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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/15204-8.txt b/15204-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b19cc59 --- /dev/null +++ b/15204-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7697 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Women Wage-Earners, by Helen Campbell + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Women Wage-Earners + Their Past, Their Present, and Their Future + +Author: Helen Campbell + +Release Date: February 28, 2005 [EBook #15204] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMEN WAGE-EARNERS *** + + + + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + +WOMEN WAGE-EARNERS: + +_THEIR PAST, THEIR PRESENT, +AND THEIR FUTURE_. + +BY +HELEN CAMPBELL, + +AUTHOR OF "PRISONERS OF POVERTY," "PRISONERS OF +POVERTY ABROAD," "THE PROBLEM OF THE POOR," +"MRS. HERNDON'S INCOME," ETC. + +With an Introduction +BY RICHARD T. ELY, PH.D., LL.D. + +_Professor of Political Economy and Director of the School of Economics, +University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis._ + +BOSTON: +ROBERTS BROTHERS. +1893. + +_Copyright, 1893_, + +BY HELEN CAMPBELL. + +University Press: + +JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A. + +A BOOK FOR + +Alice, + +FRIEND, HELPER, AND COMRADE. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +BY RICHARD T. ELY, + +DIRECTOR OF SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS, POLITICAL SCIENCE, AND HISTORY, +UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN, MADISON. + + +The importance of the subject with which the present work deals cannot +well be over-estimated. Our age may properly be called the Era of Woman, +because everything which affects her receives consideration quite +unknown in past centuries. This is well. The motive is twofold: First, +woman is valued as never before; and, second, it is perceived that the +welfare of the other half of the human race depends more largely upon +the position enjoyed by woman than was previously understood. + +The earlier agitation for an enlarged sphere and greater rights for +woman was to a considerable extent merely negative. The aim was to +remove barriers and to open the way. It is characteristic of the earlier +days of agitation for the removal of wrongs affecting any class, that +the questions involved appear to be simple, and easily repeated formulas +ample to secure desired rights. Further agitation, however, and more +mature reflection always show that what looks like a simple social +problem is a complex one. + +"If women's wages are small, open new careers to them." As simple as +this did the problem of women's wages once appear; but when new avenues +of employment were rendered accessible to women, it was found, in some +instances, that the wages of men were lowered. A consequence which can +be seen in different industrial centres is that a man and a wife working +together secure no greater wages than the man alone in industries in +which women are not employed. Now, if the result of opening new +employments to women is to force all members of the family to work for +the wages which the head of the family alone once received, it is +manifest that we have a complicated problem. + +Another result of wage-earning by women, which has been observed here +and there, is the scattering of the members of the family and the +break-down of the home. A recent and careful observer among the chief +industrial centres of Saxony, Germany, has told us that factory work has +there resulted in the dissolution of the family, and that family life, +as we understand it, scarcely exists. We have demoralization seen in the +young; and in addition to that, we discover that the employment of +married women outside the home results in the impaired health and +strength of future generations. + +The conclusion by no means follows that we should go backward, and try +to restrict the industrial sphere of woman. It has been well said that +revolutions do not go backward; we have to go farther forward to keep +the advantages which have been attained, and at the same time lessen the +evils which the new order has brought with it. + +Further action is required; but in order that this action may bring +desired results, it must be based upon ample knowledge. The natural +impulse when we see an evil is to adopt direct methods looking to an +immediate cure; but such direct methods which at once suggest themselves +generally fail to bring relief. The effective remedies are those which +use indirect methods based upon scientific knowledge. If a sympathetic +man takes to heart physical suffering, which he can see on every side, +he must feel inclined to relieve the distressed at once, and feel +impatient if he is hindered in his benevolent impulses; yet we know that +he will accomplish far more in the end, if he patiently devotes years to +study in medical schools and practice in hospitals before he attempts to +give relief to the diseased. We need study quite as much to cure the +ills of the social body; and the present work gives us a welcome +addition to the positive information upon which wise action must depend. + +Mrs. Campbell has been favorably known for years on account of her +valuable contributions to the literature of social science, and it gives +the present writer great pleasure to have the privilege of introducing +this book to the public with a word of commendation. + +MADISON, WISCONSIN, + +_August 29, 1893._ + + + + +AUTHOR'S PREFACE. + + +The pages which follow were prepared originally as a prize monograph for +the American Economic Association, receiving an award from it in 1891. +The restriction of the subject to a fixed number of words hampered the +treatment, and it was thought best to enlarge many points which in the +allotted space could have hardly more than mention. Acting on this wish, +the monograph has been nearly doubled in size, but still must be counted +only an imperfect summary, since facts in these lines are in most cases +very nearly unobtainable, and, aside from the few reports of Labor +Bureaus, there are as yet almost no sources of full information. But as +there is no existing manual of reference on this topic, the student of +social questions will accept this attempt to meet the need, till more +facts enable a fuller and better presentation of the difficult subject. + +NEW YORK, _August, 1893._ + + + + +CONTENTS. + + PAGE +INTRODUCTION 7 + +CHAPTER + +I. A LOOK BACKWARD 25 + +II. EMPLOYMENTS FOR WOMEN DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD, +AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FACTORY 57 + +III. EARLY ASPECTS OF FACTORY LABOR FOR WOMEN 77 + +IV. RISE AND GROWTH OF TRADES UP TO THE PRESENT TIME 95 + +V. LABOR BUREAUS AND THEIR WORK IN RELATION TO WOMEN 111 + +VI. PRESENT WAGE-RATES IN THE UNITED STATES 126 + +VII. GENERAL CONDITIONS FOR ENGLISH WORKERS 142 + +VIII. GENERAL CONDITIONS FOR CONTINENTAL WORKERS 161 + +IX. GENERAL CONDITIONS AMONG WAGE-EARNING WOMEN IN THE +UNITED STATES 188 + +X. GENERAL CONDITIONS IN THE WESTERN STATES 199 + +XI. SPECIFIC EVILS AND ABUSES IN FACTORY LIFE AND IN +GENERAL TRADES 212 + +XII. REMEDIES AND SUGGESTIONS 249 + + + + +APPENDIX. + +FACTORY INSPECTION LAW 275 + +AUTHORITIES CONSULTED IN PREPARING THIS BOOK 291 + +BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WOMAN'S LABOR AND OF THE WOMAN QUESTION 294 + +INDEX 305 + + + + +WOMEN WAGE-EARNERS; + +THEIR PAST, THEIR PRESENT, AND THEIR FUTURE. + + +INTRODUCTION + + +The one great question that to-day agitates the whole civilized world is +an economic question. It is not the production but the distribution of +wealth; in other words, the wages question,--the wages of men and women. +Nowhere do we find any suggestion that capital and the landlord do not +receive a _quid pro quo_. Instead, the whole labor world cries out that +the capitalist and the landlord are enslaving the rest of the world, and +absorbing the lion's share of the joint production. + +So long as it is a question of production only, there is perfect +harmony. Both unite in agreeing that to produce as much as possible is +for the interest of each. The conflict begins with distribution. It is +no longer a war of one nation with another; it is internecine war, +destroying the foundations of our own defences, and making enemies of +those who should be brothers. + +It is impossible for even the most dispassionate or indifferent observer +to blink these facts. Proclaim as we may that there is no antagonism +between capital and labor,--that their interests are one, and that +conditions and opportunities for the worker are always better and +better,--practical thinkers and workers deny this conclusion. Wealth has +enormously increased, in a far greater ratio than population. Does the +laborer receive his due proportion of this increase? One must +unhesitatingly answer no. In a country whose life began in the search +for freedom, and which professes to give equal opportunity to all, more +startling inequality exists than in any other in the civilized world. +One of our ablest lawyers, Thomas G. Shearman, has lately written:-- + + "Our old equality is gone. So far from being the most equal people + on the face of the earth, as we once boasted that we were, ours is + now the most unequal of civilized nations. We talk about the wealth + of the British aristocracy and about the poverty of the British + poor. There is not in the whole of Great Britain and Ireland so + striking a contrast, so wide a chasm, between rich and poor as in + these United States of America. There is no man in the whole of + Great Britain and Ireland who is as wealthy as one of some + half-a-dozen men who could be named in this country; and there are + few there who could be poorer than some that could be found in this + country. It is true that there is a larger number of the extremely + poor in Great Britain and Ireland than there is in this country, + but it is not true that there is any more desperate poverty in any + civilized country than ours; and it is unquestionably not true that + there is any greater mass of riches concentrated in a few hands in + any country than this." + +This for America. For England the tale is much the same. "The Bitter Cry +of Outcast London," with its passionate demand that the rich open their +eyes to see the misery, degradation, and want seething in London slums, +is but another putting of the words of the serious, scientific observer +of facts, Huxley himself, who has described an East End parish in which +he spent some of his earliest years. Over that parish, he says, might +have been written Dante's inscription over the entrance to the Inferno: +"All hope abandon, ye who enter here." After speaking of its physical +misery and its supernatural and perfectly astonishing deadness, he says +that he embarked on a voyage round the world, and had the opportunity of +seeing savage life in all conceivable conditions of savage degradation; +and he writes:-- + + "I assure you I found nothing worse, nothing more degrading, + nothing so hopeless, nothing nearly so intolerably dull and + miserable as the life I left behind me in the East End of London. + Were the alternative presented to me, I would deliberately prefer + the life of the savage to that of those people in Christian London. + Nothing would please me better--not even to discover a new + truth--than to contribute toward the bettering of that state of + things which, unless wise and benevolent men take it in hand, will + tend to become worse, and to create something worse than + savagery,--a great Serbonian bog, which in the long run will + swallow up the surface crust of civilization." + +In a year and more of continuous observation and study of working +conditions in England and on the Continent, some of which will find +place later, my own conclusion was the same. The young emperor of +Germany, hotheaded, obstinate, and self-willed as he may be, is working +it would seem from as radical a conviction of deep wrong in the +distributive system. The Berlin Labor Conference, whose chief effort +seems to have been against child-labor and in favor of excluding women +from the mines, or at least reducing hours, and forbidding certain of +the heavier forms of labor, is but an echo of the great dock-strikes of +London and the cry of all workers the world over for a better chance. +The capitalist seeks to hold his own, the laborer demands larger share +of the product; and how to render unto each his due is the great +politico-economic question,--the absorbing question of our time. + +We have found, then, that the problem is economic, and concerns +distribution only. There is no complaint that the capitalist fails to +secure his share. On the contrary, even among the well-to-do, +deep-seated alarm is evidenced at the rise and progress of innumerable +trusts and syndicates, eliminating competition, which restricts +production and raises prices. They make their own conditions; drive from +the field small tradesmen and petty industries, or absorb them on their +own terms. + +Rings of every description in the political and the working world +combine for general spoliation, and the honest worker's money jingles +in every pocket but his own. + +Granting all that may be urged as to the capitalists' investment of +brain-power and acquired skill, as well as of money with all the risks +involved, they are the inactive rather than the active factors in +production. They give of their store, while labor gives of its life. +Their view is to be reconstructed, and profit-sharing become as much a +part of any industry as profit-making. + +This is a growing conviction; nor can we wonder that realization of its +justice and its possibilities has been a matter of very recent +consideration. An often repeated formula becomes at last ingrained in +the mental constitution, and any question as to its truth is a sharp +shock to the whole structure. We have been so certain of the surpassing +advantages of our own country, so certain that liberty and a chance were +the portion of all, that to confront the real conditions in our great +cities is to most as unreal as a nightmare. + +We have conceded at last, forced to it by the concessions of all +students of our economic problems, that the laborer does not yet receive +his fair share of the world's wealth; and the economic thought of the +whole world is now devoted to the devising of means by which he may +receive his due. There is no longer much question as to facts; they are +only too palpable. Distribution must be reorganized, and haste must be +made to discover how. + +It is the wages problem, then, with which we are to deal,--the wages of +men and women; and we must look at it in its largest, most universal +aspects. We must dismiss at once any prejudice born of the ignorance, +incompetency, or untrustworthiness of many workers. Character is a plant +of slow growth; and given the same conditions of birth, education, and +general environment it is quite possible we should have made no better +showing. We have to-day three questions to be answered:-- + + 1. Why do men not receive a just wage? + 2. Why are women in like case? + 3. Why do men receive a greater wage than women? + +First, Why do not men receive a greater wage than they do? can be +answered only suggestively, since volumes may be and have been written +on all the points involved. For skilled and unskilled labor alike, the +differences in industrial efficiency go far toward regulating the wage, +and have been grouped under six heads by General Frances A. Walker, +whose volume on the Wages Question is a thoughtful and careful study of +the problem from the beginning. These heads are--1. "Peculiarities of +stock and breeding. 2. The meagreness or liberality of diet. 3. Habits +voluntarily or involuntarily formed respecting cleanliness of the +person, and purity of the air and water. 4. The general intelligence of +the laborer. 5. Technical education and industrial environment. 6. +Cheerfulness and hopefulness in labor, growing out of self-respect and +social ambition and the laborer's interest in his work." + +With this in mind, we must accept the fact that the value of the +laborer's services to the employer is the net result of two +elements,--one positive, one negative; namely, work and waste. Under +this head of waste come breakage, undue wear and tear of implements, +destruction or injury of materials, the cost of supervision of idle or +blundering men, and often the hindrance of many by the fault of one. +Modern processes involve so much of this order of waste that often +there is doubt if work is worth having or not, and the unskilled laborer +is either rejected or receives only a boy's wage. + +The various schools of political economists differ widely as to the +facts which have formulated themselves in what is known as the iron law +of wages; this meaning that wages are said to tend increasingly to a +minimum which will give but a bare living. For skilled labor the law may +be regarded as elastic rather than iron. For unskilled, it is as +certainly the tendency, which, if constantly repeated and so +intensified, would end as law. Many standard economists regard it as +already fixed; and writers like Lasalle, Proudhon, Bakunin, and Marx +heap every denunciation upon it. + +Were the fact actually established, no words could be too strong or too +bitter to define this new form of slavery. The standard of life and +comfort affects the wages of labor, and there is constant effort to make +the wage correspond to this standard. It is an unending and often bitter +struggle, nowhere better summed up than by Thorold Rogers in his "Six +Centuries of Work and Wages,"--a work upon which economists, however +different their conclusions, rely alike for facts and figures. + +We must then admit in degree the tendency of wages to a minimum, +especially those of unskilled labor, and accept it as one more motive +for persistent effort to alter existing conditions and prevent any such +culmination. + +Take now, in connection with the six heads mentioned as governing the +present efficiency of labor, the five enumerated by Adam Smith in his +summary of causes for differences in wages: 1. "The agreeableness or +disagreeableness of the employments themselves. 2. The easiness and +cheapness, or the difficulty and expense of learning them. 3. The +constancy or inconstancy of employment in them. 4. The small or great +trust which must be reposed in those who exercise them. 5. The +probability or improbability of success in them." + +These are conditions which affect the man's right to large or small +wage; but all of them presuppose that men are perfectly free to look +over the whole industrial field and choose their own employment,--they +presuppose the perfect mobility of labor. Let us see what this means. + +The theoretical mobility of labor rests upon the assumption that +laborers of every order will in all ways and at all times pursue their +economic interests; but the actual fact is that so far from seeking +labor under the most perfect conditions for obtaining it, nearly half of +all humankind are "bound in fetters of race and speech and religion and +caste, of tradition and habit and ignorance of the world, of poverty and +ineptitude and inertia, which practically exclude them from the +competitions of the world's industry." + +"Man is, of all sorts of luggage, the most difficult to be transported," +was written by Adam Smith long ago; and this stands in the way of really +free and unhampered competition. Mr. Frederick Harrison, one of the +clearest thinkers of the day, has well defined the difference between +the seller and the producer of a commodity. He says:-- + + "In most cases the seller of a commodity can send it or carry it + from place to place, and market to market, with perfect ease. He + need not be on the spot; he generally can send a sample; he usually + treats by correspondence. A merchant sits in his counting-room, and + by a few letters and forms transports and distributes the + subsistence of a whole city from continent to continent. In other + cases, as the shopkeeper, the ebb and flow of passing multitudes + supplies the want of locomotion for him. This is a true market. + Here competition acts rapidly, fully, simply, fairly. It is totally + otherwise with a day laborer who has no commodity to sell. He must + himself be present at every market, which means costly, personal + locomotion. He cannot correspond with his employer; he cannot send + a sample of his strength, nor do employers knock at his cottage + door." + +It is plain, then, that many causes are at work to depress the wages +even of skilled workers, far more than can be enumerated here. If this +is true for men, how much more strongly can limitations be stated for +women, as we ask, "Why do not women receive a better wage?" Many of the +reasons are historical, and must be considered in their origin and +growth. Taking her as worker to-day, precisely the same general causes +are in operation that govern the wages of men, with the added disability +of sex, always in the way of equal mobility of labor. + +Wherever for any reason there is immobility of labor, there is always +lowering of the wage rate. The trades and general industries for which +women are suited are highly localized. They focus in the cities and +large towns, and women must seek them there. Great manufactories drain +the surrounding country; yet even with these opportunities an analysis +of the industrial statistics of the United States by General Walker +showed that the women workers of the country made up but seven per cent +of the entire population. Eagerly as they seek work, it is far more +difficult for them to obtain it than for men. They require to be much +more mobile and active in their move toward the labor market, yet are +disabled by timidity, by physical weakness, and by their liability to +insult or outrage arising from the fact of sex. Men who would secure a +place tramp from town to town, from street to street, or shop to shop, +persisting through all rebuffs, till their end is accomplished. They go +into suspicious and doubtful localities, encounter strangers, and sleep +among casual companions. In this fashion they relieve the pressure at +congested points, and keep the mass fluid. + +For women, save in the slight degree included in the country girl's +journey to town or city where cotton or woollen mills offer an opening +for work, this course is impossible. Ignorant, fearful, poor, and +unprotected, the lions in her way are these very facts. Added to this +natural disqualification, comes another,--in the lack of sympathy for +her needs, and in the prejudice which hedges about all her movements. In +every trade she has sought to enter, men have barred the way. In a +speech made before the House of Commons in 1873, Henry Fawcett drew +attention to the persistent resistance of men to any admission of women +on the same terms with themselves. He said:-- + + "We cannot forget that some years ago certain trade-unionists in + the potteries imperatively insisted that a certain rest for the arm + which they found almost essential to their work should not be used + by women engaged in the same employment. Not long since, the London + tailors, when on a strike, having never admitted a woman to their + union, attempted to coerce women from availing themselves of the + remunerative employment which was offered them in consequence of + the strike. But this jealousy of woman's labor has not been + entirely confined to workmen. The same feeling has extended itself + through every class of society. Last autumn a large number of + post-office clerks objected to the employment of women in the + Post-Office." + +Driven by want, they had pressed into agricultural labor as well, and +found equal opposition there also. Mr. Fawcett in the same speech calls +attention to the fact of the non-admission of women to the Agricultural +Laborers' Union, on the ground that "the agricultural laborers of the +country do not wish to recognize the labor of women." + +There is more or less reason for such feeling. It arises in part from +the newness of the occasion, since in the story of labor as a whole, +soon to be considered by us in detail, it is only the last fifty years +that have seen women taking an active part. We have already seen that +mobility of labor is one of the first essentials, and that women are far +more limited in this respect than men. + +This brings us to the final question,--Why do men receive a larger wage +than women? The conditions already outlined are in part responsible, but +with them is bound up another even more formidable. + +Custom, the law of many centuries, has so ingrained its thought in the +constitution of men that it is naturally and inevitably taken for +granted that every woman who seeks work is the appendage of some man, +and therefore, partially at least, supported. Other facts bias the +employer against the payment of the same wage. The girl's education is +usually less practical than the boy's; and as most, at least among the +less intelligent class, regard a trade as a makeshift to be used as a +crutch till a husband appears, the work involved is often done +carelessly and with little or no interest. With unintelligent labor +wastage is greater, and wages proportionately lower; and here we have +one chief reason for the difference. Others will disclose themselves as +we go on. + +Unskilled labor then, it is plain, must be in evil case, and it is +unskilled laborers that are in the majority. For men this means pick and +spade at such rates as may be fixed; for women the needle, and its +myriad forms of cheap production; and within these ranks is no sense of +real economic interest, but the fiercest and blindest competition among +themselves. Mere existence is to a large extent all that is possible, +and it is fought for with a fury in strange contrast to the apparent +worth of the thing itself. + +It is this battle with which we have to do; and we must go back to the +dawn of the struggle, and discover what has been its course from the +beginning, before any future outlook can be determined. The theoretical +political economist settles the matter at once. Whatever stress of want +or wrong may arise is met by the formula, "law of supply and demand." If +labor is in excess, it has simply to mobilize and seek fresh channels. +That hard immovable facts are in the way, that moral difficulties face +one at every turn, and that the ethical side of the problem is a matter +of comparatively recent consideration, makes no difference. Let us +discover what show of right is on the economist's side, and how far +present conditions are a necessity of the time. It is women on whom the +facts weigh most heavily, and whose fortunes are most tangled in this +web woven from the beginning of time, and from that beginning drenched +with the tears and stained by the blood of workers in all climes and in +every age. As women we are bound, by every law of justice, to aid all +other women in their struggle. We are equally bound to define the +nature, the necessities, and the limits of such struggle; and it is to +this end that we seek now to discover, through such light as past and +present may cast, the future for women workers the world over. + + + + +I. + +A LOOK BACKWARD. + + +The history of women as wage-earners is actually comprised within the +limits of a few centuries; but her history as a worker runs much farther +back, and if given in full, would mean the whole history of working +humanity. The position of working women all over the civilized world is +still affected not only by the traditions but by the direct inheritance +of the past, and thus the nature of that inheritance must be understood +before passing to any detailed consideration of the subject under its +various divisions. It is the conditions underlying history and rooted in +the facts of human life itself which we must know, since from the +beginning life and work have been practically synonymous, and in the +nature of things remain so. + +In the shadows of that far remote infancy of the world where from +cave-dweller and mere predatory animal man by slow degrees moved toward +a higher development, the story of woman goes side by side with his. For +neither is there record beyond the scattered implements of the stone age +and the rude drawings of the cave-dwellers, from which one may see that +warfare was the chief life of both. The subjugation of the weaker by the +stronger is the story of all time; the "survival of the fittest," the +modern summary of that struggle. + +Naturally, slavery was the first result, and servitude for one side the +outcome of all struggle. Physical facts worked with man's will in the +matter, and early rendered woman subordinate physically and dependent +economically. The origin of this dependence is given with admirable +force and fulness by Professor Lester F. Ward in his "Dynamic +Sociology":[1]-- + +In the struggle for supremacy, "woman at once became property, since +anything that affords its possessor gratification is property. Woman was +capable of affording man the highest of gratifications, and therefore +became property of the highest value. Marriage, under the prevailing +form, became the symbol of transfer of ownership, in the same manner as +the formal seizing of lands. The passage from sexual service to manual +service on the part of women was perfectly natural.... And thus we find +that the women of most savage tribes perform the manual and servile +labor of the camp." + +"The basis of all oppression is economic dependence on the oppressor," +is the word of a very keen thinker and worker in the German Reichstag +to-day; and he adds: "This has been the condition of women in the past, +and it still is so. Woman was the first human being that tasted bondage. +Woman was a slave before the slave existed." + +Science has demonstrated that in all rude races the size and weight of +the brain differ far less according to sex than is the case in civilized +nations. Physical strength is the same, with the advantage at times on +the side of the woman, as in certain African tribes to-day, over which +tribes this fact has given them the mastery. Primeval woman, all +attainable evidence goes to show, started more nearly equal in the +race, but became the inferior of man, when periods of child-bearing +rendered her helpless and forced her to look to him for assistance, +support, and protection. + +When the struggle for existence was in its lowest and most brutal form, +and man respected nothing but force, the disabled member of society, if +man, was disposed of by stab or blow; if woman, and valuable as breeder +of fresh fighters, simply reduced to slavery and passive obedience. +Marriage in any modern sense was unknown. A large proportion of female +infants were killed at birth. Battle, with its recurring periods of +flight or victory, made it essential that every tribe should free itself +from all _impedimenta_. It was easier to capture women by force than to +bring them up from infancy, and thus the childhood of the world meant a +state in which the child had little place, save as a small, fierce +animal, whose development meant only a change from infancy and its +helplessness to boyhood and its capacity for fight. + +Out of this chaos of discordant elements, struggling unconsciously +toward social form, emerged by slow degrees the tribe and the nation, +the suggestions of institutions and laws and the first principles of the +social state. Master and servant, employer and employed, became facts; +and dim suspicions as to economic laws were penetrating the minds of the +early thinkers. The earliest coherent thought on economic problems comes +to us from the Greeks, among whom economic speculation had begun almost +a thousand years before Christ. The problem of work and wages was even +then forming,--the sharply accented difference between theirs and ours +lying in the fact that for Greek and Roman and the earlier peoples in +the Indies economic life was based upon slavery, accepted then as the +foundation stone of the economic social system. + +Up to the day when Greek thought on economic questions formulated, in +Aristotle's "Politics" and "Economics," the first logical statement of +principles, knowledge as to actual conditions for women is chiefly +inferential. When a slave, she was like other slaves, regarded as +soulless; and she still is, under Mohammedanism. As lawful wife she was +physically restrained and repressed, and mentally far more so. A Greek +matron was one degree higher than her servants; but her own sons were +her masters, to whom she owed obedience. A striking illustration of this +is given in the Odyssey. Telemachus, feeling that he has come to man's +estate, invades the ranks of the suitors who had for years pressed about +Penelope, and orders her to retire to her own apartments, which she does +in silence. Yet she was honored above most, passive and prompt obedience +being one of her chief charms. + +Deep pondering brought about for Aristotle a view which verges toward +breadth and understanding, but is perpetually vitiated by the fact that +he regards woman as in no sense an individual existence. If all goes +well and prosperously, women deserve no credit; if ill, they may gain +renown through their husbands, the philosopher remarking: "Neither would +Alcestis have gained such renown, nor Penelope have been deemed worthy +of such praise, had they respectively lived with their husbands in +prosperous circumstances; and it is the sufferings of Admetus and +Ulysses which have given them everlasting fame." + +This is Aristotle's view of women's share in the life they lived; yet +gleams of something higher more than once came to him, and in the +eighth chapter of the "Economics," he adds: "Justly to love her husband +with reverence and respect, and to be loved in turn, is that which +befits a wife of gentle birth, as to her intercourse with her own +husband." Ulysses, in his address to Nausicaa, says:-- + + "There is no fairer thing + Than when the lord and lady with one soul + One home possess." + +Aristotle, charmed at the picture, dilates on this "mutual concord of +husband and wife, ... not the mere agreement upon servile matters, but +that which is justly and harmoniously based on intellect and +prudence."[2] + +Side by side with this picture of a state known to a few only among the +noblest, must be placed the lament of "Iphigenia in Tauris": + + "The condition of women is worse than that of all human beings. If + man is favored by fortune, he becomes a ruler, and wins fame on the + battlefield; and if the gods have ordained him his fortune, he is + the first to die a fair death among his people. But the joys of + woman are narrowly compassed: she is given unasked, in marriage, by + others, often to strangers; and when she is dragged away by the + victor through the smoking ruins, there is none to rescue her." + +Thucydides, who had already expressed the opinion quoted by many a +modern Philistine,--"The wife who deserves the highest praise is she of +whom one hears neither good nor evil outside her own house,"--anticipates +a later verdict, in words that might have been the foundation of +Iphigenia's lament:-- + + "Woman is more evil than the storm-tossed waves, than the heat of + fire, than the fall of the wild cataract! If it was a god who + created woman, wherever he may be, let him know that he is the + unhappy author of the greatest ills." + +This was a summary of the Greek view as a whole. Sparta trained her +girls and boys alike in childhood; but the theories of Lycurgus, +admirable at some points, were brutal and short-sighted at others, and +Sparta demonstrated that the extinction of all desire for beauty or ease +or culture brings with it as disastrous results as its extreme opposite. + +It is Athens that sums up the highest product of Greek thought, and that +represents a civilization which from the purely intellectual side has +had no successor. Yet even here was almost absolute obtuseness and +indifference, on the part of the aristocracy, to the intolerable bondage +of the masses. "The people," as spoken of by their historians and +philosophers, mean simply a middle class, the humblest member of which +owned at least one slave. The slaves themselves, the real "masses," had +no political or social existence more than the horses with which they +were sent to the river to drink. In any scheme of political economy +Aristotle's words, in the first book of the "Politics," were the +keynote: "The science of the master reduces itself to knowing how to +make use of the slave. He is the master, not because he is the owner of +the man, but because he knows how to make use of his property." + +In fact, according to this chivalrous philosopher, the man was the head +of the family in three distinct capacities; for he says: "Now a freeman +governs his slave in the manner the male governs the female, and in +another manner the father governs his child; and these have the +different parts of the soul within them, but in a different manner. Thus +a slave can have no deliberative faculty; a woman but a weak one, a +child an imperfect one." + +That liberty could be their right appears to have been not even +suspected. Yet out from these dumb masses of humanity, regarded less +than brutes, toiling naked under summer sun or in winter cold, chained +in mines, men and women alike, and when the whim came, massacred in +troops, sounded at intervals a voice demanding the liberty denied. It +was quickly stifled. The record is there for all to read; stifled again +and again, from Drimakos the Chian slave to Spartacus at Rome, yet each +protest from this unknown army of martyrs was one step onward toward the +emancipation to come. In each revolution, however small, two parties +confronted each other,--the people who wished to live by the labor of +others, the people who wished to live by their own labor,--the former +denying in word and deed the claim of the latter. + +Such conditions, as we proved in our own experience of slavery, benumb +spiritual perception and make clear vision impossible; and it is plain +that if the mass of workers had neither political nor social place, +woman, the slave of the slave, had even less. Her wage had never been +fixed. That she had right to one had entered no imagination. To the end +of Greek civilization a wage remained the right of free labor only. The +slave, save by special permit of the master, had right only to bare +subsistence; and though men and women toiled side by side, in mine or +field or quarry, there was, even with the abolition of slavery, small +betterment of the condition of women. The degradation of labor was so +complete, even for the freeman, that the most pronounced aversion to +taking a wage ruled among the entire educated class. Plato abhorred a +sophist who would work for wages. A gift was legitimate, but pay +ignoble; and the stigma of asking for and taking pay rested upon all +labor. The abolition of slavery made small difference, for the taint had +sunk in too deeply to be eradicated. A curse rested upon all labor; and +even now, after four thousand years of vacillating progress and +retrogression, it lingers still. + +The ancients were, in the nature of things, all fighters. Even when +slavery for both the Aryan and Semitic races ended, two orders still +faced each other: aristocracy on the one side, claiming the fruits of +labor; the freeman on the other, rebelling against injustice, and +forming secret unions for his own protection,--the beginning of the +co-operative principle in action. + +Thus much for the Greek. Turn now to the second great civilization, the +Roman. During the first centuries after the founding of Rome the Roman +woman had no rights whatever, her condition being as abject as that of +the Grecian. With the growth of riches and of power in the State, more +social but still no legal freedom was accorded. The elder Cato +complained of the allowing of more liberty, and urged that every father +of a family should keep his wife in the proper state of servility; but +in spite of this remonstrance, a movement for the better had begun. +Under the Empire, woman acquired the right of inheritance, but she +herself remained a minor, and could dispose of nothing without the +consent of her guardian. Sir Henry Maine[3] calls attention to the +institution known to the oldest Roman law as the "Perpetual Tutelage of +Women," under which a female, though relieved from her parent's +authority by his decease, continues subject through life. Various +schemes were devised to enable her to defeat ancient rules; and by their +theory of "Natural Law," the jurisconsults had evidently assumed the +equality of the sexes as a principle of their code of equity. + +Few more significant words or words more teeming with importance on the +actual economic condition of women have ever been written than those of +the great jurist whose name counts as almost final authority. "Ancient +law," he writes, "subordinates the woman to her blood relations, while a +prime phenomenon of modern jurisprudence has been her subordination to +her husband." Under the modified laws as to marriage, he goes on to +state, there came a time "when the situation of the Roman female, +unmarried or married, became one of great personal and proprietary +independence; for the tendency of the later law, as already hinted, was +to reduce the power of the guardian to a nullity, while the form of +marriage in fashion conferred on the husband no compensating +superiority." + +These were the final conditions for the Roman, whose power, sapped by +long excesses, was even then trembling to its fall. Already the +barbarians threatened them, and at various points had penetrated the +Empire, showing to the amazed Romans morals absolutely opposed to their +own. The German races contented themselves with one wife; and Tacitus +wrote of them: "Their marriages are very strict. No one laughs at vice, +nor is immorality regarded as a sign of good breeding. The young men +marry late,--they marry equal in years and in health, and the strength +of the parent is transmitted to the children." + +This has a rosier aspect than facts warrant. For the Germans, as for +other barbarians of that epoch, the patriarchal family was the social +order, and the head of the family the lord of the community. Wives, +daughters, and daughters-in-law were excluded from leadership, though in +spite of this there is record of a woman as being occasionally at the +head of a tribe,--a circumstance chronicled by Tacitus with much +disgust. + +While from the West this gigantic wave of powerful but uncultured life +was flowing in, from the East had come another. Early Christianity had +already established itself, and its ascetic teachings made another +element in the contradictions of the time. Up to this date slavery had +been the foundation of society, and any amelioration in the condition of +women had applied only to the patrician class. The Carpenter of Nazareth +set his seal upon the sacredness of labor, and taught first not only the +rights but the immeasurable value of even the weakest human soul. Women +were ardent converts to the new gospel. Hoping with all the wretched for +redemption and deliverance from present evils, they became eager and +devoted adherents. Their missionary zeal was a powerful agent in the +early days of Christianity. "In the first enthusiasm of the Christian +movement," says Principal Donaldson, in his notable article on "Women +among the Early Christians," in the "Fortnightly Review," "women were +allowed to do whatever they were fitted to do." + +All this within a few generations came to an end. Widows of sixty and +over retained the power which had been given, and a new order +arose,--deaconesses who were not allowed marriage. Neither widows nor +deaconesses could teach, the Church being especially jealous in this +respect and in substantial agreement with Sophocles, who said, "Silence +is a woman's ornament." + +Tertullian waxes furious over the thought of a woman learning much, and +still more, venturing to use such acquirement; but heretical Christians +insisted that the respect which Romans had paid to the Vestal Virgin was +her right, and each founder of a new sect had some woman as helper. But +as a rule, her highest post during the first three centuries of +Christianity was that of doorkeeper or message-woman, her economic +dependence upon man being absolute. Social problems remained chiefly +untouched. No objection was made to the existence of slavery. In this +gospel of love the Christian slave became the brother of all, and +kindliness was his right; but their faith demanded contentment with all +present ills, since a glorious future was to compensate them. A +Christian slave-woman was the property of her master, who had absolute +power over her; but no objection seems to have been made to this. + +In the mean time many doubts as to marriage seem to have arisen. Paul +had set his seal on the subjection of women, and Peter followed suit. +Antagonism to marriage grew and intensified, till hardly a Father of +the early Church but fulminated against it. Fiercest, loudest, and most +heeded of all, the voice of Tertullian still sounds down the ages. This +is his address to women: + + "Do you not know that each one of you is an Eve? The sentence of + God on this sex of yours lives in this age; the guilt must of + necessity live too. You are the devil's gateway; you are the + unsealer of that forbidden tree; you are the first deserter of the + divine law; you are she who persuaded him whom the devil was not + valiant enough to attack. You destroyed so easily God's image, man. + On account of your desert, that is, death, even the Son of God had + to die." + +Clement of Alexandria supplemented this verdict with one as bitter, and +Cyprian and the rest echoed the general anathema. As marriage grew thus +more and more degraded, the number of the women in the world steadily +increased, and posterity in like ratio deteriorated. The summary of +Principal Donaldson, in the article already referred to, is the keynote +to the whole situation. + + "The less spiritual classes of the people, the laymen, being taught + that marriage might be licentious, and that it implied an inferior + state of sanctity, were rather inclined to neglect matrimony for + more loose connections; and it was these people alone that then + peopled the world. It was the survival of the unfittest. The noble + men and women, on the other hand, who were dominated by the + loftiest aspirations and exhibited the greatest temperance, + self-control, and virtue, left no children." + +Sir Henry Maine comes to the same conclusion, and deplores the fact of +the loss of liberty for women, adding: "The prevalent state of religious +sentiment may explain why it is that modern jurisprudence, forged in the +furnace of barbarian conquest, and formed by the fusion of Roman +jurisprudence with patriarchal usage, has absorbed among its rudiments +much more than usual of those rules concerning the position of women +which belong peculiarly to an imperfect civilization." And he adds words +which come from a man who is a good Christian as well as a profound +student: "No society which preserves any tincture of Christian +institutions is likely to restore to married women the personal liberty +conferred on them by the middle Roman law." + +Passing now to the Middle Ages, we find conditions curiously involved. +The exaltation of celibacy as the true condition for the religious, and +the consequent enormous increase of convents, placed fresh barriers in +the way of marriage; and the Church having attracted the gentle and +devoted among the women and the more intelligent among the men, the +reproduction of the species was for the most part still left to the +brutal and ignorant, thus leading to a survival of the unfittest to aid +in any advancement of the race. + +The number of women far exceeded that of men, who died not only from +constant feuds and struggles, but from many pestilences, which +naturally, in a day when sanitary laws were unknown, ravaged the +country. Dr. Karl Bücher, commenting on the relation of this fact to the +life of women at that time, notes that from 1336 to 1400 thirty-two +years of plague occurred, forty-two between 1400 and 1500, and thirty +between 1500 and 1600. In addition to the convents, which received the +well-to-do, many towns established Bettina institutions, houses of God, +where destitute women were cared for; but it was impossible for all who +sought admittance to be provided for. + +The feudal system, with its absolute power over its serfs, had driven +thousands into open revolt; and beggars, highwaymen, and robbers made +life perilous and trade impossible. + +The towns banded together for protection of life and industry, and thus +developed the guild of the Middle Ages. Relieved from the fear of +free-booting barons, no less dangerous than the hordes of organized +robbers, these guilds grew populous and powerful. Licentiousness did +not, however, lessen. Luther thundered against it, before his own revolt +came; and the Reformation demanded marriage as the right and privilege +of a people falsely taught its debasing and unholy nature. + +We count the days of chivalry as the paradise of women. Chivalry was for +the few, not the many; for the mass of women was still the utter +degradation of a barbarous past, and the burden of grinding laws +resulting from it. With the Reformation, Germany ceased to be the centre +of European traffic; and Spain, Portugal, Holland, and England took the +lead in quick succession, England retaining it to the present time. +German commerce and trade steadily declined; and as the guilds saw their +importance and profits lessen, they made fresh and more stringent +regulations against all new-comers. Competitors of every order were +refused admission. Heavy taxes on settlement, costly master-examinations, +limitations of every trade to a certain number of masters and journeymen, +forced thousands into dependence from which there was no escape. + +Looking at the time as a whole, one sees clearly how old distinctions +had become obliterated. Wealth found new definitions. The Church had +made poverty the highest state, and insisted, as she does in part +to-day, that the suffering and deprivation of one class were ordained of +God to draw out the sympathies of the other. The rich must save their +souls by alms and endowments, and contentment and acquiescence were to +be the virtues of the poor. + +Insensibly this view was modified. Charlemagne, whose extraordinary +personal power and common-sense moulded men at will, set an example no +monarch had ever set before. He ordered the sale of eggs from his hens +and the vegetables from his gardens; and, scorn it as they might, his +sneering nobles insensibly modified their own thought and action. +Commerce brought the people and products of new countries face to face. +The lines of caste, as sharply defined within the labor world as +without, were gradually dimmed or obliterated. The practice of credit +and exchange, largely the creation of the persecuted Jews, made easy the +interchange of commodities. Saint Louis himself organized industry, and +divided the trades into brotherhoods, put under the protection of the +saints from the tyranny of the barons and of the feudal system which had +weighted all industry. + +Reform began in the year 1257, in the "Institutions" of Saint Louis,--a +set of clear and definite rules for the development of public wealth and +the general good of the people. In their first joy at this escape from +long-continued oppression, many of the towns of the Middle Ages had +admitted women to citizenship on an equal footing with men. In 1160 +Louis le Jeune, of France, granted to Theci, wife of Yves, and to her +heirs, the grand-mastership of the five trades of cobblers, belt-makers, +sweaters, leather-dressers, and purse-makers. In Frankfort and the +Silesian towns there were female furriers; along the middle Rhine many +female bakers were at work. Cologne and Strasburg had female saddlers +and embroiderers of coats-of-arms. Frankfort had female tailors, +Nuremburg female tanners, and in Cologne were several skilled female +goldsmiths. + +Twelve hundred years of struggle toward some sort of justice seemed +likely at this point to be lost, for with the opening of the thirteenth +century each and all of the guilds proceeded to expel every woman in the +trades. It is a curious fact in the story of all societies approaching +dissolution, that its defenders adopt the very means best adapted to +hasten this end. Each corporation dreaded an increase of numbers, and +restricted marriages, and reduced the number of independent citizens. +Many towns placed themselves voluntarily under the rule of princes who +in turn were trying to subjugate the nobility, and so protected the +towns and accorded all sorts of rights and privileges. + +The Thirty Years' War, from 1618 to 1648, decimated the German +population, and reduced still further the possibility of marriage for +many. Forced out of trades, women had only the lowest, most menial forms +of trade labor as resort, and their position was to all appearance +nearly hopeless. + +In spite of this, certain trades were practically woman's. Embroidery of +church vestments and hangings had been brought to the highest +perfection. Lace-making had been known from the most ancient times; and +Colbert, the famous financier and minister for Louis XIV., gave a +privilege to Madame Gilbert, of Alençon, to introduce into France the +manufacture of both Flemish and Venetian Point, and placed in her hands +for the first expenses 150,000 francs. The manufacture spread over every +country of Europe, though in 1640 the Parliament of Toulouse sought to +drive out women from the employment, on the plea that the domestic were +her only legitimate occupations. A monk came to the rescue, and +demonstrated that spinning, weaving, and all forms of preparing and +decorating stuffs had been hers from the beginning of time, and thus for +a season averted further action. + +The monk had learned his lesson better than most of the workmen who +sought to curtail woman's opportunities. In the chronicles of that time +there is full description of the workshops which formed part of every +great estate, that known as the _gynæceum_ being devoted to the women +and children, who spun, wove, made up, and embroidered stuffs of every +order. The Abbey of Niederalteich had such a _gynæceum_, in which +twenty-two women and children worked, while that of Stephenswert +employed twenty-four; co-operation in such labor having been found more +advantageous than isolated work. Before the tenth century these +workshops had been established at many points. If part of a feudal +manor, the wife of its lord acted often as overseer; if attached to some +abbey, a general overlooker filled the same place. In the convents +manual labor came into favor; and the spinning, weaving, and dyeing of +stuffs occupied a large part of the life. + +Apprenticeship for both male and female was finally well established, +and many women became the successful heads of prosperous industries. The +wage was, as it is to-day, the merest pittance; but any wage whatever +was an advance upon the conditions of earlier servitude. + +Life had small joy for women in those days we call the "good old +times." Take the married woman, the house-mother of that period. She not +only lived in the strictest retirement, but her duties were so complex +and manifold that, to quote Bebel, "a conscientious housewife had to be +at her post from early in the morning till late at night in order to +fulfil them. It was not only a question of the daily household duties +that still fall to the lot of the middle-class housekeeper, but of many +others from which she has been entirely freed by the modern development +of industry, and the extension of means of transport. She had to spin, +weave, and bleach; to make all the linen and clothes, to boil soap, to +make candles and brew beer. In addition to these occupations, she +frequently had to work in the field or garden and to attend to the +poultry and cattle. In short, she was a veritable Cinderella, and her +solitary recreation was going to church on Sunday. Marriages only took +place within the same social circles; the most rigid and absurd spirit +of caste ruled everything, and brooked no transgression of its law. The +daughters were educated on the same principles; they were kept in +strict home seclusion; their mental development was of the lowest order, +and did not extend beyond the narrowest limits of household life. And +all this was crowned by an empty and meaningless etiquette, whose part +it was to replace mind and culture, and which made life altogether, and +especially that of a woman, a perfect treadmill of labor." + +How was it possible that a condition as joyless and fruitless as this +should be the accepted ideal of womanhood? Already the question is +answered. For ages her identity had been merged in that of the man by +whose side she worked with no thought of recompense. She toiled early +and late, filling the office of general helper on the same terms; and +even to-day, under our own eyes, the wife of many a farmer goes through +her married life often not touching five dollars in cash in an entire +year. + +Submissiveness, clinging affection, humility, all the traits accounted +distinctively feminine, and the natural and ever-increasing result of +steady suppression of all stronger ones stood in the way of any +resistance. Intellectual qualities, forever at a discount, repressed +development save in rarest cases. The mass of women had neither power +nor wish to protest; and thus the few traces we find of their earliest +connection with labor show us that they accepted bare subsistence as all +to which they were entitled, and were grateful if they escaped the +beating which the lower order of Englishman still regards it as his +right to give. Even in our own country and our own time this theory is +not altogether extinct. The papers only recently contained an account of +the brutal beating of a woman by a man. The woman in remonstrating +cried, "You have no right to beat me! I am not your wife!" + +During the Middle Ages, and indeed well into the nineteenth century, +possession of property by women was confined to the unmarried, the +entire control and practical ownership passing to the husband upon +marriage. + +Change comes at last to even the most fossilized thought. One by one, +social institutions clung to with fiercest tenacity fell away. Barbaric +independence had followed Greek and Roman slavery, which in turn was +succeeded by feudal servitude, to reappear once more in the +affranchised communes. Each experiment had its season, and sunk into the +darkness of the past, to give place to a new one, which must transmit to +posterity the principal and interest of all preceding ones. But though +progress when taken in the mass is plain, the individual years in each +generation show small trace of it. Even as late as the sixteenth +century, the workman fared little better than the brutes. Erasmus tells +us that their houses had no chimneys, and their floors were bare ground; +while Fortescue, who travelled in France at the same time, reports a +misery and degradation which have had vivid portraiture in Taine's +"Ancien Régime." + +A flood of wealth poured in on the discovery of the New World. The +invention of gunpowder put a new face upon warfare, and that of printing +made possible the cheap and wide dissemination of long-smouldering +ideas. Economic problems perplexed every country, and on all sides +methods of solving them were put in action. Sully, who found in Henry +IV. of France an ardent supporter of his wishes for her prosperity, had +altered and systematized taxes, and introduced a multitude of reforms in +general administration; and later, Colbert did even more notable work. +The Italian Republics had made their noble code of commercial rules and +maxims. The Dutch had given to the world one of the most wonderful +examples of what man may accomplish by sheer pluck and persistent hard +work, and commercial institutions founded on a principle of liberty; and +neither the terror of the Spanish rule nor the jealousy of England had +destroyed her power. Credit, banking, all modern forms of exchange were +coming into use; and agriculture, which the feudal system had kept in a +state of torpor, awakened and became a productive power. + +Side by side with this were gigantic speculations, like that of John Law +and the East India Company, with the helpless ruin of its collapse. The +time was ripe for the formulation of some system of economic laws; and +two men who had long pondered them, De Gournay and Quesnay, made the +first attempt to explain the meaning of wealth and its distribution. +After Quesnay and his system, still holding honorable place, came +Turgot; after Turgot, Adam Smith; and thenceforward halt is impossible, +and economic science marches on with giant strides. + +In all this progress woman had shared many of the material benefits, but +her industrial position had altered but slightly. Driven from the +trades, she had passed into the ranks of agricultural laborers; and +Thorold Rogers, in his "Work and Wages," records her early work in this +direction. France held the most enlightened view, and even then women +took active part in business, and had a position unknown in any other +country; but they had no place in any system of the economists, nor did +their labor count as a force to be enumerated. Slowly machinery was +making its way, feared and hated by the lower order of workers, eyed +distrustfully and uncertainly by the higher. Men and women struggling +for bare subsistence had become active competitors, till, in 1789, a +general petition entitled "Petition of Women of the Third Estate to the +King" was signed by hundreds of French workers, who, made desperate by +starvation and underpay, demanded that every business which included +spinning, weaving, sewing, or knitting should be given to women +exclusively. Side by side with the wave of political revolution, +strongest for France and America, came the industrial revolution; and +the opening of the nineteenth century brought with it the myriad changes +we are now to face. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Dynamic Sociology, or Applied Social Science as based upon Statical +Sociology and the Less Complex Sciences. By Lester F. Ward, A.M., vol. +i. p. 649. + +[2] Economics, book i. chap. ix. + +[3] Ancient Law, p. 147. + + + + +II. + +EMPLOYMENTS FOR WOMEN DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD, AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF +THE FACTORY. + + +For nearly a century and a half, dating from the landing of the Pilgrims +on Plymouth Rock, the condition of laboring women was that of the same +class in all struggling colonies. There were practically no women +wage-earners, save in domestic service, where a home and from thirty to +a hundred dollars a year was accounted wealth, the latter sum being +given in a few instances to the housekeepers in great houses. Each +family represented a commonwealth, and its women gave every energy to +the crowding duties of a daily life filled with manifold occupations. + +The farmer--for all were farmers--was often blacksmith, shoemaker, and +carpenter, and more or less proficient in every trade whose offices were +called for in the family life. The farmer's wife spun and wove the +cloth he wore and the linen that made his household furnishing, and was +dyer and dresser, brewer and baker, seamstress, milliner, and +dressmaker. The quickness, adaptiveness to new conditions, and the +fertility of resource which are recognized as distinguishing the +American, were born of the colonial struggle, especially of the final +one which separated us forever from English rule. + +The wage of the few women found in labor outside the home was gauged by +that which had ruled in England. For unskilled labor, as that employed +occasionally in agriculture, this had been from one shilling and +sixpence for ordinary field work to two shillings a week paid in haying +and harvest time. For hoeing corn or rough weeding there is record of +one shilling per week, and this is the usual wage for old women. To this +were added various allowances which have gradually fallen into disuse. A +full record of these and of rates in general will be found in "Six +Centuries of Work and Wages."[4] + +Unskilled labor during the whole colonial period--meaning by this such +labor as that of the men who sawed wood, dug ditches, or mended roads, +mixed mortar for the mason, carried boards to the carpenter, or cut hay +in harvest time--brought a wage of seldom more than two shillings a day, +fifteen shillings a week making a man the envy of his fellows, while six +or seven was the utmost limit for women of the same order. + +On this pittance they lived as they could. Sand did duty as carpet for +the floor. The cupboard knew no china, and the table no glass. Coal and +matches were unknown; they had never seen a stove. The meals of coarsest +food were eaten from wooden or pewter dishes. Fresh meat was seldom +eaten more than once a week. A pound of salt pork was tenpence, and corn +three shillings a bushel. Clothing was as coarse as the food, and +imprisonment for the slightest debt was the shadow hanging over every +family where illness or any other cause had hindered earning. Boys and +girls in the poorer families were employed by the owners of cattle to +watch and keep them within bounds, countless troubles arising from their +roaming over the unfenced fields. Andover, Mass., being from the +beginning of a thrifty turn of mind, passed, soon after the founding of +the town, an ordinance which still stands on the town records:-- + + "The Court did herupon order and decree that in every towne the + chosen men are to take care of such as are sett to keep cattle, + that they may be sett to some other employment withall, as spinning + upon the rock, knitting and weaving tape, &c." + +Spinning-classes were also formed; the General Court of Massachusetts +ordering these in 1656, this being part of the general effort to begin +some form of manufactures. But fishing to load ships, and shipbuilding +to carry cured fish absorbed the energies of the growing population; and +these vessels brought textiles and manufactured goods from the cheapest +markets everywhere and anywhere.[5] + +These "homespun" industries soon showed a tendency toward division. By +1669 much weaving was done outside the home as custom work; and there is +record of one Gabriel Harris who died in 1684 leaving four looms and +tacklings and a silk loom as part of the small fortune he had +accumulated in this way.[6] His six children and some hired women +assisted in the work. In 1685 Joseph, the son of Roger Williams, entered +in an account book now extant,[7] a credit to "Sarah badkuk [Babcock], +for weven and coaming wisted." This work was, however, chiefly in the +hands of men. + +The records of Pepperell, Mass., show that many women saved their pin +money, and sent out little ventures in the ships built at home and +sailing to all ports with fish. These ventures included articles of +clothing, embroideries, and anything that it seemed might be made to +yield some return. There were also women of affairs, some of whom took +charge of large industries. Thus Weeden, in his "Economic and Social +History of New England," quotes from an interesting memorandum left by +Madam Martha Smith, a widow of St. George's Manor, Long Island,[8] which +shows her practical ability. In January, 1707, "my company" killed a +yearling whale, and made twenty-seven barrels of oil. The record gives +her success for the year, and the tax she paid to the authorities at New +York,--fifteen pounds and fifteen shillings, a twentieth part of her +year's gains. + +Other women oversaw the curing of the fish; but there is no record of +the wage beyond the general one which for the earliest days of the +colony gives rates for women as from four to eight pence a day without +food. These rates followed almost literally those of England at that +time. Half of the day's earnings were accounted an equivalent for diet, +and contractors for feeding gangs in agriculture, among sailors, or +wherever the system was adopted, allowed seven and one-half pence per +day a head for men and women alike. Women servants received ten +shillings a year wages, and an allowance of four shillings additional +for clothing. The working day still remained as fixed by the law late in +the fifteenth century,--from five A.M. to eight P.M., from March to +September, with half an hour for breakfast, and an hour and a half for +dinner. + +These rates gradually altered, but for women hardly at all, the wages +during the eighteenth century ranging from four to six pounds a year. +The colony, however, gave opportunities unknown to the mother country, +and gardening and the cultivation of small vegetables seem to have +fallen much into the hands of women.[9] They had studied the best +methods for hotbeds, and grew early vegetables in these, the first +record of this being in 1759. + +Gloves were by this time made at home, buttons covered, and many small +industries conducted, all connected with the manufacture and making up +of clothing. Patriotic spinning occupied many; and the "Boston +News-Letter" has it that often seventy linen-wheels were employed at one +gathering. The agitation caused by the Stamp Act turned the attention of +all women to the production of cloth as a domestic business. Worcester, +Mass., in 1780 formed an association for the spinning and weaving of +cotton, and a jenny was bought by subscription.[10] + +Prices by this time had risen, and in 1776 the Andover records mention +that a Miss Holt was paid eighteen shillings for spinning seventy-two +skeins, and seven shillings eleven pence for weaving nineteen yards of +cloth. Women generally could spin two skeins of linen yarn a day; but +there is record of one, a Miss Eleanor Fry of East Greenwich, R.I., who +spun seven skeins and one knot in one day,--an amount sufficient to +make twelve large lawn handkerchiefs such as were then imported from +England. + +Within four years another Rhode Island family of Newport are recorded in +1768 as having "manufactured nine hundred and eighty yards of woolen +cloth, besides two coverlids (coverlets), and two bed-ticks, and all the +stocking yarn of the family." + +The Council of East Greenwich fixed prices at that time at rates which +seem purely arbitrary and are certainly incomprehensible. Thus for +spinning linen or worsted, five or six skeins to the pound, the price +was not to exceed sixpence per skein of fifteen knots, with finer work +in proportion. Carded woollen yarn was the same per skein. Weaving plain +flannel or tow or linen brought fivepence per yard; common worsted and +linen, one penny a yard; and other linens in like proportion.[11] + +Silk growing and weaving had been the result of the silkworm cocoons +sent over by James the First, who offered bounties of money and tobacco +for spun and woven silk according to weight. Three women were famous +before the Revolution as silk growers and weavers,--Mrs. Pinckney, Grace +Fisher, and Susanna Wright; and at all points where the mulberry-tree +was indigenous or could be made to grow, fortune was regarded as +assured. The project failed; but the efforts then made paved the way for +present experiment, and even better success than that already attained. + +The manufacture of straw goods, amounting now to many million dollars +yearly, owes its origin to a woman,--Miss Betsey Metcalf, who in 1789, +when hardly more than a child, discovered the secret of bleaching and +braiding the meadow grass of Dedham, her native town. Others were +taught, and a regular business of supplying the want for summer hats and +bonnets was organized, and has grown to its present large proportions. + +At this period women widowed by the fortune of war or forced by the +absence of all the male members of the family on the field, were often +found in business. The mother of Thomas Perkins of Salem, one of the +great American merchants, left widowed in 1778, took her husband's place +in the counting-house, managed business, despatched ships, sold +merchandise, wrote letters, all with such commanding energy that the +solid Hollanders wrote to her as to a man.[12] The record of one day's +work of Mary Moody Emerson, born in 1777, reads:-- + + "Rose before light every morn; read Butler's Analogy; commented on + the Scriptures; read in a little book Cicero's Letters--a few + touches of Shakespeare--washed, carded, cleaned house and + baked."[13] + +There is another woman no less busy, a member of the distinguished Nott +family, who did work in her house and helped her boys in the fields. In +midwinter, with neither money nor wool in the house, one of the boys +required a new suit. The mother sheared the half-grown fleece from a +sheep, and in a week had spun, wove, and made it into clothing, the +sheep being protected from cold by a wrappage made of braided straw. + +Details like this would be out of place here did they not serve to +accent the fact of the concentration of industries under the home roof, +and the necessity that existed for this. But a change was near at hand, +and it dates from the first bale of cotton grown in the country. + +In the early years of the eighteenth century not a manufacturing town +existed in New England, and for the whole country it was much the same. +A few paper-mills turned out paper hardly better in quality than that +which comes to us to-day about our grocery packages. In a foundry or two +iron was melted into pigs or beaten into bars and nails. Cocked hats and +felts were made in one factory. Cotton was hardly known.[14] De Bow, in +his "Industrial Resources of the United States," tells us that a little +had been sent to Liverpool just before the battle of Lexington; but +linen took the place of all cotton fabrics, and was spun at every hearth +in New England. + +In the eight bales of cotton, grown on a Georgia plantation, sent over +to Liverpool in 1784, and seized at the Custom House on the ground that +so much cotton could not be produced in America, but must come from +some foreign country, lay the seed of a new movement in labor, in which, +from the beginning, women have taken larger part than men. By 1800 +cotton had proved itself a staple for the Southern States, and even the +second war with England hardly hindered the planters. In 1791 two +million pounds had been raised; in 1804 forty-eight million; the +invention of the cotton-gin, in 1793, stimulating to the utmost the +enthusiasm of the South over this new road to fortune. + +It is with the birth of the cotton industry that the work and wages of +women begin to take coherent shape; and the history of the new +occupation divides itself roughly into three periods. The first includes +the ten or fifteen years prior to 1790, and may be called the +experimental period; the second covers the time from 1790 to 1811, in +which the spinning-system was established and perfected; and the third +the years immediately following 1814, in which came the introduction of +the power loom and the growth of the modern factory system. + +The experimental stage found an enthusiastic worker in the person of +Tench Coxe, known often as the "Father of American Industries," whose +interest in the beginning was philanthropic rather than commercial. Bent +upon employment for idle and destitute workmen, he exhibited in +Philadelphia in 1775 the first spinning-jenny seen in America. He had +already incorporated the "United Company of Philadelphia for Promoting +American Manufactures," and they at once secured the machine and made +ready to operate it. Four hundred women were very speedily at work at +hand spinning and weaving; and though the company presently turned its +attention to woollen fabrics, a large proportion of women was still +employed. + +Till the building of the great mill at Waltham, Mass., in which every +form of the improved machinery found place, spinning was the only work +of the factories. All the yarn was sent out among the farmers to be +woven into cloth, the current prices paid for this being from six to +twelve cents a yard. American cotton was poor, and the product of a +quality inferior to the coarsest and heaviest-unbleached of to-day; but +experiment soon altered all this. + +To manufacture the raw product in this country was a necessity. For +England this had begun in 1786; but she guarded so jealously all +inventions bearing upon it that none found their way to us. Our +machinery was therefore of the most imperfect order, the work chiefly of +two young Scotch mechanics. In 1788 a company was formed at Providence, +R.I., for making "homespun cloth," their machinery being made in part +from drawings from English models. Carding and roving were all done by +hand labor; and the spinning-frame, with thirty-two spindles, differed +little from a common jenny, and was worked by a crank turned by hand. + +Even at this stage England was determined that America should have +neither machinery nor tools, and still held to the act passed in 1789 +which enforced a penalty of five hundred pounds for any one who +exported, or tried to export, "blocks, plates, engines, tools, or +utensils used in or which are proper for the preparing or finishing of +the calico, cotton, muslin, or linen printing manufacture, or any part +thereof." + +Nothing could have more stimulated American invention; but there were +many struggles before the thought finally came to all interested, that +it might be possible to condense the whole operation with all its +details under one roof,--a project soon carried out. + +Thus far all had been tentative; but the building in 1790 at Pawtucket, +R.I., of the first large factory with improved machinery gave the +industry permanent place. Another mill was erected in the same State in +1795, and two more in Massachusetts in 1802 and 1803. In the three +succeeding years ten more were built in Rhode Island and one in +Connecticut, altogether fifteen in number, working about 8,000 spindles +and producing in a year some 300,000 pounds of yarn. At the end of the +year 1809 eighty-seven additional mills had been put up, making about +80,000 spindles in operation. Eight hundred spindles employed forty +persons,--five men and thirty-five women and children. + +The first authoritative record as to the progress of the manufacture, +numbers employed, etc., was made in a report to the House of +Representatives in the spring session of 1816. In the previous year +90,000 bales had been manufactured as against 1,000 in 1800. The capital +invested was $40,000, and the relative number of males and females +employed is also recorded,-- + + Males employed from the age of 17 and upward 10,000 + Women and female children 66,000 + Boys under 17 years of age 24,000 + +For these women spinning was the only work. Hand-looms still did all the +weaving, nor was it possible to obtain any plan of the power +looms,--then in use in England, and a recent invention. Another mill had +been built in 1795; and thus the first definite and profitable +occupation for women in this country dates back to the close of the +eighteenth and the early years of the nineteenth century, the history of +its phases having been written by Tench Coxe. The village tailoress had +long gone from house to house, earning in the beginning but a shilling a +day, and this sometimes paid in kind; and in towns a dressmaker or +milliner was secure of a livelihood. But work for the many was unknown +outside of household life; and thus wage rates vary with locality, and +are in most cases inferential rather than matter of record. + +Cotton would seem, from the beginning of manufacturing interests, to +have monopolized New England; but other industries had been very early +suggested. In May, 1640, the General Court of Massachusetts made an +order for the encouragement by bounties of the manufacture of linen and +woollen as well as cotton. In 1638 a company of Yorkshiremen came over +and settled in Rowley, Mass., where they built the first fulling-mill in +the United States. Fustians and the ordinary homespun cloth were woven; +but few women were employed, the work being far heavier than the weaving +of cotton. It was hoped that broadcloths as good as those imported could +be made; but American wool proved less susceptible of high finish, +though of better wearing quality than the English. Various grades of +cloth, with shawls, were manufactured; but the growth of the industry +was slow, and constantly hampered by heavy duties and much interference. +In 1770 the entire graduating class at Harvard College were dressed in +black broadcloth made in this country, the weaving of which had been +done in families. Yarn was sent to these after the wool had been made +ready in the mills, and the census of the United States for 1810 gives +the number of yards woven in this way as 9,528,266. + +What proportion of women were engaged we have no means of knowing; but +the census of 1860 shows that New England had 65 per cent of the total +number then at work. The cotton manufacture had but 38 per cent of males +as against 62 per cent of females; while in woollen, males were 60 per +cent. In New England 10,743 women were in woollen-mills; in the Middle +States, 4,540; and in the South, 689. For the West no returns are given. +Many more would be included in the Southern returns were it not that +most of the weaving is still a home industry, this resulting from the +sparseness and scattered nature of the population. + +Knitting formed one of the earliest means of earning for women, the +demand for hose of every description being beyond the power of the +family to supply. Knitting-machines of various orders were in use on the +Continent, and had been brought into England; but any attempt to employ +them here was for a long time unsuccessful. Yarn was spun especially for +this purpose, usually with a double thread, and in the year 1698 +Martha's Vineyard exported 9,000 pairs. The German and English settlers +of Pennsylvania brought many handknitting machines with them, and were +rivals of New England; but Virginia led, and the census of 1810 credits +her with over half of the hand-knit pairs exported, Connecticut coming +next. In Pennsylvania the women earned half a crown a pair for the long +hose, and this in the opening of the eighteenth century; and the State +still retains it as a household industry. The percentage for the United +States of women engaged in it by the last census is 61,100. + +The early stages of the industry employed very few women, the processes +involving too heavy labor; and out of 159 workers in the first mills, +only eight were women, these being employed in carding and fulling. +According to our last census, 10,743 are employed in New England mills +alone; but the proportion remains far below that of the cotton-mills, +and at many points in the South and remote territories it is still a +household industry in which all share. + +Until well on in the nineteenth century the factory and the domestic +system were still interwoven, nor had there been intelligent definition +of the actual meaning of this system until Ure formulated one:-- + + "The factory system in technology is simply the combined operation + of many orders of work-people in tending with assiduous skill a + series of productive machines, continuously impelled by a central + power."[15] + +A central power controlling an army of workers had been the dream of all +mechanicians; and Ure formulated this also:-- + + "It is the idea of a vast automaton, composed of various mechanical + and intellectual organs, acting in uninterrupted concert for the + production of a common object,--all of them being subordinate to a + self-regulated moving force." + +This was the result brought about by the gradual extension of the +factory system. The objections made from the beginning, and still made, +with such answers as experience has suggested, find place later on. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] By Thorold Rogers. + +[5] Weeden's Economic and Social History of New England, vol. i. p. 304. + +[6] Caulkins, p. 273. + +[7] Rider's Book Notes, vol. ii. p. 7. + +[8] Boston News-Letter, Jan. 25, 1773. + +[9] Boston News-Letter, Jan. 25, 1773. + +[10] Barry's Massachusetts, vol. xi. p. 193. + +[11] Weeden's Social and Economic History of New England, vol. ii. p. +790. + +[12] Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1798-1835, p. +353. + +[13] Atlantic Monthly, December, 1883, p. 773. + +[14] For further detail, see McMaster's History of the United States, +vol. i. p. 62. + +[15] Philosophy of Manufactures, by Andrew Ure, M.D., p. 13. + + + + +III. + +EARLY ASPECTS OF FACTORY LABOR FOR WOMEN. + + +Lack not only of machinery but of any facilities for its manufacture +hampered and delayed the progress of the factory movement in the United +States; but these difficulties were at last overcome, and in 1813 +Waltham, Mass., saw what is probably the first factory in the world that +combined under one roof every process for converting raw cotton into +finished cloth. + +Manufacturing, even when most hampered by the burden of taxation then +imposed and the heavy duties and other restrictions following the long +war, began under happier conditions than have ever been known elsewhere. +Unskilled labor had smallest place, and of this class New England had +for long next to no knowledge. Her workers in the beginning were +recruited from the outlying country; and the women and girls who +flocked into Lowell, as in the earliest years they had flocked into +Pawtucket, were New-Englanders by birth and training. This meant not +only quickness and deftness of handling, but the conscientious filling +of every hour with the utmost work it could be made to hold. + +The life of the Lowell factory-girls has full record in the little +magazine called the "Lowell Offering," published by them for many years. +Lucy Larcom has also lately given her "Recollections," one of the most +valuable and characteristic pictures of the life from year to year, and +it tallies with the summary made by Dickens in his "American Notes." +Beginning as a child of eleven, whose business was simply to change +bobbins, she received a wage of one dollar a week, with one dollar and a +quarter for board, the allowance made by most of the corporations while +the system of boarding-houses in connection with the factories lasted. +The oldest corporation, known as the Merrimack, introduced this system, +and for many years retained oversight of all in its employ. With +increasing competition and the increase of the foreign element, +alteration of methods began, and Lowell lost its characteristic +features. + +In the beginning the conditions of factory labor for New England at the +point where work was initiated, were, as compared with those of England, +almost idyllic. The Lowell workers came from New England farms, many of +them for the sake of being near libraries and schools, and thus securing +larger opportunities for self-culture. + +The agricultural class then outranked merchants and mechanics. There +were no class distinctions, and the workers shared in the best social +life of Lowell. The factory was an episode rather than a career; and the +buildings themselves were kept as clean as the nature of the work +admitted, growing plants filling the windows; and the swift-flowing +Merrimac turning the wheels. + +In 1841 the girls had to their credit in the savings-banks established +by the corporations over one hundred thousand dollars; and many of them +shared their earnings with brothers who sought a college education, or +lifted the mortgages on the home farms. At the International Council of +Women, held in Washington in 1888, Mrs. H.H. Robinson, after telling how +she entered the Lowell Mills as a "doffer," when a child, gave a +brilliant description of the intellectual life and interests of the +workers. She remained in the mill till married, and said: "I consider +the Lowell Mills as my _alma mater_, and am as proud of them as most +girls of the colleges in which they have been educated." + +With the growth of the factory system under very different conditions +from that of Lowell, there were as different results. Factories had +risen, at every available point in New England, all of them thronged by +women and girls. But great cities were still unknown; and the first +census, that for 1790, showed that hardly four per cent of the people +were in them. The tide set toward the factory towns as strongly as it +now does toward the cities, though factory labor for the most part was +of almost incredible severity. The length of a day's labor varied from +twelve to fifteen hours, the mills of New England running generally +thirteen hours a day the year round. Several mills are on record, the +day in one of which was fourteen hours, and in the other fifteen hours +and ten minutes, this latter being the Eagle Mill at Griswold, Conn.; +and previous to 1858 there were many others where hours were equally +long. Work began at five in the morning, or at some points a little +later; and there is a known instance of a mill in Paterson, N.J., in +which women and children were required to be at work by half-past four +in the morning. + +In most of the New England factories, the operatives were taxed for the +support of religion. The Lowell Company dismissed them if often absent +from church, and their lives without and within the factory were +regulated as minutely as if in the cloister. Women and children were +urged on by the cowhide; and the first inspection of the factories, +notably in Connecticut, revealed a state of things hardly less harrowing +than that which had brought about the passage of the first Factory Acts +in England. At the same time wages were very inadequate. In twelve +hours' daily labor the weavers of Baltimore were able to earn from sixty +to seventy cents a day, the wage of the women being half or a third this +amount; and they declared it not enough to pay the expenses of schooling +for the children. + +With the increase of production and the growing competition of +manufacturers, wages were steadily forced downward. Less and less +attention was paid to the comfort or well-being of the operatives, and +many factories were unfit working-places for human beings. Overseers, +whose duty it was to keep up the utmost rate of speed, flogged children +brutally; and the treatment was so barbarous that a boy of twelve at +Mendon, Mass., drowned himself to escape factory labor. Windows were +often nailed down, and their raising forbidden even in the hottest +weather. + +The most formidable and trustworthy arraignment of these conditions is +to be found in a pamphlet printed in 1834, the full title of which is as +follows: "An Address to the Working-men of New England, on the State of +Education, and on the Condition of the Producing Classes in Europe and +America." + +The author of this pamphlet, a mechanic of some education, stirred to +the heart by the abuses he saw, made an exhaustive examination of the +New England mills; and he gives many details of the hours of labor, the +wages of employees, and the abuses of power which he found everywhere +among unscrupulous manufacturers. The principal value of his work lies +in this, and in his reprint of original documents like the "General +Rules of the Lowell Manufacturing Company," and "The Conditions on which +Help is hired by the Cocheco Manufacturing Company, Dover, N.H." These +conditions were so oppressive that in several cases revolt took +place,--usually unsuccessful, as no organization existed among the +women, and they were powerless to effect any marked change for the +better. + +By 1835 chiefly the poorer order of workers filled the mills, but even +skilled labor made constant complaint of cruelties and injustices. Not +only were there distressing cases of cruelty to children, but outrage of +every kind had been found to exist among the women workers, whose wage +had been lowered till nearly at the point known to-day as the +subsistence point. Parents then, as now, gave false returns of age, and +caught greedily at the prospect of any earning by their children; and +any specific enactments as to schooling, etc., were still delayed. + +These evils were not confined to New England, but existed at every point +where manufacturing was carried on. But New England was first to decide +on the necessity for some organized remonstrance and resistance, and +the first meeting to this end was held in February, 1831. Of this there +is no record; but the second, held in September, 1832, is given in the +first "Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor," issued in 1870. +Boston sent thirty delegates, and the workingmen of New York City +addressed a letter to the workers of the United States, showing that the +same causes of unrest and agitation existed at all points. + +"These evils," they said, "arise from the moral obliquity of the +fastidious, and the cupidity of the avaricious. They consist in an +illiberal opinion of the worth and rights of the laboring classes, an +unjust estimation of their moral, physical, and intellectual powers, and +unwise misapprehension of the effects which would result from the +cultivation of their minds and the improvement of their condition, and +an avaricious propensity to avail of their laborious services, at the +lowest possible rate of wages for which they can be induced to work." + +The evils protested against here did not lessen as time went on. Irish +emigration had begun in 1836, and speedily drove out American labor, +which was in any case insufficient for the need. A lowered wage was the +immediate consequence, the foreigner having no standard of living that +included more than bare necessaries. At this distance from the struggle +it is easy to see that the new life was educational for the emigrant, +and also forced the American worker into new and often broader channels. +But for those involved such perception was impossible, and the +new-comers were regarded with something like hatred. English and German +emigrants followed, to give place in their turn to the French-Canadian, +who at present in great degree monopolizes the mills. + +In the beginning little or no effort was made toward healthful +conditions of work and life, or more than the merest hint of education. +England, in which far worse conditions had existed, had, early in the +century, seen the necessity of remedial legislation. But though the +first English Factory Act was passed in 1802, it was not till 1844 that +women and children were brought under its provisions. The first one, +known as the Health and Morals Act, was the result of the discovery made +first by voluntary, then by appointed inspectors, that neither health +nor morals remained for factory-workers, and that hopeless deterioration +would result unless government interfered at once. Hideous epidemic +diseases, an extinction of any small natural endowment of moral sense, +and a daily life far below that of the brutes, had showed themselves as +industries and the attendant competition developed; and the story in all +its horror may be read in English Bluebooks and the record of government +inspectors, and made accessible in the works of Giffen, Toynbee, Engels, +and other names identified with reform. + +The bearing of these acts upon legislation in our country is so strong +that a summary of the chief points must find mention here. In the Act of +1802 the hours of work, which had been from fourteen to sixteen hours a +day, were fixed at twelve. All factories were required to be frequently +whitewashed, and to have a sufficient number of windows, though these +provisions applied only to apprenticed operatives. In 1819 an act +forbade the employment of any child under nine years of age, and in 1825 +Saturday was made a half-holiday. Night work was forbidden in 1831, and +for all under eighteen the working day was made twelve hours, with nine +for Saturday. + +By 1847 public opinion demanded still more change for the better, and +the day was made ten hours for working women and young persons between +thirteen and eighteen years, though they were allowed to work between +six A.M. and six P.M., with an allowance of an hour and a half at +mealtime. Our own evils, while in many points far less, still were in +the same direction. Here and there a like evasion of responsibility and +of the provisions of the law was to be found. Even when a corps of +inspectors were appointed, they were bribed, hoodwinked, and generally +put off the track, while the provisions in regard to the shielding of +dangerous machinery, cleanliness, etc., were ignored by every possible +method. Were law obeyed and its provisions thoroughly carried out, +English factory operatives would be better protected than those of any +other country, America not accepted. Sanitary conditions are required to +be good. All factories are to be kept clean, as any effluvia arising +from closets, etc., renders the owners liable to a fine. The generation +of gas, dust, etc., must be neutralized by the inventions for this +purpose, so that operatives may not be harmed thereby. Any manufacturer +allowing machinery to remain unprotected is to be prosecuted; and there +are minute regulations forbidding any child or young person to clean or +walk between the fixed and traversing part of any self-acting machine +while in motion. At least two hours must be allowed for meals, nor are +these to be taken in any room where manufacturing is going on. + +For this country such provisions were long delayed, nor have we even now +the necessary regulations as to the protection of machinery. In the +early days, though many mills were built by men who sought honestly to +provide their employees with as many alleviations as the nature of the +work admitted, many more were absolutely blind to anything but their own +interest. With the disabilities resulting we are to deal at another +point. It is sufficient to say here, that the struggle for +factory-workers became more and more severe, and has remained so to the +present day. + +The increase of women workers in this field had been steady. In 1865 +women operatives in the factories of Massachusetts were 32,239, or +nineteen per cent of men operatives. In 1875 they were 83,207, or +twenty-six per cent; and the increase since that date has been in like +proportion. From the time of their first employment in mills the +increase has been on themselves over three hundred per cent. In +Massachusetts mills women and children are from two thirds to five +sixths of all employed, and the proportion in all the manufacturing +portions of New England is nearly the same. + +In judging the factory system as a whole, it is necessary to glance at +the conditions of home work preceding it. These are given in full detail +in historical and economical treatises, notably in Lecky's "History of +the Eighteenth Century," and in Dr. Kay's "Moral and Physical Condition +of the Working Classes." A list of the more important authorities on the +subject will be found in the general bibliography at the end. + +The conditions that prevailed in other countries were less strenuous +with us, but the same objections to the domestic system held good at +many points. In weaving, the looms occupied large part of the family +living space, and overcrowding and all its evils were inevitable. +Drunkenness was more common, as well as the stealing of materials by +dishonest workers. Time was lost in going for material and in returning +it, and only half as much was accomplished. Homes were uncared for and +often filthy, and the work was done in half-lighted, airless rooms. + +These conditions are often reproduced in part even to-day in buildings +not adapted to their present use; but as a whole it is certain that the +homes of factory-workers are cleaner, that regulation has proved +beneficial, that light and air are furnished in better measure, and that +overcrowding has become impossible. This applies only to textile +manufactures, where machines must have room. + +In an admirable chapter on the "Factory System," prepared by Colonel +Carroll D. Wright for the Tenth Census of the United States, he takes up +in detail the objections urged against it. These are as follows:-- + + A. The factory system necessitates the employment of women and + children to an injurious extent, and consequently its tendency is + to destroy family life and ties and domestic habits, and ultimately + the home. + + B. Factory employments are injurious to health. + + C. The factory system is productive of intemperance, unthrift, and + poverty. + + D. It feeds prostitution, and swells the criminal list. + + E. It tends to intellectual degeneracy. + +Under "A" there is small defence to be made. The employment of married +women is fruitful of evil, and the proportion of these in Massachusetts +is 23.8 per cent. Wherever this per cent is high, infant mortality is +very great, being 23.5 per cent for Massachusetts and 19 per cent for +Connecticut and New Hampshire. The "Labor Bureau Reports" for New Jersey +treat the subject in detail, and are strongly opposed to the employment +of mothers of young children outside the home; and the conclusion is the +same at other points. + +In the matter of general injury to health, under "B," it is stated that +many factories are far better ventilated and lighted than the homes of +the operatives. Ignorant employees cannot be impressed with the need of +care on these points, and the air in their homes is foul and productive +of disease. A cotton-mill is often better ventilated than a court-room +or a lecture-room. A well-built factory allows not less than six +hundred cubic feet of air space to a person, thirty to sixty cubic feet +a minute being required. Ranke, in his "Elements of Physiology," makes +it thirty-five a minute. + +The homes of operatives have steadily improved in character; and +wherever there is an intelligent class of operatives, regulations are +obeyed, and sanitary conditions are fair and often perfect, while the +tendency is toward more and more care in every respect. Operatives' +homes are often better guarded against sanitary evils than those of +farmers or the ordinary laborer. + +Under "C" it is shown conclusively that the factory has diminished +intemperance,--Reybaud's "History of the Factory Movement" giving full +statistics on this point, as well as in regard to the growth of banks +and benefit societies. The standard of living is higher here, but there +are countless evidences of thrift and a general rise in condition. + +In the matter of prostitution, under "D," it is shown that but eight per +cent of this class come from the factory, twenty-nine per cent being +from domestic service. In Lynn, Mass., a town chosen for illustration +because of the large percentage of factory operatives, it was found +that but seven per cent of those arrested were from this class; and this +is true of all points where the foreign-born element is not largely in +the majority. + +Last comes the question of intellectual degeneracy, under "E." On this +point it is hardly fair to make comparison of the present worker with +the Lowell girl of the first period of factory labor, since she came +from an educated class, and was distinctively American. Taking workers +as a whole, a vast advance shows itself. Regularity and fixed rule have +often been the first education in this direction; and the life, even +with all its drawbacks, has the right to be regarded as an educational +force, and the first step in this direction for a large proportion of +the workers in it. There are points where the arraignment of Alfred, in +his "History of the Factory Movement," is still true.[16] He speaks of +it as a "system which jested with civilization, laughed at humanity, and +made a mockery of every law of physical and moral health and of the +principles of natural and social order." The "Report of the New York +Bureau of Labor for 1885" shows that the charge might still be +righteously brought; and Mr. Bishop gives the same testimony in his +reports for New Jersey. Evil is still part of the system, and well-nigh +inseparable from the methods of production and the conditions of +competition; but that there are evils is recognized at all points, and +thus their continuance will not and cannot be perpetuated. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[16] Alfred's History of the Factory Movement, vol. i. p. 27. + + + + +IV. + +RISE AND GROWTH OF TRADES UP TO THE PRESENT TIME. + + +Defeat and discouragement attend well-nigh every step of the attempt to +reach any conclusions regarding women workers in the early years of the +century. It is true that 1832 witnessed an attempt at an investigation +into their status, but the results were of slight value, actual figures +being almost unattainable. The census of 1840 gave more, and that of +1850 showed still larger gain. In that of 1840 the number of women and +children in the silk industry was taken; but while the same is true of +the later one, there is apparently no record of them in any printed +form. The New York State Census for the years 1845 and 1855 gave some +space to the work of women and children, but there is nothing of marked +value till another decade had passed. + +It is to the United States Census for 1860 that we must look for the +first really definite statements as to the occupations of women and +children. Scattered returns of an earlier date had shown that the +percentage of those employed in factories was a steadily increasing one, +but in what ratio was considered as unimportant. In fact, statistics of +any order had small place, nor was their need seriously felt, save here +and there, in the mind of the student. + +To comprehend the blankness of this period in all matters relating to +social and economic questions, it is necessary to recall the fact that +no such needs as those of the mother country pressed upon us. To those +who looked below the surface and watched the growing tide of emigration, +it was plain that they were, in no distant day, to arise; but for the +most part, even for those compelled to severest toil, it was taken for +granted that full support was a certainty, and that the men or women who +did not earn a comfortable living could blame no one but themselves. + +There were other reasons why any enumeration of women workers seemed not +only superfluous but undesirable. For the better order, prejudice was +still strong enough against all who deviated from custom or tradition to +make each new candidate for a living shrink from any publicity that +could be avoided. Society frowned upon the woman who dared to strike out +in new paths, and thus made them even more thorny than necessity had +already done. + +It is impossible for the present, with its full freedom of opportunity, +to realize, or credit even, the difficulties of the past, or even of a +period hardly more than a generation ago. It was of this time that Dr. +Emily Blackwell, one of the pioneers in higher work for women, wrote:-- + + "Women were hindered at every turn by endless restraint in endless + minor detail of habit, custom, tradition, etc.... Most women who + have been engaged in any new departure would testify that the + difficulties of the undertaking lay far more in these artificial + hindrances and burdens than in their own health, or in the nature + of the work itself." + +It was this shrinking from publicity, among all save the most ordinary +workers, by this time largely foreign, that made one difficulty in the +way of census enumerators. By 1860 it had become plain that an enormous +increase in their numbers was taking place, and that no just idea of +this increase could be formed so long as industrial statistics were made +up with no distinction as to sex. The spread of the factory system and +the constant invention of new machinery had long ago removed from homes +the few branches of the work that could be carried on within them. +Processes had divided and subdivided. The mill-worker knew no longer +every phase of the work implied in the production of her web, but became +more and more a part of the machine itself. This was especially true of +all textile industries,--cotton or woollen, with their many +ramifications,--and becomes more so with each year of progress. + +Cotton and woollen manufactures, with the constantly increasing +subdivisions of all the processes involved, counted their thousands upon +thousands of women workers. Another industry had been one of the first +opened to women, much of its work being done at home. Shoemaking, with +all its processes of binding and finishing, had its origin for this +country in Massachusetts, to the ingenuity and enterprise of whose +mechanics is due the fact that the United States has attained the +highest perfection in this branch. Lynn, Mass., as far back as 1750, had +become famous for its women's shoes, the making of which was carried on +in the families of the manufacturers. At first no especial skill was +shown; but in 1750 a Welsh shoemaker, named John Adam Dagyr, settled +there and acquired great fame for himself and the town for his superior +workmanship. In 1788 the exports of women's shoes from Lynn were one +hundred thousand pairs, while in 1795 over three hundred thousand pairs +were sent out, and by 1870 the number had reached eleven million. + +Beginning with the employment of a few dozen women, twenty other towns +took up the same industry, and furnish their quota of the general +return. The Massachusetts Bureau of Labor gives, in its report for 1873, +the number of women employed as 11,193, with some six hundred female +children. Maine and New Hampshire followed, and both have a small +proportion of women workers engaged in the industry, while it has +gradually extended, New England always retaining the lead, till New +York, Philadelphia, and many Western and Southern towns rank high in +the list of producers. + +As in every other trade, processes have divided and subdivided. +Sewing-machines did away with the tedious binding by hand, which had its +compensations, however, in the fact that it was done at home. There is +only incidental record of the numbers employed in this industry till the +later census returns; but the percentage outside of Massachusetts +remained a very small one, as even in Maine the total number given in +the Report of the Bureau of Labor for 1887 is but 533, an almost +inappreciable per cent of the population. The returns of the census of +1880 give the total number of women in this employment as 21,000, the +proportion still remaining largest for New England. + +Straw-braiding was another of the early trades, and the first straw +bonnet braided in the United States was made by Miss Betsey Metcalf, of +Providence, R.I., in 1789. For many years straw-plaiting was done at +home; but the quality of our material was always inferior to that grown +abroad, our climate making it much more brittle and difficult to +handle. The wage at first was from two to three dollars a week; but as +factories were established where imported braid was made up, the sum +sometimes reached five dollars. The census of 1860 gave the total number +of women employed as 1,430. According to the census of 1870, nine States +had taken up this industry, Massachusetts employing the largest number, +and Vermont the least, the total number being 12,594; while in 1880 the +number had risen to 19,998. + +Up to the time of the Civil War, aside from factory employments, the +trades open to women were limited, and the majority of their occupations +were still carried on at home, or with but few in numbers, as in +dressmaking-establishments, millinery, and the like. With the new +conditions brought about at this time, and the vast number of women +thrown upon their own resources, came the flocking into trades for which +there had been no training, and which had been considered as the +exclusive property of men. A surplus of untrained workers at once +appeared, and this and general financial depression brought the wage to +its lowest terms; but when this had in part ended, the trades still +remained open. At the close of the war some hundred were regarded as +practicable. Ten years later the number had more than doubled, and +to-day we find over four hundred occupations; while, as new inventions +arise, the number of possibilities in this direction steadily increases. +The many considerations involved in these facts will be met later on. +General conditions of trades as a whole are given in the census returns, +though even there hardly more than approximately, little work of much +real value being accomplished till the formation of the labor bureaus, +with which we are soon to deal. Every allowance, however, is to be made +for the Census Bureau, which found itself almost incapable of overcoming +many of the lions in the way. The tone of the remarks on this point in +that for 1860 is almost plaintive, nor is it less so in the next; but +methods have clarified, and the work is far more authoritative than for +long seemed possible. + +Innumerable difficulties hedged about the enumerators for 1860. Rooted +objection to answering the questions in detail was not one of the least. +Unfamiliarity with the newer phases of the work was another, and thus +it happened that the volume when issued was full of discrepancies. The +tables of occupations, for example, characterized but a little over two +thousand persons as connected with woollen and worsted manufacture; +while the tables of manufactures showed that considerably more than +forty thousand persons were engaged, upon the average, in these branches +of manufacturing industry. + +The returns gave the number of women employed in various branches of +manufacture as two hundred and eighty-five thousand, but stated that the +figures were approximate merely, it being impossible to secure full +returns. It was found that three and a half per cent of the population +of Massachusetts were in the factories, and nearly the same proportion +in Connecticut and Rhode Island; but details were of the most meagre +description, and conclusions based upon them were likely to err at every +point. Its value was chiefly educative, since the failure it represents +pointed to a change in methods, and more preparation than had at any +time been considered necessary in the officials who had the matter in +charge. + +The census for 1870 reaped the benefits of the new determination; yet +even of this General Walker was forced to write: "This census concludes +that from one to two hundred thousand workers are not accounted for, +from the difficulty experienced in getting proper returns. The nice +distinctions of foreign statisticians are impossible." And he adds:-- + + "Whoever will consider the almost utter want of apprenticeship in + this country, the facility with which pursuits are taken up and + abandoned, and the variety and, indeed, seeming incongruity of the + numerous industrial offices that are frequently united in one + person, will appreciate the force of this argument.... The + organization of domestic service in the United States is so crude + that no distinction whatever can be successfully maintained. A + census of occupations in which the attempt should be made to reach + anything like European completeness in this matter would result in + the return of tens of thousands of 'housekeepers' and hundreds of + thousands of 'cooks,' who were simply 'maids of all work,' being + the single servants of the families in which they are + employed."[17] + +This census gives the total number of women workers, so far as it could +be determined, as 1,836,288. Of these, 191,000 were from ten to fifteen +years of age; 1,594,783, from sixteen to fifty-nine; and 50,404, sixty +years and over, the larger proportion of the latter division being given +as engaged in agricultural employments. + +In the first period of age, females pursuing gainful occupations are to +males as one to three; in the second, one to six; and in the third, one +to twelve. The actual increase over the numbers given in the census for +1860 is 1,551,288. The reasons for this almost incredible variation have +already been suggested; and their operation became even stronger in the +interval between that of 1870 and 1880. By this time methods were far +more skilful and returns more minute, and thus the figures are to be +accepted with more confidence than was possible with the earlier ones. +The factory system, extending into almost every trade, brought about +more and more differentiation of occupations, some two hundred of which +were by 1880 open to women. + +Comparing the rates of increase during the period between 1860 and 1870, +women wage-earners had increased 19 per cent, the increase for men +being but 6/97. Among the women, 6.7 per cent were engaged in +agriculture, 33.4 in personal service, 7.3 in trade and transportation, +and 16.5 in manufactures. In 1880 women engaged in gainful occupations +formed 5.28 of the total population, and 14.68 of females over ten years +of age. The present rate is not yet[18] determined; but while figures +will not be accessible for some months to come, it is stated definitely +that the increase will indicate nearer ten than five per cent. + +The total number employed is given for this census as 2,647,157. The +occupations are divided into four classes: first, agriculture; second, +professional and personal services; third, trade and transportation; +fourth, manufactures, mechanical and mining industries. In agriculture, +594,510 women were at work; in professional and personal services, this +including domestic service, 1,361,295; trade and transportation, this +including shop-girls, etc., had 59,364; while 631,988 were engaged in +the last division of manufacturing, etc. Of girls from ten to fifteen +years of age, agriculture had 135,862; professional and personal +services, 107,830; trade, 2,547; and manufacturing, etc., 46,930. From +sixteen to fifty-nine years of age there were in agriculture 435,920; in +professional and personal services, 1,215,189; trade and transportation, +54,849; and manufacturing, etc., 577,157. From sixty years and upward +the four classes were divided as follows: Agriculture, 22,728; +professional, etc., 38,276; trade, etc., 1,968; and manufacturing, etc., +7,901. + +Even for this record numbers must be added, since many women work at +home and make no return of the trade they have chosen, while many others +are held by pride from admitting that they work at all. But the addition +of a hundred thousand for the entire country would undoubtedly cover +this discrepancy in full; nor are these numbers too large, though it is +impossible to more than approximate them. + +Suggestive as these figures are, they are still more so when we come to +their apportionment to States. They become then a history of the +progress of trades, and women's share in them; and a glance enables one +to determine the proportion employed in each. In the table which +follows, industries are condensed under a general head, no mention +being made of the many subdivisions, each ranking as a trade, but going +to make up the business as a whole. It is the result of statistics taken +in fifty of the principal cities, and includes only those industries in +which women have the largest share.[19] + +=================================================================== + | Total |Per Cent |Per Cent | + | Number. |of Males.| of |Children. + | | |Females. | +---------------------------+---------+---------+---------+--------- +Book-binding | 10,612 | 4,831 | 4,553 | 616 +Carpet-weaving | 20,371 | 4,960 | 4,207 | 833 +Men's Clothing | 160,813 | 4,801 | 5,037 | 159 +Women's Clothing | 25,192 | 1,030 | 8,833 | 137 +Cotton Goods | 185,472 | 3,457 | 4,914 | 1,629 +Men's Furnishing Goods | 11,174 | 1,140 | 8,560 | 300 +Hosiery and Knitting | 28,885 | 2,602 | 6,130 | 1,268 +Millinery and Lace | 25,687 | 1,120 | 8,637 | 243 +Shirts | 6,555 | 1,481 | 8,000 | 513 +Silk and Silk Goods | 31,337 | 2,992 | 5,232 | 1,776 +Straw Goods | 10,948 | 2,991 | 6,850 | 154 +Tobacco | 32,756 | 4,544 | 3,290 | 2,166 +Umbrellas and Canes | 3,608 | 4,169 | 5,152 | 679 +Woollen Goods | 86,504 | 54,544 | 3,395 | 1,174 +Worsted Goods | 18,800 | 5,431 | 5,038 | 1,540 +=================================================================== + +In obtaining these averages, it was found necessary to equalize the +returns of Pittsburg and Philadelphia, the former having but 4.55 per +cent of women workers, while Philadelphia had 31. This resulted from the +fact that the industries of Philadelphia are the manufacturing of +textiles and other goods, which employ women chiefly; while Pittsburg +has principally iron and steel mills. New York was found to have 31 per +cent of women workers; Lowell, Mass., had 47.42, and Manchester, N.H., +53; Pittsburg and Wilmington, Del., having the lowest percentage. + +The gain of women in trades over the census of 1870 was sixty-four per +cent, the total percentage of women workers for the whole country being +forty-nine. The ten years just ended show a still larger percentage; and +many of the trades which a decade since still hesitated to admit women, +are now open, those regarded as most peculiarly the province of men +having received many feminine recruits. These isolated or scattered +instances hardly belong here, and are mentioned simply as indications of +the general trend. Wise or unwise, experiment is the order of the day, +its principal service in many cases being to test untried powers, and +break down barriers, built up often by mere tradition, and not again to +rise till women themselves decide when and where. + +Taking States in their alphabetical order, the census of 1880 gives the +number of working-women for each as follows:[20]-- + +Alabama, 124,056. +Arizona, 471. +Arkansas, 30,616. +California, 28,200. +Colorado, 4,779. +Connecticut, 48,670. +Dakota, 2,851. +Delaware, 7,928. +District of Columbia, 19,658. +Florida, 17,781. +Georgia, 152,322. +Idaho, 291. +Illinois, 106,101. +Indiana, 51,422. +Iowa, 44,845. +Kansas, 54,422. +Louisiana, 95,052. +Maine, 33,528. +Massachusetts, 174,183. +Michigan, 55,013. +Minnesota, 25,077. +Mississippi, 110,416. +Missouri, 62,943. +Montana, 507. +Nebraska, 10,455. +Nevada, 403. +New Hampshire, 30,128. +New Jersey, 66,776. +New Mexico, 2,262. +New York, 360,381. +North Carolina, 86,976. +Ohio, 112,639. +Oregon, 2,779. +Pennsylvania, 216,980. +Rhode Island, 29,859. +South Carolina, 120,087. +Tennessee, 56,408. +Texas, 58,943. +Utah, 2,877. +Vermont, 16,167. +Washington Territory, 1,060. +West Virginia, 11,508. +Wisconsin, 46,395. +Wyoming, 464. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[17] Remarks on Tables of Occupations, Ninth Census of the United +States, Population and Social Statistics, p. 663. + +[18] June, 1893. + +[19] The table is copied with minute care from that given in the last +census; and while it shows one or two deficiencies, the writer is in no +sense responsible for them, its accuracy, as a whole, not being affected +by the slight discrepancy referred to. + +[20] The tables in this department of the census for 1890 are not yet +ready for the public; but the department states that the increase in +women wage-earners averages about ten per cent. + + + + +V. + +LABOR BUREAUS AND THEIR WORK IN RELATION TO WOMEN. + + +The difficulties encountered by the enumerators of the United States +Census, and the growing conviction that much more minute and organized +effort must be given if the real status of women workers was to be +obtained, had already been matter of grave discussion. The labor +question pressed upon all who looked below the surface of affairs; and +very shortly after the census of 1860 a proposition was made in Boston +to establish there a formal bureau of labor, whose business should be to +fill in all the blanks that in the general work were passed over. + +Many facts, all pointing to the necessity of some such organization, lay +before the men who pondered the matter,--factory abuses of many orders, +the startling increase of pauperism and crime, with other causes which +can find small space here. With difficulty consent was obtained to +establish a bureau which should inquire into the causes of all this; and +the first report was given to the public in 1870. It was descriptive +rather than statistical, and necessarily so. Methods were still a matter +of question and experiment. The public had small interest in the +project, and it was essential to outline, not only the work to be done, +but the reasons for its need. + +Naturally, then, the volume touched upon many abuses,--children in +factories, and the factory system as a whole; the homes of workers, and +their needs in sanitary and other directions; and toward the end a few +pages of special comment on the hard lives of working-women as a whole. + +The report for 1871 followed the same lines, giving more detail to each. +That for 1872 took up various phases of women's work,[21] with some of +the general conditions then existing. For the following year elaborate +tables of the cost of living were given, and are invaluable as matters +of reference; and in 1874 came a no less important contribution to +social science in the report on the "Homes of Working-People." Those of +working-women were of course included, but there was still no +description of many of the conditions known to hedge them about. Each +inquiry, however, turned attention more and more in this direction, and +emphasized the need of some work given exclusively to women workers. + +In 1875 attention was directed to the health of working-women, and a +portion of the report was devoted to the special effects of certain +forms of employment upon the health of women,[22] the education of +children, the conditions of families, etc. That for 1876 discussed the +question of wives' earnings, and gave tables of what proportion they +made; and that for 1877 took up "Pauperism and Crime," in the growing +amount of which it was claimed by many that the worker had large share. + +In 1878 large space was given to education and the work of the young, +for whom the half-time system was urged. The conjugal condition of wives +and mothers was also considered, and the bearing of their work upon the +home. The financial distress of the period had affected wages, and the +report for 1879 considered the effect of this, with the condition of +the "unemployed," the tramp question, and other phases of the problem. +With 1880 and the ending of the first decade of work in this direction +came a fuller report on the social life of workingmen and the divorces +in Massachusetts; 1881 made a plea for uniform hours, and 1882 was +devoted to wages, prices, and profits, and further details of the life +of operatives within their homes; and 1883 found reason again to go over +the question of wages and prices. + +I have given this detail because, when one views the work of the bureau +as a whole, it will be seen that each year formed one step toward the +final result, which has been of most vital bearing upon all since +accomplished in the same direction for women. Until the appearance of +the report for 1884, on the "Working-Girls of Boston," there had been no +absolute and authoritative knowledge as to their lives, their earnings, +and their status as a whole. Their numbers were equally unknown, nor was +there interest in their condition, save here and there among special +students of social science. On the other hand there was a popular +impression that the ranks of prostitution were recruited from the +manufactory, and that a certain stigma necessarily rested upon the +factory-worker and indeed upon working-girls as a class. + +Six divisions had been found essential to the thorough handling of the +subject; and these divisions have formed the basis of all work since +done in the same lines, whether in State bureaus or in that of the +United States, soon to find mention here. It was under the direction of +Colonel Carroll D. Wright that the Massachusetts Bureau did its careful +and scientific work; and he represents the most valuable labor in this +direction that the country has had, deserving to rank in this matter, as +Tench Coxe still does in the manufacturing system, as the "Father" of +the labor-bureau system. + +The six divisions settled upon as essential to any general system of +reports were as follows:-- + + 1. Social Condition. + 2. Occupations, Places in which Employed. + 3. Hours of Labor, Time Lost, etc. + 4. Physical and Sanitary Condition. + 5. Economic Condition. + 6. Moral Condition. + +The Tenth Census of the United States gave the number of women employed +in the city of Boston as 38,881, 20,000 of whom were in occupations +other than domestic service. Each year, as we have already seen, had +touched more and more nearly upon the facts bound up in their lives, but +it had become necessary to determine with an accuracy that could not be +brought in question precisely the facts given under the six headings. To +the surprise of the special agents detailed for this work, who had +anticipated disagreeables of every order, the girls themselves took the +liveliest interest in the matter, answered questions freely, and gave +every facility for the fullest searching into each phase involved. +American girls were found to form but 22.3 per cent of the whole number +of working-women in Massachusetts, of whom but 58.4 per cent had been +born in that State. + +The results reached in this report may be regarded as a summary, not +only of conditions for Boston, but for all the large manufacturing towns +of New England, later inquiry justifying this conclusion. + +The average age of working-girls was found to be 24.81 years, and the +average at which they began work, 16.81; the average time actually at +work, 7.49 years, and the average number of occupations followed 178, +the time spent in each being 4.43 years. Of the whole, 85 per cent were +found to do their own housework and sewing, either wholly or in part. + +But 22 per cent were allowed any vacation, and but 3.9 per cent received +pay during that time, the average vacation being 1.87 weeks. A little +over 26 per cent worked the full year without loss of time, while an +average of 12.32 weeks was lost by 73 per cent. The average time worked +by all during the year was 42.95 weeks. In personal service 26.5 per +cent worked more than ten hours a day; in trade, 19.5 per cent were so +employed, and in manufactures 5.6 per cent. In all occupations 8.9 per +cent worked more than ten hours a day, and 8.6 per cent more than sixty +hours a week. + +In the matter of health 76.2 per cent of the whole number employed were +in good health. + +The average weekly earnings for the average time employed, 42.95 weeks, +was $6.01, and the average weekly earnings of all the working-girls of +Boston for a whole year were $4.91. The average weekly income, +including earnings, assistance, and income from extra work done by many, +was $5.17 a year. + +The average yearly income from all sources was $269.70, and the average +yearly expenses for positive needs $261.30, leaving but $7.77, on the +average, as a margin for books, amusements, etc. Those making savings +are 11 per cent of the whole, their average savings being $72.15 per +year. A few run in debt, the average debt being $36.60 for the less than +3 per cent incurring debt. + +Of the total average yearly expenses, these percentages being based upon +the law laid down by Dr. Engels of Prussia, as to percentage of expenses +belonging to subsistence, 63 per cent must be expended for food and +lodging, and 25 per cent for clothing,--a total of 88 per cent of total +expenses for subsistence and clothing, leaving but 12 per cent of total +expense to be distributed to the other needs of living. + +These are, briefly summed up, the results of the investigation, in which +the single workers constituted 88.9 of the whole, and the married but 6 +per cent, widows making up the number. It is impossible in these limits +to give further detail on these points, all readers being referred to +the report itself. + +The same questions that had first sought answer in New England were even +more pressing in New York. As in most subjects of deep popular or +scientific importance, the sense of need for more data by which to judge +seemed in the air; and already the Labor Bureau of the State of New +York, under the efficient guidance of Mr. Charles F. Peck, had begun a +course of inquiries of the same nature. For years, beginning with the +New York "Tribune," in the days when Margaret Fuller worked for it and +touched at times upon social questions,--always in the mind of Horace +Greeley, its founder,--there had been periodical stirs of feeling in +behalf of sewing-women. It was known that the enormous influx of foreign +labor naturally massed at this point, more than could ever be possible +elsewhere, had brought with it evils suspected, but still not yet +defined in any sense to be trusted. Indications on the surface were +seriously bad, but actual investigation had never tested their nature or +degree. The report of the bureau for 1885, which was given to the +public in 1886, met with a degree of interest and study not usually +accorded these volumes, and roused public feeling to an unexpected +extent. + +Mr. Peck brought to the work much the same order of interest that had +marked that of Colonel Wright, and wrote in his introduction to the +report the summary of the situation for New York City:-- + + "By reason of its immense population, its numerous and extensive + manufactures, its wealth, its poverty, and general cosmopolitan + character, New York City presents a field for investigation into + the subject of 'Working-Women, their Trades, Wages, Home and Social + Conditions,' unequalled by any other centre of population in + America. It opens up a wider and more diversified field for + inquiry, study, and classification of the various industries in + which women seek employment, than can be found even in European + cities, with but few if any exceptions. It is for such reasons that + the inquiry of the bureau into this special subject has been + largely confined to the city named." + +Two hundred and forty-seven trades are given in this report, in which +some two hundred thousand women were found to be engaged, this being +exclusive of domestic service. The divisions of the subject were +substantially those adopted by the Massachusetts Bureau; but the numbers +and complexity of conditions made the inquiry far more difficult. Its +results and their bearings will find place later on. It is sufficient +now to say that the two may be regarded as summarizing all phases of +work for women, and as an index to the difficulties at all other points +in the country. + +The Bureau of Labor for Connecticut sent out its first report in the +same year (1885), and included investigations and statistics in the same +lines, though, for reasons specified, in much more limited degree. That +for 1886 for the same State took up in detail some points in regard to +the work of both women and children, which, for want of both time and +space, had been omitted in the first, their returns coinciding in all +important particulars with those of the other bureaus. + +In 1886 the California Bureau of Labor touched the same points, but only +incidentally, in its general analysis of the labor question. In the +following year, however, the report covering the years 1887 and 1888 +took up the question under the same aspects as those handled in the +special reports on this topic, and gave full treatment of the wages, +lives, and general conditions for working-women. It included, also, the +facts, so far as they could be ascertained, of the nature, wages, and +conditions of domestic service in California,--the first attempt at +treating this difficult subject with any accuracy. The apprentice +system, and an important chapter on manual training and its bearings +make this report one of the most valuable, from the social point of +view, that has been given, though where all are invaluable it is hard to +characterize one above another. + +Mr. Tobin, for California, and Mr. Hutchins, for Iowa, seemed moved at +the same time in much the same way,--the Iowa report for 1887 treating +the many questions involved with that largeness which has thus far +distinguished work in this direction. Kansas, in the report for 1888, +gave general conditions, women being treated incidentally; and +Minnesota, in the report for the years 1887 and 1888, gave a chapter on +working-women, wages, etc. + +Colorado followed, giving in the report for 1887 and 1888, under the +management of Commissioner Rice, a chapter on women wage-workers, in +which space is given to certified complaints of the women themselves, as +to what they consider the disabilities of their special trades. Domestic +service, with some of its abuses, was also considered, and is of much +value. These reports sum up the work so far done in the West, where +labor bureaus are of recent growth. The spirit of inquiry is, however, +equally alive; and each year will see minuter detail and a deeper +scientific spirit. + +Maine, in the report for 1888, took up many questions of general +interest, with their incidental bearings on the work of women; and in +1889 came another report from Kansas, in which the labor commissioner, +Mr. Frank Betton, gave large space to an investigation conducted under +many difficulties, but covering the ground very fully. A very full +report from Michigan, under Commissioner Henry A. Robinson, was issued +in 1892, nearly two hundred pages being given to an exhaustive +examination into the conditions of women wage-earners in the State, its +methods owing much to the work which had preceded it. + +With this background of admirable work always, no matter what might be +the limitations, making each report a little broader in purpose and +minuter in detail, the way was plain for something even more +comprehensive. This was furnished by the Bureau of Labor of the United +States, which had changed its name, and become, in June, 1887, the +Department of Labor, a part of the Department of the Interior. This +report--the fourth from the bureau, and issued in 1888--was entitled +"Working-Women in Large Cities," and included investigations made in +twenty-two cities, from Boston to San Francisco and San José. + +All that long experience had demonstrated as most important in such work +was brought to bear. The investigation covered manual labor in cities, +excluding textile industries, save incidentally as these had already +been treated, as well as domestic service. Textile factories are usually +outside of large cities, and it was the object to discover the +opportunities of employment in the way of manual labor in cities +themselves. + +Three hundred and forty-three distinct industries showed themselves, and +others were found which were not included, it being safe to say that +some four hundred may be considered open to women. As before stated, +many are simply subdivisions, made by the constantly increasing +complexity of machinery. The agents of the department carried their work +into the lowest and worst places in the cities named, because in such +places are to be found women who are struggling for a livelihood in most +respectable callings,--living in them as a matter of necessity, since +they cannot afford to live otherwise, but leaving them whenever wages +are sufficient to admit of change. + +It is this report which forms the summary of all the work that has +preceded it, and that gives the truest exponent of all present +conditions. It is only necessary to add to it the summaries of the State +reports at other points, to see the aspect of the question as a whole; +and thus we are ready to consider by its aid the general rates of wages +and of the status of the trades of every nature in which women are now +engaged. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[21] Report for 1872, pp. 59-108. + +[22] Report for 1875, pp. 67-112. + + + + +VI. + +PRESENT WAGE-RATES IN THE UNITED STATES. + + +Under this heading it is proposed to include, not only the trades just +specified as coming under the investigations recorded in "Working-Women +in Large Cities," but also such data as can be gleaned from all the +labor reports which have given any attention to this phase of the labor +question. Naturally, then, we turn to the report of the Massachusetts +Bureau for 1881, the first statement of these points, and compare it +with the results obtained in the last report from Washington, as well as +with the returns from the various States where investigation of the +question has been made. + +Exceptionally favorable conditions would seem to belong to the year in +which the report for 1884 appeared. The financial distress of 1877, with +its results, had passed. New industries of many orders had opened up for +women, and trade in all its forms called for workers and gave almost +constant employ, save in the few occupations which have a distinct +season, and oblige those engaged in them to divide their time between +two if a living is assured. + +A distinction must at once be made in the definition of earnings. In +speaking of them, there are necessarily three designations,--wages, +earnings, and income. Wages represent the actual pay per week at the +time employed, with no reference to the number of weeks' employment +during the year. Earnings are the total receipts for any year from +wages. Thus, for example, a girl is paid $5 a week wages, and works +forty weeks of her year. Her earnings would then be for the year $200, +though her wages of $5 per week would indicate that she earned $260 a +year; while in fact her average weekly earnings would be for the whole +year $3.84. Income is her total receipts for the year from all sources: +wages, extra work, help from friends or from investments; in fact, any +receipts from which expenses can be paid. + +In preparing the tables of these reports, the highest, the lowest, the +average, and the general average were brought into a final comparison. +Often but one wage is given, and it then becomes naturally both highest +and lowest; but all figures are made to indicate an entire occupation or +branch of industry, and not a few high or low paid employees in that +branch. It is only with the final comparison that we are able to deal, +the reader being referred to the reports themselves for the invaluable +details given at full length and including many hundred pages. + +The divisions of occupations are the same as those of the tenth census, +and the tables are made on the same system. To determine the general +conditions for the twenty thousand at work, it was necessary to have +accurate detail as to one thousand; and, in fact, 1,032 were +interviewed. Directly after the work in this direction had ended, and +before the report was ready for publication, a general reduction of ten +per cent in wages took place, and this must be kept in mind in dealing +with the returns recorded. In this, recapitulation is given in full, +and, as will be seen, includes all occupations open to women. + + RECAPITULATION. +======================================================================== + | BOSTON. |OTHER PARTS OF MASS.| OTHER STATES. + |----------------+--------------------+---------------- + | Number|Average | Number | Average | Number| Average + | | Weekly | | Weekly | | Weekly + | |Earnings| | Earnings | |Earnings + |-------+--------+---------+----------+-------+-------- +Government and | | | | | | +professional | 7 | $5 57 | 5 | $6 40 | 10 | $6 28 +Domestic and | | | | | | +personal office | 178 | 5 94 | 27 | 5 33 | 21 | 4 69 +Trade and | | | | | | +transportation | 221 | 5 00 | 4 | 9 25 | 4 | 7 25 +Manufactures and | | | | | | +mechanical | | | | | | +industries | 1,293 | 6 22 | 72 | 7 06 | 49 | 7 58 + |-------+--------+---------+----------+-------+-------- +All occupations | 1,699 | $6 03 | 108 | $6 68 | 84 | $6 69 +======================================================================== + +The commissioners of the New York State Bureau of Labor followed a +slightly different method. The returns are no less minute, but are given +under the heading of each trade, two hundred and forty-seven of which +were investigated. The wages of workwomen for the entire year run from +$3.50 to $4 a week, the general average not being given, though later +returns make it $5.85. This is, however, for skilled labor; and as a +vast proportion of women workers in New York City are engaged in sewing, +the poorest paid of all industries, we must accept the first figures as +nearer the truth. An expert on shirts receives as high as $12 a week, +in some cases $15; but in slop work, and under the sweating-system, +wages fall to $2.50 or $3 per week, and at times less. Mr. Peck found +cloakmakers working on the most expensive and perfectly finished +garments for 40 cents a day, a full day's pay being from 50 to 60 +cents.[23] In other cases a day's work brought in but 25 cents, and +seventeen overalls of blue denim gave a return of 75 cents. Two and a +half cents each is paid for the making of boys' gingham waists, with +trimming on neck and sleeves, including the button-holes; and the women +who made these sat sixteen hours at the sewing-machine, with a result of +25 cents.[24] + +This was for irregular work. Women employed on clothing in general, +working for reputable firms, receive from $4.50 to $6 per week. In the +tobacco manufacture, in which great numbers are employed, $9 is the +lowest actual earnings, and $20 the highest per week. In cigarettes, the +pay ranges from $4 to $15 per week. In dry-goods, with ten divisions of +employment,--cashiers, bundle-girls, saleswomen, floor-walkers, +seamstresses, cloakmakers, cash-girls, stock-girls, milliners, and +sewing-girls,--the lowest sum per week is $1.50, paid to cash-girls, and +the highest paid to floor-walkers, $16. On the east side of the city, +shop girls receive often as low as $3 per week; in a few cases +specified, $2.50 per week.