Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-01-22

OF Chicago, upon the employment of
women in the Chicago stoekyards.
II is the sort of study which ought
! to be made for many other large in
/ dustries in this city. Except for iso-
lated magazine articles, more or less
hastily done, and the various Govern
ment reports which give more space
to statistics of wages than they do to
the conditions of labor, we have too few
suggestive studies such as this one.
The Government Bureau of Labor. in
| directing its main efforts to the study
|, of wages, may be after the all-im-
portant thing with men, but certainly.
when it comes to women, conditions of
labor assume a Very great Importance
Low pay is bad enough in the adjust
ments which it compels the woman
and her family to make, but bad work
ing conditions are too frequently alto
lEcther beyond the reach of any adj
| justment. They can only be met by
changes in the trade itself made vol
unfairly or by the interference of the
community
! Those who live ON the Southwest
Side Of the city in the vicinity of the
stockyards realize. as perhaps others
cannot, how steady has been the in
vasion of the yards by the women, as
| the processes there have become more
lsubdivided and mere mechanical. The
Istockyards is now not one trade but
many. More women are employed
in the Chicago stockyards," says the
authors referring to figures than in
all the other packing centres of the
country combined. Moreover the
proportion of women to men is greater
! in Chicago than anywhere else.
True. the women are not really very
numerous. There ARE only about 250D
lemploycd in the yards" But the 800
women acquire an additional social I'M
purtancc from the fact that they seem
Ia represent all the surplus female
labor of the community around the
yards. The effect of thair wages and
| conditions is not ditfe$es. IT is con-
| Centrated in Packingtown.
The authors. like everybody else who
has studied conditions in the yards
assert that the greatest trouble is the
extreme irresnlaritN Of employment.
lowing partly to the seasonal character
OF the work. This makes the actual
wage as over against the nominal
wage, very low. More than one-third
| of the women average less than So a
week; more than two thirds average
less than SO. But this does not tell the
whole story. for irregular work, with
its strain and worry, is a tax upon
strength and disturbing factor in the
family life,
In conclusion the writer's say:
On the whole, therefore, it seems fair
to say that the Work here seems 10 be
of the most undesirable character
when one considers the ugly and Of
fensive surroundings. the seasonal
! c character of the work and its irregu-
| larity during all seasons Of the year,
the low wages. the unskilled character
of the occupations in which the women
! are employed. the absence of any
training in the work and the lack Of
lany industrial future FOR the workers.
| That these workers are only immi-
grants" and from the too commonly
dospised Slavic countries. does not, of
course, affect the problem in the
| slightest. Their children will be
american citizens and will have big
fists to thrust in between the genteet
lchecks and balances of our political
machinery. In democracy mothers
cannot be neglected with any sort of
mpunity.-Chicago Evening Post.