Newark evening star and Newark advertiser., 1914-12-31
GIRLS WHO EARN
ONLY S6 A WEEK
MUST GO HUNGRY
Minimum Wage Advocate Tells
Economists How Some of
Them Suffer.
speelaI 70 sl.e ExsnIns star.

PRINCETON, Dec. 31.-A siri who
3 earns only s6 a week must go hungry
unless she receives some outside help,
Mrs. Glendower Evans, of Boston.
declared today before he American
Economic Association here. Mrs.
Evans has been connected with tina
work incident to the establishment OF
a minimum wage scale in Massaehu-
serts and has made an extensive sur
gey of conditions there.
The vast majority OF wage earn
rag women work because they must
l She said And the vast majority
j arm wages far below the require
= ehts of q decent living.
How then dc they live I answer.
1or The most part. by enduring every
#form OF priv9tion. The majority Of
them, I believe, are terribly under
FED. Every study of budgets and
living conditions that know OF
shows this Sometimes women con-
TESS ii plainly. / don't know how
ever lived, or I almost starved, they
viii say in explaining their cireum-
stances. Others are too proud TO con-
fess their privations. You see l am
dieting was the explanation OF
girl for her two-cent lunch at
cafeteria"
Mrs. Evans then told the story of
airl that made six dollars Week
s-hom the Minimum Wage Commls-
sfenef Massachusetts interviewed. Ihe
girf admitted that she received money
from Illicit resources. She declared
she was forced to go hungry when
she tried to live on IS a week.
Il do not tell you this story that an
Inference may be drawn in regard to
low wages. which / do not draw.
Mrs. Evans said, II tell It to Illus
trate the point l have made, that
girl who earns IS a week. unless she is
helped out somehow, must go nun
sFy
The Massachusetts commission re-
Gently agreed upon SS.fi as a living
wage for women, but as yet this
amount Is not being paid as a mini
mum in that State. A fifteen and
one -half-cent an hour rate went into
effect on August 10, 1914. in the brush
making industry, and 1t Is expected
ater to establish minimum rates OF
pay III other industries
Adoption of law similar in prtnci-
pie to the Canadian industrial disputes
act was advanced before the assoc1a
ton today by Prof. Frank II. Dixon, Of
Dartmouth College. as a means of di-
ninishing labor troubles in this coun-
try His subject was the Public
Regulation of Railway Wages.
THE principle OF the Canadian In
6ustrial Disputes Act. which p9 Divides
for compulsory investigation of i'm
pending conflicts ana requires thai
conditions remain undisturbed until
the investigation is completed, should
be adopted IN this country he
said. THE investigators representing
ae public, unlike the Canadian ap-
bointees, should be permanent gov
ernment officials who would become
experts in the handling OF these con-
tfoversies and in the presentation of
Tie results. Whether or not they
WOULD command the support of the
* sides would depend upon their
abili4y and their personality, but the
ifnpcrfant consideration Is that they
would represent the public, which
needs enlightenment.
'frhe probability that strikes would
take place after the reports were |
published Is remote. The interval Of
lime, the reluctance of the parties and
The Informed participation Of the pub
80 would be discouraging forces. Fur |
rher amendment Of our existing stat
ties on mediation and arbitration !
may be properly postponed until the |
results of this Investigating proceed !
llre are appraised.
Mr. Dixon also expressed the view /
that Presidents OF the United States !
should seldom take the initiative in /
Injecting mediators into labor dis
t)iifee