The Detroit times., 1914-12-18
Starvation Wages Receive Royal
Recognition Across the Wa
ter, Says Writer
WOMEN WORK FOR
SIX CENTS A DAY
Standard Of Sweating" Set by
Royal Lady Is Claim of
Working Girls
sY MARY BOYLE o,ReILLY.

shops--it can said the Little Seam
4 tress
"Will you take me with your
3 askeG. Her brave smile gave consent
\ Up anc down the Old Ford Road In
Bow, East End, home workers laden
with bundles crept through the Lon
don fog They were the lucky ones
women who still had work. Unem
ployment caused by the var increases
among women In London at the rate
of 1000 week. Working people new
er want war. War steadily under,
mines their income. And II is always
the working women who suffer most
Boot leather and raw wool are aw-
fui costly since the government began
buying for the soldiers" explained the
Little Dressmaker. that means half
'7 time, reduced wages, no work to be
had, all on account of the war. The
sugar factories are closing, the cloth
ing factories shut down, not IA job IN
Pudding Lane
Among my papers lay PROHIBITED
report:
The low wage labor market is dis
located. Even starvation wages can
not be had. Approximately 10000 wo-
men workers are unemployed in Lon
don OF the $4,000 dressmakers one
y quarter are idle. six in every nine on
short time. Last year 507 women
4 sought jobs at the Central Unemploy-
ed Bureau in given period. This
year the number was S,310.
This at the beginning OF a three
years war and hard winter. The
niiseries OF Belgium are more poig-
nant, but hardly less bitter than the
Y coming sorrows Of London.
From matches to meat all things
have gone up in price. Bread has
y risen TO IL cents for quarter loaf,
B sugar, from ) cents to IL cents. rice
lately cents, now costs cents, bacon
Is an unobtainable luxury in the
homes of the poor, knuckle ends Of
B mutton lately cents pound, today
cost IL cents-and food prices con-
tinue to rise.
To meet the inevitable misery OF the
war-haanted winter private charity
has given $2O,00O,000 to the Prince of
Il Wales fund and the queens fund TO
be expended for relief through public
wcrkrooms. So terrible is the dis
x teesg already that IL of the 80 London
n boroughs nave already submitted
K schemes to establish workrooms sub
sidized by the queens fund.
Only last week her majesty, Queen
Mary, visited her workshops amid
paeans of praise TO investigate con-
diti0ns, observe progress and signify
her royal approval.
The Little Dressmaker and en-
tered the narrow door of such shop.
In a crowd of anxious, patient women
we listened while the directreSs in
X charge announced the grim policy OF
the place.
I'm applying for employment at a
x Queen's workroom each woman must
. bring proof that her unemployment is
due to the war. No work can be given
10 married women, or to widows with
CROWN children; their ablebodied hus-
bands and sons should support them.
& This must be clearly understood.
"Of the 6,648 women who registered
during September ONLY $50 were
: given employment. Out OF las regis
s tered last week ONLY could be rec
: ommended for employment and but
one received work"
And the others?" whispered the
Little Dressmaker The answer is
piteous. Even In East London most
. people grow prouder and more sensi-
five as they grow poorer, more prone
S 10 suffer In silence than TO parade
their poverty. A woman must be des-
t:tude and desperate indeed who
hopes against hope to secure living
wage at a queens sweat shop. For
only young and strong women would
E attempt the tasks assigned-mostly
4 machine rate OF payment.
Six cents an hour for forty hours a
week. With maximum wage OF ten
ehillings. Two dollars and a half 70
. pay for a weeks work of woman
+ who must maintain herself and her
: family OF little ones-$2 so for the
heart-stricken mother who must
house. feed and clothe her children in
the richest country on earth during
The greatest war Of all time.
For the one woman out OF 145 ap-
+ plicants who obtains work in a queens
sweat shop no allowance Is made for
carfares and should she remain all
day In the workroom she Is charged
rs cents for a midday plate OF soup,
to 4 cents for bread and tea.
The sweaters Of Whitechapel are
imposed to pay their slaves cents
I'M hour; cents is Just half the trade
union minimum wage. An unskilled
1nborer must be paid 10 cents an hour,
+ and aliens are not allowed to land In
England unless able 10 prove that
they will he paid s4.25 a week.
4 Public spirited women conducting
relief workrooms not under royal pa
(ronaee have respectfully represented
f. 10 Queen Mary that cents an hour,
13.6O a week n rate of wage on
<~hich Il IL impossible TO subsist.
wherefore they petition her majesty
|<6 support movement for decent
&fandard OF PIGMENT for work and re.
IEef. urging that II private charity can
not meet the need the public
&<cheouer may be drawn upon, and
that IN all relief work subsidized by
no:,iIc funds q minimum OF 10 cents an
f &our. 81 a week shall be- paid the
somen employed.
The answer was conclusive. From
|hc q,een's mouthpiece the working
<omen OF London learn that women
.&1xays have been sweated in the labor
&or1f. always viii be sweated. and
Mad nowXi " not the time TO demand
1*hcts Moreover. such ambitious
Xcrtrooms as pay more than 6 cents
~rn hcuf--S2. so q week VIII receive
rs erarts from the queens fund. Thus
years labor agitation and iegisla-
M has been undermined I'm a day.
Her ma icsfy's sweafshops have set
~ new pace and the lower standard.
nrrnfirn wages have received royal
r<ni<ion. In Manchester the new