Norwich bulletin., 1913-03-08
Vice Not Due
 To Low Wages
CHICAGO EMPLOYERS GIVE THEIR
 OPINIONS.
COMMITTEE HEARING
Young Women Express Opposite Views Bill for Minimum Wage Scale of SIP Week for Women Workers.

Chicago, March 7.-"The employers think that low wages have nothing to do with immortality among women; tine women of the town say it has every thing to do with it.'
 That was the way State Senator NeIs Juul summed up today's testi- mony before the state senate vice in- Vestigation committee at which some of the great employers of female la bor in the city and a half dozen women from the underworld were witnesses.
 Minimum Wage of SIP.
 State Senator Beal, like Juul a mem Der of the committee, explained to the witnesses who were employers that the committee desired to enbarrass no one, but wished information bearing on a bill now pending in the legislature making minimum wage scale of SIP for women in this state compulsory. The employers held this figure to be excessive and the law an impossibil- ity.
 Among the witnesses heard were Julius Rosenwald. president of Sears Roebuck and company; James Simp- son, vice president of Marshall Field and company: E. C. Mandel, president of Mandel Brothers, and Roy Shayne, president of John T. Shayne and com pany. Sears ROebuck and company are 8 mall order house and the remain ing three firms retail establishments. employing in the aggregate thousands of girls and women.
 Most Store Girls Live at Home.
 It developed that practically all the women employed i'll the retail stores live at home and much time was con sumed in endeavoring to ascertain the proper living wage for employees so situated. Witnesses took the posi- ttOn that employing errand girls and other unskllIed help, classed as "ju- VenlIe,' the employer is under no Ob- Hgation to pay a living" wage. They assume that the girl so employed is entitled to her living at the expense of her parents and that what she earns merely helps the family fund The committee and particularly Sena- tor Juul. insisted that the other mem bers of a working girls home earn no more than enough to support them selves, even if they do cooperate and that if each individual of R family, or only one of such a family, earned family suffered, and the employer pay ing wages too low was ahirlCimg his responsibility.
 A Dramatic Situation.
 There was a tense. dramatic mo ment at the end of the forenoon ses- sion.
 Julius Rosenwald. president of Sears Roebuck and company, multi i-million- aire, phflanthropist, employer of more than 4,0O0 women, and himself at one time head of a vice investigation com mission, had been on the witness stand for several hours, testlfyfng to the wage scale of his company and ex- plaining that in his judgment wages and the immortality of women had lit- tie relation.
 The small room where the sessions are being held. was packed with a well dressed crowd many of them women, Then a young women, clad in black, and answering to the name of Emily took her seat in front of the inQuiai- tors and by the side of ROsenwald.
 Says Forewomen Scolded.
  Roebuck and company, but left there to take a better position. Her only criticism of the firm was that the fore women "scolded" and made some of the Iuckless culprits guilty of some infraction of the rules, or making a mistake, cry. This did not occur every day, however.
 Lieut.. Governor Barratt O'Harn asked the witness q question.
 We have a great deal of philosophy here today from men; now lets find out what yours is. If q girl was getting $8 a week (the minimum paid by Sears -Roebuck and comFany, to girls living alone) and had to support a widowed mother. would you blame her if she committed crime?"
 The Witness Puzzled.
 The witness looked puzzled for a mo- ment. and then, comprehending, looked up frankly and replied. No, I would mt"
 Would you blame her if she killed herself2"
 No, wouldn't came the emphatic reply.
 And would you blame her if she committed q greater crime2"
 The girl paused 9. moment and then said distinctly. No. I wouldn't"
 The room had been painfully quiet, but at this there was round of ap- pIause, led by the women spectators. Emily was then dismissed.
 Another Girl Witness.
 A rosy checked girl. whose name was not announced, was called as a wit ness.
 She was 14 years old when she went to work for Sears -ROebuck and com pany. she said, and was paid $A5O When, she left there after two years she was receiving S7.50.
 Asked by MT. O'Hara if the giris were ever scolded, the witness replied; You bet they were, and sometimes the girls cried"
 girls cried"
 Well, they pounded the desk when they called us'" She said that the girls helped each other to get along T know I gave one of them a coat"
 Some Girls Flrted.
 Asked if the girls were moral, the girl seemed somewhat at a loss but at last explained that some of the "Do you know that any Of them are bad?"
 Well, you never can tell how they will turn out" returned the mature little observer of Seventeen next Au- gust"
 Rosenwald remained in his witness chair while the girl was teshfying, ob- serving her out of a corner of his eye.
 
 RebeIifous Governor Arres+ed