Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-03-19
President Brady of Trades Fed
GRAFTON Exposes Conditions
in Probe Report
WILL PUBLISH NAMES;
SENSATION PROMISED
is it Any Wonder Women Go
Wrong Rather Than Stapve?'
He Queries.

A working girl can not live
away from home on less than
So and remain honest Test. :
mony of employers and girls before
the Illinois white slave 1nVestigat.
ing committee.
There are many women in
Atlanta who are working for
as little as So a week, and in
some cases they have children
dependent upon them state
ment of Samuel II. Brady, president
Of Atlanta Federation of Trades.
Samuel II. Brady, president of the
Atlanta Federation OF Trades. today de-
clared that conditions appalling to tho
investigators themselves, who expect
ed and were prepared to encounter I'M
savory and inhumane features in their
work, have been unearthed by the spe-
cial committee of the federation, which
is completing an inspection Of facto-
res mills and stores in Atlanta where
girls and women are employed.
He asserted that the proberS conclu-
sion was that the younger women and
immature girls I'm alarming numbers
daily are being led into lives of shame
because of the deplorabe wage condi-
tions under which they are forced to
work nine, ten and even eleven and
twelve hours day.
Employers OF great numbers OF WON.
en- in the Chicago mail order and de-
partment stores gave IS a week as the
lowest amount on which they oonsid-
cred n girl might live away from home,
when testimony was being taken be-
fore the Illinois senate committee APP
pointed to determine the feasibility of a,
minimum wage scale for women.
Some Loss Than So Weekly.
Yet the Federation of Trades COM
mittee, headed by Mr.. Brady, president
of the federation, has found that in
some Of the Atlanta factories where the
worst conditions prevail, women who
have children partially dependent on
them are being paid az low as SO a
week. BY piece work some Of the girls
and women are not able to earn even
this meager pittance
rs it any wonder that the girl wage
slave, after fighting the horror of
life Of vice until she is worn and-weary-
with the struggle, 6nally weakerSy ami
sells her soul for money with which she
may buy herself food and clothing"
inquired Mr.. Brady to-day in relating
some of the startling discoveries made
by his committee, which win submit its
report to the Federation Of Trades in
the Labor temple at the meeting next
Wednesday.
THAT report is going to make a SEN
sation,' he continued. 1T is going to
stir things up as they never have beer
stirred in industrial Atlanta before. We
will mention no names now, but we will
then. our investigation has not been
aimed at any particular industry or any
particular firm, but it has been abso-.
lutely impartial. II has not been hys-
terical nor venomous. It has been con-
Quoted quietly and calmly. with a view
of finding Just where the fault lies. No
one has been spared.
Names to Be Published.
1T is unavoidable that the names OF
men Will be involved who hold a high
position in the community. Sometimes
they have been merely needless or ig-
noraut. careless Of the welfare of the
army of workers who are labollne in
their factories or mills. In other in
stances the proprietOrs have deliber-
ately and despoticaIly oppressed the
women and children in their employ.
Can any one absolve them of their
responsibility for the shame and vice
which follow in the train of poverty?
1T is idle to say that vice and low
wages of women are not related. The
members of our committee have re-
ceived such demonstration of the falsity
of that statement as they never care to
see again.
Mr.. Brady predicts that persons who
have considered themselves closely in
formed on the working conditions in
the many industries of Atlanta viii be-
astounded by the revelations contained
in the report of the investigating COM
mirtce
The factories where Women are paid