[25] + +In laundry-work, which includes several divisions, wages weekly range +from $7.50 to $10, though ironers of special excellence sometimes make +from $12 to $15 per week. In millinery the wages are from $6 to $7 per +week. In preserving and fruit-canning wages are from $3.50 to $10, the +average worker earning about $5 per week. Mr. Peck states that in +fashion trades the two distinct seasons bring the year's earnings to +about six months. "Learners" in the trades coming under this head +receive $1.50 per week. Saleswomen suffer also from season trade, as it +necessitates reduction of force. The better class of workers receive +from $8 to $15 per week, while heads of departments range from $25 to +$50, or even higher, for exceptional merit. These cases are of the +rarest, however, the wage as an average falling below that of Boston. + +But three State reports cover the same dates as these already quoted +(1885 and 1886),--Connecticut, New Jersey, and California, the former +being for 1885. In this, women's wages are given incidentally in general +tables, and must be disentangled to find any average. In artificial +flowers the highest wage is given as $7, and the lowest $3, the average +being $5. In blankets and woollen goods the highest is $12.50 and the +lowest $6, an average of $9 per week. In factory work of all orders, +wages range from $6 to $9.75 per week, the average paid to women and +girls being $7.50 per week. In clothing, including underwear, wages are +from $3 to $15 per week, and the average annual income of women in these +trades is given as $300 per year. In cloakmaking the lowest wage is $3, +the highest $9, and the average $7.50. The average wage for San +Francisco is given as $6.95, and that for the whole State is about $6. +The Connecticut report for 1885 gives simply the yearly wage in various +trades. Reason for this is found in the fact that it was the first, and +could thus deal with the subject only tentatively. Clothing is given as +producing for women a yearly average of $229, and shirts $237. Factory +work gave $207, paper boxes $227, and woollen goods $245. + +In the report for 1886, the lowest average wage is reported as found in +the making of wearing apparel; but the average for the State was found +to be a trifle over $6.50 per week. + +The report from New Jersey makes the lowest wages $3 per week, and the +highest $10, the average being $5. This report covers ground more fully +and in more varied directions than any one of the same period, though +there is only incidental reference to the work of women as a whole, the +returns being given in the general tables of wages. Wages and the cost +of living are compared, and the chapter under this head is one of the +most valuable in the summary of reports as a whole. The report for 1886 +gives the same general average of wages for the State, but adds an +exhaustive treatment of "Earnings, Cost of Living, and Prices." + +Maine sent out its first annual report in 1887, and gives the wages of +women workers as $3.58 for the lowest, and $15.20 for the highest, the +annual earnings ranging from $104 to $520. The report from the same +State for 1889 takes up the subject of working-women in detail, giving +their home or boarding conditions, sanitary conditions, their own +remarks on trades, wages, etc., and the aspect of their labor as a +whole. The average wage remains the same. + +Rhode Island, in its Third Annual Report for 1889, under the direction +of Commissioner Almon K. Goodwin, gives the average wage for the State +as $5.87, and devotes the bulk of its space to working-women, with full +returns from the entire State. + +For the same year California, by its labor commissioner, Mr. John J. +Tobin, gives an equally exhaustive statement of the conditions of women +wage-earners in that State. The lowest weekly wage given is $5, and the +highest $11. Plain cooks receive from $25 to $40 a month with board and +lodging, and domestic servants from $15 to $25 with board. In +cloak-making the lowest wage is $3, and the highest $7.50; and in +shirt-making the lowest is $2.50, and the highest $6. General clothing +and underwear range from $4.50 to $6, and other trades average a trifle +higher wage than in New England. The chapter on domestic service is +suggestive and important, and the whole treatment makes the report a +necessity to all who would understand the situation in detail. This, +however, is so true of all that have touched upon the subject that it +appears invidious to single out any one alone. They must be taken +together. With each year the scientific value of each increases, and +there appears to be distinct emulation among the commissioners as to +which shall embody the most in the returns made and the general +treatment of the whole. + +The first report from Colorado, issued in 1888, Mr. James Rice +commissioner, devotes a chapter to women wage-earners, with an +additional one on domestic service and its drawbacks. The average wage +for the State is given as $6; and the commissioner states that +notwithstanding the general impression that higher wages are paid in +Colorado than at any other point save California, actual returns show +that the average sums in several occupations are less than that paid to +persons similarly employed in cities along the Atlantic seaboard. + +Kansas, in its fifth annual report issued in 1889, gives a section to +working-women. The commissioner, Mr. Frank Betton, considers the returns +imperfect, great difficulty having been experienced in securing them. +The average weekly wage is given as $5.17. Expenses are carefully +analyzed, and there is a report of the remarks of employers, as well as +from a number of those employed. + +In the report from Iowa for 1887, Commissioner Hutchins laments that so +few women have been willing to fill out blanks of returns. The wage +returns given range from $3.75 to $9. The report for 1889 makes mention +of continued difficulties in securing returns, and gives the annual +earnings of women as from $100 to $440. The tables include cost of +living and many other essential particulars. + +Wisconsin, in the report for 1884, has a chapter on working-girls. It +gives the average weekly income in personal services as $5.25; in +trade, $4.18; in manufactures, $5.22, and the general average for the +year as $5.17. + +Minnesota, whose first report, under the supervision of Commissioner +John Lamb, appeared in 1888 for the years 1887 and 1888, found little or +no room for statistics, but included a chapter on working-women, with a +few admirable tables of age, nativity, home and working conditions, etc. +Minute inquiry was made as to cost of living, clothing, etc.; and the +results form a chapter of painful interest, that on domestic service +being equally suggestive. Clothing, as usual, represents the lowest +average wage, $3.66 per week, the highest being $8.50, and the general +average a trifle over $6. + +Michigan, in 1890, under its labor commissioner, Mr. Henry A. Robinson, +added to the list one of the most thorough studies yet made of general +conditions. The agents of the bureau, trained for the work, made +personal visits to working-women and girls to the number of 13,436, this +representing one hundred and thirty-seven distinct industries and three +hundred and seventy-eight occupations. The blanks prepared for filling +out contained one hundred and twenty-nine questions, classified as +follows: Social, 28; industrial, 12; hours of labor, 14; economic, 54; +sanitary, 21, with seven others as to dress, societies, church +attendance, with remarks and suggestions from the workers themselves. As +usual, in such cases, employers here and there objected to any +investigation, fearing labor organizations were at the bottom of it; but +the majority allowed free examination. The report is very full, and +gives a clear and full view of the individual lives of this body of +women workers. The average wage proved to be $4.81 per week, the average +income for the year being $216.45. The average income of teachers and +those in public positions was $457.27. + +This is the showing, State by State, so far as bureaus have reported. +Many States have made no move in this direction; but interest is now +thoroughly aroused, and the subject is likely to find treatment in all, +this depending somewhat, however, on the character of the State +industries and the numbers at work in each. Manufacturing necessarily +brings with it conditions that in the end compel inquiry; and for most +of the Southern States such industries are still new, while the West +has not yet found the same occasion as the East for full knowledge of +the problems involved in woman's work and wages. + +We come now to the most elaborate and far-reaching inquiry yet +made,--the work of the United States Bureau of Labor under Commissioner +Wright, entitled "Working-Women in Large Cities." Twenty-two of these +are reported upon after one of the most rigorous examinations ever +undertaken; and the average wage of each tallies with the rates given in +the States to which they belong. Taken alphabetically, the list is as +follows:-- + + AVERAGE WEEKLY EARNINGS, BY CITIES. + + Atlanta $4.95 | New Orleans $4.31 + Baltimore 4.18 | New York 5.85 + Boston 5.64 | Philadelphia 5.34 + Brooklyn 5.76 | Providence 5.51 + Buffalo 4.27 | Richmond 3.83 + Charleston, S.C. 4.22 | St. Louis 5.19 + Chicago 5.74 | St. Paul 6.62 + Cincinnati 4.50 | San Francisco 6.91 + Cleveland 4.63 | San José 6.11 + Indianapolis 4.57 | Savannah 4.90 + Louisville 4.51 | ---- + Newark 5.20 | All Cities 5.24 + +In addition to these figures, it seems well to give the average yearly +earnings of women in some of the most profitable industries, those +being chosen which are seldom affected by "seasons":-- + +Artificial flowers, $277.53; awnings and tents, $276.46; bookbinding, +$271.31; boots and shoes, $286.60; candy, $213.59; carpets, $298.53; +cigar boxes, $267.36; cigar factory, $294.66; cigarette factory, +$266.12; cloak factory, $291.76; clothing factory, $248.36; +cotton-mills, $228.32; dressmaking, $278.37; dry-goods stores, $368.84; +jewelry factory, $263.80; men's furnishing-goods factory, $232.24; +millinery, $345.95; paper-box factory, $240.47; plug-tobacco factory, +$235.67; printing-office, $300; skirt factory, $265.40; smoking-tobacco +factory, $238.70. + +These, so far as they have been collected and tabulated by the various +labor bureaus, are the returns for the United States as a whole. The +reports for the following years of 1891 and 1892 were expected to be far +more general, but this has not proved to be the case. + + AVERAGE WAGE PER STATE. + + Maine $5.50 + Massachusetts 6.68 + Connecticut 6.50 + Rhode Island 5.87 + New York 5.85 + New Jersey 5.00 + California 6.00 + Colorado 6.00 + Kansas 5.17 + Wisconsin 5.17 + Minnesota 6.00 + All cities 5.24 + +FOOTNOTES: + +[23] Third Annual Report of New York Bureau of Labor, p. 162. These are +Mr. Peck's figures; but the United States report gives the average for +skilled labor as $5.85 per week, and adds that the unskilled earns far +less. + +[24] Ibid. p. 165. + +[25] New York Bureau of Statistics of Labor, Third Annual Report, p. 27. + + + + +VII. + +GENERAL CONDITIONS FOR ENGLISH WORKERS. + + +So far as opportunity is concerned, it is the United States only that +offers a practically unlimited field to women workers, to whom some four +hundred trades and occupations are now open. Comparison with other +countries is, however, essential, if we would judge fairly of conditions +as a whole; and thus we turn first to that other English-speaking race, +and the English worker at home. At once we are faced with the +impossibility of gathering much more than surface indications, since in +no other country is there any counterpart to our admirable system of +investigation and tabulation, each year more and more systematic and +thorough. In spite of the fact that factory laws had their birth in +England, and that the whole system of child labor--the early horrors of +which find record in thousands of pages of special reports from +inspectors appointed by government--has been through their means +modified and improved, there are, even now, no sources of information as +to numbers at work or the characteristics of special industries. The +census must be the chief dependence; and here we find the enormous +proportions to which the employment of women has attained. + +In 1861 these returns gave for England and Wales 1,024,277 women at +work. Twenty years later the number had doubled, half a million being +found in London alone. This does not include all, since, as Mr. Charles +Booth notes in his recent "Labor and Life of the People," many employed +women do not return their employments. + +Mr. Booth's work is a purely private enterprise, assisted by devoted +co-workers, and by trained experts employed at his own expense. For the +final estimate must be added general census returns, and the recent +reports on the sweating-system in London and other English cities. + +Beginning with factory operatives and their interests, nothing is easier +than to follow the course of legislation on their behalf. The "Life of +Lord Shaftesbury" is, in itself, the history of the movement for the +protection of women and children,--a movement begun early in the present +century, and made imperative by the hideous disclosures of oppression +and outrage, not only among factory operatives, but the women and +children in mining and other industries. Active as were his efforts and +those of his colleagues, it is only within a generation that the fruit +of their labor is plainly seen. As late as 1844, at the time Engel's +notable book on "The Condition of the Working-Class in England" +appeared, the labor of children of four and five years was still +permitted; and women and children alike worked in mines, in brickyards, +and other exposed and dangerous employments for the merest pittance. The +pages of Engel's book swarm with incidents of individual and class +misery; and while he admits fully, in the appendix prepared in 1886, +that many of the evils enumerated have disappeared, he adds that for the +mass of workers "the state of misery and insecurity in which they live +now is as low as ever, perhaps lower." + +Year by year, in spite of constant agitation and the unceasing effort of +Lord Shaftesbury to alter the worst abuses, these evils remained, and +faced the examiner into social problems, slight ameliorations here and +there serving chiefly to throw into darker relief the misery of the +situation. Not only the philanthropist but officials joined hands; and +in the proceedings of the British Association for the Advancement of +Science, each year added to the number and importance of the protests +against an iniquitous system. + +Chief among these protests ranked that against the overwork of pregnant +mothers, through which, as one of the most able opponents of existing +evils, W. Stanley Jevons, wrote, "infinite, irreparable wrong is done to +helpless children," adding that the appalling infant mortality of the +manufacturing districts attracted far less attention and interest in the +public mind than the death of a single murderer. At nearly the same time +Mr. F.W. Lowndes gave the fruit of long research in a paper read before +the British Association for the Advancement of Science, entitled "The +Destruction of Infancy;"[26] and this was supplemented by testimony +from experts, the Statistical Society adding weighty testimony to the +same effect.[27] + +From these and other official testimony it was found that in nineteen +manufacturing towns,[28] out of 1,023,896 children [Forty-first Report +of the Registrar-General, p. 36] born, 82,259 died in infancy. The rate +of mortality varied from 59.4 in Portsmouth through an ascending scale, +being in London 78.6 and in Liverpool the almost incredible proportion +of 103.6 per thousand. In a rural country infant mortality does not +exceed from thirty-five to forty per thousand. The Report of the Select +Committee on the Protection of Infant Life was filled with details so +horrible that only the sworn testimony of experts made them credited at +all.[29] + +Dr. Hunter's report on rural mortality shows that when mothers are +employed in what are known as "field gangs" for out-of-door work, +leaving their children in the charge of old women too weak for such +labor as their own, that infants died like sheep. Godfrey's Cordial was +the chief engine of destruction; the corps of inspectors who reported to +the Government finding infants in all stages of prostration, from the +overdoses of the popular specific warranted to render any attention from +nurse or mother quite unnecessary. + +As to the direct effects of factory or out-door labor on pregnant +mothers, out of 10,000 births among factory mothers, there died from +1863-75 of children under one year of age, in Portsmouth 1,459, +Liverpool 2,189, London 1,591, and other towns with textile industries +1,940. Statistics taken in Germany and at other points all went to show +that in the matter of out-door labor at the harvest season, when all +women-workers are in the fields, the deaths of nursing infants were +three times as great as in the other nine months. + +For details and deduction from these facts the reader is referred to the +reports themselves. "I go so far," wrote Mr. Jevons, "as to advocate the +ultimate complete exclusion of mothers of children under the age of +three years from factories and workshops;" and his conviction voiced +that of every examiner into the situation as it stood at that time. + +The Factory and Workshop Act came as partial solution to the many +problems; and though regarded by the working-class as a mass of +arbitrary restrictions whose usefulness they denied and in whose +benefits they had no faith, it has actually proved the Great +Charter of the working-classes. There are points still to be +altered,--modifications made necessary by the constant change in methods +of production, as well as in the enlarging sense of the ethical +principles involved. But our own legislation is still far behind it at +many points, and its work is done efficiently and thoroughly. Laws had +been made, one by one, fifteen standing on the Statute Books in 1878, +when all were abrogated, their essential features being codified in the +Act as it stands to-day,--a genuine industrial code in one hundred and +seven sections. + +Up to this date violation of its provisions had been incessant; but +determined enforcement brought about a uniform working day, protection +of dangerous machinery, proper ventilation, improved sanitary +conditions, an interdict on Sunday labor, and many other reforms in +administration. Fourteen years have seen next to no change in the Act, +and the condition of women and child workers in factories and workshops +has come to be regarded as the best that modern systems of production +admit. These workers, whose numbers now mount to hundreds of thousands, +are a class apart, and for them legislation has accomplished all that +legislation seems able to do in alleviating social miseries. Content +with the results achieved, need of further effort in other directions +failed of recognition, and apathy became the general condition. + +It was during this season of repose that the public mind received first +one shock and then another. "The Bitter Cry of Outcast London" appalled +all who read; and leaf by leaf the new book of revelations disclosed +always deeper depths of misery and want among all workers with the +needle,--from the days of the fig-leaf the symbol of grinding toil and +often hopeless misery. + +Not alone from professional agitators, so called, but from +philanthropists of every order, came the cry for help. The Factory and +Workshop Act had not touched home labor. The sweating-system, born of +modern conditions, had risen unsuspected, and ran riot, not only in East +London, but even in back alleys of the sacred west, and in the swarming +southwest region beyond London Bridge. The London "Lancet," the most +authoritative medical journal of the world, conservative as it has +always been, has at last found that it must join hands with socialist +and anarchist, "scientific" or otherwise, with philanthropists of every +order, against the new evil and its horrors. Rich and poor alike were +involved. The virus of the deadly conditions under which the garments +took shape was implanted in every stitch that held them together, and +transferred itself to the wearer. Not only from London, but from every +city of England, came the same cry; and the public faced suddenly an +abyss of misery whose existence had been unknown and unsuspected, and +the causes of which seemed inexplicable. + +For many months of the year just ended (1892) parliamentary +investigation has gone on. Report after report has been made to its +committees; and as testimony from accredited sources poured in, +incidentally a flood of light has been let in upon many forms of work +outside the clothing-manufacturer. To-day, in four huge volumes of some +thousand pages each, one may read the testimony, heart-sickening in +every detail,--a noted French political economist, the Comte +d'Haussonville, describing it, in a recent article in "La Revue des deux +Mondes" as "The Martyrology of English Industries." + +In such conditions inspection is inoperative. An army of inspectors +would not suffice where every house represents from one to a dozen +workshops under its roof, in each of which sanitary conditions are +defied, and the working day made more often fourteen and sixteen hours +than twelve. Even for this day a starvation wage is the rule; the +sewing-machine operative, for example, while earning a wage of fifteen +or eighteen pence, furnishing her own thread and being forced to pay +rental on the machine. + +A portion of a wage table is given here as illustrative of rates, and +used as a reference table before the preparation of Mr. Booth's book, +which gives much the same figures:-- + + Making paper bags, 4-1/2d. to 5-1/2d. per thousand; possible + earnings, 5s. to 6s. per week. + + Button-holes, 3d. a dozen; possible earnings, 8s. a week. + + Shirts, 2d. each, worker finding her own cotton; can get six done + between 8 A.M. and 11 P.M. + + Sack sewing, 6d. for twenty-five; 8d. to 1s. 6d. per hundred. + Possible earnings, 8s. per week. + + Pill-box making, 9s. for thirty-six gross; possible earnings, 8s. + per week. + + Shirt button-hole making, 1d. a dozen; can do three or four dozen a + day. + + Whip-making, 1s. a dozen; can do a dozen a day. + + Trousers finishing, 3d. to 5d. each, finding one's own cotton; can + do four a day. + + Shirt-finishing, 3d. to 4d. a dozen; possible earnings, 6s. a week. + +Outside of the cities, where the needle is almost the sole refuge of the +unskilled worker, every industry is invaded. A recent report as to +English nail and chain workers shows hours and general conditions to be +almost intolerable, while the wage averages eightpence a day. In the +mines, despite steady action concerning them, women are working by +hundreds for the same rate. In short, from every quarter comes in +repeated testimony that the majority of working Englishwomen are +struggling for a livelihood; that a pound a week is a fortune, and that +the majority live on a wage below subsistence point. + +The enormous influx of foreign population is partly responsible for +these conditions, but far less than is popularly supposed; since the +Jews, most often accused, are in many cases juster employers than the +Christians, and suffer from the same causes. For all alike, legislation +is powerless to reach certain ingrained evils, and the recent +sweating-commission ended its report with the words:-- + + "We express the firm hope that the faithful exposure of the evils + that we have been called upon to unveil, will have the effect of + leading capitalists to lend greater attention to the conditions + under which work is done, which furnishes the merchandise they + demand. When legislation has attained the limit beyond which it can + no longer be useful, the amelioration of the condition of workers + can result only from the increasing moral sense of those who employ + them." + +This conclusion, it may be added, is in full accord with that given in +the Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII., as well as with that of our most +serious workers at home; our own government examination into the +sweating-system, now embodied in a Congressional Report accessible to +all, being simply confirmation of every point made in that for England. +As a summary of many working conditions in London, I add part of a +report made by an indefatigable student of social conditions, Margaret +Harkness, associated now with Mr. Charles Booth, and as able an observer +as her cousin and co-worker, Miss Beatrice Potter, whose report on the +sweating-system makes part of Mr. Booth's first volume:[30]-- + + "I have, for the last six months, been attempting to find out + something about the hours and wages of girls who work at various + trades in the city. Had I known how difficult the task would be, I + should probably never have attempted it. Last time I heard of Mr. + Besant he was sitting in his office, overwhelmed with figures and + facts. He said then that he did not expect to publish anything + about the work of girls and women in the United Kingdom under a + year or eighteen months. I do not wonder at it. Apart from the + method of his inquiry, I know how exceedingly difficult it is to + arrive at the truth; the tact and patience it needs to make such + investigations. Employees and employers take very different views + of the same circumstances; one must listen to both, and then split + the difference. + + "There are at the present time absolutely no figures to go upon if + one wishes to learn something about the hours and wages of girls + who follow certain occupations in the city. The factory inspectors + (admirable men, but very much overworked) come, with the most naive + delight, to visit any person who has information to give about the + people over whose interests they are supposed to watch with + fatherly interest. Clergymen shake their heads, or refer one to + homes and charities. One has to find out the truth for one's self. + Both employers and employees must be visited. Even then one must + wait days and weeks to inspire them with confidence, for thus alone + can one obtain a thorough knowledge of things as they really are, + and arrive at facts unbiassed by prejudice. + + "So far I have found that there are, at least, two hundred trades + at which girls work in the city. Some employ hundreds of hands, and + some only fifty or sixty. Printers give the greatest amount of + work, perhaps; but there are at least two hundred other occupations + in which girls earn a living; namely, brush-makers, button-makers, + cigarette-makers, electric-light fitters, fur-workers, + India-rubber-stamp machinist, magic-lantern-slide makers, + perfumers, portmanteau-makers, spectacle-makers, + surgical-instrument makers, tie-makers, etc. These girls can be + roughly divided into two classes,--those who earn from 8s. to 14s., + and those who earn from 4s. to 8s. per week. Taking slack time into + consideration, it is, I think, safe to say that 10s. is the average + weekly wage of the first class, and 4s. 6d. that of the second + class. Their weekly wage often falls below this, and sometimes + rises above it. The hours are almost invariably from 8 A.M. to 7 + P.M., with one hour for dinner and a half-holiday on Saturday. I + know few cases in which such girls work less; a good many in which + over-time reaches to ten or eleven at night; a few in which + over-time means all night. There is little to choose between the + two classes. The second are allowed by their employers to wear old + clothes and boots; the first must make 'a genteel appearance.' + + "I often hear rich women say, 'Oh, working-girls cannot be very + poor; they wear such smart feathers.' If these women knew how the + girls have to stint in underclothing and food in order to make what + their employers call 'a genteel appearance,' I think they would + pass quite another verdict. I will give two typical cases: A girl + living just over Blackfriars Bridge, in one small room, for which + she pays 5s., earns 10s. a week in a printer's business. She works + from 8 A.M. to 6 P.M., then returns home to do all the washing, + cleaning, cooking, etc., that is necessary in a one-room + establishment. She has an invalid mother dependent on her efforts, + and is out-patient herself at one of the London hospitals. She was + sixteen last Christmas. Another girl, who lives in two cellars near + Lisson Grove, with father, mother, and six brothers and sisters, + earns 3s. 6d. a week in a well-known factory. She is seventeen + years old, but does not look more than ten or eleven. Every morning + she walks a mile to her work, arriving at eight o'clock; every + evening she walks a mile back, reaching home about seven o'clock. + If she arrives at the factory five minutes late, she is fined 7d. + If she stays away a whole day, she is 'drilled,'--that is, kept + without work a whole week. Her father has been out of employment + for six months; so her weekly 3s. 6d. goes into the family purse. + Her food consists of three slices of bread and butter, which she + takes to the factory for dinner; one slice of bread and butter and + some weak tea for supper and breakfast. These cases are not picked. + They are to be found scattered all over London. Many and many a + family is at the present time being kept by the labor of one or two + such girls, who can at the most earn a few shillings. When one + thinks what the life of a young girl is in happy families, all the + joyousness of which she is capable, until sorrow sets its seal on + her, one's heart aches for the sad lives of these girls in the + city. + + 'And still her voice comes ringing + Across the soft still air, + And still I hear her singing, + "Oh, life, thou art most fair!"' + + "A young girl is capable of feeling in one brief hour more intense + delight than a boy of her age experiences in a fortnight. Yet all + this joyousness is ruthlessly stamped upon by competition, and + thousands of girls in London have no enjoyment except to gaze at + monstrosities in penny gaffs, or to dance on dirty pavements; and + generally these poor things are too tired even to do that. It is + strange that the public take so little interest in these girls, + considering they must become mothers of future citizens. 'The youth + of a nation are the trustees of posterity.' What sort of daughters + are these girls with their pinched faces and stunted bodies likely + to give England? What will posterity say of the girl labor that now + goes on in the city? I have seen strong men weeping because they + have no bread to give their children; I know at the London docks + chains have been replaced by wooden barriers, because starving men + behind pressed so hard on starving men in front, that the latter + were nearly cut in two by the iron railings; I have watched a + contractor mauled when he had no work to give, and have myself been + nearly killed by a brick-bat that was hurled at a contractor's head + by a man whose family was starving: but I deliberately say of all + the victims of our present competitive system I pity these girls + the most. They are so fragile. Honest work is made for them almost + impossible; and if they slip, no one gives them a second chance, + they are kicked and spat upon by the public. I know that the + girl-labor question is but a portion of the larger labor question, + that nothing can be done for them at present; but I wish that they + were not the victims of the _laissez-faire_ policy in two ways + instead of one; I wish that their richer sisters were not so + terribly apathetic about them." + +For Scotland, industries, wages, and general conditions are much the +same as those of England. Factory life has been at many points improved, +and the superior thrift and education of the working-class shows in the +large amount of their savings. But Glasgow has faced conditions almost +as terrible as those given in "The Bitter Cry of Outcast London," with a +result not yet attained by the latter city, having destroyed hundreds of +foul tenements to make room for improved dwellings. + +For Ireland, though Irish linen, poplins, and woollens are the synonym +of excellence, the proportion of women workers in these industries is +comparatively small. In a few counties in the south Irish lace is made, +but the women are chiefly agricultural laborers. Thanks to the efforts +of Parnell, in 1885, there was formed "The Association for the Promotion +of Irish Industries," then chiefly destroyed by the "Act of Union" which +permitted England to levy protective tariffs on all Irish manufactures. +Statistics on these points are hidden in English Blue-books, and we have +no very reliable data as to the number of women and children employed. +The efforts of the Countess of Aberdeen, during the term of her husband +as Viceroy of Ireland, and of the Countess of Dunraven on the Dunraven +estates in the county of Limerick, have done much to re-establish the +lace industry,--with such success that the work compares favorably with +that of some of the French convents. + +In Wales, as in the North of England, women and children are employed in +the mines, and there is constant evasion of the laws regulating hours, +with a wage as inadequate as the work is heavy. Heavy woollens and +corduroy employ a small proportion in their manufacture, wage and hours +being the same as those of England. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[26] "The Destruction of Infants," by Mr. F.W. Lowndes, M.R.C.S., +British Association for the Advancement of Science, Report for 1870, p. +586. + +[27] Journal of the Statistical Society, Sept., 1870, vol. xxxiii. pp. +323-326. + +[28] Parliamentary Paper, No. 372, July 20, 1871: Collected Series, vol. +vii. p. 606. + +[29] Sixth Report of the Medical Officer of the Privy Council, 1863, pp. +454-462. Parliamentary Paper, 1864, No. 3,416, vol. xxviii. + +[30] Labor and Life of the People, vol. i.: East London. Edited by +Charles Booth, p. 564. + + + + +VIII. + +GENERAL CONDITIONS FOR CONTINENTAL WORKERS. + + +For France the census of 1847 showed a list of 959 women workers in +Paris earning sixty centimes a day; 100,000 earning from sixty centimes +to three francs, and 626 earning over three francs. That for 1869 showed +17,203, earning from fifty centimes to one franc twenty-five centimes +daily; 11,000 of these workers being furnished lodging, food, and +washing. Of the entire number 88,340 earned from one franc fifty +centimes to four francs a day; 767 earned from four francs fifty +centimes to ten francs daily, most of the latter class being heads of +work rooms or shops. The rise in wages affected the better orders of +worker, but left the sewing-woman's wage nearly unchanged. Levasseur[31] +tells us that toward the end of the reign of Louis Philippe the wage of +a woman varied ordinarily from twelve to twenty-five sous, exceptionally +from twenty to forty; that of children being from six to fifteen sous; +of men from thirty sous for ordinary laborers, to forty or forty-five +for skilled work. + +The census for 1851 gave for Paris 112,891 workwomen, 60,000 of whom +were sewers. Convent sewing, that of the prisons and reformatories, and +the competition of women who had homes and worked simply for pin-money, +kept the wage at a minimum; and these conditions still operate toward +that end, precisely as they do for all countries where the needle is a +means of support, the evil being felt most severely in our cities. The +facts in the life of a French seamstress are much the same as those of +the Englishwoman. To earn two francs a day she must make eight chemises, +working from fourteen to sixteen hours daily to accomplish this. The +income of the average sewer does not exceed, at the best, five hundred +francs, and most usually falls below. Rents are so high that a garret +requires not less than one hundred francs a year. In his researches into +conditions, Jules Simon[32] found that this sum compelled deprivations +of every order. Expenses were as follows: Rent, 100 francs; clothing, +bedding, etc., 115 francs; washing, 36 francs; heat and light, 36 +francs. These sums amounted to 286.50 francs, the amount remaining for +food being 215.50 or a little less than twelve sous a day,--the amount +expended by two of our own seamstresses in New York in 1887, the items +being given by the earner.[33] + +Existence on French soil, whether in Paris, the manufacturing towns, or +the provinces, has come to mean something very different from the facts +of a generation ago. Then, with wages hardly above "subsistence point," +the thrifty Frenchwoman not only lived, but managed to put by a trifle +each month. Wages have risen, but prices have at the same time advanced. +Every article of daily need is at the highest point,--sugar, which the +London workwoman buys at a penny a pound, being twelve cents a pound in +Paris; and flour, milk, eggs, equally high. Fuel is so dear that +shivering is the law for all save the wealthy; and rents are no less +dear, with no "improved dwellings" system to give the most for the scant +sum at disposal. Bread and coffee, chiefly chiccory, make one meal; +bread alone is the staple of the others, with a bit of meat for Sunday. +Hours are frightfully long, the disabilities of the French needleworker +being in many points the same as those of her English sister. In short, +even skilled labor has many disabilities, the saving fact being that +unskilled is in far less proportion than across the Channel, the present +system of education including many forms of industrial training. + +Generations of freer life than that of England, and many traditions in +her favor give certain advantages to the woman born on French soil. It +is taken for granted that she will after marriage share her husband's +work or continue her own, and her keen intelligence is relied upon to a +degree unknown to other nations. Repeated wars, and the enrolment of all +her men for fixed periods of service, have developed the capacity of +women in business directions, and they fill every known occupation. The +light-heartedness of her nation is in her favor, and she has learned +thoroughly how to extract the most from every centime. There is none of +the hopeless dowdiness and dejection that characterize the lower order +of Englishwoman. Trim, tidy, and thrifty, the Frenchwoman faces poverty +with a smiling courage that is part of her strength, this look changing +often for the older ones into a patience which still holds courage. + +Thus far there is no official report of the industries in which they are +engaged, and figures must be drawn from unofficial sources. M. Paul +Leroy-Beaulieu, the noted political economist, in his history of "The +Labor of Women in the Nineteenth Century," computes the number of women +at work in the manufactories of textile fabrics, cotton, woollen, linen, +and silk, as nearly one million; and outside of this is the enormous +number of lace-makers and general workers in all occupations. There are +over a quarter of a million of these lace-workers, whose wages run from +eighty and ninety centimes to two francs a day; and the rate of payment +for Swiss lace-workers is the same. + +During the Congrès Féministe held in the autumn of 1892, Madame Vincent, +an ardent champion of women wage-earners, presented statistics, chiefly +from private sources, showing that out of 19,352,000 artisans in France, +there are 4,415,000 women who receive in wages or dividends nearly +$500,000,000 a year. Their wage is much less in proportion to the work +they do than that of men, yet they draw thirty-five per cent of the +entire sum spent in wages. In Paris alone, over 8,000 women are doing +business on an independent footing; and of 3,858 suits judged in 1892 by +the Workingman's Council, 1,674 concerned women. In spite of these +numbers and the abuses known to exist, the Chamber of Deputies has +refused practically to extend to women workers the law for the +regulation of the conditions of work in workshops. The refusal is +disguised under the form of adjournment of the matter, the reason +assigned being that the grievances of women are by no means ripe enough +for discussion. Women themselves are not at all of the same mind; and +the result has already been a move toward definite organization of +trades, and united action for all women engaged in them,--a step +hitherto regarded as impossible. The first effect of this has been a +protest from Paris shopgirls against the action of the Chamber of +Deputies, and the formation of committees whose business will be to +enlist the interest and co-operation of women throughout the entire +country,--a slow process, but one that will mean both education and +final release from some at least of the worst disabilities now weighting +all women workers. + +"La femme devenue ouvrière, n'est plus une femme," wrote Jules Simon in +a burst of despair at the conditions of the Paris workwoman; and he +repeated the word as his investigations extended to manufacturing +France, and he found everywhere the home in many cases abolished, the +_crèche_ taking its place till the child, vitally dependent upon a care +that included love, gave up the struggle for existence, rendering its +tiny quota to the long list of infant mortality. M. Leroy-Beaulieu had +described years before the practical extinction of the family and the +government interference[34] brought about by the discoveries made by the +government inspecting committee, upon whom consternation seized as they +found decadence of morals, enfeebled physique, and that the ordinary +girl-worker at sixteen or seventeen could not sew a seam, or make a +broth, or care for a child's needs or the simplest demands of a home. +Appalled at these conditions, France set about the organization of +industrial schools, and these have altered the whole face of affairs. + +Generations of abuses had made, up to the time of the investigation, the +history of the working-class in France. One of their best-known +scientific observers, the statistician Villermé, examined in person, and +as one of the government inspecting committee reported on the condition +of dwellings in Lille, Amiens, and other manufacturing towns of France. +The weavers and spinners of Lille lived in caves, of which thirty-six +hundred were found occupied by families,--father, mother, and children +as soon as old enough, employed in the mills, and returning at night to +these dens, where filth and darkness periodically did their work of +decimation, and where infant mortality had reached the maximum. +Horrified at the discoveries made, three thousand of these dwellings +were at once destroyed. But for unknown and quite inscrutable reasons +six hundred were allowed to remain and receive double the original +number of tenants.[35] Years passed before the last cave was filled up, +the children born in them providing an enormous percentage for prison +and galleys. At Douai, Rouen, Roubaix, and many other points, such +hideous filth marked the homes of the working-class that Villermé +reported: "The walls are covered with a thousand layers of ordure." The +women, exhausted and depleted by a day's labor of from twelve to +fourteen hours, had no time to think of cleanliness. In fact, its +meaning had never been taught; and though industrial schools increase, +hours are now shortened, and inspection is active, it remains true that +almost the same conditions perpetuate themselves at many points,--the +descriptions given by the great realist, Zola, of women and children in +the mines, and the hideousness of their home life, being very literal +and unexaggerated fact. + +As to conditions of the work itself, many trades and occupations require +for their proper carrying on methods and surroundings absolutely +destructive to health. In all preparation of hemp and oakum dust is +excessive; far beyond that of the cotton-mill, which itself breeds +consumption. In the spinning of flax great heat and water are both +necessities. "Nothing is more wretched," writes Jules Simon, "than a +linen-spinner's surroundings. Water covers the brick floor. The odor of +the linen and a temperature often exceeding twenty-five Reaumur fill the +workroom with an intolerable stench. The majority of the workwomen, +obliged to put off most of their garments, are huddled together in this +pestilential atmosphere, imprisoned in the machines, pressed one against +the other, their bodies streaming with sweat, their feet bare to the +ankle; and when a day, nominally of twelve hours but really of thirteen +and a half, is over, they quit the workroom for home, the rags they wear +barely protecting them from cold and damp." + +Details of the same order abound in the work of the political economist +M. Leroy-Beaulieu,[36] who seeks at all points to give the most +favorable impression possible. In each and every case the great +authorities appear to be of one mind as to the disastrous effects upon +the children born to these mothers. That the _crèche_ is now +practically a part of every factory makes little or no difference. + +"The _crèche_," writes Jules Simon, "abolishes maternity in all save its +pains. The working mother is defrauded of her own means of growth, bound +up in the training of the child; and the child loses its right to be +loved and guarded by love." In short, for all continental countries, as +well as for England and our women, the question of child labor and the +destiny of the child are inextricably bound up in that of the working +mother, and are vital factors in working out the problem of woman as a +wage-earner. What proportion of wage-earning women recruit the ranks of +prostitution, is a question often asked. In Paris, which is in one sense +the focus of French labor, its many opportunities drawing to it a large +contingent from the provinces, it is popularly supposed that the ranks +of the sewing-women give large proportion to houses of prostitution. +This opinion is the prevailing one for all large cities, whether in +Europe or America, yet is disproved on all sides. For Paris +Parent-Duchalet states that in the statistics given by the prefecture of +police, in a table including forty-one categories, women with no +occupation had first rank as prostitutes, domestic service giving the +second, and sewing-women the smallest proportion. This is the more +surprising when one considers that their wage is often below the point +of subsistence, and that temptation of every order waits upon them. At +the best the wage falls far below that of men, even when both engage in +the same work. The present movement toward organization is the first +step toward a general bettering of all trades and their wage; and for +fullest details of this, and work in connection with the admirable +Bourse du Travail, one of its most important features of working life +to-day in Paris, the reader must turn to the reports themselves, +beginning with the first one, issued in 1887-88.[37] The same facts may +be said to form the story of labor in Belgium, in Switzerland, in Italy, +and at all points where women or children are at work, whether in +factory or mine or workshop. For Belgium the situation is summed up in a +very important and minute report of the government inquiry commission +into the labor of women and children,--the first made in 1867 and +followed by one in 1874, the latest having been made in 1891.[38] + +A comprehensive law, promulgated Nov. 2, 1892, and regulating the labor +of women and children in factories and mines, was amended in May, 1893, +by the addition of very specific regulations as to all employments +affecting health and morals. The Presidential decree consists of two +parts,--the first dealing with the employment of women and children in +connection with machinery when in motion, or in which the dangerous +parts are not fully protected, in glass-blowing and in carrying weights. +The second part of the decree consists of three tables, of which A +enumerates certain industries, chiefly the manufacture of acids, dyes, +chemicals, etc., also manures and glass, crystal, and metal polishing, +in which female and child labor are prohibited; B those in which +children under eighteen must not work, chiefly the manufacture of +explosives; and C, a large variety of other industries in which female +and child labor is only allowed conditionally. The great majority of +these are industries involving special risk through the disengagement of +dust-particles or vapors; while a few are ranked as dangerous, owing to +risk of fire and the contraction of special diseases, etc. + +Belgium, French in feeling and in methods, has known some of the worst +abuses discoverable on continental soil, thousands of women and children +in her mines having toiled from twelve to sixteen hours a day, with +often no Sunday rest, for a wage at bare subsistence point. In +"Germinal," Zola, who spent months observing every phase of their life, +has given a picture, unsurpassed in any literature, of the misery and +degradation of the worker. An investigation in 1874, and indignation at +some of the conditions then discovered, brought about modifications of +the law. That of the general congress of 1891 accomplished much more; +but work must still be done before any very marked advance becomes +discernible. + +Passing to Germany, a good two-thirds of the women are at work in field +or shop or home, the proportion of women in agriculture being larger +than in any other country of Europe. Her schools furnish better training +than those of any other nation. In all these points Prussia leads, +though till recently legislation has been in behalf of child-workers, +and women have been practically ignored. But factory regulations are +minute and extended; and the questions involved in the labor of women, +and its bearing on health, longevity, etc., are now coming under +consideration. In Silesia, as early as 1868, women were excluded from +the salt-mines; and the Labor Congress of 1889 brought about many +changes of the laws on this point for Belgium and Germany. In Italy, in +which country industrial education is now receiving much attention, the +labor of women, continuous, severe, and underpaid, as it is known to be, +finds small mention, save among special students of social questions. +Russia has practically no data from which judgment can be formed. In +short, it is only in English-speaking countries that really efficient +action as to the labor of women has taken place; while even for them the +work has but begun, and new and more radical forms will be necessary +for any real progress toward final betterment. Toward such end the labor +bureaus of our own country are working diligently; and it is with them +that we have next to do, the investigations already made and +incorporated in their reports being full of suggestion for future +workers. + +The census of 1882 gave for Germany, in a population of 45,222,113 +persons, 23,071,364 women, of whom 1,109,530 were widows, and 5,467,730 +unmarried, a large proportion of both these classes being +self-supporting. An immense number of these were agricultural laborers. +In Prussia in 1867 the census gave the number of women agricultural +laborers as 1,054,213. Woman's wage for a day's labor, always twelve and +often fourteen hours, is from twenty to twenty-five cents, about a third +of that received by men doing the same work. Brassey, the great railroad +contractor, found throughout Germany that her wage was always a third +and often a quarter less than that of men. + +For united Germany the description given by Villermé in 1836 is still +true for many points. "The misery in which the cotton spinners and +weavers of the upper Rhine live," he writes, "is so profound that it +produces the saddest results. In the families of manufacturers, drapers, +merchants, etc., half the children born attain their nineteenth year, +this same half ceasing to exist before the age of two years in the +families of weavers and workers at cotton-spinning." + +As to numbers employed in trades and industries, it is difficult to +secure them with exactness. The census of 1871 reported three tenths of +the population as agricultural, the males employed in agriculture being +2,338,174, and the females 4,426,573. Household service had 840,000 +women on its rolls. In 1875 the cotton-mills employed in weaving and +spinning 95,934 women; the woollen manufacture, nearly 193,000; linen, +hemp, and jute, 190,000. The labor of women and children was hardly +recognized, and statistics had to be disentangled as best they might be +from general tables of occupations. Through the persistent efforts of +the Centre in the German Reichstag, a gradual betterment of the +working-classes has been brought about, and thus indirectly that of +women and children,--the first combined and determined effort being made +in 1889, when three bills were brought up for discussion. The first +made the working-day not to exceed eleven hours; the second demanded the +suspension of industrial labor on Sunday, save in exceptional cases, +when five hours' labor was to be allowed; the third concerned the labor +of women and children, and with some modifications is practically the +law to-day. Night and Sunday labor in mines, smelting-works, +rolling-mills, and dockyards is entirely forbidden, nor can married +women work more than ten hours a day. The Federal Council has the right +also to forbid the employment of women and children in all factories and +establishments where health and morals are exposed to exceptional +dangers. + +At the period at which the investigations which brought about the +agitation of the question were made, the number of child laborers had +increased in two years from 155,000 to 192,000, children hardly more +than babies being in the factories. At present the law forbids the +employment of any child under twelve, and not less than three hours' +schooling daily is compulsory. Abuses exist at all points, women workers +in mines faring, even with shortened day, in very evil case,--the wage +at or below subsistence point and the general conditions of the most +hopeless order. Constant agitation goes on in the Reichstag, and +organization among the women themselves will in time bring about needed +reforms; but as a whole the German woman is in many points less +considered than the women of any other civilized nation. + +Though Italy is pre-eminently an agricultural country, and men, women, +and children are alike employed in agricultural pursuits, there has been +no trustworthy record of numbers engaged. In manufacturing there are +more statistics, but interest in the woman's share in labor is of recent +date. In the silk manufacture, in which Italy ranks second only to +China, and far beyond all other competitors, 81,165 women and 25,373 +children were employed in 1877, chiefly in unwinding cocoons, the number +at present having increased nearly ten per cent. In the cotton industry +there were employed, at the time of the same census, 2,696 women and +2,520 children; and a proportionate increase in numbers has taken place. +In the flax and hemp industries nearly seventy thousand workers used +hand-looms at home, the larger proportion of these being women. In the +factories it was found that 2,565 women and 1,227 children were at work +as spinners, and 3,394 women and 1,020 children as weavers. Women are +steadily employed in the manufacture of straw hats and bonnets, in jute +in many forms, in cigar and cigarette making, and in many other +industries, cheap clothing leading. Of the thirty millions and more of +population, not quite half are women; and of these nearly half are +wage-earners, the majority in unrecorded forms of labor,--chiefly +household service or the care of their own homes, with some petty +industry adding its mite to the yearly income. But industrial training +has but begun for Italy. The wage is pitiably low, the conditions of +living hard and full of privation; nor can these facts alter till better +education and organization have been brought about. The latest Italian +census is not yet published; but proofs of tables of the comparative +wage for twenty years in some of the principal industries have been sent +me through the courtesy of Signor Luigi Bodio, the minister of +agriculture, commerce, and general statistics. From these tables it is +found that the daily wage of women cotton-spinners has risen from sixty +centimes, in 1871, to one franc twenty-six centimes in 1891, this being +the equivalent of one lire twenty-six centissimi. The wage for weaving +has risen from eighty centimes, in 1871, to one franc twenty-six +centimes in 1891. Spoolers in 1871 received eighty-eight centimes as +against one franc thirty centimes in 1891. In hemp-spinning the wage has +fallen from ninety to eighty centimes, but has risen from ninety-eight +centimes to one franc thirty centimes for twisting; the wage in the +cases cited being a little more than a third that of men. In +paper-making experienced workers now receive one franc fifty-two +centimes as against sixty-six centimes in 1871; and in making of +stearine candles one franc as against seventy-eight centimes in 1871. +Running through the tables of every industry, the average is about the +same,--the wage for women, even when doing the same work, hardly more +than a third that for men, and the amount for either at bare subsistence +point. + +In Russia the woman's wage is but a fifth that of men, with working +conditions, save at a few points where the work of Professor Janzhul +and his confrères has told, at the very worst,--the day being from +twelve to sixteen hours long even in the best-managed factories, while +in the village industries, which, owing to the peculiar conditions of +Russian life, make up the larger proportion of her industries, it is for +many workers almost unending, the merest respite being given for sleep. +As yet but few authentic figures as to the numbers employed are given, +though on the first investigation into domestic industries made a few +years since it was found that over 890,000 were engaged in them, and +also at the same time in agriculture. Manufacturing in Russia +concentrates about Moscow and St. Petersburg, which represent more than +two fifths of the whole production of the empire. The requirements of +nine tenths of the Russian people are met by domestic manufacture in the +villages, and home-weaving for the market employs over two hundred +thousand workers, other textiles, leather, etc., being dealt with in the +same way. + +In the other northern countries of Europe,--Norway, Sweden, and +Denmark,--manufactures are at a minimum, fisheries and agriculture being +the chief industries. Women are employed in both; and in the few +factories there is a small proportion of women and children, working at +a wage much less than that given to men. Sweden has a most admirable +system of industrial education; and Norway and Denmark, though far less +in population, have adopted the same methods. But the limitations of all +wage-earning women are felt here in the same manner as elsewhere, the +summary for all countries being much the same. The Northern workwoman +has the advantage of training and of as keen a sense of economy as the +Frenchwoman; but her wage is most usually at or below subsistence point, +and her difficulties are those of the worker in general,--long hours, +insufficient pay, and fierce competition. + +As to the present laws concerning the length of the working-day, a +general abstract is found in a return issued in reply to an address from +the House of Commons, an abstract of which was given in "St. James' +Gazette":-- + + "In France the hours of adult labor are regulated by a series of + decrees, of which the earliest, promulgated September, 1848, enacts + that the workingman's day in manufactories and mills shall not + exceed twelve hours of 'effective' or actual labor. A decree + issued in May, 1851, made exceptions, so that more hours might be + worked in certain trades. In 1885 a circular was issued stating + that the limit of twelve hours _per diem_ was not to be imposed + where hand-power was employed, but was to be confined to + manufactories and mills in which the motive power was machinery. No + workshops were to come under the clauses of the act that did not + employ more than twenty hands in any one shed. The report says: 'It + is likewise to be borne in mind that there is in France no + compulsory observance of Sunday, and no day of habitual rest.' + + "The reports of the French inspectors of labor appear to show that + the Act of 1848 is very loosely interpreted. It is even doubtful + whether the section limiting the actual working-day to twelve hours + was intended to include or exclude hours of rest. Practically the + legal time is made to exclude rest. This makes the working-day so + much the longer. Thus one of the French inspectors states that the + hours of attendance in factories under the Act of 1848 are from + five in the morning until seven in the evening, or a total of + fourteen hours, out of which there are twelve hours of 'effective + labor.' But the same authority also states that 'effective' time + often extends to thirteen and fourteen hours in many + weaving-establishments. Finally, we are told that, as a rule, it + may be taken that Frenchmen employed in factories are present in + the shops at least fourteen hours out of every twenty four. + + "Among the countries having no laws affecting the hours of adult + labor, Germany is conspicuous. Employers, however, cannot force + their servants to work on Sundays and feast-days. Employment of + youthful or female labor in certain kinds of factories, which is + attended with special danger to health or morals, is forbidden, or + made conditional on certain regulations, by which night labor for + female work-people is especially forbidden. In Germany, as in other + countries also, women may not be employed in factories for a + certain time after childbirth. In Hesse-Darmstadt the medium + duration of labor is from ten to twelve hours,--the cases in which + the latter time is exceeded being, however, more frequent than + those in which the former is not exceeded. The normal work-day + throughout Saxony in all the principal branches of industry is from + 6 A.M. to 7 P.M., with half an hour for breakfast, an hour for + dinner, and half an hour for supper. In the manufacturing industry + there are departures from these hours, the period of work in + spinning and weaving mills not infrequently being twelve hours. + + "In Austria the law provides that the duration of work for factory + hands shall not exceed eleven hours out of the twenty-four, + 'exclusive' of the periods of rest. These are not to be less in the + aggregate than an hour and a half. The rule can be modified by the + minister of commerce, in conjunction with the minister of the + interior, allowing longer hours. The hours have been so extended to + twelve hours in certain industries, such as spinning-mills, and + even to thirteen in silk manufactories. Sunday rest is enforced. In + Hungary there is no limit laid down by law, but the hours are not + generally longer than in Austria. + + "Concerning the actual hours of adult labor in Belgium, some + difficulty is said to be experienced in getting at the facts. The + evidence given before a Belgian royal commission showed that + railway guards are sometimes on duty for fifteen and even nineteen + and a half hours at a stretch; and the Brussels tram-way-drivers + are at work from fifteen to seventeen hours daily, with a rest of + only an hour and a half at noon. Brick-makers work during the + summer months sixteen hours a day. In the sugar refineries the + average hours are from twelve to thirteen for men and from nine to + ten for women. The cabinetmakers, both at Ghent and Brussels, + assert that they have often to work seventeen hours a day. + + "In Switzerland the law provides that a normal working-day shall + not exceed eleven hours, reduced on Saturdays and public holidays + to ten. Power is reserved for prolonging the working-day in certain + circumstances. Except in cases of absolute necessity Sunday labor + is prohibited, and in establishments where uninterrupted labor is + required, each working hand must have one free Sunday out of two. + Women cannot under any circumstances be employed in night or Sunday + labor. Italy has not legislated for adults, but has made + regulations for child labor. Sweden is in the same position. Spain + and Portugal have done nothing. The general rule in the latter + country, applying to old and young, is to work from sunrise to + sunset, an hour and a half being allowed for meals. In the + Netherlands a law was recently promulgated to prevent excessive and + dangerous work by grown-up women and young persons. In Turkey the + working-day lasts from sunrise to sunset, with certain intervals + for repose and refreshment. In Russia, where there are no laws + affecting the hours of adult labor, the normal working-day in + industrial establishments averages twelve hours, though it is often + extended to fourteen and even sixteen." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[31] Histoire des Classes Ouvriers en France depuis 1789 jusqu'à nos +Jours, par E. Levasseur. + +[32] L'Ouvrière, par Jules Simon. + +[33] Prisoners of Poverty, p. 118. + +[34] Le Travail des Femmes au XIX. Siècle, par Paul Leroy-Beaulieu. + +[35] L'Ouvrière, p. 158. + +[36] Le Travail des Femmes aux XIX. Siècle. + +[37] Annuaire de la Bourse du Travail. Volumes from 1887 to 1892 +inclusive. + +[38] Rapport sur l'Enquête faite au nom de l'Académie Royale de Médecine +de Belgique, par la commission chargée d'étudier la question de l'emploi +des femmes dans les travaux souterrain des mines, Bruxelles, 1868. + +Documents nouveaux relatifs au travail des femmes et des enfants, dans +les manufactures, les mines, etc, etc. Bruxelles, 1874. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +GENERAL CONDITIONS AMONG WAGE-EARNING WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES. + + +The summary already made of the work of bureaus of labor and their +bearing upon women wage-earners includes some points belonging under +this head which it still seemed advisable to leave where they stand. The +work of the Massachusetts Bureau gave the keynote, followed by all +successors, and thus required full outlining; and it is from that, as +well as successors, that general conditions are to be determined. A +brief summary of such facts as each State has investigated and reported +upon will be given, with the final showing of the latest and most +general report,--that from the United States Bureau of Labor for 1889. + +Beginning with New England and taking State by State in the usual +geographical order, that of Maine for 1888 leads. Work here was done by +a special commissioner appointed for the purpose, and the chief towns +and cities in the State were visited. No occupation was excluded. The +foreign element of the State is comparatively small. There is no city in +which overcrowding and its results in the tenement-house system are to +be found. Factories are numerous, and the bulk of Maine working-women +are found in them; the canning industry employs hundreds, and all trades +have their proportion of workers. For all of them conditions are better +in many ways than at almost any other point in New England, many of them +living at home and paying but a small proportion of their wages toward +the family support. + +A large proportion of the factories have boarding-houses attached, which +are run by a contractor. A full inspection of these was made, and the +report pronounces them to be better kept than the ordinary +boarding-house, with liberal dietary and comfortable rooms. Many of the +women owned their furniture, and had made "homes" out of the narrow +quarters. These were the better-paid class of workers. Several of the +factories have "Relief Associations," in which the employees pay a small +sum weekly, which secures them a fixed sum during illness or +disability. The conditions, as a whole, in factory are more nearly those +of Massachusetts during the early days of the Lowell mills than can be +found elsewhere. + +Taking the State as a whole, though the average wage is nearly a dollar +less a week than that of Massachusetts, its buying power is somewhat +more, from the fact that rents are lower and the conditions of living +simpler, though this is true only of remote towns. + +Massachusetts follows; and here, as in Maine, there is general complaint +that many of the girls live at home, pay little or no board, and thus +can take a lower wage than the self-supporting worker. In the large +stores employees are hired at the lowest possible figure; and many girls +who are working for from four to five dollars per week state that it is +impossible to pay for room and board with even tolerably decent +clothing. Hundreds who want pin-money do work at a price impossible to +the self-supporting worker, many married women coming under this head; +and bitter complaint is made on this point. At the best the wage is at a +minimum, and only the most rigid economy renders it possible for the +earner to live on it. That there is not greater suffering reflects all +honor on the army of hard-working women, pronounced by the commissioner +to be as industrious, moral, and virtuous a class as the community owns. + +"Homes" of every order have been established in Boston and in other +large towns in the State; and as they give board at the lowest rate, +they are filled with girls. They are rigid as to rules and regulations, +and not in favor, as a rule, with the majority. A very slight relaxing +of lines and more effort to make them cheerful would result in bringing +many who now remain outside; but in any case they can reach but a small +proportion. + +In unskilled labor there is little difference among the workers. All +alike are half starved, half clothed, overworked to a frightful degree; +the report specifying numbers whose day's work runs from fourteen to +sixteen hours, and with neither time to learn some better method of +earning a living, nor hope enough to spur them on in any new path. This +class is found chiefly among sewing-women on cheap clothing, bags, etc.; +and there is no present means of reaching them or altering the +conditions which surround them. + +Connecticut factories are subject to the same general laws as those +governing like work in Maine and Massachusetts. Over thirty thousand +women and girls are engaged in factory work, and ten thousand +children,--chiefly girls, women being twenty-five per cent of all +employed in factories. Legislation has lessened or abolished altogether +some of the worst features of this life, and there are special mills +which have won the highest reputation for just dealing and care of every +interest of their employees. But the same reasons that affect general +conditions for all workers exist here also, and produce the same +results, not only in factory labor, but in all other industries open to +women. The fact that there are no large cities, and thus little +overcrowding in tenements, and that there is home life for a large +proportion of the workers, tells in their favor. Factory boarding-houses +fairly well kept abound; but the average wage, $6.50, is a trifle lower +than that of Massachusetts, and implies more difficulty in making ends +meet. Many of the worst abuses in child labor arose in Connecticut, and +the reports for both 1885 and 1886 state that for both women and +children much remains to be done. Clothing here, as elsewhere, is +synonymous with overwork and underpay, the wage being below subsistence +point; and want of training is often found to be a portion of the reason +for these conditions. + +In Rhode Island, as in all the New England States, the majority of the +factories are in excellent condition, the older ones alone being open to +the objections justly made both by employees and the reports of the +Labor Bureau. The wage falls below that of Connecticut, while the +general conditions of living are practically the same, the statements +made as to the first applying with equal force to the last. Manufactures +are the chief employment, the largest number of women workers being +found in these. Of all of them the commissioner reports: "They work +harder and more hours than men, and receive much less pay."[39] The fact +of no large cities, and thus no slums, is in the worker's favor; but +limitations are in all other points sharp and continuous. + +New York follows, and for the State at large the same remarks apply at +every point. It is New York City in which focuses every evil that hedges +about women workers, and in a degree not to be found at any other +portion of the country. These will be dealt with in the proper place. +The average wage, so far as the State is concerned, gives the same +result as those already mentioned. Manufacturing gives large employment; +and this is under as favorable conditions as in New England, though the +average wage is nearly a dollar less than that of Massachusetts, while +expenses are in some ways higher. The incessant tide of foreign labor +tends steadily to lower the wage-rate, and the struggle for mere +subsistence is the fact for most. + +In New York City, while there is a large proportion of successful +workers, there is an enormous mass of the lowest order. No other city +offers so varied a range of employment, and there is none where so large +a number are found earning a wage far below the "life limit." + +The better-paying trades are filled with women who have had some form of +training in school or home, or have passed from one occupation to +another, till that for which they had most aptitude has been determined. +That, however, to which all the more helpless turn at once, as the one +thing about the doing of which there can be no doubt or difficulty, is +the one most over-crowded, most underpaid, and with its scale of +payments lessening year by year. The girl too ignorant to reckon +figures, too dull-witted to learn by observation, takes refuge in sewing +in one of its many forms as the one thing possible to all grades of +intelligence; often the need of work for older women arises from the +death or evil habits of the natural head of the family, and fortunes +have sunk to so low an ebb that at times the only clothing left is on +the back of the worker in the last stages of demoralization. Employment +in a respectable place thus becomes impossible, and the sole method of +securing work is through the middlemen or sweaters, who ask no questions +and require no reference, but make as large a profit as can be wrung +from the helplessness and bitter need of those with whom they reckon. + +The difficulties to be faced by the woman whose only way of self-support +is limited to the needle, whether in machine or handwork, are fourfold: +first, her own incompetency must very often head the list, and prevent +her from securing first-class work; second, middlemen or sweaters lower +the price to starvation point; third, contract work done in prisons or +reformatories brings about the same result; and fourth, she is underbid +from still another quarter,--that of the countrywoman living at home, +who takes the work at any price offered. + +The Report of the New York Bureau of Labor for 1885 contains a mass of +evidence so fearful in its character, and demonstrating conditions of +life so tragic for the worker, and so shameful on the part of the +employer, that general attention was for the time aroused. It is +impossible here to make more than this general statement referring all +readers to the report itself for full detail. Thousands herded together +in tenement houses and received a daily wage of from twenty-five to +sixty cents, the day's labor being often sixteen hours long. "The Bitter +Cry of Outcast London" found its parallel here, nor has there been any +diminution of the numbers involved, though at some points conditions +have been improved. But the facts recorded in the report are practically +the same to-day; and the income of many workers falls below two dollars +a week, from which sum food, clothing, light, fuel, and rent are to be +provided for. The sum and essence of every wrong and injustice that can +hedge about the worker is found at this point, and remains a problem to +every worker among the poor, the solving of which will mean the solution +of the whole labor question. + +New Jersey reports have from the beginning followed the phases of the +labor movement with a keen intelligence and interest. They give general +conditions as much the same as those of New York State. The wage-rate is +but $5; and Newark especially, a city which is filled with manufacturing +establishments of every order, reproduces some of the evil conditions of +New York City, though in far less degree. Taking the State as a whole, +legislation has done much to protect the worker, and other reforms are +persistently urged by the bureau. They are needed. In the official +report of conditions among the linen-thread spinners of Paterson we +find: "In one branch of this industry women are compelled to stand on a +stone floor in water the year round, most of the time barefoot, with a +spray of water from a revolving cylinder flying constantly against the +breast; and the coldest night in winter, as well as the warmest in +summer, these poor creatures must go to their homes with water dripping +from their underclothing along their path, because there could not be +space or a few moments allowed them wherein to change their +clothing."[40] + +Thus much for the East; and we turn to the West, where some of the most +practical and suggestive forms of investigation are now in full +operation. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[39] Third Annual Report of the Commissioner of Industrial Statistics of +Rhode Island, 1889, p. 22. + +[40] Report of the Bureau of Labor for the State of New Jersey, 1888. + + + + +X. + +GENERAL CONDITIONS IN THE WESTERN STATES. + + +The reports from Kansas and Wisconsin give a wage but slightly above +that of New Jersey, the weekly average being $5.27. Of the 50,000 women +at work in 1889,--the number having now nearly doubled,--but 6,000 were +engaged in manufacturing, the larger portion being in domestic service. +Save in one or two of the larger towns and cities, there is no +overcrowding, and few of the conditions that go with a denser population +and sharper competition. Kansas gives large space to general conditions, +and, while urging better pay, finds that her working-women are, as a +whole, honest, self-respecting, moral members of the community. Factory +workers are few in proportion to those in other occupations; and this is +true of most of the Western States, where general industries are found +rather than manufactures. + +The report from Colorado for 1889 includes in its own returns certain +facts discovered on investigation in Ohio and Indiana, and matched by +some of the same nature in Colorado. The methods of Eastern competition +had been adopted, and Commissioner Rice reports:-- + + "In one of the large cities of Ohio the labor commissioners of that + State discovered that shirts were being made for 36 cents a dozen; + and that the rules of one establishment paying such wages employing + a large number of females, required that the day's labor should + commence and terminate with prayer and thanksgiving." + +In Indiana matters appear even worse. By personal investigation, it was +found that the following rates of wages were being paid in manufacturing +establishments in Indianapolis: For making shirts, 30 to 60 cents a +dozen; overalls, 40 to 60 cents a dozen pairs; pants, 50 cents to $1.25 +per dozen pairs. "In our own State," writes the commissioner, "owing to +Eastern competition on the starvation wage plan, are found women and +girls working for mere subsistence, though the prices paid here are a +shade higher. It is found that shirts are made at 80 cents a dozen, and +summer dresses from 25 cents upward." + +Prices are higher here than at almost any other portion of the United +States, and thus the wage gives less return. In spite of the general +impression that women fare well at this point, the report gives various +details which seem to prove abuses of many orders. It made special +investigation into the conditions of domestic service, that in hotels +and large boarding-houses being found to be full of abuses, though +conditions as a whole were favorable. In so new a State there are few +manufacturing interests; and the factories investigated are many of them +reported as showing an almost criminal disregard of the comfort and +interests of the employees. Aside from this, the report indicates much +the same general conditions as prevail in other States. + +In Minnesota, with its average wage of $6 per week, there are few +factories,--manufacturing being confined to clothing, boots and shoes, +and a few other forms. Domestic service has the largest number of women +employed, and stores and trades absorb the remainder. There is no +overcrowding save here and there in the cities, as in St. Paul or +Minneapolis, where girls often club together in rooming. While many of +the workers are Scandinavian, many are native born; and for the latter +there is often much thrift and a comfortable standard of living. The +same complaints as to lowness of wage, resulting from much the same +causes as those specified elsewhere, are heard; and in the clothing +manufacture wages are kept at the lowest possible point As a whole, the +returns indicate more comfort than in Colorado, but leave full room for +betterment. The chapter on "Domestic Service" shows many strong reasons +why girls prefer factory or general work to this; and as the views of +heads of employment agencies are also given, unusual opportunity is +afforded for forming just judgment in the matter. + +Next on the list comes the report from California for 1887 and 1888. The +resources of the bureau were so limited that it was impossible to obtain +returns for the whole State, and the commissioner therefore limited his +inquiry to a thorough investigation of the working-women of San +Francisco, in number about twenty thousand. The State has but one +cotton-mill, but there are silk, jute, woollen, corset, and shirt +factories, with many minor industries. Home and general sanitary +conditions were all investigated, the bureau following the general lines +pursued by all. + +Wages are considered at length; and Commissioner Tobin states that the +rate paid to women in California "does not compare favorably with the +rates paid to women in the Eastern States, as do the wages of men, for +the reason that Chinese come more into competition with women than with +men. This is especially the case among seamstresses, and in nearly all +our factories ... in other lines of labor the wages paid to females in +this State are generally higher than elsewhere." + +Rent, food, and clothing cost more in California than in the Eastern +States. The wage-tables show that the tendency is to limit a woman's +wage to a dollar a day, even in the best paid trades, and as much below +this as labor can be obtained. + +In shirt-making, Commissioner Tobin states that she is worse off than in +any of the Eastern States. Clothing of all orders pays as little as +possible, the best workwomen often making not over $2.87 per week. Even +at these starvation rates, girls prefer factory work to domestic +service; and as this phase was also investigated, we have another +chapter of most valuable and suggestive information. In spite of low +wages and all the hardship resulting, working women and girls as a whole +are found to be precisely what the reports state them to +be,--hard-working, honest, and moral members of the community. General +conditions are much the same as those of Colorado, the summary for all +the States from which reports have come being that the average wage is +insufficient to allow of much more than mere subsistence. + +The labor reports for the State of Missouri for 1889 and 1890 do not +deal directly with the question of women wage-earners; but indirectly +much light is thrown by the investigation, in that for 1889, into the +cost of living and the home conditions of many miners and workers in +general trades; while that for 1890 covers a wider field, and gives, +with general conditions for all workers, detailed information as to many +frauds practised upon them. The commissioner, Lee Merriweather, is so +identified with the interests of the worker, whether man or woman, that +a formal report from him on women wage-earners would have had especial +value. + +Last on the list of State reports comes an admirable one from Michigan, +prepared by Labor Commissioner Henry A. Robinson, issued in February, +1892, which devotes nearly two hundred pages to women wage-earners, and +gives careful statistics of 137 different trades and 378 occupations. +Personal visits were made to 13,436 women and girls living in the most +important manufacturing towns and cities of the State; and the blanks, +which were prepared in the light of the experience gained by the work of +other bureaus, contained 129 questions, classified as follows: social, +28; industrial, 12; hours of labor, 14; economic, 54; sanitary, 21; and +seven other questions as to dress, societies, church attendance, with +remarks and suggestions by the women workers. The result is a very +minute knowledge of general conditions, the series of tables given being +admirably prepared. In those on the hours of labor it is found that +domestic service exacts the greatest number of hours; one class +returning fourteen hours as the rule. In this lies a hint of the +increasing objection to domestic service,--longer hours and less +freedom being the chief counts against it. The final summary gives the +average wage for the State as $4.86; the highest weekly average for +women workers employed as teachers or in public positions being $10.78. + +The remarks and suggestions of the women themselves are extraordinarily +helpful. Outside the cities organization among them is unknown; but it +is found that those trades which are organized furnish the best paid and +most intelligent class of girls, who conceived at once the benefits of a +labor bureau, and answered fully and promptly. The hours of work in all +industries ranged from nine to ten, and the wage paid was found to be a +little more than fifty per cent less than that of men engaged in the +same work. A large proportion supported relatives, and general +conditions as to living were of much the same order of comfort and +discomfort as those given in other reports. The fact that this report is +the latest on this subject, and more minute in detail than has before +been possible, makes it invaluable to the student of social conditions; +and it is entertaining reading, even for the average reader. + +We come now to the final report, in some ways a summary of all,--that +of the United States Labor Department at Washington, and the work for +1889. + +In the twenty-two cities investigated by the agents of this bureau, the +average age at which girls began work was found to be 15 years and 4 +months. Charleston, S.C., gives the highest average, it being there 18 +years and 7 months, and Newark, N.J., the lowest,--14 years and 7 +months. The average period in which all had been engaged in their +present occupations is shown to be 4 years and 9 months; while of the +total number interviewed, 9,540 were engaged in their first attempt to +earn a living. + +As against the opinion often expressed that foreign workers are in the +majority, we find that of the whole number given, 14,120 were native +born. Of the foreign born, Ireland is most largely represented, having +936; and Germany comes next, with 775. In the matter of parentage, +12,907 had foreign-born mothers. The number of single women included in +the report is 15,387; 745 were married, and 2,038 widowed, from which it +is evident that, as a rule, it is single women who are fighting the +industrial fight alone. They are not only supporting themselves, but +are giving their earnings largely to the support of others at home. More +than half--8,754--do this; and 9,813, besides their occupation, help in +the home housekeeping. Of the total number, 4,928 live at home, but only +701 of them receive aid or board from their families. The average number +in these families is 5.25, and each contains 2.48 workers. + +Concerning education, church attendance, home and shop conditions, +15,831 reported. Of these, 10,458 were educated in American public +schools, and 5,375 in other schools; 5,854 attend Protestant churches; +7,769 the Catholic, and 367 the Hebrew. A very large percentage, +comprehending 3,209, do not attend church at all. + +In home conditions 12,120 report themselves as "comfortable," while +4,692 give home conditions as "poor." "Poor," to the ordinary observer, +is to be interpreted as wretched, including overcrowding, and all the +numberless evils of tenement-house life, which is the portion of many. A +side light is thrown on personal characteristics of the workers, in the +tables of earnings and lost time. Out of 12,822 who reported, 373 earn +less than $100 a year, and this class has an average of 86.5 lost days +for the year covered by the investigation. With the increase of +earnings, the lost time decreases, the 2,147 who earn from $200 to $450 +losing but 37.8; while 398, earning from $350 to $500 a year, lost but +18.3 days. + +Deliberate cruelty and injustice on the part of the employer are +encountered only now and then; but competition forces the working in as +inexpensive a manner as possible, and thus often makes what must sum up +as cruelty and injustice necessary to the continued existence of the +employer as an industrial factor. Home conditions are seldom beyond +tolerable, and very often intolerable. Inspection,--the efficiency of +which has greatly increased,--the demand by the organized charities at +all points for women inspectors, and the gradual growth of popular +interest are bringing about a few improvements, and will bring more; but +the mass everywhere are as stated. Ignorance and the vices that +accompany ignorance--want of thoroughness, unpunctuality, +thriftlessness, and improvidence--are all in the count against the +lowest order of worker; but the better class, and indeed the large +proportion of the lower, are living honest, self-respecting, infinitely +dreary lives. + +It is a popular belief, already referred to elsewhere, that the +working-women form a large proportion of the numbers who fill houses of +prostitution; and that "night-walkers" are made up chiefly from the same +class. Nothing could be further from the truth,--the testimony of the +fifteenth annual report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor being in +the same line as that of all in which investigation of the subject has +been made, and all confirming the opinion given. The investigation of +the Massachusetts Bureau in fourteen cities showed clearly that a very +small proportion among working-women entered this life. The largest +number, classed by occupations, came from the lowest order of worker, +those employed in housework and hotels; and the next largest was found +among seamstresses, employees of shirt-factories, and cloak-makers, all +of these industries in which under pay is proverbial. The great +majority, receiving not more than five dollars a week, earn it by seldom +less than ten hours a day of hard labor, and not only live on the sum, +but assist friends, contribute to general household expenses, dress so +as to appear fairly well, and have learned every art of doing without. +More than this, since the deepening interest in their lives, and the +formation of working-girls' clubs and societies of many orders, they +contribute from this scanty sum enough to rent meeting-rooms, pay for +instruction in many classes, and provide a relief fund for sick and +disabled members. + +This is the summary of conditions as a whole, and we pass now to the +specific evils and abuses in trades and general industries. + + + + +XI. + +SPECIFIC EVILS AND ABUSES IN FACTORY LIFE AND IN GENERAL TRADES. + + +"Has civilization civilized?" is the involuntary question, as one by one +the fearful conditions hedging about workers on either side of the sea +become apparent. At once, in any specific investigation, we face abuses +for which the system of production rather than the employer is often +responsible, and for which science has as yet found either none or but a +partial remedy. Alike in England and on the Continent work and torture +become synonyms, and flesh and blood the cheapest of all +nineteenth-century products. The best factory system swarms with +problems yet unsolved; the worst, as it may be found in many a remote +district of the Continent and even in England itself, is appalling in +both daily fact and final result. It would seem at times as if the +workshop meant only a form of preparation for the hospital, the +workhouse, and the prison, since the workers therein become inoculated +with trade diseases, mutilated by trade appliances, and corrupted by +trade associates, till no healthy fibre, mental, moral, or physical, +remains. + +In the nail and chain making districts of England, Sundays are often +abolished where these furnaces flame, and such rest as can be stolen +comes on the cinder-heaps. But these workers are few compared with the +myriads who must battle with the most insidious and most potent of +enemies,--the dust of modern manufacture. There is dust of heckling +flax, with an average of only fourteen years of work for the strongest; +dust of emery powder, that has been known to destroy in a month; dust of +pottery and sand and flint, so penetrating that the medical returns give +cases of "stone" for new-born babes; dust of rags foul with dirt and +breeding fever in the picker; dust of wools from diseased animals, +striking down the sorter. Wood, coal, flour, each has its own, +penetrating where it can never be dislodged; and a less tangible enemy +lurks in poisonous paints for flowers or wall-paper, and in white lead, +the foundation of other paints,--blotching the skin of children, and +ending for many in blindness, paralysis, and hideous sores. + +This is one form; and side by side with it comes another, dealt with +here and there, but as a rule ignored,--vapors as deadly as dust; vapors +of muriatic acid from pickling tins; of choking chlorine from +bleaching-rooms; of gas and phosphorus, which even now, where strongest +preventives are used, still pull away both teeth and jaws from many a +worker in match-factories; while acids used in cleaning, +bleaching-powders, and many an industry where women and children chiefly +are employed, eat into hands and clothing, and make each hour a torture. + +With the countless forms of machinery for stamping and rolling and +cutting and sawing, there is yet, in spite of all the safeguards the law +compels, the saying still heard in these shops: "It takes three fingers +to make a stamper." Carelessness often; but where two must work +together, as is necessary in tending many of these machines, the +partner's inattention is often responsible, and mutilation comes through +no fault of one's own. Add to all these the suffering of little +children taught lace-making at four, sewing on buttons or picking +threads far into the night, and driven through the long hours that they +may add sixpence to the week's wage, and we have a hint of the grewsome +catalogue of the human woe born of human need and human greed. + +For the United States there is a steadily lessening proportion of these +evils, and we shall deal chiefly with those found in existence by the +respective bureaus of labor at the time when their investigations were +made. Private and public investigation made before their organization +had brought to light in Connecticut, and at many points in New England, +gross abuses both in child labor and that of woman and girl workers. It +is sufficient, however, for our purpose to refer the reader to the +mention of these contained in the first report of the Massachusetts +Bureau of Labor, as well as to Dr. Richard T. Ely's "History of the +Labor Movement in America," and to pass at once to the facts contained +in the fifteenth report from Massachusetts. + +The ventilation of factories and of workrooms in general is one of the +first points considered. Naturally, facts of this order would be found +in the testimony only of the more intelligent. Where factories are new +and built expressly for their own purposes, ventilation is considered, +and in many is excellent. But in smaller ones and in many industries the +structures used were not intended for this purpose. Closely built +buildings shut off both light and air, which must come wholly from +above, thus preventing circulation, and producing an effect both +depressing and wearing. The agents in a number of cases found employees +packed "like sardines in a box;" thirty-five persons, for example, in a +small attic without ventilation of any kind. Some were in very +low-studded rooms, with no ventilation save from windows, causing bad +draughts and much sickness, and others in basements where dampness was +added to cold and bad air. + +In many cases the nature of the trade compelled closed windows, and no +provision was made for ventilation in any other way. In one case girls +were working in "little pens all shelved over, without sufficient light +or air, windows not being open, for fear of cooling wax thread used on +sewing-machines."[41] + +For a large proportion of the workrooms visited or reported upon was a +condition ranging from dirty to filthy. In some where men and women were +employed together in tailoring, the report reads: "Their shop is filthy +and unfit to work in. There are no conveniences for women; and men and +women use the same closets, wash-basins, and drinking-cups, etc."[42] In +another a water-closet in the centre of the room filled it with a +sickening stench; yet forty hands were at work here, and there are many +cases in which the location of these closets and the neglect of proper +disinfectants make not only workrooms but factories breeding-grounds of +disease. + +Lack of ventilation in almost all industries is the first evil, and one +of the most insidious. Other points affecting health are found in the +nature of certain of the trades and the conditions under which they must +be carried on. Feather-sorters, fur-workers, cotton-sorters, all +workers on any material that gives off dust, are subject to lung and +bronchial troubles. In soap-factories the girls' hands are eaten by the +caustic soda, and by the end of the day the fingers are often raw and +bleeding. In making buttons, pins, and other manufactures of this +nature, there is always liability of getting the fingers jammed or +caught. For the first three times the wounds are dressed without charge. +After that the person injured must pay expenses. In these and many other +trades work must be so closely watched that it brings on weakness of the +eyes, so that many girls are under treatment for this. + +In bakeries the girls stand from ten to sixteen hours a day, and break +down after a short time. Boots and shoes oblige being on the feet all +day; and this is the case for saleswomen, cash-girls, and all +factory-workers. In type-founderies the air is always filled with a fine +dust produced by rubbing, and the girls employed have no color in their +faces. In paper-box making constant standing brings on the same +difficulties found among all workers who stand all day; and they +complain also of the poison often resulting from the coloring matter +used in making the boxes. In book-binderies, brush-manufactories, etc., +the work soon breaks down the girls. + +In the clothing-business, where the running of heavy sewing-machines is +done by foot-power, there is a fruitful source of disease; and even +where steam is used, the work is exhausting, and soon produces weakness +and various difficulties. + +In food preparations girls who clean and pack fish get blistered hands +and fingers from the saltpetre employed by the fishermen. Others in +"working-stalls" stand in cold water all day, and have the hands in cold +water; and in laundries, confectionery establishments, etc., excessive +heat and standing in steam make workers especially liable to throat and +lung diseases, as well as those induced by continuous standing. + +Straw goods produce a fine dust, and cause a constant hacking among the +girls at work upon them; and the acids used in setting the colors often +produce "acid sores" upon the ends of the fingers. + +In match-factories, as already mentioned, even with the usual +precautions, necrosis often attacks the worker, and the jaw is eaten +away. Sores, ulcerations, and suffering of many orders are the portion +of workers in chemicals. In many cases a little expenditure on the part +of the employer would prevent this; but unless brought up by an +inspector, no precautions are taken. + +The question of seats for saleswomen comes up periodically, has been at +some points legislated upon, and is in most stores ignored or evaded. +"The girls look better,--more as if they were ready for work," is the +word of one employer, who frankly admitted that he did not mean they +should sit; and this is the opinion acted upon by most. Insufficient +time for meals is a universal complaint; and nine times out of ten, the +conveniences provided are insufficient for the numbers who must use +them, and thus throw off offensive and dangerous effluvia. + +It is one of the worst evils in shop life, not only for Massachusetts, +but for the entire United States, that in all large stores, where fixed +rules must necessarily be adopted, girls are forced to ask men for +permission to go to closets, and often must run the gauntlet of men and +boys. All physicians who treat this class testify to the fact that many +become seriously diseased as the result of unwillingness to subject +themselves to this ordeal. + +One of the ablest factory-inspectors in this country, or indeed in any +country, Mrs. Fanny B. Ames of Boston, reports this as one of the least +regarded points in a large proportion of the factories and manufacturing +establishments visited, but adds that it arises often from pure +ignorance and carelessness, and is remedied as soon as attention is +called to it. + +Taking up the other New England reports in which reference to these +evils is found, the testimony is the same. Law is often evaded or wholly +set aside,--at times through carelessness, at others wilfully. The most +exhaustive treatment of this subject in all its bearings is found in the +report of the New Jersey Bureau of Labor for 1889, the larger portion of +it being devoted to the fullest consideration of the hygiene of +occupation, the diseases peculiar to special trades, and general +sanitary condition and methods of working, not only in "dangerous, +unhealthy, or noxious trades," but in all. Commissioner Bishop, from +whose report quotations have already been made (p. 197), gives many +instances of working under fearful conditions, absolutely destructive to +health and often to morals; and the report may be regarded as one of the +most authoritative words yet spoken in this direction. + +The Factory Inspection Law for the State of New York, in detail much the +same as that of Massachusetts, is sufficiently full and explicit to +secure to all workers better conditions than any as yet attained save in +isolated cases. There is, however, constant violation of its most vital +points; and this must remain true for all States, until the number of +inspectors is made in some degree adequate to the demand. At present +they are not only seriously overworked, but find it impossible to cover +the required ground. The law which stands at present as the demand to be +made by all factory-workers and all interested in intelligent +legislation, will be found in the Appendix. + +Destructive to health and morals as are often the factories and +workshops in which women must work, they play far less part in their +lives than the homes afforded by the great cities, where the poor herd +in quarters,--at their best only tolerable shelters, at their worst +unfit for man or beast. It is the tenement-house question that in these +words presents itself for consideration, and that makes part of the +general problem. Taking New York as illustrative of some of the worst +forms of over-crowding, though Boston and Chicago are not far behind, we +turn to the work of one of the closest and most competent of observers, +Dr. Annie S. Daniel, for many years physician in charge of out-practice +for the New York Infirmary for Women and Children. The report of this +practice for 1891 includes a series of facts bearing vitally on every +phase of woman's labor. Known as an expert in these directions, her +testimony was called for in the examination of 1893 into the +sweating-system of New York, made by a congressional committee and now +on record in a report to be had on application to the New York +Congressmen at Washington.[43] For years she has watched the effects of +child-labor, taking hundreds of measurements of special cases, and +studying the effects of the life mothers and children alike were +compelled to live. "The medical problems," she writes, "which present +themselves to the physician are so closely connected with the social +problems that it is impossible to study one alone. The people are sick +because of insufficient food and clothing and unsanitary surroundings, +and these conditions exist because the people are poor. They are often +poor _because they have no work_." At another point, commenting on +drinking among the poor, she writes: "Drinking among the women is +increasing. In the majority of cases we have studied, it has been the +effect of poverty, not the cause." + +In the region between Houston Street and Canal Street, known now to be +the most thickly populated portion of the inhabited globe, every house +is a factory; that is, some form of manufacture is going on in every +room. The average family of five adds to itself from two to ten more, +often a sewing-machine to each person; and from six or seven in the +morning till far into the night work goes on,--usually the manufacture +of clothing. Here contagious diseases pass from one to another. Here +babies are born and babies die, the work never pausing save for death +and hardly for that. In one of these homes Dr. Daniel found a family of +five making cigars, the mother included. "Two of the children were ill +of diphtheria. Both parents attended to these children; they would +syringe the nose of each child, and without washing their hands return +to their cigars. We have repeatedly observed the same thing when the +work was manufacturing clothing and undergarments to be bought as well +by the rich as by the poor. Hand-sewed shoes, made for a fashionable +Broadway shoe-store, were sewed at home by a man in whose family were +three children sick with scarlet-fever. And such instances are common. +Only death or lack of work closes tenement-house manufactories ... When +we consider that stopping this work means no food and no roof over their +heads, the fact that the disease may be carried by their work cannot be +expected to impress the people." + +Farther on in the report, she adds: "The people can neither be moral nor +healthy until they have decent homes." Yet the present wage-rate makes +decent homes impossible; and though Brooklyn and Boston have a few model +tenement-houses, New York has none, the experiment of making over in +part a few old ones hardly counting save in intention. Into these homes +respectable, ambitious, hard-working girls and women are compelled to +go. That they live decent lives speaks worlds for the intrinsic goodness +and purity of nature which in the midst of conditions intolerable to +every sense still preserves these characteristics. That they must live +in such surroundings is one of the deepest disgraces of civilization. + +As to wages, concerning which there seems to be a general opinion that +steady rise has gone on, we find Dr. Daniel giving the rates for many +years. She writes:-- + + "Wages have steadily decreased. Among the women who earned the + whole or part of the income, finishing pantaloons was the most + common occupation. For this work, in 1881, they received ten to + fifteen cents a pair; for the same work in 1891, three to five, at + the most ten cents a pair. The women doing this work claim that + wages are reduced because of the influx of Italian women, but few + Italian women do the poor quality of trousers. While we are glad to + note some excellent sanitary changes in the tenement-house + construction, the people we believe to be just as poor, just as + overcrowded and wretched to-day, as in 1881 and 1853, the only + difference being that there are a greater number of people who are + poor now." + +These statements apply in great part to unskilled labor; but there is +always in these houses a large proportion of skilled labor disabled by +sickness or other causes and out of work for the time being. The wage at +best for skilled labor is given by the Labor Commissioner as $5.29. Let +any one study the possibilities of this sum per week, and the wonder +will arise, not why living is not easier, but how it goes on at all. + +Specific evils speak for themselves, and are gradually being eliminated. +They are before the eyes, and the least experienced student may gauge +their bearing and judge their effects. But wider-reaching than any or +all the worst abuses of the worst trades is the wrong done to the child +and to family life as a whole, by the continuous labor of married women +in factories, or at any occupation which demands, for ten hours or more +a day, unremitting toil. At all points where scientific observation has +been made the expert lifts up a warning voice. It is the future of the +race that is in question. Child labor, while not entering directly into +our present examination, is, as has already been said, inextricably +bound up with the question of woman's work and wages. The two must be +studied together; and for our own country there are already admirable +monographs on this subject,[44] two authoritative ones coming from the +American Economic Association, and one hardly less so from a close and +keen observer whose scientific training gives her equal right to form +conclusions.[45] + +A dispassionate observer, Mr. W. Stanley Jevons, whose conclusions are +founded on long investigation and deduction, years ago wrote words which +he has at various times emphasized and repeated, and which sum up the +evils to which the infancy of the children of overworked mothers is +subject, as well as the consequences to the State in which they are +born, and which faces the results of the system which produces them. He +writes as follows:-- + + "We can help evolution by the aid of its own highest and latest + product,--science. When all the teaching of medical and social + science lead us to look upon the absence of the mother from the + home as the cause of the gravest possible evils, can we be + warranted in standing passively by, allowing this evil to work + itself out to the bitter end, by the process of natural selection? + Something might perhaps be said in favor of the present apathetic + mode of viewing this question, if natural selection were really + securing the survival of the fittest, so that only the weakly babes + were killed off, and the strong ones well brought up. But it is + much to be feared that no infants ever really recover from the test + of virtual starvation to which they are so ruthlessly exposed. The + vital powers are irreparably crippled, and the infant grows up a + stunted, miserable specimen of humanity, the prey to every physical + and moral evil."[46] + +It is hardly necessary to go on specifying special violations of +sanitary law or special illustrative cases. The Report of the New York +Bureau of Labor for 1885 is a magazine of such cases,--a summary of all +the horrors that the worst conditions can include. Aside from the +revolting pictures of the life lived from day to day by the workers +themselves, it gives in detail case after case of rapacity and +over-reaching on the part of the employers; and parallel ones may be +found in every labor report which has touched upon the subject. + +In New York a "Working Woman's Protective Union," formed more than +twenty-five years ago, has done unceasing work in settling disputed +claims and collecting wages unjustly withheld. No case is entered on +their books which has not been examined by their lawyer, and thus only +well grounded complaints find record; but with even these precautions +the records show nearly fifty thousand adjudicated since they began +work. Many cities have special committees, in the organized charities, +who seek to cover the same ground, but who find it impossible to do all +that is required. From East and West alike, complaints are practically +the same. It is not only women in trades, but those in domestic service, +who are recorded as suffering every form of oppression and injustice. +Colorado and California, Kansas and Wisconsin, speak the same word. With +varying industries wrongs vary, but the general summary is the same. + +The system of fines, while on general principles often just, has been +used by unscrupulous employers to such a degree as to bring the week's +wages down a third or even half. It is impossible to give illustrative +instances in detail; but all who deal with girls, in clubs and +elsewhere, report that the system requires modification. + +On the side of the employers, and as bearing also on the evils which are +most marked among women workers, we may quote from the Government +Report, "Working Women in Large Cities":-- + + "Actual ill-treatment by employers seems to be infrequent.... + Foreigners are often found to be more considerate of their help + than native-born men, and the kindest proprietor in the world is a + Jew of the better class. In some shops week-workers are locked out + for the half-day if late, or docked for every minute of time lost, + an extra fine being often added. Piece workers have great freedom + as to hours, and employers complain much of tardiness and + absenteeism. The mere existence of health and labor laws insures + privileges formerly unheard of; half-holidays in summer, vacation + with pay, and shorter hours are becoming every year more frequent, + better workshops are constructed, and more comfortable + accommodations are being furnished." + +This is most certainly true, but more light shows the shadows even more +clearly; and the fact remains that every force must be brought to bear, +to remedy the evils depicted in the reports of the bureaus quoted here. + +The general conditions of working-women in New York retail stores were +reported upon, in 1890, by a committee from the Working-Woman's Society, +at 27 Clinton Place, New York. The report was read at a mass meeting +held at Chickering Hall, May 6, 1890; and its statements represent +general conditions in all the large cities of the United States. It is +impossible to give more than the principal points of the report; but +readers can obtain it on application to the Secretary of the +Association.[47] These are as follows:-- + +Hours are often excessive, and employees are not paid for over-time. +Many stores give no half-holiday, and keep open on Saturdays till ten +and eleven o'clock in the evening, and at the holiday season do this for +three or four weeks nightly. + +Sanitary conditions are usually bad, and include bad ventilation, +unsanitary arrangements, and indifference to the considerations of +decency. Toilet arrangements in many stores are horrible, and closets +for male and female are often side by side, with only slight partition +between. One hand-basin and towel serve for all. Often water for drink +can be obtained only from the attic. + +Numbers of children under age are employed for excessive hours, and at +work far beyond their strength, an investigation having shown that over +one hundred thousand children under the legal age of fourteen were at +work in factories, workshops, and stores. + +Service for a number of years often meets with no consideration, but is +regarded as a reason for dismissal. It is the rule in some stores to +keep no one over five years, lest they come to feel that they have some +claim on the firm; and when a saleswoman is dismissed from one house, +she finds it almost impossible to obtain employment in another. + +The wages are reduced by excessive fines, employers placing a value upon +time lost that is not given to services rendered. The fines run from +five to thirty cents for a few minutes' tardiness. In some stores the +fines are divided at the end of the year between the timekeeper and the +superintendent, and there is thus every temptation to injustice. + +The report concludes:-- + + "We find that, through low wages, long hours, unwholesome sanitary + conditions, and the discouraging effect of excessive fines, not + only is the physical condition injured, but the tendency is to + injure the moral well-being. It is simply impossible for a woman to + live without assistance on the low salary a saleswoman earns, + without depriving herself of real necessities." + +These were the conditions which, in 1889, led to the formation of the +little society which, though limited in numbers, has done admirable and +efficient work, its latest effort being to secure from the Assembly at +Albany a bill making inspection of stores and shops as obligatory as +that of factories. + +It was through the concerted effort of its members that the Factory +Inspection Act became a law, though not without violent opposition. The +bill originated in the Working-Woman's Society, was drawn up there, sent +to Albany by its delegates, and passed without the aid of money. + +There are eleven thousand factories in New York State, and only one +inspector to investigate their condition; while in England, scarce +larger in territory, forty-one inspectors are appointed by the +Government. + +The Andrus bill, adding to the power of factory inspectors, raising the +working age of children to fourteen years, and prohibiting night work +for girls under twenty-one and boys under eighteen, was sent with the +Factory Bill to the Central Labor Union, and the women were largely +instrumental in obtaining the passage of the measure. + +Why such determined opposition still meets every attempt to bring about +the same inspection for mercantile establishments cannot be determined; +but thus far, though admitted to be necessary, the act has at each +reading been laid upon the table. Another effort will be made in the +coming winter of 1893-94. + +In spite, however, of much agitation of all phases of woman's work, it +is only some wrong as startling as that involved in the sweating-system +that seems able to arouse more than a temporary interest. One of the +most able and experienced women inspectors of the United States Bureau +of Labor, Miss de Grafenried, has lately written:-- + + "It is an open question whether woman's pay is not falling, cost + and standards of living considered. Could partly supported labor + and children be eliminated, shop employees would get higher rates. + Still there are other economic anomalies that affect women's wages. + 'Wholesalers' and manufacturers shut up their factories and 'give + out' everything--umbrellas, coats, hair-wigs, and shrouds--to be + made,--they know not in what den, or wrung they care not from what + misery ... Again, wages are depressed by over-stimulating + piece-work; and its unscrupulous use by proprietors who hesitate to + confess to paying women only $3 or $4 a week, yet who scale prices + so that only experts can earn that sum. Many employers cut rates as + soon as, by desperate exertions, operatives clear $5 a week. Then, + underbidding from the unemployed is a fruitful source of low wages. + Massachusetts has 20 per cent of her workers unemployed." + +These conditions, while varying as to numbers, are practically the same +for the work of women in all parts of the United States, and are matters +of increasing perplexity and sorrow to every searcher into these +problems. At its best, woman's work in industries is intermittent, since +it is only textile work that continues the year round; dress and cloak +making, shoe and umbrella making, fur-sewing and millinery, have +specific seasons, in the intervals between which the worker waits and +starves, or, if too desperate, goes upon the streets, driven there by +the wretched competitive system, the evils of which increase in direct +ratio to the longing for speedy wealth. In short, matters are at that +point where only radical change of methods can better the situation, +even the most conservative observer, relying most thoroughly upon +evolution, feeling something more than evolution must work if justice is +to have place in the present social scheme. + +It is at this point that some consideration of domestic service +naturally presents itself. Though regarded often as no part of the labor +question, there can be no other head under which to range it, since the +last census gives over a million persons engaged in this occupation, the +lowest rough estimate of wages being $160,000,000 and the support +included forming a sum at least as large. It is through the hands of +the domestic servant that a large part of the finished products of other +forms of labor must pass, and the economic aspects of the question grow +in importance with every year of the changing conditions of American +life. In no other occupation is a just consideration of the points +involved so difficult a task, since the mistress who faces the +incompetence, insubordination, and all the other trials involved in the +relation, suffers too keenly from the sense of individual wrong to treat +the matter in the large. Till it is so treated, however, understanding +for both sides is impossible, and to bring about such understanding is +the first necessity for all. + +From the employer's standpoint the advantages to be stated are as +follows: First and most obvious is the fact that wages are not only +relatively but absolutely high; for aside from the actual cash there are +also board, lodging, fuel, light, and laundry, all of which the worker +in trades must provide for herself. There is no capital required, as for +type-writer, sewing-machine, or any appliances for work, nor is the girl +forced to expend anything in preparation, since under the present system +housekeepers take her untrained fresh from Castle Garden, and willingly +give the needed instruction, at the same time paying the same wage as +that given to competent service. Professor Lucy Salmon, of Vassar, who +has devoted much time to this subject, reports that, on examination of +testimony from three thousand employees, it is found that on a wage of +$3.25 a week it is possible to save annually nearly $150 "in an +occupation involving no outlay, no investment of capital, and few or no +personal expenses." The wages received are relatively higher than those +of other occupations; for in Professor Salmon's comparison of wages +received by three thousand country and the same number of city employees +it was found that of six thousand teachers in the public schools the +average salary actually paid is less than that paid to the average cook +in a large city. + +The second advantage lies in the healthfulness of the work, which +includes not only regularity but variety; the third, that a home, at +least in all externals, is insured; the fourth, that a training which +makes the worker more fit for married life is certain; and a fifth, that +the work is congenial and easy for those whose tastes lie in this +direction. + +These are the facts that are constantly urged upon the army of +under-paid, half-starving needlewomen in our great cities, and no less +upon another army of girls in shops and factories, who are implored to +consider the advantages of domestic service and to give up their +unnecessary battle with the limitations hedging in every other form of +labor. Astonishment that the girls prefer the factory and shop is +unending, nor is it regarded as possible that substantial reason may and +must exist for such choice. As a means of arriving at some solution of +the problem, some six hundred employees of every order were interviewed, +under circumstances which made their replies perfectly free and full; +and the results tallied exactly with others obtained by an inquiry in +the Philadelphia Working-Woman's Guild, a society then representing +seventy-two distinct occupations. + +A report of this inquiry was made by Mrs. Eliza S. Turner, the President +of the Guild, and is given as the most suggestive view of the whole +subject yet secured. She writes as follows:-- + + "Why do not intelligent, refined girls more frequently choose house + service as a support?" The replies here given are as nearly as + possible _verbatim_: + + 1. Loss of freedom. This is as dear to women as to men, although we + don't get so much of it. The day of a saleswoman or a factory hand + may be long, but when it is done she is her own mistress; but in + service, except when she is actually out of the house, she has no + hour, no minute, when her soul is her own. + + 2. Hurts to self-respect. One thing that makes housework + unpleasant--chamber-work, for instance, and waiting on table--is + that it is a kind of personal service, one human being waiting on + another. The very thing you would do without a thought in your own + home for your own family seems menial when it is demanded by a + stranger. + + 3. The very words, "service" and "servant," are hateful. It is all + well enough to talk about service being divine, but that is not the + way the world looks at it. + + 4. Say that a young woman well brought up undertakes to do + chamber-work; she is obliged to associate with the other girls, no + matter how uncongenial they may be, what may be their language or + personal habits or table manners. If she tries to keep to herself, + the rest think she is taking airs, and combine to make her life + unbearable. + + 5. Or say she takes a place for general housework; to be alone in + the midst of others is crushing,--quite different from being alone + in one's own lodgings. + + 6. I suppose a soldier doesn't mind being ordered around by his + captain; but in a family the mistress and maid are so mixed up that + it is much harder to keep the lines from tangling. It takes a very + superior person, on both sides, to do it. + + 7. I knew an educated woman--a lady--who tried it as a sort of + upper housemaid. The work was easy, the pay good, and she never had + a harsh word; but they just seemed unconscious of her existence. + She said the gentlemen of the house, father and son, would come in + and stand before her to have her take their umbrellas or help them + off with their coats, and sometimes without speaking to her or even + looking at her. There was something so humiliating about it that + she couldn't stand it, but went back to slop shop sewing. + + 8. Many mistresses have no standard of the amount of work a girl + ought to do. They know nothing about housework themselves. If a + girl is deliberate and saves herself, they call her slow; if she is + ambitious, and gets her work done early, and they see her sitting + down in working-hours, they conclude that she is not earning her + wages, and hunt up some extra job for her. No matter if you can't + find anything undone, if she is found sitting about she _must_ be + lazy. + + 9. Some employers think that after the more violent work is done, + it is only a rest for the girl to look after the child awhile. They + don't seem to realize that if the mother finds it such a relief to + get rid of her own child for an hour or so, it is likely to be + still less interesting to take care of somebody else's child. + + 10. Many people think the position of a child's nurse is very light + work indeed,--mostly just sitting around; so they don't hesitate to + give her the care of one or two children all day, not even + arranging for her to get her meals without the oversight of them; + and then most likely put the baby to sleep with her at night. Any + one minute of such a day may not be heavy, but to have it for + twenty-four hours is enough to wear out the strongest human being + ever made. + + 11. I knew a school-teacher who thought more active occupation + would better suit her health; she took a place as child's nurse. + She loved children, and found no objection to the work; but soon + the employer concluded to put her in a _bonne's_ cap and apron. My + friend would have worn and liked a nurse's uniform, but she + objected to a family livery. On this question they parted; and her + employer hired an uncouth, ignorant woman to be her child's + companion and to give it its first impressions. + + 12. In most houses, however elegant, the girls have no home + privacy; they must sleep, not only in the same room, but most + frequently in the same bed; it is rarely thought necessary to make + that room pleasant or even warm for them to dress by or to sit in + to do their own sewing. The little tastes and notions of each + member of the family, down to the youngest, are provided for; but a + "girl" is not supposed to have any. She is just a "girl," as a + gridiron is a gridiron, an article bought for the convenience of + the family. If she suits, use her till she is worn out and then + throw her away. + + 13. To go into house service, even from the most wretched slop or + factory work, is to lose caste in our own world; it may be a very + narrow world, but it is all to us. A saleswoman or cashier or + teacher is ashamed to associate with servants. + + 14. The very words, "No followers," would keep us out of such + occupation. No self-respecting young woman is going to put herself + in a position where she is not allowed to entertain her friends, + both male and female; nor where, if allowed, the only place thought + fit for them is the kitchen. + + Now, the above is not theory, but testimony, taken by the present + writer from the lips of intelligent working-girls, many of whom + would be better off at housework than at their present occupations, + except for the objections. And from a consideration thereof results + this query: Given a certain number of young women of a class + superior to the imported, willing to take service under the + following conditions, how many housekeepers would agree to the + conditions?-- + + 1. The heaviest work, as washing, carrying coal, scrubbing + pavements, and the like, to be provided for, if this be asked, with + consequent deduction in wages. + + 2. In families, where practicable, certain hours of absolute + freedom while in the house, especially with the child's nurse. + + 3. Such a way of speaking, both to and of your house help, as + testifies to the world that you really do consider housework as + respectable as other occupations. + + 4. A well-warmed, well-furnished room, with separate beds when + desired; and the use of a decent place and appointments at meals. + + 5. The privilege of seeing friends, whether male or female; of a + better part of the house than the kitchen in which to receive them; + and security from espionage during their visits,--this accompanied + by proper restrictions as to evening hours, and under the condition + that the work is not neglected. + + 6. No livery, if objected to. + +Turning from this informal examination of the subject to the few labor +reports which have taken up the matter, it becomes plain that domestic +service is in many points more undesirable than any other occupation +open to women. The Labor Commissioner of Minnesota reports, while +stating all the advantages of the domestic servant over the general +worker, that "only a fifth of those who employ them are fit to deal +with any worker, injustice and oppression characterizing their methods." +Figures and detailed statements bear him out in this conclusion. The +Colorado Commissioner gives even more details, and comes to the same +conclusion; and though other reports do not take up the subject in +detail, their indications are the same. + +The first general and rational presentation of the subject in all its +bearings, both for employed and employer, has lately been made during +the Woman's Congress at Chicago, May, 1893, in which the Domestic +Science section discussed every phase of wrongs and remedies.[48] The +latter sum up in the formation of bureaus of employment in every large +city, fixed rates, and full preparatory training. A keen observer of +social facts has stated: The intelligence offices of New York alone +receive from servants yearly over three million dollars, and are +notoriously inefficient. This, or even half of it, would provide a great +centre with training-schools, lodgings for all who needed them, and a +system by which fixed rates were made according to the grade of +efficiency of the worker. Till household service comes under the laws +determining value, as well as hours and all other points involved in the +wage for a working-day, it will remain in the disorganized and hopeless +state which at present baffles the housekeeper, and deters +self-respecting women and girls from undertaking it. To bring about some +such organization as that suggested will most quickly accomplish this; +and there seems already hope that the time is not distant when every +city will have its agency corresponding to the great Bourse du Travail +in Paris, but even more comprehensive in scope. Co-operation within +certain limited degrees, so that private home life will not be infringed +upon, must necessarily make part of such a scheme, and has already been +tried with success at various points in the West; but details can +hardly be given here. It is sufficient to add that with such new basis +for this form of occupation the "servant question" will cease to be a +terror, and the most natural occupation for women will have countless +recruits from ranks now closed against it. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[41] Fifteenth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor, p. +68. + +[42] Ibid. + +[43] House of Representatives Report No. 2309: Report of the Committee +on Manufactures on the Sweating-System, House of Representatives, +January, 1893. + +[44] Child Labor. By William F. Willoughby, A.B. Child Labor. By Miss +Clare de Grafenried, Publications of the American Economic Association, +vol. v. no. 2. + +[45] Our Toiling Children. By Florence Kelley, W.C.T.U. Publishing +Association, Chicago. + +[46] Married Women in Factories. By W. Stanley Jevons, Contemporary +Review, vol. xli. pp. 37-53. + +[47] Miss Alice Woodbridge, Secretary of the Working-Woman's Society, 27 +Clinton Place, New York. + +[48] The association then formed, and from which much is hoped, made the +following summary of its objects:-- + +"The objects of this Association shall be: 1. To awaken the public mind +to the importance of establishing a Bureau of Information where there +can be an exchange of wants and needs between employer and employed in +every department of home and social life. 2. To promote among members of +the Association a more scientific knowledge of the economic value of +various foods and fuels; a more intelligent understanding of correct +plumbing and drainage in our homes, as well as need for pure water and +good light in a sanitarily built house. 3. To secure skilled labor in +every department of women's work in our homes,--not only to demand +better trained cooks and waitresses, but to consider the importance of +meeting the increasing demand for those competent to do plain sewing and +mending." + + + + +XII. + +REMEDIES AND SUGGESTIONS. + + +The student of social problems who faces the misery of the lowest order +of worker, and the sharp privation endured by many even of the better +class, is apt, in the first fever of amazement and indignation, to feel +that some instant force must be brought to bear, and justice secured, +though the heavens fall. It is this sense of the struggle of humanity +out of which have been born Utopias of every order, from the "Republic" +of Plato to the dream in "Looking Backward." Not one of these can be +spared; and that they exist and find a following larger and larger, is +the surest evidence of the soul at the bottom of each. But for those who +take the question as a whole, who see how slow has been the process of +evolution, and how impossible it is to hasten one step of the unfolding +that humankind is still to know, it is the ethical side that comes +uppermost, and that first demands consideration. + +Taking the mass of the lowest order of workers at all points, the first +aim of any effort intended for their benefit is to disentangle the +individual from the mass. It is not charity that is to do this. "Homes" +of every variety open their doors; but in all of them still lurks the +suspicion of charity; and even when this has no active formulation in +the worker's mind, there is still the underlying sense of the essential +injustice of withholding with one hand just pay, and with the other +proffering a substitute, in a charity which is to reflect credit on the +giver and demand gratitude from the receiver. Here and there this is +recognized, and within a short time has been emphasized by a woman whose +name is associated with the work of organized charities throughout the +country,--Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell. It is doubtful if there is any +woman in the country better fitted, by long experience and almost +matchless common-sense, to speak authoritatively. She writes:-- + + "So far from assuming that the well-to-do portion of society have + discharged all their obligations to men and God by supporting + charitable institutions, I regard just this expenditure as one of + the prime causes of the suffering and crime that exist in our + midst.... I am inclined, in general, to look upon what is called + charity as the insult added to the injury done to the mass of the + people, by insufficient payment for work." + +Just pay, then, heads the list of remedies. The difficulty of fixing +this is necessarily enormous, nor can it come at once; since education +for not only the employer but the public as a whole is demanded. To +bring this about is a slow process. It is a transition period in which +we live. Material conditions born of phenomenal material progress have +deadened the sense as to what constitutes real progress; and the +working-woman of to-day contends not only with visible but invisible +obstacles, the nature of which we are but just beginning to discern. +Twenty years ago M. Paul Leroy-Beaulieu wrote of women wage-earners:-- + + "From the economic point of view, woman, who has next to no + material force, and whose arms are advantageously replaced by the + least machine, can have useful place and obtain a fair remuneration + only by the development of the best qualities of her intelligence. + It is the inexorable law of our civilization,--the principle and + formula even of social progress,--that mechanical engines are to + perform every operation of human labor which does not proceed + directly from the mind. The hand of man is each day deprived of a + portion of its original task; but this general gain is a loss for + the particular, and for the classes whose only instrument of labor + is a pair of feeble arms." + +Take the fact here stated, and add to it all that is implied in modern +competitive conditions, and we see the true nature of the task that +awaits us. To do away with this competition would not accomplish the end +desired. To guide it and bring it into intelligent lines is part of the +general education. Profit-sharing is an indispensable portion of the +justice to be done; and this, too, implies education for both sides, and +would go far toward lessening burdens. We cannot abolish the factory, +but hours can be shortened; the labor of married women with young +children forbidden, as well as that of children below a fixed age. +Industrial education will prevent the possibility of another generation +owning so many incompetent and untrained workers, and technical schools +in general are already raising the standard and helping to secure the +same end. + +Our present methods mean waste in every direction, and trusts and +syndicates have already demonstrated how much may be saved to the +producer if intelligent combination can be brought about. Competition +can never wholly be set aside, since within reasonable limits it is the +spur of invention and a part of evolution itself. But if wise +co-operation be once adopted, the enormous friction and waste of present +methods ceases,--the waste of human life as well as of material. + +One cheering token of progress is the increased discussion as to methods +of training and the necessity of organization among women themselves. +Ten years ago only a voice here and there suggested the need of either. +In 1885, at the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement +of Science, Miss Sarah Harland, lecturer on Mathematics at Newnham +College, insisted that educated gentlewomen must have larger opportunity +for paying work. The three qualifications in all work she stated to be: +(1) Organization on a large scale; (2) Permanency; (3) Giving returns +that will enable the salaries paid to compete with those of teachers. + +She regarded dressmaking as the trade which could most readily organize +and meet the other conditions specified, and millinery as the trade +which would come next. Until such organization and its results have +gradually altered present conditions, it will be true for all workers, +on both sides of the sea, that not health alone but life itself are +continuously endangered by the facts hedging about all labor. Dr. +Stevens, the head of St. Luke's Insane Asylum in London, in a paper read +before the Social Science Association, said:-- + + "It may be stated with great confidence that a prolific cause for + the rapid and extensive increase of insanity in this country is to + be found in the unceasing toil and anxiety to which the + working-classes are subjected, this cause developing the disease in + the existing generation, or, what is quite as frequently the case, + transmitting to the offspring idiocy, insanity, or some imperfectly + developed sensorium or nervous system. The agitated, overworked, + and harassed parent is not in a condition to transmit a healthy + brain to his child."[49] + +Accepted as true in 1857, the words are not less so to-day, when cheap +labor swarms, and the unemployed number their millions. + +How best to combine and to what ends, is the lesson taught in every +form of the new movement for organization among women. To learn how to +work together and what power lies in combination, has been the lesson of +all clubs. Among men it has counted as one of the chief educating +forces, but for women every circumstance has fostered the distrust of +each other which belongs to all undeveloped natures. For the lowest +order of worker even, the "Working-Woman's Journal," published in London +and the organ of the Working-Woman's Protective Union, has for the last +year recorded, from month to month, the gradual progress of the idea of +combination, and the new hope it has brought to all who have gone into +trades unions. + +With us there has been equal need and equal ignorance of all that such +combinations have to give. They mean arbitration rather than strikes, +and the compelling of ignorant and unjust employers to consider the +situation from other points of view than their own. They compel also the +same attitude from men in the same trades, who often are as strong +opponents of a better chance for their associates among women workers +in the same branches, as the most prejudiced employer. + +Six points are urged by the Working-Woman's Society of New York, all in +the lines indicated here. Its purposes and aims, as given in the +prospectus, are as follows:-- + + 1. To encourage women in the various trades to protect their mutual + interests by organization. + + 2. To use all possible means to enforce the existing laws relating + to the protection of women and children in factories and shops, + investigating all reported violations of such laws; also to + promote, by all suitable means, further legislation in this + direction. + + 3. To work for the abolition of tenement-house manufacture, + especially in the cigar and clothing trades. + + 4. To investigate all reported cases of cruel treatment on the part + of employers and their managers to their women and children + employees, in withholding money due, in imposing fines, or in + docking wages without sufficient reason. + + 5. To found a labor bureau for the purpose of facilitating the + exchanging of labor between city and country, thus relieving the + over-crowded occupations now filled by women. + + 6. To publish a journal in the interests of working-women. + + 7. To secure equal pay for both sexes for equal work. + +These points are the same as those made by the few clubs which have +taken up the question of woman's work and wages; but thus far only this +society has formulated them definitely. Working-girls' clubs, friendly +societies, and guilds are giving to the worker new thoughts and new +purposes. The Convention of Working-Girls' Clubs held in New York in +April, 1890, showed the wide-reaching influence they had attained, and +the new ideals opening before the worker. It showed also with equal +force the roused sense of responsibility toward them, and the eager +interest and desire for their betterment in all ways. Where they +themselves touched upon their needs, there were direct statements in the +same line as many already quoted, which called for better pay, better +conditions, shorter hours, and fewer fines. + +Following the points given above came another presentation, the result +of still further and long-continued investigation; and as the methods of +the search and its results are practicable for all towns and cities +where women are at work, the statement prepared for the Society is given +in full:-- + + "We would call your attention to the condition of the women and + children in the large retail houses in this city,--conditions which + tend to injure both physically and morally, not only these women + and children, but working-women in general. The general idea is + that saleswomen are employed from eight A.M. to six P.M., but they + are really engaged in the majority of stores for such a time as the + firm requires them; which means in the Grand Street stores, until + ten, eleven, and twelve o'clock on Saturday night _all the year + round_, the Saturday half-holiday not being observed in summer; and + in the majority of houses that stock must be arranged after six + P.M., the time varying, according to season, from fifteen minutes + to five hours, _and this without supper or extra pay_; thus + compelling women and children to go long distances late at night, + and rendering them liable to insult and immoral influences. + + "Excessive fines are imposed in many stores,--fines varying from + ten to thirty cents for ten minutes' tardiness in the morning or + lunch hour, and for all mistakes. Cases are known of girls who have + been fined a full week's pay at the end of the week. In one store + the fines amounted to $3,000 in a year, and the sum was divided + between the superintendent and timekeeper; and the superintendent + was heard to charge the timekeeper with not being strict enough in + his duties. + + "Bad sanitary conditions, bad ventilation and toilet arrangements + are common, and the sanitary laws are not observed. Children under + age are employed at work far beyond their strength, often far into + the night. The average wages do not exceed $4.50; and in one of our + largest stores the average wage is $2.40, in another $2.90. The + tendency in all stores is to secure the cheapest help; for this + reason school-girls just graduated are much sought for, as they, + having homes, can afford to work for less. But a large proportion + of the saleswomen either pay board or help support a family; and + how can this be done on $4.50 per week? The cheapest board in dark + stuffy attics or tenement houses is $3.00, fuel and washing extra; + and no woman can pay doctor's bills and maintain a respectable + appearance on what remains. How then does she live? There are two + ways of answering: The story of a woman who worked in one of our + large houses is one way. This woman earned $3.00 per week; she paid + $1.50 for her room; her breakfast consisted of a cup of coffee; she + had no lunch; she had but one meal a day. Many saleswomen must be + in this condition. The other answer is that given by more than one + employer, who when saleswomen complain of the low wages offered, + reply: 'Oh, well, get yourself a gentleman friend; _most of our + girls have them_.' Not long since a member of our society received + a letter from a salesman in a certain house which read thus: 'In + the name of God cannot something be done for the saleswomen? I am a + salesman in----, and I have walked in disguise at night upon + certain streets to be accosted by girls in my own + department,--girls whose salaries are so low it was impossible to + live upon them." A painter told us that in working in the houses of + ill-repute in the vicinity of Twenty-third Street, he was + astonished at the number of women whom he recognized as saleswomen + in different stores who frequented these houses. But what are they + to do? They are women without trade or profession, thrown upon + their own resources, obliged to make a good appearance, and unable + to do so and yet have sufficient food. We must all concede that + virtue and honor in woman are natural, and very few women resort to + such ways unless forced to do so; certainly not, when they yet have + sufficient pride to wish to maintain the appearance of + respectability. If men's wages fall below a certain limit, they + become tramps, thieves, and robbers; but woman's wages _have no + limit_, since she can always work for less than she can subsist + upon, the _paths of shame being open to her_. And the beggarly + pittance for which one class of women work becomes the standard of + wages for all women, and throws them out upon the world, there to + find a sure market. But we do not wish to insinuate, in stating + these facts, that the majority of saleswomen resort to evil ways; + on the contrary, they are the exception who do so. We know the + majority of women prefer to suffer, and do suffer, rather than do + so. But can we allow a few to fall? We of the Working-Women's + Society believe that we are so far our sisters' keepers that we + are responsible for their position. + + "We believe that the payment and condition of those who work + (through their employers) for us is our affair, and we have no + right to remain in an ignorance that involves or may involve their + misery. We believe we have no right, having obtained such + knowledge, to refrain from seeking to remedy it, and urging all to + assist us to do so. + + "In this belief we call your attention to the proposed 'Consumers' + League,' the members of which shall pledge themselves to deal at + those stores where just conditions exist. + + "We have gotten together a number of facts which we shall be glad + to present to you with our estimate of a fair house, or one which + under existing conditions is eligible to admission to a white + list." + +Preceding this appeal and the public meetings which ensued, came, in +1890, the formation of the Consumers' League, Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell +its President. Quiet and inconspicuous as its work has been, the best +retail mercantile houses in New York have accepted its prospectus as +just, and stand now upon the "White List," which numbers all merchants +who seek to deal justly and fairly with their employees. "What +constitutes a Fair House" expresses all the needs and formulates the +most vital demands of the working-woman; and the results already +accomplished speak for themselves. As a guide to other workers, it is +given here in full:-- + + STANDARD OF A FAIR HOUSE. + + +Wages.+ + + A fair house is one in which equal pay is given for work of equal + value, irrespective of sex. In the departments where women only are + employed, in which the minimum wages are six dollars per week for + experienced adult workers, and fall in few instances below eight + dollars. + + In which wages are paid by the week. + + In which fines, if imposed, are paid into a fund for the benefit of + the employees. + + In which the minimum wages of cash-girls are two dollars per week, + with the same conditions regarding weekly payments and fines. + + +Hours.+ + + A fair house is one in which the hours from eight A.M. to six P.M. + (with three quarters of an hour for lunch) constitute the + working-day, and a general half-holiday is given on one day of each + week during at least two summer months. + + In which a vacation of not less than one week is given with pay + during the summer season. + + In which all over-time is compensated for. + + +Physical Conditions.+ + + A fair house is one in which work, lunch, and retiring rooms are + apart from each other, and conform in all respects to the present + sanitary laws. + + In which the present law regarding the providing of seats for + saleswomen is observed, and the use of seats permitted. + + +Other Conditions.+ + + A fair house is one in which humane and considerate behavior toward + employees is the rule. + + In which fidelity and length of service meet with the consideration + which is their due. + + In which no children under fourteen years of age are employed. + + +Membership.