions of women wAo ars toiling
outside their homes, cooking, sewing,
washing and weaving, for society, In
stead of for the family as of DID,
"What we want TO know" said Miss
Adams, lis at what cost they are
doing these things; If this generation
or succeeding generations pay too heav-
lily for It; and what, If anything, can
be done to improve conditions Of work. "
If the cost is the destruction Of the
home; If the price paid Is the welfare
Of the next generation, we certainly
cannot afford to have It 60 on. Az far
O. the Investigators have reported, a.
far az conclusions have been reached,
we have been and still are paying the
terrible price. We are building up our
industries at the cost of the lives Of
women and girls. We are destroying
the home BY taking aaoay from, the
,U0rkers the po1cer to make homes.
This is no arraignment Of the fac
tory, no plea for return to the do
nestle form of industry. Too much
remains Of the old system Of manu-
featuring to blind us to its fatal defects.
The food-packing trades, for instance,
are conducted under better conditions
than they were before the time of fac
tories. 1t used to be the custom, and
is still the custom In some communi-
ties, to send candies, nuts, and other
confectionery into the homes Of work.
ers to be packed for market. New
York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago
and other cities recently began to agi-
tate against the spread Of tuberculosis
and in the course of Investigation 1t
was found that food packing was one
of the trades which a sick member
of the family could engage in up to
the very verge Of dissolution. A man
In kAA k,.L
culosis could pack candy or crack nuts
and fill paper bags with peanuts, al
monds, or pecans. The little wage the
Invalid was able to earn in this work
was welcome enough in family where
doctors bills had to be met and funeral
expenses anticipated!
EVOLUTION FROM HOME WORK TO FACTORY
WORK A GOOD THING.
The fact that women are following
their old trades in the factory instead
Of III the home is not bad thing It
is a good thing. Whenever any group
Ct workers begins to be rewarded with
money wages instead of board and lodg-
ing. they have made step forward in
mental aud moral advancement Dora
Fiegelbaum. manufacturing pants all
her life for other peoples enrichment,
is figure no woman would revert to.
"he laborer Is worthy Of her hire She
could never hope to get it US long as
she was Il domestic worker. Now that
she is III the factory she may get it.
IT Is only question of what work she
shall do to earn her wage.
ARD this brings up the main question:
Hoe to prcrent the annual erodus of
tens Of thousands of young, ignorant
Girls from the elementary schools into
:he ranks Of unskilled labor, 1chere the
,COrE literally destroys the Worker and
leares her at the end of te,c gears
less skilled, less intelligent, less indie
pendent thGn sic ,cas ,chsn she entered
the trade: a6orc all, tUhich leares her
incGpadlc of making homo!
In these days of machinery the diff
ference between skilled aud unskilled
labor is perhaps not entirely apparent
to the outsider. An unskilled trade is
one In which the worker repeats over
and over one single, unrelated task,
which she does not understand. She
knows nothing Of what went before,
and sic knows nothing of what is to
follow L"r part of the work. All she
knows /, that she must turn out a
certain .lrantity Of work.
The unskilled worker is Il human ma
chine. She is allowed to use only that
small portion Of her brain, only those
muscles which are necessary to accom-
plish her particular small task. If she
used more brain stuff or other muscles
she would be counted less efficient
worker
What are called the needle trades
have a score Of different branches, but
in all Of them the application Is the
same A girl In shirtwaist factory
IL given a box full OF narrow strips OF
cotton cloth, some blue, some pink,
some mauve, some plain colored, some
striped or dotted. She folds a strip
with a lightning sweep Of her finger
nall across the cloth, throws It under
the needle. and presses her toe on the
treadle. Zip, schtr! The seam u