Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1915-03-05
WORKING GIRLS
 DISCUSS WAGES Fifty five Thousand Women in New York Receive Less
 Than $3 a Week.
TOO MANY WORKERS
Htad of State Factory Commission Finds Low Wages Due to Keen Competition for JObs, Giving Em- plOyIrs Power tO Pay Star.
 yatiOn Wages.
(By Gotham-Knickerbocker.)


 New York. March 4.-"Instead Of making women workers dance when they do not want to dance, and show i ing them how to save money when the poor things have to make the ! pennies stretch to buy food, why don't t the uplifters do something that really will help them?
 Instead of preaching about why | girls go wrong and telling them how 10 be saved, why not remedy the underlying cause of evil-wages?'
 Some people say they would like to try to live on $6.OO week and show the girls how absurdly easy it is, but they only are experimenting, and not suffering the real thing with no square meal at the end of the ex- pertinent"
 Those were some of the outspoken sentiments expressed at woman and Wages" mass meeting at Cooper union. They showed the feelings of the working women, and had some of the "uplifters" been there, they might not have liked all they heard.
 The opinon of the working wom- en of New York, as expressed byI themselves, is that they do not care straw for the theories and plati- tudes of the "uplifters." They do not want to know how to prepare dainty Scent lunches; they do not care to be taught how to make their own clothes and hats. What they wan: is better wages, compensation more nearly what they think they earn. They want an organization recogniz- , ed by the employers.
 They are not greatly concerned with having their working conditions, their living rooms and their minds improved; if they can get more money for their work, they will do their own improving. Sc said the speakers at the Cooper union meeting. The first two of the foregoing questions were asked ny , Miss, Rose Schneiderman and the1 last fby Miss Dorothy Miller. Miss 'Schneiderman is a worker herself and Miss Miller is a department store clerk.
 Forty Cents for Clothes. "l started out at $500 week my l self" said Miss Miller. "and Pm not rich yet l lived in Brooklyn then. and my carfare to and from the store amounted to $1.20 week My ! lunches cost 90 cents a week and L gave $250 at home. That left me 40 cents a week for clothing and gen. eral expenses. But remember I only gave $25O at home, while most girls must pay at least $S.50, week if they live with their parents or if they 1 have to board elsewhere. If I had had to do that I would have had to walk to and from the Brooklyn bridge every day and cut my lunch money from h cents day to 6 cents.
 Finally got $6 a week, but not before l spent long time at 5 and then at $55O At the most girl can have but a few cents left over, flor she has to clothe herself re- specially and has u have some kind of diversion. And you can bet tnose six cent lunches in the stores get tiresome-3 cents for something they l call coffee and three cents for rolls. Girls Get $6 n Week.
 '"The average wages of girl is $6 week. It doesn't matter what the reports say about it. I know, l was cashier and l have handled in one day as much as $2,O0O, and sometimes we were so busy l couldn't get relief, and so l had to go with out my six-cent lunch. tell you it's a. hard proposition to live that way WHY, the Retail Clerks Union isn't growing as fast as it should. be- cause the poor girls can't spare 25 cents month for dues.
 After all the only ones who are i going to help us are ourselves. It's easy for uplifters to say they could live on $3 week if they had to. But they don't have to, and if they try the experiment for week they can keep a stiff upper lip thinking about that big square meal waiting for, them when the experiment is over. It's no experiment with us. There's no square meal waiting at the end 1 like a happy awakening after bad dream"
 l Prof. Howard Woolston. head of the wage investigation made for the 1 New York state factory commission, said
 'The average wage of women who made candy" he said, lis $3.75 week, and if all the candy workers in New York state were raised to $500 :, a week it would mean aa additional cost 70 the ultimate consumer of only Is cents for every 100 pounds.