+ + + The condition of membership shall be the approval by signature of + the object of the Consumers' League; and all persons shall be + eligible for membership excepting such as are engaged in the retail + business in this city, either as employer or employee. + + The members shall not be bound never to buy at other shops. + + The names of the members of the Consumers' League shall not be made + public. + + +Later, one of the ablest workers in this field, Mrs. Florence Kelley, +formulated a basis for every society of working-women, as follows: + + I. To bring out of the chaos of competition the order of + co-operation. + + II. To organize all wages-earning women. + + III. To disseminate the literature of labor and co-operation. + + IV. To institute a label which shall enable the purchaser to + discriminate in favor of goods produced under healthful conditions. + + V. 1. Abolition of child labor to the age of sixteen. + + 2. Compulsory education to the age of sixteen. + + 3. Prohibition of employment of minors more than eight hours daily. + + 4. Prohibition of employment of minors at dangerous occupations. + + 5. Appointment of women inspectors, one for every thousand women + and children employed. + + 6. Healthful conditions of work for women and children. + + The foregoing to be obtained by legislation. + + The following to be obtained by organization:-- + + 1. Equal pay for equal work with men. + + 2. A minimal rate which will enable the least paid to live upon her + earnings. + +A little later, the statement which follows, became necessary:-- + + "Certain abuses exist in the dry-goods houses affecting the + well-being of the saleswomen and children employed, which we + believe can be remedied. In fact, in different stores some of them + have been remedied, which gives us courage to bring these matters + to your attention. + + "We find the hours are often excessive, and that these women and + children are not paid for over-time. + + "We find that in many houses the saleswomen work under unwholesome + conditions; these comprise bad ventilation, unsanitary toilet + arrangements, and an indifference to considerations of decency. + + "The wages, which are low, we find are often reduced by excessive + fines; that employers place a value on time lost that they fail to + give for service rendered. + + "We find that numbers of children under age are employed for + excessive hours, and at work far beyond their strength. + + "We find that long and faithful service does not meet with the + consideration that is its due; on the contrary, having served a + certain number of years is a reason for dismissal. + + "Because of the foregoing low wages, the discouraging result of + excessive fines, long hours, and unwholesome sanitary conditions, + not only the physical system is injured, but--the result we most + deplore, and of which we have incontrovertible proof--the tendency + _is to injure the moral well-being_. + + "We believe that to call attention to these evils is to go far + toward remedying them, and that the power to do this lies largely + in the hands of the purchasing classes. + + "We think that 'the payment and condition of those who + work--through their employers--for us, is our affair, and that we + have no right to remain in ignorance of the conditions that involve + or may involve their misery.'" + +Two points still remain untouched, both of them vital elements in the +just working of the social scheme,--profit-sharing, and a board of +conciliation and arbitration for the adjustment of all difficulties +between employer and employed. + +For every detail bearing upon the education bound up in even the attempt +at profit-sharing, as well as for the actual and successful results in +this direction, the reader is referred to an excellent little monograph +on the subject, "Sharing the Profits," by Miss Mary Whiton Calkins, +A.M., and for very full and elaborate treatment of the question, to the +invaluable volume by N.P. Gilman, "Profit-Sharing between Employer and +Employed." In all cases where the experiment has had fair trial, it has +resulted in a marked increase of interest in the work itself; an actual +lessening of the cost of production, and of general wear and tear, +because of this increased interest; and a far more friendly feeling +between employer and employed. It is certain that justice requires +immediate attention to every phase of this question, and that its +adoption is the first step in the right direction. + +For the second point, we have as yet in this country only an occasional +attempt at arbitration, yet its need becomes more and more apparent with +every fresh difficulty in the field of labor. A little volume by Mrs. +Josephine Shaw Lowell, at the time of writing,[50] going through the +press, who has given much time to a study of the question, contains the +latest results of English and French legislation, and of special action +in this direction. Any history of the movement as a whole, hardly has +place in these pages. It is sufficient to say that the system had +practically no consideration till 1850, when the first Board of +Arbitration was formed in England, owing its existence to the +determined efforts of two men. Mr. Rupert Kettle, lawyer and judge, +approached it from the legal side; Mr. Murdella, a manufacturer, and +himself sprung from the working-classes, went straight "to the practical +and moral end implied by the word 'conciliation,' ... both routes of +this noble emulation converging, each affording strength to the common +conclusions." + +The Nottingham lace manufacture, in which numbers of women and children +as well as men are employed, has, for thirty years and more, been +governed by a Board of Arbitration, the result being an end of strikes +and all difficulties of like nature. If no more were accomplished than +the bringing about a better understanding between employer and employed, +it would mean much, since mutual suspicion and distrust rule for both. +Organization among women, and the sense of mutual dependence given by +it, lead naturally to the formation of a board able to judge +dispassionately and disinterestedly of the questions naturally arising, +many of which, however, are at once dissipated on the adoption of the +system of profit-sharing. + +The practical steps already taken sum up in the forms just given; and +there remains only the question constantly asked as to the final effect +upon wages of woman's entrance into public life, this question usually +shaping itself under three heads:-- + +1. Why are they in the field? + +2. How does their work compare in efficiency with that of men? + +3. What is likely to be the final effect on wage of their entrance into +active life? + +The first phase has already had full answer in the general survey of +trades and their rise and growth. As to the second, personal +observation, long continued and minute, added to the very full knowledge +to be obtained from the reports of the various State bureaus of labor, +goes to prove beyond question that, given the same grade of +intelligence, the work of women is fully equal to that of men. +Descending in the scale to untrained labor in all its forms, the woman +is at times of less value than the man. The Knights of Labor, however, +settled definitely that this was seldom the case, and in their +constitution demanded equal pay for equal work. For both sexes +machinery is more and more superseding the labor of each; and as women +and children are quite capable of running much of it, this fact, of +course, brings the general wage to their standard. This, added to +various physiological and social reasons, makes woman often a less +dependable worker than man, and tends to keep wages at a minimum. + +As to the final effect on wages, I regard the whole aspect of things as +purely transitional, and must answer from personal conviction in the +matter. + +The entire movement appears to me a part of the natural evolution from +barbaric law and restriction, and a necessary demonstration of the +spiritual equality of the sexes. I regard it also as the nurse and +developer of many small virtues in which women are especially +deficient,--punctuality, unvarying quality of work, a sense of business +honor and of personal fidelity, each to all and all to each. But I +cannot feel that it is a permanent state, or that when the essential has +been accomplished women will have the same need or the same desire that +now rules. I believe that wages must necessarily fluctuate and tend to +the mere point of subsistence when either child labor or the lowest +grade of woman's labor exists, and that the only way out of the +complications we face is in an alteration of ideals. Statistics and +general reports show the demoralization of family life where such work +goes on, and the fact that in the long run the workman loses rather than +gains where his family share his labor. + +The lowering of wage may be considered, then, as in one sense remedial, +and the present state of things as in part the mere action of inevitable +and inescapable law. But it is impossible to make this plain in present +limits. Having passed through every stage of feeling,--sick pity, +burning indignation, and tempestuous desire for instant action,--I have +come at last to regard all as our education in justice and a demand for +training in such wise as shall render unskilled labor more and more +impossible. So long as it exists, however, I see no outlook but the +fluctuating and uncertain wage, the natural result of the existence of +the lowest order of workers. + +For them as for us it is the development of the individual from the mass +that is the chief end of any real civilization. No Utopias of any past +or present can bring this at once. + + "Each man to himself and each woman to herself, such is the word of + the past and the present, and the true word of immortality." + + "No one can acquire for another, not one; + No one can grow for another, not one." + + + +Despair might easily be the outcome of a first glance at these +conditions; but the stir at all points is assurance of a better day to +come. + +Legislation can do much. The appointment of women inspectors, lately +brought about for New York, is imperative at all points, since women +will tell women the evils they would never mention to men. Law can also +demand decent sanitary conditions, and affix a penalty for every +violation. Beyond this, and the awakening of the public conscience as to +what is owed the honest worker, little can be said. Enlightenment, a +better chance at every point for the struggling mass,--that is the work +for each and all of them, and for those who would aid the constant +demand, and labor for justice in its largest sense and its most rigorous +application. With justice on both sides, abuses die of pure inanition. +The tenement-house system, every evil that hedges about special trades, +every wrong born of cupidity and ignorance, and all base features of +trade at its worst, end once for all, and we see the end and aim of the +social life, whether for employer or employed. + +A generation ago Mazzini wrote:-- + + "The human soul, not the body, should be the starting-point of all + our efforts, since the body without the soul is only a carcass, + whilst the soul, wherever it is found free and holy, is sure to + mould for itself such a body as its wants and vocation require." + +It is this soul-moulding that is given chiefly into the hands of women. +It is through them that the higher ideal of life, its purpose and its +demands, is to be made known. No present scheme of general philanthropy +can touch this need. It is growth in the human soul itself that will +mean justice from the employer to each and every worker, and from the +worker in equal measure to the employer; and this justice can be +implanted in the child as certainly as many another virtue, into the +knowledge and love of which we grow but slowly. + +Never has deeper interest followed every movement for the understanding +and bettering of conditions. Never was there stronger ground for hope +that, in spite of the worst abuses existing, man's will is to join hands +at last with natural evolution toward higher forms. Faith and hope alike +find their assurance in the increasing sense of the solidarity of human +kind, and the spirit of brotherhood more and more discernible, which, as +it grows, must end all oppression, conscious and unconscious. The old +days of darkness are dying. Man knows at last that-- + + "Laying hands on another, + To coin his labor and sweat, + He goes in pawn to his victim + For eternal years in debt;" + +and in knowing it, the first step is taken in the new life wherein all +are brothers; and the law of love, slowly as it may work, ends forever +the long conflict between employer and employed. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[49] Transactions of the National Association for the Promotion of +Social Science, 1857, p. 554. + +[50] July, 1893. + + + + +APPENDIX. + + * * * * * + +FACTORY INSPECTION LAW. + +PASSED MAY 18, 1886; AMENDED MAY 25, 1887; AMENDED JUNE 15, 1889; +AMENDED MAY 21, 1890; AMENDED MAY 18, 1892. + + * * * * * + +CHAPTER 409, LAWS OF 1886 (AS AMENDED BY CHAPTER 673, LAWS OF 1892). + + An act to Regulate the Employment of Women and Children in + Manufacturing Establishments, and to Provide for the Appointment of + Inspectors to Enforce the Same. + + * * * * * + +_The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and +Assembly, do enact as follows_: + +SECTION I. No person under eighteen years of age, and no woman under +twenty-one years or age, employed in any manufacturing establishment, +shall be required, permitted, or suffered to work therein more than +sixty hours in any one week, or more than ten hours in any one day, +unless for the purpose of making a shorter work-day on the last day of +the week, nor more hours in any one week than will make an average of +ten hours per day for the whole number of days in which such person or +such woman shall so work during such week; and in no case shall any +person under eighteen years of age, or any woman under twenty-one years +of age, work in any such establishment after nine o'clock in the evening +or before six o'clock in the morning of any day. Every person, firm, +corporation, or company employing any person under eighteen years of +age, or any woman under twenty-one years of age, in any manufacturing +establishment, shall post and keep posted in a conspicuous place in +every room where such help is employed, a printed notice stating the +number of hours of labor per day required of such persons for each day +of the week, and the number of hours of labor exacted or permitted to be +performed by such persons shall not exceed the number of hours of labor +so posted as being required. The time of beginning and ending the day's +labor shall be the time stated in such notice; provided that such women +under twenty-one and persons under eighteen years of age may begin after +the time set for beginning, and stop before the time set in such notice +for the stopping of the day's labor; but they shall not be permitted or +required to perform any labor before the time stated on the notices as +the time for beginning the day's labor, nor after the time stated upon +the notices as the hour for ending the day's labor. The terms of the +notice stating the hours of labor required shall not be changed after +the beginning of labor on the first day of the week without the consent +of the Factory Inspector, Assistant Factory Inspector, or a Deputy +Factory Inspector. When, in order to make a shorter work-day on the +last day of the week, women under twenty-one and youths under eighteen +years of age are to be required, permitted, or suffered to work more +than ten hours in any one day, in a manufacturing establishment, it +shall be the duty of the proprietor, agent, foreman, superintendent, or +other person employing such persons, to notify the Factory Inspector, +Assistant Factory Inspector, or a Deputy Factory Inspector, in charge of +the district, in writing, of such intention, stating the number of hours +of labor per day which it is proposed to permit or require, and the date +upon which the necessity for such lengthened day's labor shall cease, +and also again forward such notification when it shall actually have +ceased. A record of the amount of over-time so worked, and of the days +upon which it was performed, with the names of the employees who were +thus required or permitted to work more than ten hours in any one day, +shall be kept in the office of the manufacturing establishment, and +produced upon the demand of any officer appointed to enforce the +provisions of this act. + +§ 2. No child under fourteen years of age shall be employed in any +manufacturing establishment within this State. It shall be the duty of +every person employing children to keep a register, in which shall be +recorded the name, birthplace, age and place of residence of every +person employed by him under the age of sixteen years; and it shall be +unlawful for any proprietor, agent, foreman, or other person in or +connected with a manufacturing establishment to hire or employ any child +under the age of sixteen years to work therein without there is first +provided and placed on file in the orifice an affidavit made by the +parent or guardian, stating the age, date, and place of birth of said +child; if said child have no parent or guardian, then such affidavit +shall be made by the child, which affidavit shall be kept on file by the +employer, and which said register and affidavit shall be produced for +inspection on demand made by the Inspector, Assistant Inspector, or any +of the deputies appointed under this act. There shall be posted +conspicuously in every room where children under sixteen years of age +are employed, a list of their names with their ages respectively. No +child under the age of sixteen years shall be employed in any +manufacturing establishment who cannot read and write simple sentences +in the English language, except during the vacation of the public +schools in the city or town where such minor lives. The Factory +Inspector, Assistant Inspector, and Deputy Inspectors shall have power +to demand a certificate of physical fitness from some regular physician, +in the case of children who may seem physically unable to perform the +labor at which they may be employed, and shall have power to prohibit +the employment of any minor that cannot obtain such a certificate. + +§ 3. No person, firm, or corporation shall employ or permit any child +under the age of fifteen years to have the care, custody, management +of, or to operate any elevator, or shall employ or permit any person +under the age of eighteen years to have the care, custody, management, +or operation of any elevator running at a speed of over two hundred feet +a minute. + +§ 4. It shall be the duty of the owner, agent, or lessee of any +manufacturing establishment where there is any elevator, hoisting-shaft, +or well-hole, to cause the same to be properly and substantially +inclosed or secured, if in the opinion of the Factory Inspector, or of +the Assistant Factory Inspector, or a Deputy Factory Inspector, unless +disapproved by the Factory Inspector, it is necessary to protect the +lives or limbs of those employed in such establishment. It shall also be +the duty of the owner, agent, or lessee of each of such establishments +to provide or cause to be provided, if, in the opinion of the Inspector, +the safety of persons in or about the premises should require it, such +proper trap or automatic doors, so fastened in or at all elevator ways +as to form a substantial surface when closed, and so constructed as to +open and close by action of the elevator in its passage, either +ascending or descending, but the requirements of this section shall not +apply to passenger elevators that are closed on all sides. The Factory +Inspector, Assistant Factory Inspector, and Deputy Factory Inspectors +may inspect the cables, gearing, or other apparatus of elevators in +manufacturing establishments, and require that the same be kept in a +safe condition. + +§ 5. Proper and substantial hand-rails shall be provided on all +stairways in manufacturing establishments, and where, in the opinion of +the Factory Inspector, or of the Assistant Factory Inspector, or Deputy +Factory Inspector, unless disapproved by the Factory Inspector, it is +necessary, the steps of said stairs in all such establishments shall be +substantially covered with rubber, securely fastened thereon, for the +better safety of persons employed in said establishments. The stairs +shall be properly screened at the sides and bottom, and all doors +leading in or to such factory shall be so constructed as to open +outwardly where practicable, and shall be neither locked, bolted, nor +fastened during working-hours. + +§ 6. If, in the opinion of the Factory Inspector, or of the Assistant +Factory Inspector, or of a Deputy Factory Inspector, it is necessary to +insure the safety of the persons employed in any manufacturing +establishment, three or more stories in height, one or more +fire-escapes, as may be deemed by the Factory Inspector as necessary and +sufficient therefor, shall be provided on the outside of such +establishment, connecting with each floor above the first, well fastened +and secured and of sufficient strength, each of which fire-escapes shall +have landings or balconies, not less than six feet in length and three +feet in width, guarded by iron railings not less than three feet in +height, and embracing at least two windows at each story and connecting +with the interior by easily accessible and unobstructed openings, and +the balconies or landings shall be connected by iron stairs, not less +than eighteen inches wide, the steps not to be less than six inches +tread, placed at a proper slant, and protected by a well-secured +hand-rail on both sides with a twelve-inch-wide drop-ladder from the +lower platform reaching to the ground. Any other plan or style of +fire-escape shall be sufficient, if approved by the Factory Inspector; +but if not so approved, the Factory Inspector may notify the owner, +proprietor, or lessee of such establishment or of the building in which +such establishment is conducted, or the agent or superintendent or +either of them, in writing, that any such other plan or style of +fire-escape is not sufficient, and may, by an order in writing, served +in like manner, require one or more fire-escapes, as he shall deem +necessary and sufficient, to be provided for such establishment, at such +locations and of such plan and style as shall be specified in such +written order. Within twenty days after the service of such order, the +number of fire-escapes required in such order for such establishment +shall be provided therefor, each of which shall be either of the plan +and style and in accordance with the specifications in said order +required, or of the plan and style in this section above described and +declared to be sufficient. The windows or doors to each fire-escape +shall be of sufficient size, and be located as far as possible +consistent with accessibility, from the stairways and elevator +hatchways or openings, and the ladder thereof shall extend to the roof. +Stationary stairs or ladders shall be provided on the inside of such +establishment from the upper story to the roof, as a means of escape in +case of fire. + +§ 7. It shall be the duty of the owner, agent, superintendent, or other +person having charge of such manufacturing establishment, or of any +floor or part thereof, to report in writing to the Factory Inspector all +accidents or injury done to any person in such factory, within +forty-eight hours of the time of the accident, stating as fully as +possible the extent and cause of such injury, and the place where the +injured person has been sent, with such other information relative +thereto as may be required by the Factory Inspector. The Factory +Inspector or Assistant Factory Inspector and Deputy Factory Inspectors +under the supervision of the Factory Inspector, are hereby authorized +and empowered to fully investigate the causes of such accidents, and to +require such precautions to be taken as will in their judgment prevent +the recurrence of similar accidents. + +§ 8. It shall be the duty of the owner of any manufacturing +establishment, or his agents, superintendent, or other person in charge +of the same, to furnish and supply, or cause to be furnished and +supplied therein, in the discretion of the Factory Inspector, or of the +Assistant Factory Inspector, or of a Deputy Factory Inspector, unless +disapproved by the Factory Inspector, where machinery is used, +belt-shifters or other safe mechanical contrivances, for the purpose of +throwing on or off belts or pulleys; and wherever possible machinery +therein shall be provided with loose pulleys; all vats, pans, saws, +planers, cogs, gearing, belting, shafting, set-screws, and machinery of +every description therein shall be properly guarded, and no person shall +remove or make ineffective any safeguard around or attached to any +planer, saw, belting, shafting or other machinery, or around any vat or +pan, while the same is in use, unless for the purpose of immediately +making repairs thereto, and all such safeguards shall be promptly +replaced. By attaching thereto a notice to that effect, the use of any +machinery may be prohibited by the Factory Inspector, Assistant Factory +Inspector, or by a Deputy Factory Inspector, unless such notice is +disapproved by the Factory Inspector, should such machinery be regarded +as dangerous. Such notice must be signed by the Inspector who issues it, +and shall only be removed after the required safeguards are provided, +and the unsafe or dangerous machine shall not be used in the mean time. +Exhaust fans of sufficient power shall be provided for the purpose of +carrying off dust from emery wheels and grindstones, and dust-creating +machinery therein. No person under eighteen years of age and no woman +under twenty-one years of age shall be allowed to clean machinery while +in motion. + +§ 9. A suitable and proper washroom and water-closets shall be provided +in each manufacturing establishment, and such water-closets shall be +properly screened and ventilated, and be kept at all times in a clean +condition; and if women or girls are employed in any such establishment, +the water-closets used by them shall have separate approaches and be +separate and apart from those used by men. All water-closets shall be +kept free of obscene writing and marking. A dressing-room shall be +provided for women and girls, when required by the Factory Inspector, in +any manufacturing establishment in which women and girls are employed. + +§ 10. Not less than sixty minutes shall be allowed for the noonday meal +in any manufacturing establishment in this State. The Factory Inspector, +the Assistant Factory Inspector, or any Deputy Factory Inspector shall +have power to issue written permits in special cases, allowing shorter +meal-time at noon, and such permit must be conspicuously posted in the +main entrance of the establishment, and such permit may be revoked at +any time the Factory Inspector deems necessary, and shall only be given +where good cause can be shown. + +§ 11. The walls and ceilings of each workroom in every manufacturing +establishment shall be lime-washed or painted, when in the opinion of +the Factory Inspector, Assistant Factory Inspector, or of a Deputy +Factory Inspector, unless disapproved of by the Factory Inspector, it +shall be conducive to the health or cleanliness of the persons working +therein. + +§ 12. Any officer of the Factory Inspection Department, or other +competent person designated for such purpose by the Factory Inspector, +shall inspect any building used as a workshop or manufacturing +establishment or anything attached thereto, located therein or connected +therewith, outside of the cities of New York and Brooklyn, which has +been represented to be unsafe or dangerous to life or limb. If it +appears upon such inspection that the building or anything attached +thereto, located therein or connected therewith is unsafe or dangerous +to life or limb, the Factory Inspector shall order the same to be +removed or rendered safe and secure; and if such notification be not +complied with within a reasonable time, he shall prosecute whoever may +be responsible for such delinquency. + +§ 13. No room or rooms, apartment or apartments, in any tenement or +dwelling-house, shall be used for the manufacture of coats, vests, +trousers, knee-pants, overalls, cloaks, furs, fur-trimmings, +fur-garments, shirts, purses, feathers, artificial flowers, or cigars, +excepting by the immediate members of the family living therein. No +person, firm, or corporation shall hire or employ any person to work in +any one room or rooms, apartment or apartments, in any tenement or +dwelling-house, or building in the rear of a tenement or dwelling-house, +at making in whole or in part any coats, vests, trousers, knee-pants, +fur, fur-trimmings, fur-garments, shirts, purses, feathers, artificial +flowers, or cigars, without first obtaining a written permit from the +Factory Inspector, Assistant Factory Inspector, or a Deputy Factory +Inspector, which permit may be revoked at any time the health of the +community or of those employed therein may require it, and which permit +shall not be granted until an inspection of such premises is made by the +Factory Inspector, Assistant Factory Inspector, or a Deputy Factory +Inspector, and the maximum number of persons allowed to be employed +therein shall be stated in such permit. Such permit shall be framed and +posted in a conspicuous place in the room or in one of the rooms to +which it relates. + +§ 14. Not less than two hundred and fifty cubic feet of air space shall +be allowed for each person in any workroom where persons are employed +during the hours between six o'clock in the morning and six o'clock in +the evening, and not less than four hundred cubic feet of air space +shall be provided for each person in any workroom where persons are +employed between six o'clock in the evening and six o'clock in the +morning. By a written permit the Factory Inspector, Assistant Factory +Inspector, or a Deputy Factory Inspector, with the consent of the +Factory Inspector, may allow persons to be employed in a room where +there are less than four hundred cubic feet of air space for each person +employed between six o'clock in the evening and six o'clock in the +morning, provided such room is lighted by electricity at all times +during such hours while persons are employed therein. There shall be +sufficient means of ventilation provided in each workroom of every +manufacturing establishment; and the Factory Inspector, Assistant +Factory Inspector, and Deputy Factory Inspectors, under the direction of +the Factory Inspector, shall notify the owner, agent, or lessee, in +writing, to provide, or cause to be provided, ample and proper means of +ventilating such workroom, and shall prosecute such owner, agent, or +lessee, if such notification be not complied with within twenty days of +the service of such notice. + +§ 15. Upon the expiration of the term of office of the present Factory +Inspector, and upon the expiration of the term of office of each of his +successors, the Governor shall, by and with the advice and consent of +the Senate, appoint a Factory Inspector; and upon the expiration of the +term of office of the present Assistant Factory Inspector, and upon the +expiration of the term of office of each of his successors, the Governor +shall, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoint an +Assistant Factory Inspector. Each Factory Inspector and Assistant +Factory Inspector shall hold over and continue in office, after the +expiration of his term of office, until his successor shall be appointed +and qualified. The Factory Inspector is hereby authorized to appoint +from time to time not exceeding sixteen persons to be Deputy Factory +Inspectors, not more than eight of whom shall be women; and he shall +have power to remove the same at any time. The term of office of the +Factory Inspector and of the Assistant Factory Inspector shall be three +years each. Annual salaries shall be paid in equal monthly instalments, +as follows: To the Factory Inspector, three thousand dollars; to the +Assistant Factory Inspector, two thousand five hundred dollars; to each +Deputy Factory Inspector, one thousand two hundred dollars. All +necessary travelling and other expenses incurred by the Factory +Inspector, Assistant Factory Inspector, and the Deputy Factory +Inspectors in the discharge of their duties shall be paid monthly by the +Treasurer upon the warrant of the Comptroller, issued upon proper +vouchers therefor. A sub-office may be opened in the city of New York at +an expense of not more than one thousand five hundred dollars a year. +The reasonable necessary travelling and other expenses of the Deputy +Factory Inspectors while engaged in the performance of their duties +shall be paid upon vouchers approved by the Factory Inspector and +audited by the Comptroller. + +§ 16. It shall be the duty of the Factory Inspector, and the Assistant +Factory Inspector, and of each of the Deputy Factory Inspectors under +the supervision and direction of the Factory Inspector, to cause this +act to be enforced, and to cause all violators of this act to be +prosecuted; and for that purpose they and each of them are hereby +empowered to visit and inspect at all reasonable hours, and as often as +shall be practicable and necessary, all manufacturing establishments in +this State. It shall be unlawful for any person to interfere with, +obstruct, or hinder, by force or otherwise, any officer appointed to +enforce the provisions of this act, while in the performance of his or +her duties, or to refuse to properly answer questions asked by such +officer with reference to any of the provisions hereof. The Factory +Inspector may divide the State into districts, and assign one or more +Deputy Factory Inspectors to each district, and transfer them from one +district to another as the best interests of the State may, in his +judgment, require. Any Deputy Factory Inspector may be appointed to act +as Clerk in the main office of the Factory Inspector, which shall be +furnished in the Capitol, and set apart for the use of the Factory +Inspector. The Assistant Factory Inspector and Deputy Factory Inspectors +shall make reports to the Factory Inspector from time to time, as may be +required by the Factory Inspector, and the Factory Inspector shall make +an annual report to the Legislature during the month of January of each +year. The Factory Inspector, Assistant Factory Inspector, and each +Deputy Factory Inspector shall have the same powers as a Notary Public +to administer oaths and take affidavits in matters connected with the +enforcement of the provisions of this act. + +§ 17. The District Attorney of any county of this State is hereby +authorized, upon the request of the Factory Inspector, Assistant Factory +Inspector, or of a Deputy Factory Inspector, or of any other person of +full age, to commence and prosecute to termination before any Recorder, +Police Justice, or court of record, in the name of the people of the +State, actions or proceedings against any person or persons reported to +him to have violated the provisions of this act. + +§ 18. The words "manufacturing establishment," wherever used in this +act, shall be construed to mean any mill, factory, or workshop, where +one or more persons are employed at labor. + +§ 19. A copy of this act shall be conspicuously posted and kept posted +in each workroom of every manufacturing establishment in this State. + +§ 20. Any person who violates or omits to comply with any of the +provisions of this act, or who suffers or permits any child to be +employed in violation of its provisions, shall be deemed guilty of a +misdemeanor, and on conviction shall be punished by a fine of not less +than twenty nor more than fifty dollars for the first offence, and not +more than one hundred dollars for the second offence, or imprisonment +for not more than ten days, and for the third offence a fine of not less +than two hundred and fifty dollars, and not more than thirty days' +imprisonment. + +§ 21. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of +this act are hereby repealed. + +§ 22. This act shall take effect immediately. + + + + +AUTHORITIES CONSULTED IN PREPARING THIS BOOK. + + * * * * * + +United States Census, from 1790 to 1880 inclusive. + +Reports of the State Bureaus of Labor Statistics as follows:-- + +Maine, 1889. +Massachusetts, 1870 to 1889 inclusive. +Connecticut, 1881. +Rhode Island, 1889. +New York, 1885. +New Jersey, 1885, 1886, and 1889. +Iowa, 1887 and 1889. +Kansas, 1889. +Wisconsin, 1883-84 and 1887. +Colorado, 1889. +Minnesota, 1889. +California, 1888. +Nebraska, 1887-90. +Michigan, 1892. + +Reports of the Factory Inspectors for various States. + +Working Women in Large Cities: Report of the United States Department of +Labor, Washington, D.C., 1889. + +The Labor Movement in America. By Richard T. Ely. Thomas Y. Crowell & +Co., New York. + +The Wages Question: A Treatise on Wages and the Wages Class. By Francis +A. Walker. Henry Holt & Co., New York. + +The Labor Problem. Edited by W.E. Barnes. Harper & Brothers, New York. + +On Labor. By W.T. Thornton. Macmillan & Co., London, 1869. + +Profit-Sharing between Employer and Employed. By N.P. Gilman. Houghton, +Mifflin, & Co., Boston. + +Sharing the Profits. By Mary Whiton Calkins, A.M. Ginn & Co., Boston. + +Artisans and Machinery. By P. Gaskell. London, 1836. + +Condition of the Laboring Classes in England. By F. Engel. Leipzig and +New York. + +Ansichten der Volkswirthschaft aus dem geschicht. Standpunkte. By +Wilhelm Roscher. + +Various Reports of Commissioners appointed to inquire into the working +of the Factory Acts in England. + +Le Travail des Femmes au XIX. Siècle. By Paul Leroy-Beaulieu. Paris, +1870. + +London Labor and the London Poor. By Henry Mayhew. Charles Griffen & +Co., London. + +The Industrial Revolution. By Arnold Toynbee. London. + +The Philosophy of Wealth. By John B. Clark. Ginn & Co., Boston. + +Economic Writings of Emil de Lavelaye. + +Lalor's Cyclopedia of Political Science. + +Various Treatises on Political Economy. Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, +Senior, Cairnes, Ely, Perry, Walker, etc. + +Prisoners of Poverty. By Helen Campbell. Roberts Bros., Boston. + +Applied Christianity. By Washington Gladden. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., +Boston. + +Life and Work of the Earl of Shaftesbury, London. Read for Factory +Inspection and Legislation. + +Problems of To-Day. By Richard T. Ely. T.Y. Crowell & Co., New York. + +Social Studies. By the Rev. R. Heber Newton. G.P. Putnam's Son, New +York. + +Social Problems. By Henry George. + +Studies in Modern Socialism. By Edwin Brown, D.D. Appleton & Co., New +York. + +Dynamic Sociology. By Lester F. Ward. D. Appleton & Co., New York. + +Labor and Life of the People. Vols. 1 & 2: East London. By Charles +Booth. Williams & Norgate, London, 1889 & 1892. + +Thirty Years of Labor: 1859 to 1889. By T.V. Powderly. + +Das Kapital. By Karl Marx. + +How the Other Half Live. By Jacob Riis. Charles Scribner's Sons, New +York. + +General Reports and Review Articles on the questions involved. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WOMAN'S LABOR AND OF THE WOMAN QUESTION. + + * * * * * + +GERMANY. + +Ausser den amtlichen Veröffentlichungen der verschiedenen Länder, über +Berufs-und Bevölkerungstatistik vgl G. Schmoller, Thatsachen der +Arbeitsteilung, Jahrb. f. Ges. und Berw. Bd 13, 1889. + +Buchsenschutz, Besitz und Erwerb in griechischen Alterthum. Halle, 1869. + +Franz Bernhoft, Ueber die Stellung der Frauen in Alterthum, Nord und +Süd. Bd. 39, 1884. + +K. Weinhold, Die deutschen Frauen im Mittelalter, 2 Auflage. Wien, 1882. + +Norrenberg, Frauenarbeit und Arbeiterinnenziehung in deutscher Vorzeit. +Köln, 1780. + +Stahl, Das deutsche Handwerk. Giessen, 1874. + +Carl Bücher, Die Frauenfrage im Mittelalter. Tübingen, 1882. + +Stieda, Litteratur, heutige Zustände und Entstehung der deutschen +Hausindustrie. Leipzig, 1889. [Schr. d. Ver. f. Soz. Bd. 39.] + +Ad. Held, Zwei Bücher zur socialen Geschichte Englands. Leipzig, 1848. + +Fr. Engels, Die Lage der arbeitenden Klasse in England. 2 Ausgabe. +Leipzig, 1848. + +Karl Marx, Das Kapital, Band 1, 2 Auflage. Hamburg, 1872. + +Max Schippel, Das moderne Elend und die moderne Uebervölkerung. +Stuttgart, 1886. + +Von Scherzer, Weltindustrien. Leipzig, 1880. + +Ettore Friedlander, Die Frage der Frauen-und Kinderarbeit, deutsch von +Fleischer. Forbach, 1887. + +Ergebnisse der über die Frauen-und Kinderarbeit in den Fabriken auf +Beschluss des Bundesraths angestellten Erhebungen, zusammengestellt im +Reichskanzleramt. Berlin, 1877. + +W. Stieda, Deutschlands sozialstatistische Erhebungen im Jahre 1876. +Jahrb. f. Ges. und Verw. R.F. Bd. 1, 1877. + +Eine Enquete über Frauen-und Kinderarbeit in der deutsche Flachs-und +Leinenindustrie. Arbeiterfreund, Jahrg. 12, 1874. + +Reichsenquete über die Baumwoll-und Leinenindustrie, 1878-79. + +Stenograph, Protokolle des Bundesrathes, 1878-79. + +Worishoffer, Die soziale Lage der Cigarrenarbeiter im Grossherzogthum +Baden. Karlsruhe, 1890. + +Amtliche Mittheilungen aus den Jahresberichten der mit Beaufsichtigung +der Fabriken betrauten Beamten, Jahrg. 1-14. Berlin, 1877-90. + +Elster, Die Fabrikinspektionsberichte, und die +Arbeiterschutzgesetzgebung in Deutschland. Jahrb. f. Nat. R.F. Bd. 11. +1885. + +P. Kollmann, Die gewerbliche Entfaltung im deutschen Reiche. Jahrb. f. +Ges. und Verw. R.F., Bd. 11 und 12. 1888-89. + +Kuno Frankenstein, Die Lage der Arbeiterinnen in den deutschen +Grossstadten, ebenda Bd. 12. 1888. + +Eug. Kämpfe, Die Lage der industriellthätigen Arbeiterinnen in +Deutschland. Leipzig, 1889. + +O. Pache, Unsere Arbeiterfrauen. Leipzig, 1880. + +Bericht der Gewerbeordnungscommission des Reichstages, 7 +Legislaturperiode, 1 Session, 1890-91, Sammlung d. Drucksachen des +Reichstages, 7 Legislaturperiode, 1 Session 1887, Bd. 2, Berlin, 1887, +Nr. 83. + +Karl Kaerger, Die Sachsgangerei, Landw. Jahrb. Bd. 13. 1890. + +Hirschberg, Lohne der Arbeiterinnen in Berlin. Jahrb. f. Nat. Bd. 13. +1886. + +Herkner, Die belgische Arbeiterenquete und ihre sozialpolitischen +Resultate. Archiv f. soz. Ges. und Staat, Bd. 1. 1888. + +Derselbe, Die oberelsassische Baumwollindustrie und ihre Arbeiter. +Strassburg, 1887. + +Ruhland, Der achtstundige Arbeitstag und die Arbeitschutzgesetzgebung +Australiens. Zeitschr. f.d. ges. Staatsgewissenschaft, Bd. 47. 1891. + +v. Studnitz, Amerikanische Arbeitverhältnisse. Leipzig, 1879. + +Douai, Die Lage der Lohnarbeiter in Amerika, in Tenner, Amerika. Berlin +und New York, 1884. + +Hirt, Die gewerbliche Thätigkeit der Frauen von hygienischen Standpunkte +aus. Breslau und Leipzig, 1887. + +Derselbe, Frauenarbeit in Fabriken, in Hirth's Ann. 1875. + +Schuler und Burkhardt, Untersuchungen über die Gesundheitsverhältnisse +der Fabrikbevölkerung in der Schweiz. Aarau, 1889. + +Schonlank, Die Further Quecksilber-Spiegelbelege. Stuttgart, 1888. + +Pfieffer, Die proletarische und criminelle Säuglingssterblichkeit +Jahrb. f. Nat. N.F. Bd. 4. 1882. + +John Stuart Mill, The Subjection of Women. London, 1869; 4 Aufl., 1878, +übersetzt von Jenny Hirsch, v.d. Hörigkeit der Frau, 2 Aufl., Berlin +1872, nebst einem Vorbericht über den Stand der Frauenfrage, übersetzt +von Ludwig Stockman, 3 Aufl. Stuttgart, 1892. + +Die Frau und die Sozialismus, 8 Aufl. Stuttgart, 1891. + +v. Raumer, Die Frau und die Sozialdemokratie. Berlin, 1884. + +Georg Hannsen, Die drei Bevölkerungsstufen, [111,7: Das Weib im +Bevölkerungsstrom]. München, 1889. + +Karoline Norton, Die Frauen in England unter dem Gesetz unseres +Jahrhunderts. A.D. Engl. Berlin, 1855. + +Rubinu und Westergaard, Statistik der Ehen auf Grund der sozialen +Gliederung. Jena, 1889. + +Lette, Denkschrift über die Eröffnung neuer und die Verbesserung +bisheriger Erwerbsquellen für das weibliche Geschlecht. Arbeiterfreund, +Jahrb. 1865. Auszug aus dem Protokoll der Sitzung des Vorstandes und +Ausschusses des Zent.-Ver. in Preussen für das Wohl der arbeitenden +Klasse, nebst Lettes Votum und Promemoria und andere Materialen, ebenda. + +Gust. Eberty, Geschichte der Bestrebungen für das Wohl der arbeitenden +Frauen in England, ebenda. + +Luisa Otto, Das Recht der Frauen auf Erwerb. Hamburg, 1868. + +Otto August, Die soziale Lage auf dem Gebiete der Frauen. Hamburg, 1868. + +v. Sybel, Ueber die Emanzipation der Frauen. Bonn, 1860. + +Karl Thomas Richter, Das Recht der Frauen auf Arbeit and die +Organization der Frauenarbeit, 2 Aufl. Wien, 1869. + +Schönberg, Die Frauenfrage. Basel, 1872. + +Phil. v. Nathusius, Zur Frauenfrage. Halle, 1871. + +Rob. König, Zur Charakteristik der Frauenfrage. Leipzig und Bielefeld, +1879. + +Hedwig Dohm, Der Frauen Natur und Recht. Berlin, 1876. Dieselbe, Die +wissenschaftliche Emancipation der Frau. Berlin, 1877. + +Fanny Lewald, Für und wider die Frauen, 2 Aufl. Berlin, 1875. + +Franz von Holzendorff, Die Verbesserung in der gesellschaftlichen und +wirtschaftlichen Stellung der Frauen, 2 Aufl. Berlin, 1877. + +Luisa Büchner, Ueber die Frauenemanzipation. Dorpat, 1877. + +J. Pierstorff, Frauenfrage und Frauenbewegung. Göttingen, 1879. + +Sophie v. Hardenburg, Zur Frauenfrage. Leipzig, 1883. + +Laas, Zur Frauenfrage. Berlin, 1883. + +Lor. v. Stein, Die Frau auf dem Gebiete der Nationalökonomie, 6 Aufl. +Stuttgart, 1886. Derselbe, Die Frau auf dem sozialen Gebiete. Stuttgart, +1880. + +Mathilde Reichart Stromberg, Frauenrecht und Frauenpflicht, 3 Aufl. +Leipzig, 1883. + +F.L. Warneck, Ehret die Frauen, 2 Aufl. Leipzig, 1882. + +Dorothea Christina Erxleben, [geb. Leporin,] Gründliche Untersuchen der +Ursachen, die das weibliche Geschlecht von Studieren abhalten, darin +deren Unerheblichkeit gezeiget, und wie möglich, nöthig und nützlich es +sei, dieses Geschlecht der Gelehrtheit sich befleissige, umständlich +dargelegt we wird. Berlin, 1742. Dieselbe, Vernünftige Gedanken vom +Studieren des Schönen Geschlechts. Frankfurt und Leipzig, 1749. + +Victor Böhmert, Das Studium der Frauen in besonderer Rücksicht auf das +Studium der Medizin. Leipzig, 1872. Derselbe, Das Frauenstudium nach den +Erfahrungen an der Züricher Universität. Arbeiterfreund, Bd. 12. 1874. + +Hermann, Die Frauenstudien und die Interessen der Hochschule Zurich. +Zurich, 1872. + +Gneist, Ueber gemeinschaftliche Schulen für Knaben und Mädchen und über +die Universitätsbildung der Frauen nach den neueren Erfahrungen in den +nordamerikanischen Freistaaten. Arbeiterfreund, Jahrg. 12. 1874. + +v. Scheel, Frauenfrage und Frauenstudium. Jahrb. f. Nat., Bd. 22, 1874. + +Eug. Dühring, Weg zur höheren Berufsbildung der Frauen, 2 Aufl. Leipzig, +1885. + +Helene Lange, Frauen Bildung. Berlin, 1889. + +Zehender, Ueber den Beruf der Frauen zum Studium und zur praktischen +Ausübung der Medezin durch die Frauen. München, 1877. + +Ludwig Schwerin, Die Zulassung der Frauen zur Ausübung des artzlichen +Berufs. Berlin, 1870. + +Mathilde Weber, Aerztinnen für Frauenkrankheiten, eine ethische und +sanitäre Nothwendigkeit, 4 Aufl. Tübingen, 1889. + +Waldeyer, Das Studium der Medizin und die Frauen. Tagebl. der 61. +Versammlung deutscher Naturforscher und Artzerei in Köln, v. 18, 23, No. +1878, wissenschaftl. Theil. Köln, 1889. + +O. Heyfelder, Die medizinischen Frauenkurse von Petersburg. Unsere Zeit, +1887, 11. + +Karl Breul, Die Frauencolleges der Universität Cambridge, England. +Preuss. Jahrb., Jahrg. 1891, Heft 1. + +Die Entstehung und Entwickelung der gewerblichen Fortbildungsschulen und +Frauenarbeitsschulen in Würtemberg; herausgegeben von der Königlichen +Commission für die gewerblichen Fortbildungsschulen, 2 Aufl. Stuttgart, +1889. + +Galle und Kamp, Die hauswirthschaftliche Unterweisung armer Mädchen. +Wiesbaden, 1889; Neue Folge, Wiesbaden, 1889. Die hauswirthschaftliche +Unterricht armer Mädchen in Deutschland. Schr. d. Ver. f. Armenpflege +und Wohlthätigkeit, Heft 12. Leipzig, 1889. + +Lina Morgenstern, Allgemeiner Frauenkalender für 1885, 1886, und 1887. +Berlin. + +Luise Otto Peters, Das erste Vierteljahrhundert des Allgemeinen +deutschen Frauenvereins. Leipzig, 1890. + +Jenny Hirsch, Geschichte der 25-jahrigen Wirksamkeit [1886-91] des +Lettevereins. [Festschrift.] Berlin, 1891. + +Amelie Sohr, Frauenarbeit in der Armen-und Krankenpflege daheim und im +Auslande. Berlin, 1882. + +Ed. Gauer, Die höhere Mädchenschule und die Lehrerinnenfrage. Berlin, +1878. + +Spyri, Die Betheiligung des weiblichen Geschlechts am öffentlichen +Unterricht in der Schweiz. Sep.-Abdr. der schweizer. Zeitschrift f. +Gemeinnützigkeit, Jahrg. 1873, Zurich. + +Rüdinger, Vorläufige Mittheilung über die Unterschiede der +Grosshirnwindungen nach dem Geschlecht, Beiträge zur Anthropologie und +Urgeschichte Bayerns, Bd. 1, 1887. + +J. Pierstorff, Litteratur zur Frauenfrage. Jahrb. f. Nat. N.F. Bd. 7. +1883. + +Während des Druckes erschienen: + +Ed. von Hartmann, Die Jungfernfrage, Gegenwart 1891, Nr. 34 und 35. + +W. Stieda, Frauenarbeit. Jahrb. f. Nat., Dritte Folge, 11, 2, 1891. + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY OF FRENCH LITERATURE ON THE WOMAN QUESTION AND THAT OF +WOMAN'S LABOR. + +Levasseur, Histoire des classes ouvrières depuis 1788. Paris, 1867. + +Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, Le travail des femmes au XIX. siècle. Paris, 1873. + +Jules Simon, L'ouvrière, 2^me édition. Paris, 1870. + +Villermé, Tableau de l'état physique et moral des ouvriers employés dans +les manufactures de coton, de laine et de soie. Paris, 1840. + +Kuborn, Rapport sur l'enquête faite au nom de l'académie royale de +medicine de Belgique par la commission chargée d'étudier la question de +l'emploi des femmes dans les travaux souterrains des mines. Bruxelles, +1868. Documents nouveaux relatifs au travail des femmes et des enfants +dans les manufactures, les mines, etc., etc. Bruxelles, 1874. + +Condorcet, Lettres d'un bourgeois de New Haven à un citoyen de Virginie, +1787. OEuvres complètes, Brunswick, 1804. The same, Sur l'admission des +femmes au droit de cité. Journal de la société de 1789, v. 3, VII. 1790. + +Laboulaye, Recherches sur la condition civile et politique des femmes +depuis les Romains jusqu'à nos jours. Paris, 1843. + +Legouvé, Histoire morale de la femme. Paris, 1848; 4^me édition, 1884. + +Michelet, La femme. Paris, 1860. + +Proudhon, La justice dans l'église et dans la révolution, 1858. Oeuvres +anciennes, Paris, 1868-76. Tome 22-26. + +Jenny d'Hericourt, La femme affranchie. Bruxelles, 1860. + +Juliette Lamber, Idées antiproudhoniennes sur l'amour, la femme et le +mariage, 2^me édition. Paris, 1862. + +Leon Giraud, Essai sur la condition de la femme en Europe et en +Amérique. Paris, 1883. + +Eugène Pelletan, La famille. La mère. Paris, 1865. + +Actes du Congrès international des droits des femmes. Paris, 1878. + +Comte de Franqueville, Les droits des femmes en Angleterre, Compte rendu +de l'Académie des sciences morales et politiques. Paris, 1891. + + +ENGLISH BIBLIOGRAPHY. + +Working Women in Large Cities, 4th annual Report of the Commission of +Labor. Washington, 1878. + +Theodore Stanton, The Woman Question in Europe. London, 1884. + +Helen Campbell, Prisoners of Poverty, 1887. Prisoners of Poverty Abroad, +1889. + +Woman's Work in America, edited by Annie Nathan Meyer. New York, 1891. + +Sophia Jex-Blake, Medical Women. Edinburgh, 1871. + +A. Huntley, Women and Medicine. London, 1886. + +John Stuart Mill, Subjection of Women. London, 1869. + +Eliza W. Farnham, Woman and her Era. New York, 1869. + +Lester F. Ward, Dynamic Sociology, vol. i. pp. 597-664. + +Maria S. Child, History and Condition of Women in various Ages and +Nations. Boston, 1840. + + + + +INDEX. + +Abuses, in factories, 112; + in dry-goods stores, 265. (_See_ also Fines, Factories, Hours.) + +Age, average, of working-women in Massachusetts, 116. + +Agricultural labor, women press into, 21. + +Agricultural Laborers' Union, women denied admission to, 21. + +Alabama, women workers in, 110. + +Alfred's "History of the Factory Movement," 93. + +American girls, percentage of, employed in Massachusetts, 116. + +Andover ordinances, 60. + +Appendix, 275. + +Apprentices, 49, 122. + +Arbitration, 266. + +Aristotle, "Politics" and "Economics," 29; + views of women, 30. + +Arizona, working-women in, 110. + +Arkansas, working-women in, 110. + +Atlanta, Ga., weekly wage in, 139 + +Austria, hours of labor in, 185. + +Authorities consulted, 291. + + +Bakeries, girls in, 218. + +Baltimore, Md., weekly wage in, 139. + +Beating, 52. + +Beaulieu, Paul Leroy, 165, 167, 251. + +Belgium, inquiry commission, 174; + hours of labor in, 186. + +Berlin Labor Conference, 11. + +Betton, Frank, investigation of conditions in Kansas, 123. + +Bibliography, 294. + +Bishop, Commissioner, 221. + +"Bitter Cry of Outcast London," 9, 136. + +Blackwell, Dr. Emily, on restraints on women workers, 97. + +Book-binding, women and children employed in, 108. + +Boston, weekly wage in, 139; + establishment of labor bureau in, 111; + report on working-girls of, 114; + women employed in, 116. + +Brain, relative sizes and weights of man's and woman's, 27. + +Brassey, Lord, 176. + +Broadcloth, weaving of, by women, 73. + +Brooklyn, N.Y., weekly wage in, 139. + +Bücher, Dr. Carl, 43. + +Buffalo, N.Y., weekly wage in, 139. + + +California, average wage in, 141; + women workers in, 110; + first labor-bureau report, 121. + +Calkins, Mary W., on profit-sharing, 267. + +Capital has no complaint, 7, 11. + +Capitalist, and landlord absorb lion's share, 7; + investment of skill and risk, 12. + +Carpet-weaving, women employed in, 108. + +Celibacy, 43. + +Census Bureau, difficulties in work of, 102; + discrepancies in reports, 103. + +Charity adds insult to injury, 251. + +Charlemagne, 45. + +Charleston, S.C., weekly wage in, 139. + +Chicago, weekly wage in, 139. + +Child labor, efforts against, 11; + in Prussia, 175, 178. + +Chivalry, 44. + +Cigar-making, women and children employed in, 108. + +Cincinnati, weekly wage in, 139. + +Cities, women's trades focussed in, 19. + +Clement of Alexandria, on women, 41. + +Cleveland, O., weekly wage in, 139. + +Clothing-trade, women employed in, 108. + +Colbert, 54. + +Colorado, women workers in, 110; + labor-bureau reports, 122; + weekly wage in, 141. + +Commodity, labor as a, 17. + +Competition, among needle-workers, 22; + should be controlled, 252, 253. + +Conciliation, arbitration and, 266. + +Conditions, general, in Maine, 189; + Massachusetts, 190; + Connecticut, 192; + Rhode Island, 193; + New Jersey, 197; + Kansas, 199; + Wisconsin, 199; + Colorado, 200; + Indiana, 200; + Minnesota, 201; + California, 202; + Missouri, 204; + Michigan, 205; + in New York stores, 232. + +Congrès Féministe, 165. + +Connecticut, women workers in, 110; + labor bureau organized, 121; + average wage, 141. + +Cotton, first bale of, 67; + industry, 68; + in Italy, 179; + machinery and mills, 70, 71. + +Cotton-goods trade, women in, 108. + +Coxe, Tench, 68, 72, 115. + +Credit, 54. + +Crime and pauperism in labor reports, 113. + +Criminal list fed by factory system, 91. + +Custom hampers women workers, 22. + +Cyprian, 41. + + +Dakota, working-women in, 110. + +Daniel, Dr. Annie S., 223, 225, 226. + +Deaconesses, 39. + +De Gournay, 54. + +Delaware, women workers in, 110. + +Diet, effect oil industrial efficiency, 14. + +Distribution of wealth, conflict over, 7, 8. + +District of Columbia, working-women in, 110. + +Divorces in Massachusetts labor reports, 114. + +Domestic service, 57, 237; + in California, 122; + in Colorado, 122; + advantages of, 239; + disadvantages, 241; + employers of, 245; + Woman's Congress on, 246. + +Donaldson, Principal, 39. + +Dress-making, 254. + +Drimakos, 34. + +Dry-goods houses, abuses in, 265. + +Dust in modern manufacture, 213, 218, 219. + +Dynamic Sociology, 26. + + +Earnings, definition of, 127; + average of working-women in Massachusetts, 117. + +Economic question, the question of the day, 7; + dependence, 27; + Greek thought, 29. + +Education, technical, as affecting efficiency, 14; + of girls less practical than of boys, 23; + industrial, in Italy, 175; + in Sweden, 183; + compulsory, 178; + demanded for the employer and the public, 251. + +Efficiency, differences in, regulate wages, 14; + affected by education, 14. + +Embroidery, 48. + +Emerson, Mary Moody, 66. + +Emigration, Irish, 84; + increase of, 96. + +Employment, fluctuation in, affects wages, 16. + +Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII., 151. + +Engels, Dr., on proportion of subsistence to total expenses, 118. + +Evils recognized, 94. + +Evolution, woman's industrial activity in harmony with, 270. + +Expenses, average of working-women in Massachusetts, 118. + + +Factory, system, 75, 90; + girls, 78; + Lowell girls, 79; + laws, 81, 85, 235, 275; + conditions, 82, 84; + hours, 86; + women in, 89; + employments, effects of, 91; + ventilation, 92; + inspection, 222, 275; + married women in, 229; + movement, 92, 93. + +Fair house, standard of, 262. + +Families, condition of, 113. + +Family life, demoralization of, 271. + +Fawcett, Henry, opposition to women in trades, 20. + +Fines, system of, 230, 233; + in stores, 258. + +Florida, women workers in, 110. + +Fortescue, 53. + +France, hours of labor in, 183. + +Fry, Eleanor, 63. + +Fuller, Margaret, 119. + +Furriers, 46. + + +Georgia, women workers in, 110. + +Germany, attitude of Emperor William, 11; + hours of labor in, 185. + +"Germinal," 174. + +Gilman, N.P., on profit-sharing, 267. + +Gloves, home manufacture of, 63. + +Godfrey's Cordial in infant mortality, 147. + +Greeley, Horace, 119. + +Guilds, 45; + expulsion of women from, 47. + + +Habits, personal, as affecting efficiency, 14. + +Half-time system for children, 113. + +Harkness, Margaret, 154. + +Harland, Sarah, on work for uneducated women, 253. + +Harrison, Frederick, 17, 18. + +Health, in factory employments, 91; + of working-women in Massachusetts, 113. + +Homes, of working-people, 112; + for girls, 191; + in cities, 222, 226, 250. + +Hosiery and knitting, women employed in, 108. + +Hours of labor, in Massachusetts, 117; + in Michigan, 206; + in stores, 258. + +Huxley, Thomas, description of London parish, 9, 10. + + +Idaho, working-women in, 110. + +Ideals, alteration of, called for, 271. + +Illinois, women workers in, 110. + +Immobility of labor, 18, 19. + +Income, defined, 127; + average, in Massachusetts, 116. + +Indiana, women workers in, 110. + +Indianapolis, average wage in, 139. + +Individual development, 272. + +Industrial, education, 252; + efficiency, 14. + +Industries open to women in the United States, 124. + +Infant mortality, 147. + +Insanity among workers, 254. + +Intellectual degeneracy of factory operatives, 91, 93. + +Intelligence, effect on efficiency, 14; + effect of factory system on, 91. + +Intemperance produced by factory system, 91. + +Iowa, women workers in, 110; + labor bureau, 122. + "Iphigenia in Tauris," 31. + +Irish, emigration, 84; + industries, 159. + +Iron law of wages, defined and denounced, 15; + applicable to unskilled labor, 15. + + +Jevons, W.S., 147. + +Justice, education in, 271; + a soul-growth, 273, 274. + + +Kansas, women workers in, 110; + labor bureau, 122; + average wage in, 89. + +Kay, Dr., 89. + +Kelley, Florence, 264. + +Kettle, Rupert, on arbitration, 268. + +Knights of Labor, on women's work, 270. + +Knitting, 74; + and hosiery trades, women in, 108. + + +Labor, degradation of, 35; + unskilled in colonies, 58; + child, 86; + effect of out-door, on pregnant mothers, 147; + unskilled, a cause of low wages, 271; + bureaus, their work in relation to women, 110 + (_see_ also under each State); + Father of, 115; + mobility of, 17; + Congress in Belgium, 175; + hours of, in Germany, 185, + in France, 183, + in Austria, 185, + in Belgium, 186, + in Switzerland, 186. + +Laborer does not receive his share, 13. + +Lace-making, women employed in, 48, 108; + in Ireland, 159; + in Nottingham, 268. + +Lecky, W.H., 89. + +Leroy-Beaulieu, Paul, 165, 167, 251. + +Levasseur, E., 161. + +Lille, cave-dwellers in, 168. + +"London, Bitter Cry of Outcast," 9, 196; + poverty, 9, 10. + +Louis le Jeune, 46. + +Louis, Saint, "Institutions" of, 46. + +Louisiana, women workers in, 110. + +Louisville, Ky., weekly wage in, 139. + +Love, law of, ends conflict, 274. + +Lowell factory-girl, 93. + +Lowell, Josephine Shaw, 267. + +Luther, 44. + +Lynn, Mass., shoe-making industry of, 99. + + +Machinery, effects on woman's labor, 252. + +Maine, Sir Henry, 42. + +Maine, women employed in, 110; + in shoe-making, 99; + labor bureau, 123; + average wages, 139. + +Manual training, in California, 122. + (_See_ also education.) + +Marriage, 27, 38. + +Married women in factories, 91, 118. + +Massachusetts, Bureau of Labor reports, 99, 101, 111; + census of women workers in, 110, 116; + average wages in, 139. + +Match-making dangers, 221. + +Mazzini on freedom, 273. + +Men oppose admission of women to trades, 20. + +Men's furnishing-goods, women employed in, 108. + +Michigan, women workers in, 110. + +Millinery, women employed in, 108; + readily organized trade, 254. + +Mines, women in, 174. + +Minnesota, women employed in, 110; + labor bureau, 122; + average wage, 141. + +Mississippi, working-women in, 110. + +Missouri, women workers in, 110. + +Mobility of labor, 17. + +Modern processes involve risk, 115. + +Montana, working-women in, 110. + +Mundella, Arthur, on arbitration, 268. + + +Nebraska, working-women in, 110. + +Needle, resource of unskilled woman laborers, 22. + +Nevada, women workers in, 110. + +Newark, average wage in, 139. + +New England, shoe operatives in, 100. + +New Hampshire, women in shoe-making industry in, 99; + total women workers, 110. + +New Jersey, factory evils in, 94; + women workers employed, 110; + average wage, 141. + +New Mexico, working-women in, 110. + +New Orleans, average wages in, 139. + +New York, Labor Bureau reports, 94, 119; + factory evils, 94; + total women workers in State, 110; + average wage in, 141. + +New York City, average wage in, 139; + percentage of women + workers in, 109; + "Tribune" stirs in sewing-women's behalf, 119. + +North Carolina, total women employed in, 110. + +Nott, Mrs., 66. + +Nottingham lace manufacture, 268. + + +Offices, intelligence, 247. + +Ohio, women employed in, 110. + +Oregon, working-women in, 110. + +Organization among women, in France, 166; + in cities, 206; + in England, 253, 255. + + +Parent-Duchalet, 171. + +Pauperism and crime in labor reports, 113. + +Pay, just, the first remedy, 25; + equal for both sexes, 257. + +Peck, Charles F., work in New York, 119. + +Pennsylvania, working-women in, 110. + +Perkins, Mrs. Thomas, 65. + +Philadelphia, average weekly wage in, 139. + +Plato, 35. + +Post-office, employment of women in, objected to, 21. + +Potter, Beatrice, 154. + +Poverty, no more desperate in Europe than in the United States, 9, + in London, 9,10; + produced by factory system, 91. + +Prejudice, born of ignorance, etc., to be dismissed, 13. + +Profit-sharing between employer and employed, 267. + +Prostitution, fed by factory system, 91, 92; + by domestic service, 93; + statistics in, 171, 210; + recruited from factories, 114. + +Providence, average weekly wage in, 139. + + +Quesnay, 54. + +Question of the day, the economic one, 7. + +Questions, three, to be answered, 13. + + +Ranke, on air required, 92. + +Remedies, just pay the first, 251. + +Reports, labor, six divisions of, 115. (_See_ also under various + States.) + +Reybaud's "History of the Factory Movement," 92. + +Rhode Island, working-women in, 110; + average wage in, 141. + +Rice, Commissioner, deals with women wage-earners in Colorado report, + 122, 123. + +Richmond, Va., average weekly wage in, 139. + +Robinson, Henry A., Michigan Labor Bureau work, 123. + +Robinson, Mrs. H.H., 79. + +Rogers, Thorold, 55; + value of his work, 15, 16. + + +Saleswomen, 131. + +San Francisco, average weekly wage in, 139. + +Sanitary conditions of factories and of operatives' homes, 92. + +San José, average weekly wage in, 139. + +Savannah, average weekly wage in, 139. + +Savings of Massachusetts working-women, 118. + +Seamstresses, in Paris, 163; + in New York, 163. + +Seats in shops, 220. + +Sewing-women, feeling stirred in behalf of, 119. + +Sex, disability of, in the way of mobility of labor, 18. + +"Sharing the Profits," by Mary W. Calkins, 267. + +Shearman, T.G., on irregularity of conditions in the United States, 8. + +Shirt-making, women in, 108. + +Shoe-making, women in, 98, 99. + +Silk-growing, 64, 65. + +Silk industry, women and children in, 95, 108. + +Silk manufactory, women and children in, in Italy, 179. + +Simon, Jules, 163. + +Single and married, proportion of, among working-women, 118. + +Smith, Adam, 54; + summary of causes for difference in wages, 16. + +Social life of working-people, 114. + +Society, women workers frowned on by, 97. + +Solidarity of humanity, 274. + +Soul-moulding, Mazzini on, 273. + +South Carolina, working-women in, 110. + +Spinning-classes, 60; + patriotic, 63. + +Statistics inadequate as to early conditions, 75. + +Stevens, Dr., on increase of insanity, 254. + +Stores, condition of women and children in, 258. + +St. Louis, average weekly wage in, 139. + +St. Paul, average weekly wage in, 139. + +Straw-braiding in New England, 68, 100, 101; + straw-goods trade, women in, 108. + +Sully, 53. + +Supply and demand, 23. + +Sweating-system, 150, 235; + parliamentary investigation of, end of report on, 153. + + +Tacitus, 38. + +Technical education, as affecting efficiency, 14. + +Tenement-house manufacture, 256. + +Tennessee, working-women in, 110. + +Tertullian, 40. + +Texas, working-women in, 110. + +Textile industries, women in, 98. + +Thucydides, opinion of, 32. + +Tobacco trade, women in, 110. + +Trades, admission of women to, barred by men, 20; + women employed in, 108. + +Tramp question, in labor reports, 113. + +Trusts, alarm caused by growth of, 11. + +Turgot, 54. + +Tutelage, perpetual, of women, 36. + + +Umbrellas and canes, women employed in, 108. + +Unemployed, condition of, 113. + +Union, Working-Women's Protective, 230. + +United States, Labor Bureau Reports on working-women, 124. + +Unskilled labor, in majority, 22; + fierce competition in, 22; + surplus of, following Civil War, 101. + +Utah, working-women in, 110. + + +Vacations of working-women in Massachusetts, 117. + +Value of laborer's service to employer, elements of, 14. + +Vapors, dangers of, in manufacture, 214. + +Vegetables, cultivation of, by women, 263. + +Vermont, working-women in, 110. + +Vincent, Madame, 165. + +Villermé, 169, 176. + + +Wage rates, present, in United States, 126. + +Wages, why men receive more than women, 14, 21; + effect of industrial efficiency on, 14; + iron law of, 15; + effort to make standard of life conform to, 15; + tendency to a minimum, 16; + Adam Smith for causes of difference in, 16; + in stores, 259; + final effect of woman's work on, 270; + not fixed, 35; + field, 58; + eighteenth-century, 62; + in France, 161; + in Russia, 181; + New York, 129; + decrease in, 226; + in clothing, 130; + in Connecticut, 133; + in Italy, 181; + in California, 134; + Colorado, 135; + Iowa, 136; + Kansas, 136; + Maine, 134; + Minnesota, 135; + Michigan, 138; + Rhode Island, 134; + average, per State, 141; + average, for all cities, 141; + average, by cities, 139; + definition of, 127. + +Wages question the question of the day, 7. + +Wales, women in industries in, 160. + +Walker, Gen. F.A., on differences in efficiency, 14; + difficulties of census enumeration, 104. + +Ward, Lester F., 26. + +Wealth, ratio of increase greater than that of population, 8; + greater aggregation of, in the United States than in Great Britain, 9. + +Weavers of Baltimore, 81. + +Weaving, colonial, 60. + +West Virginia, working-women in, 110. + +Widows, proportion of, among other workers, 118. + +Windows, nailing down of, 62. + +Wisconsin, average wage in, 141; + working-women in, 110. + +Wives' earnings, 113. + +Woman, primeval, 27; + Roman, 36; + property of, 52; + petition of, in France, 55; + International Council of, 79. + +Women-workers, percentage of, in Philadelphia, Pittsburg, New York, + Lowell, Manchester, Wilmington, Del., 108, 109; + according to States, 110; + of Boston, 114, 116; + industries open to, in large cities, 124; + development of her intelligence necessary, 251; + in German mines, 11; + why their wages are less than men's, 14; + their trades highly localized, 19; + entrance into trades barred by men, 20; + increase of, in the United States, 98; + total numbers of, in the United States, in 1860, 103; + in 1870, 105; + in 1880, 105; + occupations according to Census of 1880, 106. + +Woollen and cotton industries, 98, 108. + +Working-girls' clubs, conditions of, 257. + +Working-Woman's Journal, 255. + +Working-Women's Protective Union, 255. + +Working-Women's Society of New York, its aims, 256. + +Worsted and woollen trades, women and children in, 108. + +Wright, Carroll D., 115. + +Wyoming, working-women in, 110. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Women Wage-Earners, by Helen Campbell + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMEN WAGE-EARNERS *** + +***** This file should be named 15204-8.txt or 15204-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/2/0/15204/ + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/15204-8.zip b/15204-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..79196e5 --- /dev/null +++ b/15204-8.zip diff --git a/15204-h.zip b/15204-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bd2a52a --- /dev/null +++ b/15204-h.zip diff --git a/15204-h/15204-h.htm b/15204-h/15204-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0a6a754 --- /dev/null +++ b/15204-h/15204-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,9886 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content= + "text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"/> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of WOMEN WAGE-EARNERS, by Helen Campbell. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .center {text-align: center;} + .right {text-align: right;} + .left {text-align: left;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem div {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem div.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + + ul li { padding-top: .5em ; } + ul ul ul, ul li ul li { padding: 0; } + ul { list-style: none; } + ul, ul ul ul li { display: inline; } + .subitem { display: block; padding-left: 2em; } + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Women Wage-Earners, by Helen Campbell + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Women Wage-Earners + Their Past, Their Present, and Their Future + +Author: Helen Campbell + +Release Date: February 28, 2005 [EBook #15204] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMEN WAGE-EARNERS *** + + + + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1>WOMEN WAGE-EARNERS:</h1> + +<h2><i>THEIR PAST, THEIR PRESENT, +AND THEIR FUTURE</i>.</h2> + +<h3>BY</h3> +<h2>HELEN CAMPBELL,</h2> + +<h3>AUTHOR OF "PRISONERS OF POVERTY," "PRISONERS OF +POVERTY ABROAD," "THE PROBLEM OF THE POOR," +"MRS. HERNDON'S INCOME," ETC.</h3> + +<h3>With an Introduction</h3> +<h3>BY RICHARD T. ELY, PH.D., LL.D.</h3> + +<h3><i>Professor of Political Economy and Director of the School of Economics, +University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis.</i></h3> + +<h3>BOSTON:</h3> +<h3>ROBERTS BROTHERS.</h3> +<h3>1893.</h3> + +<p class='center'><i>Copyright, 1893</i>,</p> + +<p class='center'>BY HELEN CAMPBELL.</p> + +<p class='center'>University Press:</p> + +<p class='center'>JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.</p> + +<p class='center'>A BOOK FOR</p> + +<p class='center'>Alice,</p> + +<p class='center'>FRIEND, HELPER, AND COMRADE.</p> + +<hr /> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<ul> + <li><a href="#INTRODUCTION">INTRODUCTION BY RICHARD T. ELY</a> + </li> + <li><a href="#AUTHORS_PREFACE">AUTHORS PREFACE</a> + </li> + <li><a href="#WOMEN_WAGE_EARNERS">INTRODUCTION</a> + </li> + <li><a href="#I">CHAPTER I</a> A LOOK BACKWARD + </li> + <li><a href="#II">CHAPTER II</a> EMPLOYMENTS FOR WOMEN DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD, AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FACTORY + </li> + <li><a href="#III">CHAPTER III</a> EARLY ASPECTS OF FACTORY LABOR FOR WOMEN + </li> + <li><a href="#IV">CHAPTER IV</a> RISE AND GROWTH OF TRADES UP TO THE PRESENT TIME + </li> + <li><a href="#V">CHAPTER V</a> LABOR BUREAUS AND THEIR WORK IN RELATION TO WOMEN + </li> + <li><a href="#VI">CHAPTER VI</a> PRESENT WAGE-RATES IN THE UNITED STATES + </li> + <li><a href="#VII">CHAPTER VII</a> GENERAL CONDITIONS FOR ENGLISH WORKERS + </li> + <li><a href="#VIII">CHAPTER VIII</a> GENERAL CONDITIONS FOR CONTINENTAL WORKERS + </li> + <li><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</a> GENERAL CONDITIONS AMONG WAGE-EARNING WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES + </li> + <li><a href="#X">CHAPTER X</a> GENERAL CONDITIONS IN THE WESTERN STATES + </li> + <li><a href="#XI">CHAPTER XI</a> SPECIFIC EVILS AND ABUSES IN FACTORY LIFE AND IN GENERAL TRADES + </li> + <li><a href="#XII">CHAPTER XII</a> REMEDIES AND SUGGESTIONS + </li> + <li><a href="#APPENDIX">APPENDIX</a> FACTORY INSPECTION LAW + </li> + <li><a href="#AUTHORITIES_CONSULTED_IN_PREPARING_THIS_BOOK">AUTHORITIES CONSULTED IN PREPARING THIS BOOK.</a> + </li> + <li><a href="#BIBLIOGRAPHY_OF_WOMANS_LABOR_AND_OF_THE_WOMAN_QUESTION">BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WOMAN'S LABOR AND OF THE WOMAN QUESTION.</a> + </li> + <li><a href="#INDEX">INDEX</a> + </li> + +</ul> + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="INTRODUCTION" id="INTRODUCTION" />INTRODUCTION</h2> + +<h3>BY RICHARD T. ELY,</h3> + +<p class='center'>DIRECTOR OF SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS, POLITICAL SCIENCE, AND HISTORY, +UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN, MADISON.</p> + +<p>The importance of the subject with which the present work deals cannot +well be over-estimated. Our age may properly be called the Era of Woman, +because everything which affects her receives consideration quite +unknown in past centuries. This is well. The motive is twofold: First, +woman is valued as never before; and, second, it is perceived that the +welfare of the other half of the human race depends more largely upon +the position enjoyed by woman than was previously understood.</p> + +<p>The earlier agitation for an enlarged sphere and greater rights for +woman was to a considerable extent merely negative. The aim was to +remove barriers and to open the way. It is characteristic of the earlier +days of agitation for the removal of wrongs affecting any class, <a name="Page_0" id="Page_0" />that +the questions involved appear to be simple, and easily repeated formulas +ample to secure desired rights. Further agitation, however, and more +mature reflection always show that what looks like a simple social +problem is a complex one.</p> + +<p>"If women's wages are small, open new careers to them." As simple as +this did the problem of women's wages once appear; but when new avenues +of employment were rendered accessible to women, it was found, in some +instances, that the wages of men were lowered. A consequence which can +be seen in different industrial centres is that a man and a wife working +together secure no greater wages than the man alone in industries in +which women are not employed. Now, if the result of opening new +employments to women is to force all members of the family to work for +the wages which the head of the family alone once received, it is +manifest that we have a complicated problem.</p> + +<p>Another result of wage-earning by women, which has been observed here +and there, is the scattering of the members of the family and the +break-down of the home. A recent and careful <a name="Page_1" id="Page_1" />observer among the chief +industrial centres of Saxony, Germany, has told us that factory work has +there resulted in the dissolution of the family, and that family life, +as we understand it, scarcely exists. We have demoralization seen in the +young; and in addition to that, we discover that the employment of +married women outside the home results in the impaired health and +strength of future generations.</p> + +<p>The conclusion by no means follows that we should go backward, and try +to restrict the industrial sphere of woman. It has been well said that +revolutions do not go backward; we have to go farther forward to keep +the advantages which have been attained, and at the same time lessen the +evils which the new order has brought with it.</p> + +<p>Further action is required; but in order that this action may bring +desired results, it must be based upon ample knowledge. The natural +impulse when we see an evil is to adopt direct methods looking to an +immediate cure; but such direct methods which at once suggest themselves +generally fail to bring relief. The effective remedies are those which +use indirect methods based upon scientific knowledge. If a sympa<a name="Page_2" id="Page_2" />thetic +man takes to heart physical suffering, which he can see on every side, +he must feel inclined to relieve the distressed at once, and feel +impatient if he is hindered in his benevolent impulses; yet we know that +he will accomplish far more in the end, if he patiently devotes years to +study in medical schools and practice in hospitals before he attempts to +give relief to the diseased. We need study quite as much to cure the +ills of the social body; and the present work gives us a welcome +addition to the positive information upon which wise action must depend.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Campbell has been favorably known for years on account of her +valuable contributions to the literature of social science, and it gives +the present writer great pleasure to have the privilege of introducing +this book to the public with a word of commendation.</p> + +<p>MADISON, WISCONSIN,</p> + +<p><i>August 29, 1893.</i></p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="AUTHORS_PREFACE" id="AUTHORS_PREFACE" /><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3" />AUTHOR'S PREFACE.</h2> + + +<p>The pages which follow were prepared originally as a prize monograph for +the American Economic Association, receiving an award from it in 1891. +The restriction of the subject to a fixed number of words hampered the +treatment, and it was thought best to enlarge many points which in the +allotted space could have hardly more than mention. Acting on this wish, +the monograph has been nearly doubled in size, but still must be counted +only an imperfect summary, since facts in these lines are in most cases +very nearly unobtainable, and, aside from the few reports of Labor +Bureaus, there are as yet almost no sources of full information. But as +there is no existing manual of reference on this topic, the student of +social questions will accept this attempt to meet the need, till more +facts enable a fuller and better presentation of the difficult subject.</p> + +<p>NEW YORK, <i>August, 1893.</i></p> + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="WOMEN_WAGE_EARNERS" id="WOMEN_WAGE_EARNERS" /><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7" />WOMEN WAGE-EARNERS;</h2> + +<h3>THEIR PAST, THEIR PRESENT, AND THEIR FUTURE.</h3> + + +<h3>INTRODUCTION</h3> + + +<p>The one great question that to-day agitates the whole civilized world is +an economic question. It is not the production but the distribution of +wealth; in other words, the wages question,—the wages of men and women. +Nowhere do we find any suggestion that capital and the landlord do not +receive a <i>quid pro quo</i>. Instead, the whole labor world cries out that +the capitalist and the landlord are enslaving the rest of the world, and +absorbing the lion's share of the joint production.</p> + +<p>So long as it is a question of production only, there is perfect +harmony. Both unite in agreeing that to produce as much as possible is +for the interest of each. The conflict begins with <a name="Page_8" id="Page_8" />distribution. It is +no longer a war of one nation with another; it is internecine war, +destroying the foundations of our own defences, and making enemies of +those who should be brothers.</p> + +<p>It is impossible for even the most dispassionate or indifferent observer +to blink these facts. Proclaim as we may that there is no antagonism +between capital and labor,—that their interests are one, and that +conditions and opportunities for the worker are always better and +better,—practical thinkers and workers deny this conclusion. Wealth has +enormously increased, in a far greater ratio than population. Does the +laborer receive his due proportion of this increase? One must +unhesitatingly answer no. In a country whose life began in the search +for freedom, and which professes to give equal opportunity to all, more +startling inequality exists than in any other in the civilized world. +One of our ablest lawyers, Thomas G. Shearman, has lately written:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"Our old equality is gone. So far from being the most equal people + on the face of the earth, as we once boasted that we were, ours is + now the most unequal of civilized nations. We talk about the wealth + of the British aristocracy and about the pov<a name="Page_9" id="Page_9" />erty of the British + poor. There is not in the whole of Great Britain and Ireland so + striking a contrast, so wide a chasm, between rich and poor as in + these United States of America. There is no man in the whole of + Great Britain and Ireland who is as wealthy as one of some + half-a-dozen men who could be named in this country; and there are + few there who could be poorer than some that could be found in this + country. It is true that there is a larger number of the extremely + poor in Great Britain and Ireland than there is in this country, + but it is not true that there is any more desperate poverty in any + civilized country than ours; and it is unquestionably not true that + there is any greater mass of riches concentrated in a few hands in + any country than this."</p></blockquote> + +<p>This for America. For England the tale is much the same. "The Bitter Cry +of Outcast London," with its passionate demand that the rich open their +eyes to see the misery, degradation, and want seething in London slums, +is but another putting of the words of the serious, scientific observer +of facts, Huxley himself, who has described an East End parish in which +he spent some of his earliest years. Over that parish, he says, might +have been written Dante's inscription over the entrance to the Inferno: +"All hope abandon, ye who enter here." After <a name="Page_10" id="Page_10" />speaking of its physical +misery and its supernatural and perfectly astonishing deadness, he says +that he embarked on a voyage round the world, and had the opportunity of +seeing savage life in all conceivable conditions of savage degradation; +and he writes:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"I assure you I found nothing worse, nothing more degrading, + nothing so hopeless, nothing nearly so intolerably dull and + miserable as the life I left behind me in the East End of London. + Were the alternative presented to me, I would deliberately prefer + the life of the savage to that of those people in Christian London. + Nothing would please me better—not even to discover a new + truth—than to contribute toward the bettering of that state of + things which, unless wise and benevolent men take it in hand, will + tend to become worse, and to create something worse than + savagery,—a great Serbonian bog, which in the long run will + swallow up the surface crust of civilization."</p></blockquote> + +<p>In a year and more of continuous observation and study of working +conditions in England and on the Continent, some of which will find +place later, my own conclusion was the same. The young emperor of +Germany, hotheaded, obstinate, and self-willed as he may be, is working +it would seem from as radical a con<a name="Page_11" id="Page_11" />viction of deep wrong in the +distributive system. The Berlin Labor Conference, whose chief effort +seems to have been against child-labor and in favor of excluding women +from the mines, or at least reducing hours, and forbidding certain of +the heavier forms of labor, is but an echo of the great dock-strikes of +London and the cry of all workers the world over for a better chance. +The capitalist seeks to hold his own, the laborer demands larger share +of the product; and how to render unto each his due is the great +politico-economic question,—the absorbing question of our time.</p> + +<p>We have found, then, that the problem is economic, and concerns +distribution only. There is no complaint that the capitalist fails to +secure his share. On the contrary, even among the well-to-do, +deep-seated alarm is evidenced at the rise and progress of innumerable +trusts and syndicates, eliminating competition, which restricts +production and raises prices. They make their own conditions; drive from +the field small tradesmen and petty industries, or absorb them on their +own terms.</p> + +<p>Rings of every description in the political and the working world +combine for general spolia<a name="Page_12" id="Page_12" />tion, and the honest worker's money jingles +in every pocket but his own.</p> + +<p>Granting all that may be urged as to the capitalists' investment of +brain-power and acquired skill, as well as of money with all the risks +involved, they are the inactive rather than the active factors in +production. They give of their store, while labor gives of its life. +Their view is to be reconstructed, and profit-sharing become as much a +part of any industry as profit-making.</p> + +<p>This is a growing conviction; nor can we wonder that realization of its +justice and its possibilities has been a matter of very recent +consideration. An often repeated formula becomes at last ingrained in +the mental constitution, and any question as to its truth is a sharp +shock to the whole structure. We have been so certain of the surpassing +advantages of our own country, so certain that liberty and a chance were +the portion of all, that to confront the real conditions in our great +cities is to most as unreal as a nightmare.</p> + +<p>We have conceded at last, forced to it by the concessions of all +students of our economic problems, that the laborer does not yet receive +<a name="Page_13" id="Page_13" />his fair share of the world's wealth; and the economic thought of the +whole world is now devoted to the devising of means by which he may +receive his due. There is no longer much question as to facts; they are +only too palpable. Distribution must be reorganized, and haste must be +made to discover how.</p> + +<p>It is the wages problem, then, with which we are to deal,—the wages of +men and women; and we must look at it in its largest, most universal +aspects. We must dismiss at once any prejudice born of the ignorance, +incompetency, or untrustworthiness of many workers. Character is a plant +of slow growth; and given the same conditions of birth, education, and +general environment it is quite possible we should have made no better +showing. We have to-day three questions to be answered:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>1. Why do men not receive a just wage?<br /> +2. Why are women in like case?<br /> +3. Why do men receive a greater wage than women?</p></blockquote> + +<p>First, Why do not men receive a greater wage than they do? can be +answered only suggestively, since volumes may be and have been written +<a name="Page_14" id="Page_14" />on all the points involved. For skilled and unskilled labor alike, the +differences in industrial efficiency go far toward regulating the wage, +and have been grouped under six heads by General Frances A. Walker, +whose volume on the Wages Question is a thoughtful and careful study of +the problem from the beginning. These heads are—1. "Peculiarities of +stock and breeding. 2. The meagreness or liberality of diet. 3. Habits +voluntarily or involuntarily formed respecting cleanliness of the +person, and purity of the air and water. 4. The general intelligence of +the laborer. 5. Technical education and industrial environment. 6. +Cheerfulness and hopefulness in labor, growing out of self-respect and +social ambition and the laborer's interest in his work."</p> + +<p>With this in mind, we must accept the fact that the value of the +laborer's services to the employer is the net result of two +elements,—one positive, one negative; namely, work and waste. Under +this head of waste come breakage, undue wear and tear of implements, +destruction or injury of materials, the cost of supervision of idle or +blundering men, and often the hindrance of many by the fault of one. +Modern processes <a name="Page_15" id="Page_15" />involve so much of this order of waste that often +there is doubt if work is worth having or not, and the unskilled laborer +is either rejected or receives only a boy's wage.</p> + +<p>The various schools of political economists differ widely as to the +facts which have formulated themselves in what is known as the iron law +of wages; this meaning that wages are said to tend increasingly to a +minimum which will give but a bare living. For skilled labor the law may +be regarded as elastic rather than iron. For unskilled, it is as +certainly the tendency, which, if constantly repeated and so +intensified, would end as law. Many standard economists regard it as +already fixed; and writers like Lasalle, Proudhon, Bakunin, and Marx +heap every denunciation upon it.</p> + +<p>Were the fact actually established, no words could be too strong or too +bitter to define this new form of slavery. The standard of life and +comfort affects the wages of labor, and there is constant effort to make +the wage correspond to this standard. It is an unending and often bitter +struggle, nowhere better summed up than by Thorold Rogers in his "Six +Centuries of Work and Wages,"—a work upon which econo<a name="Page_16" id="Page_16" />mists, however +different their conclusions, rely alike for facts and figures.</p> + +<p>We must then admit in degree the tendency of wages to a minimum, +especially those of unskilled labor, and accept it as one more motive +for persistent effort to alter existing conditions and prevent any such +culmination.</p> + +<p>Take now, in connection with the six heads mentioned as governing the +present efficiency of labor, the five enumerated by Adam Smith in his +summary of causes for differences in wages: 1. "The agreeableness or +disagreeableness of the employments themselves. 2. The easiness and +cheapness, or the difficulty and expense of learning them. 3. The +constancy or inconstancy of employment in them. 4. The small or great +trust which must be reposed in those who exercise them. 5. The +probability or improbability of success in them."</p> + +<p>These are conditions which affect the man's right to large or small +wage; but all of them presuppose that men are perfectly free to look +over the whole industrial field and choose their own employment,—they +presuppose the perfect mobility of labor. Let us see what this means.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17" />The theoretical mobility of labor rests upon the assumption that +laborers of every order will in all ways and at all times pursue their +economic interests; but the actual fact is that so far from seeking +labor under the most perfect conditions for obtaining it, nearly half of +all humankind are "bound in fetters of race and speech and religion and +caste, of tradition and habit and ignorance of the world, of poverty and +ineptitude and inertia, which practically exclude them from the +competitions of the world's industry."</p> + +<p>"Man is, of all sorts of luggage, the most difficult to be transported," +was written by Adam Smith long ago; and this stands in the way of really +free and unhampered competition. Mr. Frederick Harrison, one of the +clearest thinkers of the day, has well defined the difference between +the seller and the producer of a commodity. He says:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"In most cases the seller of a commodity can send it or carry it + from place to place, and market to market, with perfect ease. He + need not be on the spot; he generally can send a sample; he usually + treats by correspondence. A merchant sits in his counting-room, and + by a few letters and forms trans<a name="Page_18" id="Page_18" />ports and distributes the + subsistence of a whole city from continent to continent. In other + cases, as the shopkeeper, the ebb and flow of passing multitudes + supplies the want of locomotion for him. This is a true market. + Here competition acts rapidly, fully, simply, fairly. It is totally + otherwise with a day laborer who has no commodity to sell. He must + himself be present at every market, which means costly, personal + locomotion. He cannot correspond with his employer; he cannot send + a sample of his strength, nor do employers knock at his cottage + door."</p></blockquote> + +<p>It is plain, then, that many causes are at work to depress the wages +even of skilled workers, far more than can be enumerated here. If this +is true for men, how much more strongly can limitations be stated for +women, as we ask, "Why do not women receive a better wage?" Many of the +reasons are historical, and must be considered in their origin and +growth. Taking her as worker to-day, precisely the same general causes +are in operation that govern the wages of men, with the added disability +of sex, always in the way of equal mobility of labor.</p> + +<p>Wherever for any reason there is immobility <a name="Page_19" id="Page_19" />of labor, there is always +lowering of the wage rate. The trades and general industries for which +women are suited are highly localized. They focus in the cities and +large towns, and women must seek them there. Great manufactories drain +the surrounding country; yet even with these opportunities an analysis +of the industrial statistics of the United States by General Walker +showed that the women workers of the country made up but seven per cent +of the entire population. Eagerly as they seek work, it is far more +difficult for them to obtain it than for men. They require to be much +more mobile and active in their move toward the labor market, yet are +disabled by timidity, by physical weakness, and by their liability to +insult or outrage arising from the fact of sex. Men who would secure a +place tramp from town to town, from street to street, or shop to shop, +persisting through all rebuffs, till their end is accomplished. They go +into suspicious and doubtful localities, encounter strangers, and sleep +among casual companions. In this fashion they relieve the pressure at +congested points, and keep the mass fluid.</p> + +<p>For women, save in the slight degree in<a name="Page_20" id="Page_20" />cluded in the country girl's +journey to town or city where cotton or woollen mills offer an opening +for work, this course is impossible. Ignorant, fearful, poor, and +unprotected, the lions in her way are these very facts. Added to this +natural disqualification, comes another,—in the lack of sympathy for +her needs, and in the prejudice which hedges about all her movements. In +every trade she has sought to enter, men have barred the way. In a +speech made before the House of Commons in 1873, Henry Fawcett drew +attention to the persistent resistance of men to any admission of women +on the same terms with themselves. He said:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"We cannot forget that some years ago certain trade-unionists in + the potteries imperatively insisted that a certain rest for the arm + which they found almost essential to their work should not be used + by women engaged in the same employment. Not long since, the London + tailors, when on a strike, having never admitted a woman to their + union, attempted to coerce women from availing themselves of the + remunerative employment which was offered them in consequence of + the strike. But this jealousy of woman's labor has not been + entirely confined to workmen. The same feeling has extended itself + <a name="Page_21" id="Page_21" />through every class of society. Last autumn a large number of + post-office clerks objected to the employment of women in the + Post-Office."</p></blockquote> + +<p>Driven by want, they had pressed into agricultural labor as well, and +found equal opposition there also. Mr. Fawcett in the same speech calls +attention to the fact of the non-admission of women to the Agricultural +Laborers' Union, on the ground that "the agricultural laborers of the +country do not wish to recognize the labor of women."</p> + +<p>There is more or less reason for such feeling. It arises in part from +the newness of the occasion, since in the story of labor as a whole, +soon to be considered by us in detail, it is only the last fifty years +that have seen women taking an active part. We have already seen that +mobility of labor is one of the first essentials, and that women are far +more limited in this respect than men.</p> + +<p>This brings us to the final question,—Why do men receive a larger wage +than women? The conditions already outlined are in part responsible, but +with them is bound up another even more formidable.</p> + +<p>Custom, the law of many centuries, has so <a name="Page_22" id="Page_22" />ingrained its thought in the +constitution of men that it is naturally and inevitably taken for +granted that every woman who seeks work is the appendage of some man, +and therefore, partially at least, supported. Other facts bias the +employer against the payment of the same wage. The girl's education is +usually less practical than the boy's; and as most, at least among the +less intelligent class, regard a trade as a makeshift to be used as a +crutch till a husband appears, the work involved is often done +carelessly and with little or no interest. With unintelligent labor +wastage is greater, and wages proportionately lower; and here we have +one chief reason for the difference. Others will disclose themselves as +we go on.</p> + +<p>Unskilled labor then, it is plain, must be in evil case, and it is +unskilled laborers that are in the majority. For men this means pick and +spade at such rates as may be fixed; for women the needle, and its +myriad forms of cheap production; and within these ranks is no sense of +real economic interest, but the fiercest and blindest competition among +themselves. Mere existence is to a large extent all that is possible, +and it is fought for with a fury in strange <a name="Page_23" id="Page_23" />contrast to the apparent +worth of the thing itself.</p> + +<p>It is this battle with which we have to do; and we must go back to the +dawn of the struggle, and discover what has been its course from the +beginning, before any future outlook can be determined. The theoretical +political economist settles the matter at once. Whatever stress of want +or wrong may arise is met by the formula, "law of supply and demand." If +labor is in excess, it has simply to mobilize and seek fresh channels. +That hard immovable facts are in the way, that moral difficulties face +one at every turn, and that the ethical side of the problem is a matter +of comparatively recent consideration, makes no difference. Let us +discover what show of right is on the economist's side, and how far +present conditions are a necessity of the time. It is women on whom the +facts weigh most heavily, and whose fortunes are most tangled in this +web woven from the beginning of time, and from that beginning drenched +with the tears and stained by the blood of workers in all climes and in +every age. As women we are bound, by every law of justice, to aid all +other women in their struggle. We are <a name="Page_24" id="Page_24" />equally bound to define the +nature, the necessities, and the limits of such struggle; and it is to +this end that we seek now to discover, through such light as past and +present may cast, the future for women workers the world over.</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="I" id="I" /><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25" />I.</h2> + +<h3>A LOOK BACKWARD.</h3> + + +<p>The history of women as wage-earners is actually comprised within the +limits of a few centuries; but her history as a worker runs much farther +back, and if given in full, would mean the whole history of working +humanity. The position of working women all over the civilized world is +still affected not only by the traditions but by the direct inheritance +of the past, and thus the nature of that inheritance must be understood +before passing to any detailed consideration of the subject under its +various divisions. It is the conditions underlying history and rooted in +the facts of human life itself which we must know, since from the +beginning life and work have been practically synonymous, and in the +nature of things remain so.</p> + +<p>In the shadows of that far remote infancy of the world where from +cave-dweller and mere <a name="Page_26" id="Page_26" />predatory animal man by slow degrees moved toward +a higher development, the story of woman goes side by side with his. For +neither is there record beyond the scattered implements of the stone age +and the rude drawings of the cave-dwellers, from which one may see that +warfare was the chief life of both. The subjugation of the weaker by the +stronger is the story of all time; the "survival of the fittest," the +modern summary of that struggle.</p> + +<p>Naturally, slavery was the first result, and servitude for one side the +outcome of all struggle. Physical facts worked with man's will in the +matter, and early rendered woman subordinate physically and dependent +economically. The origin of this dependence is given with admirable +force and fulness by Professor Lester F. Ward in his "Dynamic +Sociology":<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1" /><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>—</p> + +<p>In the struggle for supremacy, "woman at once became property, since +anything that affords its possessor gratification is property. Woman was +capable of affording man the highest of gratifications, and therefore +became <a name="Page_27" id="Page_27" />property of the highest value. Marriage, under the prevailing +form, became the symbol of transfer of ownership, in the same manner as +the formal seizing of lands. The passage from sexual service to manual +service on the part of women was perfectly natural.... And thus we find +that the women of most savage tribes perform the manual and servile +labor of the camp."</p> + +<p>"The basis of all oppression is economic dependence on the oppressor," +is the word of a very keen thinker and worker in the German Reichstag +to-day; and he adds: "This has been the condition of women in the past, +and it still is so. Woman was the first human being that tasted bondage. +Woman was a slave before the slave existed."</p> + +<p>Science has demonstrated that in all rude races the size and weight of +the brain differ far less according to sex than is the case in civilized +nations. Physical strength is the same, with the advantage at times on +the side of the woman, as in certain African tribes to-day, over which +tribes this fact has given them the mastery. Primeval woman, all +attainable evidence goes to show, started more nearly equal <a name="Page_28" id="Page_28" />in the +race, but became the inferior of man, when periods of child-bearing +rendered her helpless and forced her to look to him for assistance, +support, and protection.</p> + +<p>When the struggle for existence was in its lowest and most brutal form, +and man respected nothing but force, the disabled member of society, if +man, was disposed of by stab or blow; if woman, and valuable as breeder +of fresh fighters, simply reduced to slavery and passive obedience. +Marriage in any modern sense was unknown. A large proportion of female +infants were killed at birth. Battle, with its recurring periods of +flight or victory, made it essential that every tribe should free itself +from all <i>impedimenta</i>. It was easier to capture women by force than to +bring them up from infancy, and thus the childhood of the world meant a +state in which the child had little place, save as a small, fierce +animal, whose development meant only a change from infancy and its +helplessness to boyhood and its capacity for fight.</p> + +<p>Out of this chaos of discordant elements, struggling unconsciously +toward social form, emerged by slow degrees the tribe and the <a name="Page_29" id="Page_29" />nation, +the suggestions of institutions and laws and the first principles of the +social state. Master and servant, employer and employed, became facts; +and dim suspicions as to economic laws were penetrating the minds of the +early thinkers. The earliest coherent thought on economic problems comes +to us from the Greeks, among whom economic speculation had begun almost +a thousand years before Christ. The problem of work and wages was even +then forming,—the sharply accented difference between theirs and ours +lying in the fact that for Greek and Roman and the earlier peoples in +the Indies economic life was based upon slavery, accepted then as the +foundation stone of the economic social system.</p> + +<p>Up to the day when Greek thought on economic questions formulated, in +Aristotle's "Politics" and "Economics," the first logical statement of +principles, knowledge as to actual conditions for women is chiefly +inferential. When a slave, she was like other slaves, regarded as +soulless; and she still is, under Mohammedanism. As lawful wife she was +physically restrained and repressed, and mentally far more so. A Greek +matron was one <a name="Page_30" id="Page_30" />degree higher than her servants; but her own sons were +her masters, to whom she owed obedience. A striking illustration of this +is given in the Odyssey. Telemachus, feeling that he has come to man's +estate, invades the ranks of the suitors who had for years pressed about +Penelope, and orders her to retire to her own apartments, which she does +in silence. Yet she was honored above most, passive and prompt obedience +being one of her chief charms.</p> + +<p>Deep pondering brought about for Aristotle a view which verges toward +breadth and understanding, but is perpetually vitiated by the fact that +he regards woman as in no sense an individual existence. If all goes +well and prosperously, women deserve no credit; if ill, they may gain +renown through their husbands, the philosopher remarking: "Neither would +Alcestis have gained such renown, nor Penelope have been deemed worthy +of such praise, had they respectively lived with their husbands in +prosperous circumstances; and it is the sufferings of Admetus and +Ulysses which have given them everlasting fame."</p> + +<p>This is Aristotle's view of women's share in the life they lived; yet +gleams of something higher <a name="Page_31" id="Page_31" />more than once came to him, and in the +eighth chapter of the "Economics," he adds: "Justly to love her husband +with reverence and respect, and to be loved in turn, is that which +befits a wife of gentle birth, as to her intercourse with her own +husband." Ulysses, in his address to Nausicaa, says:—</p> + +<p class='center'>"There is no fairer thing<br /> +Than when the lord and lady with one soul<br /> +One home possess."</p> + +<p>Aristotle, charmed at the picture, dilates on this "mutual concord of +husband and wife, ... not the mere agreement upon servile matters, but +that which is justly and harmoniously based on intellect and +prudence."<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2" /><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p>Side by side with this picture of a state known to a few only among the +noblest, must be placed the lament of "Iphigenia in Tauris":</p> + +<blockquote><p>"The condition of women is worse than that of all human beings. If + man is favored by fortune, he becomes a ruler, and wins fame on the + battlefield; and if the gods have ordained him his fortune, he is + the first to die a fair death among his people. But the joys of + woman are narrowly compassed: she is given unasked, in marriage, by + others, often to <a name="Page_32" id="Page_32" />strangers; and when she is dragged away by the + victor through the smoking ruins, there is none to rescue her."</p></blockquote> + +<p>Thucydides, who had already expressed the opinion quoted by many a +modern Philistine,—"The wife who deserves the highest praise is she of +whom one hears neither good nor evil outside her own +house,"—anticipates a later verdict, in words that might have been the +foundation of Iphigenia's lament:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"Woman is more evil than the storm-tossed waves, than the heat of + fire, than the fall of the wild cataract! If it was a god who + created woman, wherever he may be, let him know that he is the + unhappy author of the greatest ills."</p></blockquote> + +<p>This was a summary of the Greek view as a whole. Sparta trained her +girls and boys alike in childhood; but the theories of Lycurgus, +admirable at some points, were brutal and short-sighted at others, and +Sparta demonstrated that the extinction of all desire for beauty or ease +or culture brings with it as disastrous results as its extreme opposite.</p> + +<p>It is Athens that sums up the highest product of Greek thought, and that +represents a civili<a name="Page_33" id="Page_33" />zation which from the purely intellectual side has +had no successor. Yet even here was almost absolute obtuseness and +indifference, on the part of the aristocracy, to the intolerable bondage +of the masses. "The people," as spoken of by their historians and +philosophers, mean simply a middle class, the humblest member of which +owned at least one slave. The slaves themselves, the real "masses," had +no political or social existence more than the horses with which they +were sent to the river to drink. In any scheme of political economy +Aristotle's words, in the first book of the "Politics," were the +keynote: "The science of the master reduces itself to knowing how to +make use of the slave. He is the master, not because he is the owner of +the man, but because he knows how to make use of his property."</p> + +<p>In fact, according to this chivalrous philosopher, the man was the head +of the family in three distinct capacities; for he says: "Now a freeman +governs his slave in the manner the male governs the female, and in +another manner the father governs his child; and these have the +different parts of the soul within them, but in a different manner. Thus +a slave can have no <a name="Page_34" id="Page_34" />deliberative faculty; a woman but a weak one, a +child an imperfect one."</p> + +<p>That liberty could be their right appears to have been not even +suspected. Yet out from these dumb masses of humanity, regarded less +than brutes, toiling naked under summer sun or in winter cold, chained +in mines, men and women alike, and when the whim came, massacred in +troops, sounded at intervals a voice demanding the liberty denied. It +was quickly stifled. The record is there for all to read; stifled again +and again, from Drimakos the Chian slave to Spartacus at Rome, yet each +protest from this unknown army of martyrs was one step onward toward the +emancipation to come. In each revolution, however small, two parties +confronted each other,—the people who wished to live by the labor of +others, the people who wished to live by their own labor,—the former +denying in word and deed the claim of the latter.</p> + +<p>Such conditions, as we proved in our own experience of slavery, benumb +spiritual perception and make clear vision impossible; and it is plain +that if the mass of workers had neither political nor social place, +woman, the slave <a name="Page_35" id="Page_35" />of the slave, had even less. Her wage had never been +fixed. That she had right to one had entered no imagination. To the end +of Greek civilization a wage remained the right of free labor only. The +slave, save by special permit of the master, had right only to bare +subsistence; and though men and women toiled side by side, in mine or +field or quarry, there was, even with the abolition of slavery, small +betterment of the condition of women. The degradation of labor was so +complete, even for the freeman, that the most pronounced aversion to +taking a wage ruled among the entire educated class. Plato abhorred a +sophist who would work for wages. A gift was legitimate, but pay +ignoble; and the stigma of asking for and taking pay rested upon all +labor. The abolition of slavery made small difference, for the taint had +sunk in too deeply to be eradicated. A curse rested upon all labor; and +even now, after four thousand years of vacillating progress and +retrogression, it lingers still.</p> + +<p>The ancients were, in the nature of things, all fighters. Even when +slavery for both the Aryan and Semitic races ended, two orders still +faced each other: aristocracy on the one side, <a name="Page_36" id="Page_36" />claiming the fruits of +labor; the freeman on the other, rebelling against injustice, and +forming secret unions for his own protection,—the beginning of the +co-operative principle in action.</p> + +<p>Thus much for the Greek. Turn now to the second great civilization, the +Roman. During the first centuries after the founding of Rome the Roman +woman had no rights whatever, her condition being as abject as that of +the Grecian. With the growth of riches and of power in the State, more +social but still no legal freedom was accorded. The elder Cato +complained of the allowing of more liberty, and urged that every father +of a family should keep his wife in the proper state of servility; but +in spite of this remonstrance, a movement for the better had begun. +Under the Empire, woman acquired the right of inheritance, but she +herself remained a minor, and could dispose of nothing without the +consent of her guardian. Sir Henry Maine<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3" /><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> calls attention to the +institution known to the oldest Roman law as the "Perpetual Tutelage of +Women," under which a female, though relieved from her parent's +authority by his decease, continues subject through life. Vari<a name="Page_37" id="Page_37" />ous +schemes were devised to enable her to defeat ancient rules; and by their +theory of "Natural Law," the jurisconsults had evidently assumed the +equality of the sexes as a principle of their code of equity.</p> + +<p>Few more significant words or words more teeming with importance on the +actual economic condition of women have ever been written than those of +the great jurist whose name counts as almost final authority. "Ancient +law," he writes, "subordinates the woman to her blood relations, while a +prime phenomenon of modern jurisprudence has been her subordination to +her husband." Under the modified laws as to marriage, he goes on to +state, there came a time "when the situation of the Roman female, +unmarried or married, became one of great personal and proprietary +independence; for the tendency of the later law, as already hinted, was +to reduce the power of the guardian to a nullity, while the form of +marriage in fashion conferred on the husband no compensating +superiority."</p> + +<p>These were the final conditions for the Roman, whose power, sapped by +long excesses, was even then trembling to its fall. Already <a name="Page_38" id="Page_38" />the +barbarians threatened them, and at various points had penetrated the +Empire, showing to the amazed Romans morals absolutely opposed to their +own. The German races contented themselves with one wife; and Tacitus +wrote of them: "Their marriages are very strict. No one laughs at vice, +nor is immorality regarded as a sign of good breeding. The young men +marry late,—they marry equal in years and in health, and the strength +of the parent is transmitted to the children."</p> + +<p>This has a rosier aspect than facts warrant. For the Germans, as for +other barbarians of that epoch, the patriarchal family was the social +order, and the head of the family the lord of the community. Wives, +daughters, and daughters-in-law were excluded from leadership, though in +spite of this there is record of a woman as being occasionally at the +head of a tribe,—a circumstance chronicled by Tacitus with much +disgust.</p> + +<p>While from the West this gigantic wave of powerful but uncultured life +was flowing in, from the East had come another. Early Christianity had +already established itself, and its ascetic teachings made another +element in the <a name="Page_39" id="Page_39" />contradictions of the time. Up to this date slavery had +been the foundation of society, and any amelioration in the condition of +women had applied only to the patrician class. The Carpenter of Nazareth +set his seal upon the sacredness of labor, and taught first not only the +rights but the immeasurable value of even the weakest human soul. Women +were ardent converts to the new gospel. Hoping with all the wretched for +redemption and deliverance from present evils, they became eager and +devoted adherents. Their missionary zeal was a powerful agent in the +early days of Christianity. "In the first enthusiasm of the Christian +movement," says Principal Donaldson, in his notable article on "Women +among the Early Christians," in the "Fortnightly Review," "women were +allowed to do whatever they were fitted to do."</p> + +<p>All this within a few generations came to an end. Widows of sixty and +over retained the power which had been given, and a new order +arose,—deaconesses who were not allowed marriage. Neither widows nor +deaconesses could teach, the Church being especially jealous in this +respect and in substantial agreement <a name="Page_40" id="Page_40" />with Sophocles, who said, "Silence +is a woman's ornament."</p> + +<p>Tertullian waxes furious over the thought of a woman learning much, and +still more, venturing to use such acquirement; but heretical Christians +insisted that the respect which Romans had paid to the Vestal Virgin was +her right, and each founder of a new sect had some woman as helper. But +as a rule, her highest post during the first three centuries of +Christianity was that of doorkeeper or message-woman, her economic +dependence upon man being absolute. Social problems remained chiefly +untouched. No objection was made to the existence of slavery. In this +gospel of love the Christian slave became the brother of all, and +kindliness was his right; but their faith demanded contentment with all +present ills, since a glorious future was to compensate them. A +Christian slave-woman was the property of her master, who had absolute +power over her; but no objection seems to have been made to this.</p> + +<p>In the mean time many doubts as to marriage seem to have arisen. Paul +had set his seal on the subjection of women, and Peter followed suit. +<a name="Page_41" id="Page_41" />Antagonism to marriage grew and intensified, till hardly a Father of +the early Church but fulminated against it. Fiercest, loudest, and most +heeded of all, the voice of Tertullian still sounds down the ages. This +is his address to women:</p> + +<blockquote><p>"Do you not know that each one of you is an Eve? The sentence of + God on this sex of yours lives in this age; the guilt must of + necessity live too. You are the devil's gateway; you are the + unsealer of that forbidden tree; you are the first deserter of the + divine law; you are she who persuaded him whom the devil was not + valiant enough to attack. You destroyed so easily God's image, man. + On account of your desert, that is, death, even the Son of God had + to die."</p></blockquote> + +<p>Clement of Alexandria supplemented this verdict with one as bitter, and +Cyprian and the rest echoed the general anathema. As marriage grew thus +more and more degraded, the number of the women in the world steadily +increased, and posterity in like ratio deteriorated. The summary of +Principal Donaldson, in the article already referred to, is the keynote +to the whole situation.</p> + +<blockquote><p>"The less spiritual classes of the people, the laymen, being taught + that marriage might be licen<a name="Page_42" id="Page_42" />tious, and that it implied an inferior + state of sanctity, were rather inclined to neglect matrimony for + more loose connections; and it was these people alone that then + peopled the world. It was the survival of the unfittest. The noble + men and women, on the other hand, who were dominated by the + loftiest aspirations and exhibited the greatest temperance, + self-control, and virtue, left no children."</p></blockquote> + +<p>Sir Henry Maine comes to the same conclusion, and deplores the fact of +the loss of liberty for women, adding: "The prevalent state of religious +sentiment may explain why it is that modern jurisprudence, forged in the +furnace of barbarian conquest, and formed by the fusion of Roman +jurisprudence with patriarchal usage, has absorbed among its rudiments +much more than usual of those rules concerning the position of women +which belong peculiarly to an imperfect civilization." And he adds words +which come from a man who is a good Christian as well as a profound +student: "No society which preserves any tincture of Christian +institutions is likely to restore to married women the personal liberty +conferred on them by the middle Roman law."</p> + +<p>Passing now to the Middle Ages, we find <a name="Page_43" id="Page_43" />conditions curiously involved. +The exaltation of celibacy as the true condition for the religious, and +the consequent enormous increase of convents, placed fresh barriers in +the way of marriage; and the Church having attracted the gentle and +devoted among the women and the more intelligent among the men, the +reproduction of the species was for the most part still left to the +brutal and ignorant, thus leading to a survival of the unfittest to aid +in any advancement of the race.</p> + +<p>The number of women far exceeded that of men, who died not only from +constant feuds and struggles, but from many pestilences, which +naturally, in a day when sanitary laws were unknown, ravaged the +country. Dr. Karl Bücher, commenting on the relation of this fact to the +life of women at that time, notes that from 1336 to 1400 thirty-two +years of plague occurred, forty-two between 1400 and 1500, and thirty +between 1500 and 1600. In addition to the convents, which received the +well-to-do, many towns established Bettina institutions, houses of God, +where destitute women were cared for; but it was impossible for all who +sought admittance to be provided for.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44" />The feudal system, with its absolute power over its serfs, had driven +thousands into open revolt; and beggars, highwaymen, and robbers made +life perilous and trade impossible.</p> + +<p>The towns banded together for protection of life and industry, and thus +developed the guild of the Middle Ages. Relieved from the fear of +free-booting barons, no less dangerous than the hordes of organized +robbers, these guilds grew populous and powerful. Licentiousness did +not, however, lessen. Luther thundered against it, before his own revolt +came; and the Reformation demanded marriage as the right and privilege +of a people falsely taught its debasing and unholy nature.</p> + +<p>We count the days of chivalry as the paradise of women. Chivalry was for +the few, not the many; for the mass of women was still the utter +degradation of a barbarous past, and the burden of grinding laws +resulting from it. With the Reformation, Germany ceased to be the centre +of European traffic; and Spain, Portugal, Holland, and England took the +lead in quick succession, England retaining it to the present time. +German commerce and trade steadily declined; and as the guilds saw their +impor<a name="Page_45" id="Page_45" />tance and profits lessen, they made fresh and more stringent +regulations against all new-comers. Competitors of every order were +refused admission. Heavy taxes on settlement, costly +master-examinations, limitations of every trade to a certain number of +masters and journeymen, forced thousands into dependence from which +there was no escape.</p> + +<p>Looking at the time as a whole, one sees clearly how old distinctions +had become obliterated. Wealth found new definitions. The Church had +made poverty the highest state, and insisted, as she does in part +to-day, that the suffering and deprivation of one class were ordained of +God to draw out the sympathies of the other. The rich must save their +souls by alms and endowments, and contentment and acquiescence were to +be the virtues of the poor.</p> + +<p>Insensibly this view was modified. Charlemagne, whose extraordinary +personal power and common-sense moulded men at will, set an example no +monarch had ever set before. He ordered the sale of eggs from his hens +and the vegetables from his gardens; and, scorn it as they might, his +sneering nobles insensibly <a name="Page_46" id="Page_46" />modified their own thought and action. +Commerce brought the people and products of new countries face to face. +The lines of caste, as sharply defined within the labor world as +without, were gradually dimmed or obliterated. The practice of credit +and exchange, largely the creation of the persecuted Jews, made easy the +interchange of commodities. Saint Louis himself organized industry, and +divided the trades into brotherhoods, put under the protection of the +saints from the tyranny of the barons and of the feudal system which had +weighted all industry.</p> + +<p>Reform began in the year 1257, in the "Institutions" of Saint Louis,—a +set of clear and definite rules for the development of public wealth and +the general good of the people. In their first joy at this escape from +long-continued oppression, many of the towns of the Middle Ages had +admitted women to citizenship on an equal footing with men. In 1160 +Louis le Jeune, of France, granted to Theci, wife of Yves, and to her +heirs, the grand-mastership of the five trades of cobblers, belt-makers, +sweaters, leather-dressers, and purse-makers. In Frankfort and the +Silesian towns there were female furriers; <a name="Page_47" id="Page_47" />along the middle Rhine many +female bakers were at work. Cologne and Strasburg had female saddlers +and embroiderers of coats-of-arms. Frankfort had female tailors, +Nuremburg female tanners, and in Cologne were several skilled female +goldsmiths.</p> + +<p>Twelve hundred years of struggle toward some sort of justice seemed +likely at this point to be lost, for with the opening of the thirteenth +century each and all of the guilds proceeded to expel every woman in the +trades. It is a curious fact in the story of all societies approaching +dissolution, that its defenders adopt the very means best adapted to +hasten this end. Each corporation dreaded an increase of numbers, and +restricted marriages, and reduced the number of independent citizens. +Many towns placed themselves voluntarily under the rule of princes who +in turn were trying to subjugate the nobility, and so protected the +towns and accorded all sorts of rights and privileges.</p> + +<p>The Thirty Years' War, from 1618 to 1648, decimated the German +population, and reduced still further the possibility of marriage for +many. Forced out of trades, women had only the lowest, most menial forms +of trade labor as resort, <a name="Page_48" id="Page_48" />and their position was to all appearance +nearly hopeless.</p> + +<p>In spite of this, certain trades were practically woman's. Embroidery of +church vestments and hangings had been brought to the highest +perfection. Lace-making had been known from the most ancient times; and +Colbert, the famous financier and minister for Louis XIV., gave a +privilege to Madame Gilbert, of Alençon, to introduce into France the +manufacture of both Flemish and Venetian Point, and placed in her hands +for the first expenses 150,000 francs. The manufacture spread over every +country of Europe, though in 1640 the Parliament of Toulouse sought to +drive out women from the employment, on the plea that the domestic were +her only legitimate occupations. A monk came to the rescue, and +demonstrated that spinning, weaving, and all forms of preparing and +decorating stuffs had been hers from the beginning of time, and thus for +a season averted further action.</p> + +<p>The monk had learned his lesson better than most of the workmen who +sought to curtail woman's opportunities. In the chroni<a name="Page_49" id="Page_49" />cles of that time +there is full description of the workshops which formed part of every +great estate, that known as the <i>gynæceum</i> being devoted to the women +and children, who spun, wove, made up, and embroidered stuffs of every +order. The Abbey of Niederalteich had such a <i>gynæceum</i>, in which +twenty-two women and children worked, while that of Stephenswert +employed twenty-four; co-operation in such labor having been found more +advantageous than isolated work. Before the tenth century these +workshops had been established at many points. If part of a feudal +manor, the wife of its lord acted often as overseer; if attached to some +abbey, a general overlooker filled the same place. In the convents +manual labor came into favor; and the spinning, weaving, and dyeing of +stuffs occupied a large part of the life.</p> + +<p>Apprenticeship for both male and female was finally well established, +and many women became the successful heads of prosperous industries. The +wage was, as it is to-day, the merest pittance; but any wage whatever +was an advance upon the conditions of earlier servitude.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50" />Life had small joy for women in those days we call the "good old +times." Take the married woman, the house-mother of that period. She not +only lived in the strictest retirement, but her duties were so complex +and manifold that, to quote Bebel, "a conscientious housewife had to be +at her post from early in the morning till late at night in order to +fulfil them. It was not only a question of the daily household duties +that still fall to the lot of the middle-class housekeeper, but of many +others from which she has been entirely freed by the modern development +of industry, and the extension of means of transport. She had to spin, +weave, and bleach; to make all the linen and clothes, to boil soap, to +make candles and brew beer. In addition to these occupations, she +frequently had to work in the field or garden and to attend to the +poultry and cattle. In short, she was a veritable Cinderella, and her +solitary recreation was going to church on Sunday. Marriages only took +place within the same social circles; the most rigid and absurd spirit +of caste ruled everything, and brooked no transgression of its law. The +daughters were educated on the same principles; they were <a name="Page_51" id="Page_51" />kept in +strict home seclusion; their mental development was of the lowest order, +and did not extend beyond the narrowest limits of household life. And +all this was crowned by an empty and meaningless etiquette, whose part +it was to replace mind and culture, and which made life altogether, and +especially that of a woman, a perfect treadmill of labor."</p> + +<p>How was it possible that a condition as joyless and fruitless as this +should be the accepted ideal of womanhood? Already the question is +answered. For ages her identity had been merged in that of the man by +whose side she worked with no thought of recompense. She toiled early +and late, filling the office of general helper on the same terms; and +even to-day, under our own eyes, the wife of many a farmer goes through +her married life often not touching five dollars in cash in an entire +year.</p> + +<p>Submissiveness, clinging affection, humility, all the traits accounted +distinctively feminine, and the natural and ever-increasing result of +steady suppression of all stronger ones stood in the way of any +resistance. Intellectual quali<a name="Page_52" id="Page_52" />ties, forever at a discount, repressed +development save in rarest cases. The mass of women had neither power +nor wish to protest; and thus the few traces we find of their earliest +connection with labor show us that they accepted bare subsistence as all +to which they were entitled, and were grateful if they escaped the +beating which the lower order of Englishman still regards it as his +right to give. Even in our own country and our own time this theory is +not altogether extinct. The papers only recently contained an account of +the brutal beating of a woman by a man. The woman in remonstrating +cried, "You have no right to beat me! I am not your wife!"</p> + +<p>During the Middle Ages, and indeed well into the nineteenth century, +possession of property by women was confined to the unmarried, the +entire control and practical ownership passing to the husband upon +marriage.</p> + +<p>Change comes at last to even the most fossilized thought. One by one, +social institutions clung to with fiercest tenacity fell away. Barbaric +independence had followed Greek and Roman slavery, which in turn was +succeeded by feudal servitude, to reappear once more in <a name="Page_53" id="Page_53" />the +affranchised communes. Each experiment had its season, and sunk into the +darkness of the past, to give place to a new one, which must transmit to +posterity the principal and interest of all preceding ones. But though +progress when taken in the mass is plain, the individual years in each +generation show small trace of it. Even as late as the sixteenth +century, the workman fared little better than the brutes. Erasmus tells +us that their houses had no chimneys, and their floors were bare ground; +while Fortescue, who travelled in France at the same time, reports a +misery and degradation which have had vivid portraiture in Taine's +"Ancien Régime."</p> + +<p>A flood of wealth poured in on the discovery of the New World. The +invention of gunpowder put a new face upon warfare, and that of printing +made possible the cheap and wide dissemination of long-smouldering +ideas. Economic problems perplexed every country, and on all sides +methods of solving them were put in action. Sully, who found in Henry +IV. of France an ardent supporter of his wishes for her prosperity, had +altered and systematized taxes, and introduced a multitude of reforms in +gen<a name="Page_54" id="Page_54" />eral administration; and later, Colbert did even more notable work. +The Italian Republics had made their noble code of commercial rules and +maxims. The Dutch had given to the world one of the most wonderful +examples of what man may accomplish by sheer pluck and persistent hard +work, and commercial institutions founded on a principle of liberty; and +neither the terror of the Spanish rule nor the jealousy of England had +destroyed her power. Credit, banking, all modern forms of exchange were +coming into use; and agriculture, which the feudal system had kept in a +state of torpor, awakened and became a productive power.</p> + +<p>Side by side with this were gigantic speculations, like that of John Law +and the East India Company, with the helpless ruin of its collapse. The +time was ripe for the formulation of some system of economic laws; and +two men who had long pondered them, De Gournay and Quesnay, made the +first attempt to explain the meaning of wealth and its distribution. +After Quesnay and his system, still holding honorable place, came +Turgot; after Turgot, Adam Smith; and thenceforward halt is <a name="Page_55" id="Page_55" />impossible, +and economic science marches on with giant strides.</p> + +<p>In all this progress woman had shared many of the material benefits, but +her industrial position had altered but slightly. Driven from the +trades, she had passed into the ranks of agricultural laborers; and +Thorold Rogers, in his "Work and Wages," records her early work in this +direction. France held the most enlightened view, and even then women +took active part in business, and had a position unknown in any other +country; but they had no place in any system of the economists, nor did +their labor count as a force to be enumerated. Slowly machinery was +making its way, feared and hated by the lower order of workers, eyed +distrustfully and uncertainly by the higher. Men and women struggling +for bare subsistence had become active competitors, till, in 1789, a +general petition entitled "Petition of Women of the Third Estate to the +King" was signed by hundreds of French workers, who, made desperate by +starvation and underpay, demanded that every business which included +spinning, weaving, sewing, or knitting should be given to women +exclusively. Side by side <a name="Page_56" id="Page_56" />with the wave of political revolution, +strongest for France and America, came the industrial revolution; and +the opening of the nineteenth century brought with it the myriad changes +we are now to face.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57" /> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1" /><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Dynamic Sociology, or Applied Social Science as based upon +Statical Sociology and the Less Complex Sciences. By Lester F. Ward, +A.M., vol. i. p. 649.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2" /><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Economics, book i. chap. ix.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3" /><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Ancient Law, p. 147.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="II" id="II" />II.</h2> + +<h3>EMPLOYMENTS FOR WOMEN DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD, AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FACTORY.</h3> + +<p>For nearly a century and a half, dating from the landing of the Pilgrims +on Plymouth Rock, the condition of laboring women was that of the same +class in all struggling colonies. There were practically no women +wage-earners, save in domestic service, where a home and from thirty to +a hundred dollars a year was accounted wealth, the latter sum being +given in a few instances to the housekeepers in great houses. Each +family represented a commonwealth, and its women gave every energy to +the crowding duties of a daily life filled with manifold occupations.</p> + +<p>The farmer—for all were farmers—was often blacksmith, shoemaker, and +carpenter, and more or less proficient in every trade whose offices were +called for in the family life. The farmer's <a name="Page_58" id="Page_58" />wife spun and wove the +cloth he wore and the linen that made his household furnishing, and was +dyer and dresser, brewer and baker, seamstress, milliner, and +dressmaker. The quickness, adaptiveness to new conditions, and the +fertility of resource which are recognized as distinguishing the +American, were born of the colonial struggle, especially of the final +one which separated us forever from English rule.</p> + +<p>The wage of the few women found in labor outside the home was gauged by +that which had ruled in England. For unskilled labor, as that employed +occasionally in agriculture, this had been from one shilling and +sixpence for ordinary field work to two shillings a week paid in haying +and harvest time. For hoeing corn or rough weeding there is record of +one shilling per week, and this is the usual wage for old women. To this +were added various allowances which have gradually fallen into disuse. A +full record of these and of rates in general will be found in "Six +Centuries of Work and Wages."<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4" /><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<p>Unskilled labor during the whole colonial period—meaning by this such +labor as that of the men who sawed wood, dug ditches, or <a name="Page_59" id="Page_59" />mended roads, +mixed mortar for the mason, carried boards to the carpenter, or cut hay +in harvest time—brought a wage of seldom more than two shillings a day, +fifteen shillings a week making a man the envy of his fellows, while six +or seven was the utmost limit for women of the same order.</p> + +<p>On this pittance they lived as they could. Sand did duty as carpet for +the floor. The cupboard knew no china, and the table no glass. Coal and +matches were unknown; they had never seen a stove. The meals of coarsest +food were eaten from wooden or pewter dishes. Fresh meat was seldom +eaten more than once a week. A pound of salt pork was tenpence, and corn +three shillings a bushel. Clothing was as coarse as the food, and +imprisonment for the slightest debt was the shadow hanging over every +family where illness or any other cause had hindered earning. Boys and +girls in the poorer families were employed by the owners of cattle to +watch and keep them within bounds, countless troubles arising from their +roaming over the unfenced fields. Andover, Mass., being from the +beginning of a thrifty turn of mind, passed, soon after the founding of +the <a name="Page_60" id="Page_60" />town, an ordinance which still stands on the town records:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"The Court did herupon order and decree that in every towne the + chosen men are to take care of such as are sett to keep cattle, + that they may be sett to some other employment withall, as spinning + upon the rock, knitting and weaving tape, &c."</p></blockquote> + +<p>Spinning-classes were also formed; the General Court of Massachusetts +ordering these in 1656, this being part of the general effort to begin +some form of manufactures. But fishing to load ships, and shipbuilding +to carry cured fish absorbed the energies of the growing population; and +these vessels brought textiles and manufactured goods from the cheapest +markets everywhere and anywhere.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5" /><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + +<p>These "homespun" industries soon showed a tendency toward division. By +1669 much weaving was done outside the home as custom work; and there is +record of one Gabriel Harris who died in 1684 leaving four looms and +tacklings and a silk loom as part of the small fortune he had +accumulated in this way.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6" /><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> His six chil<a name="Page_61" id="Page_61" />dren and some hired women +assisted in the work. In 1685 Joseph, the son of Roger Williams, entered +in an account book now extant,<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7" /><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> a credit to "Sarah badkuk [Babcock], +for weven and coaming wisted." This work was, however, chiefly in the +hands of men.</p> + +<p>The records of Pepperell, Mass., show that many women saved their pin +money, and sent out little ventures in the ships built at home and +sailing to all ports with fish. These ventures included articles of +clothing, embroideries, and anything that it seemed might be made to +yield some return. There were also women of affairs, some of whom took +charge of large industries. Thus Weeden, in his "Economic and Social +History of New England," quotes from an interesting memorandum left by +Madam Martha Smith, a widow of St. George's Manor, Long Island,<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8" /><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> which +shows her practical ability. In January, 1707, "my company" killed a +yearling whale, and made twenty-seven barrels of oil. The record gives +her success for the year, and the tax she paid to the authorities at New +York,—fifteen pounds and fifteen shillings, a twentieth part of her +year's gains.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62" />Other women oversaw the curing of the fish; but there is no record of +the wage beyond the general one which for the earliest days of the +colony gives rates for women as from four to eight pence a day without +food. These rates followed almost literally those of England at that +time. Half of the day's earnings were accounted an equivalent for diet, +and contractors for feeding gangs in agriculture, among sailors, or +wherever the system was adopted, allowed seven and one-half pence per +day a head for men and women alike. Women servants received ten +shillings a year wages, and an allowance of four shillings additional +for clothing. The working day still remained as fixed by the law late in +the fifteenth century,—from five A.M. to eight P.M., from March to +September, with half an hour for breakfast, and an hour and a half for +dinner.</p> + +<p>These rates gradually altered, but for women hardly at all, the wages +during the eighteenth century ranging from four to six pounds a year. +The colony, however, gave opportunities unknown to the mother country, +and gardening and the cultivation of small vegetables seem to have +fallen much into the hands of women.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9" /><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> <a name="Page_63" id="Page_63" />They had studied the best +methods for hotbeds, and grew early vegetables in these, the first +record of this being in 1759.</p> + +<p>Gloves were by this time made at home, buttons covered, and many small +industries conducted, all connected with the manufacture and making up +of clothing. Patriotic spinning occupied many; and the "Boston +News-Letter" has it that often seventy linen-wheels were employed at one +gathering. The agitation caused by the Stamp Act turned the attention of +all women to the production of cloth as a domestic business. Worcester, +Mass., in 1780 formed an association for the spinning and weaving of +cotton, and a jenny was bought by subscription.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10" /><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> + +<p>Prices by this time had risen, and in 1776 the Andover records mention +that a Miss Holt was paid eighteen shillings for spinning seventy-two +skeins, and seven shillings eleven pence for weaving nineteen yards of +cloth. Women generally could spin two skeins of linen yarn a day; but +there is record of one, a Miss Eleanor Fry of East Greenwich, R.I., who +spun seven skeins and one knot in one day,—an amount <a name="Page_64" id="Page_64" />sufficient to +make twelve large lawn handkerchiefs such as were then imported from +England.</p> + +<p>Within four years another Rhode Island family of Newport are recorded in +1768 as having "manufactured nine hundred and eighty yards of woolen +cloth, besides two coverlids (coverlets), and two bed-ticks, and all the +stocking yarn of the family."</p> + +<p>The Council of East Greenwich fixed prices at that time at rates which +seem purely arbitrary and are certainly incomprehensible. Thus for +spinning linen or worsted, five or six skeins to the pound, the price +was not to exceed sixpence per skein of fifteen knots, with finer work +in proportion. Carded woollen yarn was the same per skein. Weaving plain +flannel or tow or linen brought fivepence per yard; common worsted and +linen, one penny a yard; and other linens in like proportion.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11" /><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> + +<p>Silk growing and weaving had been the result of the silkworm cocoons +sent over by James the First, who offered bounties of money and tobacco +for spun and woven silk according <a name="Page_65" id="Page_65" />to weight. Three women were famous +before the Revolution as silk growers and weavers,—Mrs. Pinckney, Grace +Fisher, and Susanna Wright; and at all points where the mulberry-tree +was indigenous or could be made to grow, fortune was regarded as +assured. The project failed; but the efforts then made paved the way for +present experiment, and even better success than that already attained.</p> + +<p>The manufacture of straw goods, amounting now to many million dollars +yearly, owes its origin to a woman,—Miss Betsey Metcalf, who in 1789, +when hardly more than a child, discovered the secret of bleaching and +braiding the meadow grass of Dedham, her native town. Others were +taught, and a regular business of supplying the want for summer hats and +bonnets was organized, and has grown to its present large proportions.</p> + +<p>At this period women widowed by the fortune of war or forced by the +absence of all the male members of the family on the field, were often +found in business. The mother of Thomas Perkins of Salem, one of the +great American merchants, left widowed in 1778, took her husband's place +in the counting-house, <a name="Page_66" id="Page_66" />managed business, despatched ships, sold +merchandise, wrote letters, all with such commanding energy that the +solid Hollanders wrote to her as to a man.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12" /><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> The record of one day's +work of Mary Moody Emerson, born in 1777, reads:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"Rose before light every morn; read Butler's Analogy; commented on + the Scriptures; read in a little book Cicero's Letters—a few + touches of Shakespeare—washed, carded, cleaned house and + baked."<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13" /><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p></blockquote> + +<p>There is another woman no less busy, a member of the distinguished Nott +family, who did work in her house and helped her boys in the fields. In +midwinter, with neither money nor wool in the house, one of the boys +required a new suit. The mother sheared the half-grown fleece from a +sheep, and in a week had spun, wove, and made it into clothing, the +sheep being protected from cold by a wrappage made of braided straw.</p> + +<p>Details like this would be out of place here did they not serve to +accent the fact of the <a name="Page_67" id="Page_67" />concentration of industries under the home roof, +and the necessity that existed for this. But a change was near at hand, +and it dates from the first bale of cotton grown in the country.