New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-02-24
S. A WEEK MISERY,
SAYS GIRL CLERK
Contradicts Women Who
Testified That 1t Was
a Living Wage.
MEANS POOR FOOD
AND NO PLEASURES
Mrs. Florence Kelley, Another
Cooper Union Speaker, Pleads
for Minimum Rate Law.

Dorothy Miller, just tall enough to
reach glass Of water on the speakers
table, walked resolutely to the front
Of Cooper Union platform last night
and told n large audience how a work
ing girl lives on SIS a week.
Mrs. Florence Kelley. general secre
tary Of the National Consumers
League. paid her respects to the Su-
premc Court in Washington for de-
claring labor legislation unconstitu-
tional. 1t was Women and Wages"
mass meeting arranged by the Manhat-
tan Borough division of the Woman
Suffrage party and the Peoples lnsti..
tute. Mary +. Dreier, ex-president Of
the Women's Trade Union League, pre-
sided.
Dorothy Miller was introduced as n
retail clerk who dared to organize her
trade openly with no fear of the en-
rlover. She took issue with n certain
woll-to-do woman who had recently
SAID. testifying before an industrial
Investigation committee, that working
GIRLS not only live on So week. but
they seem to have a good time on such
a wage.
"a Starvation Wage
LET me tell you about this fve-dollar-
a-week proposition" she said. 81 lived
on that wage when ! first went to work
and | know what I'm talking about
Here are the items of my weekly bud
get at that time. | lived In Brooklyn
so the first item Is 81 20 for carfare
For luncheon | spent an average OF 81
cents a week, and had to turn in 81 Sc
at horne every week. Add these up and
YOU get 81 90, leaving me just 40 cents
/ for nv expenses. There's nothing in
all this talk about getting rich on @
starvation wage. Why got so sick OF
/ Recent coffee and Scent rolls that
sometimes wished didn't have to eat
at all"
Mrs. Kelley said that the Supreme
Courts decision of yesterday in the
| Oregon case would decide whether
minimum wage laws were possible fol-
the United states. The morning
papers ~ tell us whether we can
/ have what Australia has had for the
last eighteen years, what ENGLAND has
had re 1910"
(The morning papers will tell that
/ minimum wage is legal, for the Su
preme Court 90 decidedly
Other speakers were Professor How
ar; Uoolston, Of City College, who
headed the wage investigation OF the
New York State Factory Commission
Rose Schnciderman and Miss Schwartz
Of Typographical Union, No. O.
Pleads for Hello Girls.
On behalf of the Consumers League
Miss Florence Kelley is to appear be
fore the Foley committee tomorrow
morning and remind its members tha'
the wage question should be considered
in fixing telephone rates.
She has submitted memorandum 70
! the committee, in which she says thai
the present pay of women telephone
operators is inadequate.
as it not feasible" she inquiries
"for the New York Telephone Com
pany to take advantage Of this oppor'
tunity to raise wages without increas'
ing the cost to the consumer by es-
tablishing a minimum OF So week
for students and Of Sl2 week Tor
regular operators ?"
Fair wages, Miss Kelley maintains
should be sufficient to keep the worker
in health. At present, she declares
the twelve thousand women telephone
operators in New York do not receive
such wages.
"The wages policy" says the general
secretary of the Consumers League
SHOULD be as farsighted as the policy
in regard to training workers or main
tanning the plant