The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1914-01-23

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the company in times of discomfort"
The same may be said of women work
ers The positions held by foreladies
are comparatively few while the
masses of the workers must always
be at the lowest rung of the industrial
ladder because it is there that there
their services can be so easily dis
pensed with and other workers sub
stituted is an economic triumph for
the industry, but a human calamity
from the point of view of the work
ers, and whatever is a calamity to the
working classes is a calamity to the
race.
h There are industries wherein wom-
en- are employed which find it neces-
sary to train a worker in the use of
machine before her services are of
economic value to her employer. In
such cases the apprentice should be
registered with the labor commission
er of this state and her progress
watched If the period of apprentice
ship is abused by such an employer,
let him thereafter be denied the right
of employing apprentices. But under
no circumstances should licenses be
given, even where an apprenticeship
is apparent, in such numbers as to
make the apprenticeship force out of
all reasonable proportion to the regu-
lar workers employed in that industry.
But we cannot consent to the grant
ing of an apprenticeship period in in
dustries where it is not evident that
girls must receive special training be-
| fore they can do the work assigned to
them profitably to employers. When
a large army of workers can be taken
on today-an army of unskilled work
ers-and discharged four weeks or two
months from now (not because they
are inefficient but because they have
served the purpose for which they
were hired, namely, the purpose of
turning out larger labor product to
meet the Increased demands of the
consumers it is unfair, if not redicul-
Gus, to insist that these workers labor
for less than living wage.
If the industries of this state cannot
afford to pay living wage, and re-
main in competition with the eastern
product, let us face the issue, and de-
wise some more humane way of sub
sidizing our industries.
This brings us to the question as to
who is responsible for our wage con-
ditions. You say the employer When
you persist in buying in the cheapest
market, irrespective of the wage con-
ditions under which the product is
made, you must take more than half
the blame
Imagine for one moment the estab-
lishment of a living wage in our fac
ItOries-and it is in our factories where
girls get the lowest returns for their
services. Are you going to buy goods
made in eastern states where the
workers received S. or Sc per week for
their services? 1t takes no great
amount of imagination to see how the
eastern competitor can undersell our
western producer, especially where the
cost of production is largely labor
cost. What will happen?
l wish l could impress upon you the
serious need of establishing a branch
of the national consumers league here
in this state If the consumers band
ed together, and agreed only to use
goods manufactured in factories where
living wage is paid girls, there would
be less need for manufacturers to hide
behind the apprenticeship clause of
our minimum wage law in order to
protect themselves from what seems
to them a one-sided and ruinous COM
petition.
Laundries and mercantile establish.
ments do not have to meet this prob
lem of competition in the same way
as their competitors are local compe-
titors.
1t is true the white laundries have
to compete with the Oriental laundries
but this same kind of competition
must be met on the part of unionized
laundries against unorganized laund-
ries when the wage scale is compare
lively lower. 1t is the manufacturers
who must meet the competitors from
without the state who have a right to
expect your cooperation in lettering
the wage conditions of the girls in
their employ.
Cut out that coughing day
after day. Use Cherry Bark
Cough Syrup. 1t will help you.