</p> + +<p>In the early years of the eighteenth century not a manufacturing town +existed in New England, and for the whole country it was much the same. +A few paper-mills turned out paper hardly better in quality than that +which comes to us to-day about our grocery packages. In a foundry or two +iron was melted into pigs or beaten into bars and nails. Cocked hats and +felts were made in one factory. Cotton was hardly known.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14" /><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> De Bow, in +his "Industrial Resources of the United States," tells us that a little +had been sent to Liverpool just before the battle of Lexington; but +linen took the place of all cotton fabrics, and was spun at every hearth +in New England.</p> + +<p>In the eight bales of cotton, grown on a Georgia plantation, sent over +to Liverpool in 1784, and seized at the Custom House on the ground that +so much cotton could not be pro<a name="Page_68" id="Page_68" />duced in America, but must come from +some foreign country, lay the seed of a new movement in labor, in which, +from the beginning, women have taken larger part than men. By 1800 +cotton had proved itself a staple for the Southern States, and even the +second war with England hardly hindered the planters. In 1791 two +million pounds had been raised; in 1804 forty-eight million; the +invention of the cotton-gin, in 1793, stimulating to the utmost the +enthusiasm of the South over this new road to fortune.</p> + +<p>It is with the birth of the cotton industry that the work and wages of +women begin to take coherent shape; and the history of the new +occupation divides itself roughly into three periods. The first includes +the ten or fifteen years prior to 1790, and may be called the +experimental period; the second covers the time from 1790 to 1811, in +which the spinning-system was established and perfected; and the third +the years immediately following 1814, in which came the introduction of +the power loom and the growth of the modern factory system.</p> + +<p>The experimental stage found an enthusiastic worker in the person of +Tench Coxe, known <a name="Page_69" id="Page_69" />often as the "Father of American Industries," whose +interest in the beginning was philanthropic rather than commercial. Bent +upon employment for idle and destitute workmen, he exhibited in +Philadelphia in 1775 the first spinning-jenny seen in America. He had +already incorporated the "United Company of Philadelphia for Promoting +American Manufactures," and they at once secured the machine and made +ready to operate it. Four hundred women were very speedily at work at +hand spinning and weaving; and though the company presently turned its +attention to woollen fabrics, a large proportion of women was still +employed.</p> + +<p>Till the building of the great mill at Waltham, Mass., in which every +form of the improved machinery found place, spinning was the only work +of the factories. All the yarn was sent out among the farmers to be +woven into cloth, the current prices paid for this being from six to +twelve cents a yard. American cotton was poor, and the product of a +quality inferior to the coarsest and heaviest-unbleached of to-day; but +experiment soon altered all this.</p> + +<p>To manufacture the raw product in this coun<a name="Page_70" id="Page_70" />try was a necessity. For +England this had begun in 1786; but she guarded so jealously all +inventions bearing upon it that none found their way to us. Our +machinery was therefore of the most imperfect order, the work chiefly of +two young Scotch mechanics. In 1788 a company was formed at Providence, +R.I., for making "homespun cloth," their machinery being made in part +from drawings from English models. Carding and roving were all done by +hand labor; and the spinning-frame, with thirty-two spindles, differed +little from a common jenny, and was worked by a crank turned by hand.</p> + +<p>Even at this stage England was determined that America should have +neither machinery nor tools, and still held to the act passed in 1789 +which enforced a penalty of five hundred pounds for any one who +exported, or tried to export, "blocks, plates, engines, tools, or +utensils used in or which are proper for the preparing or finishing of +the calico, cotton, muslin, or linen printing manufacture, or any part +thereof."</p> + +<p>Nothing could have more stimulated American invention; but there were +many struggles before the thought finally came to all interested, <a name="Page_71" id="Page_71" />that +it might be possible to condense the whole operation with all its +details under one roof,—a project soon carried out.</p> + +<p>Thus far all had been tentative; but the building in 1790 at Pawtucket, +R.I., of the first large factory with improved machinery gave the +industry permanent place. Another mill was erected in the same State in +1795, and two more in Massachusetts in 1802 and 1803. In the three +succeeding years ten more were built in Rhode Island and one in +Connecticut, altogether fifteen in number, working about 8,000 spindles +and producing in a year some 300,000 pounds of yarn. At the end of the +year 1809 eighty-seven additional mills had been put up, making about +80,000 spindles in operation. Eight hundred spindles employed forty +persons,—five men and thirty-five women and children.</p> + +<p>The first authoritative record as to the progress of the manufacture, +numbers employed, etc., was made in a report to the House of +Representatives in the spring session of 1816. In the previous year +90,000 bales had been manufactured as against 1,000 in 1800. The capital +invested was $40,000, and the relative <a name="Page_72" id="Page_72" />number of males and females +employed is also recorded,—</p> + + +<table summary="Relative numbers employed."> + <tr> + <td>Males employed from the age of 17 and upward </td> + <td>10,000</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Women and female children</td> + <td>66,000</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Boys under 17 years of age</td> + <td>24,000</td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>For these women spinning was the only work. Hand-looms still did all the +weaving, nor was it possible to obtain any plan of the power +looms,—then in use in England, and a recent invention. Another mill had +been built in 1795; and thus the first definite and profitable +occupation for women in this country dates back to the close of the +eighteenth and the early years of the nineteenth century, the history of +its phases having been written by Tench Coxe. The village tailoress had +long gone from house to house, earning in the beginning but a shilling a +day, and this sometimes paid in kind; and in towns a dressmaker or +milliner was secure of a livelihood. But work for the many was unknown +outside of household life; and thus wage rates vary with locality, and +are in most cases inferential rather than matter of record.</p> + +<p>Cotton would seem, from the beginning of manufacturing interests, to +have monopolized New England; but other industries had been <a name="Page_73" id="Page_73" />very early +suggested. In May, 1640, the General Court of Massachusetts made an +order for the encouragement by bounties of the manufacture of linen and +woollen as well as cotton. In 1638 a company of Yorkshiremen came over +and settled in Rowley, Mass., where they built the first fulling-mill in +the United States. Fustians and the ordinary homespun cloth were woven; +but few women were employed, the work being far heavier than the weaving +of cotton. It was hoped that broadcloths as good as those imported could +be made; but American wool proved less susceptible of high finish, +though of better wearing quality than the English. Various grades of +cloth, with shawls, were manufactured; but the growth of the industry +was slow, and constantly hampered by heavy duties and much interference. +In 1770 the entire graduating class at Harvard College were dressed in +black broadcloth made in this country, the weaving of which had been +done in families. Yarn was sent to these after the wool had been made +ready in the mills, and the census of the United States for 1810 gives +the number of yards woven in this way as 9,528,266.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74" />What proportion of women were engaged we have no means of knowing; but +the census of 1860 shows that New England had 65 per cent of the total +number then at work. The cotton manufacture had but 38 per cent of males +as against 62 per cent of females; while in woollen, males were 60 per +cent. In New England 10,743 women were in woollen-mills; in the Middle +States, 4,540; and in the South, 689. For the West no returns are given. +Many more would be included in the Southern returns were it not that +most of the weaving is still a home industry, this resulting from the +sparseness and scattered nature of the population.</p> + +<p>Knitting formed one of the earliest means of earning for women, the +demand for hose of every description being beyond the power of the +family to supply. Knitting-machines of various orders were in use on the +Continent, and had been brought into England; but any attempt to employ +them here was for a long time unsuccessful. Yarn was spun especially for +this purpose, usually with a double thread, and in the year 1698 +Martha's Vineyard exported 9,000 pairs. The German and English settlers +of Pennsylvania brought many hand<a name="Page_75" id="Page_75" />knitting machines with them, and were +rivals of New England; but Virginia led, and the census of 1810 credits +her with over half of the hand-knit pairs exported, Connecticut coming +next. In Pennsylvania the women earned half a crown a pair for the long +hose, and this in the opening of the eighteenth century; and the State +still retains it as a household industry. The percentage for the United +States of women engaged in it by the last census is 61,100.</p> + +<p>The early stages of the industry employed very few women, the processes +involving too heavy labor; and out of 159 workers in the first mills, +only eight were women, these being employed in carding and fulling. +According to our last census, 10,743 are employed in New England mills +alone; but the proportion remains far below that of the cotton-mills, +and at many points in the South and remote territories it is still a +household industry in which all share.</p> + +<p>Until well on in the nineteenth century the factory and the domestic +system were still interwoven, nor had there been intelligent definition +of the actual meaning of this system until Ure formulated one:—<a name="Page_76" id="Page_76" /></p> + +<blockquote><p>"The factory system in technology is simply the combined operation + of many orders of work-people in tending with assiduous skill a + series of productive machines, continuously impelled by a central + power."<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15" /><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p></blockquote> + +<p>A central power controlling an army of workers had been the dream of all +mechanicians; and Ure formulated this also:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"It is the idea of a vast automaton, composed of various mechanical + and intellectual organs, acting in uninterrupted concert for the + production of a common object,—all of them being subordinate to a + self-regulated moving force."</p></blockquote> + +<p>This was the result brought about by the gradual extension of the +factory system. The objections made from the beginning, and still made, +with such answers as experience has suggested, find place later on.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77" /> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4" /><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> By Thorold Rogers.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5" /><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Weeden's Economic and Social History of New England, vol. +i. p. 304.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6" /><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Caulkins, p. 273.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7" /><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Rider's Book Notes, vol. ii. p. 7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8" /><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Boston News-Letter, Jan. 25, 1773.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9" /><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Boston News-Letter, Jan. 25, 1773.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10" /><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Barry's Massachusetts, vol. xi. p. 193.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11" /><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Weeden's Social and Economic History of New England, vol. +ii. p. 790.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12" /><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, +1798-1835, p. 353.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13" /><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> Atlantic Monthly, December, 1883, p. 773.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14" /><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> For further detail, see McMaster's History of the United +States, vol. i. p. 62.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15" /><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Philosophy of Manufactures, by Andrew Ure, M.D., p. 13.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="III" id="III" />III.</h2> + +<h3>EARLY ASPECTS OF FACTORY LABOR FOR WOMEN.</h3> + + +<p>Lack not only of machinery but of any facilities for its manufacture +hampered and delayed the progress of the factory movement in the United +States; but these difficulties were at last overcome, and in 1813 +Waltham, Mass., saw what is probably the first factory in the world that +combined under one roof every process for converting raw cotton into +finished cloth.</p> + +<p>Manufacturing, even when most hampered by the burden of taxation then +imposed and the heavy duties and other restrictions following the long +war, began under happier conditions than have ever been known elsewhere. +Unskilled labor had smallest place, and of this class New England had +for long next to no knowledge. Her workers in the beginning were +recruited from the outlying country; and the women and <a name="Page_78" id="Page_78" />girls who +flocked into Lowell, as in the earliest years they had flocked into +Pawtucket, were New-Englanders by birth and training. This meant not +only quickness and deftness of handling, but the conscientious filling +of every hour with the utmost work it could be made to hold.</p> + +<p>The life of the Lowell factory-girls has full record in the little +magazine called the "Lowell Offering," published by them for many years. +Lucy Larcom has also lately given her "Recollections," one of the most +valuable and characteristic pictures of the life from year to year, and +it tallies with the summary made by Dickens in his "American Notes." +Beginning as a child of eleven, whose business was simply to change +bobbins, she received a wage of one dollar a week, with one dollar and a +quarter for board, the allowance made by most of the corporations while +the system of boarding-houses in connection with the factories lasted. +The oldest corporation, known as the Merrimack, introduced this system, +and for many years retained oversight of all in its employ. With +increasing competition and the increase of the foreign element, +alteration of methods began, and Lowell lost its characteristic +features.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79" />In the beginning the conditions of factory labor for New England at the +point where work was initiated, were, as compared with those of England, +almost idyllic. The Lowell workers came from New England farms, many of +them for the sake of being near libraries and schools, and thus securing +larger opportunities for self-culture.</p> + +<p>The agricultural class then outranked merchants and mechanics. There +were no class distinctions, and the workers shared in the best social +life of Lowell. The factory was an episode rather than a career; and the +buildings themselves were kept as clean as the nature of the work +admitted, growing plants filling the windows; and the swift-flowing +Merrimac turning the wheels.</p> + +<p>In 1841 the girls had to their credit in the savings-banks established +by the corporations over one hundred thousand dollars; and many of them +shared their earnings with brothers who sought a college education, or +lifted the mortgages on the home farms. At the International Council of +Women, held in Washington in 1888, Mrs. H.H. Robinson, after telling how +she entered the Lowell Mills as a "doffer," when a <a name="Page_80" id="Page_80" />child, gave a +brilliant description of the intellectual life and interests of the +workers. She remained in the mill till married, and said: "I consider +the Lowell Mills as my <i>alma mater</i>, and am as proud of them as most +girls of the colleges in which they have been educated."</p> + +<p>With the growth of the factory system under very different conditions +from that of Lowell, there were as different results. Factories had +risen, at every available point in New England, all of them thronged by +women and girls. But great cities were still unknown; and the first +census, that for 1790, showed that hardly four per cent of the people +were in them. The tide set toward the factory towns as strongly as it +now does toward the cities, though factory labor for the most part was +of almost incredible severity. The length of a day's labor varied from +twelve to fifteen hours, the mills of New England running generally +thirteen hours a day the year round. Several mills are on record, the +day in one of which was fourteen hours, and in the other fifteen hours +and ten minutes, this latter being the Eagle Mill at Griswold, Conn.; +and previous to 1858 there were many others where hours <a name="Page_81" id="Page_81" />were equally +long. Work began at five in the morning, or at some points a little +later; and there is a known instance of a mill in Paterson, N.J., in +which women and children were required to be at work by half-past four +in the morning.</p> + +<p>In most of the New England factories, the operatives were taxed for the +support of religion. The Lowell Company dismissed them if often absent +from church, and their lives without and within the factory were +regulated as minutely as if in the cloister. Women and children were +urged on by the cowhide; and the first inspection of the factories, +notably in Connecticut, revealed a state of things hardly less harrowing +than that which had brought about the passage of the first Factory Acts +in England. At the same time wages were very inadequate. In twelve +hours' daily labor the weavers of Baltimore were able to earn from sixty +to seventy cents a day, the wage of the women being half or a third this +amount; and they declared it not enough to pay the expenses of schooling +for the children.</p> + +<p>With the increase of production and the growing competition of +manufacturers, wages <a name="Page_82" id="Page_82" />were steadily forced downward. Less and less +attention was paid to the comfort or well-being of the operatives, and +many factories were unfit working-places for human beings. Overseers, +whose duty it was to keep up the utmost rate of speed, flogged children +brutally; and the treatment was so barbarous that a boy of twelve at +Mendon, Mass., drowned himself to escape factory labor. Windows were +often nailed down, and their raising forbidden even in the hottest +weather.</p> + +<p>The most formidable and trustworthy arraignment of these conditions is +to be found in a pamphlet printed in 1834, the full title of which is as +follows: "An Address to the Working-men of New England, on the State of +Education, and on the Condition of the Producing Classes in Europe and +America."</p> + +<p>The author of this pamphlet, a mechanic of some education, stirred to +the heart by the abuses he saw, made an exhaustive examination of the +New England mills; and he gives many details of the hours of labor, the +wages of employees, and the abuses of power which he found everywhere +among unscrupulous manufacturers. The principal value of his work lies +<a name="Page_83" id="Page_83" />in this, and in his reprint of original documents like the "General +Rules of the Lowell Manufacturing Company," and "The Conditions on which +Help is hired by the Cocheco Manufacturing Company, Dover, N.H." These +conditions were so oppressive that in several cases revolt took +place,—usually unsuccessful, as no organization existed among the +women, and they were powerless to effect any marked change for the +better.</p> + +<p>By 1835 chiefly the poorer order of workers filled the mills, but even +skilled labor made constant complaint of cruelties and injustices. Not +only were there distressing cases of cruelty to children, but outrage of +every kind had been found to exist among the women workers, whose wage +had been lowered till nearly at the point known to-day as the +subsistence point. Parents then, as now, gave false returns of age, and +caught greedily at the prospect of any earning by their children; and +any specific enactments as to schooling, etc., were still delayed.</p> + +<p>These evils were not confined to New England, but existed at every point +where manufacturing was carried on. But New England was first to decide +on the necessity for some organized <a name="Page_84" id="Page_84" />remonstrance and resistance, and +the first meeting to this end was held in February, 1831. Of this there +is no record; but the second, held in September, 1832, is given in the +first "Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor," issued in 1870. +Boston sent thirty delegates, and the workingmen of New York City +addressed a letter to the workers of the United States, showing that the +same causes of unrest and agitation existed at all points.</p> + +<p>"These evils," they said, "arise from the moral obliquity of the +fastidious, and the cupidity of the avaricious. They consist in an +illiberal opinion of the worth and rights of the laboring classes, an +unjust estimation of their moral, physical, and intellectual powers, and +unwise misapprehension of the effects which would result from the +cultivation of their minds and the improvement of their condition, and +an avaricious propensity to avail of their laborious services, at the +lowest possible rate of wages for which they can be induced to work."</p> + +<p>The evils protested against here did not lessen as time went on. Irish +emigration had begun in 1836, and speedily drove out American labor, +which was in any case insufficient <a name="Page_85" id="Page_85" />for the need. A lowered wage was the +immediate consequence, the foreigner having no standard of living that +included more than bare necessaries. At this distance from the struggle +it is easy to see that the new life was educational for the emigrant, +and also forced the American worker into new and often broader channels. +But for those involved such perception was impossible, and the +new-comers were regarded with something like hatred. English and German +emigrants followed, to give place in their turn to the French-Canadian, +who at present in great degree monopolizes the mills.</p> + +<p>In the beginning little or no effort was made toward healthful +conditions of work and life, or more than the merest hint of education. +England, in which far worse conditions had existed, had, early in the +century, seen the necessity of remedial legislation. But though the +first English Factory Act was passed in 1802, it was not till 1844 that +women and children were brought under its provisions. The first one, +known as the Health and Morals Act, was the result of the discovery made +first by voluntary, then by appointed inspectors, that <a name="Page_86" id="Page_86" />neither health +nor morals remained for factory-workers, and that hopeless deterioration +would result unless government interfered at once. Hideous epidemic +diseases, an extinction of any small natural endowment of moral sense, +and a daily life far below that of the brutes, had showed themselves as +industries and the attendant competition developed; and the story in all +its horror may be read in English Bluebooks and the record of government +inspectors, and made accessible in the works of Giffen, Toynbee, Engels, +and other names identified with reform.</p> + +<p>The bearing of these acts upon legislation in our country is so strong +that a summary of the chief points must find mention here. In the Act of +1802 the hours of work, which had been from fourteen to sixteen hours a +day, were fixed at twelve. All factories were required to be frequently +whitewashed, and to have a sufficient number of windows, though these +provisions applied only to apprenticed operatives. In 1819 an act +forbade the employment of any child under nine years of age, and in 1825 +Saturday was made a half-holiday. Night work was forbidden in 1831, and +for all under eigh<a name="Page_87" id="Page_87" />teen the working day was made twelve hours, with nine +for Saturday.</p> + +<p>By 1847 public opinion demanded still more change for the better, and +the day was made ten hours for working women and young persons between +thirteen and eighteen years, though they were allowed to work between +six A.M. and six P.M., with an allowance of an hour and a half at +mealtime. Our own evils, while in many points far less, still were in +the same direction. Here and there a like evasion of responsibility and +of the provisions of the law was to be found. Even when a corps of +inspectors were appointed, they were bribed, hoodwinked, and generally +put off the track, while the provisions in regard to the shielding of +dangerous machinery, cleanliness, etc., were ignored by every possible +method. Were law obeyed and its provisions thoroughly carried out, +English factory operatives would be better protected than those of any +other country, America not accepted. Sanitary conditions are required to +be good. All factories are to be kept clean, as any effluvia arising +from closets, etc., renders the owners liable to a fine. The generation +of gas, dust, etc., must be neutral<a name="Page_88" id="Page_88" />ized by the inventions for this +purpose, so that operatives may not be harmed thereby. Any manufacturer +allowing machinery to remain unprotected is to be prosecuted; and there +are minute regulations forbidding any child or young person to clean or +walk between the fixed and traversing part of any self-acting machine +while in motion. At least two hours must be allowed for meals, nor are +these to be taken in any room where manufacturing is going on.</p> + +<p>For this country such provisions were long delayed, nor have we even now +the necessary regulations as to the protection of machinery. In the +early days, though many mills were built by men who sought honestly to +provide their employees with as many alleviations as the nature of the +work admitted, many more were absolutely blind to anything but their own +interest. With the disabilities resulting we are to deal at another +point. It is sufficient to say here, that the struggle for +factory-workers became more and more severe, and has remained so to the +present day.</p> + +<p>The increase of women workers in this field had been steady. In 1865 +women operatives <a name="Page_89" id="Page_89" />in the factories of Massachusetts were 32,239, or +nineteen per cent of men operatives. In 1875 they were 83,207, or +twenty-six per cent; and the increase since that date has been in like +proportion. From the time of their first employment in mills the +increase has been on themselves over three hundred per cent. In +Massachusetts mills women and children are from two thirds to five +sixths of all employed, and the proportion in all the manufacturing +portions of New England is nearly the same.</p> + +<p>In judging the factory system as a whole, it is necessary to glance at +the conditions of home work preceding it. These are given in full detail +in historical and economical treatises, notably in Lecky's "History of +the Eighteenth Century," and in Dr. Kay's "Moral and Physical Condition +of the Working Classes." A list of the more important authorities on the +subject will be found in the general bibliography at the end.</p> + +<p>The conditions that prevailed in other countries were less strenuous +with us, but the same objections to the domestic system held good at +many points. In weaving, the looms occupied large part of the family +living space, and overcrowding and all its evils were inevitable. +<a name="Page_90" id="Page_90" />Drunkenness was more common, as well as the stealing of materials by +dishonest workers. Time was lost in going for material and in returning +it, and only half as much was accomplished. Homes were uncared for and +often filthy, and the work was done in half-lighted, airless rooms.</p> + +<p>These conditions are often reproduced in part even to-day in buildings +not adapted to their present use; but as a whole it is certain that the +homes of factory-workers are cleaner, that regulation has proved +beneficial, that light and air are furnished in better measure, and that +overcrowding has become impossible. This applies only to textile +manufactures, where machines must have room.</p> + +<p>In an admirable chapter on the "Factory System," prepared by Colonel +Carroll D. Wright for the Tenth Census of the United States, he takes up +in detail the objections urged against it. These are as follows:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>A. The factory system necessitates the employment of women and + children to an injurious extent, and consequently its tendency is + to destroy family life and ties and domestic habits, and ultimately + the home.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91" />B. Factory employments are injurious to health.</p> + +<p>C. The factory system is productive of intemperance, unthrift, and poverty.</p> + +<p>D. It feeds prostitution, and swells the criminal list.</p> + +<p>E. It tends to intellectual degeneracy.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Under "A" there is small defence to be made. The employment of married +women is fruitful of evil, and the proportion of these in Massachusetts +is 23.8 per cent. Wherever this per cent is high, infant mortality is +very great, being 23.5 per cent for Massachusetts and 19 per cent for +Connecticut and New Hampshire. The "Labor Bureau Reports" for New Jersey +treat the subject in detail, and are strongly opposed to the employment +of mothers of young children outside the home; and the conclusion is the +same at other points.</p> + +<p>In the matter of general injury to health, under "B," it is stated that +many factories are far better ventilated and lighted than the homes of +the operatives. Ignorant employees cannot be impressed with the need of +care on these points, and the air in their homes is foul and productive +of disease. A cotton-mill is often better ventilated than a court-room +or a lecture-room. A well-built factory allows not less than <a name="Page_92" id="Page_92" />six +hundred cubic feet of air space to a person, thirty to sixty cubic feet +a minute being required. Ranke, in his "Elements of Physiology," makes +it thirty-five a minute.</p> + +<p>The homes of operatives have steadily improved in character; and +wherever there is an intelligent class of operatives, regulations are +obeyed, and sanitary conditions are fair and often perfect, while the +tendency is toward more and more care in every respect. Operatives' +homes are often better guarded against sanitary evils than those of +farmers or the ordinary laborer.</p> + +<p>Under "C" it is shown conclusively that the factory has diminished +intemperance,—Reybaud's "History of the Factory Movement" giving full +statistics on this point, as well as in regard to the growth of banks +and benefit societies. The standard of living is higher here, but there +are countless evidences of thrift and a general rise in condition.</p> + +<p>In the matter of prostitution, under "D," it is shown that but eight per +cent of this class come from the factory, twenty-nine per cent being +from domestic service. In Lynn, Mass., a town chosen for illustration +because of the large per<a name="Page_93" id="Page_93" />centage of factory operatives, it was found +that but seven per cent of those arrested were from this class; and this +is true of all points where the foreign-born element is not largely in +the majority.</p> + +<p>Last comes the question of intellectual degeneracy, under "E." On this +point it is hardly fair to make comparison of the present worker with +the Lowell girl of the first period of factory labor, since she came +from an educated class, and was distinctively American. Taking workers +as a whole, a vast advance shows itself. Regularity and fixed rule have +often been the first education in this direction; and the life, even +with all its drawbacks, has the right to be regarded as an educational +force, and the first step in this direction for a large proportion of +the workers in it. There are points where the arraignment of Alfred, in +his "History of the Factory Movement," is still true.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16" /><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> He speaks of +it as a "system which jested with civilization, laughed at humanity, and +made a mockery of every law of physical and moral health and of the +principles of natural and social order." The "Report of the New York +Bureau of Labor for <a name="Page_94" id="Page_94" />1885" shows that the charge might still be +righteously brought; and Mr. Bishop gives the same testimony in his +reports for New Jersey. Evil is still part of the system, and well-nigh +inseparable from the methods of production and the conditions of +competition; but that there are evils is recognized at all points, and +thus their continuance will not and cannot be perpetuated.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95" /> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16" /><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Alfred's History of the Factory Movement, vol. i. p. 27.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="IV" id="IV" />IV.</h2> + +<h3>RISE AND GROWTH OF TRADES UP TO THE PRESENT TIME.</h3> + + +<p>Defeat and discouragement attend well-nigh every step of the attempt to +reach any conclusions regarding women workers in the early years of the +century. It is true that 1832 witnessed an attempt at an investigation +into their status, but the results were of slight value, actual figures +being almost unattainable. The census of 1840 gave more, and that of +1850 showed still larger gain. In that of 1840 the number of women and +children in the silk industry was taken; but while the same is true of +the later one, there is apparently no record of them in any printed +form. The New York State Census for the years 1845 and 1855 gave some +space to the work of women and children, but there is nothing of marked +value till another decade had passed.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96" />It is to the United States Census for 1860 that we must look for the +first really definite statements as to the occupations of women and +children. Scattered returns of an earlier date had shown that the +percentage of those employed in factories was a steadily increasing one, +but in what ratio was considered as unimportant. In fact, statistics of +any order had small place, nor was their need seriously felt, save here +and there, in the mind of the student.</p> + +<p>To comprehend the blankness of this period in all matters relating to +social and economic questions, it is necessary to recall the fact that +no such needs as those of the mother country pressed upon us. To those +who looked below the surface and watched the growing tide of emigration, +it was plain that they were, in no distant day, to arise; but for the +most part, even for those compelled to severest toil, it was taken for +granted that full support was a certainty, and that the men or women who +did not earn a comfortable living could blame no one but themselves.</p> + +<p>There were other reasons why any enumeration of women workers seemed not +only super<a name="Page_97" id="Page_97" />fluous but undesirable. For the better order, prejudice was +still strong enough against all who deviated from custom or tradition to +make each new candidate for a living shrink from any publicity that +could be avoided. Society frowned upon the woman who dared to strike out +in new paths, and thus made them even more thorny than necessity had +already done.</p> + +<p>It is impossible for the present, with its full freedom of opportunity, +to realize, or credit even, the difficulties of the past, or even of a +period hardly more than a generation ago. It was of this time that Dr. +Emily Blackwell, one of the pioneers in higher work for women, wrote:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"Women were hindered at every turn by endless restraint in endless + minor detail of habit, custom, tradition, etc.... Most women who + have been engaged in any new departure would testify that the + difficulties of the undertaking lay far more in these artificial + hindrances and burdens than in their own health, or in the nature + of the work itself."</p></blockquote> + +<p>It was this shrinking from publicity, among all save the most ordinary +workers, by this time largely foreign, that made one difficulty in the +way of census enumerators. By 1860 it <a name="Page_98" id="Page_98" />had become plain that an enormous +increase in their numbers was taking place, and that no just idea of +this increase could be formed so long as industrial statistics were made +up with no distinction as to sex. The spread of the factory system and +the constant invention of new machinery had long ago removed from homes +the few branches of the work that could be carried on within them. +Processes had divided and subdivided. The mill-worker knew no longer +every phase of the work implied in the production of her web, but became +more and more a part of the machine itself. This was especially true of +all textile industries,—cotton or woollen, with their many +ramifications,—and becomes more so with each year of progress.</p> + +<p>Cotton and woollen manufactures, with the constantly increasing +subdivisions of all the processes involved, counted their thousands upon +thousands of women workers. Another industry had been one of the first +opened to women, much of its work being done at home. Shoemaking, with +all its processes of binding and finishing, had its origin for this +country in Massachusetts, to the ingenuity and enter<a name="Page_99" id="Page_99" />prise of whose +mechanics is due the fact that the United States has attained the +highest perfection in this branch. Lynn, Mass., as far back as 1750, had +become famous for its women's shoes, the making of which was carried on +in the families of the manufacturers. At first no especial skill was +shown; but in 1750 a Welsh shoemaker, named John Adam Dagyr, settled +there and acquired great fame for himself and the town for his superior +workmanship. In 1788 the exports of women's shoes from Lynn were one +hundred thousand pairs, while in 1795 over three hundred thousand pairs +were sent out, and by 1870 the number had reached eleven million.</p> + +<p>Beginning with the employment of a few dozen women, twenty other towns +took up the same industry, and furnish their quota of the general +return. The Massachusetts Bureau of Labor gives, in its report for 1873, +the number of women employed as 11,193, with some six hundred female +children. Maine and New Hampshire followed, and both have a small +proportion of women workers engaged in the industry, while it has +gradually extended, New England always retaining the lead, till New +<a name="Page_100" id="Page_100" />York, Philadelphia, and many Western and Southern towns rank high in +the list of producers.</p> + +<p>As in every other trade, processes have divided and subdivided. +Sewing-machines did away with the tedious binding by hand, which had its +compensations, however, in the fact that it was done at home. There is +only incidental record of the numbers employed in this industry till the +later census returns; but the percentage outside of Massachusetts +remained a very small one, as even in Maine the total number given in +the Report of the Bureau of Labor for 1887 is but 533, an almost +inappreciable per cent of the population. The returns of the census of +1880 give the total number of women in this employment as 21,000, the +proportion still remaining largest for New England.</p> + +<p>Straw-braiding was another of the early trades, and the first straw +bonnet braided in the United States was made by Miss Betsey Metcalf, of +Providence, R.I., in 1789. For many years straw-plaiting was done at +home; but the quality of our material was always inferior to that grown +abroad, our climate making it much <a name="Page_101" id="Page_101" />more brittle and difficult to +handle. The wage at first was from two to three dollars a week; but as +factories were established where imported braid was made up, the sum +sometimes reached five dollars. The census of 1860 gave the total number +of women employed as 1,430. According to the census of 1870, nine States +had taken up this industry, Massachusetts employing the largest number, +and Vermont the least, the total number being 12,594; while in 1880 the +number had risen to 19,998.</p> + +<p>Up to the time of the Civil War, aside from factory employments, the +trades open to women were limited, and the majority of their occupations +were still carried on at home, or with but few in numbers, as in +dressmaking-establishments, millinery, and the like. With the new +conditions brought about at this time, and the vast number of women +thrown upon their own resources, came the flocking into trades for which +there had been no training, and which had been considered as the +exclusive property of men. A surplus of untrained workers at once +appeared, and this and general financial depression brought the wage to +its lowest terms; but when this had in part ended, the <a name="Page_102" id="Page_102" />trades still +remained open. At the close of the war some hundred were regarded as +practicable. Ten years later the number had more than doubled, and +to-day we find over four hundred occupations; while, as new inventions +arise, the number of possibilities in this direction steadily increases. +The many considerations involved in these facts will be met later on. +General conditions of trades as a whole are given in the census returns, +though even there hardly more than approximately, little work of much +real value being accomplished till the formation of the labor bureaus, +with which we are soon to deal. Every allowance, however, is to be made +for the Census Bureau, which found itself almost incapable of overcoming +many of the lions in the way. The tone of the remarks on this point in +that for 1860 is almost plaintive, nor is it less so in the next; but +methods have clarified, and the work is far more authoritative than for +long seemed possible.</p> + +<p>Innumerable difficulties hedged about the enumerators for 1860. Rooted +objection to answering the questions in detail was not one of the least. +Unfamiliarity with the newer phases <a name="Page_103" id="Page_103" />of the work was another, and thus +it happened that the volume when issued was full of discrepancies. The +tables of occupations, for example, characterized but a little over two +thousand persons as connected with woollen and worsted manufacture; +while the tables of manufactures showed that considerably more than +forty thousand persons were engaged, upon the average, in these branches +of manufacturing industry.</p> + +<p>The returns gave the number of women employed in various branches of +manufacture as two hundred and eighty-five thousand, but stated that the +figures were approximate merely, it being impossible to secure full +returns. It was found that three and a half per cent of the population +of Massachusetts were in the factories, and nearly the same proportion +in Connecticut and Rhode Island; but details were of the most meagre +description, and conclusions based upon them were likely to err at every +point. Its value was chiefly educative, since the failure it represents +pointed to a change in methods, and more preparation than had at any +time been considered necessary in the officials who had the matter in +charge.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104" />The census for 1870 reaped the benefits of the new determination; yet +even of this General Walker was forced to write: "This census concludes +that from one to two hundred thousand workers are not accounted for, +from the difficulty experienced in getting proper returns. The nice +distinctions of foreign statisticians are impossible." And he adds:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"Whoever will consider the almost utter want of apprenticeship in + this country, the facility with which pursuits are taken up and + abandoned, and the variety and, indeed, seeming incongruity of the + numerous industrial offices that are frequently united in one + person, will appreciate the force of this argument.... The + organization of domestic service in the United States is so crude + that no distinction whatever can be successfully maintained. A + census of occupations in which the attempt should be made to reach + anything like European completeness in this matter would result in + the return of tens of thousands of 'housekeepers' and hundreds of + thousands of 'cooks,' who were simply 'maids of all work,' being + the single servants of the families in which they are + employed."<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17" /><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p></blockquote> + +<p>This census gives the total number of women workers, so far as it could +be determined, as <a name="Page_105" id="Page_105" />1,836,288. Of these, 191,000 were from ten to fifteen +years of age; 1,594,783, from sixteen to fifty-nine; and 50,404, sixty +years and over, the larger proportion of the latter division being given +as engaged in agricultural employments.</p> + +<p>In the first period of age, females pursuing gainful occupations are to +males as one to three; in the second, one to six; and in the third, one +to twelve. The actual increase over the numbers given in the census for +1860 is 1,551,288. The reasons for this almost incredible variation have +already been suggested; and their operation became even stronger in the +interval between that of 1870 and 1880. By this time methods were far +more skilful and returns more minute, and thus the figures are to be +accepted with more confidence than was possible with the earlier ones. +The factory system, extending into almost every trade, brought about +more and more differentiation of occupations, some two hundred of which +were by 1880 open to women.</p> + +<p>Comparing the rates of increase during the period between 1860 and 1870, +women wage-earners had increased 19 per cent, the increase <a name="Page_106" id="Page_106" />for men +being but 6/97. Among the women, 6.7 per cent were engaged in +agriculture, 33.4 in personal service, 7.3 in trade and transportation, +and 16.5 in manufactures. In 1880 women engaged in gainful occupations +formed 5.28 of the total population, and 14.68 of females over ten years +of age. The present rate is not yet<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18" /><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> determined; but while figures +will not be accessible for some months to come, it is stated definitely +that the increase will indicate nearer ten than five per cent.</p> + +<p>The total number employed is given for this census as 2,647,157. The +occupations are divided into four classes: first, agriculture; second, +professional and personal services; third, trade and transportation; +fourth, manufactures, mechanical and mining industries. In agriculture, +594,510 women were at work; in professional and personal services, this +including domestic service, 1,361,295; trade and transportation, this +including shop-girls, etc., had 59,364; while 631,988 were engaged in +the last division of manufacturing, etc. Of girls from ten to fifteen +years of age, agriculture had 135,862; professional and personal +services, <a name="Page_107" id="Page_107" />107,830; trade, 2,547; and manufacturing, etc., 46,930. From +sixteen to fifty-nine years of age there were in agriculture 435,920; in +professional and personal services, 1,215,189; trade and transportation, +54,849; and manufacturing, etc., 577,157. From sixty years and upward +the four classes were divided as follows: Agriculture, 22,728; +professional, etc., 38,276; trade, etc., 1,968; and manufacturing, etc., +7,901.</p> + +<p>Even for this record numbers must be added, since many women work at +home and make no return of the trade they have chosen, while many others +are held by pride from admitting that they work at all. But the addition +of a hundred thousand for the entire country would undoubtedly cover +this discrepancy in full; nor are these numbers too large, though it is +impossible to more than approximate them.</p> + +<p>Suggestive as these figures are, they are still more so when we come to +their apportionment to States. They become then a history of the +progress of trades, and women's share in them; and a glance enables one +to determine the proportion employed in each. In the table which +follows, industries are condensed under a gen<a name="Page_108" id="Page_108" />eral head, no mention +being made of the many subdivisions, each ranking as a trade, but going +to make up the business as a whole. It is the result of statistics taken +in fifty of the principal cities, and includes only those industries in +which women have the largest share.<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19" /><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p> + +<table border='1' cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" summary='Relative numbers employed in different industries'> + <tr> + <td></td> + <td>Total<br />Number.</td> + <td>Per Cent<br />of Males</td> + <td>Per Cent<br />of Females</td> + <td>Children</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Book-binding</td> + <td align='right'>10,612</td> + <td align='right'>4,831</td> + <td align='right'>4,553</td> + <td align='right'>616</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Carpet-weaving</td> + <td align='right'>20,371</td> + <td align='right'>4,960</td> + <td align='right'>4,207</td> + <td align='right'>833</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Men's Clothing</td> + <td align='right'>160,813</td> + <td align='right'>4,801</td> + <td align='right'>5,037</td> + <td align='right'>159</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Women's Clothing</td> + <td align='right'>25,192</td> + <td align='right'>1,030</td> + <td align='right'>8,833</td> + <td align='right'>137</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Cotton Goods</td> + <td align='right'>185,472</td> + <td align='right'>3,457</td> + <td align='right'>4,914</td> + <td align='right'>1,629</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Men's Furnishing Goods</td> + <td align='right'>11,174</td> + <td align='right'>1,140</td> + <td align='right'>8,560</td> + <td align='right'>300</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Hosiery and Knitting</td> + <td align='right'>28,885</td> + <td align='right'>2,602</td> + <td align='right'>6,130</td> + <td align='right'>1,268</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Millinery and Lace</td> + <td align='right'>25,687</td> + <td align='right'>1,120</td> + <td align='right'>8,637</td> + <td align='right'>243</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Shirts</td> + <td align='right'>6,555</td> + <td align='right'>1,481</td> + <td align='right'>8,000</td> + <td align='right'>513</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Silk and Silk Goods</td> + <td align='right'>31,337</td> + <td align='right'>2,992</td> + <td align='right'>5,232</td> + <td align='right'>1,776</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Straw Goods</td> + <td align='right'>10,948</td> + <td align='right'>2,991</td> + <td align='right'>6,850</td> + <td align='right'>154</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Tobacco</td> + <td align='right'>32,756</td> + <td align='right'>4,544</td> + <td align='right'>3,290</td> + <td align='right'>2,166</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Umbrellas and Canes</td> + <td align='right'>3,608</td> + <td align='right'>4,169</td> + <td align='right'>5,152</td> + <td align='right'>679</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Woollen Goods</td> + <td align='right'>86,504</td> + <td align='right'>54,544</td> + <td align='right'>3,395</td> + <td align='right'>1,174</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Worsted Goods</td> + <td align='right'>18,800</td> + <td align='right'>5,431</td> + <td align='right'>5,038</td> + <td align='right'>1,540</td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In obtaining these averages, it was found necessary to equalize the +returns of Pittsburg and Philadelphia, the former having but 4.55 <a name="Page_109" id="Page_109" />per +cent of women workers, while Philadelphia had 31. This resulted from the +fact that the industries of Philadelphia are the manufacturing of +textiles and other goods, which employ women chiefly; while Pittsburg +has principally iron and steel mills. New York was found to have 31 per +cent of women workers; Lowell, Mass., had 47.42, and Manchester, N.H., +53; Pittsburg and Wilmington, Del., having the lowest percentage.</p> + +<p>The gain of women in trades over the census of 1870 was sixty-four per +cent, the total percentage of women workers for the whole country being +forty-nine. The ten years just ended show a still larger percentage; and +many of the trades which a decade since still hesitated to admit women, +are now open, those regarded as most peculiarly the province of men +having received many feminine recruits. These isolated or scattered +instances hardly belong here, and are mentioned simply as indications of +the general trend. Wise or unwise, experiment is the order of the day, +its principal service in many cases being to test untried powers, and +break down barriers, built up often <a name="Page_110" id="Page_110" />by mere tradition, and not again to +rise till women themselves decide when and where.</p> + +<p>Taking States in their alphabetical order, the census of 1880 gives the +number of working-women for each as follows:<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20" /><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a>—</p> + +<table summary='Working women in each State, 1880 census'> +<tr> + <td>Alabama, 124,056.</td> + <td>Missouri, 62,943.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>Arizona, 471.</td> + <td>Montana, 507.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>Arkansas, 30,616.</td> + <td>Nebraska, 10,455.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>California, 28,200.</td> + <td>Nevada, 403.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>Colorado, 4,779.</td> + <td>New Hampshire, 30,128.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>Connecticut, 48,670.</td> + <td>New Jersey, 66,776.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>Dakota, 2,851.</td> + <td>New Mexico, 2,262.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>Delaware, 7,928.</td> + <td>New York, 360,381.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>District of Columbia, 19,658.</td> + <td>North Carolina, 86,976.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>Florida, 17,781.</td> + <td>Ohio, 112,639.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>Georgia, 152,322.</td> + <td>Oregon, 2,779.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>Idaho, 291.</td> + <td>Pennsylvania, 216,980.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>Illinois, 106,101.</td> + <td>Rhode Island, 29,859.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>Indiana, 51,422.</td> + <td>South Carolina, 120,087.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>Iowa, 44,845.</td> + <td>Tennessee, 56,408.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>Kansas, 54,422.</td> + <td>Texas, 58,943.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>Louisiana, 95,052.</td> + <td>Utah, 2,877.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>Maine, 33,528.</td> + <td>Vermont, 16,167.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>Massachusetts, 174,183.</td> + <td>Washington Territory, 1,060.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>Michigan, 55,013.</td> + <td>West Virginia, 11,508.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>Minnesota, 25,077.</td> + <td>Wisconsin, 46,395.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>Mississippi, 110,416.</td> + <td>Wyoming, 464.</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111" /> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17" /><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Remarks on Tables of Occupations, Ninth Census of the +United States, Population and Social Statistics, p. 663.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18" /><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> June, 1893.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19" /><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> The table is copied with minute care from that given in +the last census; and while it shows one or two deficiencies, the writer +is in no sense responsible for them, its accuracy, as a whole, not being +affected by the slight discrepancy referred to.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20" /><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> The tables in this department of the census for 1890 are +not yet ready for the public; but the department states that the +increase in women wage-earners averages about ten per cent.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="V" id="V" />V.</h2> + +<h3>LABOR BUREAUS AND THEIR WORK IN RELATION TO WOMEN.</h3> + + +<p>The difficulties encountered by the enumerators of the United States +Census, and the growing conviction that much more minute and organized +effort must be given if the real status of women workers was to be +obtained, had already been matter of grave discussion. The labor +question pressed upon all who looked below the surface of affairs; and +very shortly after the census of 1860 a proposition was made in Boston +to establish there a formal bureau of labor, whose business should be to +fill in all the blanks that in the general work were passed over.</p> + +<p>Many facts, all pointing to the necessity of some such organization, lay +before the men who pondered the matter,—factory abuses of many orders, +the startling increase of pauperism and crime, with other causes which +can find small space here. With difficulty consent <a name="Page_112" id="Page_112" />was obtained to +establish a bureau which should inquire into the causes of all this; and +the first report was given to the public in 1870. It was descriptive +rather than statistical, and necessarily so. Methods were still a matter +of question and experiment. The public had small interest in the +project, and it was essential to outline, not only the work to be done, +but the reasons for its need.</p> + +<p>Naturally, then, the volume touched upon many abuses,—children in +factories, and the factory system as a whole; the homes of workers, and +their needs in sanitary and other directions; and toward the end a few +pages of special comment on the hard lives of working-women as a whole.</p> + +<p>The report for 1871 followed the same lines, giving more detail to each. +That for 1872 took up various phases of women's work,<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21" /><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> with some of +the general conditions then existing. For the following year elaborate +tables of the cost of living were given, and are invaluable as matters +of reference; and in 1874 came a no less important contribution to +social science in the report on the "Homes of Working-People." <a name="Page_113" id="Page_113" />Those of +working-women were of course included, but there was still no +description of many of the conditions known to hedge them about. Each +inquiry, however, turned attention more and more in this direction, and +emphasized the need of some work given exclusively to women workers.</p> + +<p>In 1875 attention was directed to the health of working-women, and a +portion of the report was devoted to the special effects of certain +forms of employment upon the health of women,<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22" /><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> the education of +children, the conditions of families, etc. That for 1876 discussed the +question of wives' earnings, and gave tables of what proportion they +made; and that for 1877 took up "Pauperism and Crime," in the growing +amount of which it was claimed by many that the worker had large share.</p> + +<p>In 1878 large space was given to education and the work of the young, +for whom the half-time system was urged. The conjugal condition of wives +and mothers was also considered, and the bearing of their work upon the +home. The financial distress of the period had affected wages, and the +report for 1879 considered the <a name="Page_114" id="Page_114" />effect of this, with the condition of +the "unemployed," the tramp question, and other phases of the problem. +With 1880 and the ending of the first decade of work in this direction +came a fuller report on the social life of workingmen and the divorces +in Massachusetts; 1881 made a plea for uniform hours, and 1882 was +devoted to wages, prices, and profits, and further details of the life +of operatives within their homes; and 1883 found reason again to go over +the question of wages and prices.</p> + +<p>I have given this detail because, when one views the work of the bureau +as a whole, it will be seen that each year formed one step toward the +final result, which has been of most vital bearing upon all since +accomplished in the same direction for women. Until the appearance of +the report for 1884, on the "Working-Girls of Boston," there had been no +absolute and authoritative knowledge as to their lives, their earnings, +and their status as a whole. Their numbers were equally unknown, nor was +there interest in their condition, save here and there among special +students of social science. On the other hand there was a popular +impression that the ranks of prostitution were re<a name="Page_115" id="Page_115" />cruited from the +manufactory, and that a certain stigma necessarily rested upon the +factory-worker and indeed upon working-girls as a class.</p> + +<p>Six divisions had been found essential to the thorough handling of the +subject; and these divisions have formed the basis of all work since +done in the same lines, whether in State bureaus or in that of the +United States, soon to find mention here. It was under the direction of +Colonel Carroll D. Wright that the Massachusetts Bureau did its careful +and scientific work; and he represents the most valuable labor in this +direction that the country has had, deserving to rank in this matter, as +Tench Coxe still does in the manufacturing system, as the "Father" of +the labor-bureau system.</p> + +<p>The six divisions settled upon as essential to any general system of +reports were as follows:—</p> + +<blockquote><p> +1. Social Condition.<br /> +2. Occupations, Places in which Employed.<br /> +3. Hours of Labor, Time Lost, etc.<br /> +4. Physical and Sanitary Condition.<br /> +5. Economic Condition.<br /> +6. Moral Condition.</p></blockquote> + +<p><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116" />The Tenth Census of the United States gave the number of women employed +in the city of Boston as 38,881, 20,000 of whom were in occupations +other than domestic service. Each year, as we have already seen, had +touched more and more nearly upon the facts bound up in their lives, but +it had become necessary to determine with an accuracy that could not be +brought in question precisely the facts given under the six headings. To +the surprise of the special agents detailed for this work, who had +anticipated disagreeables of every order, the girls themselves took the +liveliest interest in the matter, answered questions freely, and gave +every facility for the fullest searching into each phase involved. +American girls were found to form but 22.3 per cent of the whole number +of working-women in Massachusetts, of whom but 58.4 per cent had been +born in that State.</p> + +<p>The results reached in this report may be regarded as a summary, not +only of conditions for Boston, but for all the large manufacturing towns +of New England, later inquiry justifying this conclusion.</p> + +<p>The average age of working-girls was found <a name="Page_117" id="Page_117" />to be 24.81 years, and the +average at which they began work, 16.81; the average time actually at +work, 7.49 years, and the average number of occupations followed 178, +the time spent in each being 4.43 years. Of the whole, 85 per cent were +found to do their own housework and sewing, either wholly or in part.</p> + +<p>But 22 per cent were allowed any vacation, and but 3.9 per cent received +pay during that time, the average vacation being 1.87 weeks. A little +over 26 per cent worked the full year without loss of time, while an +average of 12.32 weeks was lost by 73 per cent. The average time worked +by all during the year was 42.95 weeks. In personal service 26.5 per +cent worked more than ten hours a day; in trade, 19.5 per cent were so +employed, and in manufactures 5.6 per cent. In all occupations 8.9 per +cent worked more than ten hours a day, and 8.6 per cent more than sixty +hours a week.</p> + +<p>In the matter of health 76.2 per cent of the whole number employed were +in good health.</p> + +<p>The average weekly earnings for the average time employed, 42.95 weeks, +was $6.01, and the average weekly earnings of all the working-girls of +Boston for a whole year were $4.91. <a name="Page_118" id="Page_118" />The average weekly income, +including earnings, assistance, and income from extra work done by many, +was $5.17 a year.</p> + +<p>The average yearly income from all sources was $269.70, and the average +yearly expenses for positive needs $261.30, leaving but $7.77, on the +average, as a margin for books, amusements, etc. Those making savings +are 11 per cent of the whole, their average savings being $72.15 per +year. A few run in debt, the average debt being $36.60 for the less than +3 per cent incurring debt.</p> + +<p>Of the total average yearly expenses, these percentages being based upon +the law laid down by Dr. Engels of Prussia, as to percentage of expenses +belonging to subsistence, 63 per cent must be expended for food and +lodging, and 25 per cent for clothing,—a total of 88 per cent of total +expenses for subsistence and clothing, leaving but 12 per cent of total +expense to be distributed to the other needs of living.</p> + +<p>These are, briefly summed up, the results of the investigation, in which +the single workers constituted 88.9 of the whole, and the married but 6 +per cent, widows making up the number. <a name="Page_119" id="Page_119" />It is impossible in these limits +to give further detail on these points, all readers being referred to +the report itself.</p> + +<p>The same questions that had first sought answer in New England were even +more pressing in New York. As in most subjects of deep popular or +scientific importance, the sense of need for more data by which to judge +seemed in the air; and already the Labor Bureau of the State of New +York, under the efficient guidance of Mr. Charles F. Peck, had begun a +course of inquiries of the same nature. For years, beginning with the +New York "Tribune," in the days when Margaret Fuller worked for it and +touched at times upon social questions,—always in the mind of Horace +Greeley, its founder,—there had been periodical stirs of feeling in +behalf of sewing-women. It was known that the enormous influx of foreign +labor naturally massed at this point, more than could ever be possible +elsewhere, had brought with it evils suspected, but still not yet +defined in any sense to be trusted. Indications on the surface were +seriously bad, but actual investigation had never tested their nature or +degree. The report of the bureau for <a name="Page_120" id="Page_120" />1885, which was given to the +public in 1886, met with a degree of interest and study not usually +accorded these volumes, and roused public feeling to an unexpected +extent.</p> + +<p>Mr. Peck brought to the work much the same order of interest that had +marked that of Colonel Wright, and wrote in his introduction to the +report the summary of the situation for New York City:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"By reason of its immense population, its numerous and extensive + manufactures, its wealth, its poverty, and general cosmopolitan + character, New York City presents a field for investigation into + the subject of 'Working-Women, their Trades, Wages, Home and Social + Conditions,' unequalled by any other centre of population in + America. It opens up a wider and more diversified field for + inquiry, study, and classification of the various industries in + which women seek employment, than can be found even in European + cities, with but few if any exceptions. It is for such reasons that + the inquiry of the bureau into this special subject has been + largely confined to the city named."</p></blockquote> + +<p>Two hundred and forty-seven trades are given in this report, in which +some two hundred thousand women were found to be engaged, this being +exclusive of domestic service. The <a name="Page_121" id="Page_121" />divisions of the subject were +substantially those adopted by the Massachusetts Bureau; but the numbers +and complexity of conditions made the inquiry far more difficult. Its +results and their bearings will find place later on. It is sufficient +now to say that the two may be regarded as summarizing all phases of +work for women, and as an index to the difficulties at all other points +in the country.</p> + +<p>The Bureau of Labor for Connecticut sent out its first report in the +same year (1885), and included investigations and statistics in the same +lines, though, for reasons specified, in much more limited degree. That +for 1886 for the same State took up in detail some points in regard to +the work of both women and children, which, for want of both time and +space, had been omitted in the first, their returns coinciding in all +important particulars with those of the other bureaus.</p> + +<p>In 1886 the California Bureau of Labor touched the same points, but only +incidentally, in its general analysis of the labor question. In the +following year, however, the report covering the years 1887 and 1888 +took up the question under the same aspects as those han<a name="Page_122" id="Page_122" />dled in the +special reports on this topic, and gave full treatment of the wages, +lives, and general conditions for working-women. It included, also, the +facts, so far as they could be ascertained, of the nature, wages, and +conditions of domestic service in California,—the first attempt at +treating this difficult subject with any accuracy. The apprentice +system, and an important chapter on manual training and its bearings +make this report one of the most valuable, from the social point of +view, that has been given, though where all are invaluable it is hard to +characterize one above another.</p> + +<p>Mr. Tobin, for California, and Mr. Hutchins, for Iowa, seemed moved at +the same time in much the same way,—the Iowa report for 1887 treating +the many questions involved with that largeness which has thus far +distinguished work in this direction. Kansas, in the report for 1888, +gave general conditions, women being treated incidentally; and +Minnesota, in the report for the years 1887 and 1888, gave a chapter on +working-women, wages, etc.</p> + +<p>Colorado followed, giving in the report for 1887 and 1888, under the +management of Com<a name="Page_123" id="Page_123" />missioner Rice, a chapter on women wage-workers, in +which space is given to certified complaints of the women themselves, as +to what they consider the disabilities of their special trades. Domestic +service, with some of its abuses, was also considered, and is of much +value. These reports sum up the work so far done in the West, where +labor bureaus are of recent growth. The spirit of inquiry is, however, +equally alive; and each year will see minuter detail and a deeper +scientific spirit.</p> + +<p>Maine, in the report for 1888, took up many questions of general +interest, with their incidental bearings on the work of women; and in +1889 came another report from Kansas, in which the labor commissioner, +Mr. Frank Betton, gave large space to an investigation conducted under +many difficulties, but covering the ground very fully. A very full +report from Michigan, under Commissioner Henry A. Robinson, was issued +in 1892, nearly two hundred pages being given to an exhaustive +examination into the conditions of women wage-earners in the State, its +methods owing much to the work which had preceded it.</p> + +<p>With this background of admirable work <a name="Page_124" id="Page_124" />always, no matter what might be +the limitations, making each report a little broader in purpose and +minuter in detail, the way was plain for something even more +comprehensive. This was furnished by the Bureau of Labor of the United +States, which had changed its name, and become, in June, 1887, the +Department of Labor, a part of the Department of the Interior. This +report—the fourth from the bureau, and issued in 1888—was entitled +"Working-Women in Large Cities," and included investigations made in +twenty-two cities, from Boston to San Francisco and San José.</p> + +<p>All that long experience had demonstrated as most important in such work +was brought to bear. The investigation covered manual labor in cities, +excluding textile industries, save incidentally as these had already +been treated, as well as domestic service. Textile factories are usually +outside of large cities, and it was the object to discover the +opportunities of employment in the way of manual labor in cities +themselves.</p> + +<p>Three hundred and forty-three distinct industries showed themselves, and +others were found which were not included, it being safe to say <a name="Page_125" id="Page_125" />that +some four hundred may be considered open to women. As before stated, +many are simply subdivisions, made by the constantly increasing +complexity of machinery. The agents of the department carried their work +into the lowest and worst places in the cities named, because in such +places are to be found women who are struggling for a livelihood in most +respectable callings,—living in them as a matter of necessity, since +they cannot afford to live otherwise, but leaving them whenever wages +are sufficient to admit of change.</p> + +<p>It is this report which forms the summary of all the work that has +preceded it, and that gives the truest exponent of all present +conditions. It is only necessary to add to it the summaries of the State +reports at other points, to see the aspect of the question as a whole; +and thus we are ready to consider by its aid the general rates of wages +and of the status of the trades of every nature in which women are now +engaged.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126" /> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21" /><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Report for 1872, pp. 59-108.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22" /><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Report for 1875, pp. 67-112.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="VI" id="VI" />VI.</h2> + +<h3>PRESENT WAGE-RATES IN THE UNITED STATES.</h3> + + +<p>Under this heading it is proposed to include, not only the trades just +specified as coming under the investigations recorded in "Working-Women +in Large Cities," but also such data as can be gleaned from all the +labor reports which have given any attention to this phase of the labor +question. Naturally, then, we turn to the report of the Massachusetts +Bureau for 1881, the first statement of these points, and compare it +with the results obtained in the last report from Washington, as well as +with the returns from the various States where investigation of the +question has been made.</p> + +<p>Exceptionally favorable conditions would seem to belong to the year in +which the report for 1884 appeared. The financial distress of 1877, with +its results, had passed. New industries of many orders had opened up for +women, <a name="Page_127" id="Page_127" />and trade in all its forms called for workers and gave almost +constant employ, save in the few occupations which have a distinct +season, and oblige those engaged in them to divide their time between +two if a living is assured.</p> + +<p>A distinction must at once be made in the definition of earnings. In +speaking of them, there are necessarily three designations,—wages, +earnings, and income. Wages represent the actual pay per week at the +time employed, with no reference to the number of weeks' employment +during the year. Earnings are the total receipts for any year from +wages. Thus, for example, a girl is paid $5 a week wages, and works +forty weeks of her year. Her earnings would then be for the year $200, +though her wages of $5 per week would indicate that she earned $260 a +year; while in fact her average weekly earnings would be for the whole +year $3.84. Income is her total receipts for the year from all sources: +wages, extra work, help from friends or from investments; in fact, any +receipts from which expenses can be paid.</p> + +<p>In preparing the tables of these reports, the highest, the lowest, the +average, and the gen<a name="Page_128" id="Page_128" />eral average were brought into a final comparison. +Often but one wage is given, and it then becomes naturally both highest +and lowest; but all figures are made to indicate an entire occupation or +branch of industry, and not a few high or low paid employees in that +branch. It is only with the final comparison that we are able to deal, +the reader being referred to the reports themselves for the invaluable +details given at full length and including many hundred pages.</p> + +<p>The divisions of occupations are the same as those of the tenth census, +and the tables are made on the same system. To determine the general +conditions for the twenty thousand at work, it was necessary to have +accurate detail as to one thousand; and, in fact, 1,032 were +interviewed. Directly after the work in this direction had ended, and +before the report was ready for publication, a general reduction of ten +per cent in wages took place, and this must be kept in mind in dealing +with the returns recorded. In this, recapitulation is given in full, +and, as will be seen, includes all occupations open to women.</p> + +<h3><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129" />RECAPITULATION</h3> + +<table border='1' cellspacing="0" summary='Average earnings by occupation'> +<tr align='center'> +<td></td> +<td colspan="2">BOSTON.</td> +<td colspan="2">OTHER PARTS<br />OF MASS.</td> +<td colspan="2">OTHER STATES.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td>Number.</td> +<td>Average weekly<br /> earnings.</td> +<td>Number.</td> +<td>Average weekly<br /> earnings.</td> +<td>Number.</td> +<td>Average weekly<br /> earnings.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Government and professional</td> +<td align='right'>7</td> +<td align='right'>$5 57</td> +<td align='right'>5</td> +<td align='right'>$6 40</td> +<td align='right'>10</td> +<td align='right'>$6 28</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Domestic and personal office</td> +<td align='right'>178</td> +<td align='right'>5 94</td> +<td align='right'>27</td> +<td align='right'>5 33</td> +<td align='right'>21</td> +<td align='right'>4 69</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Trade and transportation</td> +<td align='right'>221</td> +<td align='right'>5 00</td> +<td align='right'>4</td> +<td align='right'>9 25</td> +<td align='right'>4</td> +<td align='right'>7 25</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Manufactures and mechanical industries</td> +<td align='right'>1,293</td> +<td align='right'>6 22</td> +<td align='right'>72</td> +<td align='right'>7 06</td> +<td align='right'>49</td> +<td align='right'>7 58</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>All occupations</td> +<td align='right'>1,699</td> +<td align='right'>$6 03</td> +<td align='right'>108</td> +<td align='right'>$6 68</td> +<td align='right'>84</td> +<td align='right'>$6 69</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>The commissioners of the New York State Bureau of Labor followed a +slightly different method. The returns are no less minute, but are given +under the heading of each trade, two hundred and forty-seven of which +were investigated. The wages of workwomen for the entire year run from +$3.50 to $4 a week, the general average not being given, though later +returns make it $5.85. This is, however, for skilled labor; and as a +vast proportion of women workers in New York City are engaged in sewing, +the poorest paid of all industries, we must accept the first figures as +nearer the truth. An expert on shirts receives as high <a name="Page_130" id="Page_130" />as $12 a week, +in some cases $15; but in slop work, and under the sweating-system, +wages fall to $2.50 or $3 per week, and at times less. Mr. Peck found +cloakmakers working on the most expensive and perfectly finished +garments for 40 cents a day, a full day's pay being from 50 to 60 +cents.<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23" /><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> In other cases a day's work brought in but 25 cents, and +seventeen overalls of blue denim gave a return of 75 cents. Two and a +half cents each is paid for the making of boys' gingham waists, with +trimming on neck and sleeves, including the button-holes; and the women +who made these sat sixteen hours at the sewing-machine, with a result of +25 cents.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24" /><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p> + +<p>This was for irregular work. Women employed on clothing in general, +working for reputable firms, receive from $4.50 to $6 per week. In the +tobacco manufacture, in which great numbers are employed, $9 is the +lowest actual earnings, and $20 the highest per week. In cigarettes, the +pay ranges from $4 to $15 <a name="Page_131" id="Page_131" />per week. In dry-goods, with ten divisions of +employment,—cashiers, bundle-girls, saleswomen, floor-walkers, +seamstresses, cloakmakers, cash-girls, stock-girls, milliners, and +sewing-girls,—the lowest sum per week is $1.50, paid to cash-girls, and +the highest paid to floor-walkers, $16. On the east side of the city, +shop girls receive often as low as $3 per week; in a few cases +specified, $2.50 per week.<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25" /><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></p> + +<p>In laundry-work, which includes several divisions, wages weekly range +from $7.50 to $10, though ironers of special excellence sometimes make +from $12 to $15 per week. In millinery the wages are from $6 to $7 per +week. In preserving and fruit-canning wages are from $3.50 to $10, the +average worker earning about $5 per week. Mr. Peck states that in +fashion trades the two distinct seasons bring the year's earnings to +about six months. "Learners" in the trades coming under this head +receive $1.50 per week. Saleswomen suffer also from season trade, as it +necessitates reduction of force. The better class of workers <a name="Page_132" id="Page_132" />receive +from $8 to $15 per week, while heads of departments range from $25 to +$50, or even higher, for exceptional merit. These cases are of the +rarest, however, the wage as an average falling below that of Boston.</p> + +<p>But three State reports cover the same dates as these already quoted +(1885 and 1886),—Connecticut, New Jersey, and California, the former +being for 1885. In this, women's wages are given incidentally in general +tables, and must be disentangled to find any average. In artificial +flowers the highest wage is given as $7, and the lowest $3, the average +being $5. In blankets and woollen goods the highest is $12.50 and the +lowest $6, an average of $9 per week. In factory work of all orders, +wages range from $6 to $9.75 per week, the average paid to women and +girls being $7.50 per week. In clothing, including underwear, wages are +from $3 to $15 per week, and the average annual income of women in these +trades is given as $300 per year. In cloakmaking the lowest wage is $3, +the highest $9, and the average $7.50. The average wage for San +Francisco is given as $6.95, and that for the whole State is about $6. +<a name="Page_133" id="Page_133" />The Connecticut report for 1885 gives simply the yearly wage in various +trades. Reason for this is found in the fact that it was the first, and +could thus deal with the subject only tentatively. Clothing is given as +producing for women a yearly average of $229, and shirts $237. Factory +work gave $207, paper boxes $227, and woollen goods $245.</p> + +<p>In the report for 1886, the lowest average wage is reported as found in +the making of wearing apparel; but the average for the State was found +to be a trifle over $6.50 per week.</p> + +<p>The report from New Jersey makes the lowest wages $3 per week, and the +highest $10, the average being $5. This report covers ground more fully +and in more varied directions than any one of the same period, though +there is only incidental reference to the work of women as a whole, the +returns being given in the general tables of wages. Wages and the cost +of living are compared, and the chapter under this head is one of the +most valuable in the summary of reports as a whole. The report for 1886 +gives the same general average of wages for the State, but adds an +exhaustive <a name="Page_134" id="Page_134" />treatment of "Earnings, Cost of Living, and Prices."</p> + +<p>Maine sent out its first annual report in 1887, and gives the wages of +women workers as $3.58 for the lowest, and $15.20 for the highest, the +annual earnings ranging from $104 to $520. The report from the same +State for 1889 takes up the subject of working-women in detail, giving +their home or boarding conditions, sanitary conditions, their own +remarks on trades, wages, etc., and the aspect of their labor as a +whole. The average wage remains the same.</p> + +<p>Rhode Island, in its Third Annual Report for 1889, under the direction +of Commissioner Almon K. Goodwin, gives the average wage for the State +as $5.87, and devotes the bulk of its space to working-women, with full +returns from the entire State.</p> + +<p>For the same year California, by its labor commissioner, Mr. John J. +Tobin, gives an equally exhaustive statement of the conditions of women +wage-earners in that State. The lowest weekly wage given is $5, and the +highest $11. Plain cooks receive from $25 to $40 a month with board and +lodging, and domestic <a name="Page_135" id="Page_135" />servants from $15 to $25 with board. In +cloak-making the lowest wage is $3, and the highest $7.50; and in +shirt-making the lowest is $2.50, and the highest $6. General clothing +and underwear range from $4.50 to $6, and other trades average a trifle +higher wage than in New England. The chapter on domestic service is +suggestive and important, and the whole treatment makes the report a +necessity to all who would understand the situation in detail. This, +however, is so true of all that have touched upon the subject that it +appears invidious to single out any one alone. They must be taken +together. With each year the scientific value of each increases, and +there appears to be distinct emulation among the commissioners as to +which shall embody the most in the returns made and the general +treatment of the whole.</p> + +<p>The first report from Colorado, issued in 1888, Mr. James Rice +commissioner, devotes a chapter to women wage-earners, with an +additional one on domestic service and its drawbacks. The average wage +for the State is given as $6; and the commissioner states that +notwithstanding the general impression that higher <a name="Page_136" id="Page_136" />wages are paid in +Colorado than at any other point save California, actual returns show +that the average sums in several occupations are less than that paid to +persons similarly employed in cities along the Atlantic seaboard.</p> + +<p>Kansas, in its fifth annual report issued in 1889, gives a section to +working-women. The commissioner, Mr. Frank Betton, considers the returns +imperfect, great difficulty having been experienced in securing them. +The average weekly wage is given as $5.17. Expenses are carefully +analyzed, and there is a report of the remarks of employers, as well as +from a number of those employed.</p> + +<p>In the report from Iowa for 1887, Commissioner Hutchins laments that so +few women have been willing to fill out blanks of returns. The wage +returns given range from $3.75 to $9. The report for 1889 makes mention +of continued difficulties in securing returns, and gives the annual +earnings of women as from $100 to $440. The tables include cost of +living and many other essential particulars.</p> + +<p>Wisconsin, in the report for 1884, has a chapter on working-girls. It +gives the average weekly income in personal services as <a name="Page_137" id="Page_137" />$5.25; in +trade, $4.18; in manufactures, $5.22, and the general average for the +year as $5.17.</p> + +<p>Minnesota, whose first report, under the supervision of Commissioner +John Lamb, appeared in 1888 for the years 1887 and 1888, found little or +no room for statistics, but included a chapter on working-women, with a +few admirable tables of age, nativity, home and working conditions, etc. +Minute inquiry was made as to cost of living, clothing, etc.; and the +results form a chapter of painful interest, that on domestic service +being equally suggestive. Clothing, as usual, represents the lowest +average wage, $3.66 per week, the highest being $8.50, and the general +average a trifle over $6.</p> + +<p>Michigan, in 1890, under its labor commissioner, Mr. Henry A. Robinson, +added to the list one of the most thorough studies yet made of general +conditions. The agents of the bureau, trained for the work, made +personal visits to working-women and girls to the number of 13,436, this +representing one hundred and thirty-seven distinct industries and three +hundred and seventy-eight occupations. The blanks prepared for filling +out contained one <a name="Page_138" id="Page_138" />hundred and twenty-nine questions, classified as +follows: Social, 28; industrial, 12; hours of labor, 14; economic, 54; +sanitary, 21, with seven others as to dress, societies, church +attendance, with remarks and suggestions from the workers themselves. As +usual, in such cases, employers here and there objected to any +investigation, fearing labor organizations were at the bottom of it; but +the majority allowed free examination. The report is very full, and +gives a clear and full view of the individual lives of this body of +women workers. The average wage proved to be $4.81 per week, the average +income for the year being $216.45. The average income of teachers and +those in public positions was $457.27.</p> + +<p>This is the showing, State by State, so far as bureaus have reported. +Many States have made no move in this direction; but interest is now +thoroughly aroused, and the subject is likely to find treatment in all, +this depending somewhat, however, on the character of the State +industries and the numbers at work in each. Manufacturing necessarily +brings with it conditions that in the end compel inquiry; and for most +of the Southern States such industries <a name="Page_139" id="Page_139" />are still new, while the West +has not yet found the same occasion as the East for full knowledge of +the problems involved in woman's work and wages.</p> + +<p>We come now to the most elaborate and far-reaching inquiry yet +made,—the work of the United States Bureau of Labor under Commissioner +Wright, entitled "Working-Women in Large Cities." Twenty-two of these +are reported upon after one of the most rigorous examinations ever +undertaken; and the average wage of each tallies with the rates given in +the States to which they belong. Taken alphabetically, the list is as +follows:—</p> + +<h3>AVERAGE WEEKLY EARNINGS, BY CITIES.</h3> + +<table width='400' summary='Average weekly earnings, by cities.'> +<tr> +<td>Atlanta</td> +<td align='right'> $4.95</td> +<td> New Orleans</td> +<td align='right'>$4.31</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Baltimore</td> +<td align='right'> 4.18</td> +<td> New York</td> +<td align='right'>5.85</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Boston</td> +<td align='right'>5.64</td> +<td> Philadelphia</td> +<td align='right'>5.34</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Brooklyn</td> +<td align='right'>5.76</td> +<td> Providence</td> +<td align='right'>5.51</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Buffalo</td> +<td align='right'>4.27</td> +<td> Richmond</td> +<td align='right'>3.83</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Charleston, S.C.</td> +<td align='right'>4.22</td> +<td> St. Louis</td> +<td align='right'>5.19</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Chicago</td> +<td align='right'>5.74</td> +<td> St. Paul</td> +<td align='right'>6.62</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Cincinnati</td> +<td align='right'>4.50</td> +<td> San Francisco</td> +<td align='right'>6.91</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Cleveland</td> +<td align='right'>4.63</td> +<td> San José</td> +<td align='right'>6.11</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Indianapolis</td> +<td align='right'>4.57</td> +<td> Savannah</td> +<td align='right'>4.90</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Louisville</td> +<td align='right'>4.51</td> +<td></td> +<td align='right'>----</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Newark</td> +<td align='right'>5.20</td> +<td> All Cities</td> +<td align='right'>5.24</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>In addition to these figures, it seems well to give the average yearly +earnings of women in <a name="Page_140" id="Page_140" />some of the most profitable industries, those +being chosen which are seldom affected by "seasons":—</p> + +<p>Artificial flowers, $277.53; awnings and tents, $276.46; bookbinding, +$271.31; boots and shoes, $286.60; candy, $213.59; carpets, $298.53; +cigar boxes, $267.36; cigar factory, $294.66; cigarette factory, +$266.12; cloak factory, $291.76; clothing factory, $248.36; +cotton-mills, $228.32; dressmaking, $278.37; dry-goods stores, $368.84; +jewelry factory, $263.80; men's furnishing-goods factory, $232.24; +millinery, $345.95; paper-box factory, $240.47; plug-tobacco factory, +$235.67; printing-office, $300; skirt factory, $265.40; smoking-tobacco +factory, $238.70.</p> + +<p>These, so far as they have been collected and tabulated by the various +labor bureaus, are the returns for the United States as a whole. The +reports for the following years of 1891 and 1892 were expected to be far +more general, but this has not proved to be the case.</p> + +<h3><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141" />AVERAGE WAGE PER STATE.</h3> + +<table width='300' summary='Average wage per state'> +<tr> +<td>Maine</td> +<td align='right'>$5.50</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Massachusetts</td> +<td align='right'>6.68</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Connecticut</td> +<td align='right'>6.50</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Rhode Island</td> +<td align='right'>5.87</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>New York</td> +<td align='right'>5.85</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>New Jersey</td> +<td align='right'>5.00</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>California</td> +<td align='right'>6.00</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Colorado</td> +<td align='right'>6.00</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Kansas</td> +<td align='right'>5.17</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Wisconsin</td> +<td align='right'>5.17</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Minnesota</td> +<td align='right'>6.00</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>All cities</td> +<td align='right'>5.24</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142" /> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23" /><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Third Annual Report of New York Bureau of Labor, p. 162. +These are Mr. Peck's figures; but the United States report gives the +average for skilled labor as $5.85 per week, and adds that the unskilled +earns far less.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24" /><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Ibid. p. 165.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25" /><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> New York Bureau of Statistics of Labor, Third Annual +Report, p. 27.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="VII" id="VII" />VII.</h2> + +<h3>GENERAL CONDITIONS FOR ENGLISH WORKERS.</h3> + + +<p>So far as opportunity is concerned, it is the United States only that +offers a practically unlimited field to women workers, to whom some four +hundred trades and occupations are now open. Comparison with other +countries is, however, essential, if we would judge fairly of conditions +as a whole; and thus we turn first to that other English-speaking race, +and the English worker at home. At once we are faced with the +impossibility of gathering much more than surface indications, since in +no other country is there any counterpart to our admirable system of +investigation and tabulation, each year more and more systematic and +thorough. In spite of the fact that factory laws had their birth in +England, and that the whole system of child labor—the early horrors of +which find record in thousands of pages of special reports from +inspectors appointed by government—has <a name="Page_143" id="Page_143" />been through their means +modified and improved, there are, even now, no sources of information as +to numbers at work or the characteristics of special industries. The +census must be the chief dependence; and here we find the enormous +proportions to which the employment of women has attained.</p> + +<p>In 1861 these returns gave for England and Wales 1,024,277 women at +work. Twenty years later the number had doubled, half a million being +found in London alone. This does not include all, since, as Mr. Charles +Booth notes in his recent "Labor and Life of the People," many employed +women do not return their employments.</p> + +<p>Mr. Booth's work is a purely private enterprise, assisted by devoted +co-workers, and by trained experts employed at his own expense. For the +final estimate must be added general census returns, and the recent +reports on the sweating-system in London and other English cities.</p> + +<p>Beginning with factory operatives and their interests, nothing is easier +than to follow the course of legislation on their behalf. The "Life of +Lord Shaftesbury" is, in itself, the <a name="Page_144" id="Page_144" />history of the movement for the +protection of women and children,—a movement begun early in the present +century, and made imperative by the hideous disclosures of oppression +and outrage, not only among factory operatives, but the women and +children in mining and other industries. Active as were his efforts and +those of his colleagues, it is only within a generation that the fruit +of their labor is plainly seen. As late as 1844, at the time Engel's +notable book on "The Condition of the Working-Class in England" +appeared, the labor of children of four and five years was still +permitted; and women and children alike worked in mines, in brickyards, +and other exposed and dangerous employments for the merest pittance. The +pages of Engel's book swarm with incidents of individual and class +misery; and while he admits fully, in the appendix prepared in 1886, +that many of the evils enumerated have disappeared, he adds that for the +mass of workers "the state of misery and insecurity in which they live +now is as low as ever, perhaps lower."</p> + +<p>Year by year, in spite of constant agitation and the unceasing effort of +Lord Shaftesbury to alter the worst abuses, these evils remained, and +<a name="Page_145" id="Page_145" />faced the examiner into social problems, slight ameliorations here and +there serving chiefly to throw into darker relief the misery of the +situation. Not only the philanthropist but officials joined hands; and +in the proceedings of the British Association for the Advancement of +Science, each year added to the number and importance of the protests +against an iniquitous system.</p> + +<p>Chief among these protests ranked that against the overwork of pregnant +mothers, through which, as one of the most able opponents of existing +evils, W. Stanley Jevons, wrote, "infinite, irreparable wrong is done to +helpless children," adding that the appalling infant mortality of the +manufacturing districts attracted far less attention and interest in the +public mind than the death of a single murderer. At nearly the same time +Mr. F.W. Lowndes gave the fruit of long research in a paper read before +the British Association for the Advancement of Science, entitled "The +Destruction of Infancy;"<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26" /><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> and this was supplemented by testi<a name="Page_146" id="Page_146" />mony +from experts, the Statistical Society adding weighty testimony to the +same effect.<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27" /><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a></p> + +<p>From these and other official testimony it was found that in nineteen +manufacturing towns,<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28" /><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> out of 1,023,896 children [Forty-first Report +of the Registrar-General, p. 36] born, 82,259 died in infancy. The rate +of mortality varied from 59.4 in Portsmouth through an ascending scale, +being in London 78.6 and in Liverpool the almost incredible proportion +of 103.6 per thousand. In a rural country infant mortality does not +exceed from thirty-five to forty per thousand. The Report of the Select +Committee on the Protection of Infant Life was filled with details so +horrible that only the sworn testimony of experts made them credited at +all.<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29" /><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p> + +<p>Dr. Hunter's report on rural mortality shows that when mothers are +employed in what are known as "field gangs" for out-of-door work, +leaving their children in the charge of old <a name="Page_147" id="Page_147" />women too weak for such +labor as their own, that infants died like sheep. Godfrey's Cordial was +the chief engine of destruction; the corps of inspectors who reported to +the Government finding infants in all stages of prostration, from the +overdoses of the popular specific warranted to render any attention from +nurse or mother quite unnecessary.</p> + +<p>As to the direct effects of factory or out-door labor on pregnant +mothers, out of 10,000 births among factory mothers, there died from +1863-75 of children under one year of age, in Portsmouth 1,459, +Liverpool 2,189, London 1,591, and other towns with textile industries +1,940. Statistics taken in Germany and at other points all went to show +that in the matter of out-door labor at the harvest season, when all +women-workers are in the fields, the deaths of nursing infants were +three times as great as in the other nine months.</p> + +<p>For details and deduction from these facts the reader is referred to the +reports themselves. "I go so far," wrote Mr. Jevons, "as to advocate the +ultimate complete exclusion of mothers of children under the age of +three years from factories and workshops;" and his conviction <a name="Page_148" id="Page_148" />voiced +that of every examiner into the situation as it stood at that time.</p> + +<p>The Factory and Workshop Act came as partial solution to the many +problems; and though regarded by the working-class as a mass of +arbitrary restrictions whose usefulness they denied and in whose +benefits they had no faith, it has actually proved the Great Charter of +the working-classes. There are points still to be +altered,—modifications made necessary by the constant change in methods +of production, as well as in the enlarging sense of the ethical +principles involved. But our own legislation is still far behind it at +many points, and its work is done efficiently and thoroughly. Laws had +been made, one by one, fifteen standing on the Statute Books in 1878, +when all were abrogated, their essential features being codified in the +Act as it stands to-day,—a genuine industrial code in one hundred and +seven sections.</p> + +<p>Up to this date violation of its provisions had been incessant; but +determined enforcement brought about a uniform working day, protection +of dangerous machinery, proper ventilation, improved sanitary +conditions, an interdict on Sunday labor, and many other reforms in +ad<a name="Page_149" id="Page_149" />ministration. Fourteen years have seen next to no change in the Act, +and the condition of women and child workers in factories and workshops +has come to be regarded as the best that modern systems of production +admit. These workers, whose numbers now mount to hundreds of thousands, +are a class apart, and for them legislation has accomplished all that +legislation seems able to do in alleviating social miseries. Content +with the results achieved, need of further effort in other directions +failed of recognition, and apathy became the general condition.</p> + +<p>It was during this season of repose that the public mind received first +one shock and then another. "The Bitter Cry of Outcast London" appalled +all who read; and leaf by leaf the new book of revelations disclosed +always deeper depths of misery and want among all workers with the +needle,—from the days of the fig-leaf the symbol of grinding toil and +often hopeless misery.</p> + +<p>Not alone from professional agitators, so called, but from +philanthropists of every order, came the cry for help. The Factory and +Workshop Act had not touched home labor. The <a name="Page_150" id="Page_150" />sweating-system, born of +modern conditions, had risen unsuspected, and ran riot, not only in East +London, but even in back alleys of the sacred west, and in the swarming +southwest region beyond London Bridge. The London "Lancet," the most +authoritative medical journal of the world, conservative as it has +always been, has at last found that it must join hands with socialist +and anarchist, "scientific" or otherwise, with philanthropists of every +order, against the new evil and its horrors. Rich and poor alike were +involved. The virus of the deadly conditions under which the garments +took shape was implanted in every stitch that held them together, and +transferred itself to the wearer. Not only from London, but from every +city of England, came the same cry; and the public faced suddenly an +abyss of misery whose existence had been unknown and unsuspected, and +the causes of which seemed inexplicable.</p> + +<p>For many months of the year just ended (1892) parliamentary +investigation has gone on. Report after report has been made to its +committees; and as testimony from accredited sources poured in, +incidentally a flood of light has been let in upon many forms of work +out<a name="Page_151" id="Page_151" />side the clothing-manufacturer. To-day, in four huge volumes of some +thousand pages each, one may read the testimony, heart-sickening in +every detail,—a noted French political economist, the Comte +d'Haussonville, describing it, in a recent article in "La Revue des deux +Mondes" as "The Martyrology of English Industries."</p> + +<p>In such conditions inspection is inoperative. An army of inspectors +would not suffice where every house represents from one to a dozen +workshops under its roof, in each of which sanitary conditions are +defied, and the working day made more often fourteen and sixteen hours +than twelve. Even for this day a starvation wage is the rule; the +sewing-machine operative, for example, while earning a wage of fifteen +or eighteen pence, furnishing her own thread and being forced to pay +rental on the machine.</p> + +<p>A portion of a wage table is given here as illustrative of rates, and +used as a reference table before the preparation of Mr. Booth's book, +which gives much the same figures:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>Making paper bags, 41/2d. to 51/2d. per thousand; possible + earnings, 5s. to 6s. per week.</p> + +<p> Button-holes, 3d. a dozen; possible earnings, 8s. a week.</p> + +<p> <a name="Page_152" id="Page_152" />Shirts, 2d. each, worker finding her own cotton; can get six done + between 8 A.M. and 11 P.M.</p> + +<p> Sack sewing, 6d. for twenty-five; 8d. to 1s. 6d. per hundred. + Possible earnings, 8s. per week.</p> + +<p> Pill-box making, 9s. for thirty-six gross; possible earnings, 8s. + per week.</p> + +<p> Shirt button-hole making, 1d. a dozen; can do three or four dozen a + day.</p> + +<p> Whip-making, 1s. a dozen; can do a dozen a day.</p> + +<p> Trousers finishing, 3d. to 5d. each, finding one's own cotton; can + do four a day.</p> + +<p> Shirt-finishing, 3d. to 4d. a dozen; possible earnings, 6s. a week.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Outside of the cities, where the needle is almost the sole refuge of the +unskilled worker, every industry is invaded. A recent report as to +English nail and chain workers shows hours and general conditions to be +almost intolerable, while the wage averages eightpence a day. In the +mines, despite steady action concerning them, women are working by +hundreds for the same rate. In short, from every quarter comes in +repeated testimony that the majority of working Englishwomen are +struggling for a livelihood; that a pound a week is a fortune, and that +the majority live on a wage below subsistence point.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153" />The enormous influx of foreign population is partly responsible for +these conditions, but far less than is popularly supposed; since the +Jews, most often accused, are in many cases juster employers than the +Christians, and suffer from the same causes. For all alike, legislation +is powerless to reach certain ingrained evils, and the recent +sweating-commission ended its report with the words:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"We express the firm hope that the faithful exposure of the evils + that we have been called upon to unveil, will have the effect of + leading capitalists to lend greater attention to the conditions + under which work is done, which furnishes the merchandise they + demand. When legislation has attained the limit beyond which it can + no longer be useful, the amelioration of the condition of workers + can result only from the increasing moral sense of those who employ + them."</p></blockquote> + +<p>This conclusion, it may be added, is in full accord with that given in +the Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII., as well as with that of our most +serious workers at home; our own government examination into the +sweating-system, now embodied in a Congressional Report accessible to +all, being simply confirmation of every point made in that for England. +As a summary of <a name="Page_154" id="Page_154" />many working conditions in London, I add part of a +report made by an indefatigable student of social conditions, Margaret +Harkness, associated now with Mr. Charles Booth, and as able an observer +as her cousin and co-worker, Miss Beatrice Potter, whose report on the +sweating-system makes part of Mr. Booth's first volume:<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30" /><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a>—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"I have, for the last six months, been attempting to find out + something about the hours and wages of girls who work at various + trades in the city. Had I known how difficult the task would be, I + should probably never have attempted it. Last time I heard of Mr. + Besant he was sitting in his office, overwhelmed with figures and + facts. He said then that he did not expect to publish anything + about the work of girls and women in the United Kingdom under a + year or eighteen months. I do not wonder at it. Apart from the + method of his inquiry, I know how exceedingly difficult it is to + arrive at the truth; the tact and patience it needs to make such + investigations. Employees and employers take very different views + of the same circumstances; one must listen to both, and then split + the difference.</p> + +<p> "There are at the present time absolutely no figures to go upon if + one wishes to learn something about the hours and wages of girls + who follow certain occupations <a name="Page_155" id="Page_155" />in the city. The factory inspectors + (admirable men, but very much overworked) come, with the most naive + delight, to visit any person who has information to give about the + people over whose interests they are supposed to watch with + fatherly interest. Clergymen shake their heads, or refer one to + homes and charities. One has to find out the truth for one's self. + Both employers and employees must be visited. Even then one must + wait days and weeks to inspire them with confidence, for thus alone + can one obtain a thorough knowledge of things as they really are, + and arrive at facts unbiassed by prejudice.</p> + +<p> "So far I have found that there are, at least, two hundred trades + at which girls work in the city. Some employ hundreds of hands, and + some only fifty or sixty. Printers give the greatest amount of + work, perhaps; but there are at least two hundred other occupations + in which girls earn a living; namely, brush-makers, button-makers, + cigarette-makers, electric-light fitters, fur-workers, + India-rubber-stamp machinist, magic-lantern-slide makers, + perfumers, portmanteau-makers, spectacle-makers, + surgical-instrument makers, tie-makers, etc. These girls can be + roughly divided into two classes,—those who earn from 8s. to 14s., + and those who earn from 4s. to 8s. per week. Taking slack time into + consideration, it is, I think, safe to say that 10s. is the average + weekly wage of the first class, and 4s. 6d. that of the second + class. Their weekly wage often falls below this, and sometimes + rises above <a name="Page_156" id="Page_156" />it. The hours are almost invariably from 8 A.M. to 7 + P.M., with one hour for dinner and a half-holiday on Saturday. I + know few cases in which such girls work less; a good many in which + over-time reaches to ten or eleven at night; a few in which + over-time means all night. There is little to choose between the + two classes. The second are allowed by their employers to wear old + clothes and boots; the first must make 'a genteel appearance.'</p> + +<p> "I often hear rich women say, 'Oh, working-girls cannot be very + poor; they wear such smart feathers.' If these women knew how the + girls have to stint in underclothing and food in order to make what + their employers call 'a genteel appearance,' I think they would + pass quite another verdict. I will give two typical cases: A girl + living just over Blackfriars Bridge, in one small room, for which + she pays 5s., earns 10s. a week in a printer's business. She works + from 8 A.M. to 6 P.M., then returns home to do all the washing, + cleaning, cooking, etc., that is necessary in a one-room + establishment. She has an invalid mother dependent on her efforts, + and is out-patient herself at one of the London hospitals. She was + sixteen last Christmas. Another girl, who lives in two cellars near + Lisson Grove, with father, mother, and six brothers and sisters, + earns 3s. 6d. a week in a well-known factory. She is seventeen + years old, but does not look more than ten or eleven. Every morning + she walks a mile to her work, arriving at eight o'clock; every + evening <a name="Page_157" id="Page_157" />she walks a mile back, reaching home about seven o'clock. + If she arrives at the factory five minutes late, she is fined 7d. + If she stays away a whole day, she is 'drilled,'—that is, kept + without work a whole week. Her father has been out of employment + for six months; so her weekly 3s. 6d. goes into the family purse. + Her food consists of three slices of bread and butter, which she + takes to the factory for dinner; one slice of bread and butter and + some weak tea for supper and breakfast. These cases are not picked. + They are to be found scattered all over London. Many and many a + family is at the present time being kept by the labor of one or two + such girls, who can at the most earn a few shillings. When one + thinks what the life of a young girl is in happy families, all the + joyousness of which she is capable, until sorrow sets its seal on + her, one's heart aches for the sad lives of these girls in the + city.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class='stanza'><div>'And still her voice comes ringing</div> +<div class='i2'>Across the soft still air,</div> +<div>And still I hear her singing,</div> +<div class='i2'>"Oh, life, thou art most fair!"'</div></div> +</div> + +<p> "A young girl is capable of feeling in one brief hour more intense + delight than a boy of her age experiences in a fortnight. Yet all + this joyousness is ruthlessly stamped upon by competition, and + thousands of girls in London have no enjoyment except to gaze at + monstrosities in penny gaffs, or to dance on dirty <a name="Page_158" id="Page_158" />pavements; and + generally these poor things are too tired even to do that. It is + strange that the public take so little interest in these girls, + considering they must become mothers of future citizens. 'The youth + of a nation are the trustees of posterity.' What sort of daughters + are these girls with their pinched faces and stunted bodies likely + to give England? What will posterity say of the girl labor that now + goes on in the city? I have seen strong men weeping because they + have no bread to give their children; I know at the London docks + chains have been replaced by wooden barriers, because starving men + behind pressed so hard on starving men in front, that the latter + were nearly cut in two by the iron railings; I have watched a + contractor mauled when he had no work to give, and have myself been + nearly killed by a brick-bat that was hurled at a contractor's head + by a man whose family was starving: but I deliberately say of all + the victims of our present competitive system I pity these girls + the most. They are so fragile. Honest work is made for them almost + impossible; and if they slip, no one gives them a second chance, + they are kicked and spat upon by the public. I know that the + girl-labor question is but a portion of the larger labor question, + that nothing can be done for them at present; but I wish that they + were not the victims of the <i>laissez-faire</i> policy in two ways + instead of one; I wish that their richer sisters were not so + terribly apathetic about them."</p></blockquote> + +<p><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159" />For Scotland, industries, wages, and general conditions are much the +same as those of England. Factory life has been at many points improved, +and the superior thrift and education of the working-class shows in the +large amount of their savings. But Glasgow has faced conditions almost +as terrible as those given in "The Bitter Cry of Outcast London," with a +result not yet attained by the latter city, having destroyed hundreds of +foul tenements to make room for improved dwellings.</p> + +<p>For Ireland, though Irish linen, poplins, and woollens are the synonym +of excellence, the proportion of women workers in these industries is +comparatively small. In a few counties in the south Irish lace is made, +but the women are chiefly agricultural laborers. Thanks to the efforts +of Parnell, in 1885, there was formed "The Association for the Promotion +of Irish Industries," then chiefly destroyed by the "Act of Union" which +permitted England to levy protective tariffs on all Irish manufactures. +Statistics on these points are hidden in English Blue-books, and we have +no very reliable data as to the number of women and children employed. +The efforts of the Countess of Aberdeen, during the <a name="Page_160" id="Page_160" />term of her husband +as Viceroy of Ireland, and of the Countess of Dunraven on the Dunraven +estates in the county of Limerick, have done much to re-establish the +lace industry,—with such success that the work compares favorably with +that of some of the French convents.</p> + +<p>In Wales, as in the North of England, women and children are employed in +the mines, and there is constant evasion of the laws regulating hours, +with a wage as inadequate as the work is heavy. Heavy woollens and +corduroy employ a small proportion in their manufacture, wage and hours +being the same as those of England.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161" /> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26" /><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> "The Destruction of Infants," by Mr. F.W. Lowndes, +M.R.C.S., British Association for the Advancement of Science, Report for +1870, p. 586.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27" /><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> Journal of the Statistical Society, Sept., 1870, vol. +xxxiii. pp. 323-326.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28" /><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Parliamentary Paper, No. 372, July 20, 1871: Collected +Series, vol. vii. p. 606.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29" /><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> Sixth Report of the Medical Officer of the Privy Council, +1863, pp. 454-462. Parliamentary Paper, 1864, No. 3,416, vol. xxviii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30" /><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Labor and Life of the People, vol. i.: East London. Edited +by Charles Booth, p. 564.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII" />VIII.</h2> + +<h3>GENERAL CONDITIONS FOR CONTINENTAL WORKERS.</h3> + + +<p>For France the census of 1847 showed a list of 959 women workers in +Paris earning sixty centimes a day; 100,000 earning from sixty centimes +to three francs, and 626 earning over three francs. That for 1869 showed +17,203, earning from fifty centimes to one franc twenty-five centimes +daily; 11,000 of these workers being furnished lodging, food, and +washing. Of the entire number 88,340 earned from one franc fifty +centimes to four francs a day; 767 earned from four francs fifty +centimes to ten francs daily, most of the latter class being heads of +work rooms or shops. The rise in wages affected the better orders of +worker, but left the sewing-woman's wage nearly unchanged. Levasseur<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31" /><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> +tells us that <a name="Page_162" id="Page_162" />toward the end of the reign of Louis Philippe the wage of +a woman varied ordinarily from twelve to twenty-five sous, exceptionally +from twenty to forty; that of children being from six to fifteen sous; +of men from thirty sous for ordinary laborers, to forty or forty-five +for skilled work.</p> + +<p>The census for 1851 gave for Paris 112,891 workwomen, 60,000 of whom +were sewers. Convent sewing, that of the prisons and reformatories, and +the competition of women who had homes and worked simply for pin-money, +kept the wage at a minimum; and these conditions still operate toward +that end, precisely as they do for all countries where the needle is a +means of support, the evil being felt most severely in our cities. The +facts in the life of a French seamstress are much the same as those of +the Englishwoman. To earn two francs a day she must make eight chemises, +working from fourteen to sixteen hours daily to accomplish this. The +income of the average sewer does not exceed, at the best, five hundred +francs, and most usually falls below. Rents are so high that a garret +requires not less than one hundred francs a year. In his researches into +conditions, <a name="Page_163" id="Page_163" />Jules Simon<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32" /><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> found that this sum compelled deprivations +of every order. Expenses were as follows: Rent, 100 francs; clothing, +bedding, etc., 115 francs; washing, 36 francs; heat and light, 36 +francs. These sums amounted to 286.50 francs, the amount remaining for +food being 215.50 or a little less than twelve sous a day,—the amount +expended by two of our own seamstresses in New York in 1887, the items +being given by the earner.<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33" /><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a></p> + +<p>Existence on French soil, whether in Paris, the manufacturing towns, or +the provinces, has come to mean something very different from the facts +of a generation ago. Then, with wages hardly above "subsistence point," +the thrifty Frenchwoman not only lived, but managed to put by a trifle +each month. Wages have risen, but prices have at the same time advanced. +Every article of daily need is at the highest point,—sugar, which the +London workwoman buys at a penny a pound, being twelve cents a pound in +Paris; and flour, milk, eggs, equally high. Fuel is so dear that +shivering is the law for all save the <a name="Page_164" id="Page_164" />wealthy; and rents are no less +dear, with no "improved dwellings" system to give the most for the scant +sum at disposal. Bread and coffee, chiefly chiccory, make one meal; +bread alone is the staple of the others, with a bit of meat for Sunday. +Hours are frightfully long, the disabilities of the French needleworker +being in many points the same as those of her English sister. In short, +even skilled labor has many disabilities, the saving fact being that +unskilled is in far less proportion than across the Channel, the present +system of education including many forms of industrial training.</p> + +<p>Generations of freer life than that of England, and many traditions in +her favor give certain advantages to the woman born on French soil. It +is taken for granted that she will after marriage share her husband's +work or continue her own, and her keen intelligence is relied upon to a +degree unknown to other nations. Repeated wars, and the enrolment of all +her men for fixed periods of service, have developed the capacity of +women in business directions, and they fill every known occupation. The +light-heartedness of her nation is in her favor, and she has learned +thoroughly how to extract the <a name="Page_165" id="Page_165" />most from every centime. There is none of +the hopeless dowdiness and dejection that characterize the lower order +of Englishwoman. Trim, tidy, and thrifty, the Frenchwoman faces poverty +with a smiling courage that is part of her strength, this look changing +often for the older ones into a patience which still holds courage.</p> + +<p>Thus far there is no official report of the industries in which they are +engaged, and figures must be drawn from unofficial sources. M. Paul +Leroy-Beaulieu, the noted political economist, in his history of "The +Labor of Women in the Nineteenth Century," computes the number of women +at work in the manufactories of textile fabrics, cotton, woollen, linen, +and silk, as nearly one million; and outside of this is the enormous +number of lace-makers and general workers in all occupations. There are +over a quarter of a million of these lace-workers, whose wages run from +eighty and ninety centimes to two francs a day; and the rate of payment +for Swiss lace-workers is the same.</p> + +<p>During the Congrès Féministe held in the autumn of 1892, Madame Vincent, +an ardent <a name="Page_166" id="Page_166" />champion of women wage-earners, presented statistics, chiefly +from private sources, showing that out of 19,352,000 artisans in France, +there are 4,415,000 women who receive in wages or dividends nearly +$500,000,000 a year. Their wage is much less in proportion to the work +they do than that of men, yet they draw thirty-five per cent of the +entire sum spent in wages. In Paris alone, over 8,000 women are doing +business on an independent footing; and of 3,858 suits judged in 1892 by +the Workingman's Council, 1,674 concerned women. In spite of these +numbers and the abuses known to exist, the Chamber of Deputies has +refused practically to extend to women workers the law for the +regulation of the conditions of work in workshops. The refusal is +disguised under the form of adjournment of the matter, the reason +assigned being that the grievances of women are by no means ripe enough +for discussion. Women themselves are not at all of the same mind; and +the result has already been a move toward definite organization of +trades, and united action for all women engaged in them,—a step +hitherto regarded as impossible. The first effect of this has been a +protest from <a name="Page_167" id="Page_167" />Paris shopgirls against the action of the Chamber of +Deputies, and the formation of committees whose business will be to +enlist the interest and co-operation of women throughout the entire +country,—a slow process, but one that will mean both education and +final release from some at least of the worst disabilities now weighting +all women workers.</p> + +<p>"La femme devenue ouvrière, n'est plus une femme," wrote Jules Simon in +a burst of despair at the conditions of the Paris workwoman; and he +repeated the word as his investigations extended to manufacturing +France, and he found everywhere the home in many cases abolished, the +<i>crèche</i> taking its place till the child, vitally dependent upon a care +that included love, gave up the struggle for existence, rendering its +tiny quota to the long list of infant mortality. M. Leroy-Beaulieu had +described years before the practical extinction of the family and the +government interference<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34" /><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> brought about by the discoveries made by the +government inspecting committee, upon whom consternation seized as they +found decadence of morals, <a name="Page_168" id="Page_168" />enfeebled physique, and that the ordinary +girl-worker at sixteen or seventeen could not sew a seam, or make a +broth, or care for a child's needs or the simplest demands of a home. +Appalled at these conditions, France set about the organization of +industrial schools, and these have altered the whole face of affairs.</p> + +<p>Generations of abuses had made, up to the time of the investigation, the +history of the working-class in France. One of their best-known +scientific observers, the statistician Villermé, examined in person, and +as one of the government inspecting committee reported on the condition +of dwellings in Lille, Amiens, and other manufacturing towns of France. +The weavers and spinners of Lille lived in caves, of which thirty-six +hundred were found occupied by families,—father, mother, and children +as soon as old enough, employed in the mills, and returning at night to +these dens, where filth and darkness periodically did their work of +decimation, and where infant mortality had reached the maximum. +Horrified at the discoveries made, three thousand of these dwellings +were at once destroyed. But for unknown and quite inscrutable reasons +six hundred were <a name="Page_169" id="Page_169" />allowed to remain and receive double the original +number of tenants.<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35" /><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> Years passed before the last cave was filled up, +the children born in them providing an enormous percentage for prison +and galleys. At Douai, Rouen, Roubaix, and many other points, such +hideous filth marked the homes of the working-class that Villermé +reported: "The walls are covered with a thousand layers of ordure." The +women, exhausted and depleted by a day's labor of from twelve to +fourteen hours, had no time to think of cleanliness. In fact, its +meaning had never been taught; and though industrial schools increase, +hours are now shortened, and inspection is active, it remains true that +almost the same conditions perpetuate themselves at many points,—the +descriptions given by the great realist, Zola, of women and children in +the mines, and the hideousness of their home life, being very literal +and unexaggerated fact.</p> + +<p>As to conditions of the work itself, many trades and occupations require +for their proper carrying on methods and surroundings absolutely +destructive to health. In all preparation of hemp and oakum dust is +excessive; far <a name="Page_170" id="Page_170" />beyond that of the cotton-mill, which itself breeds +consumption. In the spinning of flax great heat and water are both +necessities. "Nothing is more wretched," writes Jules Simon, "than a +linen-spinner's surroundings. Water covers the brick floor. The odor of +the linen and a temperature often exceeding twenty-five Reaumur fill the +workroom with an intolerable stench. The majority of the workwomen, +obliged to put off most of their garments, are huddled together in this +pestilential atmosphere, imprisoned in the machines, pressed one against +the other, their bodies streaming with sweat, their feet bare to the +ankle; and when a day, nominally of twelve hours but really of thirteen +and a half, is over, they quit the workroom for home, the rags they wear +barely protecting them from cold and damp."</p> + +<p>Details of the same order abound in the work of the political economist +M. Leroy-Beaulieu,<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36" /><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> who seeks at all points to give the most +favorable impression possible. In each and every case the great +authorities appear to be of one mind as to the disastrous effects upon +the children born to these mothers. That the <a name="Page_171" id="Page_171" /><i>crèche</i> is now +practically a part of every factory makes little or no difference.</p> + +<p>"The <i>crèche</i>," writes Jules Simon, "abolishes maternity in all save its +pains. The working mother is defrauded of her own means of growth, bound +up in the training of the child; and the child loses its right to be +loved and guarded by love." In short, for all continental countries, as +well as for England and our women, the question of child labor and the +destiny of the child are inextricably bound up in that of the working +mother, and are vital factors in working out the problem of woman as a +wage-earner. What proportion of wage-earning women recruit the ranks of +prostitution, is a question often asked. In Paris, which is in one sense +the focus of French labor, its many opportunities drawing to it a large +contingent from the provinces, it is popularly supposed that the ranks +of the sewing-women give large proportion to houses of prostitution. +This opinion is the prevailing one for all large cities, whether in +Europe or America, yet is disproved on all sides. For Paris +Parent-Duchalet states that in the statistics given by the prefecture of +police, in a table including forty-one categories, women with no +<a name="Page_172" id="Page_172" />occupation had first rank as prostitutes, domestic service giving the +second, and sewing-women the smallest proportion. This is the more +surprising when one considers that their wage is often below the point +of subsistence, and that temptation of every order waits upon them. At +the best the wage falls far below that of men, even when both engage in +the same work. The present movement toward organization is the first +step toward a general bettering of all trades and their wage; and for +fullest details of this, and work in connection with the admirable +Bourse du Travail, one of its most important features of working life +to-day in Paris, the reader must turn to the reports themselves, +beginning with the first one, issued in 1887-88.<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37" /><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> The same facts may +be said to form the story of labor in Belgium, in Switzerland, in Italy, +and at all points where women or children are at work, whether in +factory or mine or workshop. For Belgium the situation is summed up in a +very important and minute report of the government inquiry commission +into the labor of women and children,—the first made in 1867 and +<a name="Page_173" id="Page_173" />followed by one in 1874, the latest having been made in 1891.<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38" /><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a></p> + +<p>A comprehensive law, promulgated Nov. 2, 1892, and regulating the labor +of women and children in factories and mines, was amended in May, 1893, +by the addition of very specific regulations as to all employments +affecting health and morals. The Presidential decree consists of two +parts,—the first dealing with the employment of women and children in +connection with machinery when in motion, or in which the dangerous +parts are not fully protected, in glass-blowing and in carrying weights. +The second part of the decree consists of three tables, of which A +enumerates certain industries, chiefly the manufacture of acids, dyes, +chemicals, etc., also manures and glass, crystal, and metal polishing, +in which female and child labor are prohibited; B those in which +children under eighteen must not work, chiefly the manu<a name="Page_174" id="Page_174" />facture of +explosives; and C, a large variety of other industries in which female +and child labor is only allowed conditionally. The great majority of +these are industries involving special risk through the disengagement of +dust-particles or vapors; while a few are ranked as dangerous, owing to +risk of fire and the contraction of special diseases, etc.</p> + +<p>Belgium, French in feeling and in methods, has known some of the worst +abuses discoverable on continental soil, thousands of women and children +in her mines having toiled from twelve to sixteen hours a day, with +often no Sunday rest, for a wage at bare subsistence point. In +"Germinal," Zola, who spent months observing every phase of their life, +has given a picture, unsurpassed in any literature, of the misery and +degradation of the worker. An investigation in 1874, and indignation at +some of the conditions then discovered, brought about modifications of +the law. That of the general congress of 1891 accomplished much more; +but work must still be done before any very marked advance becomes +discernible.</p> + +<p>Passing to Germany, a good two-thirds of the women are at work in field +or shop or <a name="Page_175" id="Page_175" />home, the proportion of women in agriculture being larger +than in any other country of Europe. Her schools furnish better training +than those of any other nation. In all these points Prussia leads, +though till recently legislation has been in behalf of child-workers, +and women have been practically ignored. But factory regulations are +minute and extended; and the questions involved in the labor of women, +and its bearing on health, longevity, etc., are now coming under +consideration. In Silesia, as early as 1868, women were excluded from +the salt-mines; and the Labor Congress of 1889 brought about many +changes of the laws on this point for Belgium and Germany. In Italy, in +which country industrial education is now receiving much attention, the +labor of women, continuous, severe, and underpaid, as it is known to be, +finds small mention, save among special students of social questions. +Russia has practically no data from which judgment can be formed. In +short, it is only in English-speaking countries that really efficient +action as to the labor of women has taken place; while even for them the +work has but begun, and new and more radical forms will be neces<a name="Page_176" id="Page_176" />sary +for any real progress toward final betterment. Toward such end the labor +bureaus of our own country are working diligently; and it is with them +that we have next to do, the investigations already made and +incorporated in their reports being full of suggestion for future +workers.</p> + +<p>The census of 1882 gave for Germany, in a population of 45,222,113 +persons, 23,071,364 women, of whom 1,109,530 were widows, and 5,467,730 +unmarried, a large proportion of both these classes being +self-supporting. An immense number of these were agricultural laborers. +In Prussia in 1867 the census gave the number of women agricultural +laborers as 1,054,213. Woman's wage for a day's labor, always twelve and +often fourteen hours, is from twenty to twenty-five cents, about a third +of that received by men doing the same work. Brassey, the great railroad +contractor, found throughout Germany that her wage was always a third +and often a quarter less than that of men.</p> + +<p>For united Germany the description given by Villermé in 1836 is still +true for many points. "The misery in which the cotton spinners and +weavers of the upper Rhine live," he writes, "<a name="Page_177" id="Page_177" />is so profound that it +produces the saddest results. In the families of manufacturers, drapers, +merchants, etc., half the children born attain their nineteenth year, +this same half ceasing to exist before the age of two years in the +families of weavers and workers at cotton-spinning."</p> + +<p>As to numbers employed in trades and industries, it is difficult to +secure them with exactness. The census of 1871 reported three tenths of +the population as agricultural, the males employed in agriculture being +2,338,174, and the females 4,426,573. Household service had 840,000 +women on its rolls. In 1875 the cotton-mills employed in weaving and +spinning 95,934 women; the woollen manufacture, nearly 193,000; linen, +hemp, and jute, 190,000. The labor of women and children was hardly +recognized, and statistics had to be disentangled as best they might be +from general tables of occupations. Through the persistent efforts of +the Centre in the German Reichstag, a gradual betterment of the +working-classes has been brought about, and thus indirectly that of +women and children,—the first combined and determined effort being made +in 1889, when <a name="Page_178" id="Page_178" />three bills were brought up for discussion. The first +made the working-day not to exceed eleven hours; the second demanded the +suspension of industrial labor on Sunday, save in exceptional cases, +when five hours' labor was to be allowed; the third concerned the labor +of women and children, and with some modifications is practically the +law to-day. Night and Sunday labor in mines, smelting-works, +rolling-mills, and dockyards is entirely forbidden, nor can married +women work more than ten hours a day. The Federal Council has the right +also to forbid the employment of women and children in all factories and +establishments where health and morals are exposed to exceptional +dangers.</p> + +<p>At the period at which the investigations which brought about the +agitation of the question were made, the number of child laborers had +increased in two years from 155,000 to 192,000, children hardly more +than babies being in the factories. At present the law forbids the +employment of any child under twelve, and not less than three hours' +schooling daily is compulsory. Abuses exist at all points, women workers +in mines faring, even with short<a name="Page_179" id="Page_179" />ened day, in very evil case,—the wage +at or below subsistence point and the general conditions of the most +hopeless order. Constant agitation goes on in the Reichstag, and +organization among the women themselves will in time bring about needed +reforms; but as a whole the German woman is in many points less +considered than the women of any other civilized nation.</p> + +<p>Though Italy is pre-eminently an agricultural country, and men, women, +and children are alike employed in agricultural pursuits, there has been +no trustworthy record of numbers engaged. In manufacturing there are +more statistics, but interest in the woman's share in labor is of recent +date. In the silk manufacture, in which Italy ranks second only to +China, and far beyond all other competitors, 81,165 women and 25,373 +children were employed in 1877, chiefly in unwinding cocoons, the number +at present having increased nearly ten per cent. In the cotton industry +there were employed, at the time of the same census, 2,696 women and +2,520 children; and a proportionate increase in numbers has taken place. +In the flax and hemp industries nearly seventy <a name="Page_180" id="Page_180" />thousand workers used +hand-looms at home, the larger proportion of these being women. In the +factories it was found that 2,565 women and 1,227 children were at work +as spinners, and 3,394 women and 1,020 children as weavers. Women are +steadily employed in the manufacture of straw hats and bonnets, in jute +in many forms, in cigar and cigarette making, and in many other +industries, cheap clothing leading. Of the thirty millions and more of +population, not quite half are women; and of these nearly half are +wage-earners, the majority in unrecorded forms of labor,—chiefly +household service or the care of their own homes, with some petty +industry adding its mite to the yearly income. But industrial training +has but begun for Italy. The wage is pitiably low, the conditions of +living hard and full of privation; nor can these facts alter till better +education and organization have been brought about. The latest Italian +census is not yet published; but proofs of tables of the comparative +wage for twenty years in some of the principal industries have been sent +me through the courtesy of Signor Luigi Bodio, the minister of +agriculture, commerce, and general statistics. From <a name="Page_181" id="Page_181" />these tables it is +found that the daily wage of women cotton-spinners has risen from sixty +centimes, in 1871, to one franc twenty-six centimes in 1891, this being +the equivalent of one lire twenty-six centissimi. The wage for weaving +has risen from eighty centimes, in 1871, to one franc twenty-six +centimes in 1891. Spoolers in 1871 received eighty-eight centimes as +against one franc thirty centimes in 1891. In hemp-spinning the wage has +fallen from ninety to eighty centimes, but has risen from ninety-eight +centimes to one franc thirty centimes for twisting; the wage in the +cases cited being a little more than a third that of men. In +paper-making experienced workers now receive one franc fifty-two +centimes as against sixty-six centimes in 1871; and in making of +stearine candles one franc as against seventy-eight centimes in 1871. +Running through the tables of every industry, the average is about the +same,—the wage for women, even when doing the same work, hardly more +than a third that for men, and the amount for either at bare subsistence +point.</p> + +<p>In Russia the woman's wage is but a fifth that of men, with working +conditions, save at a few <a name="Page_182" id="Page_182" />points where the work of Professor Janzhul +and his confrères has told, at the very worst,—the day being from +twelve to sixteen hours long even in the best-managed factories, while +in the village industries, which, owing to the peculiar conditions of +Russian life, make up the larger proportion of her industries, it is for +many workers almost unending, the merest respite being given for sleep. +As yet but few authentic figures as to the numbers employed are given, +though on the first investigation into domestic industries made a few +years since it was found that over 890,000 were engaged in them, and +also at the same time in agriculture. Manufacturing in Russia +concentrates about Moscow and St. Petersburg, which represent more than +two fifths of the whole production of the empire. The requirements of +nine tenths of the Russian people are met by domestic manufacture in the +villages, and home-weaving for the market employs over two hundred +thousand workers, other textiles, leather, etc., being dealt with in the +same way.