The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-03-27


have all but been destroyed in
Guilty Of meeting the recent
housing crisis. The presence
of the colored woman in indus
try is a recent phenomena.
Ten Dollars Week.
In order to meet the growing
problem of woman in industry, repre-
sentatives of seven women's organi-
cations in New York City, where con-
ditions are said to be better than
in Chicago, carried on a thoro study
of the Negro women in industry.
Employers of 2,185 Negro women,
in all the trades which she has en-
tered, were interviewed. It was
found that over half this number
were receiving $40 per week or
less. The wages of many were as
low as five dollars per week.
"Negro women in the needle
trades" we read in the Investigators
report. "Were found in nearly
every case, to be receiving from two
to five dollars less than their white
sisters in the same trade.
At Work Before Sixteen.
"Over half the Negro women were
at work before they were 16 years
old, and large number began be-
tween the ages of 16 and 81. All
but one-fourth of them had changed
their occupation during the year"
"The reason for change in occupa-
ton given by Negro teachers are in
teresting, for they afford hint of
the spiritual strain and drain en-
dured, by most women of that Race.
One woman when asked if she pre-
ferred sewing to teaching, said she
left the South to escape the unbear-
able treatment accorded her there.
Another woman who was found dust
ing furniture in a department store,
for eight dollars a week, had been
principal of a school of 800 pupils for
eight years"
Unsanitary Factories.
Gin most of the factories visited"
the report states, provisions for the
comfort of Negro employees consisted
in the minimum number of toilets
and smallest dressing room facilities
allowed by the labor laws. Toilets
were generally in an unhealthy and
unclean condition. Several factories
had been reported to the State Labor
Department as violating sanitary
provisions of the labor laws"
The report concludes, "They me
gro women) did the most uninter-
esting work, the most mental work,
and by far the most underpaid work.
The American people will have to go
very far in it's treatment of the Ne
gro woman to square itself with
that democratic ideal of which it
made so much during the war"
Out of 100 poor Negro families in
the Juvenile Protective
Association of Chicago found that
S6 Negro mothers out of the 100 60
out to work. "The Negro women of
Chicago constitute 42.5 per cent of
the bread winners of their Race" we
learn. "This is more than double
the proportion of white women en-
ployed, and only 0.04 of the work.
ing white women are married"
COlored Girls Insulted.
"Colored young women who are
and hair dressers find it |
assumed that they will be |
willing to 60 to hotels under COM
promising conditions, and when a |
decent girl refuses to go, she is told |
that it is all that she can expect.
There is no doubt that colored girls
are much more open to insult than |
white girls in similar circumstances.
1t is extremely difficult for Negro
girls to maintain their standards of |
self respect"
Add to these miserable conditions
in the factories where most Negro
mothers work, the fact that they
come home at night to overcrowded
homes which they have no time to
clean, with a large percentage of
their children also working, and gem
orally a few dodgers around the
premises, and it is easily seen what
an unhappy life the Negro women
are forced to lead.
Let us hope that the Negro Ten
ants League, which is holding a
meeting in Oddfellow's Hall, South
State Street, next Monday night,
takes a determined stand for the
abolition Of segregation and for a re-
duction of rents, If for no other rea-
son, than to restore to the Negro
family some Of the home life to
which it is entitled.