Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-03-25
MINIMUM WAGE FAVORED
BY CONSUMERS LEAGUE
| Senate Resolution for Appropriation
to Investigate Subject
Endorsed.
a. La Rue Brown Explains Opera
ton of Law in Massachusetts,.
Miss Leupp Speaks.

Advocacy of minimum wage legislation
for the District marked the annual meet
ing of the Consumers League of the Dis
trict at Rauscher's late yesterday after
noon. A resolution was passed indorsing
the resolution pending in the Senate for
an appropriation for an investigation into
conditions among working women and
girls in Washington. and H. La Rue
Brown, chairman of the Massachusetts
minimum wage commission. told of the
operation of a minimum wage law in his
state
Mr.. Brown said that the entire public
is vitality concerned in the minimum wage
question. because if an employer pays his
employees less than living wage some
one else makes up the difference between
the salary she receives and the amount it
actually costs her to live. This difference.
he said. is paid either by the people who
support cheap homes for working girls
and women or by the employers OF other
members Of the girls families. In this
way, he said the public helps support any
industrial company which pays low
wages.
Mr.. Brown defined a living wage as
including the cost of shelter, clothing,
food, health some things to make life
pleasant. and something to save for a
rainy day In Massachusetts. he said,
the minimum wage varies according to
the INDUSTRY and conditions. but the
average minimum wage for girls and
women has been found to be IS a week.
Lives Off of Community, he Says.
Although I do not know Washington.
1 have no doubt whatever that l can
find many organizations here which do
not pay that much to their employees"
he continued. THE argument that the
women and girls who get less are MEM
bers of families is fallacy, because, as
a general thing, one out Of every three
working women and girls is not living
with her family or else is the head OF
family. But If she gives her entire
working time to her employer he should
pay her enough to live on whether she
lives with her family or not otherwise
he is living off the community.
Mr.. Brown said that in his opinion,
gained from experience, the connection
between low wages paid women and girls
and vice has been exaggerated, out ne
commended that there is some connection.
But the big thing about the Massa-
chusetts minimum wage law is that 1t
brings directly home to the employer OF
labor something he very often knows moth
ing about" Mr. Brown continued. The
usual large employer is often astonished
to find out what is going on in his own
place.
lone necessary thing in such legislation
is that there must be a way OF protecting
the man who Is willing to pay decent
wages against the man who is not willing
to pay the same Personally L think
that if employees are paid better, ana
thus freed of worry, they will do SO much
better work for their employer that he
can still compete with the man who pays
low wages.
AN industry which cannot pay decent
wages to it's employees must be SO bad that
it is a burden on the community ana
should go out of business II the puoEc
will not deal with that business sufficient
ly to allow it to pay living wages, 1t ought
to quit"
Benefits of Eight-Hour Law.
Miss Constance D. Leupp. president OF
the league. making her annual report,
asked for the greater use of label goods
in the District. She outlined the inn
mediate results of the passage of the
eight-hour law for women in the Dis
trict, which the league supported. AS
result of it. she said, many women
are now living normal life, who
formerly were little more than slaves.
I'VE are not disturbed at the outcry
from some quarters against this law"
she said. I'VE know that the agitation
| will not continue, and that all will soon
accept it,
Answering the argument that some
women are making less money a re-
suit of the law, Miss Leupp told of a
woman she knew who is paid by piece
I work Following the passage of the
law her salary dropped. Miss Leupp
said. because she was working less
hours. But soon her efficiency began to
increase, and now she is making nearly
as much as she did before the law was
passed.
Miss Ieupp said that since the massage
of the law some women and girls have
been displaced by men, but on the other
hand, she added, many more women and
girls have found work. She said that
the enforcement of the law viii be
greatly assisted if the right kind of in
spectors are obtained
She told how the Housekeepers' ALI
ance is trying to find out if it will help
the laundries If they get peoples wash
Friday or Saturday instead of Monday.
Need for Minimum Wage Law.
Concluding, Miss Leupp said that she
be low in Washington, and that there
was need for minimum wage law here.
A resolution was adopted indorsing the
La Toilette seamen's bill now pending
| in the House.
Miss Leupp was reelected president OF
| the league, and other officers were chosen
! as follows: Mrs. Harvey w. Wiley, hon
orary vice president; Mrs. Walter Ufford,
| first vice president; Miss Dorothy Muei-
| Ter, second vice president; Mrs. Lloyd
| Wight, third vice president: Miss Edith
| Goode, fourth vice president; Miss Bar
| bara Kaufman. recording secretary;
Mrs. D. Foster Hewitt, assistant secre-
tary; Mrs. Martha P. Tagg. secretary and
/ treas urer and Miss Elizabeth BRYAN,