</p> + +<p>In the other northern countries of Europe,—Norway, Sweden, and +Denmark,—manufactures are at a minimum, fisheries and agriculture being +<a name="Page_183" id="Page_183" />the chief industries. Women are employed in both; and in the few +factories there is a small proportion of women and children, working at +a wage much less than that given to men. Sweden has a most admirable +system of industrial education; and Norway and Denmark, though far less +in population, have adopted the same methods. But the limitations of all +wage-earning women are felt here in the same manner as elsewhere, the +summary for all countries being much the same. The Northern workwoman +has the advantage of training and of as keen a sense of economy as the +Frenchwoman; but her wage is most usually at or below subsistence point, +and her difficulties are those of the worker in general,—long hours, +insufficient pay, and fierce competition.</p> + +<p>As to the present laws concerning the length of the working-day, a +general abstract is found in a return issued in reply to an address from +the House of Commons, an abstract of which was given in "St. James' +Gazette":—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"In France the hours of adult labor are regulated by a series of + decrees, of which the earliest, promulgated September, 1848, enacts + that the workingman's day in manufactories and mills shall not + exceed twelve <a name="Page_184" id="Page_184" />hours of 'effective' or actual labor. A decree + issued in May, 1851, made exceptions, so that more hours might be + worked in certain trades. In 1885 a circular was issued stating + that the limit of twelve hours <i>per diem</i> was not to be imposed + where hand-power was employed, but was to be confined to + manufactories and mills in which the motive power was machinery. No + workshops were to come under the clauses of the act that did not + employ more than twenty hands in any one shed. The report says: 'It + is likewise to be borne in mind that there is in France no + compulsory observance of Sunday, and no day of habitual rest.'</p> + +<p> "The reports of the French inspectors of labor appear to show that + the Act of 1848 is very loosely interpreted. It is even doubtful + whether the section limiting the actual working-day to twelve hours + was intended to include or exclude hours of rest. Practically the + legal time is made to exclude rest. This makes the working-day so + much the longer. Thus one of the French inspectors states that the + hours of attendance in factories under the Act of 1848 are from + five in the morning until seven in the evening, or a total of + fourteen hours, out of which there are twelve hours of 'effective + labor.' But the same authority also states that 'effective' time + often extends to thirteen and fourteen hours in many + weaving-establishments. Finally, we are told that, as a rule, it + may be taken that Frenchmen <a name="Page_185" id="Page_185" />employed in factories are present in + the shops at least fourteen hours out of every twenty four.</p> + +<p> "Among the countries having no laws affecting the hours of adult + labor, Germany is conspicuous. Employers, however, cannot force + their servants to work on Sundays and feast-days. Employment of + youthful or female labor in certain kinds of factories, which is + attended with special danger to health or morals, is forbidden, or + made conditional on certain regulations, by which night labor for + female work-people is especially forbidden. In Germany, as in other + countries also, women may not be employed in factories for a + certain time after childbirth. In Hesse-Darmstadt the medium + duration of labor is from ten to twelve hours,—the cases in which + the latter time is exceeded being, however, more frequent than + those in which the former is not exceeded. The normal work-day + throughout Saxony in all the principal branches of industry is from + 6 A.M. to 7 P.M., with half an hour for breakfast, an hour for + dinner, and half an hour for supper. In the manufacturing industry + there are departures from these hours, the period of work in + spinning and weaving mills not infrequently being twelve hours.</p> + +<p> "In Austria the law provides that the duration of work for factory + hands shall not exceed eleven hours out of the twenty-four, + 'exclusive' of the periods of rest. These are not to be less in the + aggregate than an hour and a half. The rule can be modified by <a name="Page_186" id="Page_186" />the + minister of commerce, in conjunction with the minister of the + interior, allowing longer hours. The hours have been so extended to + twelve hours in certain industries, such as spinning-mills, and + even to thirteen in silk manufactories. Sunday rest is enforced. In + Hungary there is no limit laid down by law, but the hours are not + generally longer than in Austria.</p> + +<p> "Concerning the actual hours of adult labor in Belgium, some + difficulty is said to be experienced in getting at the facts. The + evidence given before a Belgian royal commission showed that + railway guards are sometimes on duty for fifteen and even nineteen + and a half hours at a stretch; and the Brussels tram-way-drivers + are at work from fifteen to seventeen hours daily, with a rest of + only an hour and a half at noon. Brick-makers work during the + summer months sixteen hours a day. In the sugar refineries the + average hours are from twelve to thirteen for men and from nine to + ten for women. The cabinetmakers, both at Ghent and Brussels, + assert that they have often to work seventeen hours a day.</p> + +<p> "In Switzerland the law provides that a normal working-day shall + not exceed eleven hours, reduced on Saturdays and public holidays + to ten. Power is reserved for prolonging the working-day in certain + circumstances. Except in cases of absolute necessity Sunday labor + is prohibited, and in establishments where uninterrupted labor is + required, each working <a name="Page_187" id="Page_187" />hand must have one free Sunday out of two. + Women cannot under any circumstances be employed in night or Sunday + labor. Italy has not legislated for adults, but has made + regulations for child labor. Sweden is in the same position. Spain + and Portugal have done nothing. The general rule in the latter + country, applying to old and young, is to work from sunrise to + sunset, an hour and a half being allowed for meals. In the + Netherlands a law was recently promulgated to prevent excessive and + dangerous work by grown-up women and young persons. In Turkey the + working-day lasts from sunrise to sunset, with certain intervals + for repose and refreshment. In Russia, where there are no laws + affecting the hours of adult labor, the normal working-day in + industrial establishments averages twelve hours, though it is often + extended to fourteen and even sixteen."</p></blockquote> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188" /> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31" /><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> Histoire des Classes Ouvriers en France depuis 1789 +jusqu'à nos Jours, par E. Levasseur.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32" /><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> L'Ouvrière, par Jules Simon.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33" /><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> Prisoners of Poverty, p. 118.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34" /><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> Le Travail des Femmes au XIX. Siècle, par Paul +Leroy-Beaulieu.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35" /><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> L'Ouvrière, p. 158.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36" /><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> Le Travail des Femmes aux XIX. Siècle.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37" /><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> Annuaire de la Bourse du Travail. Volumes from 1887 to +1892 inclusive.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38" /><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> Rapport sur l'Enquête faite au nom de l'Académie Royale de +Médecine de Belgique, par la commission chargée d'étudier la question de +l'emploi des femmes dans les travaux souterrain des mines, Bruxelles, +1868. +</p><p> +Documents nouveaux relatifs au travail des femmes et des enfants, dans +les manufactures, les mines, etc, etc. Bruxelles, 1874.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX" />CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<h3>GENERAL CONDITIONS AMONG WAGE-EARNING WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES.</h3> + + +<p>The summary already made of the work of bureaus of labor and their +bearing upon women wage-earners includes some points belonging under +this head which it still seemed advisable to leave where they stand. The +work of the Massachusetts Bureau gave the keynote, followed by all +successors, and thus required full outlining; and it is from that, as +well as successors, that general conditions are to be determined. A +brief summary of such facts as each State has investigated and reported +upon will be given, with the final showing of the latest and most +general report,—that from the United States Bureau of Labor for 1889.</p> + +<p>Beginning with New England and taking State by State in the usual +geographical order, that of Maine for 1888 leads. Work here was done by +a special commissioner appointed for <a name="Page_189" id="Page_189" />the purpose, and the chief towns +and cities in the State were visited. No occupation was excluded. The +foreign element of the State is comparatively small. There is no city in +which overcrowding and its results in the tenement-house system are to +be found. Factories are numerous, and the bulk of Maine working-women +are found in them; the canning industry employs hundreds, and all trades +have their proportion of workers. For all of them conditions are better +in many ways than at almost any other point in New England, many of them +living at home and paying but a small proportion of their wages toward +the family support.</p> + +<p>A large proportion of the factories have boarding-houses attached, which +are run by a contractor. A full inspection of these was made, and the +report pronounces them to be better kept than the ordinary +boarding-house, with liberal dietary and comfortable rooms. Many of the +women owned their furniture, and had made "homes" out of the narrow +quarters. These were the better-paid class of workers. Several of the +factories have "Relief Associations," in which the employees pay a small +sum weekly, which secures them a fixed sum <a name="Page_190" id="Page_190" />during illness or +disability. The conditions, as a whole, in factory are more nearly those +of Massachusetts during the early days of the Lowell mills than can be +found elsewhere.</p> + +<p>Taking the State as a whole, though the average wage is nearly a dollar +less a week than that of Massachusetts, its buying power is somewhat +more, from the fact that rents are lower and the conditions of living +simpler, though this is true only of remote towns.</p> + +<p>Massachusetts follows; and here, as in Maine, there is general complaint +that many of the girls live at home, pay little or no board, and thus +can take a lower wage than the self-supporting worker. In the large +stores employees are hired at the lowest possible figure; and many girls +who are working for from four to five dollars per week state that it is +impossible to pay for room and board with even tolerably decent +clothing. Hundreds who want pin-money do work at a price impossible to +the self-supporting worker, many married women coming under this head; +and bitter complaint is made on this point. At the best the wage is at a +minimum, and only the most rigid economy renders it possible for the +earner to live on it. <a name="Page_191" id="Page_191" />That there is not greater suffering reflects all +honor on the army of hard-working women, pronounced by the commissioner +to be as industrious, moral, and virtuous a class as the community owns.</p> + +<p>"Homes" of every order have been established in Boston and in other +large towns in the State; and as they give board at the lowest rate, +they are filled with girls. They are rigid as to rules and regulations, +and not in favor, as a rule, with the majority. A very slight relaxing +of lines and more effort to make them cheerful would result in bringing +many who now remain outside; but in any case they can reach but a small +proportion.</p> + +<p>In unskilled labor there is little difference among the workers. All +alike are half starved, half clothed, overworked to a frightful degree; +the report specifying numbers whose day's work runs from fourteen to +sixteen hours, and with neither time to learn some better method of +earning a living, nor hope enough to spur them on in any new path. This +class is found chiefly among sewing-women on cheap clothing, bags, etc.; +and there is no present means of reaching them or altering the +conditions which surround them.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192" />Connecticut factories are subject to the same general laws as those +governing like work in Maine and Massachusetts. Over thirty thousand +women and girls are engaged in factory work, and ten thousand +children,—chiefly girls, women being twenty-five per cent of all +employed in factories. Legislation has lessened or abolished altogether +some of the worst features of this life, and there are special mills +which have won the highest reputation for just dealing and care of every +interest of their employees. But the same reasons that affect general +conditions for all workers exist here also, and produce the same +results, not only in factory labor, but in all other industries open to +women. The fact that there are no large cities, and thus little +overcrowding in tenements, and that there is home life for a large +proportion of the workers, tells in their favor. Factory boarding-houses +fairly well kept abound; but the average wage, $6.50, is a trifle lower +than that of Massachusetts, and implies more difficulty in making ends +meet. Many of the worst abuses in child labor arose in Connecticut, and +the reports for both 1885 and 1886 state that for both women and +children much remains to be done. Clothing here, as <a name="Page_193" id="Page_193" />elsewhere, is +synonymous with overwork and underpay, the wage being below subsistence +point; and want of training is often found to be a portion of the reason +for these conditions.</p> + +<p>In Rhode Island, as in all the New England States, the majority of the +factories are in excellent condition, the older ones alone being open to +the objections justly made both by employees and the reports of the +Labor Bureau. The wage falls below that of Connecticut, while the +general conditions of living are practically the same, the statements +made as to the first applying with equal force to the last. Manufactures +are the chief employment, the largest number of women workers being +found in these. Of all of them the commissioner reports: "They work +harder and more hours than men, and receive much less pay."<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39" /><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> The fact +of no large cities, and thus no slums, is in the worker's favor; but +limitations are in all other points sharp and continuous.</p> + +<p>New York follows, and for the State at large the same remarks apply at +every point. It is New York City in which focuses every evil that hedges +about women workers, and in a degree <a name="Page_194" id="Page_194" />not to be found at any other +portion of the country. These will be dealt with in the proper place. +The average wage, so far as the State is concerned, gives the same +result as those already mentioned. Manufacturing gives large employment; +and this is under as favorable conditions as in New England, though the +average wage is nearly a dollar less than that of Massachusetts, while +expenses are in some ways higher. The incessant tide of foreign labor +tends steadily to lower the wage-rate, and the struggle for mere +subsistence is the fact for most.</p> + +<p>In New York City, while there is a large proportion of successful +workers, there is an enormous mass of the lowest order. No other city +offers so varied a range of employment, and there is none where so large +a number are found earning a wage far below the "life limit."</p> + +<p>The better-paying trades are filled with women who have had some form of +training in school or home, or have passed from one occupation to +another, till that for which they had most aptitude has been determined. +That, however, to which all the more helpless turn at once, as the one +thing about the doing of which there can be no doubt or difficulty, is +the one most over-<a name="Page_195" id="Page_195" />crowded, most underpaid, and with its scale of +payments lessening year by year. The girl too ignorant to reckon +figures, too dull-witted to learn by observation, takes refuge in sewing +in one of its many forms as the one thing possible to all grades of +intelligence; often the need of work for older women arises from the +death or evil habits of the natural head of the family, and fortunes +have sunk to so low an ebb that at times the only clothing left is on +the back of the worker in the last stages of demoralization. Employment +in a respectable place thus becomes impossible, and the sole method of +securing work is through the middlemen or sweaters, who ask no questions +and require no reference, but make as large a profit as can be wrung +from the helplessness and bitter need of those with whom they reckon.</p> + +<p>The difficulties to be faced by the woman whose only way of self-support +is limited to the needle, whether in machine or handwork, are fourfold: +first, her own incompetency must very often head the list, and prevent +her from securing first-class work; second, middlemen or sweaters lower +the price to starvation point; third, contract work done in prisons or +reforma<a name="Page_196" id="Page_196" />tories brings about the same result; and fourth, she is underbid +from still another quarter,—that of the countrywoman living at home, +who takes the work at any price offered.</p> + +<p>The Report of the New York Bureau of Labor for 1885 contains a mass of +evidence so fearful in its character, and demonstrating conditions of +life so tragic for the worker, and so shameful on the part of the +employer, that general attention was for the time aroused. It is +impossible here to make more than this general statement referring all +readers to the report itself for full detail. Thousands herded together +in tenement houses and received a daily wage of from twenty-five to +sixty cents, the day's labor being often sixteen hours long. "The Bitter +Cry of Outcast London" found its parallel here, nor has there been any +diminution of the numbers involved, though at some points conditions +have been improved. But the facts recorded in the report are practically +the same to-day; and the income of many workers falls below two dollars +a week, from which sum food, clothing, light, fuel, and rent are to be +provided for. The sum and essence of every wrong and injustice that can +hedge about the worker is found at this <a name="Page_197" id="Page_197" />point, and remains a problem to +every worker among the poor, the solving of which will mean the solution +of the whole labor question.</p> + +<p>New Jersey reports have from the beginning followed the phases of the +labor movement with a keen intelligence and interest. They give general +conditions as much the same as those of New York State. The wage-rate is +but $5; and Newark especially, a city which is filled with manufacturing +establishments of every order, reproduces some of the evil conditions of +New York City, though in far less degree. Taking the State as a whole, +legislation has done much to protect the worker, and other reforms are +persistently urged by the bureau. They are needed. In the official +report of conditions among the linen-thread spinners of Paterson we +find: "In one branch of this industry women are compelled to stand on a +stone floor in water the year round, most of the time barefoot, with a +spray of water from a revolving cylinder flying constantly against the +breast; and the coldest night in winter, as well as the warmest in +summer, these poor creatures must go to their homes with water dripping +from their underclothing along their path, because there could <a name="Page_198" id="Page_198" />not be +space or a few moments allowed them wherein to change their +clothing."<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40" /><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></p> + +<p>Thus much for the East; and we turn to the West, where some of the most +practical and suggestive forms of investigation are now in full +operation.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199" /> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39" /><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> Third Annual Report of the Commissioner of Industrial +Statistics of Rhode Island, 1889, p. 22.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40" /><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> Report of the Bureau of Labor for the State of New Jersey, +1888.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="X" id="X" />X.</h2> + +<h3>GENERAL CONDITIONS IN THE WESTERN STATES.</h3> + + +<p>The reports from Kansas and Wisconsin give a wage but slightly above +that of New Jersey, the weekly average being $5.27. Of the 50,000 women +at work in 1889,—the number having now nearly doubled,—but 6,000 were +engaged in manufacturing, the larger portion being in domestic service. +Save in one or two of the larger towns and cities, there is no +overcrowding, and few of the conditions that go with a denser population +and sharper competition. Kansas gives large space to general conditions, +and, while urging better pay, finds that her working-women are, as a +whole, honest, self-respecting, moral members of the community. Factory +workers are few in proportion to those in other occupations; and this is +true of most of the Western States, where general industries are found +rather than manufactures.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200" />The report from Colorado for 1889 includes in its own returns certain +facts discovered on investigation in Ohio and Indiana, and matched by +some of the same nature in Colorado. The methods of Eastern competition +had been adopted, and Commissioner Rice reports:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"In one of the large cities of Ohio the labor commissioners of that + State discovered that shirts were being made for 36 cents a dozen; + and that the rules of one establishment paying such wages employing + a large number of females, required that the day's labor should + commence and terminate with prayer and thanksgiving."</p></blockquote> + +<p>In Indiana matters appear even worse. By personal investigation, it was +found that the following rates of wages were being paid in manufacturing +establishments in Indianapolis: For making shirts, 30 to 60 cents a +dozen; overalls, 40 to 60 cents a dozen pairs; pants, 50 cents to $1.25 +per dozen pairs. "In our own State," writes the commissioner, "owing to +Eastern competition on the starvation wage plan, are found women and +girls working for mere subsistence, though the prices paid here are a +shade higher. It is found that shirts <a name="Page_201" id="Page_201" />are made at 80 cents a dozen, and +summer dresses from 25 cents upward."</p> + +<p>Prices are higher here than at almost any other portion of the United +States, and thus the wage gives less return. In spite of the general +impression that women fare well at this point, the report gives various +details which seem to prove abuses of many orders. It made special +investigation into the conditions of domestic service, that in hotels +and large boarding-houses being found to be full of abuses, though +conditions as a whole were favorable. In so new a State there are few +manufacturing interests; and the factories investigated are many of them +reported as showing an almost criminal disregard of the comfort and +interests of the employees. Aside from this, the report indicates much +the same general conditions as prevail in other States.</p> + +<p>In Minnesota, with its average wage of $6 per week, there are few +factories,—manufacturing being confined to clothing, boots and shoes, +and a few other forms. Domestic service has the largest number of women +employed, and stores and trades absorb the remainder. There is no +overcrowding save here and there in the <a name="Page_202" id="Page_202" />cities, as in St. Paul or +Minneapolis, where girls often club together in rooming. While many of +the workers are Scandinavian, many are native born; and for the latter +there is often much thrift and a comfortable standard of living. The +same complaints as to lowness of wage, resulting from much the same +causes as those specified elsewhere, are heard; and in the clothing +manufacture wages are kept at the lowest possible point As a whole, the +returns indicate more comfort than in Colorado, but leave full room for +betterment. The chapter on "Domestic Service" shows many strong reasons +why girls prefer factory or general work to this; and as the views of +heads of employment agencies are also given, unusual opportunity is +afforded for forming just judgment in the matter.</p> + +<p>Next on the list comes the report from California for 1887 and 1888. The +resources of the bureau were so limited that it was impossible to obtain +returns for the whole State, and the commissioner therefore limited his +inquiry to a thorough investigation of the working-women of San +Francisco, in number about twenty thousand. The State has but one +<a name="Page_203" id="Page_203" />cotton-mill, but there are silk, jute, woollen, corset, and shirt +factories, with many minor industries. Home and general sanitary +conditions were all investigated, the bureau following the general lines +pursued by all.</p> + +<p>Wages are considered at length; and Commissioner Tobin states that the +rate paid to women in California "does not compare favorably with the +rates paid to women in the Eastern States, as do the wages of men, for +the reason that Chinese come more into competition with women than with +men. This is especially the case among seamstresses, and in nearly all +our factories ... in other lines of labor the wages paid to females in +this State are generally higher than elsewhere."</p> + +<p>Rent, food, and clothing cost more in California than in the Eastern +States. The wage-tables show that the tendency is to limit a woman's +wage to a dollar a day, even in the best paid trades, and as much below +this as labor can be obtained.</p> + +<p>In shirt-making, Commissioner Tobin states that she is worse off than in +any of the Eastern States. Clothing of all orders pays as little as +possible, the best workwomen often making <a name="Page_204" id="Page_204" />not over $2.87 per week. Even +at these starvation rates, girls prefer factory work to domestic +service; and as this phase was also investigated, we have another +chapter of most valuable and suggestive information. In spite of low +wages and all the hardship resulting, working women and girls as a whole +are found to be precisely what the reports state them to +be,—hard-working, honest, and moral members of the community. General +conditions are much the same as those of Colorado, the summary for all +the States from which reports have come being that the average wage is +insufficient to allow of much more than mere subsistence.</p> + +<p>The labor reports for the State of Missouri for 1889 and 1890 do not +deal directly with the question of women wage-earners; but indirectly +much light is thrown by the investigation, in that for 1889, into the +cost of living and the home conditions of many miners and workers in +general trades; while that for 1890 covers a wider field, and gives, +with general conditions for all workers, detailed information as to many +frauds practised upon them. The commissioner, Lee Merriweather, is so +identified <a name="Page_205" id="Page_205" />with the interests of the worker, whether man or woman, that +a formal report from him on women wage-earners would have had especial +value.</p> + +<p>Last on the list of State reports comes an admirable one from Michigan, +prepared by Labor Commissioner Henry A. Robinson, issued in February, +1892, which devotes nearly two hundred pages to women wage-earners, and +gives careful statistics of 137 different trades and 378 occupations. +Personal visits were made to 13,436 women and girls living in the most +important manufacturing towns and cities of the State; and the blanks, +which were prepared in the light of the experience gained by the work of +other bureaus, contained 129 questions, classified as follows: social, +28; industrial, 12; hours of labor, 14; economic, 54; sanitary, 21; and +seven other questions as to dress, societies, church attendance, with +remarks and suggestions by the women workers. The result is a very +minute knowledge of general conditions, the series of tables given being +admirably prepared. In those on the hours of labor it is found that +domestic service exacts the greatest number of hours; one class +returning fourteen hours as the rule. In this lies a hint of the +<a name="Page_206" id="Page_206" />increasing objection to domestic service,—longer hours and less +freedom being the chief counts against it. The final summary gives the +average wage for the State as $4.86; the highest weekly average for +women workers employed as teachers or in public positions being $10.78.</p> + +<p>The remarks and suggestions of the women themselves are extraordinarily +helpful. Outside the cities organization among them is unknown; but it +is found that those trades which are organized furnish the best paid and +most intelligent class of girls, who conceived at once the benefits of a +labor bureau, and answered fully and promptly. The hours of work in all +industries ranged from nine to ten, and the wage paid was found to be a +little more than fifty per cent less than that of men engaged in the +same work. A large proportion supported relatives, and general +conditions as to living were of much the same order of comfort and +discomfort as those given in other reports. The fact that this report is +the latest on this subject, and more minute in detail than has before +been possible, makes it invaluable to the student of social conditions; +and it is entertaining reading, even for the average reader.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207" />We come now to the final report, in some ways a summary of all,—that +of the United States Labor Department at Washington, and the work for +1889.</p> + +<p>In the twenty-two cities investigated by the agents of this bureau, the +average age at which girls began work was found to be 15 years and 4 +months. Charleston, S.C., gives the highest average, it being there 18 +years and 7 months, and Newark, N.J., the lowest,—14 years and 7 +months. The average period in which all had been engaged in their +present occupations is shown to be 4 years and 9 months; while of the +total number interviewed, 9,540 were engaged in their first attempt to +earn a living.</p> + +<p>As against the opinion often expressed that foreign workers are in the +majority, we find that of the whole number given, 14,120 were native +born. Of the foreign born, Ireland is most largely represented, having +936; and Germany comes next, with 775. In the matter of parentage, +12,907 had foreign-born mothers. The number of single women included in +the report is 15,387; 745 were married, and 2,038 widowed, from which it +is evident that, as a rule, it is single women who are fighting the +industrial fight alone. <a name="Page_208" id="Page_208" />They are not only supporting themselves, but +are giving their earnings largely to the support of others at home. More +than half—8,754—do this; and 9,813, besides their occupation, help in +the home housekeeping. Of the total number, 4,928 live at home, but only +701 of them receive aid or board from their families. The average number +in these families is 5.25, and each contains 2.48 workers.</p> + +<p>Concerning education, church attendance, home and shop conditions, +15,831 reported. Of these, 10,458 were educated in American public +schools, and 5,375 in other schools; 5,854 attend Protestant churches; +7,769 the Catholic, and 367 the Hebrew. A very large percentage, +comprehending 3,209, do not attend church at all.</p> + +<p>In home conditions 12,120 report themselves as "comfortable," while +4,692 give home conditions as "poor." "Poor," to the ordinary observer, +is to be interpreted as wretched, including overcrowding, and all the +numberless evils of tenement-house life, which is the portion of many. A +side light is thrown on personal characteristics of the workers, in the +tables of earnings and lost time. Out of 12,822 who <a name="Page_209" id="Page_209" />reported, 373 earn +less than $100 a year, and this class has an average of 86.5 lost days +for the year covered by the investigation. With the increase of +earnings, the lost time decreases, the 2,147 who earn from $200 to $450 +losing but 37.8; while 398, earning from $350 to $500 a year, lost but +18.3 days.</p> + +<p>Deliberate cruelty and injustice on the part of the employer are +encountered only now and then; but competition forces the working in as +inexpensive a manner as possible, and thus often makes what must sum up +as cruelty and injustice necessary to the continued existence of the +employer as an industrial factor. Home conditions are seldom beyond +tolerable, and very often intolerable. Inspection,—the efficiency of +which has greatly increased,—the demand by the organized charities at +all points for women inspectors, and the gradual growth of popular +interest are bringing about a few improvements, and will bring more; but +the mass everywhere are as stated. Ignorance and the vices that +accompany ignorance—want of thoroughness, unpunctuality, +thriftlessness, and improvidence—are all in the count against the +lowest order of worker; but the better class, <a name="Page_210" id="Page_210" />and indeed the large +proportion of the lower, are living honest, self-respecting, infinitely +dreary lives.</p> + +<p>It is a popular belief, already referred to elsewhere, that the +working-women form a large proportion of the numbers who fill houses of +prostitution; and that "night-walkers" are made up chiefly from the same +class. Nothing could be further from the truth,—the testimony of the +fifteenth annual report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor being in +the same line as that of all in which investigation of the subject has +been made, and all confirming the opinion given. The investigation of +the Massachusetts Bureau in fourteen cities showed clearly that a very +small proportion among working-women entered this life. The largest +number, classed by occupations, came from the lowest order of worker, +those employed in housework and hotels; and the next largest was found +among seamstresses, employees of shirt-factories, and cloak-makers, all +of these industries in which under pay is proverbial. The great +majority, receiving not more than five dollars a week, earn it by seldom +less than ten hours a day of hard labor, and not only live on the sum, +but assist <a name="Page_211" id="Page_211" />friends, contribute to general household expenses, dress so +as to appear fairly well, and have learned every art of doing without. +More than this, since the deepening interest in their lives, and the +formation of working-girls' clubs and societies of many orders, they +contribute from this scanty sum enough to rent meeting-rooms, pay for +instruction in many classes, and provide a relief fund for sick and +disabled members.</p> + +<p>This is the summary of conditions as a whole, and we pass now to the +specific evils and abuses in trades and general industries.</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="XI" id="XI" /><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212" />XI.</h2> + +<h3>SPECIFIC EVILS AND ABUSES IN FACTORY LIFE AND IN GENERAL TRADES.</h3> + + +<p>"Has civilization civilized?" is the involuntary question, as one by one +the fearful conditions hedging about workers on either side of the sea +become apparent. At once, in any specific investigation, we face abuses +for which the system of production rather than the employer is often +responsible, and for which science has as yet found either none or but a +partial remedy. Alike in England and on the Continent work and torture +become synonyms, and flesh and blood the cheapest of all +nineteenth-century products. The best factory system swarms with +problems yet unsolved; the worst, as it may be found in many a remote +district of the Continent and even in England itself, is appalling in +both daily fact and final result. It would seem at times as if the +workshop meant only a form of preparation for the <a name="Page_213" id="Page_213" />hospital, the +workhouse, and the prison, since the workers therein become inoculated +with trade diseases, mutilated by trade appliances, and corrupted by +trade associates, till no healthy fibre, mental, moral, or physical, +remains.</p> + +<p>In the nail and chain making districts of England, Sundays are often +abolished where these furnaces flame, and such rest as can be stolen +comes on the cinder-heaps. But these workers are few compared with the +myriads who must battle with the most insidious and most potent of +enemies,—the dust of modern manufacture. There is dust of heckling +flax, with an average of only fourteen years of work for the strongest; +dust of emery powder, that has been known to destroy in a month; dust of +pottery and sand and flint, so penetrating that the medical returns give +cases of "stone" for new-born babes; dust of rags foul with dirt and +breeding fever in the picker; dust of wools from diseased animals, +striking down the sorter. Wood, coal, flour, each has its own, +penetrating where it can never be dislodged; and a less tangible enemy +lurks in poisonous paints for flowers or wall-paper, and in white lead, +the <a name="Page_214" id="Page_214" />foundation of other paints,—blotching the skin of children, and +ending for many in blindness, paralysis, and hideous sores.</p> + +<p>This is one form; and side by side with it comes another, dealt with +here and there, but as a rule ignored,—vapors as deadly as dust; vapors +of muriatic acid from pickling tins; of choking chlorine from +bleaching-rooms; of gas and phosphorus, which even now, where strongest +preventives are used, still pull away both teeth and jaws from many a +worker in match-factories; while acids used in cleaning, +bleaching-powders, and many an industry where women and children chiefly +are employed, eat into hands and clothing, and make each hour a torture.</p> + +<p>With the countless forms of machinery for stamping and rolling and +cutting and sawing, there is yet, in spite of all the safeguards the law +compels, the saying still heard in these shops: "It takes three fingers +to make a stamper." Carelessness often; but where two must work +together, as is necessary in tending many of these machines, the +partner's inattention is often responsible, and mutilation comes through +no fault of one's own. Add <a name="Page_215" id="Page_215" />to all these the suffering of little +children taught lace-making at four, sewing on buttons or picking +threads far into the night, and driven through the long hours that they +may add sixpence to the week's wage, and we have a hint of the grewsome +catalogue of the human woe born of human need and human greed.</p> + +<p>For the United States there is a steadily lessening proportion of these +evils, and we shall deal chiefly with those found in existence by the +respective bureaus of labor at the time when their investigations were +made. Private and public investigation made before their organization +had brought to light in Connecticut, and at many points in New England, +gross abuses both in child labor and that of woman and girl workers. It +is sufficient, however, for our purpose to refer the reader to the +mention of these contained in the first report of the Massachusetts +Bureau of Labor, as well as to Dr. Richard T. Ely's "History of the +Labor Movement in America," and to pass at once to the facts contained +in the fifteenth report from Massachusetts.</p> + +<p>The ventilation of factories and of work<a name="Page_216" id="Page_216" />rooms in general is one of the +first points considered. Naturally, facts of this order would be found +in the testimony only of the more intelligent. Where factories are new +and built expressly for their own purposes, ventilation is considered, +and in many is excellent. But in smaller ones and in many industries the +structures used were not intended for this purpose. Closely built +buildings shut off both light and air, which must come wholly from +above, thus preventing circulation, and producing an effect both +depressing and wearing. The agents in a number of cases found employees +packed "like sardines in a box;" thirty-five persons, for example, in a +small attic without ventilation of any kind. Some were in very +low-studded rooms, with no ventilation save from windows, causing bad +draughts and much sickness, and others in basements where dampness was +added to cold and bad air.</p> + +<p>In many cases the nature of the trade compelled closed windows, and no +provision was made for ventilation in any other way. In one case girls +were working in "little pens all shelved over, without sufficient light +or air, <a name="Page_217" id="Page_217" />windows not being open, for fear of cooling wax thread used on +sewing-machines."<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41" /><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a></p> + +<p>For a large proportion of the workrooms visited or reported upon was a +condition ranging from dirty to filthy. In some where men and women were +employed together in tailoring, the report reads: "Their shop is filthy +and unfit to work in. There are no conveniences for women; and men and +women use the same closets, wash-basins, and drinking-cups, etc."<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42" /><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> In +another a water-closet in the centre of the room filled it with a +sickening stench; yet forty hands were at work here, and there are many +cases in which the location of these closets and the neglect of proper +disinfectants make not only workrooms but factories breeding-grounds of +disease.</p> + +<p>Lack of ventilation in almost all industries is the first evil, and one +of the most insidious. Other points affecting health are found in the +nature of certain of the trades and the conditions under which they must +be carried on. Feather-sorters, fur-workers, cotton-sorters, all +<a name="Page_218" id="Page_218" />workers on any material that gives off dust, are subject to lung and +bronchial troubles. In soap-factories the girls' hands are eaten by the +caustic soda, and by the end of the day the fingers are often raw and +bleeding. In making buttons, pins, and other manufactures of this +nature, there is always liability of getting the fingers jammed or +caught. For the first three times the wounds are dressed without charge. +After that the person injured must pay expenses. In these and many other +trades work must be so closely watched that it brings on weakness of the +eyes, so that many girls are under treatment for this.</p> + +<p>In bakeries the girls stand from ten to sixteen hours a day, and break +down after a short time. Boots and shoes oblige being on the feet all +day; and this is the case for saleswomen, cash-girls, and all +factory-workers. In type-founderies the air is always filled with a fine +dust produced by rubbing, and the girls employed have no color in their +faces. In paper-box making constant standing brings on the same +difficulties found among all workers who stand all day; and they +complain also of the poison often resulting from the coloring <a name="Page_219" id="Page_219" />matter +used in making the boxes. In book-binderies, brush-manufactories, etc., +the work soon breaks down the girls.</p> + +<p>In the clothing-business, where the running of heavy sewing-machines is +done by foot-power, there is a fruitful source of disease; and even +where steam is used, the work is exhausting, and soon produces weakness +and various difficulties.</p> + +<p>In food preparations girls who clean and pack fish get blistered hands +and fingers from the saltpetre employed by the fishermen. Others in +"working-stalls" stand in cold water all day, and have the hands in cold +water; and in laundries, confectionery establishments, etc., excessive +heat and standing in steam make workers especially liable to throat and +lung diseases, as well as those induced by continuous standing.</p> + +<p>Straw goods produce a fine dust, and cause a constant hacking among the +girls at work upon them; and the acids used in setting the colors often +produce "acid sores" upon the ends of the fingers.</p> + +<p>In match-factories, as already mentioned, even with the usual +precautions, necrosis often <a name="Page_220" id="Page_220" />attacks the worker, and the jaw is eaten +away. Sores, ulcerations, and suffering of many orders are the portion +of workers in chemicals. In many cases a little expenditure on the part +of the employer would prevent this; but unless brought up by an +inspector, no precautions are taken.</p> + +<p>The question of seats for saleswomen comes up periodically, has been at +some points legislated upon, and is in most stores ignored or evaded. +"The girls look better,—more as if they were ready for work," is the +word of one employer, who frankly admitted that he did not mean they +should sit; and this is the opinion acted upon by most. Insufficient +time for meals is a universal complaint; and nine times out of ten, the +conveniences provided are insufficient for the numbers who must use +them, and thus throw off offensive and dangerous effluvia.</p> + +<p>It is one of the worst evils in shop life, not only for Massachusetts, +but for the entire United States, that in all large stores, where fixed +rules must necessarily be adopted, girls are forced to ask men for +permission to go to closets, and often must run the gauntlet of men <a name="Page_221" id="Page_221" />and +boys. All physicians who treat this class testify to the fact that many +become seriously diseased as the result of unwillingness to subject +themselves to this ordeal.</p> + +<p>One of the ablest factory-inspectors in this country, or indeed in any +country, Mrs. Fanny B. Ames of Boston, reports this as one of the least +regarded points in a large proportion of the factories and manufacturing +establishments visited, but adds that it arises often from pure +ignorance and carelessness, and is remedied as soon as attention is +called to it.</p> + +<p>Taking up the other New England reports in which reference to these +evils is found, the testimony is the same. Law is often evaded or wholly +set aside,—at times through carelessness, at others wilfully. The most +exhaustive treatment of this subject in all its bearings is found in the +report of the New Jersey Bureau of Labor for 1889, the larger portion of +it being devoted to the fullest consideration of the hygiene of +occupation, the diseases peculiar to special trades, and general +sanitary condition and methods of working, not only in "dangerous, +unhealthy, or noxious trades," but in all. Commissioner Bishop, from +whose report quo<a name="Page_222" id="Page_222" />tations have already been made (p. 197), gives many +instances of working under fearful conditions, absolutely destructive to +health and often to morals; and the report may be regarded as one of the +most authoritative words yet spoken in this direction.</p> + +<p>The Factory Inspection Law for the State of New York, in detail much the +same as that of Massachusetts, is sufficiently full and explicit to +secure to all workers better conditions than any as yet attained save in +isolated cases. There is, however, constant violation of its most vital +points; and this must remain true for all States, until the number of +inspectors is made in some degree adequate to the demand. At present +they are not only seriously overworked, but find it impossible to cover +the required ground. The law which stands at present as the demand to be +made by all factory-workers and all interested in intelligent +legislation, will be found in the Appendix.</p> + +<p>Destructive to health and morals as are often the factories and +workshops in which women must work, they play far less part in their +lives than the homes afforded by the great cities, where the poor herd +in quarters,—at their best <a name="Page_223" id="Page_223" />only tolerable shelters, at their worst +unfit for man or beast. It is the tenement-house question that in these +words presents itself for consideration, and that makes part of the +general problem. Taking New York as illustrative of some of the worst +forms of over-crowding, though Boston and Chicago are not far behind, we +turn to the work of one of the closest and most competent of observers, +Dr. Annie S. Daniel, for many years physician in charge of out-practice +for the New York Infirmary for Women and Children. The report of this +practice for 1891 includes a series of facts bearing vitally on every +phase of woman's labor. Known as an expert in these directions, her +testimony was called for in the examination of 1893 into the +sweating-system of New York, made by a congressional committee and now +on record in a report to be had on application to the New York +Congressmen at Washington.<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43" /><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> For years she has watched the effects of +child-labor, taking hundreds of measurements of special cases, and +studying the effects of the life mothers <a name="Page_224" id="Page_224" />and children alike were +compelled to live. "The medical problems," she writes, "which present +themselves to the physician are so closely connected with the social +problems that it is impossible to study one alone. The people are sick +because of insufficient food and clothing and unsanitary surroundings, +and these conditions exist because the people are poor. They are often +poor <i>because they have no work</i>." At another point, commenting on +drinking among the poor, she writes: "Drinking among the women is +increasing. In the majority of cases we have studied, it has been the +effect of poverty, not the cause."</p> + +<p>In the region between Houston Street and Canal Street, known now to be +the most thickly populated portion of the inhabited globe, every house +is a factory; that is, some form of manufacture is going on in every +room. The average family of five adds to itself from two to ten more, +often a sewing-machine to each person; and from six or seven in the +morning till far into the night work goes on,—usually the manufacture +of clothing. Here contagious diseases pass from one to another. Here +babies are born and babies die, the work never paus<a name="Page_225" id="Page_225" />ing save for death +and hardly for that. In one of these homes Dr. Daniel found a family of +five making cigars, the mother included. "Two of the children were ill +of diphtheria. Both parents attended to these children; they would +syringe the nose of each child, and without washing their hands return +to their cigars. We have repeatedly observed the same thing when the +work was manufacturing clothing and undergarments to be bought as well +by the rich as by the poor. Hand-sewed shoes, made for a fashionable +Broadway shoe-store, were sewed at home by a man in whose family were +three children sick with scarlet-fever. And such instances are common. +Only death or lack of work closes tenement-house manufactories ... When +we consider that stopping this work means no food and no roof over their +heads, the fact that the disease may be carried by their work cannot be +expected to impress the people."</p> + +<p>Farther on in the report, she adds: "The people can neither be moral nor +healthy until they have decent homes." Yet the present wage-rate makes +decent homes impossible; and though Brooklyn and Boston have a few model +<a name="Page_226" id="Page_226" />tenement-houses, New York has none, the experiment of making over in +part a few old ones hardly counting save in intention. Into these homes +respectable, ambitious, hard-working girls and women are compelled to +go. That they live decent lives speaks worlds for the intrinsic goodness +and purity of nature which in the midst of conditions intolerable to +every sense still preserves these characteristics. That they must live +in such surroundings is one of the deepest disgraces of civilization.</p> + +<p>As to wages, concerning which there seems to be a general opinion that +steady rise has gone on, we find Dr. Daniel giving the rates for many +years. She writes:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"Wages have steadily decreased. Among the women who earned the + whole or part of the income, finishing pantaloons was the most + common occupation. For this work, in 1881, they received ten to + fifteen cents a pair; for the same work in 1891, three to five, at + the most ten cents a pair. The women doing this work claim that + wages are reduced because of the influx of Italian women, but few + Italian women do the poor quality of trousers. While we are glad to + note some excellent sanitary changes in the tenement-house + construction, the people we believe to be just as poor, just as + overcrowded and wretched to-day, as <a name="Page_227" id="Page_227" />in 1881 and 1853, the only + difference being that there are a greater number of people who are + poor now."</p></blockquote> + +<p>These statements apply in great part to unskilled labor; but there is +always in these houses a large proportion of skilled labor disabled by +sickness or other causes and out of work for the time being. The wage at +best for skilled labor is given by the Labor Commissioner as $5.29. Let +any one study the possibilities of this sum per week, and the wonder +will arise, not why living is not easier, but how it goes on at all.</p> + +<p>Specific evils speak for themselves, and are gradually being eliminated. +They are before the eyes, and the least experienced student may gauge +their bearing and judge their effects. But wider-reaching than any or +all the worst abuses of the worst trades is the wrong done to the child +and to family life as a whole, by the continuous labor of married women +in factories, or at any occupation which demands, for ten hours or more +a day, unremitting toil. At all points where scientific observation has +been made the expert lifts up a warning voice. It is the future of the +race that is in question. Child labor, while not entering directly <a name="Page_228" id="Page_228" />into +our present examination, is, as has already been said, inextricably +bound up with the question of woman's work and wages. The two must be +studied together; and for our own country there are already admirable +monographs on this subject,<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44" /><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> two authoritative ones coming from the +American Economic Association, and one hardly less so from a close and +keen observer whose scientific training gives her equal right to form +conclusions.<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45" /><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a></p> + +<p>A dispassionate observer, Mr. W. Stanley Jevons, whose conclusions are +founded on long investigation and deduction, years ago wrote words which +he has at various times emphasized and repeated, and which sum up the +evils to which the infancy of the children of overworked mothers is +subject, as well as the consequences to the State in which they are +born, and which faces the results of the system which produces them. He +writes as follows:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"We can help evolution by the aid of its own highest and latest + product,—science. When all the <a name="Page_229" id="Page_229" />teaching of medical and social + science lead us to look upon the absence of the mother from the + home as the cause of the gravest possible evils, can we be + warranted in standing passively by, allowing this evil to work + itself out to the bitter end, by the process of natural selection? + Something might perhaps be said in favor of the present apathetic + mode of viewing this question, if natural selection were really + securing the survival of the fittest, so that only the weakly babes + were killed off, and the strong ones well brought up. But it is + much to be feared that no infants ever really recover from the test + of virtual starvation to which they are so ruthlessly exposed. The + vital powers are irreparably crippled, and the infant grows up a + stunted, miserable specimen of humanity, the prey to every physical + and moral evil."<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46" /><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a></p></blockquote> + +<p>It is hardly necessary to go on specifying special violations of +sanitary law or special illustrative cases. The Report of the New York +Bureau of Labor for 1885 is a magazine of such cases,—a summary of all +the horrors that the worst conditions can include. Aside from the +revolting pictures of the life lived from day to day by the workers +themselves, it gives in detail case after case of <a name="Page_230" id="Page_230" />rapacity and +over-reaching on the part of the employers; and parallel ones may be +found in every labor report which has touched upon the subject.</p> + +<p>In New York a "Working Woman's Protective Union," formed more than +twenty-five years ago, has done unceasing work in settling disputed +claims and collecting wages unjustly withheld. No case is entered on +their books which has not been examined by their lawyer, and thus only +well grounded complaints find record; but with even these precautions +the records show nearly fifty thousand adjudicated since they began +work. Many cities have special committees, in the organized charities, +who seek to cover the same ground, but who find it impossible to do all +that is required. From East and West alike, complaints are practically +the same. It is not only women in trades, but those in domestic service, +who are recorded as suffering every form of oppression and injustice. +Colorado and California, Kansas and Wisconsin, speak the same word. With +varying industries wrongs vary, but the general summary is the same.</p> + +<p>The system of fines, while on general princi<a name="Page_231" id="Page_231" />ples often just, has been +used by unscrupulous employers to such a degree as to bring the week's +wages down a third or even half. It is impossible to give illustrative +instances in detail; but all who deal with girls, in clubs and +elsewhere, report that the system requires modification.</p> + +<p>On the side of the employers, and as bearing also on the evils which are +most marked among women workers, we may quote from the Government +Report, "Working Women in Large Cities":—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"Actual ill-treatment by employers seems to be infrequent.... + Foreigners are often found to be more considerate of their help + than native-born men, and the kindest proprietor in the world is a + Jew of the better class. In some shops week-workers are locked out + for the half-day if late, or docked for every minute of time lost, + an extra fine being often added. Piece workers have great freedom + as to hours, and employers complain much of tardiness and + absenteeism. The mere existence of health and labor laws insures + privileges formerly unheard of; half-holidays in summer, vacation + with pay, and shorter hours are becoming every year more frequent, + better workshops are constructed, and more comfortable + accommodations are being furnished."</p></blockquote> + +<p><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232" />This is most certainly true, but more light shows the shadows even more +clearly; and the fact remains that every force must be brought to bear, +to remedy the evils depicted in the reports of the bureaus quoted here.</p> + +<p>The general conditions of working-women in New York retail stores were +reported upon, in 1890, by a committee from the Working-Woman's Society, +at 27 Clinton Place, New York. The report was read at a mass meeting +held at Chickering Hall, May 6, 1890; and its statements represent +general conditions in all the large cities of the United States. It is +impossible to give more than the principal points of the report; but +readers can obtain it on application to the Secretary of the +Association.<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47" /><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> These are as follows:—</p> + +<p>Hours are often excessive, and employees are not paid for over-time. +Many stores give no half-holiday, and keep open on Saturdays till ten +and eleven o'clock in the evening, and at the holiday season do this for +three or four weeks nightly.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233" />Sanitary conditions are usually bad, and include bad ventilation, +unsanitary arrangements, and indifference to the considerations of +decency. Toilet arrangements in many stores are horrible, and closets +for male and female are often side by side, with only slight partition +between. One hand-basin and towel serve for all. Often water for drink +can be obtained only from the attic.</p> + +<p>Numbers of children under age are employed for excessive hours, and at +work far beyond their strength, an investigation having shown that over +one hundred thousand children under the legal age of fourteen were at +work in factories, workshops, and stores.</p> + +<p>Service for a number of years often meets with no consideration, but is +regarded as a reason for dismissal. It is the rule in some stores to +keep no one over five years, lest they come to feel that they have some +claim on the firm; and when a saleswoman is dismissed from one house, +she finds it almost impossible to obtain employment in another.</p> + +<p>The wages are reduced by excessive fines, employers placing a value upon +time lost that is not given to services rendered. The fines <a name="Page_234" id="Page_234" />run from +five to thirty cents for a few minutes' tardiness. In some stores the +fines are divided at the end of the year between the timekeeper and the +superintendent, and there is thus every temptation to injustice.</p> + +<p>The report concludes:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"We find that, through low wages, long hours, unwholesome sanitary + conditions, and the discouraging effect of excessive fines, not + only is the physical condition injured, but the tendency is to + injure the moral well-being. It is simply impossible for a woman to + live without assistance on the low salary a saleswoman earns, + without depriving herself of real necessities."</p></blockquote> + +<p>These were the conditions which, in 1889, led to the formation of the +little society which, though limited in numbers, has done admirable and +efficient work, its latest effort being to secure from the Assembly at +Albany a bill making inspection of stores and shops as obligatory as +that of factories.</p> + +<p>It was through the concerted effort of its members that the Factory +Inspection Act became a law, though not without violent opposition. The +bill originated in the Working-Woman's Society, was drawn up there, sent +to <a name="Page_235" id="Page_235" />Albany by its delegates, and passed without the aid of money.</p> + +<p>There are eleven thousand factories in New York State, and only one +inspector to investigate their condition; while in England, scarce +larger in territory, forty-one inspectors are appointed by the +Government.</p> + +<p>The Andrus bill, adding to the power of factory inspectors, raising the +working age of children to fourteen years, and prohibiting night work +for girls under twenty-one and boys under eighteen, was sent with the +Factory Bill to the Central Labor Union, and the women were largely +instrumental in obtaining the passage of the measure.</p> + +<p>Why such determined opposition still meets every attempt to bring about +the same inspection for mercantile establishments cannot be determined; +but thus far, though admitted to be necessary, the act has at each +reading been laid upon the table. Another effort will be made in the +coming winter of 1893-94.</p> + +<p>In spite, however, of much agitation of all phases of woman's work, it +is only some wrong as startling as that involved in the sweating-system +that seems able to arouse more than a <a name="Page_236" id="Page_236" />temporary interest. One of the +most able and experienced women inspectors of the United States Bureau +of Labor, Miss de Grafenried, has lately written:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"It is an open question whether woman's pay is not falling, cost + and standards of living considered. Could partly supported labor + and children be eliminated, shop employees would get higher rates. + Still there are other economic anomalies that affect women's wages. + 'Wholesalers' and manufacturers shut up their factories and 'give + out' everything—umbrellas, coats, hair-wigs, and shrouds—to be + made,—they know not in what den, or wrung they care not from what + misery ... Again, wages are depressed by over-stimulating + piece-work; and its unscrupulous use by proprietors who hesitate to + confess to paying women only $3 or $4 a week, yet who scale prices + so that only experts can earn that sum. Many employers cut rates as + soon as, by desperate exertions, operatives clear $5 a week. Then, + underbidding from the unemployed is a fruitful source of low wages. + Massachusetts has 20 per cent of her workers unemployed."</p></blockquote> + +<p>These conditions, while varying as to numbers, are practically the same +for the work of women in all parts of the United States, and are matters +of increasing perplexity and sorrow <a name="Page_237" id="Page_237" />to every searcher into these +problems. At its best, woman's work in industries is intermittent, since +it is only textile work that continues the year round; dress and cloak +making, shoe and umbrella making, fur-sewing and millinery, have +specific seasons, in the intervals between which the worker waits and +starves, or, if too desperate, goes upon the streets, driven there by +the wretched competitive system, the evils of which increase in direct +ratio to the longing for speedy wealth. In short, matters are at that +point where only radical change of methods can better the situation, +even the most conservative observer, relying most thoroughly upon +evolution, feeling something more than evolution must work if justice is +to have place in the present social scheme.</p> + +<p>It is at this point that some consideration of domestic service +naturally presents itself. Though regarded often as no part of the labor +question, there can be no other head under which to range it, since the +last census gives over a million persons engaged in this occupation, the +lowest rough estimate of wages being $160,000,000 and the support +included forming a sum at least as large. It is through the <a name="Page_238" id="Page_238" />hands of +the domestic servant that a large part of the finished products of other +forms of labor must pass, and the economic aspects of the question grow +in importance with every year of the changing conditions of American +life. In no other occupation is a just consideration of the points +involved so difficult a task, since the mistress who faces the +incompetence, insubordination, and all the other trials involved in the +relation, suffers too keenly from the sense of individual wrong to treat +the matter in the large. Till it is so treated, however, understanding +for both sides is impossible, and to bring about such understanding is +the first necessity for all.</p> + +<p>From the employer's standpoint the advantages to be stated are as +follows: First and most obvious is the fact that wages are not only +relatively but absolutely high; for aside from the actual cash there are +also board, lodging, fuel, light, and laundry, all of which the worker +in trades must provide for herself. There is no capital required, as for +type-writer, sewing-machine, or any appliances for work, nor is the girl +forced to expend anything in preparation, since under the present system +<a name="Page_239" id="Page_239" />housekeepers take her untrained fresh from Castle Garden, and willingly +give the needed instruction, at the same time paying the same wage as +that given to competent service. Professor Lucy Salmon, of Vassar, who +has devoted much time to this subject, reports that, on examination of +testimony from three thousand employees, it is found that on a wage of +$3.25 a week it is possible to save annually nearly $150 "in an +occupation involving no outlay, no investment of capital, and few or no +personal expenses." The wages received are relatively higher than those +of other occupations; for in Professor Salmon's comparison of wages +received by three thousand country and the same number of city employees +it was found that of six thousand teachers in the public schools the +average salary actually paid is less than that paid to the average cook +in a large city.</p> + +<p>The second advantage lies in the healthfulness of the work, which +includes not only regularity but variety; the third, that a home, at +least in all externals, is insured; the fourth, that a training which +makes the worker more fit for married life is certain; and a fifth, that +<a name="Page_240" id="Page_240" />the work is congenial and easy for those whose tastes lie in this +direction.</p> + +<p>These are the facts that are constantly urged upon the army of +under-paid, half-starving needlewomen in our great cities, and no less +upon another army of girls in shops and factories, who are implored to +consider the advantages of domestic service and to give up their +unnecessary battle with the limitations hedging in every other form of +labor. Astonishment that the girls prefer the factory and shop is +unending, nor is it regarded as possible that substantial reason may and +must exist for such choice. As a means of arriving at some solution of +the problem, some six hundred employees of every order were interviewed, +under circumstances which made their replies perfectly free and full; +and the results tallied exactly with others obtained by an inquiry in +the Philadelphia Working-Woman's Guild, a society then representing +seventy-two distinct occupations.</p> + +<p>A report of this inquiry was made by Mrs. Eliza S. Turner, the President +of the Guild, and is given as the most suggestive view of the whole +subject yet secured. She writes as follows:—<a name="Page_241" id="Page_241" /></p> + +<blockquote><p>"Why do not intelligent, refined girls more frequently choose house + service as a support?" The replies here given are as nearly as + possible <i>verbatim</i>:</p> + +<p> 1. Loss of freedom. This is as dear to women as to men, although we + don't get so much of it. The day of a saleswoman or a factory hand + may be long, but when it is done she is her own mistress; but in + service, except when she is actually out of the house, she has no + hour, no minute, when her soul is her own.</p> + +<p> 2. Hurts to self-respect. One thing that makes housework + unpleasant—chamber-work, for instance, and waiting on table—is + that it is a kind of personal service, one human being waiting on + another. The very thing you would do without a thought in your own + home for your own family seems menial when it is demanded by a + stranger.</p> + +<p> 3. The very words, "service" and "servant," are hateful. It is all + well enough to talk about service being divine, but that is not the + way the world looks at it.</p> + +<p> 4. Say that a young woman well brought up undertakes to do + chamber-work; she is obliged to associate with the other girls, no + matter how uncongenial they may be, what may be their language or + personal habits or table manners. If she tries to keep to herself, + the rest think she is taking airs, and combine to make her life + unbearable.</p> + +<p> 5. Or say she takes a place for general housework; to be alone in + the midst of others is crushing,—quite <a name="Page_242" id="Page_242" />different from being alone + in one's own lodgings.</p> + +<p> 6. I suppose a soldier doesn't mind being ordered around by his + captain; but in a family the mistress and maid are so mixed up that + it is much harder to keep the lines from tangling. It takes a very + superior person, on both sides, to do it.</p> + +<p> 7. I knew an educated woman—a lady—who tried it as a sort of + upper housemaid. The work was easy, the pay good, and she never had + a harsh word; but they just seemed unconscious of her existence. + She said the gentlemen of the house, father and son, would come in + and stand before her to have her take their umbrellas or help them + off with their coats, and sometimes without speaking to her or even + looking at her. There was something so humiliating about it that + she couldn't stand it, but went back to slop shop sewing.</p> + +<p> 8. Many mistresses have no standard of the amount of work a girl + ought to do. They know nothing about housework themselves. If a + girl is deliberate and saves herself, they call her slow; if she is + ambitious, and gets her work done early, and they see her sitting + down in working-hours, they conclude that she is not earning her + wages, and hunt up some extra job for her. No matter if you can't + find anything undone, if she is found sitting about she <i>must</i> be + lazy.</p> + +<p> 9. Some employers think that after the more <a name="Page_243" id="Page_243" />violent work is done, + it is only a rest for the girl to look after the child awhile. They + don't seem to realize that if the mother finds it such a relief to + get rid of her own child for an hour or so, it is likely to be + still less interesting to take care of somebody else's child.</p> + +<p> 10. Many people think the position of a child's nurse is very light + work indeed,—mostly just sitting around; so they don't hesitate to + give her the care of one or two children all day, not even + arranging for her to get her meals without the oversight of them; + and then most likely put the baby to sleep with her at night. Any + one minute of such a day may not be heavy, but to have it for + twenty-four hours is enough to wear out the strongest human being + ever made.</p> + +<p> 11. I knew a school-teacher who thought more active occupation + would better suit her health; she took a place as child's nurse. + She loved children, and found no objection to the work; but soon + the employer concluded to put her in a <i>bonne's</i> cap and apron. My + friend would have worn and liked a nurse's uniform, but she + objected to a family livery. On this question they parted; and her + employer hired an uncouth, ignorant woman to be her child's + companion and to give it its first impressions.</p> + +<p> 12. In most houses, however elegant, the girls have no home + privacy; they must sleep, not only in the same room, but most + frequently in the same bed; it is rarely thought necessary to make + that room pleasant <a name="Page_244" id="Page_244" />or even warm for them to dress by or to sit in + to do their own sewing. The little tastes and notions of each + member of the family, down to the youngest, are provided for; but a + "girl" is not supposed to have any. She is just a "girl," as a + gridiron is a gridiron, an article bought for the convenience of + the family. If she suits, use her till she is worn out and then + throw her away.</p> + +<p> 13. To go into house service, even from the most wretched slop or + factory work, is to lose caste in our own world; it may be a very + narrow world, but it is all to us. A saleswoman or cashier or + teacher is ashamed to associate with servants.</p> + +<p> 14. The very words, "No followers," would keep us out of such + occupation. No self-respecting young woman is going to put herself + in a position where she is not allowed to entertain her friends, + both male and female; nor where, if allowed, the only place thought + fit for them is the kitchen.</p> + +<p> Now, the above is not theory, but testimony, taken by the present + writer from the lips of intelligent working-girls, many of whom + would be better off at housework than at their present occupations, + except for the objections. And from a consideration thereof results + this query: Given a certain number of young women of a class + superior to the imported, willing to take service under the + following conditions, how many housekeepers would agree to the + conditions?—</p> + +<p> 1. The heaviest work, as washing, carrying coal, <a name="Page_245" id="Page_245" />scrubbing + pavements, and the like, to be provided for, if this be asked, with + consequent deduction in wages.</p> + +<p> 2. In families, where practicable, certain hours of absolute + freedom while in the house, especially with the child's nurse.</p> + +<p> 3. Such a way of speaking, both to and of your house help, as + testifies to the world that you really do consider housework as + respectable as other occupations.</p> + +<p> 4. A well-warmed, well-furnished room, with separate beds when + desired; and the use of a decent place and appointments at meals.</p> + +<p> 5. The privilege of seeing friends, whether male or female; of a + better part of the house than the kitchen in which to receive them; + and security from espionage during their visits,—this accompanied + by proper restrictions as to evening hours, and under the condition + that the work is not neglected.</p> + +<p> 6. No livery, if objected to.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Turning from this informal examination of the subject to the few labor +reports which have taken up the matter, it becomes plain that domestic +service is in many points more undesirable than any other occupation +open to women. The Labor Commissioner of Minnesota reports, while +stating all the advantages of the domestic servant over the general +worker, that "only a fifth of those who employ them <a name="Page_246" id="Page_246" />are fit to deal +with any worker, injustice and oppression characterizing their methods." +Figures and detailed statements bear him out in this conclusion. The +Colorado Commissioner gives even more details, and comes to the same +conclusion; and though other reports do not take up the subject in +detail, their indications are the same.</p> + +<p>The first general and rational presentation of the subject in all its +bearings, both for employed and employer, has lately been made during +the Woman's Congress at Chicago, May, 1893, in which the Domestic +Science section discussed every phase of wrongs and remedies.<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48" /><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> The +latter sum up in the formation of bureaus of employment in every large +<a name="Page_247" id="Page_247" />city, fixed rates, and full preparatory training. A keen observer of +social facts has stated: The intelligence offices of New York alone +receive from servants yearly over three million dollars, and are +notoriously inefficient. This, or even half of it, would provide a great +centre with training-schools, lodgings for all who needed them, and a +system by which fixed rates were made according to the grade of +efficiency of the worker. Till household service comes under the laws +determining value, as well as hours and all other points involved in the +wage for a working-day, it will remain in the disorganized and hopeless +state which at present baffles the housekeeper, and deters +self-respecting women and girls from undertaking it. To bring about some +such organization as that suggested will most quickly accomplish this; +and there seems already hope that the time is not distant when every +city will have its agency corresponding to the great Bourse du Travail +in Paris, but even more comprehensive in scope. Co-operation within +certain limited degrees, so that private home life will not be infringed +upon, must necessarily make part of such a scheme, and has already been +tried with suc<a name="Page_248" id="Page_248" />cess at various points in the West; but details can +hardly be given here. It is sufficient to add that with such new basis +for this form of occupation the "servant question" will cease to be a +terror, and the most natural occupation for women will have countless +recruits from ranks now closed against it.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249" /> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41" /><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> Fifteenth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of +Labor, p. 68.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42" /><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> Ibid.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43" /><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> House of Representatives Report No. 2309: Report of the +Committee on Manufactures on the Sweating-System, House of +Representatives, January, 1893.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44" /><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> Child Labor. By William F. Willoughby, A.B. Child Labor. +By Miss Clare de Grafenried, Publications of the American Economic +Association, vol. v. no. 2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45" /><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> Our Toiling Children. By Florence Kelley, W.C.T.U. +Publishing Association, Chicago.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46" /><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> Married Women in Factories. By W. Stanley Jevons, +Contemporary Review, vol. xli. pp. 37-53.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47" /><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> Miss Alice Woodbridge, Secretary of the Working-Woman's +Society, 27 Clinton Place, New York.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48" /><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> The association then formed, and from which much is hoped, +made the following summary of its objects:— +</p> +<blockquote><p>"The objects of this Association shall be: 1. To awaken the public + mind to the importance of establishing a Bureau of Information + where there can be an exchange of wants and needs between employer + and employed in every department of home and social life. 2. To + promote among members of the Association a more scientific + knowledge of the economic value of various foods and fuels; a more + intelligent understanding of correct plumbing and drainage in our + homes, as well as need for pure water and good light in a + sanitarily built house. 3. To secure skilled labor in every + department of women's work in our homes,—not only to demand better + trained cooks and waitresses, but to consider the importance of + meeting the increasing demand for those competent to do plain + sewing and mending."</p></blockquote></div> + +</div> + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="XII" id="XII" />XII.</h2> + +<h3>REMEDIES AND SUGGESTIONS.</h3> + + +<p>The student of social problems who faces the misery of the lowest order +of worker, and the sharp privation endured by many even of the better +class, is apt, in the first fever of amazement and indignation, to feel +that some instant force must be brought to bear, and justice secured, +though the heavens fall. It is this sense of the struggle of humanity +out of which have been born Utopias of every order, from the "Republic" +of Plato to the dream in "Looking Backward." Not one of these can be +spared; and that they exist and find a following larger and larger, is +the surest evidence of the soul at the bottom of each. But for those who +take the question as a whole, who see how slow has been the process of +evolution, and how impossible it is to hasten one step of the unfolding +that humankind is still to know, it is the ethical side that comes +uppermost, and that first demands consideration.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250" />Taking the mass of the lowest order of workers at all points, the first +aim of any effort intended for their benefit is to disentangle the +individual from the mass. It is not charity that is to do this. "Homes" +of every variety open their doors; but in all of them still lurks the +suspicion of charity; and even when this has no active formulation in +the worker's mind, there is still the underlying sense of the essential +injustice of withholding with one hand just pay, and with the other +proffering a substitute, in a charity which is to reflect credit on the +giver and demand gratitude from the receiver. Here and there this is +recognized, and within a short time has been emphasized by a woman whose +name is associated with the work of organized charities throughout the +country,—Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell. It is doubtful if there is any +woman in the country better fitted, by long experience and almost +matchless common-sense, to speak authoritatively. She writes:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"So far from assuming that the well-to-do portion of society have + discharged all their obligations to men and God by supporting + charitable institutions, I regard just this expenditure as one of + the prime causes of <a name="Page_251" id="Page_251" />the suffering and crime that exist in our + midst.... I am inclined, in general, to look upon what is called + charity as the insult added to the injury done to the mass of the + people, by insufficient payment for work."</p></blockquote> + +<p>Just pay, then, heads the list of remedies. The difficulty of fixing +this is necessarily enormous, nor can it come at once; since education +for not only the employer but the public as a whole is demanded. To +bring this about is a slow process. It is a transition period in which +we live. Material conditions born of phenomenal material progress have +deadened the sense as to what constitutes real progress; and the +working-woman of to-day contends not only with visible but invisible +obstacles, the nature of which we are but just beginning to discern. +Twenty years ago M. Paul Leroy-Beaulieu wrote of women wage-earners:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"From the economic point of view, woman, who has next to no + material force, and whose arms are advantageously replaced by the + least machine, can have useful place and obtain a fair remuneration + only by the development of the best qualities of her intelligence. + It is the inexorable law of our civilization,—the principle and + formula even of social progress,—that mechanical engines are to + perform every opera<a name="Page_252" id="Page_252" />tion of human labor which does not proceed + directly from the mind. The hand of man is each day deprived of a + portion of its original task; but this general gain is a loss for + the particular, and for the classes whose only instrument of labor + is a pair of feeble arms."</p></blockquote> + +<p>Take the fact here stated, and add to it all that is implied in modern +competitive conditions, and we see the true nature of the task that +awaits us. To do away with this competition would not accomplish the end +desired. To guide it and bring it into intelligent lines is part of the +general education. Profit-sharing is an indispensable portion of the +justice to be done; and this, too, implies education for both sides, and +would go far toward lessening burdens. We cannot abolish the factory, +but hours can be shortened; the labor of married women with young +children forbidden, as well as that of children below a fixed age. +Industrial education will prevent the possibility of another generation +owning so many incompetent and untrained workers, and technical schools +in general are already raising the standard and helping to secure the +same end.</p> + +<p>Our present methods mean waste in every <a name="Page_253" id="Page_253" />direction, and trusts and +syndicates have already demonstrated how much may be saved to the +producer if intelligent combination can be brought about. Competition +can never wholly be set aside, since within reasonable limits it is the +spur of invention and a part of evolution itself. But if wise +co-operation be once adopted, the enormous friction and waste of present +methods ceases,—the waste of human life as well as of material.</p> + +<p>One cheering token of progress is the increased discussion as to methods +of training and the necessity of organization among women themselves. +Ten years ago only a voice here and there suggested the need of either. +In 1885, at the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement +of Science, Miss Sarah Harland, lecturer on Mathematics at Newnham +College, insisted that educated gentlewomen must have larger opportunity +for paying work. The three qualifications in all work she stated to be: +(1) Organization on a large scale; (2) Permanency; (3) Giving returns +that will enable the salaries paid to compete with those of teachers.</p> + +<p>She regarded dressmaking as the trade which <a name="Page_254" id="Page_254" />could most readily organize +and meet the other conditions specified, and millinery as the trade +which would come next. Until such organization and its results have +gradually altered present conditions, it will be true for all workers, +on both sides of the sea, that not health alone but life itself are +continuously endangered by the facts hedging about all labor. Dr. +Stevens, the head of St. Luke's Insane Asylum in London, in a paper read +before the Social Science Association, said:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"It may be stated with great confidence that a prolific cause for + the rapid and extensive increase of insanity in this country is to + be found in the unceasing toil and anxiety to which the + working-classes are subjected, this cause developing the disease in + the existing generation, or, what is quite as frequently the case, + transmitting to the offspring idiocy, insanity, or some imperfectly + developed sensorium or nervous system. The agitated, overworked, + and harassed parent is not in a condition to transmit a healthy + brain to his child."<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49" /><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a></p></blockquote> + +<p>Accepted as true in 1857, the words are not less so to-day, when cheap +labor swarms, and the unemployed number their millions.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255" />How best to combine and to what ends, is the lesson taught in every +form of the new movement for organization among women. To learn how to +work together and what power lies in combination, has been the lesson of +all clubs. Among men it has counted as one of the chief educating +forces, but for women every circumstance has fostered the distrust of +each other which belongs to all undeveloped natures. For the lowest +order of worker even, the "Working-Woman's Journal," published in London +and the organ of the Working-Woman's Protective Union, has for the last +year recorded, from month to month, the gradual progress of the idea of +combination, and the new hope it has brought to all who have gone into +trades unions.</p> + +<p>With us there has been equal need and equal ignorance of all that such +combinations have to give. They mean arbitration rather than strikes, +and the compelling of ignorant and unjust employers to consider the +situation from other points of view than their own. They compel also the +same attitude from men in the same trades, who often are as strong +opponents of a better chance for their asso<a name="Page_256" id="Page_256" />ciates among women workers +in the same branches, as the most prejudiced employer.</p> + +<p>Six points are urged by the Working-Woman's Society of New York, all in +the lines indicated here. Its purposes and aims, as given in the +prospectus, are as follows:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>1. To encourage women in the various trades to protect their mutual + interests by organization.</p> + +<p> 2. To use all possible means to enforce the existing laws relating + to the protection of women and children in factories and shops, + investigating all reported violations of such laws; also to + promote, by all suitable means, further legislation in this + direction.</p> + +<p> 3. To work for the abolition of tenement-house manufacture, + especially in the cigar and clothing trades.</p> + +<p> 4. To investigate all reported cases of cruel treatment on the part + of employers and their managers to their women and children + employees, in withholding money due, in imposing fines, or in + docking wages without sufficient reason.</p> + +<p> 5. To found a labor bureau for the purpose of facilitating the + exchanging of labor between city and country, thus relieving the + over-crowded occupations now filled by women.</p> + +<p> 6. To publish a journal in the interests of working-women.</p> + +<p> 7. To secure equal pay for both sexes for equal work.</p></blockquote> + +<p><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257" />These points are the same as those made by the few clubs which have +taken up the question of woman's work and wages; but thus far only this +society has formulated them definitely. Working-girls' clubs, friendly +societies, and guilds are giving to the worker new thoughts and new +purposes. The Convention of Working-Girls' Clubs held in New York in +April, 1890, showed the wide-reaching influence they had attained, and +the new ideals opening before the worker. It showed also with equal +force the roused sense of responsibility toward them, and the eager +interest and desire for their betterment in all ways. Where they +themselves touched upon their needs, there were direct statements in the +same line as many already quoted, which called for better pay, better +conditions, shorter hours, and fewer fines.</p> + +<p>Following the points given above came another presentation, the result +of still further and long-continued investigation; and as the methods of +the search and its results are practicable for all towns and cities +where women are at work, the statement prepared for the Society is given +in full:—<a name="Page_258" id="Page_258" /></p> + +<blockquote><p>"We would call your attention to the condition of the women and + children in the large retail houses in this city,—conditions which + tend to injure both physically and morally, not only these women + and children, but working-women in general. The general idea is + that saleswomen are employed from eight A.M. to six P.M., but they + are really engaged in the majority of stores for such a time as the + firm requires them; which means in the Grand Street stores, until + ten, eleven, and twelve o'clock on Saturday night <i>all the year + round</i>, the Saturday half-holiday not being observed in summer; and + in the majority of houses that stock must be arranged after six + P.M., the time varying, according to season, from fifteen minutes + to five hours, <i>and this without supper or extra pay</i>; thus + compelling women and children to go long distances late at night, + and rendering them liable to insult and immoral influences.</p> + +<p> "Excessive fines are imposed in many stores,—fines varying from + ten to thirty cents for ten minutes' tardiness in the morning or + lunch hour, and for all mistakes. Cases are known of girls who have + been fined a full week's pay at the end of the week. In one store + the fines amounted to $3,000 in a year, and the sum was divided + between the superintendent and timekeeper; and the superintendent + was heard to charge the timekeeper with not being strict enough in + his duties.</p> + +<p> "Bad sanitary conditions, bad ventilation and toilet arrangements + are common, and the sanitary laws are <a name="Page_259" id="Page_259" />not observed. Children under + age are employed at work far beyond their strength, often far into + the night. The average wages do not exceed $4.50; and in one of our + largest stores the average wage is $2.40, in another $2.90. The + tendency in all stores is to secure the cheapest help; for this + reason school-girls just graduated are much sought for, as they, + having homes, can afford to work for less. But a large proportion + of the saleswomen either pay board or help support a family; and + how can this be done on $4.50 per week? The cheapest board in dark + stuffy attics or tenement houses is $3.00, fuel and washing extra; + and no woman can pay doctor's bills and maintain a respectable + appearance on what remains. How then does she live? There are two + ways of answering: The story of a woman who worked in one of our + large houses is one way. This woman earned $3.00 per week; she paid + $1.50 for her room; her breakfast consisted of a cup of coffee; she + had no lunch; she had but one meal a day. Many saleswomen must be + in this condition. The other answer is that given by more than one + employer, who when saleswomen complain of the low wages offered, + reply: 'Oh, well, get yourself a gentleman friend; <i>most of our + girls have them</i>.' Not long since a member of our society received + a letter from a salesman in a certain house which read thus: 'In + the name of God cannot something be done for the saleswomen? I am a + salesman in——, and I have walked in disguise at night upon + <a name="Page_260" id="Page_260" />certain streets to be accosted by girls in my own + department,—girls whose salaries are so low it was impossible to + live upon them." A painter told us that in working in the houses of + ill-repute in the vicinity of Twenty-third Street, he was + astonished at the number of women whom he recognized as saleswomen + in different stores who frequented these houses. But what are they + to do? They are women without trade or profession, thrown upon + their own resources, obliged to make a good appearance, and unable + to do so and yet have sufficient food. We must all concede that + virtue and honor in woman are natural, and very few women resort to + such ways unless forced to do so; certainly not, when they yet have + sufficient pride to wish to maintain the appearance of + respectability. If men's wages fall below a certain limit, they + become tramps, thieves, and robbers; but woman's wages <i>have no + limit</i>, since she can always work for less than she can subsist + upon, the <i>paths of shame being open to her</i>. And the beggarly + pittance for which one class of women work becomes the standard of + wages for all women, and throws them out upon the world, there to + find a sure market. But we do not wish to insinuate, in stating + these facts, that the majority of saleswomen resort to evil ways; + on the contrary, they are the exception who do so. We know the + majority of women prefer to suffer, and do suffer, rather than do + so. But can we allow a few to fall? We of the Working-Women's + Society believe that we are so far <a name="Page_261" id="Page_261" />our sisters' keepers that we + are responsible for their position.</p> + +<p> "We believe that the payment and condition of those who work + (through their employers) for us is our affair, and we have no + right to remain in an ignorance that involves or may involve their + misery. We believe we have no right, having obtained such + knowledge, to refrain from seeking to remedy it, and urging all to + assist us to do so.</p> + +<p> "In this belief we call your attention to the proposed 'Consumers' + League,' the members of which shall pledge themselves to deal at + those stores where just conditions exist.</p> + +<p> "We have gotten together a number of facts which we shall be glad + to present to you with our estimate of a fair house, or one which + under existing conditions is eligible to admission to a white + list."</p></blockquote> + +<p>Preceding this appeal and the public meetings which ensued, came, in +1890, the formation of the Consumers' League, Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell +its President. Quiet and inconspicuous as its work has been, the best +retail mercantile houses in New York have accepted its prospectus as +just, and stand now upon the "White List," which numbers all merchants +who seek to deal justly and fairly with their employees. "What +constitutes a Fair <a name="Page_262" id="Page_262" />House" expresses all the needs and formulates the +most vital demands of the working-woman; and the results already +accomplished speak for themselves. As a guide to other workers, it is +given here in full:—</p> + +<blockquote><p class='center'>STANDARD OF A FAIR HOUSE.</p> + +<p class='center'><b>Wages.</b></p> + +<p> A fair house is one in which equal pay is given for work of equal + value, irrespective of sex. In the departments where women only are + employed, in which the minimum wages are six dollars per week for + experienced adult workers, and fall in few instances below eight + dollars.</p> + +<p> In which wages are paid by the week.</p> + +<p> In which fines, if imposed, are paid into a fund for the benefit of + the employees.</p> + +<p> In which the minimum wages of cash-girls are two dollars per week, + with the same conditions regarding weekly payments and fines.</p> + +<p class='center'><b>Hours.</b></p> + +<p> A fair house is one in which the hours from eight A.M. to six P.M. + (with three quarters of an hour for lunch) constitute the + working-day, and a general half-holiday is given on one day of each + week during at least two summer months.</p> + +<p> <a name="Page_263" id="Page_263" />In which a vacation of not less than one week is given with pay + during the summer season.</p> + +<p> In which all over-time is compensated for.</p> + +<p class='center'><b>Physical Conditions.</b></p> + +<p> A fair house is one in which work, lunch, and retiring rooms are + apart from each other, and conform in all respects to the present + sanitary laws.</p> + +<p> In which the present law regarding the providing of seats for + saleswomen is observed, and the use of seats permitted.</p> + +<p class='center'><b>Other Conditions.</b></p> + +<p> A fair house is one in which humane and considerate behavior toward + employees is the rule.</p> + +<p> In which fidelity and length of service meet with the consideration + which is their due.</p> + +<p> In which no children under fourteen years of age are employed.</p> + +<p class='center'><b>Membership.</b></p> + +<p> The condition of membership shall be the approval by signature of + the object of the Consumers' League; and all persons shall be + eligible for membership excepting such as are engaged in the retail + business in this city, either as employer or employee.</p> + +<p> The members shall not be bound never to buy at other shops.</p> + +<p> The names of the members of the Consumers' League shall not be made + public. +</p></blockquote> + +<p><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264" />Later, one of the ablest workers in this field, Mrs. Florence Kelley, +formulated a basis for every society of working-women, as follows:</p> + +<blockquote><p>I. To bring out of the chaos of competition the order of + co-operation.</p> + +<p> II. To organize all wages-earning women.</p> + +<p> III. To disseminate the literature of labor and co-operation.</p> + +<p> IV. To institute a label which shall enable the purchaser to + discriminate in favor of goods produced under healthful conditions.</p> + +<p> V. 1. Abolition of child labor to the age of sixteen.</p> + +<p> 2. Compulsory education to the age of sixteen.</p> + +<p> 3. Prohibition of employment of minors more than eight hours daily.</p> + +<p> 4. Prohibition of employment of minors at dangerous occupations.</p> + +<p> 5. Appointment of women inspectors, one for every thousand women + and children employed.</p> + +<p> 6. Healthful conditions of work for women and children.</p> + +<p> The foregoing to be obtained by legislation.</p> + +<p> The following to be obtained by organization:—</p> + +<p> 1. Equal pay for equal work with men.</p> + +<p> 2. A minimal rate which will enable the least paid to live upon her + earnings.</p></blockquote> + +<p><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265" />A little later, the statement which follows, became necessary:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"Certain abuses exist in the dry-goods houses affecting the + well-being of the saleswomen and children employed, which we + believe can be remedied. In fact, in different stores some of them + have been remedied, which gives us courage to bring these matters + to your attention.</p> + +<p> "We find the hours are often excessive, and that these women and + children are not paid for over-time.</p> + +<p> "We find that in many houses the saleswomen work under unwholesome + conditions; these comprise bad ventilation, unsanitary toilet + arrangements, and an indifference to considerations of decency.</p> + +<p> "The wages, which are low, we find are often reduced by excessive + fines; that employers place a value on time lost that they fail to + give for service rendered.</p> + +<p> "We find that numbers of children under age are employed for + excessive hours, and at work far beyond their strength.</p> + +<p> "We find that long and faithful service does not meet with the + consideration that is its due; on the contrary, having served a + certain number of years is a reason for dismissal.</p> + +<p> "Because of the foregoing low wages, the discouraging result of + excessive fines, long hours, and unwholesome sanitary conditions, + not only the physical <a name="Page_266" id="Page_266" />system is injured, but—the result we most + deplore, and of which we have incontrovertible proof—the tendency + <i>is to injure the moral well-being</i>.</p> + +<p> "We believe that to call attention to these evils is to go far + toward remedying them, and that the power to do this lies largely + in the hands of the purchasing classes.</p> + +<p> "We think that 'the payment and condition of those who + work—through their employers—for us, is our affair, and that we + have no right to remain in ignorance of the conditions that involve + or may involve their misery.'"</p></blockquote> + +<p>Two points still remain untouched, both of them vital elements in the +just working of the social scheme,—profit-sharing, and a board of +conciliation and arbitration for the adjustment of all difficulties +between employer and employed.</p> + +<p>For every detail bearing upon the education bound up in even the attempt +at profit-sharing, as well as for the actual and successful results in +this direction, the reader is referred to an excellent little monograph +on the subject, "Sharing the Profits," by Miss Mary Whiton Calkins, +A.M., and for very full and elaborate treatment of the question, to the +invaluable volume by N.P. Gilman, "Profit-Sharing be<a name="Page_267" id="Page_267" />tween Employer and +Employed." In all cases where the experiment has had fair trial, it has +resulted in a marked increase of interest in the work itself; an actual +lessening of the cost of production, and of general wear and tear, +because of this increased interest; and a far more friendly feeling +between employer and employed. It is certain that justice requires +immediate attention to every phase of this question, and that its +adoption is the first step in the right direction.</p> + +<p>For the second point, we have as yet in this country only an occasional +attempt at arbitration, yet its need becomes more and more apparent with +every fresh difficulty in the field of labor. A little volume by Mrs. +Josephine Shaw Lowell, at the time of writing,<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50" /><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> going through the +press, who has given much time to a study of the question, contains the +latest results of English and French legislation, and of special action +in this direction. Any history of the movement as a whole, hardly has +place in these pages. It is sufficient to say that the system had +practically no consideration till 1850, when the first Board of +<a name="Page_268" id="Page_268" />Arbitration was formed in England, owing its existence to the +determined efforts of two men. Mr. Rupert Kettle, lawyer and judge, +approached it from the legal side; Mr. Murdella, a manufacturer, and +himself sprung from the working-classes, went straight "to the practical +and moral end implied by the word 'conciliation,' ... both routes of +this noble emulation converging, each affording strength to the common +conclusions."</p> + +<p>The Nottingham lace manufacture, in which numbers of women and children +as well as men are employed, has, for thirty years and more, been +governed by a Board of Arbitration, the result being an end of strikes +and all difficulties of like nature. If no more were accomplished than +the bringing about a better understanding between employer and employed, +it would mean much, since mutual suspicion and distrust rule for both. +Organization among women, and the sense of mutual dependence given by +it, lead naturally to the formation of a board able to judge +dispassionately and disinterestedly of the questions naturally arising, +many of which, however, are at once dissipated on the adoption of the +system of profit-sharing.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269" />The practical steps already taken sum up in the forms just given; and +there remains only the question constantly asked as to the final effect +upon wages of woman's entrance into public life, this question usually +shaping itself under three heads:—</p> + +<p>1. Why are they in the field?</p> + +<p>2. How does their work compare in efficiency with that of men?</p> + +<p>3. What is likely to be the final effect on wage of their entrance into +active life?</p> + +<p>The first phase has already had full answer in the general survey of +trades and their rise and growth. As to the second, personal +observation, long continued and minute, added to the very full knowledge +to be obtained from the reports of the various State bureaus of labor, +goes to prove beyond question that, given the same grade of +intelligence, the work of women is fully equal to that of men. +Descending in the scale to untrained labor in all its forms, the woman +is at times of less value than the man. The Knights of Labor, however, +settled definitely that this was seldom the case, and in their +constitution demanded equal pay for equal work. For both sexes +<a name="Page_270" id="Page_270" />machinery is more and more superseding the labor of each; and as women +and children are quite capable of running much of it, this fact, of +course, brings the general wage to their standard. This, added to +various physiological and social reasons, makes woman often a less +dependable worker than man, and tends to keep wages at a minimum.</p> + +<p>As to the final effect on wages, I regard the whole aspect of things as +purely transitional, and must answer from personal conviction in the +matter.</p> + +<p>The entire movement appears to me a part of the natural evolution from +barbaric law and restriction, and a necessary demonstration of the +spiritual equality of the sexes. I regard it also as the nurse and +developer of many small virtues in which women are especially +deficient,—punctuality, unvarying quality of work, a sense of business +honor and of personal fidelity, each to all and all to each. But I +cannot feel that it is a permanent state, or that when the essential has +been accomplished women will have the same need or the same desire that +now rules. I believe that wages must necessarily fluctuate and tend to +the mere point <a name="Page_271" id="Page_271" />of subsistence when either child labor or the lowest +grade of woman's labor exists, and that the only way out of the +complications we face is in an alteration of ideals. Statistics and +general reports show the demoralization of family life where such work +goes on, and the fact that in the long run the workman loses rather than +gains where his family share his labor.</p> + +<p>The lowering of wage may be considered, then, as in one sense remedial, +and the present state of things as in part the mere action of inevitable +and inescapable law. But it is impossible to make this plain in present +limits. Having passed through every stage of feeling,—sick pity, +burning indignation, and tempestuous desire for instant action,—I have +come at last to regard all as our education in justice and a demand for +training in such wise as shall render unskilled labor more and more +impossible. So long as it exists, however, I see no outlook but the +fluctuating and uncertain wage, the natural result of the existence of +the lowest order of workers.</p> + +<p>For them as for us it is the development of the individual from the mass +that is the chief <a name="Page_272" id="Page_272" />end of any real civilization. No Utopias of any past +or present can bring this at once.</p> + +<blockquote><p>"Each man to himself and each woman to herself, such is the word of + the past and the present, and the true word of immortality."</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class='stanza'><div>"No one can acquire for another, not one;</div> +<div>No one can grow for another, not one."</div></div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>Despair might easily be the outcome of a first glance at these +conditions; but the stir at all points is assurance of a better day to +come.</p> + +<p>Legislation can do much. The appointment of women inspectors, lately +brought about for New York, is imperative at all points, since women +will tell women the evils they would never mention to men. Law can also +demand decent sanitary conditions, and affix a penalty for every +violation. Beyond this, and the awakening of the public conscience as to +what is owed the honest worker, little can be said. Enlightenment, a +better chance at every point for the struggling mass,—that is the work +for each and all of them, and for those who would aid the constant +demand, and labor for justice in its largest sense and its most rigorous +application. With justice on both sides, abuses die of pure inanition. +The tenement-house <a name="Page_273" id="Page_273" />system, every evil that hedges about special trades, +every wrong born of cupidity and ignorance, and all base features of +trade at its worst, end once for all, and we see the end and aim of the +social life, whether for employer or employed.</p> + +<p>A generation ago Mazzini wrote:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"The human soul, not the body, should be the starting-point of all + our efforts, since the body without the soul is only a carcass, + whilst the soul, wherever it is found free and holy, is sure to + mould for itself such a body as its wants and vocation require."</p></blockquote> + +<p>It is this soul-moulding that is given chiefly into the hands of women. +It is through them that the higher ideal of life, its purpose and its +demands, is to be made known. No present scheme of general philanthropy +can touch this need. It is growth in the human soul itself that will +mean justice from the employer to each and every worker, and from the +worker in equal measure to the employer; and this justice can be +implanted in the child as certainly as many another virtue, into the +knowledge and love of which we grow but slowly.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274" />Never has deeper interest followed every movement for the understanding +and bettering of conditions. Never was there stronger ground for hope +that, in spite of the worst abuses existing, man's will is to join hands +at last with natural evolution toward higher forms. Faith and hope alike +find their assurance in the increasing sense of the solidarity of human +kind, and the spirit of brotherhood more and more discernible, which, as +it grows, must end all oppression, conscious and unconscious. The old +days of darkness are dying. Man knows at last that—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class='stanza'><div>"Laying hands on another,</div> +<div class='i2'>To coin his labor and sweat,</div> +<div>He goes in pawn to his victim</div> +<div class='i2'>For eternal years in debt;"</div></div> +</div> + +<p>and in knowing it, the first step is taken in the new life wherein all +are brothers; and the law of love, slowly as it may work, ends forever +the long conflict between employer and employed.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275" /> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49" /><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> Transactions of the National Association for the Promotion +of Social Science, 1857, p. 554.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50" /><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> July, 1893.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="APPENDIX" id="APPENDIX" />APPENDIX.</h2> + +<hr /> + +<h3>FACTORY INSPECTION LAW.</h3> + +<p class='center'>PASSED MAY 18, 1886; AMENDED MAY 25, 1887; AMENDED JUNE 15, 1889; +AMENDED MAY 21, 1890; AMENDED MAY 18, 1892.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class='center'>CHAPTER 409, LAWS OF 1886 (AS AMENDED BY CHAPTER 673, LAWS OF 1892).</p> + +<blockquote><p>An act to Regulate the Employment of Women and Children in + Manufacturing Establishments, and to Provide for the Appointment of + Inspectors to Enforce the Same.</p></blockquote> + +<hr /> + +<p><i>The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and +Assembly, do enact as follows</i>:</p> + +<p>SECTION I. No person under eighteen years of age, and no woman under +twenty-one years or age, employed in any manufacturing establishment, +shall be required, permitted, or suffered to work therein more than +sixty hours in any one week, or more than ten hours in any one day, +unless for the purpose of making a shorter work-day on the last day of +the week, nor more hours in any one week than will make an average of +ten hours per day for the whole number of days in which such person or +such woman shall so work during such week; and in no case shall any +person <a name="Page_276" id="Page_276" />under eighteen years of age, or any woman under twenty-one years +of age, work in any such establishment after nine o'clock in the evening +or before six o'clock in the morning of any day. Every person, firm, +corporation, or company employing any person under eighteen years of +age, or any woman under twenty-one years of age, in any manufacturing +establishment, shall post and keep posted in a conspicuous place in +every room where such help is employed, a printed notice stating the +number of hours of labor per day required of such persons for each day +of the week, and the number of hours of labor exacted or permitted to be +performed by such persons shall not exceed the number of hours of labor +so posted as being required. The time of beginning and ending the day's +labor shall be the time stated in such notice; provided that such women +under twenty-one and persons under eighteen years of age may begin after +the time set for beginning, and stop before the time set in such notice +for the stopping of the day's labor; but they shall not be permitted or +required to perform any labor before the time stated on the notices as +the time for beginning the day's labor, nor after the time stated upon +the notices as the hour for ending the day's labor. The terms of the +notice stating the hours of labor required shall not be changed after +the beginning of labor on the first day of the week without the consent +of the Factory Inspector, Assistant Factory Inspector, or a Deputy +Factory Inspector. When, in <a name="Page_277" id="Page_277" />order to make a shorter work-day on the +last day of the week, women under twenty-one and youths under eighteen +years of age are to be required, permitted, or suffered to work more +than ten hours in any one day, in a manufacturing establishment, it +shall be the duty of the proprietor, agent, foreman, superintendent, or +other person employing such persons, to notify the Factory Inspector, +Assistant Factory Inspector, or a Deputy Factory Inspector, in charge of +the district, in writing, of such intention, stating the number of hours +of labor per day which it is proposed to permit or require, and the date +upon which the necessity for such lengthened day's labor shall cease, +and also again forward such notification when it shall actually have +ceased. A record of the amount of over-time so worked, and of the days +upon which it was performed, with the names of the employees who were +thus required or permitted to work more than ten hours in any one day, +shall be kept in the office of the manufacturing establishment, and +produced upon the demand of any officer appointed to enforce the +provisions of this act.</p> + +<p>§ 2. No child under fourteen years of age shall be employed in any +manufacturing establishment within this State. It shall be the duty of +every person employing children to keep a register, in which shall be +recorded the name, birthplace, age and place of residence of every +person employed by him under the age of sixteen years; and it shall be +unlawful for any <a name="Page_278" id="Page_278" />proprietor, agent, foreman, or other person in or +connected with a manufacturing establishment to hire or employ any child +under the age of sixteen years to work therein without there is first +provided and placed on file in the orifice an affidavit made by the +parent or guardian, stating the age, date, and place of birth of said +child; if said child have no parent or guardian, then such affidavit +shall be made by the child, which affidavit shall be kept on file by the +employer, and which said register and affidavit shall be produced for +inspection on demand made by the Inspector, Assistant Inspector, or any +of the deputies appointed under this act. There shall be posted +conspicuously in every room where children under sixteen years of age +are employed, a list of their names with their ages respectively. No +child under the age of sixteen years shall be employed in any +manufacturing establishment who cannot read and write simple sentences +in the English language, except during the vacation of the public +schools in the city or town where such minor lives. The Factory +Inspector, Assistant Inspector, and Deputy Inspectors shall have power +to demand a certificate of physical fitness from some regular physician, +in the case of children who may seem physically unable to perform the +labor at which they may be employed, and shall have power to prohibit +the employment of any minor that cannot obtain such a certificate.</p> + +<p>§ 3. No person, firm, or corporation shall employ or permit any child +under the age of fifteen years to <a name="Page_279" id="Page_279" />have the care, custody, management +of, or to operate any elevator, or shall employ or permit any person +under the age of eighteen years to have the care, custody, management, +or operation of any elevator running at a speed of over two hundred feet +a minute.</p> + +<p>§ 4. It shall be the duty of the owner, agent, or lessee of any +manufacturing establishment where there is any elevator, hoisting-shaft, +or well-hole, to cause the same to be properly and substantially +inclosed or secured, if in the opinion of the Factory Inspector, or of +the Assistant Factory Inspector, or a Deputy Factory Inspector, unless +disapproved by the Factory Inspector, it is necessary to protect the +lives or limbs of those employed in such establishment. It shall also be +the duty of the owner, agent, or lessee of each of such establishments +to provide or cause to be provided, if, in the opinion of the Inspector, +the safety of persons in or about the premises should require it, such +proper trap or automatic doors, so fastened in or at all elevator ways +as to form a substantial surface when closed, and so constructed as to +open and close by action of the elevator in its passage, either +ascending or descending, but the requirements of this section shall not +apply to passenger elevators that are closed on all sides. The Factory +Inspector, Assistant Factory Inspector, and Deputy Factory Inspectors +may inspect the cables, gearing, or other apparatus of elevators in +manufacturing establishments, and require that the same be kept in a +safe condition.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280" />§ 5. Proper and substantial hand-rails shall be provided on all +stairways in manufacturing establishments, and where, in the opinion of +the Factory Inspector, or of the Assistant Factory Inspector, or Deputy +Factory Inspector, unless disapproved by the Factory Inspector, it is +necessary, the steps of said stairs in all such establishments shall be +substantially covered with rubber, securely fastened thereon, for the +better safety of persons employed in said establishments. The stairs +shall be properly screened at the sides and bottom, and all doors +leading in or to such factory shall be so constructed as to open +outwardly where practicable, and shall be neither locked, bolted, nor +fastened during working-hours.</p> + +<p>§ 6. If, in the opinion of the Factory Inspector, or of the Assistant +Factory Inspector, or of a Deputy Factory Inspector, it is necessary to +insure the safety of the persons employed in any manufacturing +establishment, three or more stories in height, one or more +fire-escapes, as may be deemed by the Factory Inspector as necessary and +sufficient therefor, shall be provided on the outside of such +establishment, connecting with each floor above the first, well fastened +and secured and of sufficient strength, each of which fire-escapes shall +have landings or balconies, not less than six feet in length and three +feet in width, guarded by iron railings not less than three feet in +height, and embracing at least two windows at each story and connecting +with the interior by easily accessible and un<a name="Page_281" id="Page_281" />obstructed openings, and +the balconies or landings shall be connected by iron stairs, not less +than eighteen inches wide, the steps not to be less than six inches +tread, placed at a proper slant, and protected by a well-secured +hand-rail on both sides with a twelve-inch-wide drop-ladder from the +lower platform reaching to the ground. Any other plan or style of +fire-escape shall be sufficient, if approved by the Factory Inspector; +but if not so approved, the Factory Inspector may notify the owner, +proprietor, or lessee of such establishment or of the building in which +such establishment is conducted, or the agent or superintendent or +either of them, in writing, that any such other plan or style of +fire-escape is not sufficient, and may, by an order in writing, served +in like manner, require one or more fire-escapes, as he shall deem +necessary and sufficient, to be provided for such establishment, at such +locations and of such plan and style as shall be specified in such +written order. Within twenty days after the service of such order, the +number of fire-escapes required in such order for such establishment +shall be provided therefor, each of which shall be either of the plan +and style and in accordance with the specifications in said order +required, or of the plan and style in this section above described and +declared to be sufficient. The windows or doors to each fire-escape +shall be of sufficient size, and be located as far as possible +consistent with accessibility, from the stairways and elevator +<a name="Page_282" id="Page_282" />hatchways or openings, and the ladder thereof shall extend to the roof. +Stationary stairs or ladders shall be provided on the inside of such +establishment from the upper story to the roof, as a means of escape in +case of fire.</p> + +<p>§ 7. It shall be the duty of the owner, agent, superintendent, or other +person having charge of such manufacturing establishment, or of any +floor or part thereof, to report in writing to the Factory Inspector all +accidents or injury done to any person in such factory, within +forty-eight hours of the time of the accident, stating as fully as +possible the extent and cause of such injury, and the place where the +injured person has been sent, with such other information relative +thereto as may be required by the Factory Inspector. The Factory +Inspector or Assistant Factory Inspector and Deputy Factory Inspectors +under the supervision of the Factory Inspector, are hereby authorized +and empowered to fully investigate the causes of such accidents, and to +require such precautions to be taken as will in their judgment prevent +the recurrence of similar accidents.</p> + +<p>§ 8. It shall be the duty of the owner of any manufacturing +establishment, or his agents, superintendent, or other person in charge +of the same, to furnish and supply, or cause to be furnished and +supplied therein, in the discretion of the Factory Inspector, or of the +Assistant Factory Inspector, or of a Deputy Factory Inspector, unless +disapproved by the Factory In<a name="Page_283" id="Page_283" />spector, where machinery is used, +belt-shifters or other safe mechanical contrivances, for the purpose of +throwing on or off belts or pulleys; and wherever possible machinery +therein shall be provided with loose pulleys; all vats, pans, saws, +planers, cogs, gearing, belting, shafting, set-screws, and machinery of +every description therein shall be properly guarded, and no person shall +remove or make ineffective any safeguard around or attached to any +planer, saw, belting, shafting or other machinery, or around any vat or +pan, while the same is in use, unless for the purpose of immediately +making repairs thereto, and all such safeguards shall be promptly +replaced. By attaching thereto a notice to that effect, the use of any +machinery may be prohibited by the Factory Inspector, Assistant Factory +Inspector, or by a Deputy Factory Inspector, unless such notice is +disapproved by the Factory Inspector, should such machinery be regarded +as dangerous. Such notice must be signed by the Inspector who issues it, +and shall only be removed after the required safeguards are provided, +and the unsafe or dangerous machine shall not be used in the mean time. +Exhaust fans of sufficient power shall be provided for the purpose of +carrying off dust from emery wheels and grindstones, and dust-creating +machinery therein. No person under eighteen years of age and no woman +under twenty-one years of age shall be allowed to clean machinery while +in motion.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284" />§ 9. A suitable and proper washroom and water-closets shall be provided +in each manufacturing establishment, and such water-closets shall be +properly screened and ventilated, and be kept at all times in a clean +condition; and if women or girls are employed in any such establishment, +the water-closets used by them shall have separate approaches and be +separate and apart from those used by men. All water-closets shall be +kept free of obscene writing and marking. A dressing-room shall be +provided for women and girls, when required by the Factory Inspector, in +any manufacturing establishment in which women and girls are employed.</p> + +<p>§ 10. Not less than sixty minutes shall be allowed for the noonday meal +in any manufacturing establishment in this State. The Factory Inspector, +the Assistant Factory Inspector, or any Deputy Factory Inspector shall +have power to issue written permits in special cases, allowing shorter +meal-time at noon, and such permit must be conspicuously posted in the +main entrance of the establishment, and such permit may be revoked at +any time the Factory Inspector deems necessary, and shall only be given +where good cause can be shown.</p> + +<p>§ 11. The walls and ceilings of each workroom in every manufacturing +establishment shall be lime-washed or painted, when in the opinion of +the Factory Inspector, Assistant Factory Inspector, or of a Deputy +Factory Inspector, unless disapproved of by the <a name="Page_285" id="Page_285" />Factory Inspector, it +shall be conducive to the health or cleanliness of the persons working +therein.</p> + +<p>§ 12. Any officer of the Factory Inspection Department, or other +competent person designated for such purpose by the Factory Inspector, +shall inspect any building used as a workshop or manufacturing +establishment or anything attached thereto, located therein or connected +therewith, outside of the cities of New York and Brooklyn, which has +been represented to be unsafe or dangerous to life or limb. If it +appears upon such inspection that the building or anything attached +thereto, located therein or connected therewith is unsafe or dangerous +to life or limb, the Factory Inspector shall order the same to be +removed or rendered safe and secure; and if such notification be not +complied with within a reasonable time, he shall prosecute whoever may +be responsible for such delinquency.</p> + +<p>§ 13. No room or rooms, apartment or apartments, in any tenement or +dwelling-house, shall be used for the manufacture of coats, vests, +trousers, knee-pants, overalls, cloaks, furs, fur-trimmings, +fur-garments, shirts, purses, feathers, artificial flowers, or cigars, +excepting by the immediate members of the family living therein. No +person, firm, or corporation shall hire or employ any person to work in +any one room or rooms, apartment or apartments, in any tenement or +dwelling-house, or building in the rear of a tenement or dwelling-house, +at making in whole or in part <a name="Page_286" id="Page_286" />any coats, vests, trousers, knee-pants, +fur, fur-trimmings, fur-garments, shirts, purses, feathers, artificial +flowers, or cigars, without first obtaining a written permit from the +Factory Inspector, Assistant Factory Inspector, or a Deputy Factory +Inspector, which permit may be revoked at any time the health of the +community or of those employed therein may require it, and which permit +shall not be granted until an inspection of such premises is made by the +Factory Inspector, Assistant Factory Inspector, or a Deputy Factory +Inspector, and the maximum number of persons allowed to be employed +therein shall be stated in such permit. Such permit shall be framed and +posted in a conspicuous place in the room or in one of the rooms to +which it relates.</p> + +<p>§ 14. Not less than two hundred and fifty cubic feet of air space shall +be allowed for each person in any workroom where persons are employed +during the hours between six o'clock in the morning and six o'clock in +the evening, and not less than four hundred cubic feet of air space +shall be provided for each person in any workroom where persons are +employed between six o'clock in the evening and six o'clock in the +morning. By a written permit the Factory Inspector, Assistant Factory +Inspector, or a Deputy Factory Inspector, with the consent of the +Factory Inspector, may allow persons to be employed in a room where +there are less than four hundred cubic feet of air space for each person +employed between <a name="Page_287" id="Page_287" />six o'clock in the evening and six o'clock in the +morning, provided such room is lighted by electricity at all times +during such hours while persons are employed therein. There shall be +sufficient means of ventilation provided in each workroom of every +manufacturing establishment; and the Factory Inspector, Assistant +Factory Inspector, and Deputy Factory Inspectors, under the direction of +the Factory Inspector, shall notify the owner, agent, or lessee, in +writing, to provide, or cause to be provided, ample and proper means of +ventilating such workroom, and shall prosecute such owner, agent, or +lessee, if such notification be not complied with within twenty days of +the service of such notice.</p> + +<p>§ 15. Upon the expiration of the term of office of the present Factory +Inspector, and upon the expiration of the term of office of each of his +successors, the Governor shall, by and with the advice and consent of +the Senate, appoint a Factory Inspector; and upon the expiration of the +term of office of the present Assistant Factory Inspector, and upon the +expiration of the term of office of each of his successors, the Governor +shall, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoint an +Assistant Factory Inspector. Each Factory Inspector and Assistant +Factory Inspector shall hold over and continue in office, after the +expiration of his term of office, until his successor shall be appointed +and qualified. The Factory Inspector is hereby author<a name="Page_288" id="Page_288" />ized to appoint +from time to time not exceeding sixteen persons to be Deputy Factory +Inspectors, not more than eight of whom shall be women; and he shall +have power to remove the same at any time. The term of office of the +Factory Inspector and of the Assistant Factory Inspector shall be three +years each. Annual salaries shall be paid in equal monthly instalments, +as follows: To the Factory Inspector, three thousand dollars; to the +Assistant Factory Inspector, two thousand five hundred dollars; to each +Deputy Factory Inspector, one thousand two hundred dollars. All +necessary travelling and other expenses incurred by the Factory +Inspector, Assistant Factory Inspector, and the Deputy Factory +Inspectors in the discharge of their duties shall be paid monthly by the +Treasurer upon the warrant of the Comptroller, issued upon proper +vouchers therefor. A sub-office may be opened in the city of New York at +an expense of not more than one thousand five hundred dollars a year. +The reasonable necessary travelling and other expenses of the Deputy +Factory Inspectors while engaged in the performance of their duties +shall be paid upon vouchers approved by the Factory Inspector and +audited by the Comptroller.</p> + +<p>§ 16. It shall be the duty of the Factory Inspector, and the Assistant +Factory Inspector, and of each of the Deputy Factory Inspectors under +the supervision and direction of the Factory Inspector, to cause this +act to be enforced, and to cause all <a name="Page_289" id="Page_289" />violators of this act to be +prosecuted; and for that purpose they and each of them are hereby +empowered to visit and inspect at all reasonable hours, and as often as +shall be practicable and necessary, all manufacturing establishments in +this State. It shall be unlawful for any person to interfere with, +obstruct, or hinder, by force or otherwise, any officer appointed to +enforce the provisions of this act, while in the performance of his or +her duties, or to refuse to properly answer questions asked by such +officer with reference to any of the provisions hereof. The Factory +Inspector may divide the State into districts, and assign one or more +Deputy Factory Inspectors to each district, and transfer them from one +district to another as the best interests of the State may, in his +judgment, require. Any Deputy Factory Inspector may be appointed to act +as Clerk in the main office of the Factory Inspector, which shall be +furnished in the Capitol, and set apart for the use of the Factory +Inspector. The Assistant Factory Inspector and Deputy Factory Inspectors +shall make reports to the Factory Inspector from time to time, as may be +required by the Factory Inspector, and the Factory Inspector shall make +an annual report to the Legislature during the month of January of each +year. The Factory Inspector, Assistant Factory Inspector, and each +Deputy Factory Inspector shall have the same powers as a Notary Public +to administer oaths and take affidavits in matters connected with the +enforcement of the provisions of this act.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290" />§ 17. The District Attorney of any county of this State is hereby +authorized, upon the request of the Factory Inspector, Assistant Factory +Inspector, or of a Deputy Factory Inspector, or of any other person of +full age, to commence and prosecute to termination before any Recorder, +Police Justice, or court of record, in the name of the people of the +State, actions or proceedings against any person or persons reported to +him to have violated the provisions of this act.</p> + +<p>§ 18. The words "manufacturing establishment," wherever used in this +act, shall be construed to mean any mill, factory, or workshop, where +one or more persons are employed at labor.</p> + +<p>§ 19. A copy of this act shall be conspicuously posted and kept posted +in each workroom of every manufacturing establishment in this State.</p> + +<p>§ 20. Any person who violates or omits to comply with any of the +provisions of this act, or who suffers or permits any child to be +employed in violation of its provisions, shall be deemed guilty of a +misdemeanor, and on conviction shall be punished by a fine of not less +than twenty nor more than fifty dollars for the first offence, and not +more than one hundred dollars for the second offence, or imprisonment +for not more than ten days, and for the third offence a fine of not less +than two hundred and fifty dollars, and not more than thirty days' +imprisonment.</p> + +<p>§ 21. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of +this act are hereby repealed.</p> + +<p>§ 22. This act shall take effect immediately.</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="AUTHORITIES_CONSULTED_IN_PREPARING_THIS_BOOK" id="AUTHORITIES_CONSULTED_IN_PREPARING_THIS_BOOK" /><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291" />AUTHORITIES CONSULTED IN PREPARING THIS BOOK.</h2> + +<hr /> + +<p>United States Census, from 1790 to 1880 inclusive.</p> + +<p>Reports of the State Bureaus of Labor Statistics as follows:—</p> + +<blockquote><p> +Maine, 1889.<br /> +Massachusetts, 1870 to 1889 inclusive.<br /> +Connecticut, 1881.<br /> +Rhode Island, 1889.<br /> +New York, 1885.<br /> +New Jersey, 1885, 1886, and 1889.<br /> +Iowa, 1887 and 1889.<br /> +Kansas, 1889.<br /> +Wisconsin, 1883-84 and 1887.<br /> +Colorado, 1889.<br /> +Minnesota, 1889.<br /> +California, 1888.<br /> +Nebraska, 1887-90.<br /> +Michigan, 1892.<br /> +</p></blockquote> + +<p>Reports of the Factory Inspectors for various States.</p> + +<p>Working Women in Large Cities: Report of the United States Department of +Labor, Washington, D.C., 1889.</p> + +<p>The Labor Movement in America. By Richard T. Ely. Thomas Y. Crowell & +Co., New York.</p> + +<p>The Wages Question: A Treatise on Wages and the Wages Class. By Francis +A. Walker. Henry Holt & Co., New York.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292" />The Labor Problem. Edited by W.E. Barnes. Harper & Brothers, New York.</p> + +<p>On Labor. By W.T. Thornton. Macmillan & Co., London, 1869.</p> + +<p>Profit-Sharing between Employer and Employed. By N.P. Gilman. Houghton, +Mifflin, & Co., Boston.</p> + +<p>Sharing the Profits. By Mary Whiton Calkins, A.M. Ginn & Co., Boston.</p> + +<p>Artisans and Machinery. By P. Gaskell. London, 1836.</p> + +<p>Condition of the Laboring Classes in England. By F. Engel. Leipzig and +New York.</p> + +<p>Ansichten der Volkswirthschaft aus dem geschicht. Standpunkte. By +Wilhelm Roscher.</p> + +<p>Various Reports of Commissioners appointed to inquire into the working +of the Factory Acts in England.</p> + +<p>Le Travail des Femmes au XIX. Siècle. By Paul Leroy-Beaulieu. Paris, +1870.</p> + +<p>London Labor and the London Poor. By Henry Mayhew. Charles Griffen & +Co., London.</p> + +<p>The Industrial Revolution. By Arnold Toynbee. London.</p> + +<p>The Philosophy of Wealth. By John B. Clark. Ginn & Co., Boston.</p> + +<p>Economic Writings of Emil de Lavelaye.</p> + +<p>Lalor's Cyclopedia of Political Science.</p> + +<p>Various Treatises on Political Economy. Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, +Senior, Cairnes, Ely, Perry, Walker, etc.</p> + +<p>Prisoners of Poverty. By Helen Campbell. Roberts Bros., Boston.</p> + +<p>Applied Christianity. By Washington Gladden. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., +Boston.</p> + +<p>Life and Work of the Earl of Shaftesbury, London. Read for Factory +Inspection and Legislation.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293" />Problems of To-Day. By Richard T. Ely. T.Y. Crowell & Co., New York.</p> + +<p>Social Studies. By the Rev. R. Heber Newton. G.P. Putnam's Son, New +York.</p> + +<p>Social Problems. By Henry George.</p> + +<p>Studies in Modern Socialism. By Edwin Brown, D.D. Appleton & Co., New +York.</p> + +<p>Dynamic Sociology. By Lester F. Ward. D. Appleton & Co., New York.</p> + +<p>Labor and Life of the People. Vols. 1 & 2: East London. By Charles +Booth. Williams & Norgate, London, 1889 & 1892.</p> + +<p>Thirty Years of Labor: 1859 to 1889. By T.V. Powderly.</p> + +<p>Das Kapital. By Karl Marx.</p> + +<p>How the Other Half Live. By Jacob Riis. Charles Scribner's Sons, New +York.</p> + +<p>General Reports and Review Articles on the questions involved.</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="BIBLIOGRAPHY_OF_WOMANS_LABOR_AND_OF_THE_WOMAN_QUESTION" id="BIBLIOGRAPHY_OF_WOMANS_LABOR_AND_OF_THE_WOMAN_QUESTION" /><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294" />BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WOMAN'S LABOR AND OF THE WOMAN QUESTION.</h2> + +<hr /> + +<h3>GERMANY.</h3> + +<p>Ausser den amtlichen Veröffentlichungen der verschiedenen Länder, über +Berufs-und Bevölkerungstatistik vgl G. Schmoller, Thatsachen der +Arbeitsteilung, Jahrb. f. Ges. und Berw. Bd 13, 1889.</p> + +<p>Buchsenschutz, Besitz und Erwerb in griechischen Alterthum. Halle, 1869.</p> + +<p>Franz Bernhoft, Ueber die Stellung der Frauen in Alterthum, Nord und +Süd. Bd. 39, 1884.</p> + +<p>K. Weinhold, Die deutschen Frauen im Mittelalter, 2 Auflage. Wien, 1882.</p> + +<p>Norrenberg, Frauenarbeit und Arbeiterinnenziehung in deutscher Vorzeit. +Köln, 1780.</p> + +<p>Stahl, Das deutsche Handwerk. Giessen, 1874.</p> + +<p>Carl Bücher, Die Frauenfrage im Mittelalter. Tübingen, 1882.</p> + +<p>Stieda, Litteratur, heutige Zustände und Entstehung der deutschen +Hausindustrie. Leipzig, 1889. [Schr. d. Ver. f. Soz. Bd. 39.]</p> + +<p>Ad. Held, Zwei Bücher zur socialen Geschichte Englands. Leipzig, 1848.</p> + +<p>Fr. Engels, Die Lage der arbeitenden Klasse in England. 2 Ausgabe. +Leipzig, 1848.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295" />Karl Marx, Das Kapital, Band 1, 2 Auflage. Hamburg, 1872.</p> + +<p>Max Schippel, Das moderne Elend und die moderne Uebervölkerung. +Stuttgart, 1886.</p> + +<p>Von Scherzer, Weltindustrien. Leipzig, 1880.</p> + +<p>Ettore Friedlander, Die Frage der Frauen-und Kinderarbeit, deutsch von +Fleischer. Forbach, 1887.</p> + +<p>Ergebnisse der über die Frauen-und Kinderarbeit in den Fabriken auf +Beschluss des Bundesraths angestellten Erhebungen, zusammengestellt im +Reichskanzleramt. Berlin, 1877.</p> + +<p>W. Stieda, Deutschlands sozialstatistische Erhebungen im Jahre 1876. +Jahrb. f. Ges. und Verw. R.F. Bd. 1, 1877.</p> + +<p>Eine Enquete über Frauen-und Kinderarbeit in der deutsche Flachs-und +Leinenindustrie. Arbeiterfreund, Jahrg. 12, 1874.</p> + +<p>Reichsenquete über die Baumwoll-und Leinenindustrie, 1878-79.</p> + +<p>Stenograph, Protokolle des Bundesrathes, 1878-79.</p> + +<p>Worishoffer, Die soziale Lage der Cigarrenarbeiter im Grossherzogthum +Baden. Karlsruhe, 1890.</p> + +<p>Amtliche Mittheilungen aus den Jahresberichten der mit Beaufsichtigung +der Fabriken betrauten Beamten, Jahrg. 1-14. Berlin, 1877-90.</p> + +<p>Elster, Die Fabrikinspektionsberichte, und die +Arbeiterschutzgesetzgebung in Deutschland. Jahrb. f. Nat. R.F. Bd. 11. +1885.</p> + +<p>P. Kollmann, Die gewerbliche Entfaltung im deutschen Reiche. Jahrb. f. +Ges. und Verw. R.F., Bd. 11 und 12. 1888-89.</p> + +<p>Kuno Frankenstein, Die Lage der Arbeiterinnen in den deutschen +Grossstadten, ebenda Bd. 12. 1888.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296" />Eug. Kämpfe, Die Lage der industriellthätigen Arbeiterinnen in +Deutschland. Leipzig, 1889.</p> + +<p>O. Pache, Unsere Arbeiterfrauen. Leipzig, 1880.</p> + +<p>Bericht der Gewerbeordnungscommission des Reichstages, 7 +Legislaturperiode, 1 Session, 1890-91, Sammlung d. Drucksachen des +Reichstages, 7 Legislaturperiode, 1 Session 1887, Bd. 2, Berlin, 1887, +Nr. 83.</p> + +<p>Karl Kaerger, Die Sachsgangerei, Landw. Jahrb. Bd. 13. 1890.</p> + +<p>Hirschberg, Lohne der Arbeiterinnen in Berlin. Jahrb. f. Nat. Bd. 13. +1886.</p> + +<p>Herkner, Die belgische Arbeiterenquete und ihre sozialpolitischen +Resultate. Archiv f. soz. Ges. und Staat, Bd. 1. 1888.</p> + +<p>Derselbe, Die oberelsassische Baumwollindustrie und ihre Arbeiter. +Strassburg, 1887.</p> + +<p>Ruhland, Der achtstundige Arbeitstag und die Arbeitschutzgesetzgebung +Australiens. Zeitschr. f.d. ges. Staatsgewissenschaft, Bd. 47. 1891.</p> + +<p>v. Studnitz, Amerikanische Arbeitverhältnisse. Leipzig, 1879.</p> + +<p>Douai, Die Lage der Lohnarbeiter in Amerika, in Tenner, Amerika. Berlin +und New York, 1884.</p> + +<p>Hirt, Die gewerbliche Thätigkeit der Frauen von hygienischen Standpunkte +aus. Breslau und Leipzig, 1887.</p> + +<p>Derselbe, Frauenarbeit in Fabriken, in Hirth's Ann. 1875.</p> + +<p>Schuler und Burkhardt, Untersuchungen über die Gesundheitsverhältnisse +der Fabrikbevölkerung in der Schweiz. Aarau, 1889.</p> + +<p>Schonlank, Die Further Quecksilber-Spiegelbelege. Stuttgart, 1888.