The Washington herald., 1918-07-31
EATING PLACES
GOUGE VICTIMS
BY Big PROFITS
Walters. Reveal Some Gross
Pro6teering IN Hotels
and Restaurants.

Data for the Congressional In
vestigation Of hotels and restau-
rants which Ii expected to take
lplace soon was reviewed last night
by both the Walters and the Watt
ress' Unions at their club house, 7l9
Sixth street northwest Both
unions are hard at work collecting
facts and getting them ready to pre-
sent to Congress.
L The walters are also having to
do double work now according to
L. A. Sterne, organizer Of the mems
union, because Maj. Gen. Crowder's $
order ruling walters in non-essen-
tial class has taken all the men of
draft age.
Restaurants and hotels are able to
pay living wages. according TO fig
ures furnished by some members
OF the Waitress Union.
| Some Food Extertions.
Five hundred percent is r r,aIjzed
on some articles of food. such as
watermelon. At one place a fifty or
sixty cent melon is cut into twelve
pieces and each portion sells for
+, twenty-five cents. Three dollars
| from q sixty cent investment is
rather good. Half Of q cantaloupe
! also sells for thirty-five cents, and
when the melon originally cost but
| fifteen cents, and sells for seventy
cents. that Il almost q five hundred
! per cent investment
| Pies are also profitable to restau-
rant keepers. A sixteen-cent pie is
\ cut into six pieces at ten cents each.
Both the food given the men and
! the conditions under which the food
must be eaten are O source of dis
satisfaction to them. Many OF them
prefer to eat at home. II WASH
ingtonians saw the old and filthy
lard can out Of which toast is but
tered in some of our incest hotels.
| they wouldn't care much for toast,
according to Organizer sterne.
Health Department Helps.
The District health department
has promised to cooperate with
Organizer Sterne in the investiga-
ton Of the hotels and restaurants
DR.. Woodward. who recently left
Washington for Boston. was much
interested in the question from the
point of view of the public health,
spd collected much data which is
/ on file.
| The union of walters Is much in
terested In the woman's side of the
Investigation Conditions seem to
prove that the women as getting
the worst Of 1t.
In many places the mattresses
are fined out of their small sal
aries for being late. Although they
may work by law but eight hours
those hours may be 50 split upas to
last all day or all night.
In many parts of the city. ac-
cording to John ]. Henley. organ
izer Of the Mattresses Upioh
women work all night long.
Organizer Sterne and Organize
Henley are both strongly in favor
of equal wages for equal work
for women.
Rent Gougers' InhumanIties.
The rent profiteer is hurting the
women waitress in Washington Sc
in the city for less than 81 par
week. That makes a big hole In
an IS per week salary.
That 10 not the worst Of 1t, low
ever. Restrictions surround the 81
room that make Is unpleasant. For
4 instance. one woman sent in appli-
i cation for girls to room at her
] home. The girls were forbidden to
laugh in the hall. They were al
lowed to have no callers. and noth-
ing of home was left but the four
i walls of the hall bedroom.
| The officers of the Waitress
Union are Mrs. F. Hipp. president