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297" />Pfieffer, Die proletarische und criminelle Säuglingssterblichkeit +Jahrb. f. Nat. N.F. Bd. 4. 1882.</p> + +<p>John Stuart Mill, The Subjection of Women. London, 1869; 4 Aufl., 1878, +übersetzt von Jenny Hirsch, v.d. Hörigkeit der Frau, 2 Aufl., Berlin +1872, nebst einem Vorbericht über den Stand der Frauenfrage, übersetzt +von Ludwig Stockman, 3 Aufl. Stuttgart, 1892.</p> + +<p>Die Frau und die Sozialismus, 8 Aufl. Stuttgart, 1891.</p> + +<p>v. Raumer, Die Frau und die Sozialdemokratie. Berlin, 1884.</p> + +<p>Georg Hannsen, Die drei Bevölkerungsstufen, [111,7: Das Weib im +Bevölkerungsstrom]. München, 1889.</p> + +<p>Karoline Norton, Die Frauen in England unter dem Gesetz unseres +Jahrhunderts. A.D. Engl. Berlin, 1855.</p> + +<p>Rubinu und Westergaard, Statistik der Ehen auf Grund der sozialen +Gliederung. Jena, 1889.</p> + +<p>Lette, Denkschrift über die Eröffnung neuer und die Verbesserung +bisheriger Erwerbsquellen für das weibliche Geschlecht. Arbeiterfreund, +Jahrb. 1865. Auszug aus dem Protokoll der Sitzung des Vorstandes und +Ausschusses des Zent.-Ver. in Preussen für das Wohl der arbeitenden +Klasse, nebst Lettes Votum und Promemoria und andere Materialen, ebenda.</p> + +<p>Gust. Eberty, Geschichte der Bestrebungen für das Wohl der arbeitenden +Frauen in England, ebenda.</p> + +<p>Luisa Otto, Das Recht der Frauen auf Erwerb. Hamburg, 1868.</p> + +<p>Otto August, Die soziale Lage auf dem Gebiete der Frauen. Hamburg, 1868.</p> + +<p>v. Sybel, Ueber die Emanzipation der Frauen. Bonn, 1860.</p> + +<p>Karl Thomas Richter, Das Recht der Frauen auf Arbeit <a name="Page_298" id="Page_298" />and die +Organization der Frauenarbeit, 2 Aufl. Wien, 1869.</p> + +<p>Schönberg, Die Frauenfrage. Basel, 1872.</p> + +<p>Phil. v. Nathusius, Zur Frauenfrage. Halle, 1871.</p> + +<p>Rob. König, Zur Charakteristik der Frauenfrage. Leipzig und Bielefeld, +1879.</p> + +<p>Hedwig Dohm, Der Frauen Natur und Recht. Berlin, 1876. Dieselbe, Die +wissenschaftliche Emancipation der Frau. Berlin, 1877.</p> + +<p>Fanny Lewald, Für und wider die Frauen, 2 Aufl. Berlin, 1875.</p> + +<p>Franz von Holzendorff, Die Verbesserung in der gesellschaftlichen und +wirtschaftlichen Stellung der Frauen, 2 Aufl. Berlin, 1877.</p> + +<p>Luisa Büchner, Ueber die Frauenemanzipation. Dorpat, 1877.</p> + +<p>J. Pierstorff, Frauenfrage und Frauenbewegung. Göttingen, 1879.</p> + +<p>Sophie v. Hardenburg, Zur Frauenfrage. Leipzig, 1883.</p> + +<p>Laas, Zur Frauenfrage. Berlin, 1883.</p> + +<p>Lor. v. Stein, Die Frau auf dem Gebiete der Nationalökonomie, 6 Aufl. +Stuttgart, 1886. Derselbe, Die Frau auf dem sozialen Gebiete. Stuttgart, +1880.</p> + +<p>Mathilde Reichart Stromberg, Frauenrecht und Frauenpflicht, 3 Aufl. +Leipzig, 1883.</p> + +<p>F.L. Warneck, Ehret die Frauen, 2 Aufl. Leipzig, 1882.</p> + +<p>Dorothea Christina Erxleben, [geb. Leporin,] Gründliche Untersuchen der +Ursachen, die das weibliche Geschlecht von Studieren abhalten, darin +deren Unerheblichkeit gezeiget, und wie möglich, nöthig und nützlich es +sei, dieses Geschlecht der Gelehrtheit sich befleissige, umständlich +dargelegt we wird. Berlin, 1742. Dieselbe, Vernünftige Gedanken vom +Studieren <a name="Page_299" id="Page_299" />des Schönen Geschlechts. Frankfurt und Leipzig, 1749.</p> + +<p>Victor Böhmert, Das Studium der Frauen in besonderer Rücksicht auf das +Studium der Medizin. Leipzig, 1872. Derselbe, Das Frauenstudium nach den +Erfahrungen an der Züricher Universität. Arbeiterfreund, Bd. 12. 1874.</p> + +<p>Hermann, Die Frauenstudien und die Interessen der Hochschule Zurich. +Zurich, 1872.</p> + +<p>Gneist, Ueber gemeinschaftliche Schulen für Knaben und Mädchen und über +die Universitätsbildung der Frauen nach den neueren Erfahrungen in den +nordamerikanischen Freistaaten. Arbeiterfreund, Jahrg. 12. 1874.</p> + +<p>v. Scheel, Frauenfrage und Frauenstudium. Jahrb. f. Nat., Bd. 22, 1874.</p> + +<p>Eug. Dühring, Weg zur höheren Berufsbildung der Frauen, 2 Aufl. Leipzig, +1885.</p> + +<p>Helene Lange, Frauen Bildung. Berlin, 1889.</p> + +<p>Zehender, Ueber den Beruf der Frauen zum Studium und zur praktischen +Ausübung der Medezin durch die Frauen. München, 1877.</p> + +<p>Ludwig Schwerin, Die Zulassung der Frauen zur Ausübung des artzlichen +Berufs. Berlin, 1870.</p> + +<p>Mathilde Weber, Aerztinnen für Frauenkrankheiten, eine ethische und +sanitäre Nothwendigkeit, 4 Aufl. Tübingen, 1889.</p> + +<p>Waldeyer, Das Studium der Medizin und die Frauen. Tagebl. der 61. +Versammlung deutscher Naturforscher und Artzerei in Köln, v. 18, 23, No. +1878, wissenschaftl. Theil. Köln, 1889.</p> + +<p>O. Heyfelder, Die medizinischen Frauenkurse von Petersburg. Unsere Zeit, +1887, 11.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300" />Karl Breul, Die Frauencolleges der Universität Cambridge, England. +Preuss. Jahrb., Jahrg. 1891, Heft 1.</p> + +<p>Die Entstehung und Entwickelung der gewerblichen Fortbildungsschulen und +Frauenarbeitsschulen in Würtemberg; herausgegeben von der Königlichen +Commission für die gewerblichen Fortbildungsschulen, 2 Aufl. Stuttgart, +1889.</p> + +<p>Galle und Kamp, Die hauswirthschaftliche Unterweisung armer Mädchen. +Wiesbaden, 1889; Neue Folge, Wiesbaden, 1889. Die hauswirthschaftliche +Unterricht armer Mädchen in Deutschland. Schr. d. Ver. f. Armenpflege +und Wohlthätigkeit, Heft 12. Leipzig, 1889.</p> + +<p>Lina Morgenstern, Allgemeiner Frauenkalender für 1885, 1886, und 1887. +Berlin.</p> + +<p>Luise Otto Peters, Das erste Vierteljahrhundert des Allgemeinen +deutschen Frauenvereins. Leipzig, 1890.</p> + +<p>Jenny Hirsch, Geschichte der 25-jahrigen Wirksamkeit [1886-91] des +Lettevereins. [Festschrift.] Berlin, 1891.</p> + +<p>Amelie Sohr, Frauenarbeit in der Armen-und Krankenpflege daheim und im +Auslande. Berlin, 1882.</p> + +<p>Ed. Gauer, Die höhere Mädchenschule und die Lehrerinnenfrage. Berlin, +1878.</p> + +<p>Spyri, Die Betheiligung des weiblichen Geschlechts am öffentlichen +Unterricht in der Schweiz. Sep.-Abdr. der schweizer. Zeitschrift f. +Gemeinnützigkeit, Jahrg. 1873, Zurich.</p> + +<p>Rüdinger, Vorläufige Mittheilung über die Unterschiede der +Grosshirnwindungen nach dem Geschlecht, Beiträge zur Anthropologie und +Urgeschichte Bayerns, Bd. 1, 1887.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301" />J. Pierstorff, Litteratur zur Frauenfrage. Jahrb. f. Nat. N.F. Bd. 7. +1883.</p> + +<p>Während des Druckes erschienen:</p> + +<p>Ed. von Hartmann, Die Jungfernfrage, Gegenwart 1891, Nr. 34 und 35.</p> + +<p>W. Stieda, Frauenarbeit. Jahrb. f. Nat., Dritte Folge, 11, 2, 1891.</p> + + +<h3>BIBLIOGRAPHY OF FRENCH LITERATURE ON THE WOMAN QUESTION AND THAT OF WOMAN'S LABOR.</h3> + +<p>Levasseur, Histoire des classes ouvrières depuis 1788. Paris, 1867.</p> + +<p>Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, Le travail des femmes au XIX. siècle. Paris, 1873.</p> + +<p>Jules Simon, L'ouvrière, 2^me édition. Paris, 1870.</p> + +<p>Villermé, Tableau de l'état physique et moral des ouvriers employés dans +les manufactures de coton, de laine et de soie. Paris, 1840.</p> + +<p>Kuborn, Rapport sur l'enquête faite au nom de l'académie royale de +medicine de Belgique par la commission chargée d'étudier la question de +l'emploi des femmes dans les travaux souterrains des mines. Bruxelles, +1868. Documents nouveaux relatifs au travail des femmes et des enfants +dans les manufactures, les mines, etc., etc. Bruxelles, 1874.</p> + +<p>Condorcet, Lettres d'un bourgeois de New Haven à un citoyen de Virginie, +1787. OEuvres complètes, Brunswick, 1804. The same, Sur l'admission des +femmes au droit de cité. Journal de la société de 1789, v. 3, VII. 1790.</p> + +<p>Laboulaye, Recherches sur la condition civile et politique <a name="Page_302" id="Page_302" />des femmes +depuis les Romains jusqu'à nos jours. Paris, 1843.</p> + +<p>Legouvé, Histoire morale de la femme. Paris, 1848; 4^me édition, 1884.</p> + +<p>Michelet, La femme. Paris, 1860.</p> + +<p>Proudhon, La justice dans l'église et dans la révolution, 1858. Oeuvres +anciennes, Paris, 1868-76. Tome 22-26.</p> + +<p>Jenny d'Hericourt, La femme affranchie. Bruxelles, 1860.</p> + +<p>Juliette Lamber, Idées antiproudhoniennes sur l'amour, la femme et le +mariage, 2^me édition. Paris, 1862.</p> + +<p>Leon Giraud, Essai sur la condition de la femme en Europe et en +Amérique. Paris, 1883.</p> + +<p>Eugène Pelletan, La famille. La mère. Paris, 1865.</p> + +<p>Actes du Congrès international des droits des femmes. Paris, 1878.</p> + +<p>Comte de Franqueville, Les droits des femmes en Angleterre, Compte rendu +de l'Académie des sciences morales et politiques. Paris, 1891.</p> + + +<h3>ENGLISH BIBLIOGRAPHY.</h3> + +<p>Working Women in Large Cities, 4th annual Report of the Commission of +Labor. Washington, 1878.</p> + +<p>Theodore Stanton, The Woman Question in Europe. London, 1884.</p> + +<p>Helen Campbell, Prisoners of Poverty, 1887. Prisoners of Poverty Abroad, +1889.</p> + +<p>Woman's Work in America, edited by Annie Nathan Meyer. New York, 1891.</p> + +<p>Sophia Jex-Blake, Medical Women. Edinburgh, 1871.</p> + +<p>A. Huntley, Women and Medicine. London, 1886.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303" />John Stuart Mill, Subjection of Women. London, 1869.</p> + +<p>Eliza W. Farnham, Woman and her Era. New York, 1869.</p> + +<p>Lester F. Ward, Dynamic Sociology, vol. i. pp. 597-664.</p> + +<p>Maria S. Child, History and Condition of Women in various Ages and +Nations. Boston, 1840.</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX" /><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304" /><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305" />INDEX.</h2> + + +<ul> + + <li> + <ul> + + <li>Abuses, in factories, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_112'>112;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">in dry-goods stores, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_265'>265.</a>(<i>See</i> also Fines, Factories, Hours.)</li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Age, average, of working-women in Massachusetts, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_116'>116.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Agricultural labor, women press into, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_21'>21.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Agricultural Laborers' Union, women denied admission to, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_21'>21.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Alabama, women workers in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Alfred's "History of the Factory Movement," + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_93'>93.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>American girls, percentage of, employed in Massachusetts, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_116'>116.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Andover ordinances, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_60'>60.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Appendix, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_275'>275.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Apprentices, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_49'>49,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_122'>122.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Arbitration, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_266'>266.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Aristotle, "Politics" and "Economics," + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_29'>29;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">views of women, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_30'>30.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Arizona, working-women in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Arkansas, working-women in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Atlanta, Ga., weekly wage in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_139'>139.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Austria, hours of labor in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_185'>185.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Authorities consulted, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_291'>291.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li> + <ul> + <li>Bakeries, girls in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_218'>218.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Baltimore, Md., weekly wage in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_139'>139.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Beating, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_52'>52.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Beaulieu, Paul Leroy, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_165'>165,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_167'>167,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_251'>251.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Belgium, inquiry commission, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_174'>174;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">hours of labor in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_186'>186.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Berlin Labor Conference, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_11'>11.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Betton, Frank, investigation of conditions in Kansas, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_123'>123.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Bibliography, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_294'>294.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Bishop, Commissioner, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_221'>221.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>"Bitter Cry of Outcast London," + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_9'>9,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_136'>136.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Blackwell, Dr. Emily, on restraints on women workers, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_97'>97.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Book-binding, women and children employed in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_108'>108.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Boston, weekly wage in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_139'>139;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">establishment of labor bureau in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_111'>111;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">report on working-girls of, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_114'>114;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">women employed in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_116'>116.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Brain, relative sizes and weights of man's and woman's, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_27'>27.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Brassey, Lord, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_176'>176.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Broadcloth, weaving of, by women, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_73'>73.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Brooklyn, N.Y., weekly wage in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_139'>139.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Bücher, Dr. Carl, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_43'>43.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Buffalo, N.Y., weekly wage in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_139'>139.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li> + <ul> + <li>California, average wage in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_141'>141;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">women workers in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">first labor-bureau report, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_121'>121.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Calkins, Mary W., on profit-sharing, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_267'>267.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Capital has no complaint, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_7'>7,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_11'>11.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Capitalist, and landlord absorb lion's share, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_7'>7;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">investment of skill and risk, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_12'>12.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Carpet-weaving, women employed in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_108'>108.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Celibacy, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_43'>43.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Census Bureau, difficulties in work of, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_102'>102;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">discrepancies in reports, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_103'>103.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Charity adds insult to injury, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_251'>251.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Charlemagne, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_45'>45.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Charleston, S.C., weekly wage in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_139'>139.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Chicago, weekly wage in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_139'>139.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Child labor, efforts against, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_11'>11;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">in Prussia, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_175'>175,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_178'>178.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Chivalry, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_44'>44.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Cigar-making, women and children employed in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_108'>108.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Cincinnati, weekly wage in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_139'>139.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Cities, women's trades focussed in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_19'>19.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Clement of Alexandria, on women, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_41'>41.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Cleveland, O., weekly wage in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_139'>139.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Clothing-trade, women employed in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_108'>108.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Colbert, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_54'>54.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Colorado, women workers in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">labor-bureau reports, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_122'>122;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">weekly wage in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_141'>141.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Commodity, labor as a, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_17'>17.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Competition, among needle-workers, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_22'>22;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">should be controlled, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_252'>252,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_253'>253.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Conciliation, arbitration and, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_266'>266.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Conditions, general, in Maine, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_189'>189;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">Massachusetts, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_190'>190;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">Connecticut, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_192'>192;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">Rhode Island, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_193'>193;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">New Jersey, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_197'>197;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">Kansas, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_199'>199;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">Wisconsin, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_199'>199;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">Colorado, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_200'>200;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">Indiana, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_200'>200;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">Minnesota, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_201'>201;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">California, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_202'>202;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">Missouri, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_204'>204;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">Michigan, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_205'>205;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">in New York stores, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_232'>232.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Congrès Féministe, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_165'>165.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Connecticut, women workers in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">labor bureau organized, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_121'>121;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">average wage, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_141'>141.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Cotton, first bale of, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_67'>67;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">industry, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_68'>68;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + + <li class="subitem">in Italy, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_179'>179;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">machinery and mills, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_70'>70,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_71'>71.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Cotton-goods trade, women in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_108'>108.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Coxe, Tench, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_68'>68,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_72'>72,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_115'>115.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Credit, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_54'>54.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Crime and pauperism in labor reports, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_113'>113.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Criminal list fed by factory system, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_91'>91.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Custom hampers women workers, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_22'>22.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Cyprian, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_41'>41.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li> + <ul> + <li>Dakota, working-women in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Daniel, Dr. Annie S., + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_223'>223,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_225'>225,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_226'>226.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Deaconesses, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_39'>39.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>De Gournay, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_54'>54.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Delaware, women workers in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Diet, effect oil industrial efficiency, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_14'>14.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Distribution of wealth, conflict over, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_7'>7,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_8'>8.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>District of Columbia, working-women in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Divorces in Massachusetts labor reports, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_114'>114.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Domestic service, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_57'>57,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_237'>237;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">in California, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_122'>122;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">in Colorado, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_122'>122;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">advantages of, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_239'>239;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + + <li class="subitem">disadvantages, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_241'>241;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">employers of, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_245'>245;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">Woman's Congress on, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_246'>246.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Donaldson, Principal, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_39'>39.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Dress-making, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_254'>254.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Drimakos, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_34'>34.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Dry-goods houses, abuses in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_265'>265.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Dust in modern manufacture, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_213'>213,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_218'>218,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_219'>219.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Dynamic Sociology, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_26'>26.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li> + <ul> + <li>Earnings, definition of, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_127'>127;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">average of working-women in Massachusetts, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_117'>117.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Economic question, the question of the day, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_7'>7;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">dependence, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_27'>27;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">Greek thought, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_29'>29.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Education, technical, as affecting efficiency, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_14'>14;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">of girls less practical than of boys, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_23'>23;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">industrial, in Italy, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_175'>175;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">in Sweden, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_183'>183;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">compulsory, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_178'>178;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">demanded for the employer and the public, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_251'>251.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Efficiency, differences in, regulate wages, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_14'>14;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">affected by education, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_14'>14.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Embroidery, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_48'>48.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Emerson, Mary Moody, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_66'>66.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Emigration, Irish, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_84'>84;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">increase of, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_96'>96.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Employment, fluctuation in, affects wages, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_16'>16.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII., + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_151'>151.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Engels, Dr., on proportion of subsistence to total expenses, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_118'>118.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Evils recognized, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_94'>94.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Evolution, woman's industrial activity in harmony with, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_270'>270.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Expenses, average of working-women in Massachusetts, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_118'>118.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li> + <ul> + <li>Factory, system, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_75'>75,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_90'>90;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">girls, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_78'>78;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">Lowell girls, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_79'>79;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">laws, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_81'>81,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_85'>85,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_235'>235,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_275'>275;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">conditions, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_82'>82,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_84'>84;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">hours, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_86'>86;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">women in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_89'>89;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">employments, effects of, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_91'>91;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">ventilation, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_92'>92;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">inspection, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_222'>222,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_275'>275;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">married women in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_229'>229;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">movement, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_92'>92,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_93'>93.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Fair house, standard of, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_262'>262.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Families, condition of, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_113'>113.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Family life, demoralization of, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_271'>271.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Fawcett, Henry, opposition to women in trades, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_20'>20.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Fines, system of, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_230'>230,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_233'>233;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">in stores, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_258'>258.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Florida, women workers in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Fortescue, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_53'>53.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>France, hours of labor in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_183'>183.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Fry, Eleanor, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_63'>63.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Fuller, Margaret, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_119'>119.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Furriers, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_46'>46.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + + <li> + <ul> + <li>Georgia, women workers in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Germany, attitude of Emperor William, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_11'>11;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">hours of labor in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_185'>185.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>"Germinal," + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_174'>174.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Gilman, N.P., on profit-sharing, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_267'>267.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Gloves, home manufacture of, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_63'>63.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Godfrey's Cordial in infant mortality, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_147'>147.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Greeley, Horace, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_119'>119.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Guilds, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_45'>45;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">expulsion of women from, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_47'>47.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li> + <ul> + <li>Habits, personal, as affecting efficiency, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_14'>14.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Half-time system for children, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_113'>113.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Harkness, Margaret, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_154'>154.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Harland, Sarah, on work for uneducated women, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_253'>253.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Harrison, Frederick, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_17'>17,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_18'>18.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Health, in factory employments, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_91'>91;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">of working-women in Massachusetts, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_113'>113.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Homes, of working-people, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_112'>112;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">for girls, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_191'>191;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">in cities, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_222'>222,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_226'>226,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_250'>250.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + + </ul> + </li> + <li>Hosiery and knitting, women employed in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_108'>108.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Hours of labor, in Massachusetts, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_117'>117;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">in Michigan, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_206'>206;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">in stores, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_258'>258.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Huxley, Thomas, description of London parish, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_9'>9,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_10'>10.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li> + <ul> + <li>Idaho, working-women in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Ideals, alteration of, called for, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_271'>271.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Illinois, women workers in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Immobility of labor, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_18'>18,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_19'>19.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Income, defined, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_127'>127;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">average, in Massachusetts, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_116'>116.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Indiana, women workers in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Indianapolis, average wage in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_139'>139.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Individual development, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_272'>272.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Industrial, education, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_252'>252;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">efficiency, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_14'>14.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Industries open to women in the United States, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_124'>124.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Infant mortality, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_147'>147.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Insanity among workers, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_254'>254.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Intellectual degeneracy of factory operatives, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_91'>91,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_93'>93.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Intelligence, effect on efficiency, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_14'>14;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">effect of factory system on, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_91'>91.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Intemperance produced by factory system, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_91'>91.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Iowa, women workers in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">labor bureau, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_122'>122;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">"Iphigenia in Tauris," + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_31'>31.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Irish, emigration, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_84'>84;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">industries, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_159'>159.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Iron law of wages, defined and denounced, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_15'>15;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">applicable to unskilled labor, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_15'>15.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li> + <ul> + <li>Jevons, W.S., + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_147'>147.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Justice, education in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_271'>271;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">a soul-growth, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_273'>273,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_274'>274.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li> + <ul> + <li>Kansas, women workers in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">labor bureau, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_122'>122;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">average wage in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_89'>89.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Kay, Dr., + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_89'>89.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Kelley, Florence, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_264'>264.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Kettle, Rupert, on arbitration, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_268'>268.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Knights of Labor, on women's work, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_270'>270.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Knitting, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_74'>74;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">and hosiery trades, women in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_108'>108.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li> + <ul> + <li>Labor, degradation of, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_35'>35;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">unskilled in colonies, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_58'>58;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">child, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_86'>86;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">effect of out-door, on pregnant mothers, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_147'>147;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">unskilled, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_271'>271;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">bureaus, their work in relation to women, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110</a> (<i>see</i> also under each State);</li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">Father of, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_115'>115;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">mobility of, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_17'>17;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">Congress in Belgium, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_175'>175;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">hours of, in Germany, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_185'>185;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">in France, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_183'>183;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">in Austria, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_185'>185;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">in Belgium, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_186'>186;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">in Switzerland, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_186'>186.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Laborer does not receive his share, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_13'>13.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Lace-making, women employed in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_48'>48,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_108'>108;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">in Ireland, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_159'>159;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">in Nottingham, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_268'>268.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Lecky, W.H., + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_89'>89.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Leroy-Beaulieu, Paul, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_165'>165,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_167'>167,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_251'>251.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Levasseur, E., + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_161'>161.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Lille, cave-dwellers in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_168'>168.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>"London, Bitter Cry of Outcast," + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_9'>9,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_196'>196;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">poverty, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_9'>9,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_10'>10.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Louis le Jeune, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_46'>46.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Louis, Saint, "Institutions" of, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_46'>46.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Louisiana, women workers in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Louisville, Ky., + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_139'>139.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Love, law of, ends conflict, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_274'>274.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Lowell factory-girl, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_93'>93.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Lowell, Josephine Shaw, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_267'>267.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Luther, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_44'>44.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Lynn, Mass., shoe-making industry of, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_99'>99.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li> + <ul> + <li>Machinery, effects on woman's labor, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_252'>252.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Maine, Sir Henry, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_42'>42.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Maine, women employed in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">in shoe-making, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_99'>99;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">labor bureau, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_123'>123;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">average wages, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_139'>139.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Manual training, in California, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_122'>122.</a> (<i>See</i> also education.)</li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Marriage, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_27'>27,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_38'>38.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Married women in factories, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_91'>91,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_118'>118.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Massachusetts, Bureau of Labor reports, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_99'>99,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_101'>101,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_111'>111;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">census of women workers in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_116'>116;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">average wages in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_139'>139.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Match-making dangers, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_221'>221.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Mazzini on freedom, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_273'>273.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Men oppose admission of women to trades, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_20'>20.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Men's furnishing-goods, women employed in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_108'>108.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Michigan, women workers in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Millinery, women employed in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_108'>108;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">readily organized trade, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_254'>254.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Mines, women in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_174'>174.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Minnesota, women employed in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">labor bureau, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_122'>122;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">average wage, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_141'>141.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Mississippi, working-women in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Missouri, women workers in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Mobility of labor, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_17'>17.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Modern processes involve risk, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_115'>115.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Montana, working-women in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Mundella, Arthur, on arbitration, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_268'>268.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li> + <ul> + <li>Nebraska, working-women in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Needle, resource of unskilled woman laborers, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_22'>22.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Nevada, women workers in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Newark, average wage in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_139'>139.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>New England, shoe operatives in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_100'>100.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>New Hampshire, women in shoe-making industry in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_99'>99;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">total women workers, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>New Jersey, factory evils in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_94'>94;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">women workers employed, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">average wage, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_141'>141.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>New Mexico, working-women in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>New Orleans, average wages in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_139'>139.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>New York, Labor Bureau reports, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_94'>94,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_119'>119;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">factory evils, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_94'>94;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">total women workers in State, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">average wage in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_141'>141.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>New York City, average wage in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_139'>139;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">percentage of women workers in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_109'>109;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">"Tribune" stirs in sewing-women's behalf, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_119'>119.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>North Carolina, total women employed in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Nott, Mrs., + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_66'>66.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Nottingham lace manufacture, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_268'>268.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li> + <ul> + <li>Offices, intelligence, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_247'>247.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Ohio, women employed in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Oregon, working-women in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Organization among women, in France, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_166'>166;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">in cities, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_206'>206;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">in England, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_253'>253,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_255'>255.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li> + <ul> + <li>Parent-Duchalet, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_171'>171.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Pauperism and crime in labor reports, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_113'>113.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Pay, just, the first remedy, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_25'>25;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">equal for both sexes, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_257'>257.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Peck, Charles F., work in New York, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_119'>119.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Pennsylvania, working-women in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Perkins, Mrs. Thomas, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_65'>65.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Philadelphia, average weekly wage in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_139'>139.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Plato, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_35'>35.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Post-office, employment of women in, objected to, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_21'>21.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Potter, Beatrice, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_154'>154.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Poverty, no more desperate in Europe than in the United States, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_9'>9;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">in London, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_9'>9,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_10'>10;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">produced by factory system, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_91'>91.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Prejudice, born of ignorance, etc., to be dismissed, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_13'>13.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Profit-sharing between employer and employed, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_267'>267.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Prostitution, fed by factory system, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_91'>91,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_92'>92;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">by domestic service, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_93'>93;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">statistics in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_171'>171,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_210'>210;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">recruited from factories, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_114'>114.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Providence, average weekly wage in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_139'>139.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li> + <ul> + <li>Quesnay, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_54'>54.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Question of the day, the economic one, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_7'>7.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Questions, three, to be answered, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_13'>13.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li> + <ul> + <li>Ranke, on air required, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_92'>92.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Remedies, just pay the first, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_251'>251.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Reports, labor, six divisions of, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_115'>115.</a> (<i>See</i> also under various States.)</li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Reybaud's "History of the Factory Movement," + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_92'>92.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Rhode Island, working-women in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">average wage in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_141'>141.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Rice, Commissioner, deals with women wage-earners in Colorado report, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_122'>122,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_123'>123.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Richmond, Va., average weekly wage in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_139'>139.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Robinson, Henry A., Michigan Labor Bureau work, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_123'>123.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Robinson, Mrs. H.H., + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_79'>79.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Rogers, Thorold, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_55'>55;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">value of his work, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_15'>15.</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_16'>16.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li> + <ul> + <li>Saleswomen, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_131'>131.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>San Francisco, average weekly wage in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_139'>139.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Sanitary conditions of factories and of operatives' homes, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_92'>92.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>San José, average weekly wage in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_139'>139.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Savannah, average weekly wage in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_139'>139.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Savings of Massachusetts working-women, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_118'>118.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Seamstresses, in Paris, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_163'>163;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">in New York, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_163'>163.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Seats in shops, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_220'>220.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Sewing-women, feeling stirred in behalf of, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_119'>119.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Sex, disability of, in the way of mobility of labor, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_18'>18.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>"Sharing the Profits," by Mary W. Calkins, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_267'>267.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Shearman, T.G., on irregularity of conditions in the United States, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_8'>8.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Shirt-making, women in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_108'>108.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Shoe-making, women in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_98'>98,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_99'>99.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Silk-growing, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_64'>64,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_65'>65.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Silk industry, women and children in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_95'>95,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_108'>108.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Silk manufactory, women and children in, in Italy, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_179'>179.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Simon, Jules, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_163'>163.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Single and married, proportion of, among working-women, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_118'>118.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Smith, Adam, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_54'>54;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">summary of causes for difference in wages, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_16'>16.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Social life of working-people, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_114'>114.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Society, women workers frowned on by, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_97'>97.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Solidarity of humanity, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_274'>274.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Soul-moulding, Mazzini on, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_273'>273.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>South Carolina, working-women in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Spinning-classes, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_60'>60;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">patriotic, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_63'>63.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Statistics inadequate as to early conditions, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_75'>75.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Stevens, Dr., on increase of insanity, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_254'>254.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Stores, condition of women and children in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_258'>258.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>St. Louis, average weekly wage in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_139'>139.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>St. Paul, average weekly wage in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_139'>139.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Straw-braiding in New England, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_68'>68,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_100'>100,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_101'>101;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">straw-goods trade, women in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_108'>108.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Sully, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_53'>53.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Supply and demand, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_23'>23.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Sweating-system, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_150'>150,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_235'>235;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">parliamentary investigation of, end of report on, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_153'>153.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li> + <ul> + <li>Tacitus, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_38'>38.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Technical education, as affecting efficiency, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_14'>14.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Tenement-house manufacture, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_256'>256.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Tennessee, working-women in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Tertullian, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_40'>40.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Texas, working-women in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Textile industries, women in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_98'>98.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Thucydides, opinion of, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_32'>32.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Tobacco trade, women in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Trades, admission of women to, barred by men, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_20'>20;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">women employed in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_108'>108.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Tramp question, in labor reports, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_113'>113.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Trusts, alarm caused by growth of, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_11'>11.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Turgot, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_54'>54.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Tutelage, perpetual, of women, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_36'>36.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li> + <ul> + <li>Umbrellas and canes, women employed in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_108'>108.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Unemployed, condition of, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_113'>113.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Union, Working-Women's Protective, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_230'>230.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>United States, Labor Bureau Reports on working-women, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_124'>124.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Unskilled labor, in majority, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_22'>22;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">fierce competition in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_22'>22;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">surplus of, following Civil War, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_101'>101.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Utah, working-women in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li> + <ul> + <li>Vacations of working-women in Massachusetts, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_117'>117.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Value of laborer's service to employer, elements of, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_14'>14.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Vapors, dangers of, in manufacture, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_214'>214.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Vegetables, cultivation of, by women, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_263'>263.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Vermont, working-women in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Vincent, Madame, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_165'>165.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Villermé, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_169'>169,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_176'>176.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li> + <ul> + <li>Wage rates, present, in United States, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_126'>126.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Wages, why men receive more than women, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_14'>14,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_21'>21;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">effect of industrial efficiency on, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_14'>14;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">iron law of, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_15'>15;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">effort to make standard of life conform to, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_15'>15;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">tendency to a minimum, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_16'>16;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">Adam Smith for causes of difference in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_16'>16;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">in stores, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_259'>259;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">final effect of woman's work on, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_270'>270;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">not fixed, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_35'>35;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">field, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_58'>58;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">eighteenth-century, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_62'>62;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">in France, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_161'>161;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">in Russia, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_181'>181;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">New York, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_129'>129;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">decrease in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_226'>226;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">in clothing, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_130'>130;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">in Connecticut, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_133'>133;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">in Italy, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_181'>181;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">in California, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_134'>134;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">Colorado, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_135'>135;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">Iowa, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_136'>136;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">Kansas, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_136'>136;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">Maine, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_134'>134;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">Minnesota, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_135'>135;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">Michigan, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_138'>138;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">Rhode Island, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_134'>134;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">average, per State, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_141'>141;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">average, for all cities, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_141'>141;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">average, by cities, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_139'>139;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">definition of, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_127'>127.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Wages question the question of the day, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_7'>7.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Wales, women in industries in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_160'>160.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Walker, Gen. F.A., on differences in efficiency, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_14'>14;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">difficulties of census enumeration, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_104'>104.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Ward, Lester F., + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_26'>26.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Wealth, ratio of increase greater than that of population, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_8'>8;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">greater aggregation of, in the United States than in Great Britain, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_9'>9.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Weavers of Baltimore, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_81'>81.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Weaving, colonial, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_60'>60.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>West Virginia, working-women in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Widows, proportion of, among other workers, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_118'>118.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Windows, nailing down of, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_62'>62.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Wisconsin, average wage in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_141'>141;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">working-women in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Wives' earnings, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_113'>113.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Woman, primeval, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_27'>27;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">Roman, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_36'>36;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">property of, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_52'>52;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">petition of, in France, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_55'>55;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">International Council of, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_79'>79.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Women-workers, percentage of, in Philadelphia, Pittsburg, New York, Lowell, Manchester, Wilmington, Del., + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_108'>108,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_109'>109;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">according to States, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">of Boston, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_114'>114,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_116'>116;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">industries open to, in large cities, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_124'>124;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">development of her intelligence necessary, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_251'>251;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">in German mines, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_11'>11;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">why their wages are less than men's, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_14'>14;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">their trades highly localized, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_19'>19;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">entrance into trades barred by men, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_20'>20;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">increase of, in the United States, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_98'>98;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">total numbers of, in the United States, in 1860, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_103'>103;</a></li> + <li class="subitem">in 1870, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_105'>105;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">in 1880, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_105'>105;</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li class="subitem">occupations according to Census of 1880, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_106'>106.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Woollen and cotton industries, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_98'>98,</a></li> + <li><a href='#Page_108'>108.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Working-girls' clubs, conditions of, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_257'>257.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Working-Woman's Journal, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_255'>255.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Working-Women's Protective Union, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_255'>255.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Working-Women's Society of New York, its aims, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_256'>256.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Worsted and woollen trades, women and children in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_108'>108.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Wright, Carroll D., + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_115'>115.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>Wyoming, working-women in, + <ul> + <li><a href='#Page_110'>110.</a></li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </li> +</ul> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Women Wage-Earners, by Helen Campbell + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMEN WAGE-EARNERS *** + +***** This file should be named 15204-h.htm or 15204-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/2/0/15204/ + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Women Wage-Earners + Their Past, Their Present, and Their Future + +Author: Helen Campbell + +Release Date: February 28, 2005 [EBook #15204] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMEN WAGE-EARNERS *** + + + + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + +WOMEN WAGE-EARNERS: + +_THEIR PAST, THEIR PRESENT, +AND THEIR FUTURE_. + +BY +HELEN CAMPBELL, + +AUTHOR OF "PRISONERS OF POVERTY," "PRISONERS OF +POVERTY ABROAD," "THE PROBLEM OF THE POOR," +"MRS. HERNDON'S INCOME," ETC. + +With an Introduction +BY RICHARD T. ELY, PH.D., LL.D. + +_Professor of Political Economy and Director of the School of Economics, +University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis._ + +BOSTON: +ROBERTS BROTHERS. +1893. + +_Copyright, 1893_, + +BY HELEN CAMPBELL. + +University Press: + +JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A. + +A BOOK FOR + +Alice, + +FRIEND, HELPER, AND COMRADE. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +BY RICHARD T. ELY, + +DIRECTOR OF SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS, POLITICAL SCIENCE, AND HISTORY, +UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN, MADISON. + + +The importance of the subject with which the present work deals cannot +well be over-estimated. Our age may properly be called the Era of Woman, +because everything which affects her receives consideration quite +unknown in past centuries. This is well. The motive is twofold: First, +woman is valued as never before; and, second, it is perceived that the +welfare of the other half of the human race depends more largely upon +the position enjoyed by woman than was previously understood. + +The earlier agitation for an enlarged sphere and greater rights for +woman was to a considerable extent merely negative. The aim was to +remove barriers and to open the way. It is characteristic of the earlier +days of agitation for the removal of wrongs affecting any class, that +the questions involved appear to be simple, and easily repeated formulas +ample to secure desired rights. Further agitation, however, and more +mature reflection always show that what looks like a simple social +problem is a complex one. + +"If women's wages are small, open new careers to them." As simple as +this did the problem of women's wages once appear; but when new avenues +of employment were rendered accessible to women, it was found, in some +instances, that the wages of men were lowered. A consequence which can +be seen in different industrial centres is that a man and a wife working +together secure no greater wages than the man alone in industries in +which women are not employed. Now, if the result of opening new +employments to women is to force all members of the family to work for +the wages which the head of the family alone once received, it is +manifest that we have a complicated problem. + +Another result of wage-earning by women, which has been observed here +and there, is the scattering of the members of the family and the +break-down of the home. A recent and careful observer among the chief +industrial centres of Saxony, Germany, has told us that factory work has +there resulted in the dissolution of the family, and that family life, +as we understand it, scarcely exists. We have demoralization seen in the +young; and in addition to that, we discover that the employment of +married women outside the home results in the impaired health and +strength of future generations. + +The conclusion by no means follows that we should go backward, and try +to restrict the industrial sphere of woman. It has been well said that +revolutions do not go backward; we have to go farther forward to keep +the advantages which have been attained, and at the same time lessen the +evils which the new order has brought with it. + +Further action is required; but in order that this action may bring +desired results, it must be based upon ample knowledge. The natural +impulse when we see an evil is to adopt direct methods looking to an +immediate cure; but such direct methods which at once suggest themselves +generally fail to bring relief. The effective remedies are those which +use indirect methods based upon scientific knowledge. If a sympathetic +man takes to heart physical suffering, which he can see on every side, +he must feel inclined to relieve the distressed at once, and feel +impatient if he is hindered in his benevolent impulses; yet we know that +he will accomplish far more in the end, if he patiently devotes years to +study in medical schools and practice in hospitals before he attempts to +give relief to the diseased. We need study quite as much to cure the +ills of the social body; and the present work gives us a welcome +addition to the positive information upon which wise action must depend. + +Mrs. Campbell has been favorably known for years on account of her +valuable contributions to the literature of social science, and it gives +the present writer great pleasure to have the privilege of introducing +this book to the public with a word of commendation. + +MADISON, WISCONSIN, + +_August 29, 1893._ + + + + +AUTHOR'S PREFACE. + + +The pages which follow were prepared originally as a prize monograph for +the American Economic Association, receiving an award from it in 1891. +The restriction of the subject to a fixed number of words hampered the +treatment, and it was thought best to enlarge many points which in the +allotted space could have hardly more than mention. Acting on this wish, +the monograph has been nearly doubled in size, but still must be counted +only an imperfect summary, since facts in these lines are in most cases +very nearly unobtainable, and, aside from the few reports of Labor +Bureaus, there are as yet almost no sources of full information. But as +there is no existing manual of reference on this topic, the student of +social questions will accept this attempt to meet the need, till more +facts enable a fuller and better presentation of the difficult subject. + +NEW YORK, _August, 1893._ + + + + +CONTENTS. + + PAGE +INTRODUCTION 7 + +CHAPTER + +I. A LOOK BACKWARD 25 + +II. EMPLOYMENTS FOR WOMEN DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD, +AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FACTORY 57 + +III. EARLY ASPECTS OF FACTORY LABOR FOR WOMEN 77 + +IV. RISE AND GROWTH OF TRADES UP TO THE PRESENT TIME 95 + +V. LABOR BUREAUS AND THEIR WORK IN RELATION TO WOMEN 111 + +VI. PRESENT WAGE-RATES IN THE UNITED STATES 126 + +VII. GENERAL CONDITIONS FOR ENGLISH WORKERS 142 + +VIII. GENERAL CONDITIONS FOR CONTINENTAL WORKERS 161 + +IX. GENERAL CONDITIONS AMONG WAGE-EARNING WOMEN IN THE +UNITED STATES 188 + +X. GENERAL CONDITIONS IN THE WESTERN STATES 199 + +XI. SPECIFIC EVILS AND ABUSES IN FACTORY LIFE AND IN +GENERAL TRADES 212 + +XII. REMEDIES AND SUGGESTIONS 249 + + + + +APPENDIX. + +FACTORY INSPECTION LAW 275 + +AUTHORITIES CONSULTED IN PREPARING THIS BOOK 291 + +BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WOMAN'S LABOR AND OF THE WOMAN QUESTION 294 + +INDEX 305 + + + + +WOMEN WAGE-EARNERS; + +THEIR PAST, THEIR PRESENT, AND THEIR FUTURE. + + +INTRODUCTION + + +The one great question that to-day agitates the whole civilized world is +an economic question. It is not the production but the distribution of +wealth; in other words, the wages question,--the wages of men and women. +Nowhere do we find any suggestion that capital and the landlord do not +receive a _quid pro quo_. Instead, the whole labor world cries out that +the capitalist and the landlord are enslaving the rest of the world, and +absorbing the lion's share of the joint production. + +So long as it is a question of production only, there is perfect +harmony. Both unite in agreeing that to produce as much as possible is +for the interest of each. The conflict begins with distribution. It is +no longer a war of one nation with another; it is internecine war, +destroying the foundations of our own defences, and making enemies of +those who should be brothers. + +It is impossible for even the most dispassionate or indifferent observer +to blink these facts. Proclaim as we may that there is no antagonism +between capital and labor,--that their interests are one, and that +conditions and opportunities for the worker are always better and +better,--practical thinkers and workers deny this conclusion. Wealth has +enormously increased, in a far greater ratio than population. Does the +laborer receive his due proportion of this increase? One must +unhesitatingly answer no. In a country whose life began in the search +for freedom, and which professes to give equal opportunity to all, more +startling inequality exists than in any other in the civilized world. +One of our ablest lawyers, Thomas G. Shearman, has lately written:-- + + "Our old equality is gone. So far from being the most equal people + on the face of the earth, as we once boasted that we were, ours is + now the most unequal of civilized nations. We talk about the wealth + of the British aristocracy and about the poverty of the British + poor. There is not in the whole of Great Britain and Ireland so + striking a contrast, so wide a chasm, between rich and poor as in + these United States of America. There is no man in the whole of + Great Britain and Ireland who is as wealthy as one of some + half-a-dozen men who could be named in this country; and there are + few there who could be poorer than some that could be found in this + country. It is true that there is a larger number of the extremely + poor in Great Britain and Ireland than there is in this country, + but it is not true that there is any more desperate poverty in any + civilized country than ours; and it is unquestionably not true that + there is any greater mass of riches concentrated in a few hands in + any country than this." + +This for America. For England the tale is much the same. "The Bitter Cry +of Outcast London," with its passionate demand that the rich open their +eyes to see the misery, degradation, and want seething in London slums, +is but another putting of the words of the serious, scientific observer +of facts, Huxley himself, who has described an East End parish in which +he spent some of his earliest years. Over that parish, he says, might +have been written Dante's inscription over the entrance to the Inferno: +"All hope abandon, ye who enter here." After speaking of its physical +misery and its supernatural and perfectly astonishing deadness, he says +that he embarked on a voyage round the world, and had the opportunity of +seeing savage life in all conceivable conditions of savage degradation; +and he writes:-- + + "I assure you I found nothing worse, nothing more degrading, + nothing so hopeless, nothing nearly so intolerably dull and + miserable as the life I left behind me in the East End of London. + Were the alternative presented to me, I would deliberately prefer + the life of the savage to that of those people in Christian London. + Nothing would please me better--not even to discover a new + truth--than to contribute toward the bettering of that state of + things which, unless wise and benevolent men take it in hand, will + tend to become worse, and to create something worse than + savagery,--a great Serbonian bog, which in the long run will + swallow up the surface crust of civilization." + +In a year and more of continuous observation and study of working +conditions in England and on the Continent, some of which will find +place later, my own conclusion was the same. The young emperor of +Germany, hotheaded, obstinate, and self-willed as he may be, is working +it would seem from as radical a conviction of deep wrong in the +distributive system. The Berlin Labor Conference, whose chief effort +seems to have been against child-labor and in favor of excluding women +from the mines, or at least reducing hours, and forbidding certain of +the heavier forms of labor, is but an echo of the great dock-strikes of +London and the cry of all workers the world over for a better chance. +The capitalist seeks to hold his own, the laborer demands larger share +of the product; and how to render unto each his due is the great +politico-economic question,--the absorbing question of our time. + +We have found, then, that the problem is economic, and concerns +distribution only. There is no complaint that the capitalist fails to +secure his share. On the contrary, even among the well-to-do, +deep-seated alarm is evidenced at the rise and progress of innumerable +trusts and syndicates, eliminating competition, which restricts +production and raises prices. They make their own conditions; drive from +the field small tradesmen and petty industries, or absorb them on their +own terms. + +Rings of every description in the political and the working world +combine for general spoliation, and the honest worker's money jingles +in every pocket but his own. + +Granting all that may be urged as to the capitalists' investment of +brain-power and acquired skill, as well as of money with all the risks +involved, they are the inactive rather than the active factors in +production. They give of their store, while labor gives of its life. +Their view is to be reconstructed, and profit-sharing become as much a +part of any industry as profit-making. + +This is a growing conviction; nor can we wonder that realization of its +justice and its possibilities has been a matter of very recent +consideration. An often repeated formula becomes at last ingrained in +the mental constitution, and any question as to its truth is a sharp +shock to the whole structure. We have been so certain of the surpassing +advantages of our own country, so certain that liberty and a chance were +the portion of all, that to confront the real conditions in our great +cities is to most as unreal as a nightmare. + +We have conceded at last, forced to it by the concessions of all +students of our economic problems, that the laborer does not yet receive +his fair share of the world's wealth; and the economic thought of the +whole world is now devoted to the devising of means by which he may +receive his due. There is no longer much question as to facts; they are +only too palpable. Distribution must be reorganized, and haste must be +made to discover how. + +It is the wages problem, then, with which we are to deal,--the wages of +men and women; and we must look at it in its largest, most universal +aspects. We must dismiss at once any prejudice born of the ignorance, +incompetency, or untrustworthiness of many workers. Character is a plant +of slow growth; and given the same conditions of birth, education, and +general environment it is quite possible we should have made no better +showing. We have to-day three questions to be answered:-- + + 1. Why do men not receive a just wage? + 2. Why are women in like case? + 3. Why do men receive a greater wage than women? + +First, Why do not men receive a greater wage than they do? can be +answered only suggestively, since volumes may be and have been written +on all the points involved. For skilled and unskilled labor alike, the +differences in industrial efficiency go far toward regulating the wage, +and have been grouped under six heads by General Frances A. Walker, +whose volume on the Wages Question is a thoughtful and careful study of +the problem from the beginning. These heads are--1. "Peculiarities of +stock and breeding. 2. The meagreness or liberality of diet. 3. Habits +voluntarily or involuntarily formed respecting cleanliness of the +person, and purity of the air and water. 4. The general intelligence of +the laborer. 5. Technical education and industrial environment. 6. +Cheerfulness and hopefulness in labor, growing out of self-respect and +social ambition and the laborer's interest in his work." + +With this in mind, we must accept the fact that the value of the +laborer's services to the employer is the net result of two +elements,--one positive, one negative; namely, work and waste. Under +this head of waste come breakage, undue wear and tear of implements, +destruction or injury of materials, the cost of supervision of idle or +blundering men, and often the hindrance of many by the fault of one. +Modern processes involve so much of this order of waste that often +there is doubt if work is worth having or not, and the unskilled laborer +is either rejected or receives only a boy's wage. + +The various schools of political economists differ widely as to the +facts which have formulated themselves in what is known as the iron law +of wages; this meaning that wages are said to tend increasingly to a +minimum which will give but a bare living. For skilled labor the law may +be regarded as elastic rather than iron. For unskilled, it is as +certainly the tendency, which, if constantly repeated and so +intensified, would end as law. Many standard economists regard it as +already fixed; and writers like Lasalle, Proudhon, Bakunin, and Marx +heap every denunciation upon it. + +Were the fact actually established, no words could be too strong or too +bitter to define this new form of slavery. The standard of life and +comfort affects the wages of labor, and there is constant effort to make +the wage correspond to this standard. It is an unending and often bitter +struggle, nowhere better summed up than by Thorold Rogers in his "Six +Centuries of Work and Wages,"--a work upon which economists, however +different their conclusions, rely alike for facts and figures. + +We must then admit in degree the tendency of wages to a minimum, +especially those of unskilled labor, and accept it as one more motive +for persistent effort to alter existing conditions and prevent any such +culmination. + +Take now, in connection with the six heads mentioned as governing the +present efficiency of labor, the five enumerated by Adam Smith in his +summary of causes for differences in wages: 1. "The agreeableness or +disagreeableness of the employments themselves. 2. The easiness and +cheapness, or the difficulty and expense of learning them. 3. The +constancy or inconstancy of employment in them. 4. The small or great +trust which must be reposed in those who exercise them. 5. The +probability or improbability of success in them." + +These are conditions which affect the man's right to large or small +wage; but all of them presuppose that men are perfectly free to look +over the whole industrial field and choose their own employment,--they +presuppose the perfect mobility of labor. Let us see what this means. + +The theoretical mobility of labor rests upon the assumption that +laborers of every order will in all ways and at all times pursue their +economic interests; but the actual fact is that so far from seeking +labor under the most perfect conditions for obtaining it, nearly half of +all humankind are "bound in fetters of race and speech and religion and +caste, of tradition and habit and ignorance of the world, of poverty and +ineptitude and inertia, which practically exclude them from the +competitions of the world's industry." + +"Man is, of all sorts of luggage, the most difficult to be transported," +was written by Adam Smith long ago; and this stands in the way of really +free and unhampered competition. Mr. Frederick Harrison, one of the +clearest thinkers of the day, has well defined the difference between +the seller and the producer of a commodity. He says:-- + + "In most cases the seller of a commodity can send it or carry it + from place to place, and market to market, with perfect ease. He + need not be on the spot; he generally can send a sample; he usually + treats by correspondence. A merchant sits in his counting-room, and + by a few letters and forms transports and distributes the + subsistence of a whole city from continent to continent. In other + cases, as the shopkeeper, the ebb and flow of passing multitudes + supplies the want of locomotion for him. This is a true market. + Here competition acts rapidly, fully, simply, fairly. It is totally + otherwise with a day laborer who has no commodity to sell. He must + himself be present at every market, which means costly, personal + locomotion. He cannot correspond with his employer; he cannot send + a sample of his strength, nor do employers knock at his cottage + door." + +It is plain, then, that many causes are at work to depress the wages +even of skilled workers, far more than can be enumerated here. If this +is true for men, how much more strongly can limitations be stated for +women, as we ask, "Why do not women receive a better wage?" Many of the +reasons are historical, and must be considered in their origin and +growth. Taking her as worker to-day, precisely the same general causes +are in operation that govern the wages of men, with the added disability +of sex, always in the way of equal mobility of labor. + +Wherever for any reason there is immobility of labor, there is always +lowering of the wage rate. The trades and general industries for which +women are suited are highly localized. They focus in the cities and +large towns, and women must seek them there. Great manufactories drain +the surrounding country; yet even with these opportunities an analysis +of the industrial statistics of the United States by General Walker +showed that the women workers of the country made up but seven per cent +of the entire population. Eagerly as they seek work, it is far more +difficult for them to obtain it than for men. They require to be much +more mobile and active in their move toward the labor market, yet are +disabled by timidity, by physical weakness, and by their liability to +insult or outrage arising from the fact of sex. Men who would secure a +place tramp from town to town, from street to street, or shop to shop, +persisting through all rebuffs, till their end is accomplished. They go +into suspicious and doubtful localities, encounter strangers, and sleep +among casual companions. In this fashion they relieve the pressure at +congested points, and keep the mass fluid. + +For women, save in the slight degree included in the country girl's +journey to town or city where cotton or woollen mills offer an opening +for work, this course is impossible. Ignorant, fearful, poor, and +unprotected, the lions in her way are these very facts. Added to this +natural disqualification, comes another,--in the lack of sympathy for +her needs, and in the prejudice which hedges about all her movements. In +every trade she has sought to enter, men have barred the way. In a +speech made before the House of Commons in 1873, Henry Fawcett drew +attention to the persistent resistance of men to any admission of women +on the same terms with themselves. He said:-- + + "We cannot forget that some years ago certain trade-unionists in + the potteries imperatively insisted that a certain rest for the arm + which they found almost essential to their work should not be used + by women engaged in the same employment. Not long since, the London + tailors, when on a strike, having never admitted a woman to their + union, attempted to coerce women from availing themselves of the + remunerative employment which was offered them in consequence of + the strike. But this jealousy of woman's labor has not been + entirely confined to workmen. The same feeling has extended itself + through every class of society. Last autumn a large number of + post-office clerks objected to the employment of women in the + Post-Office." + +Driven by want, they had pressed into agricultural labor as well, and +found equal opposition there also. Mr. Fawcett in the same speech calls +attention to the fact of the non-admission of women to the Agricultural +Laborers' Union, on the ground that "the agricultural laborers of the +country do not wish to recognize the labor of women." + +There is more or less reason for such feeling. It arises in part from +the newness of the occasion, since in the story of labor as a whole, +soon to be considered by us in detail, it is only the last fifty years +that have seen women taking an active part. We have already seen that +mobility of labor is one of the first essentials, and that women are far +more limited in this respect than men. + +This brings us to the final question,--Why do men receive a larger wage +than women? The conditions already outlined are in part responsible, but +with them is bound up another even more formidable. + +Custom, the law of many centuries, has so ingrained its thought in the +constitution of men that it is naturally and inevitably taken for +granted that every woman who seeks work is the appendage of some man, +and therefore, partially at least, supported. Other facts bias the +employer against the payment of the same wage. The girl's education is +usually less practical than the boy's; and as most, at least among the +less intelligent class, regard a trade as a makeshift to be used as a +crutch till a husband appears, the work involved is often done +carelessly and with little or no interest. With unintelligent labor +wastage is greater, and wages proportionately lower; and here we have +one chief reason for the difference. Others will disclose themselves as +we go on. + +Unskilled labor then, it is plain, must be in evil case, and it is +unskilled laborers that are in the majority. For men this means pick and +spade at such rates as may be fixed; for women the needle, and its +myriad forms of cheap production; and within these ranks is no sense of +real economic interest, but the fiercest and blindest competition among +themselves. Mere existence is to a large extent all that is possible, +and it is fought for with a fury in strange contrast to the apparent +worth of the thing itself. + +It is this battle with which we have to do; and we must go back to the +dawn of the struggle, and discover what has been its course from the +beginning, before any future outlook can be determined. The theoretical +political economist settles the matter at once. Whatever stress of want +or wrong may arise is met by the formula, "law of supply and demand." If +labor is in excess, it has simply to mobilize and seek fresh channels. +That hard immovable facts are in the way, that moral difficulties face +one at every turn, and that the ethical side of the problem is a matter +of comparatively recent consideration, makes no difference. Let us +discover what show of right is on the economist's side, and how far +present conditions are a necessity of the time. It is women on whom the +facts weigh most heavily, and whose fortunes are most tangled in this +web woven from the beginning of time, and from that beginning drenched +with the tears and stained by the blood of workers in all climes and in +every age. As women we are bound, by every law of justice, to aid all +other women in their struggle. We are equally bound to define the +nature, the necessities, and the limits of such struggle; and it is to +this end that we seek now to discover, through such light as past and +present may cast, the future for women workers the world over. + + + + +I. + +A LOOK BACKWARD. + + +The history of women as wage-earners is actually comprised within the +limits of a few centuries; but her history as a worker runs much farther +back, and if given in full, would mean the whole history of working +humanity. The position of working women all over the civilized world is +still affected not only by the traditions but by the direct inheritance +of the past, and thus the nature of that inheritance must be understood +before passing to any detailed consideration of the subject under its +various divisions. It is the conditions underlying history and rooted in +the facts of human life itself which we must know, since from the +beginning life and work have been practically synonymous, and in the +nature of things remain so. + +In the shadows of that far remote infancy of the world where from +cave-dweller and mere predatory animal man by slow degrees moved toward +a higher development, the story of woman goes side by side with his. For +neither is there record beyond the scattered implements of the stone age +and the rude drawings of the cave-dwellers, from which one may see that +warfare was the chief life of both. The subjugation of the weaker by the +stronger is the story of all time; the "survival of the fittest," the +modern summary of that struggle. + +Naturally, slavery was the first result, and servitude for one side the +outcome of all struggle. Physical facts worked with man's will in the +matter, and early rendered woman subordinate physically and dependent +economically. The origin of this dependence is given with admirable +force and fulness by Professor Lester F. Ward in his "Dynamic +Sociology":[1]-- + +In the struggle for supremacy, "woman at once became property, since +anything that affords its possessor gratification is property. Woman was +capable of affording man the highest of gratifications, and therefore +became property of the highest value. Marriage, under the prevailing +form, became the symbol of transfer of ownership, in the same manner as +the formal seizing of lands. The passage from sexual service to manual +service on the part of women was perfectly natural.... And thus we find +that the women of most savage tribes perform the manual and servile +labor of the camp." + +"The basis of all oppression is economic dependence on the oppressor," +is the word of a very keen thinker and worker in the German Reichstag +to-day; and he adds: "This has been the condition of women in the past, +and it still is so. Woman was the first human being that tasted bondage. +Woman was a slave before the slave existed." + +Science has demonstrated that in all rude races the size and weight of +the brain differ far less according to sex than is the case in civilized +nations. Physical strength is the same, with the advantage at times on +the side of the woman, as in certain African tribes to-day, over which +tribes this fact has given them the mastery. Primeval woman, all +attainable evidence goes to show, started more nearly equal in the +race, but became the inferior of man, when periods of child-bearing +rendered her helpless and forced her to look to him for assistance, +support, and protection. + +When the struggle for existence was in its lowest and most brutal form, +and man respected nothing but force, the disabled member of society, if +man, was disposed of by stab or blow; if woman, and valuable as breeder +of fresh fighters, simply reduced to slavery and passive obedience. +Marriage in any modern sense was unknown. A large proportion of female +infants were killed at birth. Battle, with its recurring periods of +flight or victory, made it essential that every tribe should free itself +from all _impedimenta_. It was easier to capture women by force than to +bring them up from infancy, and thus the childhood of the world meant a +state in which the child had little place, save as a small, fierce +animal, whose development meant only a change from infancy and its +helplessness to boyhood and its capacity for fight. + +Out of this chaos of discordant elements, struggling unconsciously +toward social form, emerged by slow degrees the tribe and the nation, +the suggestions of institutions and laws and the first principles of the +social state. Master and servant, employer and employed, became facts; +and dim suspicions as to economic laws were penetrating the minds of the +early thinkers. The earliest coherent thought on economic problems comes +to us from the Greeks, among whom economic speculation had begun almost +a thousand years before Christ. The problem of work and wages was even +then forming,--the sharply accented difference between theirs and ours +lying in the fact that for Greek and Roman and the earlier peoples in +the Indies economic life was based upon slavery, accepted then as the +foundation stone of the economic social system. + +Up to the day when Greek thought on economic questions formulated, in +Aristotle's "Politics" and "Economics," the first logical statement of +principles, knowledge as to actual conditions for women is chiefly +inferential. When a slave, she was like other slaves, regarded as +soulless; and she still is, under Mohammedanism. As lawful wife she was +physically restrained and repressed, and mentally far more so. A Greek +matron was one degree higher than her servants; but her own sons were +her masters, to whom she owed obedience. A striking illustration of this +is given in the Odyssey. Telemachus, feeling that he has come to man's +estate, invades the ranks of the suitors who had for years pressed about +Penelope, and orders her to retire to her own apartments, which she does +in silence. Yet she was honored above most, passive and prompt obedience +being one of her chief charms. + +Deep pondering brought about for Aristotle a view which verges toward +breadth and understanding, but is perpetually vitiated by the fact that +he regards woman as in no sense an individual existence. If all goes +well and prosperously, women deserve no credit; if ill, they may gain +renown through their husbands, the philosopher remarking: "Neither would +Alcestis have gained such renown, nor Penelope have been deemed worthy +of such praise, had they respectively lived with their husbands in +prosperous circumstances; and it is the sufferings of Admetus and +Ulysses which have given them everlasting fame." + +This is Aristotle's view of women's share in the life they lived; yet +gleams of something higher more than once came to him, and in the +eighth chapter of the "Economics," he adds: "Justly to love her husband +with reverence and respect, and to be loved in turn, is that which +befits a wife of gentle birth, as to her intercourse with her own +husband." Ulysses, in his address to Nausicaa, says:-- + + "There is no fairer thing + Than when the lord and lady with one soul + One home possess." + +Aristotle, charmed at the picture, dilates on this "mutual concord of +husband and wife, ... not the mere agreement upon servile matters, but +that which is justly and harmoniously based on intellect and +prudence."[2] + +Side by side with this picture of a state known to a few only among the +noblest, must be placed the lament of "Iphigenia in Tauris": + + "The condition of women is worse than that of all human beings. If + man is favored by fortune, he becomes a ruler, and wins fame on the + battlefield; and if the gods have ordained him his fortune, he is + the first to die a fair death among his people. But the joys of + woman are narrowly compassed: she is given unasked, in marriage, by + others, often to strangers; and when she is dragged away by the + victor through the smoking ruins, there is none to rescue her." + +Thucydides, who had already expressed the opinion quoted by many a +modern Philistine,--"The wife who deserves the highest praise is she of +whom one hears neither good nor evil outside her own house,"--anticipates +a later verdict, in words that might have been the foundation of +Iphigenia's lament:-- + + "Woman is more evil than the storm-tossed waves, than the heat of + fire, than the fall of the wild cataract! If it was a god who + created woman, wherever he may be, let him know that he is the + unhappy author of the greatest ills." + +This was a summary of the Greek view as a whole. Sparta trained her +girls and boys alike in childhood; but the theories of Lycurgus, +admirable at some points, were brutal and short-sighted at others, and +Sparta demonstrated that the extinction of all desire for beauty or ease +or culture brings with it as disastrous results as its extreme opposite. + +It is Athens that sums up the highest product of Greek thought, and that +represents a civilization which from the purely intellectual side has +had no successor. Yet even here was almost absolute obtuseness and +indifference, on the part of the aristocracy, to the intolerable bondage +of the masses. "The people," as spoken of by their historians and +philosophers, mean simply a middle class, the humblest member of which +owned at least one slave. The slaves themselves, the real "masses," had +no political or social existence more than the horses with which they +were sent to the river to drink. In any scheme of political economy +Aristotle's words, in the first book of the "Politics," were the +keynote: "The science of the master reduces itself to knowing how to +make use of the slave. He is the master, not because he is the owner of +the man, but because he knows how to make use of his property." + +In fact, according to this chivalrous philosopher, the man was the head +of the family in three distinct capacities; for he says: "Now a freeman +governs his slave in the manner the male governs the female, and in +another manner the father governs his child; and these have the +different parts of the soul within them, but in a different manner. Thus +a slave can have no deliberative faculty; a woman but a weak one, a +child an imperfect one." + +That liberty could be their right appears to have been not even +suspected. Yet out from these dumb masses of humanity, regarded less +than brutes, toiling naked under summer sun or in winter cold, chained +in mines, men and women alike, and when the whim came, massacred in +troops, sounded at intervals a voice demanding the liberty denied. It +was quickly stifled. The record is there for all to read; stifled again +and again, from Drimakos the Chian slave to Spartacus at Rome, yet each +protest from this unknown army of martyrs was one step onward toward the +emancipation to come. In each revolution, however small, two parties +confronted each other,--the people who wished to live by the labor of +others, the people who wished to live by their own labor,--the former +denying in word and deed the claim of the latter. + +Such conditions, as we proved in our own experience of slavery, benumb +spiritual perception and make clear vision impossible; and it is plain +that if the mass of workers had neither political nor social place, +woman, the slave of the slave, had even less. Her wage had never been +fixed. That she had right to one had entered no imagination. To the end +of Greek civilization a wage remained the right of free labor only. The +slave, save by special permit of the master, had right only to bare +subsistence; and though men and women toiled side by side, in mine or +field or quarry, there was, even with the abolition of slavery, small +betterment of the condition of women. The degradation of labor was so +complete, even for the freeman, that the most pronounced aversion to +taking a wage ruled among the entire educated class. Plato abhorred a +sophist who would work for wages. A gift was legitimate, but pay +ignoble; and the stigma of asking for and taking pay rested upon all +labor. The abolition of slavery made small difference, for the taint had +sunk in too deeply to be eradicated. A curse rested upon all labor; and +even now, after four thousand years of vacillating progress and +retrogression, it lingers still. + +The ancients were, in the nature of things, all fighters. Even when +slavery for both the Aryan and Semitic races ended, two orders still +faced each other: aristocracy on the one side, claiming the fruits of +labor; the freeman on the other, rebelling against injustice, and +forming secret unions for his own protection,--the beginning of the +co-operative principle in action. + +Thus much for the Greek. Turn now to the second great civilization, the +Roman. During the first centuries after the founding of Rome the Roman +woman had no rights whatever, her condition being as abject as that of +the Grecian. With the growth of riches and of power in the State, more +social but still no legal freedom was accorded. The elder Cato +complained of the allowing of more liberty, and urged that every father +of a family should keep his wife in the proper state of servility; but +in spite of this remonstrance, a movement for the better had begun. +Under the Empire, woman acquired the right of inheritance, but she +herself remained a minor, and could dispose of nothing without the +consent of her guardian. Sir Henry Maine[3] calls attention to the +institution known to the oldest Roman law as the "Perpetual Tutelage of +Women," under which a female, though relieved from her parent's +authority by his decease, continues subject through life. Various +schemes were devised to enable her to defeat ancient rules; and by their +theory of "Natural Law," the jurisconsults had evidently assumed the +equality of the sexes as a principle of their code of equity. + +Few more significant words or words more teeming with importance on the +actual economic condition of women have ever been written than those of +the great jurist whose name counts as almost final authority. "Ancient +law," he writes, "subordinates the woman to her blood relations, while a +prime phenomenon of modern jurisprudence has been her subordination to +her husband." Under the modified laws as to marriage, he goes on to +state, there came a time "when the situation of the Roman female, +unmarried or married, became one of great personal and proprietary +independence; for the tendency of the later law, as already hinted, was +to reduce the power of the guardian to a nullity, while the form of +marriage in fashion conferred on the husband no compensating +superiority." + +These were the final conditions for the Roman, whose power, sapped by +long excesses, was even then trembling to its fall. Already the +barbarians threatened them, and at various points had penetrated the +Empire, showing to the amazed Romans morals absolutely opposed to their +own. The German races contented themselves with one wife; and Tacitus +wrote of them: "Their marriages are very strict. No one laughs at vice, +nor is immorality regarded as a sign of good breeding. The young men +marry late,--they marry equal in years and in health, and the strength +of the parent is transmitted to the children." + +This has a rosier aspect than facts warrant. For the Germans, as for +other barbarians of that epoch, the patriarchal family was the social +order, and the head of the family the lord of the community. Wives, +daughters, and daughters-in-law were excluded from leadership, though in +spite of this there is record of a woman as being occasionally at the +head of a tribe,--a circumstance chronicled by Tacitus with much +disgust. + +While from the West this gigantic wave of powerful but uncultured life +was flowing in, from the East had come another. Early Christianity had +already established itself, and its ascetic teachings made another +element in the contradictions of the time. Up to this date slavery had +been the foundation of society, and any amelioration in the condition of +women had applied only to the patrician class. The Carpenter of Nazareth +set his seal upon the sacredness of labor, and taught first not only the +rights but the immeasurable value of even the weakest human soul. Women +were ardent converts to the new gospel. Hoping with all the wretched for +redemption and deliverance from present evils, they became eager and +devoted adherents. Their missionary zeal was a powerful agent in the +early days of Christianity. "In the first enthusiasm of the Christian +movement," says Principal Donaldson, in his notable article on "Women +among the Early Christians," in the "Fortnightly Review," "women were +allowed to do whatever they were fitted to do." + +All this within a few generations came to an end. Widows of sixty and +over retained the power which had been given, and a new order +arose,--deaconesses who were not allowed marriage. Neither widows nor +deaconesses could teach, the Church being especially jealous in this +respect and in substantial agreement with Sophocles, who said, "Silence +is a woman's ornament." + +Tertullian waxes furious over the thought of a woman learning much, and +still more, venturing to use such acquirement; but heretical Christians +insisted that the respect which Romans had paid to the Vestal Virgin was +her right, and each founder of a new sect had some woman as helper. But +as a rule, her highest post during the first three centuries of +Christianity was that of doorkeeper or message-woman, her economic +dependence upon man being absolute. Social problems remained chiefly +untouched. No objection was made to the existence of slavery. In this +gospel of love the Christian slave became the brother of all, and +kindliness was his right; but their faith demanded contentment with all +present ills, since a glorious future was to compensate them. A +Christian slave-woman was the property of her master, who had absolute +power over her; but no objection seems to have been made to this. + +In the mean time many doubts as to marriage seem to have arisen. Paul +had set his seal on the subjection of women, and Peter followed suit. +Antagonism to marriage grew and intensified, till hardly a Father of +the early Church but fulminated against it. Fiercest, loudest, and most +heeded of all, the voice of Tertullian still sounds down the ages. This +is his address to women: + + "Do you not know that each one of you is an Eve? The sentence of + God on this sex of yours lives in this age; the guilt must of + necessity live too. You are the devil's gateway; you are the + unsealer of that forbidden tree; you are the first deserter of the + divine law; you are she who persuaded him whom the devil was not + valiant enough to attack. You destroyed so easily God's image, man. + On account of your desert, that is, death, even the Son of God had + to die." + +Clement of Alexandria supplemented this verdict with one as bitter, and +Cyprian and the rest echoed the general anathema. As marriage grew thus +more and more degraded, the number of the women in the world steadily +increased, and posterity in like ratio deteriorated. The summary of +Principal Donaldson, in the article already referred to, is the keynote +to the whole situation. + + "The less spiritual classes of the people, the laymen, being taught + that marriage might be licentious, and that it implied an inferior + state of sanctity, were rather inclined to neglect matrimony for + more loose connections; and it was these people alone that then + peopled the world. It was the survival of the unfittest. The noble + men and women, on the other hand, who were dominated by the + loftiest aspirations and exhibited the greatest temperance, + self-control, and virtue, left no children." + +Sir Henry Maine comes to the same conclusion, and deplores the fact of +the loss of liberty for women, adding: "The prevalent state of religious +sentiment may explain why it is that modern jurisprudence, forged in the +furnace of barbarian conquest, and formed by the fusion of Roman +jurisprudence with patriarchal usage, has absorbed among its rudiments +much more than usual of those rules concerning the position of women +which belong peculiarly to an imperfect civilization." And he adds words +which come from a man who is a good Christian as well as a profound +student: "No society which preserves any tincture of Christian +institutions is likely to restore to married women the personal liberty +conferred on them by the middle Roman law." + +Passing now to the Middle Ages, we find conditions curiously involved. +The exaltation of celibacy as the true condition for the religious, and +the consequent enormous increase of convents, placed fresh barriers in +the way of marriage; and the Church having attracted the gentle and +devoted among the women and the more intelligent among the men, the +reproduction of the species was for the most part still left to the +brutal and ignorant, thus leading to a survival of the unfittest to aid +in any advancement of the race. + +The number of women far exceeded that of men, who died not only from +constant feuds and struggles, but from many pestilences, which +naturally, in a day when sanitary laws were unknown, ravaged the +country. Dr. Karl Buecher, commenting on the relation of this fact to the +life of women at that time, notes that from 1336 to 1400 thirty-two +years of plague occurred, forty-two between 1400 and 1500, and thirty +between 1500 and 1600. In addition to the convents, which received the +well-to-do, many towns established Bettina institutions, houses of God, +where destitute women were cared for; but it was impossible for all who +sought admittance to be provided for. + +The feudal system, with its absolute power over its serfs, had driven +thousands into open revolt; and beggars, highwaymen, and robbers made +life perilous and trade impossible. + +The towns banded together for protection of life and industry, and thus +developed the guild of the Middle Ages. Relieved from the fear of +free-booting barons, no less dangerous than the hordes of organized +robbers, these guilds grew populous and powerful. Licentiousness did +not, however, lessen. Luther thundered against it, before his own revolt +came; and the Reformation demanded marriage as the right and privilege +of a people falsely taught its debasing and unholy nature. + +We count the days of chivalry as the paradise of women. Chivalry was for +the few, not the many; for the mass of women was still the utter +degradation of a barbarous past, and the burden of grinding laws +resulting from it. With the Reformation, Germany ceased to be the centre +of European traffic; and Spain, Portugal, Holland, and England took the +lead in quick succession, England retaining it to the present time. +German commerce and trade steadily declined; and as the guilds saw their +importance and profits lessen, they made fresh and more stringent +regulations against all new-comers. Competitors of every order were +refused admission. Heavy taxes on settlement, costly master-examinations, +limitations of every trade to a certain number of masters and journeymen, +forced thousands into dependence from which there was no escape. + +Looking at the time as a whole, one sees clearly how old distinctions +had become obliterated. Wealth found new definitions. The Church had +made poverty the highest state, and insisted, as she does in part +to-day, that the suffering and deprivation of one class were ordained of +God to draw out the sympathies of the other. The rich must save their +souls by alms and endowments, and contentment and acquiescence were to +be the virtues of the poor. + +Insensibly this view was modified. Charlemagne, whose extraordinary +personal power and common-sense moulded men at will, set an example no +monarch had ever set before. He ordered the sale of eggs from his hens +and the vegetables from his gardens; and, scorn it as they might, his +sneering nobles insensibly modified their own thought and action. +Commerce brought the people and products of new countries face to face. +The lines of caste, as sharply defined within the labor world as +without, were gradually dimmed or obliterated. The practice of credit +and exchange, largely the creation of the persecuted Jews, made easy the +interchange of commodities. Saint Louis himself organized industry, and +divided the trades into brotherhoods, put under the protection of the +saints from the tyranny of the barons and of the feudal system which had +weighted all industry. + +Reform began in the year 1257, in the "Institutions" of Saint Louis,--a +set of clear and definite rules for the development of public wealth and +the general good of the people. In their first joy at this escape from +long-continued oppression, many of the towns of the Middle Ages had +admitted women to citizenship on an equal footing with men. In 1160 +Louis le Jeune, of France, granted to Theci, wife of Yves, and to her +heirs, the grand-mastership of the five trades of cobblers, belt-makers, +sweaters, leather-dressers, and purse-makers. In Frankfort and the +Silesian towns there were female furriers; along the middle Rhine many +female bakers were at work. Cologne and Strasburg had female saddlers +and embroiderers of coats-of-arms. Frankfort had female tailors, +Nuremburg female tanners, and in Cologne were several skilled female +goldsmiths. + +Twelve hundred years of struggle toward some sort of justice seemed +likely at this point to be lost, for with the opening of the thirteenth +century each and all of the guilds proceeded to expel every woman in the +trades. It is a curious fact in the story of all societies approaching +dissolution, that its defenders adopt the very means best adapted to +hasten this end. Each corporation dreaded an increase of numbers, and +restricted marriages, and reduced the number of independent citizens. +Many towns placed themselves voluntarily under the rule of princes who +in turn were trying to subjugate the nobility, and so protected the +towns and accorded all sorts of rights and privileges. + +The Thirty Years' War, from 1618 to 1648, decimated the German +population, and reduced still further the possibility of marriage for +many. Forced out of trades, women had only the lowest, most menial forms +of trade labor as resort, and their position was to all appearance +nearly hopeless. + +In spite of this, certain trades were practically woman's. Embroidery of +church vestments and hangings had been brought to the highest +perfection. Lace-making had been known from the most ancient times; and +Colbert, the famous financier and minister for Louis XIV., gave a +privilege to Madame Gilbert, of Alencon, to introduce into France the +manufacture of both Flemish and Venetian Point, and placed in her hands +for the first expenses 150,000 francs. The manufacture spread over every +country of Europe, though in 1640 the Parliament of Toulouse sought to +drive out women from the employment, on the plea that the domestic were +her only legitimate occupations. A monk came to the rescue, and +demonstrated that spinning, weaving, and all forms of preparing and +decorating stuffs had been hers from the beginning of time, and thus for +a season averted further action. + +The monk had learned his lesson better than most of the workmen who +sought to curtail woman's opportunities. In the chronicles of that time +there is full description of the workshops which formed part of every +great estate, that known as the _gynaeceum_ being devoted to the women +and children, who spun, wove, made up, and embroidered stuffs of every +order. The Abbey of Niederalteich had such a _gynaeceum_, in which +twenty-two women and children worked, while that of Stephenswert +employed twenty-four; co-operation in such labor having been found more +advantageous than isolated work. Before the tenth century these +workshops had been established at many points. If part of a feudal +manor, the wife of its lord acted often as overseer; if attached to some +abbey, a general overlooker filled the same place. In the convents +manual labor came into favor; and the spinning, weaving, and dyeing of +stuffs occupied a large part of the life. + +Apprenticeship for both male and female was finally well established, +and many women became the successful heads of prosperous industries. The +wage was, as it is to-day, the merest pittance; but any wage whatever +was an advance upon the conditions of earlier servitude. + +Life had small joy for women in those days we call the "good old +times." Take the married woman, the house-mother of that period. She not +only lived in the strictest retirement, but her duties were so complex +and manifold that, to quote Bebel, "a conscientious housewife had to be +at her post from early in the morning till late at night in order to +fulfil them. It was not only a question of the daily household duties +that still fall to the lot of the middle-class housekeeper, but of many +others from which she has been entirely freed by the modern development +of industry, and the extension of means of transport. She had to spin, +weave, and bleach; to make all the linen and clothes, to boil soap, to +make candles and brew beer. In addition to these occupations, she +frequently had to work in the field or garden and to attend to the +poultry and cattle. In short, she was a veritable Cinderella, and her +solitary recreation was going to church on Sunday. Marriages only took +place within the same social circles; the most rigid and absurd spirit +of caste ruled everything, and brooked no transgression of its law. The +daughters were educated on the same principles; they were kept in +strict home seclusion; their mental development was of the lowest order, +and did not extend beyond the narrowest limits of household life. And +all this was crowned by an empty and meaningless etiquette, whose part +it was to replace mind and culture, and which made life altogether, and +especially that of a woman, a perfect treadmill of labor." + +How was it possible that a condition as joyless and fruitless as this +should be the accepted ideal of womanhood? Already the question is +answered. For ages her identity had been merged in that of the man by +whose side she worked with no thought of recompense. She toiled early +and late, filling the office of general helper on the same terms; and +even to-day, under our own eyes, the wife of many a farmer goes through +her married life often not touching five dollars in cash in an entire +year. + +Submissiveness, clinging affection, humility, all the traits accounted +distinctively feminine, and the natural and ever-increasing result of +steady suppression of all stronger ones stood in the way of any +resistance. Intellectual qualities, forever at a discount, repressed +development save in rarest cases. The mass of women had neither power +nor wish to protest; and thus the few traces we find of their earliest +connection with labor show us that they accepted bare subsistence as all +to which they were entitled, and were grateful if they escaped the +beating which the lower order of Englishman still regards it as his +right to give. Even in our own country and our own time this theory is +not altogether extinct. The papers only recently contained an account of +the brutal beating of a woman by a man. The woman in remonstrating +cried, "You have no right to beat me! I am not your wife!" + +During the Middle Ages, and indeed well into the nineteenth century, +possession of property by women was confined to the unmarried, the +entire control and practical ownership passing to the husband upon +marriage. + +Change comes at last to even the most fossilized thought. One by one, +social institutions clung to with fiercest tenacity fell away. Barbaric +independence had followed Greek and Roman slavery, which in turn was +succeeded by feudal servitude, to reappear once more in the +affranchised communes. Each experiment had its season, and sunk into the +darkness of the past, to give place to a new one, which must transmit to +posterity the principal and interest of all preceding ones. But though +progress when taken in the mass is plain, the individual years in each +generation show small trace of it. Even as late as the sixteenth +century, the workman fared little better than the brutes. Erasmus tells +us that their houses had no chimneys, and their floors were bare ground; +while Fortescue, who travelled in France at the same time, reports a +misery and degradation which have had vivid portraiture in Taine's +"Ancien Regime." + +A flood of wealth poured in on the discovery of the New World. The +invention of gunpowder put a new face upon warfare, and that of printing +made possible the cheap and wide dissemination of long-smouldering +ideas. Economic problems perplexed every country, and on all sides +methods of solving them were put in action. Sully, who found in Henry +IV. of France an ardent supporter of his wishes for her prosperity, had +altered and systematized taxes, and introduced a multitude of reforms in +general administration; and later, Colbert did even more notable work. +The Italian Republics had made their noble code of commercial rules and +maxims. The Dutch had given to the world one of the most wonderful +examples of what man may accomplish by sheer pluck and persistent hard +work, and commercial institutions founded on a principle of liberty; and +neither the terror of the Spanish rule nor the jealousy of England had +destroyed her power. Credit, banking, all modern forms of exchange were +coming into use; and agriculture, which the feudal system had kept in a +state of torpor, awakened and became a productive power. + +Side by side with this were gigantic speculations, like that of John Law +and the East India Company, with the helpless ruin of its collapse. The +time was ripe for the formulation of some system of economic laws; and +two men who had long pondered them, De Gournay and Quesnay, made the +first attempt to explain the meaning of wealth and its distribution. +After Quesnay and his system, still holding honorable place, came +Turgot; after Turgot, Adam Smith; and thenceforward halt is impossible, +and economic science marches on with giant strides. + +In all this progress woman had shared many of the material benefits, but +her industrial position had altered but slightly. Driven from the +trades, she had passed into the ranks of agricultural laborers; and +Thorold Rogers, in his "Work and Wages," records her early work in this +direction. France held the most enlightened view, and even then women +took active part in business, and had a position unknown in any other +country; but they had no place in any system of the economists, nor did +their labor count as a force to be enumerated. Slowly machinery was +making its way, feared and hated by the lower order of workers, eyed +distrustfully and uncertainly by the higher. Men and women struggling +for bare subsistence had become active competitors, till, in 1789, a +general petition entitled "Petition of Women of the Third Estate to the +King" was signed by hundreds of French workers, who, made desperate by +starvation and underpay, demanded that every business which included +spinning, weaving, sewing, or knitting should be given to women +exclusively. Side by side with the wave of political revolution, +strongest for France and America, came the industrial revolution; and +the opening of the nineteenth century brought with it the myriad changes +we are now to face. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Dynamic Sociology, or Applied Social Science as based upon Statical +Sociology and the Less Complex Sciences. By Lester F. Ward, A.M., vol. +i. p. 649. + +[2] Economics, book i. chap. ix. + +[3] Ancient Law, p. 147. + + + + +II. + +EMPLOYMENTS FOR WOMEN DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD, AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF +THE FACTORY. + + +For nearly a century and a half, dating from the landing of the Pilgrims +on Plymouth Rock, the condition of laboring women was that of the same +class in all struggling colonies. There were practically no women +wage-earners, save in domestic service, where a home and from thirty to +a hundred dollars a year was accounted wealth, the latter sum being +given in a few instances to the housekeepers in great houses. Each +family represented a commonwealth, and its women gave every energy to +the crowding duties of a daily life filled with manifold occupations. + +The farmer--for all were farmers--was often blacksmith, shoemaker, and +carpenter, and more or less proficient in every trade whose offices were +called for in the family life. The farmer's wife spun and wove the +cloth he wore and the linen that made his household furnishing, and was +dyer and dresser, brewer and baker, seamstress, milliner, and +dressmaker. The quickness, adaptiveness to new conditions, and the +fertility of resource which are recognized as distinguishing the +American, were born of the colonial struggle, especially of the final +one which separated us forever from English rule. + +The wage of the few women found in labor outside the home was gauged by +that which had ruled in England. For unskilled labor, as that employed +occasionally in agriculture, this had been from one shilling and +sixpence for ordinary field work to two shillings a week paid in haying +and harvest time. For hoeing corn or rough weeding there is record of +one shilling per week, and this is the usual wage for old women. To this +were added various allowances which have gradually fallen into disuse. A +full record of these and of rates in general will be found in "Six +Centuries of Work and Wages."[4] + +Unskilled labor during the whole colonial period--meaning by this such +labor as that of the men who sawed wood, dug ditches, or mended roads, +mixed mortar for the mason, carried boards to the carpenter, or cut hay +in harvest time--brought a wage of seldom more than two shillings a day, +fifteen shillings a week making a man the envy of his fellows, while six +or seven was the utmost limit for women of the same order. + +On this pittance they lived as they could. Sand did duty as carpet for +the floor. The cupboard knew no china, and the table no glass. Coal and +matches were unknown; they had never seen a stove. The meals of coarsest +food were eaten from wooden or pewter dishes. Fresh meat was seldom +eaten more than once a week. A pound of salt pork was tenpence, and corn +three shillings a bushel. Clothing was as coarse as the food, and +imprisonment for the slightest debt was the shadow hanging over every +family where illness or any other cause had hindered earning. Boys and +girls in the poorer families were employed by the owners of cattle to +watch and keep them within bounds, countless troubles arising from their +roaming over the unfenced fields. Andover, Mass., being from the +beginning of a thrifty turn of mind, passed, soon after the founding of +the town, an ordinance which still stands on the town records:-- + + "The Court did herupon order and decree that in every towne the + chosen men are to take care of such as are sett to keep cattle, + that they may be sett to some other employment withall, as spinning + upon the rock, knitting and weaving tape, &c." + +Spinning-classes were also formed; the General Court of Massachusetts +ordering these in 1656, this being part of the general effort to begin +some form of manufactures. But fishing to load ships, and shipbuilding +to carry cured fish absorbed the energies of the growing population; and +these vessels brought textiles and manufactured goods from the cheapest +markets everywhere and anywhere.[5] + +These "homespun" industries soon showed a tendency toward division. By +1669 much weaving was done outside the home as custom work; and there is +record of one Gabriel Harris who died in 1684 leaving four looms and +tacklings and a silk loom as part of the small fortune he had +accumulated in this way.[6] His six children and some hired women +assisted in the work. In 1685 Joseph, the son of Roger Williams, entered +in an account book now extant,[7] a credit to "Sarah badkuk [Babcock], +for weven and coaming wisted." This work was, however, chiefly in the +hands of men. + +The records of Pepperell, Mass., show that many women saved their pin +money, and sent out little ventures in the ships built at home and +sailing to all ports with fish. These ventures included articles of +clothing, embroideries, and anything that it seemed might be made to +yield some return. There were also women of affairs, some of whom took +charge of large industries. Thus Weeden, in his "Economic and Social +History of New England," quotes from an interesting memorandum left by +Madam Martha Smith, a widow of St. George's Manor, Long Island,[8] which +shows her practical ability. In January, 1707, "my company" killed a +yearling whale, and made twenty-seven barrels of oil. The record gives +her success for the year, and the tax she paid to the authorities at New +York,--fifteen pounds and fifteen shillings, a twentieth part of her +year's gains. + +Other women oversaw the curing of the fish; but there is no record of +the wage beyond the general one which for the earliest days of the +colony gives rates for women as from four to eight pence a day without +food. These rates followed almost literally those of England at that +time. Half of the day's earnings were accounted an equivalent for diet, +and contractors for feeding gangs in agriculture, among sailors, or +wherever the system was adopted, allowed seven and one-half pence per +day a head for men and women alike. Women servants received ten +shillings a year wages, and an allowance of four shillings additional +for clothing. The working day still remained as fixed by the law late in +the fifteenth century,--from five A.M. to eight P.M., from March to +September, with half an hour for breakfast, and an hour and a half for +dinner. + +These rates gradually altered, but for women hardly at all, the wages +during the eighteenth century ranging from four to six pounds a year. +The colony, however, gave opportunities unknown to the mother country, +and gardening and the cultivation of small vegetables seem to have +fallen much into the hands of women.[9] They had studied the best +methods for hotbeds, and grew early vegetables in these, the first +record of this being in 1759. + +Gloves were by this time made at home, buttons covered, and many small +industries conducted, all connected with the manufacture and making up +of clothing. Patriotic spinning occupied many; and the "Boston +News-Letter" has it that often seventy linen-wheels were employed at one +gathering. The agitation caused by the Stamp Act turned the attention of +all women to the production of cloth as a domestic business. Worcester, +Mass., in 1780 formed an association for the spinning and weaving of +cotton, and a jenny was bought by subscription.[10] + +Prices by this time had risen, and in 1776 the Andover records mention +that a Miss Holt was paid eighteen shillings for spinning seventy-two +skeins, and seven shillings eleven pence for weaving nineteen yards of +cloth. Women generally could spin two skeins of linen yarn a day; but +there is record of one, a Miss Eleanor Fry of East Greenwich, R.I., who +spun seven skeins and one knot in one day,--an amount sufficient to +make twelve large lawn handkerchiefs such as were then imported from +England. + +Within four years another Rhode Island family of Newport are recorded in +1768 as having "manufactured nine hundred and eighty yards of woolen +cloth, besides two coverlids (coverlets), and two bed-ticks, and all the +stocking yarn of the family." + +The Council of East Greenwich fixed prices at that time at rates which +seem purely arbitrary and are certainly incomprehensible. Thus for +spinning linen or worsted, five or six skeins to the pound, the price +was not to exceed sixpence per skein of fifteen knots, with finer work +in proportion. Carded woollen yarn was the same per skein. Weaving plain +flannel or tow or linen brought fivepence per yard; common worsted and +linen, one penny a yard; and other linens in like proportion.[11] + +Silk growing and weaving had been the result of the silkworm cocoons +sent over by James the First, who offered bounties of money and tobacco +for spun and woven silk according to weight. Three women were famous +before the Revolution as silk growers and weavers,--Mrs. Pinckney, Grace +Fisher, and Susanna Wright; and at all points where the mulberry-tree +was indigenous or could be made to grow, fortune was regarded as +assured. The project failed; but the efforts then made paved the way for +present experiment, and even better success than that already attained. + +The manufacture of straw goods, amounting now to many million dollars +yearly, owes its origin to a woman,--Miss Betsey Metcalf, who in 1789, +when hardly more than a child, discovered the secret of bleaching and +braiding the meadow grass of Dedham, her native town. Others were +taught, and a regular business of supplying the want for summer hats and +bonnets was organized, and has grown to its present large proportions. + +At this period women widowed by the fortune of war or forced by the +absence of all the male members of the family on the field, were often +found in business. The mother of Thomas Perkins of Salem, one of the +great American merchants, left widowed in 1778, took her husband's place +in the counting-house, managed business, despatched ships, sold +merchandise, wrote letters, all with such commanding energy that the +solid Hollanders wrote to her as to a man.[12] The record of one day's +work of Mary Moody Emerson, born in 1777, reads:-- + + "Rose before light every morn; read Butler's Analogy; commented on + the Scriptures; read in a little book Cicero's Letters--a few + touches of Shakespeare--washed, carded, cleaned house and + baked."[13] + +There is another woman no less busy, a member of the distinguished Nott +family, who did work in her house and helped her boys in the fields. In +midwinter, with neither money nor wool in the house, one of the boys +required a new suit. The mother sheared the half-grown fleece from a +sheep, and in a week had spun, wove, and made it into clothing, the +sheep being protected from cold by a wrappage made of braided straw. + +Details like this would be out of place here did they not serve to +accent the fact of the concentration of industries under the home roof, +and the necessity that existed for this. But a change was near at hand, +and it dates from the first bale of cotton grown in the country. + +In the early years of the eighteenth century not a manufacturing town +existed in New England, and for the whole country it was much the same. +A few paper-mills turned out paper hardly better in quality than that +which comes to us to-day about our grocery packages. In a foundry or two +iron was melted into pigs or beaten into bars and nails. Cocked hats and +felts were made in one factory. Cotton was hardly known.[14] De Bow, in +his "Industrial Resources of the United States," tells us that a little +had been sent to Liverpool just before the battle of Lexington; but +linen took the place of all cotton fabrics, and was spun at every hearth +in New England. + +In the eight bales of cotton, grown on a Georgia plantation, sent over +to Liverpool in 1784, and seized at the Custom House on the ground that +so much cotton could not be produced in America, but must come from +some foreign country, lay the seed of a new movement in labor, in which, +from the beginning, women have taken larger part than men. By 1800 +cotton had proved itself a staple for the Southern States, and even the +second war with England hardly hindered the planters. In 1791 two +million pounds had been raised; in 1804 forty-eight million; the +invention of the cotton-gin, in 1793, stimulating to the utmost the +enthusiasm of the South over this new road to fortune. + +It is with the birth of the cotton industry that the work and wages of +women begin to take coherent shape; and the history of the new +occupation divides itself roughly into three periods. The first includes +the ten or fifteen years prior to 1790, and may be called the +experimental period; the second covers the time from 1790 to 1811, in +which the spinning-system was established and perfected; and the third +the years immediately following 1814, in which came the introduction of +the power loom and the growth of the modern factory system. + +The experimental stage found an enthusiastic worker in the person of +Tench Coxe, known often as the "Father of American Industries," whose +interest in the beginning was philanthropic rather than commercial. Bent +upon employment for idle and destitute workmen, he exhibited in +Philadelphia in 1775 the first spinning-jenny seen in America. He had +already incorporated the "United Company of Philadelphia for Promoting +American Manufactures," and they at once secured the machine and made +ready to operate it. Four hundred women were very speedily at work at +hand spinning and weaving; and though the company presently turned its +attention to woollen fabrics, a large proportion of women was still +employed. + +Till the building of the great mill at Waltham, Mass., in which every +form of the improved machinery found place, spinning was the only work +of the factories. All the yarn was sent out among the farmers to be +woven into cloth, the current prices paid for this being from six to +twelve cents a yard. American cotton was poor, and the product of a +quality inferior to the coarsest and heaviest-unbleached of to-day; but +experiment soon altered all this. + +To manufacture the raw product in this country was a necessity. For +England this had begun in 1786; but she guarded so jealously all +inventions bearing upon it that none found their way to us. Our +machinery was therefore of the most imperfect order, the work chiefly of +two young Scotch mechanics. In 1788 a company was formed at Providence, +R.I., for making "homespun cloth," their machinery being made in part +from drawings from English models. Carding and roving were all done by +hand labor; and the spinning-frame, with thirty-two spindles, differed +little from a common jenny, and was worked by a crank turned by hand. + +Even at this stage England was determined that America should have +neither machinery nor tools, and still held to the act passed in 1789 +which enforced a penalty of five hundred pounds for any one who +exported, or tried to export, "blocks, plates, engines, tools, or +utensils used in or which are proper for the preparing or finishing of +the calico, cotton, muslin, or linen printing manufacture, or any part +thereof." + +Nothing could have more stimulated American invention; but there were +many struggles before the thought finally came to all interested, that +it might be possible to condense the whole operation with all its +details under one roof,--a project soon carried out. + +Thus far all had been tentative; but the building in 1790 at Pawtucket, +R.I., of the first large factory with improved machinery gave the +industry permanent place. Another mill was erected in the same State in +1795, and two more in Massachusetts in 1802 and 1803. In the three +succeeding years ten more were built in Rhode Island and one in +Connecticut, altogether fifteen in number, working about 8,000 spindles +and producing in a year some 300,000 pounds of yarn. At the end of the +year 1809 eighty-seven additional mills had been put up, making about +80,000 spindles in operation. Eight hundred spindles employed forty +persons,--five men and thirty-five women and children. + +The first authoritative record as to the progress of the manufacture, +numbers employed, etc., was made in a report to the House of +Representatives in the spring session of 1816. In the previous year +90,000 bales had been manufactured as against 1,000 in 1800. The capital +invested was $40,000, and the relative number of males and females +employed is also recorded,-- + + Males employed from the age of 17 and upward 10,000 + Women and female children 66,000 + Boys under 17 years of age 24,000 + +For these women spinning was the only work. Hand-looms still did all the +weaving, nor was it possible to obtain any plan of the power +looms,--then in use in England, and a recent invention. Another mill had +been built in 1795; and thus the first definite and profitable +occupation for women in this country dates back to the close of the +eighteenth and the early years of the nineteenth century, the history of +its phases having been written by Tench Coxe. The village tailoress had +long gone from house to house, earning in the beginning but a shilling a +day, and this sometimes paid in kind; and in towns a dressmaker or +milliner was secure of a livelihood. But work for the many was unknown +outside of household life; and thus wage rates vary with locality, and +are in most cases inferential rather than matter of record. + +Cotton would seem, from the beginning of manufacturing interests, to +have monopolized New England; but other industries had been very early +suggested. In May, 1640, the General Court of Massachusetts made an +order for the encouragement by bounties of the manufacture of linen and +woollen as well as cotton. In 1638 a company of Yorkshiremen came over +and settled in Rowley, Mass., where they built the first fulling-mill in +the United States. Fustians and the ordinary homespun cloth were woven; +but few women were employed, the work being far heavier than the weaving +of cotton. It was hoped that broadcloths as good as those imported could +be made; but American wool proved less susceptible of high finish, +though of better wearing quality than the English. Various grades of +cloth, with shawls, were manufactured; but the growth of the industry +was slow, and constantly hampered by heavy duties and much interference. +In 1770 the entire graduating class at Harvard College were dressed in +black broadcloth made in this country, the weaving of which had been +done in families. Yarn was sent to these after the wool had been made +ready in the mills, and the census of the United States for 1810 gives +the number of yards woven in this way as 9,528,266. + +What proportion of women were engaged we have no means of knowing; but +the census of 1860 shows that New England had 65 per cent of the total +number then at work. The cotton manufacture had but 38 per cent of males +as against 62 per cent of females; while in woollen, males were 60 per +cent. In New England 10,743 women were in woollen-mills; in the Middle +States, 4,540; and in the South, 689. For the West no returns are given. +Many more would be included in the Southern returns were it not that +most of the weaving is still a home industry, this resulting from the +sparseness and scattered nature of the population. + +Knitting formed one of the earliest means of earning for women, the +demand for hose of every description being beyond the power of the +family to supply. Knitting-machines of various orders were in use on the +Continent, and had been brought into England; but any attempt to employ +them here was for a long time unsuccessful. Yarn was spun especially for +this purpose, usually with a double thread, and in the year 1698 +Martha's Vineyard exported 9,000 pairs. The German and English settlers +of Pennsylvania brought many handknitting machines with them, and were +rivals of New England; but Virginia led, and the census of 1810 credits +her with over half of the hand-knit pairs exported, Connecticut coming +next. In Pennsylvania the women earned half a crown a pair for the long +hose, and this in the opening of the eighteenth century; and the State +still retains it as a household industry. The percentage for the United +States of women engaged in it by the last census is 61,100. + +The early stages of the industry employed very few women, the processes +involving too heavy labor; and out of 159 workers in the first mills, +only eight were women, these being employed in carding and fulling. +According to our last census, 10,743 are employed in New England mills +alone; but the proportion remains far below that of the cotton-mills, +and at many points in the South and remote territories it is still a +household industry in which all share. + +Until well on in the nineteenth century the factory and the domestic +system were still interwoven, nor had there been intelligent definition +of the actual meaning of this system until Ure formulated one:-- + + "The factory system in technology is simply the combined operation + of many orders of work-people in tending with assiduous skill a + series of productive machines, continuously impelled by a central + power."[15] + +A central power controlling an army of workers had been the dream of all +mechanicians; and Ure formulated this also:-- + + "It is the idea of a vast automaton, composed of various mechanical + and intellectual organs, acting in uninterrupted concert for the + production of a common object,--all of them being subordinate to a + self-regulated moving force." + +This was the result brought about by the gradual extension of the +factory system. The objections made from the beginning, and still made, +with such answers as experience has suggested, find place later on. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] By Thorold Rogers. + +[5] Weeden's Economic and Social History of New England, vol. i. p. 304. + +[6] Caulkins, p. 273. + +[7] Rider's Book Notes, vol. ii. p. 7. + +[8] Boston News-Letter, Jan. 25, 1773. + +[9] Boston News-Letter, Jan. 25, 1773. + +[10] Barry's Massachusetts, vol. xi. p. 193. + +[11] Weeden's Social and Economic History of New England, vol. ii. p. +790. + +[12] Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1798-1835, p. +353. + +[13] Atlantic Monthly, December, 1883, p. 773. + +[14] For further detail, see McMaster's History of the United States, +vol. i. p. 62. + +[15] Philosophy of Manufactures, by Andrew Ure, M.D., p. 13. + + + + +III. + +EARLY ASPECTS OF FACTORY LABOR FOR WOMEN. + + +Lack not only of machinery but of any facilities for its manufacture +hampered and delayed the progress of the factory movement in the United +States; but these difficulties were at last overcome, and in 1813 +Waltham, Mass., saw what is probably the first factory in the world that +combined under one roof every process for converting raw cotton into +finished cloth. + +Manufacturing, even when most hampered by the burden of taxation then +imposed and the heavy duties and other restrictions following the long +war, began under happier conditions than have ever been known elsewhere. +Unskilled labor had smallest place, and of this class New England had +for long next to no knowledge. Her workers in the beginning were +recruited from the outlying country; and the women and girls who +flocked into Lowell, as in the earliest years they had flocked into +Pawtucket, were New-Englanders by birth and training. This meant not +only quickness and deftness of handling, but the conscientious filling +of every hour with the utmost work it could be made to hold. + +The life of the Lowell factory-girls has full record in the little +magazine called the "Lowell Offering," published by them for many years. +Lucy Larcom has also lately given her "Recollections," one of the most +valuable and characteristic pictures of the life from year to year, and +it tallies with the summary made by Dickens in his "American Notes." +Beginning as a child of eleven, whose business was simply to change +bobbins, she received a wage of one dollar a week, with one dollar and a +quarter for board, the allowance made by most of the corporations while +the system of boarding-houses in connection with the factories lasted. +The oldest corporation, known as the Merrimack, introduced this system, +and for many years retained oversight of all in its employ. With +increasing competition and the increase of the foreign element, +alteration of methods began, and Lowell lost its characteristic +features. + +In the beginning the conditions of factory labor for New England at the +point where work was initiated, were, as compared with those of England, +almost idyllic. The Lowell workers came from New England farms, many of +them for the sake of being near libraries and schools, and thus securing +larger opportunities for self-culture. + +The agricultural class then outranked merchants and mechanics. There +were no class distinctions, and the workers shared in the best social +life of Lowell. The factory was an episode rather than a career; and the +buildings themselves were kept as clean as the nature of the work +admitted, growing plants filling the windows; and the swift-flowing +Merrimac turning the wheels. + +In 1841 the girls had to their credit in the savings-banks established +by the corporations over one hundred thousand dollars; and many of them +shared their earnings with brothers who sought a college education, or +lifted the mortgages on the home farms. At the International Council of +Women, held in Washington in 1888, Mrs. H.H. Robinson, after telling how +she entered the Lowell Mills as a "doffer," when a child, gave a +brilliant description of the intellectual life and interests of the +workers. She remained in the mill till married, and said: "I consider +the Lowell Mills as my _alma mater_, and am as proud of them as most +girls of the colleges in which they have been educated." + +With the growth of the factory system under very different conditions +from that of Lowell, there were as different results. Factories had +risen, at every available point in New England, all of them thronged by +women and girls. But great cities were still unknown; and the first +census, that for 1790, showed that hardly four per cent of the people +were in them. The tide set toward the factory towns as strongly as it +now does toward the cities, though factory labor for the most part was +of almost incredible severity. The length of a day's labor varied from +twelve to fifteen hours, the mills of New England running generally +thirteen hours a day the year round. Several mills are on record, the +day in one of which was fourteen hours, and in the other fifteen hours +and ten minutes, this latter being the Eagle Mill at Griswold, Conn.; +and previous to 1858 there were many others where hours were equally +long. Work began at five in the morning, or at some points a little +later; and there is a known instance of a mill in Paterson, N.J., in +which women and children were required to be at work by half-past four +in the morning. + +In most of the New England factories, the operatives were taxed for the +support of religion. The Lowell Company dismissed them if often absent +from church, and their lives without and within the factory were +regulated as minutely as if in the cloister. Women and children were +urged on by the cowhide; and the first inspection of the factories, +notably in Connecticut, revealed a state of things hardly less harrowing +than that which had brought about the passage of the first Factory Acts +in England. At the same time wages were very inadequate. In twelve +hours' daily labor the weavers of Baltimore were able to earn from sixty +to seventy cents a day, the wage of the women being half or a third this +amount; and they declared it not enough to pay the expenses of schooling +for the children. + +With the increase of production and the growing competition of +manufacturers, wages were steadily forced downward. Less and less +attention was paid to the comfort or well-being of the operatives, and +many factories were unfit working-places for human beings. Overseers, +whose duty it was to keep up the utmost rate of speed, flogged children +brutally; and the treatment was so barbarous that a boy of twelve at +Mendon, Mass., drowned himself to escape factory labor. Windows were +often nailed down, and their raising forbidden even in the hottest +weather. + +The most formidable and trustworthy arraignment of these conditions is +to be found in a pamphlet printed in 1834, the full title of which is as +follows: "An Address to the Working-men of New England, on the State of +Education, and on the Condition of the Producing Classes in Europe and +America." + +The author of this pamphlet, a mechanic of some education, stirred to +the heart by the abuses he saw, made an exhaustive examination of the +New England mills; and he gives many details of the hours of labor, the +wages of employees, and the abuses of power which he found everywhere +among unscrupulous manufacturers. The principal value of his work lies +in this, and in his reprint of original documents like the "General +Rules of the Lowell Manufacturing Company," and "The Conditions on which +Help is hired by the Cocheco Manufacturing Company, Dover, N.H." These +conditions were so oppressive that in several cases revolt took +place,--usually unsuccessful, as no organization existed among the +women, and they were powerless to effect any marked change for the +better. + +By 1835 chiefly the poorer order of workers filled the mills, but even +skilled labor made constant complaint of cruelties and injustices. Not +only were there distressing cases of cruelty to children, but outrage of +every kind had been found to exist among the women workers, whose wage +had been lowered till nearly at the point known to-day as the +subsistence point. Parents then, as now, gave false returns of age, and +caught greedily at the prospect of any earning by their children; and +any specific enactments as to schooling, etc., were still delayed. + +These evils were not confined to New England, but existed at every point +where manufacturing was carried on. But New England was first to decide +on the necessity for some organized remonstrance and resistance, and +the first meeting to this end was held in February, 1831. Of this there +is no record; but the second, held in September, 1832, is given in the +first "Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor," issued in 1870. +Boston sent thirty delegates, and the workingmen of New York City +addressed a letter to the workers of the United States, showing that the +same causes of unrest and agitation existed at all points. + +"These evils," they said, "arise from the moral obliquity of the +fastidious, and the cupidity of the avaricious. They consist in an +illiberal opinion of the worth and rights of the laboring classes, an +unjust estimation of their moral, physical, and intellectual powers, and +unwise misapprehension of the effects which would result from the +cultivation of their minds and the improvement of their condition, and +an avaricious propensity to avail of their laborious services, at the +lowest possible rate of wages for which they can be induced to work." + +The evils protested against here did not lessen as time went on. Irish +emigration had begun in 1836, and speedily drove out American labor, +which was in any case insufficient for the need. A lowered wage was the +immediate consequence, the foreigner having no standard of living that +included more than bare necessaries. At this distance from the struggle +it is easy to see that the new life was educational for the emigrant, +and also forced the American worker into new and often broader channels. +But for those involved such perception was impossible, and the +new-comers were regarded with something like hatred. English and German +emigrants followed, to give place in their turn to the French-Canadian, +who at present in great degree monopolizes the mills. + +In the beginning little or no effort was made toward healthful +conditions of work and life, or more than the merest hint of education. +England, in which far worse conditions had existed, had, early in the +century, seen the necessity of remedial legislation. But though the +first English Factory Act was passed in 1802, it was not till 1844 that +women and children were brought under its provisions. The first one, +known as the Health and Morals Act, was the result of the discovery made +first by voluntary, then by appointed inspectors, that neither health +nor morals remained for factory-workers, and that hopeless deterioration +would result unless government interfered at once. Hideous epidemic +diseases, an extinction of any small natural endowment of moral sense, +and a daily life far below that of the brutes, had showed themselves as +industries and the attendant competition developed; and the story in all +its horror may be read in English Bluebooks and the record of government +inspectors, and made accessible in the works of Giffen, Toynbee, Engels, +and other names identified with reform. + +The bearing of these acts upon legislation in our country is so strong +that a summary of the chief points must find mention here. In the Act of +1802 the hours of work, which had been from fourteen to sixteen hours a +day, were fixed at twelve. All factories were required to be frequently +whitewashed, and to have a sufficient number of windows, though these +provisions applied only to apprenticed operatives. In 1819 an act +forbade the employment of any child under nine years of age, and in 1825 +Saturday was made a half-holiday. Night work was forbidden in 1831, and +for all under eighteen the working day was made twelve hours, with nine +for Saturday. + +By 1847 public opinion demanded still more change for the better, and +the day was made ten hours for working women and young persons between +thirteen and eighteen years, though they were allowed to work between +six A.M. and six P.M., with an allowance of an hour and a half at +mealtime. Our own evils, while in many points far less, still were in +the same direction. Here and there a like evasion of responsibility and +of the provisions of the law was to be found. Even when a corps of +inspectors were appointed, they were bribed, hoodwinked, and generally +put off the track, while the provisions in regard to the shielding of +dangerous machinery, cleanliness, etc., were ignored by every possible +method. Were law obeyed and its provisions thoroughly carried out, +English factory operatives would be better protected than those of any +other country, America not accepted. Sanitary conditions are required to +be good. All factories are to be kept clean, as any effluvia arising +from closets, etc., renders the owners liable to a fine. The generation +of gas, dust, etc., must be neutralized by the inventions for this +purpose, so that operatives may not be harmed thereby. Any manufacturer +allowing machinery to remain unprotected is to be prosecuted; and there +are minute regulations forbidding any child or young person to clean or +walk between the fixed and traversing part of any self-acting machine +while in motion. At least two hours must be allowed for meals, nor are +these to be taken in any room where manufacturing is going on. + +For this country such provisions were long delayed, nor have we even now +the necessary regulations as to the protection of machinery. In the +early days, though many mills were built by men who sought honestly to +provide their employees with as many alleviations as the nature of the +work admitted, many more were absolutely blind to anything but their own +interest. With the disabilities resulting we are to deal at another +point. It is sufficient to say here, that the struggle for +factory-workers became more and more severe, and has remained so to the +present day. + +The increase of women workers in this field had been steady. In 1865 +women operatives in the factories of Massachusetts were 32,239, or +nineteen per cent of men operatives. In 1875 they were 83,207, or +twenty-six per cent; and the increase since that date has been in like +proportion. From the time of their first employment in mills the +increase has been on themselves over three hundred per cent. In +Massachusetts mills women and children are from two thirds to five +sixths of all employed, and the proportion in all the manufacturing +portions of New England is nearly the same. + +In judging the factory system as a whole, it is necessary to glance at +the conditions of home work preceding it. These are given in full detail +in historical and economical treatises, notably in Lecky's "History of +the Eighteenth Century," and in Dr. Kay's "Moral and Physical Condition +of the Working Classes." A list of the more important authorities on the +subject will be found in the general bibliography at the end. + +The conditions that prevailed in other countries were less strenuous +with us, but the same objections to the domestic system held good at +many points. In weaving, the looms occupied large part of the family +living space, and overcrowding and all its evils were inevitable. +Drunkenness was more common, as well as the stealing of materials by +dishonest workers. Time was lost in going for material and in returning +it, and only half as much was accomplished. Homes were uncared for and +often filthy, and the work was done in half-lighted, airless rooms. + +These conditions are often reproduced in part even to-day in buildings +not adapted to their present use; but as a whole it is certain that the +homes of factory-workers are cleaner, that regulation has proved +beneficial, that light and air are furnished in better measure, and that +overcrowding has become impossible. This applies only to textile +manufactures, where machines must have room. + +In an admirable chapter on the "Factory System," prepared by Colonel +Carroll D. Wright for the Tenth Census of the United States, he takes up +in detail the objections urged against it. These are as follows:-- + + A. The factory system necessitates the employment of women and + children to an injurious extent, and consequently its tendency is + to destroy family life and ties and domestic habits, and ultimately + the home. + + B. Factory employments are injurious to health. + + C. The factory system is productive of intemperance, unthrift, and + poverty. + + D. It feeds prostitution, and swells the criminal list. + + E. It tends to intellectual degeneracy. + +Under "A" there is small defence to be made. The employment of married +women is fruitful of evil, and the proportion of these in Massachusetts +is 23.8 per cent. Wherever this per cent is high, infant mortality is +very great, being 23.5 per cent for Massachusetts and 19 per cent for +Connecticut and New Hampshire. The "Labor Bureau Reports" for New Jersey +treat the subject in detail, and are strongly opposed to the employment +of mothers of young children outside the home; and the conclusion is the +same at other points. + +In the matter of general injury to health, under "B," it is stated that +many factories are far better ventilated and lighted than the homes of +the operatives. Ignorant employees cannot be impressed with the need of +care on these points, and the air in their homes is foul and productive +of disease. A cotton-mill is often better ventilated than a court-room +or a lecture-room. A well-built factory allows not less than six +hundred cubic feet of air space to a person, thirty to sixty cubic feet +a minute being required. Ranke, in his "Elements of Physiology," makes +it thirty-five a minute. + +The homes of operatives have steadily improved in character; and +wherever there is an intelligent class of operatives, regulations are +obeyed, and sanitary conditions are fair and often perfect, while the +tendency is toward more and more care in every respect. Operatives' +homes are often better guarded against sanitary evils than those of +farmers or the ordinary laborer. + +Under "C" it is shown conclusively that the factory has diminished +intemperance,--Reybaud's "History of the Factory Movement" giving full +statistics on this point, as well as in regard to the growth of banks +and benefit societies. The standard of living is higher here, but there +are countless evidences of thrift and a general rise in condition. + +In the matter of prostitution, under "D," it is shown that but eight per +cent of this class come from the factory, twenty-nine per cent being +from domestic service. In Lynn, Mass., a town chosen for illustration +because of the large percentage of factory operatives, it was found +that but seven per cent of those arrested were from this class; and this +is true of all points where the foreign-born element is not largely in +the majority. + +Last comes the question of intellectual degeneracy, under "E." On this +point it is hardly fair to make comparison of the present worker with +the Lowell girl of the first period of factory labor, since she came +from an educated class, and was distinctively American. Taking workers +as a whole, a vast advance shows itself. Regularity and fixed rule have +often been the first education in this direction; and the life, even +with all its drawbacks, has the right to be regarded as an educational +force, and the first step in this direction for a large proportion of +the workers in it. There are points where the arraignment of Alfred, in +his "History of the Factory Movement," is still true.[16] He speaks of +it as a "system which jested with civilization, laughed at humanity, and +made a mockery of every law of physical and moral health and of the +principles of natural and social order." The "Report of the New York +Bureau of Labor for 1885" shows that the charge might still be +righteously brought; and Mr. Bishop gives the same testimony in his +reports for New Jersey. Evil is still part of the system, and well-nigh +inseparable from the methods of production and the conditions of +competition; but that there are evils is recognized at all points, and +thus their continuance will not and cannot be perpetuated. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[16] Alfred's History of the Factory Movement, vol. i. p. 27. + + + + +IV. + +RISE AND GROWTH OF TRADES UP TO THE PRESENT TIME. + + +Defeat and discouragement attend well-nigh every step of the attempt to +reach any conclusions regarding women workers in the early years of the +century. It is true that 1832 witnessed an attempt at an investigation +into their status, but the results were of slight value, actual figures +being almost unattainable. The census of 1840 gave more, and that of +1850 showed still larger gain. In that of 1840 the number of women and +children in the silk industry was taken; but while the same is true of +the later one, there is apparently no record of them in any printed +form. The New York State Census for the years 1845 and 1855 gave some +space to the work of women and children, but there is nothing of marked +value till another decade had passed. + +It is to the United States Census for 1860 that we must look for the +first really definite statements as to the occupations of women and +children. Scattered returns of an earlier date had shown that the +percentage of those employed in factories was a steadily increasing one, +but in what ratio was considered as unimportant. In fact, statistics of +any order had small place, nor was their need seriously felt, save here +and there, in the mind of the student. + +To comprehend the blankness of this period in all matters relating to +social and economic questions, it is necessary to recall the fact that +no such needs as those of the mother country pressed upon us. To those +who looked below the surface and watched the growing tide of emigration, +it was plain that they were, in no distant day, to arise; but for the +most part, even for those compelled to severest toil, it was taken for +granted that full support was a certainty, and that the men or women who +did not earn a comfortable living could blame no one but themselves. + +There were other reasons why any enumeration of women workers seemed not +only superfluous but undesirable. For the better order, prejudice was +still strong enough against all who deviated from custom or tradition to +make each new candidate for a living shrink from any publicity that +could be avoided. Society frowned upon the woman who dared to strike out +in new paths, and thus made them even more thorny than necessity had +already done. + +It is impossible for the present, with its full freedom of opportunity, +to realize, or credit even, the difficulties of the past, or even of a +period hardly more than a generation ago. It was of this time that Dr. +Emily Blackwell, one of the pioneers in higher work for women, wrote:-- + + "Women were hindered at every turn by endless restraint in endless + minor detail of habit, custom, tradition, etc.... Most women who + have been engaged in any new departure would testify that the + difficulties of the undertaking lay far more in these artificial + hindrances and burdens than in their own health, or in the nature + of the work itself." + +It was this shrinking from publicity, among all save the most ordinary +workers, by this time largely foreign, that made one difficulty in the +way of census enumerators. By 1860 it had become plain that an enormous +increase in their numbers was taking place, and that no just idea of +this increase could be formed so long as industrial statistics were made +up with no distinction as to sex. The spread of the factory system and +the constant invention of new machinery had long ago removed from homes +the few branches of the work that could be carried on within them. +Processes had divided and subdivided. The mill-worker knew no longer +every phase of the work implied in the production of her web, but became +more and more a part of the machine itself. This was especially true of +all textile industries,--cotton or woollen, with their many +ramifications,--and becomes more so with each year of progress. + +Cotton and woollen manufactures, with the constantly increasing +subdivisions of all the processes involved, counted their thousands upon +thousands of women workers. Another industry had been one of the first +opened to women, much of its work being done at home. Shoemaking, with +all its processes of binding and finishing, had its origin for this +country in Massachusetts, to the ingenuity and enterprise of whose +mechanics is due the fact that the United States has attained the +highest perfection in this branch. Lynn, Mass., as far back as 1750, had +become famous for its women's shoes, the making of which was carried on +in the families of the manufacturers. At first no especial skill was +shown; but in 1750 a Welsh shoemaker, named John Adam Dagyr, settled +there and acquired great fame for himself and the town for his superior +workmanship. In 1788 the exports of women's shoes from Lynn were one +hundred thousand pairs, while in 1795 over three hundred thousand pairs +were sent out, and by 1870 the number had reached eleven million. + +Beginning with the employment of a few dozen women, twenty other towns +took up the same industry, and furnish their quota of the general +return. The Massachusetts Bureau of Labor gives, in its report for 1873, +the number of women employed as 11,193, with some six hundred female +children. Maine and New Hampshire followed, and both have a small +proportion of women workers engaged in the industry, while it has +gradually extended, New England always retaining the lead, till New +York, Philadelphia, and many Western and Southern towns rank high in +the list of producers. + +As in every other trade, processes have divided and subdivided. +Sewing-machines did away with the tedious binding by hand, which had its +compensations, however, in the fact that it was done at home. There is +only incidental record of the numbers employed in this industry till the +later census returns; but the percentage outside of Massachusetts +remained a very small one, as even in Maine the total number given in +the Report of the Bureau of Labor for 1887 is but 533, an almost +inappreciable per cent of the population. The returns of the census of +1880 give the total number of women in this employment as 21,000, the +proportion still remaining largest for New England. + +Straw-braiding was another of the early trades, and the first straw +bonnet braided in the United States was made by Miss Betsey Metcalf, of +Providence, R.I., in 1789. For many years straw-plaiting was done at +home; but the quality of our material was always inferior to that grown +abroad, our climate making it much more brittle and difficult to +handle. The wage at first was from two to three dollars a week; but as +factories were established where imported braid was made up, the sum +sometimes reached five dollars. The census of 1860 gave the total number +of women employed as 1,430. According to the census of 1870, nine States +had taken up this industry, Massachusetts employing the largest number, +and Vermont the least, the total number being 12,594; while in 1880 the +number had risen to 19,998. + +Up to the time of the Civil War, aside from factory employments, the +trades open to women were limited, and the majority of their occupations +were still carried on at home, or with but few in numbers, as in +dressmaking-establishments, millinery, and the like. With the new +conditions brought about at this time, and the vast number of women +thrown upon their own resources, came the flocking into trades for which +there had been no training, and which had been considered as the +exclusive property of men. A surplus of untrained workers at once +appeared, and this and general financial depression brought the wage to +its lowest terms; but when this had in part ended, the trades still +remained open. At the close of the war some hundred were regarded as +practicable. Ten years later the number had more than doubled, and +to-day we find over four hundred occupations; while, as new inventions +arise, the number of possibilities in this direction steadily increases. +The many considerations involved in these facts will be met later on. +General conditions of trades as a whole are given in the census returns, +though even there hardly more than approximately, little work of much +real value being accomplished till the formation of the labor bureaus, +with which we are soon to deal. Every allowance, however, is to be made +for the Census Bureau, which found itself almost incapable of overcoming +many of the lions in the way. The tone of the remarks on this point in +that for 1860 is almost plaintive, nor is it less so in the next; but +methods have clarified, and the work is far more authoritative than for +long seemed possible. + +Innumerable difficulties hedged about the enumerators for 1860. Rooted +objection to answering the questions in detail was not one of the least. +Unfamiliarity with the newer phases of the work was another, and thus +it happened that the volume when issued was full of discrepancies. The +tables of occupations, for example, characterized but a little over two +thousand persons as connected with woollen and worsted manufacture; +while the tables of manufactures showed that considerably more than +forty thousand persons were engaged, upon the average, in these branches +of manufacturing industry. + +The returns gave the number of women employed in various branches of +manufacture as two hundred and eighty-five thousand, but stated that the +figures were approximate merely, it being impossible to secure full +returns. It was found that three and a half per cent of the population +of Massachusetts were in the factories, and nearly the same proportion +in Connecticut and Rhode Island; but details were of the most meagre +description, and conclusions based upon them were likely to err at every +point. Its value was chiefly educative, since the failure it represents +pointed to a change in methods, and more preparation than had at any +time been considered necessary in the officials who had the matter in +charge. + +The census for 1870 reaped the benefits of the new determination; yet +even of this General Walker was forced to write: "This census concludes +that from one to two hundred thousand workers are not accounted for, +from the difficulty experienced in getting proper returns. The nice +distinctions of foreign statisticians are impossible." And he adds:-- + + "Whoever will consider the almost utter want of apprenticeship in + this country, the facility with which pursuits are taken up and + abandoned, and the variety and, indeed, seeming incongruity of the + numerous industrial offices that are frequently united in one + person, will appreciate the force of this argument.... The + organization of domestic service in the United States is so crude + that no distinction whatever can be successfully maintained. A + census of occupations in which the attempt should be made to reach + anything like European completeness in this matter would result in + the return of tens of thousands of 'housekeepers' and hundreds of + thousands of 'cooks,' who were simply 'maids of all work,' being + the single servants of the families in which they are + employed."[17] + +This census gives the total number of women workers, so far as it could +be determined, as 1,836,288. Of these, 191,000 were from ten to fifteen +years of age; 1,594,783, from sixteen to fifty-nine; and 50,404, sixty +years and over, the larger proportion of the latter division being given +as engaged in agricultural employments. + +In the first period of age, females pursuing gainful occupations are to +males as one to three; in the second, one to six; and in the third, one +to twelve. The actual increase over the numbers given in the census for +1860 is 1,551,288. The reasons for this almost incredible variation have +already been suggested; and their operation became even stronger in the +interval between that of 1870 and 1880. By this time methods were far +more skilful and returns more minute, and thus the figures are to be +accepted with more confidence than was possible with the earlier ones. +The factory system, extending into almost every trade, brought about +more and more differentiation of occupations, some two hundred of which +were by 1880 open to women. + +Comparing the rates of increase during the period between 1860 and 1870, +women wage-earners had increased 19 per cent, the increase for men +being but 6/97. Among the women, 6.7 per cent were engaged in +agriculture, 33.4 in personal service, 7.3 in trade and transportation, +and 16.5 in manufactures. In 1880 women engaged in gainful occupations +formed 5.28 of the total population, and 14.68 of females over ten years +of age. The present rate is not yet[18] determined; but while figures +will not be accessible for some months to come, it is stated definitely +that the increase will indicate nearer ten than five per cent. + +The total number employed is given for this census as 2,647,157. The +occupations are divided into four classes: first, agriculture; second, +professional and personal services; third, trade and transportation; +fourth, manufactures, mechanical and mining industries. In agriculture, +594,510 women were at work; in professional and personal services, this +including domestic service, 1,361,295; trade and transportation, this +including shop-girls, etc., had 59,364; while 631,988 were engaged in +the last division of manufacturing, etc. Of girls from ten to fifteen +years of age, agriculture had 135,862; professional and personal +services, 107,830; trade, 2,547; and manufacturing, etc., 46,930. From +sixteen to fifty-nine years of age there were in agriculture 435,920; in +professional and personal services, 1,215,189; trade and transportation, +54,849; and manufacturing, etc., 577,157. From sixty years and upward +the four classes were divided as follows: Agriculture, 22,728; +professional, etc., 38,276; trade, etc., 1,968; and manufacturing, etc., +7,901. + +Even for this record numbers must be added, since many women work at +home and make no return of the trade they have chosen, while many others +are held by pride from admitting that they work at all. But the addition +of a hundred thousand for the entire country would undoubtedly cover +this discrepancy in full; nor are these numbers too large, though it is +impossible to more than approximate them. + +Suggestive as these figures are, they are still more so when we come to +their apportionment to States. They become then a history of the +progress of trades, and women's share in them; and a glance enables one +to determine the proportion employed in each. In the table which +follows, industries are condensed under a general head, no mention +being made of the many subdivisions, each ranking as a trade, but going +to make up the business as a whole. It is the result of statistics taken +in fifty of the principal cities, and includes only those industries in +which women have the largest share.[19] + +=================================================================== + | Total |Per Cent |Per Cent | + | Number. |of Males.| of |Children. + | | |Females. | +---------------------------+---------+---------+---------+--------- +Book-binding | 10,612 | 4,831 | 4,553 | 616 +Carpet-weaving | 20,371 | 4,960 | 4,207 | 833 +Men's Clothing | 160,813 | 4,801 | 5,037 | 159 +Women's Clothing | 25,192 | 1,030 | 8,833 | 137 +Cotton Goods | 185,472 | 3,457 | 4,914 | 1,629 +Men's Furnishing Goods | 11,174 | 1,140 | 8,560 | 300 +Hosiery and Knitting | 28,885 | 2,602 | 6,130 | 1,268 +Millinery and Lace | 25,687 | 1,120 | 8,637 | 243 +Shirts | 6,555 | 1,481 | 8,000 | 513 +Silk and Silk Goods | 31,337 | 2,992 | 5,232 | 1,776 +Straw Goods | 10,948 | 2,991 | 6,850 | 154 +Tobacco | 32,756 | 4,544 | 3,290 | 2,166 +Umbrellas and Canes | 3,608 | 4,169 | 5,152 | 679 +Woollen Goods | 86,504 | 54,544 | 3,395 | 1,174 +Worsted Goods | 18,800 | 5,431 | 5,038 | 1,540 +=================================================================== + +In obtaining these averages, it was found necessary to equalize the +returns of Pittsburg and Philadelphia, the former having but 4.55 per +cent of women workers, while Philadelphia had 31. This resulted from the +fact that the industries of Philadelphia are the manufacturing of +textiles and other goods, which employ women chiefly; while Pittsburg +has principally iron and steel mills. New York was found to have 31 per +cent of women workers; Lowell, Mass., had 47.42, and Manchester, N.H., +53; Pittsburg and Wilmington, Del., having the lowest percentage. + +The gain of women in trades over the census of 1870 was sixty-four per +cent, the total percentage of women workers for the whole country being +forty-nine. The ten years just ended show a still larger percentage; and +many of the trades which a decade since still hesitated to admit women, +are now open, those regarded as most peculiarly the province of men +having received many feminine recruits. These isolated or scattered +instances hardly belong here, and are mentioned simply as indications of +the general trend. Wise or unwise, experiment is the order of the day, +its principal service in many cases being to test untried powers, and +break down barriers, built up often by mere tradition, and not again to +rise till women themselves decide when and where. + +Taking States in their alphabetical order, the census of 1880 gives the +number of working-women for each as follows:[20]-- + +Alabama, 124,056. +Arizona, 471. +Arkansas, 30,616. +California, 28,200. +Colorado, 4,779. +Connecticut, 48,670. +Dakota, 2,851. +Delaware, 7,928. +District of Columbia, 19,658. +Florida, 17,781. +Georgia, 152,322. +Idaho, 291. +Illinois, 106,101. +Indiana, 51,422. +Iowa, 44,845. +Kansas, 54,422. +Louisiana, 95,052. +Maine, 33,528. +Massachusetts, 174,183. +Michigan, 55,013. +Minnesota, 25,077. +Mississippi, 110,416. +Missouri, 62,943. +Montana, 507. +Nebraska, 10,455. +Nevada, 403. +New Hampshire, 30,128. +New Jersey, 66,776. +New Mexico, 2,262. +New York, 360,381. +North Carolina, 86,976. +Ohio, 112,639. +Oregon, 2,779. +Pennsylvania, 216,980. +Rhode Island, 29,859. +South Carolina, 120,087. +Tennessee, 56,408. +Texas, 58,943. +Utah, 2,877. +Vermont, 16,167. +Washington Territory, 1,060. +West Virginia, 11,508. +Wisconsin, 46,395. +Wyoming, 464. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[17] Remarks on Tables of Occupations, Ninth Census of the United +States, Population and Social Statistics, p. 663. + +[18] June, 1893. + +[19] The table is copied with minute care from that given in the last +census; and while it shows one or two deficiencies, the writer is in no +sense responsible for them, its accuracy, as a whole, not being affected +by the slight discrepancy referred to. + +[20] The tables in this department of the census for 1890 are not yet +ready for the public; but the department states that the increase in +women wage-earners averages about ten per cent. + + + + +V. + +LABOR BUREAUS AND THEIR WORK IN RELATION TO WOMEN. + + +The difficulties encountered by the enumerators of the United States +Census, and the growing conviction that much more minute and organized +effort must be given if the real status of women workers was to be +obtained, had already been matter of grave discussion. The labor +question pressed upon all who looked below the surface of affairs; and +very shortly after the census of 1860 a proposition was made in Boston +to establish there a formal bureau of labor, whose business should be to +fill in all the blanks that in the general work were passed over. + +Many facts, all pointing to the necessity of some such organization, lay +before the men who pondered the matter,--factory abuses of many orders, +the startling increase of pauperism and crime, with other causes which +can find small space here. With difficulty consent was obtained to +establish a bureau which should inquire into the causes of all this; and +the first report was given to the public in 1870. It was descriptive +rather than statistical, and necessarily so. Methods were still a matter +of question and experiment. The public had small interest in the +project, and it was essential to outline, not only the work to be done, +but the reasons for its need. + +Naturally, then, the volume touched upon many abuses,--children in +factories, and the factory system as a whole; the homes of workers, and +their needs in sanitary and other directions; and toward the end a few +pages of special comment on the hard lives of working-women as a whole. + +The report for 1871 followed the same lines, giving more detail to each. +That for 1872 took up various phases of women's work,[21] with some of +the general conditions then existing. For the following year elaborate +tables of the cost of living were given, and are invaluable as matters +of reference; and in 1874 came a no less important contribution to +social science in the report on the "Homes of Working-People." Those of +working-women were of course included, but there was still no +description of many of the conditions known to hedge them about. Each +inquiry, however, turned attention more and more in this direction, and +emphasized the need of some work given exclusively to women workers. + +In 1875 attention was directed to the health of working-women, and a +portion of the report was devoted to the special effects of certain +forms of employment upon the health of women,[22] the education of +children, the conditions of families, etc. That for 1876 discussed the +question of wives' earnings, and gave tables of what proportion they +made; and that for 1877 took up "Pauperism and Crime," in the growing +amount of which it was claimed by many that the worker had large share. + +In 1878 large space was given to education and the work of the young, +for whom the half-time system was urged. The conjugal condition of wives +and mothers was also considered, and the bearing of their work upon the +home. The financial distress of the period had affected wages, and the +report for 1879 considered the effect of this, with the condition of +the "unemployed," the tramp question, and other phases of the problem. +With 1880 and the ending of the first decade of work in this direction +came a fuller report on the social life of workingmen and the divorces +in Massachusetts; 1881 made a plea for uniform hours, and 1882 was +devoted to wages, prices, and profits, and further details of the life +of operatives within their homes; and 1883 found reason again to go over +the question of wages and prices. + +I have given this detail because, when one views the work of the bureau +as a whole, it will be seen that each year formed one step toward the +final result, which has been of most vital bearing upon all since +accomplished in the same direction for women. Until the appearance of +the report for 1884, on the "Working-Girls of Boston," there had been no +absolute and authoritative knowledge as to their lives, their earnings, +and their status as a whole. Their numbers were equally unknown, nor was +there interest in their condition, save here and there among special +students of social science. On the other hand there was a popular +impression that the ranks of prostitution were recruited from the +manufactory, and that a certain stigma necessarily rested upon the +factory-worker and indeed upon working-girls as a class. + +Six divisions had been found essential to the thorough handling of the +subject; and these divisions have formed the basis of all work since +done in the same lines, whether in State bureaus or in that of the +United States, soon to find mention here. It was under the direction of +Colonel Carroll D. Wright that the Massachusetts Bureau did its careful +and scientific work; and he represents the most valuable labor in this +direction that the country has had, deserving to rank in this matter, as +Tench Coxe still does in the manufacturing system, as the "Father" of +the labor-bureau system. + +The six divisions settled upon as essential to any general system of +reports were as follows:-- + + 1. Social Condition. + 2. Occupations, Places in which Employed. + 3. Hours of Labor, Time Lost, etc. + 4. Physical and Sanitary Condition. + 5. Economic Condition. + 6. Moral Condition. + +The Tenth Census of the United States gave the number of women employed +in the city of Boston as 38,881, 20,000 of whom were in occupations +other than domestic service. Each year, as we have already seen, had +touched more and more nearly upon the facts bound up in their lives, but +it had become necessary to determine with an accuracy that could not be +brought in question precisely the facts given under the six headings. To +the surprise of the special agents detailed for this work, who had +anticipated disagreeables of every order, the girls themselves took the +liveliest interest in the matter, answered questions freely, and gave +every facility for the fullest searching into each phase involved. +American girls were found to form but 22.3 per cent of the whole number +of working-women in Massachusetts, of whom but 58.4 per cent had been +born in that State. + +The results reached in this report may be regarded as a summary, not +only of conditions for Boston, but for all the large manufacturing towns +of New England, later inquiry justifying this conclusion. + +The average age of working-girls was found to be 24.81 years, and the +average at which they began work, 16.81; the average time actually at +work, 7.49 years, and the average number of occupations followed 178, +the time spent in each being 4.43 years. Of the whole, 85 per cent were +found to do their own housework and sewing, either wholly or in part. + +But 22 per cent were allowed any vacation, and but 3.9 per cent received +pay during that time, the average vacation being 1.87 weeks. A little +over 26 per cent worked the full year without loss of time, while an +average of 12.32 weeks was lost by 73 per cent. The average time worked +by all during the year was 42.95 weeks. In personal service 26.5 per +cent worked more than ten hours a day; in trade, 19.5 per cent were so +employed, and in manufactures 5.6 per cent. In all occupations 8.9 per +cent worked more than ten hours a day, and 8.6 per cent more than sixty +hours a week. + +In the matter of health 76.2 per cent of the whole number employed were +in good health. + +The average weekly earnings for the average time employed, 42.95 weeks, +was $6.01, and the average weekly earnings of all the working-girls of +Boston for a whole year were $4.91. The average weekly income, +including earnings, assistance, and income from extra work done by many, +was $5.17 a year. + +The average yearly income from all sources was $269.70, and the average +yearly expenses for positive needs $261.30, leaving but $7.77, on the +average, as a margin for books, amusements, etc. Those making savings +are 11 per cent of the whole, their average savings being $72.15 per +year. A few run in debt, the average debt being $36.60 for the less than +3 per cent incurring debt. + +Of the total average yearly expenses, these percentages being based upon +the law laid down by Dr. Engels of Prussia, as to percentage of expenses +belonging to subsistence, 63 per cent must be expended for food and +lodging, and 25 per cent for clothing,--a total of 88 per cent of total +expenses for subsistence and clothing, leaving but 12 per cent of total +expense to be distributed to the other needs of living. + +These are, briefly summed up, the results of the investigation, in which +the single workers constituted 88.9 of the whole, and the married but 6 +per cent, widows making up the number. It is impossible in these limits +to give further detail on these points, all readers being referred to +the report itself. + +The same questions that had first sought answer in New England were even +more pressing in New York. As in most subjects of deep popular or +scientific importance, the sense of need for more data by which to judge +seemed in the air; and already the Labor Bureau of the State of New +York, under the efficient guidance of Mr. Charles F. Peck, had begun a +course of inquiries of the same nature. For years, beginning with the +New York "Tribune," in the days when Margaret Fuller worked for it and +touched at times upon social questions,--always in the mind of Horace +Greeley, its founder,--there had been periodical stirs of feeling in +behalf of sewing-women. It was known that the enormous influx of foreign +labor naturally massed at this point, more than could ever be possible +elsewhere, had brought with it evils suspected, but still not yet +defined in any sense to be trusted. Indications on the surface were +seriously bad, but actual investigation had never tested their nature or +degree. The report of the bureau for 1885, which was given to the +public in 1886, met with a degree of interest and study not usually +accorded these volumes, and roused public feeling to an unexpected +extent. + +Mr. Peck brought to the work much the same order of interest that had +marked that of Colonel Wright, and wrote in his introduction to the +report the summary of the situation for New York City:-- + + "By reason of its immense population, its numerous and extensive + manufactures, its wealth, its poverty, and general cosmopolitan + character, New York City presents a field for investigation into + the subject of 'Working-Women, their Trades, Wages, Home and Social + Conditions,' unequalled by any other centre of population in + America. It opens up a wider and more diversified field for + inquiry, study, and classification of the various industries in + which women seek employment, than can be found even in European + cities, with but few if any exceptions. It is for such reasons that + the inquiry of the bureau into this special subject has been + largely confined to the city named." + +Two hundred and forty-seven trades are given in this report, in which +some two hundred thousand women were found to be engaged, this being +exclusive of domestic service. The divisions of the subject were +substantially those adopted by the Massachusetts Bureau; but the numbers +and complexity of conditions made the inquiry far more difficult. Its +results and their bearings will find place later on. It is sufficient +now to say that the two may be regarded as summarizing all phases of +work for women, and as an index to the difficulties at all other points +in the country. + +The Bureau of Labor for Connecticut sent out its first report in the +same year (1885), and included investigations and statistics in the same +lines, though, for reasons specified, in much more limited degree. That +for 1886 for the same State took up in detail some points in regard to +the work of both women and children, which, for want of both time and +space, had been omitted in the first, their returns coinciding in all +important particulars with those of the other bureaus. + +In 1886 the California Bureau of Labor touched the same points, but only +incidentally, in its general analysis of the labor question. In the +following year, however, the report covering the years 1887 and 1888 +took up the question under the same aspects as those handled in the +special reports on this topic, and gave full treatment of the wages, +lives, and general conditions for working-women. It included, also, the +facts, so far as they could be ascertained, of the nature, wages, and +conditions of domestic service in California,--the first attempt at +treating this difficult subject with any accuracy. The apprentice +system, and an important chapter on manual training and its bearings +make this report one of the most valuable, from the social point of +view, that has been given, though where all are invaluable it is hard to +characterize one above another. + +Mr. Tobin, for California, and Mr. Hutchins, for Iowa, seemed moved at +the same time in much the same way,--the Iowa report for 1887 treating +the many questions involved with that largeness which has thus far +distinguished work in this direction. Kansas, in the report for 1888, +gave general conditions, women being treated incidentally; and +Minnesota, in the report for the years 1887 and 1888, gave a chapter on +working-women, wages, etc. + +Colorado followed, giving in the report for 1887 and 1888, under the +management of Commissioner Rice, a chapter on women wage-workers, in +which space is given to certified complaints of the women themselves, as +to what they consider the disabilities of their special trades. Domestic +service, with some of its abuses, was also considered, and is of much +value. These reports sum up the work so far done in the West, where +labor bureaus are of recent growth. The spirit of inquiry is, however, +equally alive; and each year will see minuter detail and a deeper +scientific spirit. + +Maine, in the report for 1888, took up many questions of general +interest, with their incidental bearings on the work of women; and in +1889 came another report from Kansas, in which the labor commissioner, +Mr. Frank Betton, gave large space to an investigation conducted under +many difficulties, but covering the ground very fully. A very full +report from Michigan, under Commissioner Henry A. Robinson, was issued +in 1892, nearly two hundred pages being given to an exhaustive +examination into the conditions of women wage-earners in the State, its +methods owing much to the work which had preceded it. + +With this background of admirable work always, no matter what might be +the limitations, making each report a little broader in purpose and +minuter in detail, the way was plain for something even more +comprehensive. This was furnished by the Bureau of Labor of the United +States, which had changed its name, and become, in June, 1887, the +Department of Labor, a part of the Department of the Interior. This +report--the fourth from the bureau, and issued in 1888--was entitled +"Working-Women in Large Cities," and included investigations made in +twenty-two cities, from Boston to San Francisco and San Jose. + +All that long experience had demonstrated as most important in such work +was brought to bear. The investigation covered manual labor in cities, +excluding textile industries, save incidentally as these had already +been treated, as well as domestic service. Textile factories are usually +outside of large cities, and it was the object to discover the +opportunities of employment in the way of manual labor in cities +themselves. + +Three hundred and forty-three distinct industries showed themselves, and +others were found which were not included, it being safe to say that +some four hundred may be considered open to women. As before stated, +many are simply subdivisions, made by the constantly increasing +complexity of machinery. The agents of the department carried their work +into the lowest and worst places in the cities named, because in such +places are to be found women who are struggling for a livelihood in most +respectable callings,--living in them as a matter of necessity, since +they cannot afford to live otherwise, but leaving them whenever wages +are sufficient to admit of change. + +It is this report which forms the summary of all the work that has +preceded it, and that gives the truest exponent of all present +conditions. It is only necessary to add to it the summaries of the State +reports at other points, to see the aspect of the question as a whole; +and thus we are ready to consider by its aid the general rates of wages +and of the status of the trades of every nature in which women are now +engaged. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[21] Report for 1872, pp. 59-108. + +[22] Report for 1875, pp. 67-112. + + + + +VI. + +PRESENT WAGE-RATES IN THE UNITED STATES. + + +Under this heading it is proposed to include, not only the trades just +specified as coming under the investigations recorded in "Working-Women +in Large Cities," but also such data as can be gleaned from all the +labor reports which have given any attention to this phase of the labor +question. Naturally, then, we turn to the report of the Massachusetts +Bureau for 1881, the first statement of these points, and compare it +with the results obtained in the last report from Washington, as well as +with the returns from the various States where investigation of the +question has been made. + +Exceptionally favorable conditions would seem to belong to the year in +which the report for 1884 appeared. The financial distress of 1877, with +its results, had passed. New industries of many orders had opened up for +women, and trade in all its forms called for workers and gave almost +constant employ, save in the few occupations which have a distinct +season, and oblige those engaged in them to divide their time between +two if a living is assured. + +A distinction must at once be made in the definition of earnings. In +speaking of them, there are necessarily three designations,--wages, +earnings, and income. Wages represent the actual pay per week at the +time employed, with no reference to the number of weeks' employment +during the year. Earnings are the total receipts for any year from +wages. Thus, for example, a girl is paid $5 a week wages, and works +forty weeks of her year. Her earnings would then be for the year $200, +though her wages of $5 per week would indicate that she earned $260 a +year; while in fact her average weekly earnings would be for the whole +year $3.84. Income is her total receipts for the year from all sources: +wages, extra work, help from friends or from investments; in fact, any +receipts from which expenses can be paid. + +In preparing the tables of these reports, the highest, the lowest, the +average, and the general average were brought into a final comparison. +Often but one wage is given, and it then becomes naturally both highest +and lowest; but all figures are made to indicate an entire occupation or +branch of industry, and not a few high or low paid employees in that +branch. It is only with the final comparison that we are able to deal, +the reader being referred to the reports themselves for the invaluable +details given at full length and including many hundred pages. + +The divisions of occupations are the same as those of the tenth census, +and the tables are made on the same system. To determine the general +conditions for the twenty thousand at work, it was necessary to have +accurate detail as to one thousand; and, in fact, 1,032 were +interviewed. Directly after the work in this direction had ended, and +before the report was ready for publication, a general reduction of ten +per cent in wages took place, and this must be kept in mind in dealing +with the returns recorded. In this, recapitulation is given in full, +and, as will be seen, includes all occupations open to women. + + RECAPITULATION. +======================================================================== + | BOSTON. |OTHER PARTS OF MASS.| OTHER STATES. + |----------------+--------------------+---------------- + | Number|Average | Number | Average | Number| Average + | | Weekly | | Weekly | | Weekly + | |Earnings| | Earnings | |Earnings + |-------+--------+---------+----------+-------+-------- +Government and | | | | | | +professional | 7 | $5 57 | 5 | $6 40 | 10 | $6 28 +Domestic and | | | | | | +personal office | 178 | 5 94 | 27 | 5 33 | 21 | 4 69 +Trade and | | | | | | +transportation | 221 | 5 00 | 4 | 9 25 | 4 | 7 25 +Manufactures and | | | | | | +mechanical | | | | | | +industries | 1,293 | 6 22 | 72 | 7 06 | 49 | 7 58 + |-------+--------+---------+----------+-------+-------- +All occupations | 1,699 | $6 03 | 108 | $6 68 | 84 | $6 69 +======================================================================== + +The commissioners of the New York State Bureau of Labor followed a +slightly different method. The returns are no less minute, but are given +under the heading of each trade, two hundred and forty-seven of which +were investigated. The wages of workwomen for the entire year run from +$3.50 to $4 a week, the general average not being given, though later +returns make it $5.85. This is, however, for skilled labor; and as a +vast proportion of women workers in New York City are engaged in sewing, +the poorest paid of all industries, we must accept the first figures as +nearer the truth. An expert on shirts receives as high as $12 a week, +in some cases $15; but in slop work, and under the sweating-system, +wages fall to $2.50 or $3 per week, and at times less. Mr. Peck found +cloakmakers working on the most expensive and perfectly finished +garments for 40 cents a day, a full day's pay being from 50 to 60 +cents.[23] In other cases a day's work brought in but 25 cents, and +seventeen overalls of blue denim gave a return of 75 cents. Two and a +half cents each is paid for the making of boys' gingham waists, with +trimming on neck and sleeves, including the button-holes; and the women +who made these sat sixteen hours at the sewing-machine, with a result of +25 cents.[24] + +This was for irregular work. Women employed on clothing in general, +working for reputable firms, receive from $4.50 to $6 per week. In the +tobacco manufacture, in which great numbers are employed, $9 is the +lowest actual earnings, and $20 the highest per week. In cigarettes, the +pay ranges from $4 to $15 per week. In dry-goods, with ten divisions of +employment,--cashiers, bundle-girls, saleswomen, floor-walkers, +seamstresses, cloakmakers, cash-girls, stock-girls, milliners, and +sewing-girls,--the lowest sum per week is $1.50, paid to cash-girls, and +the highest paid to floor-walkers, $16. On the east side of the city, +shop girls receive often as low as $3 per week; in a few cases +specified, $2.50 per week.[25] + +In laundry-work, which includes several divisions, wages weekly range +from $7.50 to $10, though ironers of special excellence sometimes make +from $12 to $15 per week. In millinery the wages are from $6 to $7 per +week. In preserving and fruit-canning wages are from $3.50 to $10, the +average worker earning about $5 per week. Mr. Peck states that in +fashion trades the two distinct seasons bring the year's earnings to +about six months. "Learners" in the trades coming under this head +receive $1.50 per week. Saleswomen suffer also from season trade, as it +necessitates reduction of force. The better class of workers receive +from $8 to $15 per week, while heads of departments range from $25 to +$50, or even higher, for exceptional merit. These cases are of the +rarest, however, the wage as an average falling below that of Boston. + +But three State reports cover the same dates as these already quoted +(1885 and 1886),--Connecticut, New Jersey, and California, the former +being for 1885. In this, women's wages are given incidentally in general +tables, and must be disentangled to find any average. In artificial +flowers the highest wage is given as $7, and the lowest $3, the average +being $5. In blankets and woollen goods the highest is $12.50 and the +lowest $6, an average of $9 per week. In factory work of all orders, +wages range from $6 to $9.75 per week, the average paid to women and +girls being $7.50 per week. In clothing, including underwear, wages are +from $3 to $15 per week, and the average annual income of women in these +trades is given as $300 per year. In cloakmaking the lowest wage is $3, +the highest $9, and the average $7.50. The average wage for San +Francisco is given as $6.95, and that for the whole State is about $6. +The Connecticut report for 1885 gives simply the yearly wage in various +trades. Reason for this is found in the fact that it was the first, and +could thus deal with the subject only tentatively. Clothing is given as +producing for women a yearly average of $229, and shirts $237. Factory +work gave $207, paper boxes $227, and woollen goods $245. + +In the report for 1886, the lowest average wage is reported as found in +the making of wearing apparel; but the average for the State was found +to be a trifle over $6.50 per week. + +The report from New Jersey makes the lowest wages $3 per week, and the +highest $10, the average being $5. This report covers ground more fully +and in more varied directions than any one of the same period, though +there is only incidental reference to the work of women as a whole, the +returns being given in the general tables of wages. Wages and the cost +of living are compared, and the chapter under this head is one of the +most valuable in the summary of reports as a whole. The report for 1886 +gives the same general average of wages for the State, but adds an +exhaustive treatment of "Earnings, Cost of Living, and Prices." + +Maine sent out its first annual report in 1887, and gives the wages of +women workers as $3.58 for the lowest, and $15.20 for the highest, the +annual earnings ranging from $104 to $520. The report from the same +State for 1889 takes up the subject of working-women in detail, giving +their home or boarding conditions, sanitary conditions, their own +remarks on trades, wages, etc., and the aspect of their labor as a +whole. The average wage remains the same. + +Rhode Island, in its Third Annual Report for 1889, under the direction +of Commissioner Almon K. Goodwin, gives the average wage for the State +as $5.87, and devotes the bulk of its space to working-women, with full +returns from the entire State. + +For the same year California, by its labor commissioner, Mr. John J. +Tobin, gives an equally exhaustive statement of the conditions of women +wage-earners in that State. The lowest weekly wage given is $5, and the +highest $11. Plain cooks receive from $25 to $40 a month with board and +lodging, and domestic servants from $15 to $25 with board. In +cloak-making the lowest wage is $3, and the highest $7.50; and in +shirt-making the lowest is $2.50, and the highest $6. General clothing +and underwear range from $4.50 to $6, and other trades average a trifle +higher wage than in New England. The chapter on domestic service is +suggestive and important, and the whole treatment makes the report a +necessity to all who would understand the situation in detail. This, +however, is so true of all that have touched upon the subject that it +appears invidious to single out any one alone. They must be taken +together. With each year the scientific value of each increases, and +there appears to be distinct emulation among the commissioners as to +which shall embody the most in the returns made and the general +treatment of the whole. + +The first report from Colorado, issued in 1888, Mr. James Rice +commissioner, devotes a chapter to women wage-earners, with an +additional one on domestic service and its drawbacks. The average wage +for the State is given as $6; and the commissioner states that +notwithstanding the general impression that higher wages are paid in +Colorado than at any other point save California, actual returns show +that the average sums in several occupations are less than that paid to +persons similarly employed in cities along the Atlantic seaboard. + +Kansas, in its fifth annual report issued in 1889, gives a section to +working-women. The commissioner, Mr. Frank Betton, considers the returns +imperfect, great difficulty having been experienced in securing them. +The average weekly wage is given as $5.17. Expenses are carefully +analyzed, and there is a report of the remarks of employers, as well as +from a number of those employed. + +In the report from Iowa for 1887, Commissioner Hutchins laments that so +few women have been willing to fill out blanks of returns. The wage +returns given range from $3.75 to $9. The report for 1889 makes mention +of continued difficulties in securing returns, and gives the annual +earnings of women as from $100 to $440. The tables include cost of +living and many other essential particulars. + +Wisconsin, in the report for 1884, has a chapter on working-girls. It +gives the average weekly income in personal services as $5.25; in +trade, $4.18; in manufactures, $5.22, and the general average for the +year as $5.17. + +Minnesota, whose first report, under the supervision of Commissioner +John Lamb, appeared in 1888 for the years 1887 and 1888, found little or +no room for statistics, but included a chapter on working-women, with a +few admirable tables of age, nativity, home and working conditions, etc. +Minute inquiry was made as to cost of living, clothing, etc.; and the +results form a chapter of painful interest, that on domestic service +being equally suggestive. Clothing, as usual, represents the lowest +average wage, $3.66 per week, the highest being $8.50, and the general +average a trifle over $6. + +Michigan, in 1890, under its labor commissioner, Mr. Henry A. Robinson, +added to the list one of the most thorough studies yet made of general +conditions. The agents of the bureau, trained for the work, made +personal visits to working-women and girls to the number of 13,436, this +representing one hundred and thirty-seven distinct industries and three +hundred and seventy-eight occupations. The blanks prepared for filling +out contained one hundred and twenty-nine questions, classified as +follows: Social, 28; industrial, 12; hours of labor, 14; economic, 54; +sanitary, 21, with seven others as to dress, societies, church +attendance, with remarks and suggestions from the workers themselves. As +usual, in such cases, employers here and there objected to any +investigation, fearing labor organizations were at the bottom of it; but +the majority allowed free examination. The report is very full, and +gives a clear and full view of the individual lives of this body of +women workers. The average wage proved to be $4.81 per week, the average +income for the year being $216.45. The average income of teachers and +those in public positions was $457.27. + +This is the showing, State by State, so far as bureaus have reported. +Many States have made no move in this direction; but interest is now +thoroughly aroused, and the subject is likely to find treatment in all, +this depending somewhat, however, on the character of the State +industries and the numbers at work in each. Manufacturing necessarily +brings with it conditions that in the end compel inquiry; and for most +of the Southern States such industries are still new, while the West +has not yet found the same occasion as the East for full knowledge of +the problems involved in woman's work and wages. + +We come now to the most elaborate and far-reaching inquiry yet +made,--the work of the United States Bureau of Labor under Commissioner +Wright, entitled "Working-Women in Large Cities." Twenty-two of these +are reported upon after one of the most rigorous examinations ever +undertaken; and the average wage of each tallies with the rates given in +the States to which they belong. Taken alphabetically, the list is as +follows:-- + + AVERAGE WEEKLY EARNINGS, BY CITIES. + + Atlanta $4.95 | New Orleans $4.31 + Baltimore 4.18 | New York 5.85 + Boston 5.64 | Philadelphia 5.34 + Brooklyn 5.76 | Providence 5.51 + Buffalo 4.27 | Richmond 3.83 + Charleston, S.C. 4.22 | St. Louis 5.19 + Chicago 5.74 | St. Paul 6.62 + Cincinnati 4.50 | San Francisco 6.91 + Cleveland 4.63 | San Jose 6.11 + Indianapolis 4.57 | Savannah 4.90 + Louisville 4.51 | ---- + Newark 5.20 | All Cities 5.24 + +In addition to these figures, it seems well to give the average yearly +earnings of women in some of the most profitable industries, those +being chosen which are seldom affected by "seasons":-- + +Artificial flowers, $277.53; awnings and tents, $276.46; bookbinding, +$271.31; boots and shoes, $286.60; candy, $213.59; carpets, $298.53; +cigar boxes, $267.36; cigar factory, $294.66; cigarette factory, +$266.12; cloak factory, $291.76; clothing factory, $248.36; +cotton-mills, $228.32; dressmaking, $278.37; dry-goods stores, $368.84; +jewelry factory, $263.80; men's furnishing-goods factory, $232.24; +millinery, $345.95; paper-box factory, $240.47; plug-tobacco factory, +$235.67; printing-office, $300; skirt factory, $265.40; smoking-tobacco +factory, $238.70. + +These, so far as they have been collected and tabulated by the various +labor bureaus, are the returns for the United States as a whole. The +reports for the following years of 1891 and 1892 were expected to be far +more general, but this has not proved to be the case. + + AVERAGE WAGE PER STATE. + + Maine $5.50 + Massachusetts 6.68 + Connecticut 6.50 + Rhode Island 5.87 + New York 5.85 + New Jersey 5.00 + California 6.00 + Colorado 6.00 + Kansas 5.17 + Wisconsin 5.17 + Minnesota 6.00 + All cities 5.24 + +FOOTNOTES: + +[23] Third Annual Report of New York Bureau of Labor, p. 162. These are +Mr. Peck's figures; but the United States report gives the average for +skilled labor as $5.85 per week, and adds that the unskilled earns far +less. + +[24] Ibid. p. 165. + +[25] New York Bureau of Statistics of Labor, Third Annual Report, p. 27. + + + + +VII. + +GENERAL CONDITIONS FOR ENGLISH WORKERS. + + +So far as opportunity is concerned, it is the United States only that +offers a practically unlimited field to women workers, to whom some four +hundred trades and occupations are now open. Comparison with other +countries is, however, essential, if we would judge fairly of conditions +as a whole; and thus we turn first to that other English-speaking race, +and the English worker at home. At once we are faced with the +impossibility of gathering much more than surface indications, since in +no other country is there any counterpart to our admirable system of +investigation and tabulation, each year more and more systematic and +thorough. In spite of the fact that factory laws had their birth in +England, and that the whole system of child labor--the early horrors of +which find record in thousands of pages of special reports from +inspectors appointed by government--has been through their means +modified and improved, there are, even now, no sources of information as +to numbers at work or the characteristics of special industries. The +census must be the chief dependence; and here we find the enormous +proportions to which the employment of women has attained. + +In 1861 these returns gave for England and Wales 1,024,277 women at +work. Twenty years later the number had doubled, half a million being +found in London alone. This does not include all, since, as Mr. Charles +Booth notes in his recent "Labor and Life of the People," many employed +women do not return their employments. + +Mr. Booth's work is a purely private enterprise, assisted by devoted +co-workers, and by trained experts employed at his own expense. For the +final estimate must be added general census returns, and the recent +reports on the sweating-system in London and other English cities. + +Beginning with factory operatives and their interests, nothing is easier +than to follow the course of legislation on their behalf. The "Life of +Lord Shaftesbury" is, in itself, the history of the movement for the +protection of women and children,--a movement begun early in the present +century, and made imperative by the hideous disclosures of oppression +and outrage, not only among factory operatives, but the women and +children in mining and other industries. Active as were his efforts and +those of his colleagues, it is only within a generation that the fruit +of their labor is plainly seen. As late as 1844, at the time Engel's +notable book on "The Condition of the Working-Class in England" +appeared, the labor of children of four and five years was still +permitted; and women and children alike worked in mines, in brickyards, +and other exposed and dangerous employments for the merest pittance. The +pages of Engel's book swarm with incidents of individual and class +misery; and while he admits fully, in the appendix prepared in 1886, +that many of the evils enumerated have disappeared, he adds that for the +mass of workers "the state of misery and insecurity in which they live +now is as low as ever, perhaps lower." + +Year by year, in spite of constant agitation and the unceasing effort of +Lord Shaftesbury to alter the worst abuses, these evils remained, and +faced the examiner into social problems, slight ameliorations here and +there serving chiefly to throw into darker relief the misery of the +situation. Not only the philanthropist but officials joined hands; and +in the proceedings of the British Association for the Advancement of +Science, each year added to the number and importance of the protests +against an iniquitous system. + +Chief among these protests ranked that against the overwork of pregnant +mothers, through which, as one of the most able opponents of existing +evils, W. Stanley Jevons, wrote, "infinite, irreparable wrong is done to +helpless children," adding that the appalling infant mortality of the +manufacturing districts attracted far less attention and interest in the +public mind than the death of a single murderer. At nearly the same time +Mr. F.W. Lowndes gave the fruit of long research in a paper read before +the British Association for the Advancement of Science, entitled "The +Destruction of Infancy;"[26] and this was supplemented by testimony +from experts, the Statistical Society adding weighty testimony to the +same effect.[27] + +From these and other official testimony it was found that in nineteen +manufacturing towns,[28] out of 1,023,896 children [Forty-first Report +of the Registrar-General, p. 36] born, 82,259 died in infancy. The rate +of mortality varied from 59.4 in Portsmouth through an ascending scale, +being in London 78.6 and in Liverpool the almost incredible proportion +of 103.6 per thousand. In a rural country infant mortality does not +exceed from thirty-five to forty per thousand. The Report of the Select +Committee on the Protection of Infant Life was filled with details so +horrible that only the sworn testimony of experts made them credited at +all.[29] + +Dr. Hunter's report on rural mortality shows that when mothers are +employed in what are known as "field gangs" for out-of-door work, +leaving their children in the charge of old women too weak for such +labor as their own, that infants died like sheep. Godfrey's Cordial was +the chief engine of destruction; the corps of inspectors who reported to +the Government finding infants in all stages of prostration, from the +overdoses of the popular specific warranted to render any attention from +nurse or mother quite unnecessary. + +As to the direct effects of factory or out-door labor on pregnant +mothers, out of 10,000 births among factory mothers, there died from +1863-75 of children under one year of age, in Portsmouth 1,459, +Liverpool 2,189, London 1,591, and other towns with textile industries +1,940. Statistics taken in Germany and at other points all went to show +that in the matter of out-door labor at the harvest season, when all +women-workers are in the fields, the deaths of nursing infants were +three times as great as in the other nine months. + +For details and deduction from these facts the reader is referred to the +reports themselves. "I go so far," wrote Mr. Jevons, "as to advocate the +ultimate complete exclusion of mothers of children under the age of +three years from factories and workshops;" and his conviction voiced +that of every examiner into the situation as it stood at that time. + +The Factory and Workshop Act came as partial solution to the many +problems; and though regarded by the working-class as a mass of +arbitrary restrictions whose usefulness they denied and in whose +benefits they had no faith, it has actually proved the Great +Charter of the working-classes. There are points still to be +altered,--modifications made necessary by the constant change in methods +of production, as well as in the enlarging sense of the ethical +principles involved. But our own legislation is still far behind it at +many points, and its work is done efficiently and thoroughly. Laws had +been made, one by one, fifteen standing on the Statute Books in 1878, +when all were abrogated, their essential features being codified in the +Act as it stands to-day,--a genuine industrial code in one hundred and +seven sections. + +Up to this date violation of its provisions had been incessant; but +determined enforcement brought about a uniform working day, protection +of dangerous machinery, proper ventilation, improved sanitary +conditions, an interdict on Sunday labor, and many other reforms in +administration. Fourteen years have seen next to no change in the Act, +and the condition of women and child workers in factories and workshops +has come to be regarded as the best that modern systems of production +admit. These workers, whose numbers now mount to hundreds of thousands, +are a class apart, and for them legislation has accomplished all that +legislation seems able to do in alleviating social miseries. Content +with the results achieved, need of further effort in other directions +failed of recognition, and apathy became the general condition. + +It was during this season of repose that the public mind received first +one shock and then another. "The Bitter Cry of Outcast London" appalled +all who read; and leaf by leaf the new book of revelations disclosed +always deeper depths of misery and want among all workers with the +needle,--from the days of the fig-leaf the symbol of grinding toil and +often hopeless misery. + +Not alone from professional agitators, so called, but from +philanthropists of every order, came the cry for help. The Factory and +Workshop Act had not touched home labor. The sweating-system, born of +modern conditions, had risen unsuspected, and ran riot, not only in East +London, but even in back alleys of the sacred west, and in the swarming +southwest region beyond London Bridge. The London "Lancet," the most +authoritative medical journal of the world, conservative as it has +always been, has at last found that it must join hands with socialist +and anarchist, "scientific" or otherwise, with philanthropists of every +order, against the new evil and its horrors. Rich and poor alike were +involved. The virus of the deadly conditions under which the garments +took shape was implanted in every stitch that held them together, and +transferred itself to the wearer. Not only from London, but from every +city of England, came the same cry; and the public faced suddenly an +abyss of misery whose existence had been unknown and unsuspected, and +the causes of which seemed inexplicable. + +For many months of the year just ended (1892) parliamentary +investigation has gone on. Report after report has been made to its +committees; and as testimony from accredited sources poured in, +incidentally a flood of light has been let in upon many forms of work +outside the clothing-manufacturer. To-day, in four huge volumes of some +thousand pages each, one may read the testimony, heart-sickening in +every detail,--a noted French political economist, the Comte +d'Haussonville, describing it, in a recent article in "La Revue des deux +Mondes" as "The Martyrology of English Industries." + +In such conditions inspection is inoperative. An army of inspectors +would not suffice where every house represents from one to a dozen +workshops under its roof, in each of which sanitary conditions are +defied, and the working day made more often fourteen and sixteen hours +than twelve. Even for this day a starvation wage is the rule; the +sewing-machine operative, for example, while earning a wage of fifteen +or eighteen pence, furnishing her own thread and being forced to pay +rental on the machine. + +A portion of a wage table is given here as illustrative of rates, and +used as a reference table before the preparation of Mr. Booth's book, +which gives much the same figures:-- + + Making paper bags, 4-1/2d. to 5-1/2d. per thousand; possible + earnings, 5s. to 6s. per week. + + Button-holes, 3d. a dozen; possible earnings, 8s. a week. + + Shirts, 2d. each, worker finding her own cotton; can get six done + between 8 A.M. and 11 P.M. + + Sack sewing, 6d. for twenty-five; 8d. to 1s. 6d. per hundred. + Possible earnings, 8s. per week. + + Pill-box making, 9s. for thirty-six gross; possible earnings, 8s. + per week. + + Shirt button-hole making, 1d. a dozen; can do three or four dozen a + day. + + Whip-making, 1s. a dozen; can do a dozen a day. + + Trousers finishing, 3d. to 5d. each, finding one's own cotton; can + do four a day. + + Shirt-finishing, 3d. to 4d. a dozen; possible earnings, 6s. a week. + +Outside of the cities, where the needle is almost the sole refuge of the +unskilled worker, every industry is invaded. A recent report as to +English nail and chain workers shows hours and general conditions to be +almost intolerable, while the wage averages eightpence a day. In the +mines, despite steady action concerning them, women are working by +hundreds for the same rate. In short, from every quarter comes in +repeated testimony that the majority of working Englishwomen are +struggling for a livelihood; that a pound a week is a fortune, and that +the majority live on a wage below subsistence point. + +The enormous influx of foreign population is partly responsible for +these conditions, but far less than is popularly supposed; since the +Jews, most often accused, are in many cases juster employers than the +Christians, and suffer from the same causes. For all alike, legislation +is powerless to reach certain ingrained evils, and the recent +sweating-commission ended its report with the words:-- + + "We express the firm hope that the faithful exposure of the evils + that we have been called upon to unveil, will have the effect of + leading capitalists to lend greater attention to the conditions + under which work is done, which furnishes the merchandise they + demand. When legislation has attained the limit beyond which it can + no longer be useful, the amelioration of the condition of workers + can result only from the increasing moral sense of those who employ + them." + +This conclusion, it may be added, is in full accord with that given in +the Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII., as well as with that of our most +serious workers at home; our own government examination into the +sweating-system, now embodied in a Congressional Report accessible to +all, being simply confirmation of every point made in that for England. +As a summary of many working conditions in London, I add part of a +report made by an indefatigable student of social conditions, Margaret +Harkness, associated now with Mr. Charles Booth, and as able an observer +as her cousin and co-worker, Miss Beatrice Potter, whose report on the +sweating-system makes part of Mr. Booth's first volume:[30]-- + + "I have, for the last six months, been attempting to find out + something about the hours and wages of girls who work at various + trades in the city. Had I known how difficult the task would be, I + should probably never have attempted it. Last time I heard of Mr. + Besant he was sitting in his office, overwhelmed with figures and + facts. He said then that he did not expect to publish anything + about the work of girls and women in the United Kingdom under a + year or eighteen months. I do not wonder at it. Apart from the + method of his inquiry, I know how exceedingly difficult it is to + arrive at the truth; the tact and patience it needs to make such + investigations. Employees and employers take very different views + of the same circumstances; one must listen to both, and then split + the difference. + + "There are at the present time absolutely no figures to go upon if + one wishes to learn something about the hours and wages of girls + who follow certain occupations in the city. The factory inspectors + (admirable men, but very much overworked) come, with the most naive + delight, to visit any person who has information to give about the + people over whose interests they are supposed to watch with + fatherly interest. Clergymen shake their heads, or refer one to + homes and charities. One has to find out the truth for one's self. + Both employers and employees must be visited. Even then one must + wait days and weeks to inspire them with confidence, for thus alone + can one obtain a thorough knowledge of things as they really are, + and arrive at facts unbiassed by prejudice. + + "So far I have found that there are, at least, two hundred trades + at which girls work in the city. Some employ hundreds of hands, and + some only fifty or sixty. Printers give the greatest amount of + work, perhaps; but there are at least two hundred other occupations + in which girls earn a living; namely, brush-makers, button-makers, + cigarette-makers, electric-light fitters, fur-workers, + India-rubber-stamp machinist, magic-lantern-slide makers, + perfumers, portmanteau-makers, spectacle-makers, + surgical-instrument makers, tie-makers, etc. These girls can be + roughly divided into two classes,--those who earn from 8s. to 14s., + and those who earn from 4s. to 8s. per week. Taking slack time into + consideration, it is, I think, safe to say that 10s. is the average + weekly wage of the first class, and 4s. 6d. that of the second + class. Their weekly wage often falls below this, and sometimes + rises above it. The hours are almost invariably from 8 A.M. to 7 + P.M., with one hour for dinner and a half-holiday on Saturday. I + know few cases in which such girls work less; a good many in which + over-time reaches to ten or eleven at night; a few in which + over-time means all night. There is little to choose between the + two classes. The second are allowed by their employers to wear old + clothes and boots; the first must make 'a genteel appearance.' + + "I often hear rich women say, 'Oh, working-girls cannot be very + poor; they wear such smart feathers.' If these women knew how the + girls have to stint in underclothing and food in order to make what + their employers call 'a genteel appearance,' I think they would + pass quite another verdict. I will give two typical cases: A girl + living just over Blackfriars Bridge, in one small room, for which + she pays 5s., earns 10s. a week in a printer's business. She works + from 8 A.M. to 6 P.M., then returns home to do all the washing, + cleaning, cooking, etc., that is necessary in a one-room + establishment. She has an invalid mother dependent on her efforts, + and is out-patient herself at one of the London hospitals. She was + sixteen last Christmas. Another girl, who lives in two cellars near + Lisson Grove, with father, mother, and six brothers and sisters, + earns 3s. 6d. a week in a well-known factory. She is seventeen + years old, but does not look more than ten or eleven. Every morning + she walks a mile to her work, arriving at eight o'clock; every + evening she walks a mile back, reaching home about seven o'clock. + If she arrives at the factory five minutes late, she is fined 7d. + If she stays away a whole day, she is 'drilled,'--that is, kept + without work a whole week. Her father has been out of employment + for six months; so her weekly 3s. 6d. goes into the family purse. + Her food consists of three slices of bread and butter, which she + takes to the factory for dinner; one slice of bread and butter and + some weak tea for supper and breakfast. These cases are not picked. + They are to be found scattered all over London. Many and many a + family is at the present time being kept by the labor of one or two + such girls, who can at the most earn a few shillings. When one + thinks what the life of a young girl is in happy families, all the + joyousness of which she is capable, until sorrow sets its seal on + her, one's heart aches for the sad lives of these girls in the + city. + + 'And still her voice comes ringing + Across the soft still air, + And still I hear her singing, + "Oh, life, thou art most fair!"' + + "A young girl is capable of feeling in one brief hour more intense + delight than a boy of her age experiences in a fortnight. Yet all + this joyousness is ruthlessly stamped upon by competition, and + thousands of girls in London have no enjoyment except to gaze at + monstrosities in penny gaffs, or to dance on dirty pavements; and + generally these poor things are too tired even to do that. It is + strange that the public take so little interest in these girls, + considering they must become mothers of future citizens. 'The youth + of a nation are the trustees of posterity.' What sort of daughters + are these girls with their pinched faces and stunted bodies likely + to give England? What will posterity say of the girl labor that now + goes on in the city? I have seen strong men weeping because they + have no bread to give their children; I know at the London docks + chains have been replaced by wooden barriers, because starving men + behind pressed so hard on starving men in front, that the latter + were nearly cut in two by the iron railings; I have watched a + contractor mauled when he had no work to give, and have myself been + nearly killed by a brick-bat that was hurled at a contractor's head + by a man whose family was starving: but I deliberately say of all + the victims of our present competitive system I pity these girls + the most. They are so fragile. Honest work is made for them almost + impossible; and if they slip, no one gives them a second chance, + they are kicked and spat upon by the public. I know that the + girl-labor question is but a portion of the larger labor question, + that nothing can be done for them at present; but I wish that they + were not the victims of the _laissez-faire_ policy in two ways + instead of one; I wish that their richer sisters were not so + terribly apathetic about them." + +For Scotland, industries, wages, and general conditions are much the +same as those of England. Factory life has been at many points improved, +and the superior thrift and education of the working-class shows in the +large amount of their savings. But Glasgow has faced conditions almost +as terrible as those given in "The Bitter Cry of Outcast London," with a +result not yet attained by the latter city, having destroyed hundreds of +foul tenements to make room for improved dwellings. + +For Ireland, though Irish linen, poplins, and woollens are the synonym +of excellence, the proportion of women workers in these industries is +comparatively small. In a few counties in the south Irish lace is made, +but the women are chiefly agricultural laborers. Thanks to the efforts +of Parnell, in 1885, there was formed "The Association for the Promotion +of Irish Industries," then chiefly destroyed by the "Act of Union" which +permitted England to levy protective tariffs on all Irish manufactures. +Statistics on these points are hidden in English Blue-books, and we have +no very reliable data as to the number of women and children employed. +The efforts of the Countess of Aberdeen, during the term of her husband +as Viceroy of Ireland, and of the Countess of Dunraven on the Dunraven +estates in the county of Limerick, have done much to re-establish the +lace industry,--with such success that the work compares favorably with +that of some of the French convents. + +In Wales, as in the North of England, women and children are employed in +the mines, and there is constant evasion of the laws regulating hours, +with a wage as inadequate as the work is heavy. Heavy woollens and +corduroy employ a small proportion in their manufacture, wage and hours +being the same as those of England. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[26] "The Destruction of Infants," by Mr. F.W. Lowndes, M.R.C.S., +British Association for the Advancement of Science, Report for 1870, p. +586. + +[27] Journal of the Statistical Society, Sept., 1870, vol. xxxiii. pp. +323-326. + +[28] Parliamentary Paper, No. 372, July 20, 1871: Collected Series, vol. +vii. p. 606. + +[29] Sixth Report of the Medical Officer of the Privy Council, 1863, pp. +454-462. Parliamentary Paper, 1864, No. 3,416, vol. xxviii. + +[30] Labor and Life of the People, vol. i.: East London. Edited by +Charles Booth, p. 564. + + + + +VIII. + +GENERAL CONDITIONS FOR CONTINENTAL WORKERS. + + +For France the census of 1847 showed a list of 959 women workers in +Paris earning sixty centimes a day; 100,000 earning from sixty centimes +to three francs, and 626 earning over three francs. That for 1869 showed +17,203, earning from fifty centimes to one franc twenty-five centimes +daily; 11,000 of these workers being furnished lodging, food, and +washing. Of the entire number 88,340 earned from one franc fifty +centimes to four francs a day; 767 earned from four francs fifty +centimes to ten francs daily, most of the latter class being heads of +work rooms or shops. The rise in wages affected the better orders of +worker, but left the sewing-woman's wage nearly unchanged. Levasseur[31] +tells us that toward the end of the reign of Louis Philippe the wage of +a woman varied ordinarily from twelve to twenty-five sous, exceptionally +from twenty to forty; that of children being from six to fifteen sous; +of men from thirty sous for ordinary laborers, to forty or forty-five +for skilled work. + +The census for 1851 gave for Paris 112,891 workwomen, 60,000 of whom +were sewers. Convent sewing, that of the prisons and reformatories, and +the competition of women who had homes and worked simply for pin-money, +kept the wage at a minimum; and these conditions still operate toward +that end, precisely as they do for all countries where the needle is a +means of support, the evil being felt most severely in our cities. The +facts in the life of a French seamstress are much the same as those of +the Englishwoman. To earn two francs a day she must make eight chemises, +working from fourteen to sixteen hours daily to accomplish this. The +income of the average sewer does not exceed, at the best, five hundred +francs, and most usually falls below. Rents are so high that a garret +requires not less than one hundred francs a year. In his researches into +conditions, Jules Simon[32] found that this sum compelled deprivations +of every order. Expenses were as follows: Rent, 100 francs; clothing, +bedding, etc., 115 francs; washing, 36 francs; heat and light, 36 +francs. These sums amounted to 286.50 francs, the amount remaining for +food being 215.50 or a little less than twelve sous a day,--the amount +expended by two of our own seamstresses in New York in 1887, the items +being given by the earner.[33] + +Existence on French soil, whether in Paris, the manufacturing towns, or +the provinces, has come to mean something very different from the facts +of a generation ago. Then, with wages hardly above "subsistence point," +the thrifty Frenchwoman not only lived, but managed to put by a trifle +each month. Wages have risen, but prices have at the same time advanced. +Every article of daily need is at the highest point,--sugar, which the +London workwoman buys at a penny a pound, being twelve cents a pound in +Paris; and flour, milk, eggs, equally high. Fuel is so dear that +shivering is the law for all save the wealthy; and rents are no less +dear, with no "improved dwellings" system to give the most for the scant +sum at disposal. Bread and coffee, chiefly chiccory, make one meal; +bread alone is the staple of the others, with a bit of meat for Sunday. +Hours are frightfully long, the disabilities of the French needleworker +being in many points the same as those of her English sister. In short, +even skilled labor has many disabilities, the saving fact being that +unskilled is in far less proportion than across the Channel, the present +system of education including many forms of industrial training. + +Generations of freer life than that of England, and many traditions in +her favor give certain advantages to the woman born on French soil. It +is taken for granted that she will after marriage share her husband's +work or continue her own, and her keen intelligence is relied upon to a +degree unknown to other nations. Repeated wars, and the enrolment of all +her men for fixed periods of service, have developed the capacity of +women in business directions, and they fill every known occupation. The +light-heartedness of her nation is in her favor, and she has learned +thoroughly how to extract the most from every centime. There is none of +the hopeless dowdiness and dejection that characterize the lower order +of Englishwoman. Trim, tidy, and thrifty, the Frenchwoman faces poverty +with a smiling courage that is part of her strength, this look changing +often for the older ones into a patience which still holds courage. + +Thus far there is no official report of the industries in which they are +engaged, and figures must be drawn from unofficial sources. M. Paul +Leroy-Beaulieu, the noted political economist, in his history of "The +Labor of Women in the Nineteenth Century," computes the number of women +at work in the manufactories of textile fabrics, cotton, woollen, linen, +and silk, as nearly one million; and outside of this is the enormous +number of lace-makers and general workers in all occupations. There are +over a quarter of a million of these lace-workers, whose wages run from +eighty and ninety centimes to two francs a day; and the rate of payment +for Swiss lace-workers is the same. + +During the Congres Feministe held in the autumn of 1892, Madame Vincent, +an ardent champion of women wage-earners, presented statistics, chiefly +from private sources, showing that out of 19,352,000 artisans in France, +there are 4,415,000 women who receive in wages or dividends nearly +$500,000,000 a year. Their wage is much less in proportion to the work +they do than that of men, yet they draw thirty-five per cent of the +entire sum spent in wages. In Paris alone, over 8,000 women are doing +business on an independent footing; and of 3,858 suits judged in 1892 by +the Workingman's Council, 1,674 concerned women. In spite of these +numbers and the abuses known to exist, the Chamber of Deputies has +refused practically to extend to women workers the law for the +regulation of the conditions of work in workshops. The refusal is +disguised under the form of adjournment of the matter, the reason +assigned being that the grievances of women are by no means ripe enough +for discussion. Women themselves are not at all of the same mind; and +the result has already been a move toward definite organization of +trades, and united action for all women engaged in them,--a step +hitherto regarded as impossible. The first effect of this has been a +protest from Paris shopgirls against the action of the Chamber of +Deputies, and the formation of committees whose business will be to +enlist the interest and co-operation of women throughout the entire +country,--a slow process, but one that will mean both education and +final release from some at least of the worst disabilities now weighting +all women workers. + +"La femme devenue ouvriere, n'est plus une femme," wrote Jules Simon in +a burst of despair at the conditions of the Paris workwoman; and he +repeated the word as his investigations extended to manufacturing +France, and he found everywhere the home in many cases abolished, the +_creche_ taking its place till the child, vitally dependent upon a care +that included love, gave up the struggle for existence, rendering its +tiny quota to the long list of infant mortality. M. Leroy-Beaulieu had +described years before the practical extinction of the family and the +government interference[34] brought about by the discoveries made by the +government inspecting committee, upon whom consternation seized as they +found decadence of morals, enfeebled physique, and that the ordinary +girl-worker at sixteen or seventeen could not sew a seam, or make a +broth, or care for a child's needs or the simplest demands of a home. +Appalled at these conditions, France set about the organization of +industrial schools, and these have altered the whole face of affairs. + +Generations of abuses had made, up to the time of the investigation, the +history of the working-class in France. One of their best-known +scientific observers, the statistician Villerme, examined in person, and +as one of the government inspecting committee reported on the condition +of dwellings in Lille, Amiens, and other manufacturing towns of France. +The weavers and spinners of Lille lived in caves, of which thirty-six +hundred were found occupied by families,--father, mother, and children +as soon as old enough, employed in the mills, and returning at night to +these dens, where filth and darkness periodically did their work of +decimation, and where infant mortality had reached the maximum. +Horrified at the discoveries made, three thousand of these dwellings +were at once destroyed. But for unknown and quite inscrutable reasons +six hundred were allowed to remain and receive double the original +number of tenants.[35] Years passed before the last cave was filled up, +the children born in them providing an enormous percentage for prison +and galleys. At Douai, Rouen, Roubaix, and many other points, such +hideous filth marked the homes of the working-class that Villerme +reported: "The walls are covered with a thousand layers of ordure." The +women, exhausted and depleted by a day's labor of from twelve to +fourteen hours, had no time to think of cleanliness. In fact, its +meaning had never been taught; and though industrial schools increase, +hours are now shortened, and inspection is active, it remains true that +almost the same conditions perpetuate themselves at many points,--the +descriptions given by the great realist, Zola, of women and children in +the mines, and the hideousness of their home life, being very literal +and unexaggerated fact. + +As to conditions of the work itself, many trades and occupations require +for their proper carrying on methods and surroundings absolutely +destructive to health. In all preparation of hemp and oakum dust is +excessive; far beyond that of the cotton-mill, which itself breeds +consumption. In the spinning of flax great heat and water are both +necessities. "Nothing is more wretched," writes Jules Simon, "than a +linen-spinner's surroundings. Water covers the brick floor. The odor of +the linen and a temperature often exceeding twenty-five Reaumur fill the +workroom with an intolerable stench. The majority of the workwomen, +obliged to put off most of their garments, are huddled together in this +pestilential atmosphere, imprisoned in the machines, pressed one against +the other, their bodies streaming with sweat, their feet bare to the +ankle; and when a day, nominally of twelve hours but really of thirteen +and a half, is over, they quit the workroom for home, the rags they wear +barely protecting them from cold and damp." + +Details of the same order abound in the work of the political economist +M. Leroy-Beaulieu,[36] who seeks at all points to give the most +favorable impression possible. In each and every case the great +authorities appear to be of one mind as to the disastrous effects upon +the children born to these mothers. That the _creche_ is now +practically a part of every factory makes little or no difference. + +"The _creche_," writes Jules Simon, "abolishes maternity in all save its +pains. The working mother is defrauded of her own means of growth, bound +up in the training of the child; and the child loses its right to be +loved and guarded by love." In short, for all continental countries, as +well as for England and our women, the question of child labor and the +destiny of the child are inextricably bound up in that of the working +mother, and are vital factors in working out the problem of woman as a +wage-earner. What proportion of wage-earning women recruit the ranks of +prostitution, is a question often asked. In Paris, which is in one sense +the focus of French labor, its many opportunities drawing to it a large +contingent from the provinces, it is popularly supposed that the ranks +of the sewing-women give large proportion to houses of prostitution. +This opinion is the prevailing one for all large cities, whether in +Europe or America, yet is disproved on all sides. For Paris +Parent-Duchalet states that in the statistics given by the prefecture of +police, in a table including forty-one categories, women with no +occupation had first rank as prostitutes, domestic service giving the +second, and sewing-women the smallest proportion. This is the more +surprising when one considers that their wage is often below the point +of subsistence, and that temptation of every order waits upon them. At +the best the wage falls far below that of men, even when both engage in +the same work. The present movement toward organization is the first +step toward a general bettering of all trades and their wage; and for +fullest details of this, and work in connection with the admirable +Bourse du Travail, one of its most important features of working life +to-day in Paris, the reader must turn to the reports themselves, +beginning with the first one, issued in 1887-88.[37] The same facts may +be said to form the story of labor in Belgium, in Switzerland, in Italy, +and at all points where women or children are at work, whether in +factory or mine or workshop. For Belgium the situation is summed up in a +very important and minute report of the government inquiry commission +into the labor of women and children,--the first made in 1867 and +followed by one in 1874, the latest having been made in 1891.[38] + +A comprehensive law, promulgated Nov. 2, 1892, and regulating the labor +of women and children in factories and mines, was amended in May, 1893, +by the addition of very specific regulations as to all employments +affecting health and morals. The Presidential decree consists of two +parts,--the first dealing with the employment of women and children in +connection with machinery when in motion, or in which the dangerous +parts are not fully protected, in glass-blowing and in carrying weights. +The second part of the decree consists of three tables, of which A +enumerates certain industries, chiefly the manufacture of acids, dyes, +chemicals, etc., also manures and glass, crystal, and metal polishing, +in which female and child labor are prohibited; B those in which +children under eighteen must not work, chiefly the manufacture of +explosives; and C, a large variety of other industries in which female +and child labor is only allowed conditionally. The great majority of +these are industries involving special risk through the disengagement of +dust-particles or vapors; while a few are ranked as dangerous, owing to +risk of fire and the contraction of special diseases, etc. + +Belgium, French in feeling and in methods, has known some of the worst +abuses discoverable on continental soil, thousands of women and children +in her mines having toiled from twelve to sixteen hours a day, with +often no Sunday rest, for a wage at bare subsistence point. In +"Germinal," Zola, who spent months observing every phase of their life, +has given a picture, unsurpassed in any literature, of the misery and +degradation of the worker. An investigation in 1874, and indignation at +some of the conditions then discovered, brought about modifications of +the law. That of the general congress of 1891 accomplished much more; +but work must still be done before any very marked advance becomes +discernible. + +Passing to Germany, a good two-thirds of the women are at work in field +or shop or home, the proportion of women in agriculture being larger +than in any other country of Europe. Her schools furnish better training +than those of any other nation. In all these points Prussia leads, +though till recently legislation has been in behalf of child-workers, +and women have been practically ignored. But factory regulations are +minute and extended; and the questions involved in the labor of women, +and its bearing on health, longevity, etc., are now coming under +consideration. In Silesia, as early as 1868, women were excluded from +the salt-mines; and the Labor Congress of 1889 brought about many +changes of the laws on this point for Belgium and Germany. In Italy, in +which country industrial education is now receiving much attention, the +labor of women, continuous, severe, and underpaid, as it is known to be, +finds small mention, save among special students of social questions. +Russia has practically no data from which judgment can be formed. In +short, it is only in English-speaking countries that really efficient +action as to the labor of women has taken place; while even for them the +work has but begun, and new and more radical forms will be necessary +for any real progress toward final betterment. Toward such end the labor +bureaus of our own country are working diligently; and it is with them +that we have next to do, the investigations already made and +incorporated in their reports being full of suggestion for future +workers. + +The census of 1882 gave for Germany, in a population of 45,222,113 +persons, 23,071,364 women, of whom 1,109,530 were widows, and 5,467,730 +unmarried, a large proportion of both these classes being +self-supporting. An immense number of these were agricultural laborers. +In Prussia in 1867 the census gave the number of women agricultural +laborers as 1,054,213. Woman's wage for a day's labor, always twelve and +often fourteen hours, is from twenty to twenty-five cents, about a third +of that received by men doing the same work. Brassey, the great railroad +contractor, found throughout Germany that her wage was always a third +and often a quarter less than that of men. + +For united Germany the description given by Villerme in 1836 is still +true for many points. "The misery in which the cotton spinners and +weavers of the upper Rhine live," he writes, "is so profound that it +produces the saddest results. In the families of manufacturers, drapers, +merchants, etc., half the children born attain their nineteenth year, +this same half ceasing to exist before the age of two years in the +families of weavers and workers at cotton-spinning." + +As to numbers employed in trades and industries, it is difficult to +secure them with exactness. The census of 1871 reported three tenths of +the population as agricultural, the males employed in agriculture being +2,338,174, and the females 4,426,573. Household service had 840,000 +women on its rolls. In 1875 the cotton-mills employed in weaving and +spinning 95,934 women; the woollen manufacture, nearly 193,000; linen, +hemp, and jute, 190,000. The labor of women and children was hardly +recognized, and statistics had to be disentangled as best they might be +from general tables of occupations. Through the persistent efforts of +the Centre in the German Reichstag, a gradual betterment of the +working-classes has been brought about, and thus indirectly that of +women and children,--the first combined and determined effort being made +in 1889, when three bills were brought up for discussion. The first +made the working-day not to exceed eleven hours; the second demanded the +suspension of industrial labor on Sunday, save in exceptional cases, +when five hours' labor was to be allowed; the third concerned the labor +of women and children, and with some modifications is practically the +law to-day. Night and Sunday labor in mines, smelting-works, +rolling-mills, and dockyards is entirely forbidden, nor can married +women work more than ten hours a day. The Federal Council has the right +also to forbid the employment of women and children in all factories and +establishments where health and morals are exposed to exceptional +dangers. + +At the period at which the investigations which brought about the +agitation of the question were made, the number of child laborers had +increased in two years from 155,000 to 192,000, children hardly more +than babies being in the factories. At present the law forbids the +employment of any child under twelve, and not less than three hours' +schooling daily is compulsory. Abuses exist at all points, women workers +in mines faring, even with shortened day, in very evil case,--the wage +at or below subsistence point and the general conditions of the most +hopeless order. Constant agitation goes on in the Reichstag, and +organization among the women themselves will in time bring about needed +reforms; but as a whole the German woman is in many points less +considered than the women of any other civilized nation. + +Though Italy is pre-eminently an agricultural country, and men, women, +and children are alike employed in agricultural pursuits, there has been +no trustworthy record of numbers engaged. In manufacturing there are +more statistics, but interest in the woman's share in labor is of recent +date. In the silk manufacture, in which Italy ranks second only to +China, and far beyond all other competitors, 81,165 women and 25,373 +children were employed in 1877, chiefly in unwinding cocoons, the number +at present having increased nearly ten per cent. In the cotton industry +there were employed, at the time of the same census, 2,696 women and +2,520 children; and a proportionate increase in numbers has taken place. +In the flax and hemp industries nearly seventy thousand workers used +hand-looms at home, the larger proportion of these being women. In the +factories it was found that 2,565 women and 1,227 children were at work +as spinners, and 3,394 women and 1,020 children as weavers. Women are +steadily employed in the manufacture of straw hats and bonnets, in jute +in many forms, in cigar and cigarette making, and in many other +industries, cheap clothing leading. Of the thirty millions and more of +population, not quite half are women; and of these nearly half are +wage-earners, the majority in unrecorded forms of labor,--chiefly +household service or the care of their own homes, with some petty +industry adding its mite to the yearly income. But industrial training +has but begun for Italy. The wage is pitiably low, the conditions of +living hard and full of privation; nor can these facts alter till better +education and organization have been brought about. The latest Italian +census is not yet published; but proofs of tables of the comparative +wage for twenty years in some of the principal industries have been sent +me through the courtesy of Signor Luigi Bodio, the minister of +agriculture, commerce, and general statistics. From these tables it is +found that the daily wage of women cotton-spinners has risen from sixty +centimes, in 1871, to one franc twenty-six centimes in 1891, this being +the equivalent of one lire twenty-six centissimi. The wage for weaving +has risen from eighty centimes, in 1871, to one franc twenty-six +centimes in 1891. Spoolers in 1871 received eighty-eight centimes as +against one franc thirty centimes in 1891. In hemp-spinning the wage has +fallen from ninety to eighty centimes, but has risen from ninety-eight +centimes to one franc thirty centimes for twisting; the wage in the +cases cited being a little more than a third that of men. In +paper-making experienced workers now receive one franc fifty-two +centimes as against sixty-six centimes in 1871; and in making of +stearine candles one franc as against seventy-eight centimes in 1871. +Running through the tables of every industry, the average is about the +same,--the wage for women, even when doing the same work, hardly more +than a third that for men, and the amount for either at bare subsistence +point. + +In Russia the woman's wage is but a fifth that of men, with working +conditions, save at a few points where the work of Professor Janzhul +and his confreres has told, at the very worst,--the day being from +twelve to sixteen hours long even in the best-managed factories, while +in the village industries, which, owing to the peculiar conditions of +Russian life, make up the larger proportion of her industries, it is for +many workers almost unending, the merest respite being given for sleep. +As yet but few authentic figures as to the numbers employed are given, +though on the first investigation into domestic industries made a few +years since it was found that over 890,000 were engaged in them, and +also at the same time in agriculture. Manufacturing in Russia +concentrates about Moscow and St. Petersburg, which represent more than +two fifths of the whole production of the empire. The requirements of +nine tenths of the Russian people are met by domestic manufacture in the +villages, and home-weaving for the market employs over two hundred +thousand workers, other textiles, leather, etc., being dealt with in the +same way. + +In the other northern countries of Europe,--Norway, Sweden, and +Denmark,--manufactures are at a minimum, fisheries and agriculture being +the chief industries. Women are employed in both; and in the few +factories there is a small proportion of women and children, working at +a wage much less than that given to men. Sweden has a most admirable +system of industrial education; and Norway and Denmark, though far less +in population, have adopted the same methods. But the limitations of all +wage-earning women are felt here in the same manner as elsewhere, the +summary for all countries being much the same. The Northern workwoman +has the advantage of training and of as keen a sense of economy as the +Frenchwoman; but her wage is most usually at or below subsistence point, +and her difficulties are those of the worker in general,--long hours, +insufficient pay, and fierce competition. + +As to the present laws concerning the length of the working-day, a +general abstract is found in a return issued in reply to an address from +the House of Commons, an abstract of which was given in "St. James' +Gazette":-- + + "In France the hours of adult labor are regulated by a series of + decrees, of which the earliest, promulgated September, 1848, enacts + that the workingman's day in manufactories and mills shall not + exceed twelve hours of 'effective' or actual labor. A decree + issued in May, 1851, made exceptions, so that more hours might be + worked in certain trades. In 1885 a circular was issued stating + that the limit of twelve hours _per diem_ was not to be imposed + where hand-power was employed, but was to be confined to + manufactories and mills in which the motive power was machinery. No + workshops were to come under the clauses of the act that did not + employ more than twenty hands in any one shed. The report says: 'It + is likewise to be borne in mind that there is in France no + compulsory observance of Sunday, and no day of habitual rest.' + + "The reports of the French inspectors of labor appear to show that + the Act of 1848 is very loosely interpreted. It is even doubtful + whether the section limiting the actual working-day to twelve hours + was intended to include or exclude hours of rest. Practically the + legal time is made to exclude rest. This makes the working-day so + much the longer. Thus one of the French inspectors states that the + hours of attendance in factories under the Act of 1848 are from + five in the morning until seven in the evening, or a total of + fourteen hours, out of which there are twelve hours of 'effective + labor.' But the same authority also states that 'effective' time + often extends to thirteen and fourteen hours in many + weaving-establishments. Finally, we are told that, as a rule, it + may be taken that Frenchmen employed in factories are present in + the shops at least fourteen hours out of every twenty four. + + "Among the countries having no laws affecting the hours of adult + labor, Germany is conspicuous. Employers, however, cannot force + their servants to work on Sundays and feast-days. Employment of + youthful or female labor in certain kinds of factories, which is + attended with special danger to health or morals, is forbidden, or + made conditional on certain regulations, by which night labor for + female work-people is especially forbidden. In Germany, as in other + countries also, women may not be employed in factories for a + certain time after childbirth. In Hesse-Darmstadt the medium + duration of labor is from ten to twelve hours,--the cases in which + the latter time is exceeded being, however, more frequent than + those in which the former is not exceeded. The normal work-day + throughout Saxony in all the principal branches of industry is from + 6 A.M. to 7 P.M., with half an hour for breakfast, an hour for + dinner, and half an hour for supper. In the manufacturing industry + there are departures from these hours, the period of work in + spinning and weaving mills not infrequently being twelve hours. + + "In Austria the law provides that the duration of work for factory + hands shall not exceed eleven hours out of the twenty-four, + 'exclusive' of the periods of rest. These are not to be less in the + aggregate than an hour and a half. The rule can be modified by the + minister of commerce, in conjunction with the minister of the + interior, allowing longer hours. The hours have been so extended to + twelve hours in certain industries, such as spinning-mills, and + even to thirteen in silk manufactories. Sunday rest is enforced. In + Hungary there is no limit laid down by law, but the hours are not + generally longer than in Austria. + + "Concerning the actual hours of adult labor in Belgium, some + difficulty is said to be experienced in getting at the facts. The + evidence given before a Belgian royal commission showed that + railway guards are sometimes on duty for fifteen and even nineteen + and a half hours at a stretch; and the Brussels tram-way-drivers + are at work from fifteen to seventeen hours daily, with a rest of + only an hour and a half at noon. Brick-makers work during the + summer months sixteen hours a day. In the sugar refineries the + average hours are from twelve to thirteen for men and from nine to + ten for women. The cabinetmakers, both at Ghent and Brussels, + assert that they have often to work seventeen hours a day. + + "In Switzerland the law provides that a normal working-day shall + not exceed eleven hours, reduced on Saturdays and public holidays + to ten. Power is reserved for prolonging the working-day in certain + circumstances. Except in cases of absolute necessity Sunday labor + is prohibited, and in establishments where uninterrupted labor is + required, each working hand must have one free Sunday out of two. + Women cannot under any circumstances be employed in night or Sunday + labor. Italy has not legislated for adults, but has made + regulations for child labor. Sweden is in the same position. Spain + and Portugal have done nothing. The general rule in the latter + country, applying to old and young, is to work from sunrise to + sunset, an hour and a half being allowed for meals. In the + Netherlands a law was recently promulgated to prevent excessive and + dangerous work by grown-up women and young persons. In Turkey the + working-day lasts from sunrise to sunset, with certain intervals + for repose and refreshment. In Russia, where there are no laws + affecting the hours of adult labor, the normal working-day in + industrial establishments averages twelve hours, though it is often + extended to fourteen and even sixteen." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[31] Histoire des Classes Ouvriers en France depuis 1789 jusqu'a nos +Jours, par E. Levasseur. + +[32] L'Ouvriere, par Jules Simon. + +[33] Prisoners of Poverty, p. 118. + +[34] Le Travail des Femmes au XIX. Siecle, par Paul Leroy-Beaulieu. + +[35] L'Ouvriere, p. 158. + +[36] Le Travail des Femmes aux XIX. Siecle. + +[37] Annuaire de la Bourse du Travail. Volumes from 1887 to 1892 +inclusive. + +[38] Rapport sur l'Enquete faite au nom de l'Academie Royale de Medecine +de Belgique, par la commission chargee d'etudier la question de l'emploi +des femmes dans les travaux souterrain des mines, Bruxelles, 1868. + +Documents nouveaux relatifs au travail des femmes et des enfants, dans +les manufactures, les mines, etc, etc. Bruxelles, 1874. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +GENERAL CONDITIONS AMONG WAGE-EARNING WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES. + + +The summary already made of the work of bureaus of labor and their +bearing upon women wage-earners includes some points belonging under +this head which it still seemed advisable to leave where they stand. The +work of the Massachusetts Bureau gave the keynote, followed by all +successors, and thus required full outlining; and it is from that, as +well as successors, that general conditions are to be determined. A +brief summary of such facts as each State has investigated and reported +upon will be given, with the final showing of the latest and most +general report,--that from the United States Bureau of Labor for 1889. + +Beginning with New England and taking State by State in the usual +geographical order, that of Maine for 1888 leads. Work here was done by +a special commissioner appointed for the purpose, and the chief towns +and cities in the State were visited. No occupation was excluded. The +foreign element of the State is comparatively small. There is no city in +which overcrowding and its results in the tenement-house system are to +be found. Factories are numerous, and the bulk of Maine working-women +are found in them; the canning industry employs hundreds, and all trades +have their proportion of workers. For all of them conditions are better +in many ways than at almost any other point in New England, many of them +living at home and paying but a small proportion of their wages toward +the family support. + +A large proportion of the factories have boarding-houses attached, which +are run by a contractor. A full inspection of these was made, and the +report pronounces them to be better kept than the ordinary +boarding-house, with liberal dietary and comfortable rooms. Many of the +women owned their furniture, and had made "homes" out of the narrow +quarters. These were the better-paid class of workers. Several of the +factories have "Relief Associations," in which the employees pay a small +sum weekly, which secures them a fixed sum during illness or +disability. The conditions, as a whole, in factory are more nearly those +of Massachusetts during the early days of the Lowell mills than can be +found elsewhere. + +Taking the State as a whole, though the average wage is nearly a dollar +less a week than that of Massachusetts, its buying power is somewhat +more, from the fact that rents are lower and the conditions of living +simpler, though this is true only of remote towns. + +Massachusetts follows; and here, as in Maine, there is general complaint +that many of the girls live at home, pay little or no board, and thus +can take a lower wage than the self-supporting worker. In the large +stores employees are hired at the lowest possible figure; and many girls +who are working for from four to five dollars per week state that it is +impossible to pay for room and board with even tolerably decent +clothing. Hundreds who want pin-money do work at a price impossible to +the self-supporting worker, many married women coming under this head; +and bitter complaint is made on this point. At the best the wage is at a +minimum, and only the most rigid economy renders it possible for the +earner to live on it. That there is not greater suffering reflects all +honor on the army of hard-working women, pronounced by the commissioner +to be as industrious, moral, and virtuous a class as the community owns. + +"Homes" of every order have been established in Boston and in other +large towns in the State; and as they give board at the lowest rate, +they are filled with girls. They are rigid as to rules and regulations, +and not in favor, as a rule, with the majority. A very slight relaxing +of lines and more effort to make them cheerful would result in bringing +many who now remain outside; but in any case they can reach but a small +proportion. + +In unskilled labor there is little difference among the workers. All +alike are half starved, half clothed, overworked to a frightful degree; +the report specifying numbers whose day's work runs from fourteen to +sixteen hours, and with neither time to learn some better method of +earning a living, nor hope enough to spur them on in any new path. This +class is found chiefly among sewing-women on cheap clothing, bags, etc.; +and there is no present means of reaching them or altering the +conditions which surround them. + +Connecticut factories are subject to the same general laws as those +governing like work in Maine and Massachusetts. Over thirty thousand +women and girls are engaged in factory work, and ten thousand +children,--chiefly girls, women being twenty-five per cent of all +employed in factories. Legislation has lessened or abolished altogether +some of the worst features of this life, and there are special mills +which have won the highest reputation for just dealing and care of every +interest of their employees. But the same reasons that affect general +conditions for all workers exist here also, and produce the same +results, not only in factory labor, but in all other industries open to +women. The fact that there are no large cities, and thus little +overcrowding in tenements, and that there is home life for a large +proportion of the workers, tells in their favor. Factory boarding-houses +fairly well kept abound; but the average wage, $6.50, is a trifle lower +than that of Massachusetts, and implies more difficulty in making ends +meet. Many of the worst abuses in child labor arose in Connecticut, and +the reports for both 1885 and 1886 state that for both women and +children much remains to be done. Clothing here, as elsewhere, is +synonymous with overwork and underpay, the wage being below subsistence +point; and want of training is often found to be a portion of the reason +for these conditions. + +In Rhode Island, as in all the New England States, the majority of the +factories are in excellent condition, the older ones alone being open to +the objections justly made both by employees and the reports of the +Labor Bureau. The wage falls below that of Connecticut, while the +general conditions of living are practically the same, the statements +made as to the first applying with equal force to the last. Manufactures +are the chief employment, the largest number of women workers being +found in these. Of all of them the commissioner reports: "They work +harder and more hours than men, and receive much less pay."[39] The fact +of no large cities, and thus no slums, is in the worker's favor; but +limitations are in all other points sharp and continuous. + +New York follows, and for the State at large the same remarks apply at +every point. It is New York City in which focuses every evil that hedges +about women workers, and in a degree not to be found at any other +portion of the country. These will be dealt with in the proper place. +The average wage, so far as the State is concerned, gives the same +result as those already mentioned. Manufacturing gives large employment; +and this is under as favorable conditions as in New England, though the +average wage is nearly a dollar less than that of Massachusetts, while +expenses are in some ways higher. The incessant tide of foreign labor +tends steadily to lower the wage-rate, and the struggle for mere +subsistence is the fact for most. + +In New York City, while there is a large proportion of successful +workers, there is an enormous mass of the lowest order. No other city +offers so varied a range of employment, and there is none where so large +a number are found earning a wage far below the "life limit." + +The better-paying trades are filled with women who have had some form of +training in school or home, or have passed from one occupation to +another, till that for which they had most aptitude has been determined. +That, however, to which all the more helpless turn at once, as the one +thing about the doing of which there can be no doubt or difficulty, is +the one most over-crowded, most underpaid, and with its scale of +payments lessening year by year. The girl too ignorant to reckon +figures, too dull-witted to learn by observation, takes refuge in sewing +in one of its many forms as the one thing possible to all grades of +intelligence; often the need of work for older women arises from the +death or evil habits of the natural head of the family, and fortunes +have sunk to so low an ebb that at times the only clothing left is on +the back of the worker in the last stages of demoralization. Employment +in a respectable place thus becomes impossible, and the sole method of +securing work is through the middlemen or sweaters, who ask no questions +and require no reference, but make as large a profit as can be wrung +from the helplessness and bitter need of those with whom they reckon. + +The difficulties to be faced by the woman whose only way of self-support +is limited to the needle, whether in machine or handwork, are fourfold: +first, her own incompetency must very often head the list, and prevent +her from securing first-class work; second, middlemen or sweaters lower +the price to starvation point; third, contract work done in prisons or +reformatories brings about the same result; and fourth, she is underbid +from still another quarter,--that of the countrywoman living at home, +who takes the work at any price offered. + +The Report of the New York Bureau of Labor for 1885 contains a mass of +evidence so fearful in its character, and demonstrating conditions of +life so tragic for the worker, and so shameful on the part of the +employer, that general attention was for the time aroused. It is +impossible here to make more than this general statement referring all +readers to the report itself for full detail. Thousands herded together +in tenement houses and received a daily wage of from twenty-five to +sixty cents, the day's labor being often sixteen hours long. "The Bitter +Cry of Outcast London" found its parallel here, nor has there been any +diminution of the numbers involved, though at some points conditions +have been improved. But the facts recorded in the report are practically +the same to-day; and the income of many workers falls below two dollars +a week, from which sum food, clothing, light, fuel, and rent are to be +provided for. The sum and essence of every wrong and injustice that can +hedge about the worker is found at this point, and remains a problem to +every worker among the poor, the solving of which will mean the solution +of the whole labor question. + +New Jersey reports have from the beginning followed the phases of the +labor movement with a keen intelligence and interest. They give general +conditions as much the same as those of New York State. The wage-rate is +but $5; and Newark especially, a city which is filled with manufacturing +establishments of every order, reproduces some of the evil conditions of +New York City, though in far less degree. Taking the State as a whole, +legislation has done much to protect the worker, and other reforms are +persistently urged by the bureau. They are needed. In the official +report of conditions among the linen-thread spinners of Paterson we +find: "In one branch of this industry women are compelled to stand on a +stone floor in water the year round, most of the time barefoot, with a +spray of water from a revolving cylinder flying constantly against the +breast; and the coldest night in winter, as well as the warmest in +summer, these poor creatures must go to their homes with water dripping +from their underclothing along their path, because there could not be +space or a few moments allowed them wherein to change their +clothing."[40] + +Thus much for the East; and we turn to the West, where some of the most +practical and suggestive forms of investigation are now in full +operation. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[39] Third Annual Report of the Commissioner of Industrial Statistics of +Rhode Island, 1889, p. 22. + +[40] Report of the Bureau of Labor for the State of New Jersey, 1888. + + + + +X. + +GENERAL CONDITIONS IN THE WESTERN STATES. + + +The reports from Kansas and Wisconsin give a wage but slightly above +that of New Jersey, the weekly average being $5.27. Of the 50,000 women +at work in 1889,--the number having now nearly doubled,--but 6,000 were +engaged in manufacturing, the larger portion being in domestic service. +Save in one or two of the larger towns and cities, there is no +overcrowding, and few of the conditions that go with a denser population +and sharper competition. Kansas gives large space to general conditions, +and, while urging better pay, finds that her working-women are, as a +whole, honest, self-respecting, moral members of the community. Factory +workers are few in proportion to those in other occupations; and this is +true of most of the Western States, where general industries are found +rather than manufactures. + +The report from Colorado for 1889 includes in its own returns certain +facts discovered on investigation in Ohio and Indiana, and matched by +some of the same nature in Colorado. The methods of Eastern competition +had been adopted, and Commissioner Rice reports:-- + + "In one of the large cities of Ohio the labor commissioners of that + State discovered that shirts were being made for 36 cents a dozen; + and that the rules of one establishment paying such wages employing + a large number of females, required that the day's labor should + commence and terminate with prayer and thanksgiving." + +In Indiana matters appear even worse. By personal investigation, it was +found that the following rates of wages were being paid in manufacturing +establishments in Indianapolis: For making shirts, 30 to 60 cents a +dozen; overalls, 40 to 60 cents a dozen pairs; pants, 50 cents to $1.25 +per dozen pairs. "In our own State," writes the commissioner, "owing to +Eastern competition on the starvation wage plan, are found women and +girls working for mere subsistence, though the prices paid here are a +shade higher. It is found that shirts are made at 80 cents a dozen, and +summer dresses from 25 cents upward." + +Prices are higher here than at almost any other portion of the United +States, and thus the wage gives less return. In spite of the general +impression that women fare well at this point, the report gives various +details which seem to prove abuses of many orders. It made special +investigation into the conditions of domestic service, that in hotels +and large boarding-houses being found to be full of abuses, though +conditions as a whole were favorable. In so new a State there are few +manufacturing interests; and the factories investigated are many of them +reported as showing an almost criminal disregard of the comfort and +interests of the employees. Aside from this, the report indicates much +the same general conditions as prevail in other States. + +In Minnesota, with its average wage of $6 per week, there are few +factories,--manufacturing being confined to clothing, boots and shoes, +and a few other forms. Domestic service has the largest number of women +employed, and stores and trades absorb the remainder. There is no +overcrowding save here and there in the cities, as in St. Paul or +Minneapolis, where girls often club together in rooming. While many of +the workers are Scandinavian, many are native born; and for the latter +there is often much thrift and a comfortable standard of living. The +same complaints as to lowness of wage, resulting from much the same +causes as those specified elsewhere, are heard; and in the clothing +manufacture wages are kept at the lowest possible point As a whole, the +returns indicate more comfort than in Colorado, but leave full room for +betterment. The chapter on "Domestic Service" shows many strong reasons +why girls prefer factory or general work to this; and as the views of +heads of employment agencies are also given, unusual opportunity is +afforded for forming just judgment in the matter. + +Next on the list comes the report from California for 1887 and 1888. The +resources of the bureau were so limited that it was impossible to obtain +returns for the whole State, and the commissioner therefore limited his +inquiry to a thorough investigation of the working-women of San +Francisco, in number about twenty thousand. The State has but one +cotton-mill, but there are silk, jute, woollen, corset, and shirt +factories, with many minor industries. Home and general sanitary +conditions were all investigated, the bureau following the general lines +pursued by all. + +Wages are considered at length; and Commissioner Tobin states that the +rate paid to women in California "does not compare favorably with the +rates paid to women in the Eastern States, as do the wages of men, for +the reason that Chinese come more into competition with women than with +men. This is especially the case among seamstresses, and in nearly all +our factories ... in other lines of labor the wages paid to females in +this State are generally higher than elsewhere." + +Rent, food, and clothing cost more in California than in the Eastern +States. The wage-tables show that the tendency is to limit a woman's +wage to a dollar a day, even in the best paid trades, and as much below +this as labor can be obtained. + +In shirt-making, Commissioner Tobin states that she is worse off than in +any of the Eastern States. Clothing of all orders pays as little as +possible, the best workwomen often making not over $2.87 per week. Even +at these starvation rates, girls prefer factory work to domestic +service; and as this phase was also investigated, we have another +chapter of most valuable and suggestive information. In spite of low +wages and all the hardship resulting, working women and girls as a whole +are found to be precisely what the reports state them to +be,--hard-working, honest, and moral members of the community. General +conditions are much the same as those of Colorado, the summary for all +the States from which reports have come being that the average wage is +insufficient to allow of much more than mere subsistence. + +The labor reports for the State of Missouri for 1889 and 1890 do not +deal directly with the question of women wage-earners; but indirectly +much light is thrown by the investigation, in that for 1889, into the +cost of living and the home conditions of many miners and workers in +general trades; while that for 1890 covers a wider field, and gives, +with general conditions for all workers, detailed information as to many +frauds practised upon them. The commissioner, Lee Merriweather, is so +identified with the interests of the worker, whether man or woman, that +a formal report from him on women wage-earners would have had especial +value. + +Last on the list of State reports comes an admirable one from Michigan, +prepared by Labor Commissioner Henry A. Robinson, issued in February, +1892, which devotes nearly two hundred pages to women wage-earners, and +gives careful statistics of 137 different trades and 378 occupations. +Personal visits were made to 13,436 women and girls living in the most +important manufacturing towns and cities of the State; and the blanks, +which were prepared in the light of the experience gained by the work of +other bureaus, contained 129 questions, classified as follows: social, +28; industrial, 12; hours of labor, 14; economic, 54; sanitary, 21; and +seven other questions as to dress, societies, church attendance, with +remarks and suggestions by the women workers. The result is a very +minute knowledge of general conditions, the series of tables given being +admirably prepared. In those on the hours of labor it is found that +domestic service exacts the greatest number of hours; one class +returning fourteen hours as the rule. In this lies a hint of the +increasing objection to domestic service,--longer hours and less +freedom being the chief counts against it. The final summary gives the +average wage for the State as $4.86; the highest weekly average for +women workers employed as teachers or in public positions being $10.78. + +The remarks and suggestions of the women themselves are extraordinarily +helpful. Outside the cities organization among them is unknown; but it +is found that those trades which are organized furnish the best paid and +most intelligent class of girls, who conceived at once the benefits of a +labor bureau, and answered fully and promptly. The hours of work in all +industries ranged from nine to ten, and the wage paid was found to be a +little more than fifty per cent less than that of men engaged in the +same work. A large proportion supported relatives, and general +conditions as to living were of much the same order of comfort and +discomfort as those given in other reports. The fact that this report is +the latest on this subject, and more minute in detail than has before +been possible, makes it invaluable to the student of social conditions; +and it is entertaining reading, even for the average reader. + +We come now to the final report, in some ways a summary of all,--that +of the United States Labor Department at Washington, and the work for +1889. + +In the twenty-two cities investigated by the agents of this bureau, the +average age at which girls began work was found to be 15 years and 4 +months. Charleston, S.C., gives the highest average, it being there 18 +years and 7 months, and Newark, N.J., the lowest,--14 years and 7 +months. The average period in which all had been engaged in their +present occupations is shown to be 4 years and 9 months; while of the +total number interviewed, 9,540 were engaged in their first attempt to +earn a living. + +As against the opinion often expressed that foreign workers are in the +majority, we find that of the whole number given, 14,120 were native +born. Of the foreign born, Ireland is most largely represented, having +936; and Germany comes next, with 775. In the matter of parentage, +12,907 had foreign-born mothers. The number of single women included in +the report is 15,387; 745 were married, and 2,038 widowed, from which it +is evident that, as a rule, it is single women who are fighting the +industrial fight alone. They are not only supporting themselves, but +are giving their earnings largely to the support of others at home. More +than half--8,754--do this; and 9,813, besides their occupation, help in +the home housekeeping. Of the total number, 4,928 live at home, but only +701 of them receive aid or board from their families. The average number +in these families is 5.25, and each contains 2.48 workers. + +Concerning education, church attendance, home and shop conditions, +15,831 reported. Of these, 10,458 were educated in American public +schools, and 5,375 in other schools; 5,854 attend Protestant churches; +7,769 the Catholic, and 367 the Hebrew. A very large percentage, +comprehending 3,209, do not attend church at all. + +In home conditions 12,120 report themselves as "comfortable," while +4,692 give home conditions as "poor." "Poor," to the ordinary observer, +is to be interpreted as wretched, including overcrowding, and all the +numberless evils of tenement-house life, which is the portion of many. A +side light is thrown on personal characteristics of the workers, in the +tables of earnings and lost time. Out of 12,822 who reported, 373 earn +less than $100 a year, and this class has an average of 86.5 lost days +for the year covered by the investigation. With the increase of +earnings, the lost time decreases, the 2,147 who earn from $200 to $450 +losing but 37.8; while 398, earning from $350 to $500 a year, lost but +18.3 days. + +Deliberate cruelty and injustice on the part of the employer are +encountered only now and then; but competition forces the working in as +inexpensive a manner as possible, and thus often makes what must sum up +as cruelty and injustice necessary to the continued existence of the +employer as an industrial factor. Home conditions are seldom beyond +tolerable, and very often intolerable. Inspection,--the efficiency of +which has greatly increased,--the demand by the organized charities at +all points for women inspectors, and the gradual growth of popular +interest are bringing about a few improvements, and will bring more; but +the mass everywhere are as stated. Ignorance and the vices that +accompany ignorance--want of thoroughness, unpunctuality, +thriftlessness, and improvidence--are all in the count against the +lowest order of worker; but the better class, and indeed the large +proportion of the lower, are living honest, self-respecting, infinitely +dreary lives. + +It is a popular belief, already referred to elsewhere, that the +working-women form a large proportion of the numbers who fill houses of +prostitution; and that "night-walkers" are made up chiefly from the same +class. Nothing could be further from the truth,--the testimony of the +fifteenth annual report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor being in +the same line as that of all in which investigation of the subject has +been made, and all confirming the opinion given. The investigation of +the Massachusetts Bureau in fourteen cities showed clearly that a very +small proportion among working-women entered this life. The largest +number, classed by occupations, came from the lowest order of worker, +those employed in housework and hotels; and the next largest was found +among seamstresses, employees of shirt-factories, and cloak-makers, all +of these industries in which under pay is proverbial. The great +majority, receiving not more than five dollars a week, earn it by seldom +less than ten hours a day of hard labor, and not only live on the sum, +but assist friends, contribute to general household expenses, dress so +as to appear fairly well, and have learned every art of doing without. +More than this, since the deepening interest in their lives, and the +formation of working-girls' clubs and societies of many orders, they +contribute from this scanty sum enough to rent meeting-rooms, pay for +instruction in many classes, and provide a relief fund for sick and +disabled members. + +This is the summary of conditions as a whole, and we pass now to the +specific evils and abuses in trades and general industries. + + + + +XI. + +SPECIFIC EVILS AND ABUSES IN FACTORY LIFE AND IN GENERAL TRADES. + + +"Has civilization civilized?" is the involuntary question, as one by one +the fearful conditions hedging about workers on either side of the sea +become apparent. At once, in any specific investigation, we face abuses +for which the system of production rather than the employer is often +responsible, and for which science has as yet found either none or but a +partial remedy. Alike in England and on the Continent work and torture +become synonyms, and flesh and blood the cheapest of all +nineteenth-century products. The best factory system swarms with +problems yet unsolved; the worst, as it may be found in many a remote +district of the Continent and even in England itself, is appalling in +both daily fact and final result. It would seem at times as if the +workshop meant only a form of preparation for the hospital, the +workhouse, and the prison, since the workers therein become inoculated +with trade diseases, mutilated by trade appliances, and corrupted by +trade associates, till no healthy fibre, mental, moral, or physical, +remains. + +In the nail and chain making districts of England, Sundays are often +abolished where these furnaces flame, and such rest as can be stolen +comes on the cinder-heaps. But these workers are few compared with the +myriads who must battle with the most insidious and most potent of +enemies,--the dust of modern manufacture. There is dust of heckling +flax, with an average of only fourteen years of work for the strongest; +dust of emery powder, that has been known to destroy in a month; dust of +pottery and sand and flint, so penetrating that the medical returns give +cases of "stone" for new-born babes; dust of rags foul with dirt and +breeding fever in the picker; dust of wools from diseased animals, +striking down the sorter. Wood, coal, flour, each has its own, +penetrating where it can never be dislodged; and a less tangible enemy +lurks in poisonous paints for flowers or wall-paper, and in white lead, +the foundation of other paints,--blotching the skin of children, and +ending for many in blindness, paralysis, and hideous sores. + +This is one form; and side by side with it comes another, dealt with +here and there, but as a rule ignored,--vapors as deadly as dust; vapors +of muriatic acid from pickling tins; of choking chlorine from +bleaching-rooms; of gas and phosphorus, which even now, where strongest +preventives are used, still pull away both teeth and jaws from many a +worker in match-factories; while acids used in cleaning, +bleaching-powders, and many an industry where women and children chiefly +are employed, eat into hands and clothing, and make each hour a torture. + +With the countless forms of machinery for stamping and rolling and +cutting and sawing, there is yet, in spite of all the safeguards the law +compels, the saying still heard in these shops: "It takes three fingers +to make a stamper." Carelessness often; but where two must work +together, as is necessary in tending many of these machines, the +partner's inattention is often responsible, and mutilation comes through +no fault of one's own. Add to all these the suffering of little +children taught lace-making at four, sewing on buttons or picking +threads far into the night, and driven through the long hours that they +may add sixpence to the week's wage, and we have a hint of the grewsome +catalogue of the human woe born of human need and human greed. + +For the United States there is a steadily lessening proportion of these +evils, and we shall deal chiefly with those found in existence by the +respective bureaus of labor at the time when their investigations were +made. Private and public investigation made before their organization +had brought to light in Connecticut, and at many points in New England, +gross abuses both in child labor and that of woman and girl workers. It +is sufficient, however, for our purpose to refer the reader to the +mention of these contained in the first report of the Massachusetts +Bureau of Labor, as well as to Dr. Richard T. Ely's "History of the +Labor Movement in America," and to pass at once to the facts contained +in the fifteenth report from Massachusetts. + +The ventilation of factories and of workrooms in general is one of the +first points considered. Naturally, facts of this order would be found +in the testimony only of the more intelligent. Where factories are new +and built expressly for their own purposes, ventilation is considered, +and in many is excellent. But in smaller ones and in many industries the +structures used were not intended for this purpose. Closely built +buildings shut off both light and air, which must come wholly from +above, thus preventing circulation, and producing an effect both +depressing and wearing. The agents in a number of cases found employees +packed "like sardines in a box;" thirty-five persons, for example, in a +small attic without ventilation of any kind. Some were in very +low-studded rooms, with no ventilation save from windows, causing bad +draughts and much sickness, and others in basements where dampness was +added to cold and bad air. + +In many cases the nature of the trade compelled closed windows, and no +provision was made for ventilation in any other way. In one case girls +were working in "little pens all shelved over, without sufficient light +or air, windows not being open, for fear of cooling wax thread used on +sewing-machines."[41] + +For a large proportion of the workrooms visited or reported upon was a +condition ranging from dirty to filthy. In some where men and women were +employed together in tailoring, the report reads: "Their shop is filthy +and unfit to work in. There are no conveniences for women; and men and +women use the same closets, wash-basins, and drinking-cups, etc."[42] In +another a water-closet in the centre of the room filled it with a +sickening stench; yet forty hands were at work here, and there are many +cases in which the location of these closets and the neglect of proper +disinfectants make not only workrooms but factories breeding-grounds of +disease. + +Lack of ventilation in almost all industries is the first evil, and one +of the most insidious. Other points affecting health are found in the +nature of certain of the trades and the conditions under which they must +be carried on. Feather-sorters, fur-workers, cotton-sorters, all +workers on any material that gives off dust, are subject to lung and +bronchial troubles. In soap-factories the girls' hands are eaten by the +caustic soda, and by the end of the day the fingers are often raw and +bleeding. In making buttons, pins, and other manufactures of this +nature, there is always liability of getting the fingers jammed or +caught. For the first three times the wounds are dressed without charge. +After that the person injured must pay expenses. In these and many other +trades work must be so closely watched that it brings on weakness of the +eyes, so that many girls are under treatment for this. + +In bakeries the girls stand from ten to sixteen hours a day, and break +down after a short time. Boots and shoes oblige being on the feet all +day; and this is the case for saleswomen, cash-girls, and all +factory-workers. In type-founderies the air is always filled with a fine +dust produced by rubbing, and the girls employed have no color in their +faces. In paper-box making constant standing brings on the same +difficulties found among all workers who stand all day; and they +complain also of the poison often resulting from the coloring matter +used in making the boxes. In book-binderies, brush-manufactories, etc., +the work soon breaks down the girls. + +In the clothing-business, where the running of heavy sewing-machines is +done by foot-power, there is a fruitful source of disease; and even +where steam is used, the work is exhausting, and soon produces weakness +and various difficulties. + +In food preparations girls who clean and pack fish get blistered hands +and fingers from the saltpetre employed by the fishermen. Others in +"working-stalls" stand in cold water all day, and have the hands in cold +water; and in laundries, confectionery establishments, etc., excessive +heat and standing in steam make workers especially liable to throat and +lung diseases, as well as those induced by continuous standing. + +Straw goods produce a fine dust, and cause a constant hacking among the +girls at work upon them; and the acids used in setting the colors often +produce "acid sores" upon the ends of the fingers. + +In match-factories, as already mentioned, even with the usual +precautions, necrosis often attacks the worker, and the jaw is eaten +away. Sores, ulcerations, and suffering of many orders are the portion +of workers in chemicals. In many cases a little expenditure on the part +of the employer would prevent this; but unless brought up by an +inspector, no precautions are taken. + +The question of seats for saleswomen comes up periodically, has been at +some points legislated upon, and is in most stores ignored or evaded. +"The girls look better,--more as if they were ready for work," is the +word of one employer, who frankly admitted that he did not mean they +should sit; and this is the opinion acted upon by most. Insufficient +time for meals is a universal complaint; and nine times out of ten, the +conveniences provided are insufficient for the numbers who must use +them, and thus throw off offensive and dangerous effluvia. + +It is one of the worst evils in shop life, not only for Massachusetts, +but for the entire United States, that in all large stores, where fixed +rules must necessarily be adopted, girls are forced to ask men for +permission to go to closets, and often must run the gauntlet of men and +boys. All physicians who treat this class testify to the fact that many +become seriously diseased as the result of unwillingness to subject +themselves to this ordeal. + +One of the ablest factory-inspectors in this country, or indeed in any +country, Mrs. Fanny B. Ames of Boston, reports this as one of the least +regarded points in a large proportion of the factories and manufacturing +establishments visited, but adds that it arises often from pure +ignorance and carelessness, and is remedied as soon as attention is +called to it. + +Taking up the other New England reports in which reference to these +evils is found, the testimony is the same. Law is often evaded or wholly +set aside,--at times through carelessness, at others wilfully. The most +exhaustive treatment of this subject in all its bearings is found in the +report of the New Jersey Bureau of Labor for 1889, the larger portion of +it being devoted to the fullest consideration of the hygiene of +occupation, the diseases peculiar to special trades, and general +sanitary condition and methods of working, not only in "dangerous, +unhealthy, or noxious trades," but in all. Commissioner Bishop, from +whose report quotations have already been made (p. 197), gives many +instances of working under fearful conditions, absolutely destructive to +health and often to morals; and the report may be regarded as one of the +most authoritative words yet spoken in this direction. + +The Factory Inspection Law for the State of New York, in detail much the +same as that of Massachusetts, is sufficiently full and explicit to +secure to all workers better conditions than any as yet attained save in +isolated cases. There is, however, constant violation of its most vital +points; and this must remain true for all States, until the number of +inspectors is made in some degree adequate to the demand. At present +they are not only seriously overworked, but find it impossible to cover +the required ground. The law which stands at present as the demand to be +made by all factory-workers and all interested in intelligent +legislation, will be found in the Appendix. + +Destructive to health and morals as are often the factories and +workshops in which women must work, they play far less part in their +lives than the homes afforded by the great cities, where the poor herd +in quarters,--at their best only tolerable shelters, at their worst +unfit for man or beast. It is the tenement-house question that in these +words presents itself for consideration, and that makes part of the +general problem. Taking New York as illustrative of some of the worst +forms of over-crowding, though Boston and Chicago are not far behind, we +turn to the work of one of the closest and most competent of observers, +Dr. Annie S. Daniel, for many years physician in charge of out-practice +for the New York Infirmary for Women and Children. The report of this +practice for 1891 includes a series of facts bearing vitally on every +phase of woman's labor. Known as an expert in these directions, her +testimony was called for in the examination of 1893 into the +sweating-system of New York, made by a congressional committee and now +on record in a report to be had on application to the New York +Congressmen at Washington.[43] For years she has watched the effects of +child-labor, taking hundreds of measurements of special cases, and +studying the effects of the life mothers and children alike were +compelled to live. "The medical problems," she writes, "which present +themselves to the physician are so closely connected with the social +problems that it is impossible to study one alone. The people are sick +because of insufficient food and clothing and unsanitary surroundings, +and these conditions exist because the people are poor. They are often +poor _because they have no work_." At another point, commenting on +drinking among the poor, she writes: "Drinking among the women is +increasing. In the majority of cases we have studied, it has been the +effect of poverty, not the cause." + +In the region between Houston Street and Canal Street, known now to be +the most thickly populated portion of the inhabited globe, every house +is a factory; that is, some form of manufacture is going on in every +room. The average family of five adds to itself from two to ten more, +often a sewing-machine to each person; and from six or seven in the +morning till far into the night work goes on,--usually the manufacture +of clothing. Here contagious diseases pass from one to another. Here +babies are born and babies die, the work never pausing save for death +and hardly for that. In one of these homes Dr. Daniel found a family of +five making cigars, the mother included. "Two of the children were ill +of diphtheria. Both parents attended to these children; they would +syringe the nose of each child, and without washing their hands return +to their cigars. We have repeatedly observed the same thing when the +work was manufacturing clothing and undergarments to be bought as well +by the rich as by the poor. Hand-sewed shoes, made for a fashionable +Broadway shoe-store, were sewed at home by a man in whose family were +three children sick with scarlet-fever. And such instances are common. +Only death or lack of work closes tenement-house manufactories ... When +we consider that stopping this work means no food and no roof over their +heads, the fact that the disease may be carried by their work cannot be +expected to impress the people." + +Farther on in the report, she adds: "The people can neither be moral nor +healthy until they have decent homes." Yet the present wage-rate makes +decent homes impossible; and though Brooklyn and Boston have a few model +tenement-houses, New York has none, the experiment of making over in +part a few old ones hardly counting save in intention. Into these homes +respectable, ambitious, hard-working girls and women are compelled to +go. That they live decent lives speaks worlds for the intrinsic goodness +and purity of nature which in the midst of conditions intolerable to +every sense still preserves these characteristics. That they must live +in such surroundings is one of the deepest disgraces of civilization. + +As to wages, concerning which there seems to be a general opinion that +steady rise has gone on, we find Dr. Daniel giving the rates for many +years. She writes:-- + + "Wages have steadily decreased. Among the women who earned the + whole or part of the income, finishing pantaloons was the most + common occupation. For this work, in 1881, they received ten to + fifteen cents a pair; for the same work in 1891, three to five, at + the most ten cents a pair. The women doing this work claim that + wages are reduced because of the influx of Italian women, but few + Italian women do the poor quality of trousers. While we are glad to + note some excellent sanitary changes in the tenement-house + construction, the people we believe to be just as poor, just as + overcrowded and wretched to-day, as in 1881 and 1853, the only + difference being that there are a greater number of people who are + poor now." + +These statements apply in great part to unskilled labor; but there is +always in these houses a large proportion of skilled labor disabled by +sickness or other causes and out of work for the time being. The wage at +best for skilled labor is given by the Labor Commissioner as $5.29. Let +any one study the possibilities of this sum per week, and the wonder +will arise, not why living is not easier, but how it goes on at all. + +Specific evils speak for themselves, and are gradually being eliminated. +They are before the eyes, and the least experienced student may gauge +their bearing and judge their effects. But wider-reaching than any or +all the worst abuses of the worst trades is the wrong done to the child +and to family life as a whole, by the continuous labor of married women +in factories, or at any occupation which demands, for ten hours or more +a day, unremitting toil. At all points where scientific observation has +been made the expert lifts up a warning voice. It is the future of the +race that is in question. Child labor, while not entering directly into +our present examination, is, as has already been said, inextricably +bound up with the question of woman's work and wages. The two must be +studied together; and for our own country there are already admirable +monographs on this subject,[44] two authoritative ones coming from the +American Economic Association, and one hardly less so from a close and +keen observer whose scientific training gives her equal right to form +conclusions.[45] + +A dispassionate observer, Mr. W. Stanley Jevons, whose conclusions are +founded on long investigation and deduction, years ago wrote words which +he has at various times emphasized and repeated, and which sum up the +evils to which the infancy of the children of overworked mothers is +subject, as well as the consequences to the State in which they are +born, and which faces the results of the system which produces them. He +writes as follows:-- + + "We can help evolution by the aid of its own highest and latest + product,--science. When all the teaching of medical and social + science lead us to look upon the absence of the mother from the + home as the cause of the gravest possible evils, can we be + warranted in standing passively by, allowing this evil to work + itself out to the bitter end, by the process of natural selection? + Something might perhaps be said in favor of the present apathetic + mode of viewing this question, if natural selection were really + securing the survival of the fittest, so that only the weakly babes + were killed off, and the strong ones well brought up. But it is + much to be feared that no infants ever really recover from the test + of virtual starvation to which they are so ruthlessly exposed. The + vital powers are irreparably crippled, and the infant grows up a + stunted, miserable specimen of humanity, the prey to every physical + and moral evil."[46] + +It is hardly necessary to go on specifying special violations of +sanitary law or special illustrative cases. The Report of the New York +Bureau of Labor for 1885 is a magazine of such cases,--a summary of all +the horrors that the worst conditions can include. Aside from the +revolting pictures of the life lived from day to day by the workers +themselves, it gives in detail case after case of rapacity and +over-reaching on the part of the employers; and parallel ones may be +found in every labor report which has touched upon the subject. + +In New York a "Working Woman's Protective Union," formed more than +twenty-five years ago, has done unceasing work in settling disputed +claims and collecting wages unjustly withheld. No case is entered on +their books which has not been examined by their lawyer, and thus only +well grounded complaints find record; but with even these precautions +the records show nearly fifty thousand adjudicated since they began +work. Many cities have special committees, in the organized charities, +who seek to cover the same ground, but who find it impossible to do all +that is required. From East and West alike, complaints are practically +the same. It is not only women in trades, but those in domestic service, +who are recorded as suffering every form of oppression and injustice. +Colorado and California, Kansas and Wisconsin, speak the same word. With +varying industries wrongs vary, but the general summary is the same. + +The system of fines, while on general principles often just, has been +used by unscrupulous employers to such a degree as to bring the week's +wages down a third or even half. It is impossible to give illustrative +instances in detail; but all who deal with girls, in clubs and +elsewhere, report that the system requires modification. + +On the side of the employers, and as bearing also on the evils which are +most marked among women workers, we may quote from the Government +Report, "Working Women in Large Cities":-- + + "Actual ill-treatment by employers seems to be infrequent.... + Foreigners are often found to be more considerate of their help + than native-born men, and the kindest proprietor in the world is a + Jew of the better class. In some shops week-workers are locked out + for the half-day if late, or docked for every minute of time lost, + an extra fine being often added. Piece workers have great freedom + as to hours, and employers complain much of tardiness and + absenteeism. The mere existence of health and labor laws insures + privileges formerly unheard of; half-holidays in summer, vacation + with pay, and shorter hours are becoming every year more frequent, + better workshops are constructed, and more comfortable + accommodations are being furnished." + +This is most certainly true, but more light shows the shadows even more +clearly; and the fact remains that every force must be brought to bear, +to remedy the evils depicted in the reports of the bureaus quoted here. + +The general conditions of working-women in New York retail stores were +reported upon, in 1890, by a committee from the Working-Woman's Society, +at 27 Clinton Place, New York. The report was read at a mass meeting +held at Chickering Hall, May 6, 1890; and its statements represent +general conditions in all the large cities of the United States. It is +impossible to give more than the principal points of the report; but +readers can obtain it on application to the Secretary of the +Association.[47] These are as follows:-- + +Hours are often excessive, and employees are not paid for over-time. +Many stores give no half-holiday, and keep open on Saturdays till ten +and eleven o'clock in the evening, and at the holiday season do this for +three or four weeks nightly. + +Sanitary conditions are usually bad, and include bad ventilation, +unsanitary arrangements, and indifference to the considerations of +decency. Toilet arrangements in many stores are horrible, and closets +for male and female are often side by side, with only slight partition +between. One hand-basin and towel serve for all. Often water for drink +can be obtained only from the attic. + +Numbers of children under age are employed for excessive hours, and at +work far beyond their strength, an investigation having shown that over +one hundred thousand children under the legal age of fourteen were at +work in factories, workshops, and stores. + +Service for a number of years often meets with no consideration, but is +regarded as a reason for dismissal. It is the rule in some stores to +keep no one over five years, lest they come to feel that they have some +claim on the firm; and when a saleswoman is dismissed from one house, +she finds it almost impossible to obtain employment in another. + +The wages are reduced by excessive fines, employers placing a value upon +time lost that is not given to services rendered. The fines run from +five to thirty cents for a few minutes' tardiness. In some stores the +fines are divided at the end of the year between the timekeeper and the +superintendent, and there is thus every temptation to injustice. + +The report concludes:-- + + "We find that, through low wages, long hours, unwholesome sanitary + conditions, and the discouraging effect of excessive fines, not + only is the physical condition injured, but the tendency is to + injure the moral well-being. It is simply impossible for a woman to + live without assistance on the low salary a saleswoman earns, + without depriving herself of real necessities." + +These were the conditions which, in 1889, led to the formation of the +little society which, though limited in numbers, has done admirable and +efficient work, its latest effort being to secure from the Assembly at +Albany a bill making inspection of stores and shops as obligatory as +that of factories. + +It was through the concerted effort of its members that the Factory +Inspection Act became a law, though not without violent opposition. The +bill originated in the Working-Woman's Society, was drawn up there, sent +to Albany by its delegates, and passed without the aid of money. + +There are eleven thousand factories in New York State, and only one +inspector to investigate their condition; while in England, scarce +larger in territory, forty-one inspectors are appointed by the +Government. + +The Andrus bill, adding to the power of factory inspectors, raising the +working age of children to fourteen years, and prohibiting night work +for girls under twenty-one and boys under eighteen, was sent with the +Factory Bill to the Central Labor Union, and the women were largely +instrumental in obtaining the passage of the measure. + +Why such determined opposition still meets every attempt to bring about +the same inspection for mercantile establishments cannot be determined; +but thus far, though admitted to be necessary, the act has at each +reading been laid upon the table. Another effort will be made in the +coming winter of 1893-94. + +In spite, however, of much agitation of all phases of woman's work, it +is only some wrong as startling as that involved in the sweating-system +that seems able to arouse more than a temporary interest. One of the +most able and experienced women inspectors of the United States Bureau +of Labor, Miss de Grafenried, has lately written:-- + + "It is an open question whether woman's pay is not falling, cost + and standards of living considered. Could partly supported labor + and children be eliminated, shop employees would get higher rates. + Still there are other economic anomalies that affect women's wages. + 'Wholesalers' and manufacturers shut up their factories and 'give + out' everything--umbrellas, coats, hair-wigs, and shrouds--to be + made,--they know not in what den, or wrung they care not from what + misery ... Again, wages are depressed by over-stimulating + piece-work; and its unscrupulous use by proprietors who hesitate to + confess to paying women only $3 or $4 a week, yet who scale prices + so that only experts can earn that sum. Many employers cut rates as + soon as, by desperate exertions, operatives clear $5 a week. Then, + underbidding from the unemployed is a fruitful source of low wages. + Massachusetts has 20 per cent of her workers unemployed." + +These conditions, while varying as to numbers, are practically the same +for the work of women in all parts of the United States, and are matters +of increasing perplexity and sorrow to every searcher into these +problems. At its best, woman's work in industries is intermittent, since +it is only textile work that continues the year round; dress and cloak +making, shoe and umbrella making, fur-sewing and millinery, have +specific seasons, in the intervals between which the worker waits and +starves, or, if too desperate, goes upon the streets, driven there by +the wretched competitive system, the evils of which increase in direct +ratio to the longing for speedy wealth. In short, matters are at that +point where only radical change of methods can better the situation, +even the most conservative observer, relying most thoroughly upon +evolution, feeling something more than evolution must work if justice is +to have place in the present social scheme. + +It is at this point that some consideration of domestic service +naturally presents itself. Though regarded often as no part of the labor +question, there can be no other head under which to range it, since the +last census gives over a million persons engaged in this occupation, the +lowest rough estimate of wages being $160,000,000 and the support +included forming a sum at least as large. It is through the hands of +the domestic servant that a large part of the finished products of other +forms of labor must pass, and the economic aspects of the question grow +in importance with every year of the changing conditions of American +life. In no other occupation is a just consideration of the points +involved so difficult a task, since the mistress who faces the +incompetence, insubordination, and all the other trials involved in the +relation, suffers too keenly from the sense of individual wrong to treat +the matter in the large. Till it is so treated, however, understanding +for both sides is impossible, and to bring about such understanding is +the first necessity for all. + +From the employer's standpoint the advantages to be stated are as +follows: First and most obvious is the fact that wages are not only +relatively but absolutely high; for aside from the actual cash there are +also board, lodging, fuel, light, and laundry, all of which the worker +in trades must provide for herself. There is no capital required, as for +type-writer, sewing-machine, or any appliances for work, nor is the girl +forced to expend anything in preparation, since under the present system +housekeepers take her untrained fresh from Castle Garden, and willingly +give the needed instruction, at the same time paying the same wage as +that given to competent service. Professor Lucy Salmon, of Vassar, who +has devoted much time to this subject, reports that, on examination of +testimony from three thousand employees, it is found that on a wage of +$3.25 a week it is possible to save annually nearly $150 "in an +occupation involving no outlay, no investment of capital, and few or no +personal expenses." The wages received are relatively higher than those +of other occupations; for in Professor Salmon's comparison of wages +received by three thousand country and the same number of city employees +it was found that of six thousand teachers in the public schools the +average salary actually paid is less than that paid to the average cook +in a large city. + +The second advantage lies in the healthfulness of the work, which +includes not only regularity but variety; the third, that a home, at +least in all externals, is insured; the fourth, that a training which +makes the worker more fit for married life is certain; and a fifth, that +the work is congenial and easy for those whose tastes lie in this +direction. + +These are the facts that are constantly urged upon the army of +under-paid, half-starving needlewomen in our great cities, and no less +upon another army of girls in shops and factories, who are implored to +consider the advantages of domestic service and to give up their +unnecessary battle with the limitations hedging in every other form of +labor. Astonishment that the girls prefer the factory and shop is +unending, nor is it regarded as possible that substantial reason may and +must exist for such choice. As a means of arriving at some solution of +the problem, some six hundred employees of every order were interviewed, +under circumstances which made their replies perfectly free and full; +and the results tallied exactly with others obtained by an inquiry in +the Philadelphia Working-Woman's Guild, a society then representing +seventy-two distinct occupations. + +A report of this inquiry was made by Mrs. Eliza S. Turner, the President +of the Guild, and is given as the most suggestive view of the whole +subject yet secured. She writes as follows:-- + + "Why do not intelligent, refined girls more frequently choose house + service as a support?" The replies here given are as nearly as + possible _verbatim_: + + 1. Loss of freedom. This is as dear to women as to men, although we + don't get so much of it. The day of a saleswoman or a factory hand + may be long, but when it is done she is her own mistress; but in + service, except when she is actually out of the house, she has no + hour, no minute, when her soul is her own. + + 2. Hurts to self-respect. One thing that makes housework + unpleasant--chamber-work, for instance, and waiting on table--is + that it is a kind of personal service, one human being waiting on + another. The very thing you would do without a thought in your own + home for your own family seems menial when it is demanded by a + stranger. + + 3. The very words, "service" and "servant," are hateful. It is all + well enough to talk about service being divine, but that is not the + way the world looks at it. + + 4. Say that a young woman well brought up undertakes to do + chamber-work; she is obliged to associate with the other girls, no + matter how uncongenial they may be, what may be their language or + personal habits or table manners. If she tries to keep to herself, + the rest think she is taking airs, and combine to make her life + unbearable. + + 5. Or say she takes a place for general housework; to be alone in + the midst of others is crushing,--quite different from being alone + in one's own lodgings. + + 6. I suppose a soldier doesn't mind being ordered around by his + captain; but in a family the mistress and maid are so mixed up that + it is much harder to keep the lines from tangling. It takes a very + superior person, on both sides, to do it. + + 7. I knew an educated woman--a lady--who tried it as a sort of + upper housemaid. The work was easy, the pay good, and she never had + a harsh word; but they just seemed unconscious of her existence. + She said the gentlemen of the house, father and son, would come in + and stand before her to have her take their umbrellas or help them + off with their coats, and sometimes without speaking to her or even + looking at her. There was something so humiliating about it that + she couldn't stand it, but went back to slop shop sewing. + + 8. Many mistresses have no standard of the amount of work a girl + ought to do. They know nothing about housework themselves. If a + girl is deliberate and saves herself, they call her slow; if she is + ambitious, and gets her work done early, and they see her sitting + down in working-hours, they conclude that she is not earning her + wages, and hunt up some extra job for her. No matter if you can't + find anything undone, if she is found sitting about she _must_ be + lazy. + + 9. Some employers think that after the more violent work is done, + it is only a rest for the girl to look after the child awhile. They + don't seem to realize that if the mother finds it such a relief to + get rid of her own child for an hour or so, it is likely to be + still less interesting to take care of somebody else's child. + + 10. Many people think the position of a child's nurse is very light + work indeed,--mostly just sitting around; so they don't hesitate to + give her the care of one or two children all day, not even + arranging for her to get her meals without the oversight of them; + and then most likely put the baby to sleep with her at night. Any + one minute of such a day may not be heavy, but to have it for + twenty-four hours is enough to wear out the strongest human being + ever made. + + 11. I knew a school-teacher who thought more active occupation + would better suit her health; she took a place as child's nurse. + She loved children, and found no objection to the work; but soon + the employer concluded to put her in a _bonne's_ cap and apron. My + friend would have worn and liked a nurse's uniform, but she + objected to a family livery. On this question they parted; and her + employer hired an uncouth, ignorant woman to be her child's + companion and to give it its first impressions. + + 12. In most houses, however elegant, the girls have no home + privacy; they must sleep, not only in the same room, but most + frequently in the same bed; it is rarely thought necessary to make + that room pleasant or even warm for them to dress by or to sit in + to do their own sewing. The little tastes and notions of each + member of the family, down to the youngest, are provided for; but a + "girl" is not supposed to have any. She is just a "girl," as a + gridiron is a gridiron, an article bought for the convenience of + the family. If she suits, use her till she is worn out and then + throw her away. + + 13. To go into house service, even from the most wretched slop or + factory work, is to lose caste in our own world; it may be a very + narrow world, but it is all to us. A saleswoman or cashier or + teacher is ashamed to associate with servants. + + 14. The very words, "No followers," would keep us out of such + occupation. No self-respecting young woman is going to put herself + in a position where she is not allowed to entertain her friends, + both male and female; nor where, if allowed, the only place thought + fit for them is the kitchen. + + Now, the above is not theory, but testimony, taken by the present + writer from the lips of intelligent working-girls, many of whom + would be better off at housework than at their present occupations, + except for the objections. And from a consideration thereof results + this query: Given a certain number of young women of a class + superior to the imported, willing to take service under the + following conditions, how many housekeepers would agree to the + conditions?-- + + 1. The heaviest work, as washing, carrying coal, scrubbing + pavements, and the like, to be provided for, if this be asked, with + consequent deduction in wages. + + 2. In families, where practicable, certain hours of absolute + freedom while in the house, especially with the child's nurse. + + 3. Such a way of speaking, both to and of your house help, as + testifies to the world that you really do consider housework as + respectable as other occupations. + + 4. A well-warmed, well-furnished room, with separate beds when + desired; and the use of a decent place and appointments at meals. + + 5. The privilege of seeing friends, whether male or female; of a + better part of the house than the kitchen in which to receive them; + and security from espionage during their visits,--this accompanied + by proper restrictions as to evening hours, and under the condition + that the work is not neglected. + + 6. No livery, if objected to. + +Turning from this informal examination of the subject to the few labor +reports which have taken up the matter, it becomes plain that domestic +service is in many points more undesirable than any other occupation +open to women. The Labor Commissioner of Minnesota reports, while +stating all the advantages of the domestic servant over the general +worker, that "only a fifth of those who employ them are fit to deal +with any worker, injustice and oppression characterizing their methods." +Figures and detailed statements bear him out in this conclusion. The +Colorado Commissioner gives even more details, and comes to the same +conclusion; and though other reports do not take up the subject in +detail, their indications are the same. + +The first general and rational presentation of the subject in all its +bearings, both for employed and employer, has lately been made during +the Woman's Congress at Chicago, May, 1893, in which the Domestic +Science section discussed every phase of wrongs and remedies.[48] The +latter sum up in the formation of bureaus of employment in every large +city, fixed rates, and full preparatory training. A keen observer of +social facts has stated: The intelligence offices of New York alone +receive from servants yearly over three million dollars, and are +notoriously inefficient. This, or even half of it, would provide a great +centre with training-schools, lodgings for all who needed them, and a +system by which fixed rates were made according to the grade of +efficiency of the worker. Till household service comes under the laws +determining value, as well as hours and all other points involved in the +wage for a working-day, it will remain in the disorganized and hopeless +state which at present baffles the housekeeper, and deters +self-respecting women and girls from undertaking it. To bring about some +such organization as that suggested will most quickly accomplish this; +and there seems already hope that the time is not distant when every +city will have its agency corresponding to the great Bourse du Travail +in Paris, but even more comprehensive in scope. Co-operation within +certain limited degrees, so that private home life will not be infringed +upon, must necessarily make part of such a scheme, and has already been +tried with success at various points in the West; but details can +hardly be given here. It is sufficient to add that with such new basis +for this form of occupation the "servant question" will cease to be a +terror, and the most natural occupation for women will have countless +recruits from ranks now closed against it. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[41] Fifteenth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor, p. +68. + +[42] Ibid. + +[43] House of Representatives Report No. 2309: Report of the Committee +on Manufactures on the Sweating-System, House of Representatives, +January, 1893. + +[44] Child Labor. By William F. Willoughby, A.B. Child Labor. By Miss +Clare de Grafenried, Publications of the American Economic Association, +vol. v. no. 2. + +[45] Our Toiling Children. By Florence Kelley, W.C.T.U. Publishing +Association, Chicago. + +[46] Married Women in Factories. By W. Stanley Jevons, Contemporary +Review, vol. xli. pp. 37-53. + +[47] Miss Alice Woodbridge, Secretary of the Working-Woman's Society, 27 +Clinton Place, New York. + +[48] The association then formed, and from which much is hoped, made the +following summary of its objects:-- + +"The objects of this Association shall be: 1. To awaken the public mind +to the importance of establishing a Bureau of Information where there +can be an exchange of wants and needs between employer and employed in +every department of home and social life. 2. To promote among members of +the Association a more scientific knowledge of the economic value of +various foods and fuels; a more intelligent understanding of correct +plumbing and drainage in our homes, as well as need for pure water and +good light in a sanitarily built house. 3. To secure skilled labor in +every department of women's work in our homes,--not only to demand +better trained cooks and waitresses, but to consider the importance of +meeting the increasing demand for those competent to do plain sewing and +mending." + + + + +XII. + +REMEDIES AND SUGGESTIONS. + + +The student of social problems who faces the misery of the lowest order +of worker, and the sharp privation endured by many even of the better +class, is apt, in the first fever of amazement and indignation, to feel +that some instant force must be brought to bear, and justice secured, +though the heavens fall. It is this sense of the struggle of humanity +out of which have been born Utopias of every order, from the "Republic" +of Plato to the dream in "Looking Backward." Not one of these can be +spared; and that they exist and find a following larger and larger, is +the surest evidence of the soul at the bottom of each. But for those who +take the question as a whole, who see how slow has been the process of +evolution, and how impossible it is to hasten one step of the unfolding +that humankind is still to know, it is the ethical side that comes +uppermost, and that first demands consideration. + +Taking the mass of the lowest order of workers at all points, the first +aim of any effort intended for their benefit is to disentangle the +individual from the mass. It is not charity that is to do this. "Homes" +of every variety open their doors; but in all of them still lurks the +suspicion of charity; and even when this has no active formulation in +the worker's mind, there is still the underlying sense of the essential +injustice of withholding with one hand just pay, and with the other +proffering a substitute, in a charity which is to reflect credit on the +giver and demand gratitude from the receiver. Here and there this is +recognized, and within a short time has been emphasized by a woman whose +name is associated with the work of organized charities throughout the +country,--Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell. It is doubtful if there is any +woman in the country better fitted, by long experience and almost +matchless common-sense, to speak authoritatively. She writes:-- + + "So far from assuming that the well-to-do portion of society have + discharged all their obligations to men and God by supporting + charitable institutions, I regard just this expenditure as one of + the prime causes of the suffering and crime that exist in our + midst.... I am inclined, in general, to look upon what is called + charity as the insult added to the injury done to the mass of the + people, by insufficient payment for work." + +Just pay, then, heads the list of remedies. The difficulty of fixing +this is necessarily enormous, nor can it come at once; since education +for not only the employer but the public as a whole is demanded. To +bring this about is a slow process. It is a transition period in which +we live. Material conditions born of phenomenal material progress have +deadened the sense as to what constitutes real progress; and the +working-woman of to-day contends not only with visible but invisible +obstacles, the nature of which we are but just beginning to discern. +Twenty years ago M. Paul Leroy-Beaulieu wrote of women wage-earners:-- + + "From the economic point of view, woman, who has next to no + material force, and whose arms are advantageously replaced by the + least machine, can have useful place and obtain a fair remuneration + only by the development of the best qualities of her intelligence. + It is the inexorable law of our civilization,--the principle and + formula even of social progress,--that mechanical engines are to + perform every operation of human labor which does not proceed + directly from the mind. The hand of man is each day deprived of a + portion of its original task; but this general gain is a loss for + the particular, and for the classes whose only instrument of labor + is a pair of feeble arms." + +Take the fact here stated, and add to it all that is implied in modern +competitive conditions, and we see the true nature of the task that +awaits us. To do away with this competition would not accomplish the end +desired. To guide it and bring it into intelligent lines is part of the +general education. Profit-sharing is an indispensable portion of the +justice to be done; and this, too, implies education for both sides, and +would go far toward lessening burdens. We cannot abolish the factory, +but hours can be shortened; the labor of married women with young +children forbidden, as well as that of children below a fixed age. +Industrial education will prevent the possibility of another generation +owning so many incompetent and untrained workers, and technical schools +in general are already raising the standard and helping to secure the +same end. + +Our present methods mean waste in every direction, and trusts and +syndicates have already demonstrated how much may be saved to the +producer if intelligent combination can be brought about. Competition +can never wholly be set aside, since within reasonable limits it is the +spur of invention and a part of evolution itself. But if wise +co-operation be once adopted, the enormous friction and waste of present +methods ceases,--the waste of human life as well as of material. + +One cheering token of progress is the increased discussion as to methods +of training and the necessity of organization among women themselves. +Ten years ago only a voice here and there suggested the need of either. +In 1885, at the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement +of Science, Miss Sarah Harland, lecturer on Mathematics at Newnham +College, insisted that educated gentlewomen must have larger opportunity +for paying work. The three qualifications in all work she stated to be: +(1) Organization on a large scale; (2) Permanency; (3) Giving returns +that will enable the salaries paid to compete with those of teachers. + +She regarded dressmaking as the trade which could most readily organize +and meet the other conditions specified, and millinery as the trade +which would come next. Until such organization and its results have +gradually altered present conditions, it will be true for all workers, +on both sides of the sea, that not health alone but life itself are +continuously endangered by the facts hedging about all labor. Dr. +Stevens, the head of St. Luke's Insane Asylum in London, in a paper read +before the Social Science Association, said:-- + + "It may be stated with great confidence that a prolific cause for + the rapid and extensive increase of insanity in this country is to + be found in the unceasing toil and anxiety to which the + working-classes are subjected, this cause developing the disease in + the existing generation, or, what is quite as frequently the case, + transmitting to the offspring idiocy, insanity, or some imperfectly + developed sensorium or nervous system. The agitated, overworked, + and harassed parent is not in a condition to transmit a healthy + brain to his child."[49] + +Accepted as true in 1857, the words are not less so to-day, when cheap +labor swarms, and the unemployed number their millions. + +How best to combine and to what ends, is the lesson taught in every +form of the new movement for organization among women. To learn how to +work together and what power lies in combination, has been the lesson of +all clubs. Among men it has counted as one of the chief educating +forces, but for women every circumstance has fostered the distrust of +each other which belongs to all undeveloped natures. For the lowest +order of worker even, the "Working-Woman's Journal," published in London +and the organ of the Working-Woman's Protective Union, has for the last +year recorded, from month to month, the gradual progress of the idea of +combination, and the new hope it has brought to all who have gone into +trades unions. + +With us there has been equal need and equal ignorance of all that such +combinations have to give. They mean arbitration rather than strikes, +and the compelling of ignorant and unjust employers to consider the +situation from other points of view than their own. They compel also the +same attitude from men in the same trades, who often are as strong +opponents of a better chance for their associates among women workers +in the same branches, as the most prejudiced employer. + +Six points are urged by the Working-Woman's Society of New York, all in +the lines indicated here. Its purposes and aims, as given in the +prospectus, are as follows:-- + + 1. To encourage women in the various trades to protect their mutual + interests by organization. + + 2. To use all possible means to enforce the existing laws relating + to the protection of women and children in factories and shops, + investigating all reported violations of such laws; also to + promote, by all suitable means, further legislation in this + direction. + + 3. To work for the abolition of tenement-house manufacture, + especially in the cigar and clothing trades. + + 4. To investigate all reported cases of cruel treatment on the part + of employers and their managers to their women and children + employees, in withholding money due, in imposing fines, or in + docking wages without sufficient reason. + + 5. To found a labor bureau for the purpose of facilitating the + exchanging of labor between city and country, thus relieving the + over-crowded occupations now filled by women. + + 6. To publish a journal in the interests of working-women. + + 7. To secure equal pay for both sexes for equal work. + +These points are the same as those made by the few clubs which have +taken up the question of woman's work and wages; but thus far only this +society has formulated them definitely. Working-girls' clubs, friendly +societies, and guilds are giving to the worker new thoughts and new +purposes. The Convention of Working-Girls' Clubs held in New York in +April, 1890, showed the wide-reaching influence they had attained, and +the new ideals opening before the worker. It showed also with equal +force the roused sense of responsibility toward them, and the eager +interest and desire for their betterment in all ways. Where they +themselves touched upon their needs, there were direct statements in the +same line as many already quoted, which called for better pay, better +conditions, shorter hours, and fewer fines. + +Following the points given above came another presentation, the result +of still further and long-continued investigation; and as the methods of +the search and its results are practicable for all towns and cities +where women are at work, the statement prepared for the Society is given +in full:-- + + "We would call your attention to the condition of the women and + children in the large retail houses in this city,--conditions which + tend to injure both physically and morally, not only these women + and children, but working-women in general. The general idea is + that saleswomen are employed from eight A.M. to six P.M., but they + are really engaged in the majority of stores for such a time as the + firm requires them; which means in the Grand Street stores, until + ten, eleven, and twelve o'clock on Saturday night _all the year + round_, the Saturday half-holiday not being observed in summer; and + in the majority of houses that stock must be arranged after six + P.M., the time varying, according to season, from fifteen minutes + to five hours, _and this without supper or extra pay_; thus + compelling women and children to go long distances late at night, + and rendering them liable to insult and immoral influences. + + "Excessive fines are imposed in many stores,--fines varying from + ten to thirty cents for ten minutes' tardiness in the morning or + lunch hour, and for all mistakes. Cases are known of girls who have + been fined a full week's pay at the end of the week. In one store + the fines amounted to $3,000 in a year, and the sum was divided + between the superintendent and timekeeper; and the superintendent + was heard to charge the timekeeper with not being strict enough in + his duties. + + "Bad sanitary conditions, bad ventilation and toilet arrangements + are common, and the sanitary laws are not observed. Children under + age are employed at work far beyond their strength, often far into + the night. The average wages do not exceed $4.50; and in one of our + largest stores the average wage is $2.40, in another $2.90. The + tendency in all stores is to secure the cheapest help; for this + reason school-girls just graduated are much sought for, as they, + having homes, can afford to work for less. But a large proportion + of the saleswomen either pay board or help support a family; and + how can this be done on $4.50 per week? The cheapest board in dark + stuffy attics or tenement houses is $3.00, fuel and washing extra; + and no woman can pay doctor's bills and maintain a respectable + appearance on what remains. How then does she live? There are two + ways of answering: The story of a woman who worked in one of our + large houses is one way. This woman earned $3.00 per week; she paid + $1.50 for her room; her breakfast consisted of a cup of coffee; she + had no lunch; she had but one meal a day. Many saleswomen must be + in this condition. The other answer is that given by more than one + employer, who when saleswomen complain of the low wages offered, + reply: 'Oh, well, get yourself a gentleman friend; _most of our + girls have them_.' Not long since a member of our society received + a letter from a salesman in a certain house which read thus: 'In + the name of God cannot something be done for the saleswomen? I am a + salesman in----, and I have walked in disguise at night upon + certain streets to be accosted by girls in my own + department,--girls whose salaries are so low it was impossible to + live upon them." A painter told us that in working in the houses of + ill-repute in the vicinity of Twenty-third Street, he was + astonished at the number of women whom he recognized as saleswomen + in different stores who frequented these houses. But what are they + to do? They are women without trade or profession, thrown upon + their own resources, obliged to make a good appearance, and unable + to do so and yet have sufficient food. We must all concede that + virtue and honor in woman are natural, and very few women resort to + such ways unless forced to do so; certainly not, when they yet have + sufficient pride to wish to maintain the appearance of + respectability. If men's wages fall below a certain limit, they + become tramps, thieves, and robbers; but woman's wages _have no + limit_, since she can always work for less than she can subsist + upon, the _paths of shame being open to her_. And the beggarly + pittance for which one class of women work becomes the standard of + wages for all women, and throws them out upon the world, there to + find a sure market. But we do not wish to insinuate, in stating + these facts, that the majority of saleswomen resort to evil ways; + on the contrary, they are the exception who do so. We know the + majority of women prefer to suffer, and do suffer, rather than do + so. But can we allow a few to fall? We of the Working-Women's + Society believe that we are so far our sisters' keepers that we + are responsible for their position. + + "We believe that the payment and condition of those who work + (through their employers) for us is our affair, and we have no + right to remain in an ignorance that involves or may involve their + misery. We believe we have no right, having obtained such + knowledge, to refrain from seeking to remedy it, and urging all to + assist us to do so. + + "In this belief we call your attention to the proposed 'Consumers' + League,' the members of which shall pledge themselves to deal at + those stores where just conditions exist. + + "We have gotten together a number of facts which we shall be glad + to present to you with our estimate of a fair house, or one which + under existing conditions is eligible to admission to a white + list." + +Preceding this appeal and the public meetings which ensued, came, in +1890, the formation of the Consumers' League, Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell +its President. Quiet and inconspicuous as its work has been, the best +retail mercantile houses in New York have accepted its prospectus as +just, and stand now upon the "White List," which numbers all merchants +who seek to deal justly and fairly with their employees. "What +constitutes a Fair House" expresses all the needs and formulates the +most vital demands of the working-woman; and the results already +accomplished speak for themselves. As a guide to other workers, it is +given here in full:-- + + STANDARD OF A FAIR HOUSE. + + +Wages.+ + + A fair house is one in which equal pay is given for work of equal + value, irrespective of sex. In the departments where women only are + employed, in which the minimum wages are six dollars per week for + experienced adult workers, and fall in few instances below eight + dollars. + + In which wages are paid by the week. + + In which fines, if imposed, are paid into a fund for the benefit of + the employees. + + In which the minimum wages of cash-girls are two dollars per week, + with the same conditions regarding weekly payments and fines. + + +Hours.+ + + A fair house is one in which the hours from eight A.M. to six P.M. + (with three quarters of an hour for lunch) constitute the + working-day, and a general half-holiday is given on one day of each + week during at least two summer months. + + In which a vacation of not less than one week is given with pay + during the summer season. + + In which all over-time is compensated for. + + +Physical Conditions.+ + + A fair house is one in which work, lunch, and retiring rooms are + apart from each other, and conform in all respects to the present + sanitary laws. + + In which the present law regarding the providing of seats for + saleswomen is observed, and the use of seats permitted. + + +Other Conditions.+ + + A fair house is one in which humane and considerate behavior toward + employees is the rule. + + In which fidelity and length of service meet with the consideration + which is their due. + + In which no children under fourteen years of age are employed. + + +Membership.+ + + The condition of membership shall be the approval by signature of + the object of the Consumers' League; and all persons shall be + eligible for membership excepting such as are engaged in the retail + business in this city, either as employer or employee. + + The members shall not be bound never to buy at other shops. + + The names of the members of the Consumers' League shall not be made + public. + + +Later, one of the ablest workers in this field, Mrs. Florence Kelley, +formulated a basis for every society of working-women, as follows: + + I. To bring out of the chaos of competition the order of + co-operation. + + II. To organize all wages-earning women. + + III. To disseminate the literature of labor and co-operation. + + IV. To institute a label which shall enable the purchaser to + discriminate in favor of goods produced under healthful conditions. + + V. 1. Abolition of child labor to the age of sixteen. + + 2. Compulsory education to the age of sixteen. + + 3. Prohibition of employment of minors more than eight hours daily. + + 4. Prohibition of employment of minors at dangerous occupations. + + 5. Appointment of women inspectors, one for every thousand women + and children employed. + + 6. Healthful conditions of work for women and children. + + The foregoing to be obtained by legislation. + + The following to be obtained by organization:-- + + 1. Equal pay for equal work with men. + + 2. A minimal rate which will enable the least paid to live upon her + earnings. + +A little later, the statement which follows, became necessary:-- + + "Certain abuses exist in the dry-goods houses affecting the + well-being of the saleswomen and children employed, which we + believe can be remedied. In fact, in different stores some of them + have been remedied, which gives us courage to bring these matters + to your attention. + + "We find the hours are often excessive, and that these women and + children are not paid for over-time. + + "We find that in many houses the saleswomen work under unwholesome + conditions; these comprise bad ventilation, unsanitary toilet + arrangements, and an indifference to considerations of decency. + + "The wages, which are low, we find are often reduced by excessive + fines; that employers place a value on time lost that they fail to + give for service rendered. + + "We find that numbers of children under age are employed for + excessive hours, and at work far beyond their strength. + + "We find that long and faithful service does not meet with the + consideration that is its due; on the contrary, having served a + certain number of years is a reason for dismissal. + + "Because of the foregoing low wages, the discouraging result of + excessive fines, long hours, and unwholesome sanitary conditions, + not only the physical system is injured, but--the result we most + deplore, and of which we have incontrovertible proof--the tendency + _is to injure the moral well-being_. + + "We believe that to call attention to these evils is to go far + toward remedying them, and that the power to do this lies largely + in the hands of the purchasing classes. + + "We think that 'the payment and condition of those who + work--through their employers--for us, is our affair, and that we + have no right to remain in ignorance of the conditions that involve + or may involve their misery.'" + +Two points still remain untouched, both of them vital elements in the +just working of the social scheme,--profit-sharing, and a board of +conciliation and arbitration for the adjustment of all difficulties +between employer and employed. + +For every detail bearing upon the education bound up in even the attempt +at profit-sharing, as well as for the actual and successful results in +this direction, the reader is referred to an excellent little monograph +on the subject, "Sharing the Profits," by Miss Mary Whiton Calkins, +A.M., and for very full and elaborate treatment of the question, to the +invaluable volume by N.P. Gilman, "Profit-Sharing between Employer and +Employed." In all cases where the experiment has had fair trial, it has +resulted in a marked increase of interest in the work itself; an actual +lessening of the cost of production, and of general wear and tear, +because of this increased interest; and a far more friendly feeling +between employer and employed. It is certain that justice requires +immediate attention to every phase of this question, and that its +adoption is the first step in the right direction. + +For the second point, we have as yet in this country only an occasional +attempt at arbitration, yet its need becomes more and more apparent with +every fresh difficulty in the field of labor. A little volume by Mrs. +Josephine Shaw Lowell, at the time of writing,[50] going through the +press, who has given much time to a study of the question, contains the +latest results of English and French legislation, and of special action +in this direction. Any history of the movement as a whole, hardly has +place in these pages. It is sufficient to say that the system had +practically no consideration till 1850, when the first Board of +Arbitration was formed in England, owing its existence to the +determined efforts of two men. Mr. Rupert Kettle, lawyer and judge, +approached it from the legal side; Mr. Murdella, a manufacturer, and +himself sprung from the working-classes, went straight "to the practical +and moral end implied by the word 'conciliation,' ... both routes of +this noble emulation converging, each affording strength to the common +conclusions." + +The Nottingham lace manufacture, in which numbers of women and children +as well as men are employed, has, for thirty years and more, been +governed by a Board of Arbitration, the result being an end of strikes +and all difficulties of like nature. If no more were accomplished than +the bringing about a better understanding between employer and employed, +it would mean much, since mutual suspicion and distrust rule for both. +Organization among women, and the sense of mutual dependence given by +it, lead naturally to the formation of a board able to judge +dispassionately and disinterestedly of the questions naturally arising, +many of which, however, are at once dissipated on the adoption of the +system of profit-sharing. + +The practical steps already taken sum up in the forms just given; and +there remains only the question constantly asked as to the final effect +upon wages of woman's entrance into public life, this question usually +shaping itself under three heads:-- + +1. Why are they in the field? + +2. How does their work compare in efficiency with that of men? + +3. What is likely to be the final effect on wage of their entrance into +active life? + +The first phase has already had full answer in the general survey of +trades and their rise and growth. As to the second, personal +observation, long continued and minute, added to the very full knowledge +to be obtained from the reports of the various State bureaus of labor, +goes to prove beyond question that, given the same grade of +intelligence, the work of women is fully equal to that of men. +Descending in the scale to untrained labor in all its forms, the woman +is at times of less value than the man. The Knights of Labor, however, +settled definitely that this was seldom the case, and in their +constitution demanded equal pay for equal work. For both sexes +machinery is more and more superseding the labor of each; and as women +and children are quite capable of running much of it, this fact, of +course, brings the general wage to their standard. This, added to +various physiological and social reasons, makes woman often a less +dependable worker than man, and tends to keep wages at a minimum. + +As to the final effect on wages, I regard the whole aspect of things as +purely transitional, and must answer from personal conviction in the +matter. + +The entire movement appears to me a part of the natural evolution from +barbaric law and restriction, and a necessary demonstration of the +spiritual equality of the sexes. I regard it also as the nurse and +developer of many small virtues in which women are especially +deficient,--punctuality, unvarying quality of work, a sense of business +honor and of personal fidelity, each to all and all to each. But I +cannot feel that it is a permanent state, or that when the essential has +been accomplished women will have the same need or the same desire that +now rules. I believe that wages must necessarily fluctuate and tend to +the mere point of subsistence when either child labor or the lowest +grade of woman's labor exists, and that the only way out of the +complications we face is in an alteration of ideals. Statistics and +general reports show the demoralization of family life where such work +goes on, and the fact that in the long run the workman loses rather than +gains where his family share his labor. + +The lowering of wage may be considered, then, as in one sense remedial, +and the present state of things as in part the mere action of inevitable +and inescapable law. But it is impossible to make this plain in present +limits. Having passed through every stage of feeling,--sick pity, +burning indignation, and tempestuous desire for instant action,--I have +come at last to regard all as our education in justice and a demand for +training in such wise as shall render unskilled labor more and more +impossible. So long as it exists, however, I see no outlook but the +fluctuating and uncertain wage, the natural result of the existence of +the lowest order of workers. + +For them as for us it is the development of the individual from the mass +that is the chief end of any real civilization. No Utopias of any past +or present can bring this at once. + + "Each man to himself and each woman to herself, such is the word of + the past and the present, and the true word of immortality." + + "No one can acquire for another, not one; + No one can grow for another, not one." + + + +Despair might easily be the outcome of a first glance at these +conditions; but the stir at all points is assurance of a better day to +come. + +Legislation can do much. The appointment of women inspectors, lately +brought about for New York, is imperative at all points, since women +will tell women the evils they would never mention to men. Law can also +demand decent sanitary conditions, and affix a penalty for every +violation. Beyond this, and the awakening of the public conscience as to +what is owed the honest worker, little can be said. Enlightenment, a +better chance at every point for the struggling mass,--that is the work +for each and all of them, and for those who would aid the constant +demand, and labor for justice in its largest sense and its most rigorous +application. With justice on both sides, abuses die of pure inanition. +The tenement-house system, every evil that hedges about special trades, +every wrong born of cupidity and ignorance, and all base features of +trade at its worst, end once for all, and we see the end and aim of the +social life, whether for employer or employed. + +A generation ago Mazzini wrote:-- + + "The human soul, not the body, should be the starting-point of all + our efforts, since the body without the soul is only a carcass, + whilst the soul, wherever it is found free and holy, is sure to + mould for itself such a body as its wants and vocation require." + +It is this soul-moulding that is given chiefly into the hands of women. +It is through them that the higher ideal of life, its purpose and its +demands, is to be made known. No present scheme of general philanthropy +can touch this need. It is growth in the human soul itself that will +mean justice from the employer to each and every worker, and from the +worker in equal measure to the employer; and this justice can be +implanted in the child as certainly as many another virtue, into the +knowledge and love of which we grow but slowly. + +Never has deeper interest followed every movement for the understanding +and bettering of conditions. Never was there stronger ground for hope +that, in spite of the worst abuses existing, man's will is to join hands +at last with natural evolution toward higher forms. Faith and hope alike +find their assurance in the increasing sense of the solidarity of human +kind, and the spirit of brotherhood more and more discernible, which, as +it grows, must end all oppression, conscious and unconscious. The old +days of darkness are dying. Man knows at last that-- + + "Laying hands on another, + To coin his labor and sweat, + He goes in pawn to his victim + For eternal years in debt;" + +and in knowing it, the first step is taken in the new life wherein all +are brothers; and the law of love, slowly as it may work, ends forever +the long conflict between employer and employed. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[49] Transactions of the National Association for the Promotion of +Social Science, 1857, p. 554. + +[50] July, 1893. + + + + +APPENDIX. + + * * * * * + +FACTORY INSPECTION LAW. + +PASSED MAY 18, 1886; AMENDED MAY 25, 1887; AMENDED JUNE 15, 1889; +AMENDED MAY 21, 1890; AMENDED MAY 18, 1892. + + * * * * * + +CHAPTER 409, LAWS OF 1886 (AS AMENDED BY CHAPTER 673, LAWS OF 1892). + + An act to Regulate the Employment of Women and Children in + Manufacturing Establishments, and to Provide for the Appointment of + Inspectors to Enforce the Same. + + * * * * * + +_The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and +Assembly, do enact as follows_: + +SECTION I. No person under eighteen years of age, and no woman under +twenty-one years or age, employed in any manufacturing establishment, +shall be required, permitted, or suffered to work therein more than +sixty hours in any one week, or more than ten hours in any one day, +unless for the purpose of making a shorter work-day on the last day of +the week, nor more hours in any one week than will make an average of +ten hours per day for the whole number of days in which such person or +such woman shall so work during such week; and in no case shall any +person under eighteen years of age, or any woman under twenty-one years +of age, work in any such establishment after nine o'clock in the evening +or before six o'clock in the morning of any day. Every person, firm, +corporation, or company employing any person under eighteen years of +age, or any woman under twenty-one years of age, in any manufacturing +establishment, shall post and keep posted in a conspicuous place in +every room where such help is employed, a printed notice stating the +number of hours of labor per day required of such persons for each day +of the week, and the number of hours of labor exacted or permitted to be +performed by such persons shall not exceed the number of hours of labor +so posted as being required. The time of beginning and ending the day's +labor shall be the time stated in such notice; provided that such women +under twenty-one and persons under eighteen years of age may begin after +the time set for beginning, and stop before the time set in such notice +for the stopping of the day's labor; but they shall not be permitted or +required to perform any labor before the time stated on the notices as +the time for beginning the day's labor, nor after the time stated upon +the notices as the hour for ending the day's labor. The terms of the +notice stating the hours of labor required shall not be changed after +the beginning of labor on the first day of the week without the consent +of the Factory Inspector, Assistant Factory Inspector, or a Deputy +Factory Inspector. When, in order to make a shorter work-day on the +last day of the week, women under twenty-one and youths under eighteen +years of age are to be required, permitted, or suffered to work more +than ten hours in any one day, in a manufacturing establishment, it +shall be the duty of the proprietor, agent, foreman, superintendent, or +other person employing such persons, to notify the Factory Inspector, +Assistant Factory Inspector, or a Deputy Factory Inspector, in charge of +the district, in writing, of such intention, stating the number of hours +of labor per day which it is proposed to permit or require, and the date +upon which the necessity for such lengthened day's labor shall cease, +and also again forward such notification when it shall actually have +ceased. A record of the amount of over-time so worked, and of the days +upon which it was performed, with the names of the employees who were +thus required or permitted to work more than ten hours in any one day, +shall be kept in the office of the manufacturing establishment, and +produced upon the demand of any officer appointed to enforce the +provisions of this act. + +Sec. 2. No child under fourteen years of age shall be employed in any +manufacturing establishment within this State. It shall be the duty of +every person employing children to keep a register, in which shall be +recorded the name, birthplace, age and place of residence of every +person employed by him under the age of sixteen years; and it shall be +unlawful for any proprietor, agent, foreman, or other person in or +connected with a manufacturing establishment to hire or employ any child +under the age of sixteen years to work therein without there is first +provided and placed on file in the orifice an affidavit made by the +parent or guardian, stating the age, date, and place of birth of said +child; if said child have no parent or guardian, then such affidavit +shall be made by the child, which affidavit shall be kept on file by the +employer, and which said register and affidavit shall be produced for +inspection on demand made by the Inspector, Assistant Inspector, or any +of the deputies appointed under this act. There shall be posted +conspicuously in every room where children under sixteen years of age +are employed, a list of their names with their ages respectively. No +child under the age of sixteen years shall be employed in any +manufacturing establishment who cannot read and write simple sentences +in the English language, except during the vacation of the public +schools in the city or town where such minor lives. The Factory +Inspector, Assistant Inspector, and Deputy Inspectors shall have power +to demand a certificate of physical fitness from some regular physician, +in the case of children who may seem physically unable to perform the +labor at which they may be employed, and shall have power to prohibit +the employment of any minor that cannot obtain such a certificate. + +Sec. 3. No person, firm, or corporation shall employ or permit any child +under the age of fifteen years to have the care, custody, management +of, or to operate any elevator, or shall employ or permit any person +under the age of eighteen years to have the care, custody, management, +or operation of any elevator running at a speed of over two hundred feet +a minute. + +Sec. 4. It shall be the duty of the owner, agent, or lessee of any +manufacturing establishment where there is any elevator, hoisting-shaft, +or well-hole, to cause the same to be properly and substantially +inclosed or secured, if in the opinion of the Factory Inspector, or of +the Assistant Factory Inspector, or a Deputy Factory Inspector, unless +disapproved by the Factory Inspector, it is necessary to protect the +lives or limbs of those employed in such establishment. It shall also be +the duty of the owner, agent, or lessee of each of such establishments +to provide or cause to be provided, if, in the opinion of the Inspector, +the safety of persons in or about the premises should require it, such +proper trap or automatic doors, so fastened in or at all elevator ways +as to form a substantial surface when closed, and so constructed as to +open and close by action of the elevator in its passage, either +ascending or descending, but the requirements of this section shall not +apply to passenger elevators that are closed on all sides. The Factory +Inspector, Assistant Factory Inspector, and Deputy Factory Inspectors +may inspect the cables, gearing, or other apparatus of elevators in +manufacturing establishments, and require that the same be kept in a +safe condition. + +Sec. 5. Proper and substantial hand-rails shall be provided on all +stairways in manufacturing establishments, and where, in the opinion of +the Factory Inspector, or of the Assistant Factory Inspector, or Deputy +Factory Inspector, unless disapproved by the Factory Inspector, it is +necessary, the steps of said stairs in all such establishments shall be +substantially covered with rubber, securely fastened thereon, for the +better safety of persons employed in said establishments. The stairs +shall be properly screened at the sides and bottom, and all doors +leading in or to such factory shall be so constructed as to open +outwardly where practicable, and shall be neither locked, bolted, nor +fastened during working-hours. + +Sec. 6. If, in the opinion of the Factory Inspector, or of the Assistant +Factory Inspector, or of a Deputy Factory Inspector, it is necessary to +insure the safety of the persons employed in any manufacturing +establishment, three or more stories in height, one or more +fire-escapes, as may be deemed by the Factory Inspector as necessary and +sufficient therefor, shall be provided on the outside of such +establishment, connecting with each floor above the first, well fastened +and secured and of sufficient strength, each of which fire-escapes shall +have landings or balconies, not less than six feet in length and three +feet in width, guarded by iron railings not less than three feet in +height, and embracing at least two windows at each story and connecting +with the interior by easily accessible and unobstructed openings, and +the balconies or landings shall be connected by iron stairs, not less +than eighteen inches wide, the steps not to be less than six inches +tread, placed at a proper slant, and protected by a well-secured +hand-rail on both sides with a twelve-inch-wide drop-ladder from the +lower platform reaching to the ground. Any other plan or style of +fire-escape shall be sufficient, if approved by the Factory Inspector; +but if not so approved, the Factory Inspector may notify the owner, +proprietor, or lessee of such establishment or of the building in which +such establishment is conducted, or the agent or superintendent or +either of them, in writing, that any such other plan or style of +fire-escape is not sufficient, and may, by an order in writing, served +in like manner, require one or more fire-escapes, as he shall deem +necessary and sufficient, to be provided for such establishment, at such +locations and of such plan and style as shall be specified in such +written order. Within twenty days after the service of such order, the +number of fire-escapes required in such order for such establishment +shall be provided therefor, each of which shall be either of the plan +and style and in accordance with the specifications in said order +required, or of the plan and style in this section above described and +declared to be sufficient. The windows or doors to each fire-escape +shall be of sufficient size, and be located as far as possible +consistent with accessibility, from the stairways and elevator +hatchways or openings, and the ladder thereof shall extend to the roof. +Stationary stairs or ladders shall be provided on the inside of such +establishment from the upper story to the roof, as a means of escape in +case of fire. + +Sec. 7. It shall be the duty of the owner, agent, superintendent, or other +person having charge of such manufacturing establishment, or of any +floor or part thereof, to report in writing to the Factory Inspector all +accidents or injury done to any person in such factory, within +forty-eight hours of the time of the accident, stating as fully as +possible the extent and cause of such injury, and the place where the +injured person has been sent, with such other information relative +thereto as may be required by the Factory Inspector. The Factory +Inspector or Assistant Factory Inspector and Deputy Factory Inspectors +under the supervision of the Factory Inspector, are hereby authorized +and empowered to fully investigate the causes of such accidents, and to +require such precautions to be taken as will in their judgment prevent +the recurrence of similar accidents. + +Sec. 8. It shall be the duty of the owner of any manufacturing +establishment, or his agents, superintendent, or other person in charge +of the same, to furnish and supply, or cause to be furnished and +supplied therein, in the discretion of the Factory Inspector, or of the +Assistant Factory Inspector, or of a Deputy Factory Inspector, unless +disapproved by the Factory Inspector, where machinery is used, +belt-shifters or other safe mechanical contrivances, for the purpose of +throwing on or off belts or pulleys; and wherever possible machinery +therein shall be provided with loose pulleys; all vats, pans, saws, +planers, cogs, gearing, belting, shafting, set-screws, and machinery of +every description therein shall be properly guarded, and no person shall +remove or make ineffective any safeguard around or attached to any +planer, saw, belting, shafting or other machinery, or around any vat or +pan, while the same is in use, unless for the purpose of immediately +making repairs thereto, and all such safeguards shall be promptly +replaced. By attaching thereto a notice to that effect, the use of any +machinery may be prohibited by the Factory Inspector, Assistant Factory +Inspector, or by a Deputy Factory Inspector, unless such notice is +disapproved by the Factory Inspector, should such machinery be regarded +as dangerous. Such notice must be signed by the Inspector who issues it, +and shall only be removed after the required safeguards are provided, +and the unsafe or dangerous machine shall not be used in the mean time. +Exhaust fans of sufficient power shall be provided for the purpose of +carrying off dust from emery wheels and grindstones, and dust-creating +machinery therein. No person under eighteen years of age and no woman +under twenty-one years of age shall be allowed to clean machinery while +in motion. + +Sec. 9. A suitable and proper washroom and water-closets shall be provided +in each manufacturing establishment, and such water-closets shall be +properly screened and ventilated, and be kept at all times in a clean +condition; and if women or girls are employed in any such establishment, +the water-closets used by them shall have separate approaches and be +separate and apart from those used by men. All water-closets shall be +kept free of obscene writing and marking. A dressing-room shall be +provided for women and girls, when required by the Factory Inspector, in +any manufacturing establishment in which women and girls are employed. + +Sec. 10. Not less than sixty minutes shall be allowed for the noonday meal +in any manufacturing establishment in this State. The Factory Inspector, +the Assistant Factory Inspector, or any Deputy Factory Inspector shall +have power to issue written permits in special cases, allowing shorter +meal-time at noon, and such permit must be conspicuously posted in the +main entrance of the establishment, and such permit may be revoked at +any time the Factory Inspector deems necessary, and shall only be given +where good cause can be shown. + +Sec. 11. The walls and ceilings of each workroom in every manufacturing +establishment shall be lime-washed or painted, when in the opinion of +the Factory Inspector, Assistant Factory Inspector, or of a Deputy +Factory Inspector, unless disapproved of by the Factory Inspector, it +shall be conducive to the health or cleanliness of the persons working +therein. + +Sec. 12. Any officer of the Factory Inspection Department, or other +competent person designated for such purpose by the Factory Inspector, +shall inspect any building used as a workshop or manufacturing +establishment or anything attached thereto, located therein or connected +therewith, outside of the cities of New York and Brooklyn, which has +been represented to be unsafe or dangerous to life or limb. If it +appears upon such inspection that the building or anything attached +thereto, located therein or connected therewith is unsafe or dangerous +to life or limb, the Factory Inspector shall order the same to be +removed or rendered safe and secure; and if such notification be not +complied with within a reasonable time, he shall prosecute whoever may +be responsible for such delinquency. + +Sec. 13. No room or rooms, apartment or apartments, in any tenement or +dwelling-house, shall be used for the manufacture of coats, vests, +trousers, knee-pants, overalls, cloaks, furs, fur-trimmings, +fur-garments, shirts, purses, feathers, artificial flowers, or cigars, +excepting by the immediate members of the family living therein. No +person, firm, or corporation shall hire or employ any person to work in +any one room or rooms, apartment or apartments, in any tenement or +dwelling-house, or building in the rear of a tenement or dwelling-house, +at making in whole or in part any coats, vests, trousers, knee-pants, +fur, fur-trimmings, fur-garments, shirts, purses, feathers, artificial +flowers, or cigars, without first obtaining a written permit from the +Factory Inspector, Assistant Factory Inspector, or a Deputy Factory +Inspector, which permit may be revoked at any time the health of the +community or of those employed therein may require it, and which permit +shall not be granted until an inspection of such premises is made by the +Factory Inspector, Assistant Factory Inspector, or a Deputy Factory +Inspector, and the maximum number of persons allowed to be employed +therein shall be stated in such permit. Such permit shall be framed and +posted in a conspicuous place in the room or in one of the rooms to +which it relates. + +Sec. 14. Not less than two hundred and fifty cubic feet of air space shall +be allowed for each person in any workroom where persons are employed +during the hours between six o'clock in the morning and six o'clock in +the evening, and not less than four hundred cubic feet of air space +shall be provided for each person in any workroom where persons are +employed between six o'clock in the evening and six o'clock in the +morning. By a written permit the Factory Inspector, Assistant Factory +Inspector, or a Deputy Factory Inspector, with the consent of the +Factory Inspector, may allow persons to be employed in a room where +there are less than four hundred cubic feet of air space for each person +employed between six o'clock in the evening and six o'clock in the +morning, provided such room is lighted by electricity at all times +during such hours while persons are employed therein. There shall be +sufficient means of ventilation provided in each workroom of every +manufacturing establishment; and the Factory Inspector, Assistant +Factory Inspector, and Deputy Factory Inspectors, under the direction of +the Factory Inspector, shall notify the owner, agent, or lessee, in +writing, to provide, or cause to be provided, ample and proper means of +ventilating such workroom, and shall prosecute such owner, agent, or +lessee, if such notification be not complied with within twenty days of +the service of such notice. + +Sec. 15. Upon the expiration of the term of office of the present Factory +Inspector, and upon the expiration of the term of office of each of his +successors, the Governor shall, by and with the advice and consent of +the Senate, appoint a Factory Inspector; and upon the expiration of the +term of office of the present Assistant Factory Inspector, and upon the +expiration of the term of office of each of his successors, the Governor +shall, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoint an +Assistant Factory Inspector. Each Factory Inspector and Assistant +Factory Inspector shall hold over and continue in office, after the +expiration of his term of office, until his successor shall be appointed +and qualified. The Factory Inspector is hereby authorized to appoint +from time to time not exceeding sixteen persons to be Deputy Factory +Inspectors, not more than eight of whom shall be women; and he shall +have power to remove the same at any time. The term of office of the +Factory Inspector and of the Assistant Factory Inspector shall be three +years each. Annual salaries shall be paid in equal monthly instalments, +as follows: To the Factory Inspector, three thousand dollars; to the +Assistant Factory Inspector, two thousand five hundred dollars; to each +Deputy Factory Inspector, one thousand two hundred dollars. All +necessary travelling and other expenses incurred by the Factory +Inspector, Assistant Factory Inspector, and the Deputy Factory +Inspectors in the discharge of their duties shall be paid monthly by the +Treasurer upon the warrant of the Comptroller, issued upon proper +vouchers therefor. A sub-office may be opened in the city of New York at +an expense of not more than one thousand five hundred dollars a year. +The reasonable necessary travelling and other expenses of the Deputy +Factory Inspectors while engaged in the performance of their duties +shall be paid upon vouchers approved by the Factory Inspector and +audited by the Comptroller. + +Sec. 16. It shall be the duty of the Factory Inspector, and the Assistant +Factory Inspector, and of each of the Deputy Factory Inspectors under +the supervision and direction of the Factory Inspector, to cause this +act to be enforced, and to cause all violators of this act to be +prosecuted; and for that purpose they and each of them are hereby +empowered to visit and inspect at all reasonable hours, and as often as +shall be practicable and necessary, all manufacturing establishments in +this State. It shall be unlawful for any person to interfere with, +obstruct, or hinder, by force or otherwise, any officer appointed to +enforce the provisions of this act, while in the performance of his or +her duties, or to refuse to properly answer questions asked by such +officer with reference to any of the provisions hereof. The Factory +Inspector may divide the State into districts, and assign one or more +Deputy Factory Inspectors to each district, and transfer them from one +district to another as the best interests of the State may, in his +judgment, require. Any Deputy Factory Inspector may be appointed to act +as Clerk in the main office of the Factory Inspector, which shall be +furnished in the Capitol, and set apart for the use of the Factory +Inspector. The Assistant Factory Inspector and Deputy Factory Inspectors +shall make reports to the Factory Inspector from time to time, as may be +required by the Factory Inspector, and the Factory Inspector shall make +an annual report to the Legislature during the month of January of each +year. The Factory Inspector, Assistant Factory Inspector, and each +Deputy Factory Inspector shall have the same powers as a Notary Public +to administer oaths and take affidavits in matters connected with the +enforcement of the provisions of this act. + +Sec. 17. The District Attorney of any county of this State is hereby +authorized, upon the request of the Factory Inspector, Assistant Factory +Inspector, or of a Deputy Factory Inspector, or of any other person of +full age, to commence and prosecute to termination before any Recorder, +Police Justice, or court of record, in the name of the people of the +State, actions or proceedings against any person or persons reported to +him to have violated the provisions of this act. + +Sec. 18. The words "manufacturing establishment," wherever used in this +act, shall be construed to mean any mill, factory, or workshop, where +one or more persons are employed at labor. + +Sec. 19. A copy of this act shall be conspicuously posted and kept posted +in each workroom of every manufacturing establishment in this State. + +Sec. 20. Any person who violates or omits to comply with any of the +provisions of this act, or who suffers or permits any child to be +employed in violation of its provisions, shall be deemed guilty of a +misdemeanor, and on conviction shall be punished by a fine of not less +than twenty nor more than fifty dollars for the first offence, and not +more than one hundred dollars for the second offence, or imprisonment +for not more than ten days, and for the third offence a fine of not less +than two hundred and fifty dollars, and not more than thirty days' +imprisonment. + +Sec. 21. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of +this act are hereby repealed. + +Sec. 22. This act shall take effect immediately. + + + + +AUTHORITIES CONSULTED IN PREPARING THIS BOOK. + + * * * * * + +United States Census, from 1790 to 1880 inclusive. + +Reports of the State Bureaus of Labor Statistics as follows:-- + +Maine, 1889. +Massachusetts, 1870 to 1889 inclusive. +Connecticut, 1881. +Rhode Island, 1889. +New York, 1885. +New Jersey, 1885, 1886, and 1889. +Iowa, 1887 and 1889. +Kansas, 1889. +Wisconsin, 1883-84 and 1887. +Colorado, 1889. +Minnesota, 1889. +California, 1888. +Nebraska, 1887-90. +Michigan, 1892. + +Reports of the Factory Inspectors for various States. + +Working Women in Large Cities: Report of the United States Department of +Labor, Washington, D.C., 1889. + +The Labor Movement in America. By Richard T. Ely. Thomas Y. Crowell & +Co., New York. + +The Wages Question: A Treatise on Wages and the Wages Class. By Francis +A. Walker. Henry Holt & Co., New York. + +The Labor Problem. Edited by W.E. Barnes. Harper & Brothers, New York. + +On Labor. By W.T. Thornton. Macmillan & Co., London, 1869. + +Profit-Sharing between Employer and Employed. By N.P. Gilman. Houghton, +Mifflin, & Co., Boston. + +Sharing the Profits. By Mary Whiton Calkins, A.M. Ginn & Co., Boston. + +Artisans and Machinery. By P. Gaskell. London, 1836. + +Condition of the Laboring Classes in England. By F. Engel. Leipzig and +New York. + +Ansichten der Volkswirthschaft aus dem geschicht. Standpunkte. By +Wilhelm Roscher. + +Various Reports of Commissioners appointed to inquire into the working +of the Factory Acts in England. + +Le Travail des Femmes au XIX. Siecle. By Paul Leroy-Beaulieu. Paris, +1870. + +London Labor and the London Poor. By Henry Mayhew. Charles Griffen & +Co., London. + +The Industrial Revolution. By Arnold Toynbee. London. + +The Philosophy of Wealth. By John B. Clark. Ginn & Co., Boston. + +Economic Writings of Emil de Lavelaye. + +Lalor's Cyclopedia of Political Science. + +Various Treatises on Political Economy. Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, +Senior, Cairnes, Ely, Perry, Walker, etc. + +Prisoners of Poverty. By Helen Campbell. Roberts Bros., Boston. + +Applied Christianity. By Washington Gladden. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., +Boston. + +Life and Work of the Earl of Shaftesbury, London. Read for Factory +Inspection and Legislation. + +Problems of To-Day. By Richard T. Ely. T.Y. Crowell & Co., New York. + +Social Studies. By the Rev. R. Heber Newton. G.P. Putnam's Son, New +York. + +Social Problems. By Henry George. + +Studies in Modern Socialism. By Edwin Brown, D.D. Appleton & Co., New +York. + +Dynamic Sociology. By Lester F. Ward. D. Appleton & Co., New York. + +Labor and Life of the People. Vols. 1 & 2: East London. By Charles +Booth. Williams & Norgate, London, 1889 & 1892. + +Thirty Years of Labor: 1859 to 1889. By T.V. Powderly. + +Das Kapital. By Karl Marx. + +How the Other Half Live. By Jacob Riis. Charles Scribner's Sons, New +York. + +General Reports and Review Articles on the questions involved. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WOMAN'S LABOR AND OF THE WOMAN QUESTION. + + * * * * * + +GERMANY. + +Ausser den amtlichen Veroeffentlichungen der verschiedenen Laender, ueber +Berufs-und Bevoelkerungstatistik vgl G. Schmoller, Thatsachen der +Arbeitsteilung, Jahrb. f. Ges. und Berw. Bd 13, 1889. + +Buchsenschutz, Besitz und Erwerb in griechischen Alterthum. Halle, 1869. + +Franz Bernhoft, Ueber die Stellung der Frauen in Alterthum, Nord und +Sued. Bd. 39, 1884. + +K. Weinhold, Die deutschen Frauen im Mittelalter, 2 Auflage. Wien, 1882. + +Norrenberg, Frauenarbeit und Arbeiterinnenziehung in deutscher Vorzeit. +Koeln, 1780. + +Stahl, Das deutsche Handwerk. Giessen, 1874. + +Carl Buecher, Die Frauenfrage im Mittelalter. Tuebingen, 1882. + +Stieda, Litteratur, heutige Zustaende und Entstehung der deutschen +Hausindustrie. Leipzig, 1889. [Schr. d. Ver. f. Soz. Bd. 39.] + +Ad. Held, Zwei Buecher zur socialen Geschichte Englands. Leipzig, 1848. + +Fr. Engels, Die Lage der arbeitenden Klasse in England. 2 Ausgabe. +Leipzig, 1848. + +Karl Marx, Das Kapital, Band 1, 2 Auflage. Hamburg, 1872. + +Max Schippel, Das moderne Elend und die moderne Uebervoelkerung. +Stuttgart, 1886. + +Von Scherzer, Weltindustrien. Leipzig, 1880. + +Ettore Friedlander, Die Frage der Frauen-und Kinderarbeit, deutsch von +Fleischer. Forbach, 1887. + +Ergebnisse der ueber die Frauen-und Kinderarbeit in den Fabriken auf +Beschluss des Bundesraths angestellten Erhebungen, zusammengestellt im +Reichskanzleramt. Berlin, 1877. + +W. Stieda, Deutschlands sozialstatistische Erhebungen im Jahre 1876. +Jahrb. f. Ges. und Verw. R.F. Bd. 1, 1877. + +Eine Enquete ueber Frauen-und Kinderarbeit in der deutsche Flachs-und +Leinenindustrie. Arbeiterfreund, Jahrg. 12, 1874. + +Reichsenquete ueber die Baumwoll-und Leinenindustrie, 1878-79. + +Stenograph, Protokolle des Bundesrathes, 1878-79. + +Worishoffer, Die soziale Lage der Cigarrenarbeiter im Grossherzogthum +Baden. Karlsruhe, 1890. + +Amtliche Mittheilungen aus den Jahresberichten der mit Beaufsichtigung +der Fabriken betrauten Beamten, Jahrg. 1-14. Berlin, 1877-90. + +Elster, Die Fabrikinspektionsberichte, und die +Arbeiterschutzgesetzgebung in Deutschland. Jahrb. f. Nat. R.F. Bd. 11. +1885. + +P. Kollmann, Die gewerbliche Entfaltung im deutschen Reiche. Jahrb. f. +Ges. und Verw. R.F., Bd. 11 und 12. 1888-89. + +Kuno Frankenstein, Die Lage der Arbeiterinnen in den deutschen +Grossstadten, ebenda Bd. 12. 1888. + +Eug. Kaempfe, Die Lage der industriellthaetigen Arbeiterinnen in +Deutschland. Leipzig, 1889. + +O. Pache, Unsere Arbeiterfrauen. Leipzig, 1880. + +Bericht der Gewerbeordnungscommission des Reichstages, 7 +Legislaturperiode, 1 Session, 1890-91, Sammlung d. Drucksachen des +Reichstages, 7 Legislaturperiode, 1 Session 1887, Bd. 2, Berlin, 1887, +Nr. 83. + +Karl Kaerger, Die Sachsgangerei, Landw. Jahrb. Bd. 13. 1890. + +Hirschberg, Lohne der Arbeiterinnen in Berlin. Jahrb. f. Nat. Bd. 13. +1886. + +Herkner, Die belgische Arbeiterenquete und ihre sozialpolitischen +Resultate. Archiv f. soz. Ges. und Staat, Bd. 1. 1888. + +Derselbe, Die oberelsassische Baumwollindustrie und ihre Arbeiter. +Strassburg, 1887. + +Ruhland, Der achtstundige Arbeitstag und die Arbeitschutzgesetzgebung +Australiens. Zeitschr. f.d. ges. Staatsgewissenschaft, Bd. 47. 1891. + +v. Studnitz, Amerikanische Arbeitverhaeltnisse. Leipzig, 1879. + +Douai, Die Lage der Lohnarbeiter in Amerika, in Tenner, Amerika. Berlin +und New York, 1884. + +Hirt, Die gewerbliche Thaetigkeit der Frauen von hygienischen Standpunkte +aus. Breslau und Leipzig, 1887. + +Derselbe, Frauenarbeit in Fabriken, in Hirth's Ann. 1875. + +Schuler und Burkhardt, Untersuchungen ueber die Gesundheitsverhaeltnisse +der Fabrikbevoelkerung in der Schweiz. Aarau, 1889. + +Schonlank, Die Further Quecksilber-Spiegelbelege. Stuttgart, 1888. + +Pfieffer, Die proletarische und criminelle Saeuglingssterblichkeit +Jahrb. f. Nat. N.F. Bd. 4. 1882. + +John Stuart Mill, The Subjection of Women. London, 1869; 4 Aufl., 1878, +uebersetzt von Jenny Hirsch, v.d. Hoerigkeit der Frau, 2 Aufl., Berlin +1872, nebst einem Vorbericht ueber den Stand der Frauenfrage, uebersetzt +von Ludwig Stockman, 3 Aufl. Stuttgart, 1892. + +Die Frau und die Sozialismus, 8 Aufl. Stuttgart, 1891. + +v. Raumer, Die Frau und die Sozialdemokratie. Berlin, 1884. + +Georg Hannsen, Die drei Bevoelkerungsstufen, [111,7: Das Weib im +Bevoelkerungsstrom]. Muenchen, 1889. + +Karoline Norton, Die Frauen in England unter dem Gesetz unseres +Jahrhunderts. A.D. Engl. Berlin, 1855. + +Rubinu und Westergaard, Statistik der Ehen auf Grund der sozialen +Gliederung. Jena, 1889. + +Lette, Denkschrift ueber die Eroeffnung neuer und die Verbesserung +bisheriger Erwerbsquellen fuer das weibliche Geschlecht. Arbeiterfreund, +Jahrb. 1865. Auszug aus dem Protokoll der Sitzung des Vorstandes und +Ausschusses des Zent.-Ver. in Preussen fuer das Wohl der arbeitenden +Klasse, nebst Lettes Votum und Promemoria und andere Materialen, ebenda. + +Gust. Eberty, Geschichte der Bestrebungen fuer das Wohl der arbeitenden +Frauen in England, ebenda. + +Luisa Otto, Das Recht der Frauen auf Erwerb. Hamburg, 1868. + +Otto August, Die soziale Lage auf dem Gebiete der Frauen. Hamburg, 1868. + +v. Sybel, Ueber die Emanzipation der Frauen. Bonn, 1860. + +Karl Thomas Richter, Das Recht der Frauen auf Arbeit and die +Organization der Frauenarbeit, 2 Aufl. Wien, 1869. + +Schoenberg, Die Frauenfrage. Basel, 1872. + +Phil. v. Nathusius, Zur Frauenfrage. Halle, 1871. + +Rob. Koenig, Zur Charakteristik der Frauenfrage. Leipzig und Bielefeld, +1879. + +Hedwig Dohm, Der Frauen Natur und Recht. Berlin, 1876. Dieselbe, Die +wissenschaftliche Emancipation der Frau. Berlin, 1877. + +Fanny Lewald, Fuer und wider die Frauen, 2 Aufl. Berlin, 1875. + +Franz von Holzendorff, Die Verbesserung in der gesellschaftlichen und +wirtschaftlichen Stellung der Frauen, 2 Aufl. Berlin, 1877. + +Luisa Buechner, Ueber die Frauenemanzipation. Dorpat, 1877. + +J. Pierstorff, Frauenfrage und Frauenbewegung. Goettingen, 1879. + +Sophie v. Hardenburg, Zur Frauenfrage. Leipzig, 1883. + +Laas, Zur Frauenfrage. Berlin, 1883. + +Lor. v. Stein, Die Frau auf dem Gebiete der Nationaloekonomie, 6 Aufl. +Stuttgart, 1886. Derselbe, Die Frau auf dem sozialen Gebiete. Stuttgart, +1880. + +Mathilde Reichart Stromberg, Frauenrecht und Frauenpflicht, 3 Aufl. +Leipzig, 1883. + +F.L. Warneck, Ehret die Frauen, 2 Aufl. Leipzig, 1882. + +Dorothea Christina Erxleben, [geb. Leporin,] Gruendliche Untersuchen der +Ursachen, die das weibliche Geschlecht von Studieren abhalten, darin +deren Unerheblichkeit gezeiget, und wie moeglich, noethig und nuetzlich es +sei, dieses Geschlecht der Gelehrtheit sich befleissige, umstaendlich +dargelegt we wird. Berlin, 1742. Dieselbe, Vernuenftige Gedanken vom +Studieren des Schoenen Geschlechts. Frankfurt und Leipzig, 1749. + +Victor Boehmert, Das Studium der Frauen in besonderer Ruecksicht auf das +Studium der Medizin. Leipzig, 1872. Derselbe, Das Frauenstudium nach den +Erfahrungen an der Zuericher Universitaet. Arbeiterfreund, Bd. 12. 1874. + +Hermann, Die Frauenstudien und die Interessen der Hochschule Zurich. +Zurich, 1872. + +Gneist, Ueber gemeinschaftliche Schulen fuer Knaben und Maedchen und ueber +die Universitaetsbildung der Frauen nach den neueren Erfahrungen in den +nordamerikanischen Freistaaten. Arbeiterfreund, Jahrg. 12. 1874. + +v. Scheel, Frauenfrage und Frauenstudium. Jahrb. f. Nat., Bd. 22, 1874. + +Eug. Duehring, Weg zur hoeheren Berufsbildung der Frauen, 2 Aufl. Leipzig, +1885. + +Helene Lange, Frauen Bildung. Berlin, 1889. + +Zehender, Ueber den Beruf der Frauen zum Studium und zur praktischen +Ausuebung der Medezin durch die Frauen. Muenchen, 1877. + +Ludwig Schwerin, Die Zulassung der Frauen zur Ausuebung des artzlichen +Berufs. Berlin, 1870. + +Mathilde Weber, Aerztinnen fuer Frauenkrankheiten, eine ethische und +sanitaere Nothwendigkeit, 4 Aufl. Tuebingen, 1889. + +Waldeyer, Das Studium der Medizin und die Frauen. Tagebl. der 61. +Versammlung deutscher Naturforscher und Artzerei in Koeln, v. 18, 23, No. +1878, wissenschaftl. Theil. Koeln, 1889. + +O. Heyfelder, Die medizinischen Frauenkurse von Petersburg. Unsere Zeit, +1887, 11. + +Karl Breul, Die Frauencolleges der Universitaet Cambridge, England. +Preuss. Jahrb., Jahrg. 1891, Heft 1. + +Die Entstehung und Entwickelung der gewerblichen Fortbildungsschulen und +Frauenarbeitsschulen in Wuertemberg; herausgegeben von der Koeniglichen +Commission fuer die gewerblichen Fortbildungsschulen, 2 Aufl. Stuttgart, +1889. + +Galle und Kamp, Die hauswirthschaftliche Unterweisung armer Maedchen. +Wiesbaden, 1889; Neue Folge, Wiesbaden, 1889. Die hauswirthschaftliche +Unterricht armer Maedchen in Deutschland. Schr. d. Ver. f. Armenpflege +und Wohlthaetigkeit, Heft 12. Leipzig, 1889. + +Lina Morgenstern, Allgemeiner Frauenkalender fuer 1885, 1886, und 1887. +Berlin. + +Luise Otto Peters, Das erste Vierteljahrhundert des Allgemeinen +deutschen Frauenvereins. Leipzig, 1890. + +Jenny Hirsch, Geschichte der 25-jahrigen Wirksamkeit [1886-91] des +Lettevereins. [Festschrift.] Berlin, 1891. + +Amelie Sohr, Frauenarbeit in der Armen-und Krankenpflege daheim und im +Auslande. Berlin, 1882. + +Ed. Gauer, Die hoehere Maedchenschule und die Lehrerinnenfrage. Berlin, +1878. + +Spyri, Die Betheiligung des weiblichen Geschlechts am oeffentlichen +Unterricht in der Schweiz. Sep.-Abdr. der schweizer. Zeitschrift f. +Gemeinnuetzigkeit, Jahrg. 1873, Zurich. + +Ruedinger, Vorlaeufige Mittheilung ueber die Unterschiede der +Grosshirnwindungen nach dem Geschlecht, Beitraege zur Anthropologie und +Urgeschichte Bayerns, Bd. 1, 1887. + +J. Pierstorff, Litteratur zur Frauenfrage. Jahrb. f. Nat. N.F. Bd. 7. +1883. + +Waehrend des Druckes erschienen: + +Ed. von Hartmann, Die Jungfernfrage, Gegenwart 1891, Nr. 34 und 35. + +W. Stieda, Frauenarbeit. Jahrb. f. Nat., Dritte Folge, 11, 2, 1891. + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY OF FRENCH LITERATURE ON THE WOMAN QUESTION AND THAT OF +WOMAN'S LABOR. + +Levasseur, Histoire des classes ouvrieres depuis 1788. Paris, 1867. + +Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, Le travail des femmes au XIX. siecle. Paris, 1873. + +Jules Simon, L'ouvriere, 2^me edition. Paris, 1870. + +Villerme, Tableau de l'etat physique et moral des ouvriers employes dans +les manufactures de coton, de laine et de soie. Paris, 1840. + +Kuborn, Rapport sur l'enquete faite au nom de l'academie royale de +medicine de Belgique par la commission chargee d'etudier la question de +l'emploi des femmes dans les travaux souterrains des mines. Bruxelles, +1868. Documents nouveaux relatifs au travail des femmes et des enfants +dans les manufactures, les mines, etc., etc. Bruxelles, 1874. + +Condorcet, Lettres d'un bourgeois de New Haven a un citoyen de Virginie, +1787. OEuvres completes, Brunswick, 1804. The same, Sur l'admission des +femmes au droit de cite. Journal de la societe de 1789, v. 3, VII. 1790. + +Laboulaye, Recherches sur la condition civile et politique des femmes +depuis les Romains jusqu'a nos jours. Paris, 1843. + +Legouve, Histoire morale de la femme. Paris, 1848; 4^me edition, 1884. + +Michelet, La femme. Paris, 1860. + +Proudhon, La justice dans l'eglise et dans la revolution, 1858. Oeuvres +anciennes, Paris, 1868-76. Tome 22-26. + +Jenny d'Hericourt, La femme affranchie. Bruxelles, 1860. + +Juliette Lamber, Idees antiproudhoniennes sur l'amour, la femme et le +mariage, 2^me edition. Paris, 1862. + +Leon Giraud, Essai sur la condition de la femme en Europe et en +Amerique. Paris, 1883. + +Eugene Pelletan, La famille. La mere. Paris, 1865. + +Actes du Congres international des droits des femmes. Paris, 1878. + +Comte de Franqueville, Les droits des femmes en Angleterre, Compte rendu +de l'Academie des sciences morales et politiques. Paris, 1891. + + +ENGLISH BIBLIOGRAPHY. + +Working Women in Large Cities, 4th annual Report of the Commission of +Labor. Washington, 1878. + +Theodore Stanton, The Woman Question in Europe. London, 1884. + +Helen Campbell, Prisoners of Poverty, 1887. Prisoners of Poverty Abroad, +1889. + +Woman's Work in America, edited by Annie Nathan Meyer. New York, 1891. + +Sophia Jex-Blake, Medical Women. Edinburgh, 1871. + +A. Huntley, Women and Medicine. London, 1886. + +John Stuart Mill, Subjection of Women. London, 1869. + +Eliza W. Farnham, Woman and her Era. New York, 1869. + +Lester F. Ward, Dynamic Sociology, vol. i. pp. 597-664. + +Maria S. Child, History and Condition of Women in various Ages and +Nations. Boston, 1840. + + + + +INDEX. + +Abuses, in factories, 112; + in dry-goods stores, 265. (_See_ also Fines, Factories, Hours.) + +Age, average, of working-women in Massachusetts, 116. + +Agricultural labor, women press into, 21. + +Agricultural Laborers' Union, women denied admission to, 21. + +Alabama, women workers in, 110. + +Alfred's "History of the Factory Movement," 93. + +American girls, percentage of, employed in Massachusetts, 116. + +Andover ordinances, 60. + +Appendix, 275. + +Apprentices, 49, 122. + +Arbitration, 266. + +Aristotle, "Politics" and "Economics," 29; + views of women, 30. + +Arizona, working-women in, 110. + +Arkansas, working-women in, 110. + +Atlanta, Ga., weekly wage in, 139 + +Austria, hours of labor in, 185. + +Authorities consulted, 291. + + +Bakeries, girls in, 218. + +Baltimore, Md., weekly wage in, 139. + +Beating, 52. + +Beaulieu, Paul Leroy, 165, 167, 251. + +Belgium, inquiry commission, 174; + hours of labor in, 186. + +Berlin Labor Conference, 11. + +Betton, Frank, investigation of conditions in Kansas, 123. + +Bibliography, 294. + +Bishop, Commissioner, 221. + +"Bitter Cry of Outcast London," 9, 136. + +Blackwell, Dr. Emily, on restraints on women workers, 97. + +Book-binding, women and children employed in, 108. + +Boston, weekly wage in, 139; + establishment of labor bureau in, 111; + report on working-girls of, 114; + women employed in, 116. + +Brain, relative sizes and weights of man's and woman's, 27. + +Brassey, Lord, 176. + +Broadcloth, weaving of, by women, 73. + +Brooklyn, N.Y., weekly wage in, 139. + +Buecher, Dr. Carl, 43. + +Buffalo, N.Y., weekly wage in, 139. + + +California, average wage in, 141; + women workers in, 110; + first labor-bureau report, 121. + +Calkins, Mary W., on profit-sharing, 267. + +Capital has no complaint, 7, 11. + +Capitalist, and landlord absorb lion's share, 7; + investment of skill and risk, 12. + +Carpet-weaving, women employed in, 108. + +Celibacy, 43. + +Census Bureau, difficulties in work of, 102; + discrepancies in reports, 103. + +Charity adds insult to injury, 251. + +Charlemagne, 45. + +Charleston, S.C., weekly wage in, 139. + +Chicago, weekly wage in, 139. + +Child labor, efforts against, 11; + in Prussia, 175, 178. + +Chivalry, 44. + +Cigar-making, women and children employed in, 108. + +Cincinnati, weekly wage in, 139. + +Cities, women's trades focussed in, 19. + +Clement of Alexandria, on women, 41. + +Cleveland, O., weekly wage in, 139. + +Clothing-trade, women employed in, 108. + +Colbert, 54. + +Colorado, women workers in, 110; + labor-bureau reports, 122; + weekly wage in, 141. + +Commodity, labor as a, 17. + +Competition, among needle-workers, 22; + should be controlled, 252, 253. + +Conciliation, arbitration and, 266. + +Conditions, general, in Maine, 189; + Massachusetts, 190; + Connecticut, 192; + Rhode Island, 193; + New Jersey, 197; + Kansas, 199; + Wisconsin, 199; + Colorado, 200; + Indiana, 200; + Minnesota, 201; + California, 202; + Missouri, 204; + Michigan, 205; + in New York stores, 232. + +Congres Feministe, 165. + +Connecticut, women workers in, 110; + labor bureau organized, 121; + average wage, 141. + +Cotton, first bale of, 67; + industry, 68; + in Italy, 179; + machinery and mills, 70, 71. + +Cotton-goods trade, women in, 108. + +Coxe, Tench, 68, 72, 115. + +Credit, 54. + +Crime and pauperism in labor reports, 113. + +Criminal list fed by factory system, 91. + +Custom hampers women workers, 22. + +Cyprian, 41. + + +Dakota, working-women in, 110. + +Daniel, Dr. Annie S., 223, 225, 226. + +Deaconesses, 39. + +De Gournay, 54. + +Delaware, women workers in, 110. + +Diet, effect oil industrial efficiency, 14. + +Distribution of wealth, conflict over, 7, 8. + +District of Columbia, working-women in, 110. + +Divorces in Massachusetts labor reports, 114. + +Domestic service, 57, 237; + in California, 122; + in Colorado, 122; + advantages of, 239; + disadvantages, 241; + employers of, 245; + Woman's Congress on, 246. + +Donaldson, Principal, 39. + +Dress-making, 254. + +Drimakos, 34. + +Dry-goods houses, abuses in, 265. + +Dust in modern manufacture, 213, 218, 219. + +Dynamic Sociology, 26. + + +Earnings, definition of, 127; + average of working-women in Massachusetts, 117. + +Economic question, the question of the day, 7; + dependence, 27; + Greek thought, 29. + +Education, technical, as affecting efficiency, 14; + of girls less practical than of boys, 23; + industrial, in Italy, 175; + in Sweden, 183; + compulsory, 178; + demanded for the employer and the public, 251. + +Efficiency, differences in, regulate wages, 14; + affected by education, 14. + +Embroidery, 48. + +Emerson, Mary Moody, 66. + +Emigration, Irish, 84; + increase of, 96. + +Employment, fluctuation in, affects wages, 16. + +Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII., 151. + +Engels, Dr., on proportion of subsistence to total expenses, 118. + +Evils recognized, 94. + +Evolution, woman's industrial activity in harmony with, 270. + +Expenses, average of working-women in Massachusetts, 118. + + +Factory, system, 75, 90; + girls, 78; + Lowell girls, 79; + laws, 81, 85, 235, 275; + conditions, 82, 84; + hours, 86; + women in, 89; + employments, effects of, 91; + ventilation, 92; + inspection, 222, 275; + married women in, 229; + movement, 92, 93. + +Fair house, standard of, 262. + +Families, condition of, 113. + +Family life, demoralization of, 271. + +Fawcett, Henry, opposition to women in trades, 20. + +Fines, system of, 230, 233; + in stores, 258. + +Florida, women workers in, 110. + +Fortescue, 53. + +France, hours of labor in, 183. + +Fry, Eleanor, 63. + +Fuller, Margaret, 119. + +Furriers, 46. + + +Georgia, women workers in, 110. + +Germany, attitude of Emperor William, 11; + hours of labor in, 185. + +"Germinal," 174. + +Gilman, N.P., on profit-sharing, 267. + +Gloves, home manufacture of, 63. + +Godfrey's Cordial in infant mortality, 147. + +Greeley, Horace, 119. + +Guilds, 45; + expulsion of women from, 47. + + +Habits, personal, as affecting efficiency, 14. + +Half-time system for children, 113. + +Harkness, Margaret, 154. + +Harland, Sarah, on work for uneducated women, 253. + +Harrison, Frederick, 17, 18. + +Health, in factory employments, 91; + of working-women in Massachusetts, 113. + +Homes, of working-people, 112; + for girls, 191; + in cities, 222, 226, 250. + +Hosiery and knitting, women employed in, 108. + +Hours of labor, in Massachusetts, 117; + in Michigan, 206; + in stores, 258. + +Huxley, Thomas, description of London parish, 9, 10. + + +Idaho, working-women in, 110. + +Ideals, alteration of, called for, 271. + +Illinois, women workers in, 110. + +Immobility of labor, 18, 19. + +Income, defined, 127; + average, in Massachusetts, 116. + +Indiana, women workers in, 110. + +Indianapolis, average wage in, 139. + +Individual development, 272. + +Industrial, education, 252; + efficiency, 14. + +Industries open to women in the United States, 124. + +Infant mortality, 147. + +Insanity among workers, 254. + +Intellectual degeneracy of factory operatives, 91, 93. + +Intelligence, effect on efficiency, 14; + effect of factory system on, 91. + +Intemperance produced by factory system, 91. + +Iowa, women workers in, 110; + labor bureau, 122. + "Iphigenia in Tauris," 31. + +Irish, emigration, 84; + industries, 159. + +Iron law of wages, defined and denounced, 15; + applicable to unskilled labor, 15. + + +Jevons, W.S., 147. + +Justice, education in, 271; + a soul-growth, 273, 274. + + +Kansas, women workers in, 110; + labor bureau, 122; + average wage in, 89. + +Kay, Dr., 89. + +Kelley, Florence, 264. + +Kettle, Rupert, on arbitration, 268. + +Knights of Labor, on women's work, 270. + +Knitting, 74; + and hosiery trades, women in, 108. + + +Labor, degradation of, 35; + unskilled in colonies, 58; + child, 86; + effect of out-door, on pregnant mothers, 147; + unskilled, a cause of low wages, 271; + bureaus, their work in relation to women, 110 + (_see_ also under each State); + Father of, 115; + mobility of, 17; + Congress in Belgium, 175; + hours of, in Germany, 185, + in France, 183, + in Austria, 185, + in Belgium, 186, + in Switzerland, 186. + +Laborer does not receive his share, 13. + +Lace-making, women employed in, 48, 108; + in Ireland, 159; + in Nottingham, 268. + +Lecky, W.H., 89. + +Leroy-Beaulieu, Paul, 165, 167, 251. + +Levasseur, E., 161. + +Lille, cave-dwellers in, 168. + +"London, Bitter Cry of Outcast," 9, 196; + poverty, 9, 10. + +Louis le Jeune, 46. + +Louis, Saint, "Institutions" of, 46. + +Louisiana, women workers in, 110. + +Louisville, Ky., weekly wage in, 139. + +Love, law of, ends conflict, 274. + +Lowell factory-girl, 93. + +Lowell, Josephine Shaw, 267. + +Luther, 44. + +Lynn, Mass., shoe-making industry of, 99. + + +Machinery, effects on woman's labor, 252. + +Maine, Sir Henry, 42. + +Maine, women employed in, 110; + in shoe-making, 99; + labor bureau, 123; + average wages, 139. + +Manual training, in California, 122. + (_See_ also education.) + +Marriage, 27, 38. + +Married women in factories, 91, 118. + +Massachusetts, Bureau of Labor reports, 99, 101, 111; + census of women workers in, 110, 116; + average wages in, 139. + +Match-making dangers, 221. + +Mazzini on freedom, 273. + +Men oppose admission of women to trades, 20. + +Men's furnishing-goods, women employed in, 108. + +Michigan, women workers in, 110. + +Millinery, women employed in, 108; + readily organized trade, 254. + +Mines, women in, 174. + +Minnesota, women employed in, 110; + labor bureau, 122; + average wage, 141. + +Mississippi, working-women in, 110. + +Missouri, women workers in, 110. + +Mobility of labor, 17. + +Modern processes involve risk, 115. + +Montana, working-women in, 110. + +Mundella, Arthur, on arbitration, 268. + + +Nebraska, working-women in, 110. + +Needle, resource of unskilled woman laborers, 22. + +Nevada, women workers in, 110. + +Newark, average wage in, 139. + +New England, shoe operatives in, 100. + +New Hampshire, women in shoe-making industry in, 99; + total women workers, 110. + +New Jersey, factory evils in, 94; + women workers employed, 110; + average wage, 141. + +New Mexico, working-women in, 110. + +New Orleans, average wages in, 139. + +New York, Labor Bureau reports, 94, 119; + factory evils, 94; + total women workers in State, 110; + average wage in, 141. + +New York City, average wage in, 139; + percentage of women + workers in, 109; + "Tribune" stirs in sewing-women's behalf, 119. + +North Carolina, total women employed in, 110. + +Nott, Mrs., 66. + +Nottingham lace manufacture, 268. + + +Offices, intelligence, 247. + +Ohio, women employed in, 110. + +Oregon, working-women in, 110. + +Organization among women, in France, 166; + in cities, 206; + in England, 253, 255. + + +Parent-Duchalet, 171. + +Pauperism and crime in labor reports, 113. + +Pay, just, the first remedy, 25; + equal for both sexes, 257. + +Peck, Charles F., work in New York, 119. + +Pennsylvania, working-women in, 110. + +Perkins, Mrs. Thomas, 65. + +Philadelphia, average weekly wage in, 139. + +Plato, 35. + +Post-office, employment of women in, objected to, 21. + +Potter, Beatrice, 154. + +Poverty, no more desperate in Europe than in the United States, 9, + in London, 9,10; + produced by factory system, 91. + +Prejudice, born of ignorance, etc., to be dismissed, 13. + +Profit-sharing between employer and employed, 267. + +Prostitution, fed by factory system, 91, 92; + by domestic service, 93; + statistics in, 171, 210; + recruited from factories, 114. + +Providence, average weekly wage in, 139. + + +Quesnay, 54. + +Question of the day, the economic one, 7. + +Questions, three, to be answered, 13. + + +Ranke, on air required, 92. + +Remedies, just pay the first, 251. + +Reports, labor, six divisions of, 115. (_See_ also under various + States.) + +Reybaud's "History of the Factory Movement," 92. + +Rhode Island, working-women in, 110; + average wage in, 141. + +Rice, Commissioner, deals with women wage-earners in Colorado report, + 122, 123. + +Richmond, Va., average weekly wage in, 139. + +Robinson, Henry A., Michigan Labor Bureau work, 123. + +Robinson, Mrs. H.H., 79. + +Rogers, Thorold, 55; + value of his work, 15, 16. + + +Saleswomen, 131. + +San Francisco, average weekly wage in, 139. + +Sanitary conditions of factories and of operatives' homes, 92. + +San Jose, average weekly wage in, 139. + +Savannah, average weekly wage in, 139. + +Savings of Massachusetts working-women, 118. + +Seamstresses, in Paris, 163; + in New York, 163. + +Seats in shops, 220. + +Sewing-women, feeling stirred in behalf of, 119. + +Sex, disability of, in the way of mobility of labor, 18. + +"Sharing the Profits," by Mary W. Calkins, 267. + +Shearman, T.G., on irregularity of conditions in the United States, 8. + +Shirt-making, women in, 108. + +Shoe-making, women in, 98, 99. + +Silk-growing, 64, 65. + +Silk industry, women and children in, 95, 108. + +Silk manufactory, women and children in, in Italy, 179. + +Simon, Jules, 163. + +Single and married, proportion of, among working-women, 118. + +Smith, Adam, 54; + summary of causes for difference in wages, 16. + +Social life of working-people, 114. + +Society, women workers frowned on by, 97. + +Solidarity of humanity, 274. + +Soul-moulding, Mazzini on, 273. + +South Carolina, working-women in, 110. + +Spinning-classes, 60; + patriotic, 63. + +Statistics inadequate as to early conditions, 75. + +Stevens, Dr., on increase of insanity, 254. + +Stores, condition of women and children in, 258. + +St. Louis, average weekly wage in, 139. + +St. Paul, average weekly wage in, 139. + +Straw-braiding in New England, 68, 100, 101; + straw-goods trade, women in, 108. + +Sully, 53. + +Supply and demand, 23. + +Sweating-system, 150, 235; + parliamentary investigation of, end of report on, 153. + + +Tacitus, 38. + +Technical education, as affecting efficiency, 14. + +Tenement-house manufacture, 256. + +Tennessee, working-women in, 110. + +Tertullian, 40. + +Texas, working-women in, 110. + +Textile industries, women in, 98. + +Thucydides, opinion of, 32. + +Tobacco trade, women in, 110. + +Trades, admission of women to, barred by men, 20; + women employed in, 108. + +Tramp question, in labor reports, 113. + +Trusts, alarm caused by growth of, 11. + +Turgot, 54. + +Tutelage, perpetual, of women, 36. + + +Umbrellas and canes, women employed in, 108. + +Unemployed, condition of, 113. + +Union, Working-Women's Protective, 230. + +United States, Labor Bureau Reports on working-women, 124. + +Unskilled labor, in majority, 22; + fierce competition in, 22; + surplus of, following Civil War, 101. + +Utah, working-women in, 110. + + +Vacations of working-women in Massachusetts, 117. + +Value of laborer's service to employer, elements of, 14. + +Vapors, dangers of, in manufacture, 214. + +Vegetables, cultivation of, by women, 263. + +Vermont, working-women in, 110. + +Vincent, Madame, 165. + +Villerme, 169, 176. + + +Wage rates, present, in United States, 126. + +Wages, why men receive more than women, 14, 21; + effect of industrial efficiency on, 14; + iron law of, 15; + effort to make standard of life conform to, 15; + tendency to a minimum, 16; + Adam Smith for causes of difference in, 16; + in stores, 259; + final effect of woman's work on, 270; + not fixed, 35; + field, 58; + eighteenth-century, 62; + in France, 161; + in Russia, 181; + New York, 129; + decrease in, 226; + in clothing, 130; + in Connecticut, 133; + in Italy, 181; + in California, 134; + Colorado, 135; + Iowa, 136; + Kansas, 136; + Maine, 134; + Minnesota, 135; + Michigan, 138; + Rhode Island, 134; + average, per State, 141; + average, for all cities, 141; + average, by cities, 139; + definition of, 127. + +Wages question the question of the day, 7. + +Wales, women in industries in, 160. + +Walker, Gen. F.A., on differences in efficiency, 14; + difficulties of census enumeration, 104. + +Ward, Lester F., 26. + +Wealth, ratio of increase greater than that of population, 8; + greater aggregation of, in the United States than in Great Britain, 9. + +Weavers of Baltimore, 81. + +Weaving, colonial, 60. + +West Virginia, working-women in, 110. + +Widows, proportion of, among other workers, 118. + +Windows, nailing down of, 62. + +Wisconsin, average wage in, 141; + working-women in, 110. + +Wives' earnings, 113. + +Woman, primeval, 27; + Roman, 36; + property of, 52; + petition of, in France, 55; + International Council of, 79. + +Women-workers, percentage of, in Philadelphia, Pittsburg, New York, + Lowell, Manchester, Wilmington, Del., 108, 109; + according to States, 110; + of Boston, 114, 116; + industries open to, in large cities, 124; + development of her intelligence necessary, 251; + in German mines, 11; + why their wages are less than men's, 14; + their trades highly localized, 19; + entrance into trades barred by men, 20; + increase of, in the United States, 98; + total numbers of, in the United States, in 1860, 103; + in 1870, 105; + in 1880, 105; + occupations according to Census of 1880, 106. + +Woollen and cotton industries, 98, 108. + +Working-girls' clubs, conditions of, 257. + +Working-Woman's Journal, 255. + +Working-Women's Protective Union, 255. + +Working-Women's Society of New York, its aims, 256. + +Worsted and woollen trades, women and children in, 108. + +Wright, Carroll D., 115. + +Wyoming, working-women in, 110. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Women Wage-Earners, by Helen Campbell + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMEN WAGE-EARNERS *** + +***** This file should be named 15204.txt or 15204.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/2/0/15204/ + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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